Many people don't understand how much difference there is between daytime and nighttime battles.

Especially when it comes to defending a city, even if you tell him that there are quite a few unfavorable conditions at night, he will often just say, "Then arrange for the soldiers to be on guard and don't let them go to bed too early." "I think that will solve everything.

The dramatization of war is a common practice in mainstream Paderrosi today.

Overconfidence, talk on paper, and don't pay attention to details.

Don't change your mistakes.

It was as if as soon as the generals lined up and lined up there, the soldiers would move on their own. Regardless of day and night, spring, summer, autumn and winter, just a few simple steps are enough to deal with all the problems.

This great country in the East, which founded the country by war and won its current status through war, is now ironically filled with a series of unsatisfactory bureaucratic styles such as politicians joining the army and holding command power based on their background rather than ability.

Soldiers, non-commissioned officers, junior officers, those who have experienced a little bit of battle have an instinctive distrust of high-ranking generals.

These guys who talk about strategy at the banquet and brag about their exploits at the afternoon tea party in the back garden and the aristocratic ladies.

Completely.

I don't understand.

War.

It's not just the experience, it's the whole idea, the whole starting point, and they're completely wrong.

The "Beat Generation", who talk about war on paper, does not even understand what war is. In their understanding, the so-called battle is similar to a chess game, "from static to moving", thinking, and then acting, with rhythm of you back and forth, turn-based game.

What our Sage doesn't know and don't care about is what.

Duke Julionde's ability to obtain this position as commander is not unrelated to his origins, but another reason is that he is one of the best masters in the Padrossi Empire in terms of theory and strategy and chessboard.

This is also the reason why he had rejected the proposal of the Grand Master of the Independent Knights, and the Duke was very confident. This self-confidence comes from his mastery of theory and numerous victories on the chessboard.

But the battlefield is not a chess game.

Players are in a safe environment, they can think slowly and then make every move, although a few games have a time limit, which is not the same as the sense of urgency on the battlefield.

War.

It's always in motion.

You don't have much time to think, and your so-called grand strategy may not be able to fully unfold because of a small detail.

Nothing is small on the battlefield, and the time given to you to think is extremely short. So when Julionde encountered a real battlefield, he was like any commander on paper.

He panicked, and then he did not have the calmness and sanity that he had when he had been talking about it before the war began, and just played all the cards in his hand haphazardly.

"No plan can fully work after encountering an enemy. This is what this sentence refers to.

When it comes to the impact of the two tenses and environmental differences between day and night on the battlefield environment, the easiest to understand and the most direct and intuitive aspect is the judgment of the position of the enemy and the enemy.

It is impossible for soldiers to tense their nerves all the time, and the excessive pressure brought by being nervous all the time will cause people to become nervous, make mistakes in judgment, and not to mention that orders are not carried out properly, and in the end, they are likely to evolve into a friend or foe.

So leaving the sentry post resting, and the sentry post, after discovering the enemy, blew the horn to assemble the troops and prepare for battle, which is almost a cliché that almost anyone who knows a little bit about military affairs is accustomed to.

However, what most people have always overlooked is that it takes time from the time the enemy is spotted at the outpost to the time when the troops are assembled.

Whether the enemy will attack the city first, or whether the troops will be assembled first, is a question of "timing" and "racing", as is the case with many others, which are key elements in all battles.

Therefore, grasping the opportunity as much as possible is a matter that everyone should consider. Promising city lords will cut down the trees on the perimeter of the city walls, leaving at least a kilometer of bare vision, leaving no room for the enemy to hide, and it is for this reason that the sentinels can detect the enemy as soon as possible and sound the alarm.

But that's only on a sunny day. When darkness strikes without stars or moons, the sentinel's vision is limited to what can be illuminated by the huge bonfires on the city walls.

The mere fact that we don't know when or where the enemy is coming from is enough to demoralize most people.

