Chapter 106 Crossing the River (Today's Third Shift, First Shift)

Uxhall burns in flames. ()

As a city famous for its artisans, Uxhall is no stranger to fire. When the Rhodocs began to reform production, the Uxhall people responded: the light of the stove remained unquenched all night, and they began to work all night.

The sight of the sound of wrought iron spreading far and wide was not uncommon for the people of Uxhall.

Today, however, Uxhall itself has become like a great melting pot, and the bright Uxhall is like a fiery phoenix spreading its wings on the plains in the dark night. Either out of desperation or madness, the flames of Uxhall's thousands of homes and centuries of history are rapidly turning Uxhall into rubble.

When the flames burned, there were nearly 2,000 soldiers in the city. By the time the soldiers had left the city the next day, nearly 200 had not returned, most of whom had perished, and a few had survived the fire on the river beaches and in the open spaces of the city.

Much to the chagrin of the attackers, the defenders had already retreated that night.

Uxhall, like the people of Frostcastle, did not take peace talks seriously. Now it seems that their whispered pleas, their pleas for the help of the Rhodoks in the transport, and their gestures of releasing the captives as a last resort seem to have been disguised.

As early as the siege of the city, the Uxhall people had prepared enough transport ships, and scouts had already reported on Uxhall's shipments: many of the ships, after carrying food and weapons, did not return downstream along the Blue Water River at all, but stayed on the harbor. Since the port of Uxhall is supported by several river bays, it is impossible to see how many ships are in the city from the outside.

On the second day, when the soldiers of Frost Fort were gathering on the south bank of the river, they saw Uxhall's fleet through the vast morning mist.

The fleet sailed out of the harbor of Uxhall, not fearing that they would be discovered, and sounded countless horns as they sailed up the river, as if to mock the untrustworthy Frost Castle army.

Although they were defeated, the people of Frost Fort quickly rallied. A force of more than 1,000 men who had not participated in the night raid had been selected to cross the Blue Water River with the help of the Rhodoks--- who had not expressed any opinion after learning of the Uxhall practices, but his father had noticed the occasional flash of contempt and constant whispering in the eyes of the Rhodoks.

My father was on the alert before the fire started, so a group of soldiers assembled in the east of the city survived--- and the infantry of more than 300 men was led there by my father beyond his authority. On the way, panicked soldiers continued to join my father's ranks.

At first, some of the officers refused to carry out their father's orders, believing that the fire was just a matter of course for the captured city, so they were reluctant to abandon their attack at the slightest flame. For some of the most stubborn officers, my father dismissed them on the spot in the name of contradicting the inspectors, and at the same time, my father's handwriting showed all his weapons and was ready to behead those who disobeyed orders at any time, and this practice temporarily stabilized the commotioning officers.

While on the way, reports of the city on fire had been transmitted from all directions. The soldiers who first occupied the observation tower sounded the alarm of 'extreme crisis', and the sound of the horn was no longer a reminder of the rush of the army in the night, but a quick reminder to the soldiers to avoid trouble--- and the soldiers understood the meaning of this rapid horn sound.

The officer, who had been suspicious of his father, stopped saying more at this time, and instead took the initiative to collect every soldier he met on the road who had lost his command, and temporarily organized them into the team. After my father arrived in the east of the city, the city behind him was already shining with a large fire.

Colin was sent to the rest of the Lenno's troops, but did not return that night, and his father thought that something had happened to him. But the next day, Colin returned to his father with a team of ragged soldiers, and Colin was forced by the flames into a cloth market in the city, where he and his squad might not have survived the scorching flames of the night had it not been for a well and a canal left by the Zenda.

There was no fighting that night, or no man-to-man fighting--- just the panicked soldiers of the Frost Castle running back and forth in the burning city. The narrow streets were filled with smoke, the wind whistling in flames.

Just after the withdrawal of the troops who participated in the night raid from the city. On the north bank of the river, the Rhodok forces that had helped transport them across the river had been assembled and began to maneuver northward, with a view to cutting off the Uxhall rear.

Since the Uxhall ships could not sail long distances--- they were small ships carrying grain, and they had to stop at short docks to rest and recuperate, and then continue sailing--- so the soldiers of Frost Fort believed that the Uxhall would land on a beachhead somewhere downstream and wait for an opportunity to go north.

As soon as the infantry crossed the river, they eagerly headed north, and before they could cross the river, scouts landed on the north bank and then ran inland--- they wanted to summon the cavalry troops that were wandering on the north bank back to the shore. The cavalry had been tasked with opening their nets as far as possible on the north shore to hunt down the remnants of Uxhall's army, but now they had to assemble because the Uxhall were almost unscathed in the battle of the first night, and the cavalry could no longer enjoy the battle of annihilation.

The advance party of Frost Fort burned some unguarded fences along the road and captured some local farmers, from whose mouths the light infantry heard that there was no news of a large army heading north. The advance party judged that it had maneuvered to the north of the Uxhauer, and slowed its march while sending a new group of scouts around. Soon, the scouts told the advance party that the Uxhall were not leaving the riverbank, but were slowly moving downstream along the riverbank.

Even a veteran staff officer like Sdurant could not sway the Eastern commander-in-chief--- who did not adopt the strategy of shrinking and consolidating Uxhall as suggested by Sderant after his plan for a night attack failed. The commander thinks that since the price has been paid, it is even more necessary to win his share of the honor--- gamblers often think like this: maybe if you invest some more money, you can earn back the money you lost before, right?

The commander ordered the cavalry on the north bank to retreat, and the light infantry to pursue, and at the same time ordered the troops that had entered the city, which had been exhausted by the night, to be regrouped as quickly as possible--- and his father reported that after a night of heavy losses, the number of troops assembled and capable of fighting might be less than forty percent. Several of my father's colleagues even threatened to report directly to the emperor what had happened here, but the commander of the Eastern Army told the inspectors that if they wanted to file a complaint, they would wait until the battle was over.

Most of the soldiers who were frightened and angry in the fire did not believe their ears when they received the order to set off. Losing a few hundred people without seeing the enemy is equivalent to losing a campaign. The wounded soldiers could no longer bear the pain caused by the armor, and some of the soldiers had already shed large patches of their skin, but after receiving the order, they could only put the bloody armor back on.

There was more consternation among the soldiers than anger. This is due to the frustration of the first taste of defeat after a long and smooth battle. This frustration brings with it a series of side impressions, such as the previously neglected flanks and the disregard of fitness issues, which now seem to have surfaced all at once.

The first group of 300 soldiers crossed the Blue Water River before noon, and at that time, they could still see the scouts left behind by the morning soldiers.

By the time the second and third teams of 500 and 370 soldiers crossed the Blue Water River, the advance party had already penetrated far into the north.

While the soldiers were still assembling by the river, news was received that a fierce clash had broken out more than twenty miles to the north: the Uxhall men first routed the first group of soldiers who had marched alone across the river on the north bank of the Bluewater River, and then continued north to entangle the advance party.

And by this time, Ukhru's cavalry troops had still not arrived.

When the soldiers of the second and third teams heard the news, they hurried north. Along the way, they could see the scattered soldiers, who had crossed the river at noon and had been overwhelmingly attacked by the Uxhall shortly thereafter. The Uxhall people gathered by the river, and they knew the movements of the advance party of Frost Castle, so they did not go north easily.

And when the Uxhall people saw the three hundred soldiers who had gone north arrogantly, they unusually burst out with amazing courage. There were fewer and fewer active attacks on the Eastern Legion, but this time, there was little resistance to that decision--- and the Uxhall people gave the order almost immediately after discovering the Frost Fort soldiers.

The three hundred soldiers had been exhausted from a night's journey, and were more or less wounded under the onslaught of the flames. However, these people burst out with amazing combat effectiveness, and when they found that the Uxhall had left the shore, they quickly sent scouts to contact the surrounding allies, and immediately formed a formation to deal with the Uxhall people.

It was the first head-to-head battle between the Uxhall and the Frostburgers: 1,700 against less than 300.

The battle ended in less than a quarter of an hour, and the three hundred soldiers of the Frost Fort could not continue the battle with the flanks completely oppressed. When the Uxhauers appeared behind them, and reinforcements did not arrive, even the bravest soldiers began to waver. Soon the soldiers left the line in groups of three or five, and this escape soon became a swarm of the entire army.

The Uxhall were so confident that their original plan was to crush the small group and then retreat to the banks of the river. But when they saw the fleeing Frostburgers, their suppressed confidence swelled at once--- and the Uxhall men immediately gathered together, summoned more than a thousand soldiers on the banks of the river, and then marched slowly north in three columns, until the advance party was approaching from the north.

By the time my father had just crossed the river with the soldiers of the second team, the Uxhall men had already rushed together with the soldiers of the advance team.

The clashing of shields roared across the field, and the birds hiding in the grass were startled and flew into the sky.

The miserable shouts of killing were heard in the distance, and my father followed the soldiers towards the unknown north.