And how can the officers, who can only talk on paper, at best, only follow the textbook to explain in a rigid manner, how can they cope with such a crisis that no one has ever seen?

The human defenders' win rate drops with visibility, and when the attack does come.

They – and should – were unprepared for it and could do nothing.

If.

Henry was not there.

"One, two...... Three!"

"Eight hundred meters away!!"

"Ring the alarm!" the loud shout of the sentry echoed above the city walls, and the person who received the message quickly and vigorously shook the bell tied to the thick hemp rope. The loud clatter of clangs echoed throughout the north of the town, and the soldiers and mercenaries hurriedly dropped their cards, dice, or wine glasses, grabbed their weapons, held down their wobbly helmets, and ran towards the open space outside.

"It's still approaching! It's fast!"

The sentries standing on the walls don't need binoculars to see in the distance—our Sage is a man of great experience, and even in the field of nighttime city defense, which is not well known to the general public, he still knows where to fill the gaps.

"Six-hundred-meter bonfire!" overthrown!" the sentry roared hysterically, and the sighted and high enough they could clearly see the burning charcoal being smashed into the air—and that was Henry's answer to the problem of vision at night.

On the path north of the city walls, every two hundred meters there were a dozen smoldering fires wrapped in mounds of earth that left only a small gap for oxygen to enter—bright bonfires were allowed to illuminate the larger area, but they burned too fast and required people to add firewood all the time, and to go out of the city into the dark and terrible wilderness, even if it paid well, was enough for one time, and no one would want to stay outside.

So it takes the form of a mound sealed and smoldering, the fire glows only a dim red light in the dark, and it can't illuminate a large area but can burn for a long time, and when these running ghouls and undead knock them over in the way they have to go—

The large amount of oxygen that enters in an instant will make the flames soar into the sky.

This is a warning that is almost impossible for the sentinels to miss.

"Bed crossbow wound!"

"Bed crossbow wound!"

Repeated shouts were heard from the highest position of the sentinels, and the Imperial battle sappers who received the message quickly spun the massive crank rockers in pairs, chains slowly pulling the stout oil-soaked bowstrings with the slots, while the other of the three-person sentries shouted again.

"Four hundred meters!" the sentry on the right shouted, while the other sentry on the left immediately turned around.

"Sir!" "Archer——! ignition. The officer who received the report reacted quickly, and the archers standing behind him lit their arrows, followed by the officer swinging his torches vigorously.

"Put!"

"Bang Bang

- The enemy ghoul swarm had only just crossed four hundred meters, and it looked like a premature attack that had been completely mistimed, but it was never aimed at the center of the enemy army.

Dazzling orange-red fire loss.

It is a bed crossbow with a long winding speed used as a benchmark for testing.

"Northeast, wind speed three!"

"Northeast, wind speed three!"

A longbow with a uniform pull and shape shoots arrows of the same weight, but the range and landing point are different in the constantly changing wind conditions. The witches were often exposed to bad weather, and the wind direction was naturally from north to south, so when they fired their arrows, it was a headwind.

"Northeast, wind speed three!" the word of mouth spread from the center of the city wall to the sides to the position of each crossbowman.

"Click!" The combat sappers immediately adjusted the position of the bed crossbow according to the results of this report, and the gears on the left and right up and down were adjusted to the correct position under the constant swing of the wrench.

"Dip in oil!" followed the large, horse-like crossbow that was lifted, but its precious armor-piercing arrow was set aside, just with the tip of an ordinary spear and wrapped in a thick linen cloth.

About 30 centimeters of the whole spear was inserted into the cast-iron oil pot that had been heating over low heat, and the boiling black oil dripped everywhere on the ground, and it was also because of the cold weather that they were all wearing a thick layer, otherwise someone would have been blistered.

"Ready!" twelve torches were raised in unison.

"Put!"

The moment the "bang !!" pulled off the wrench, the huge energy storage released made the thick bowstring slam against the blocking module made of cowhide, and the huge crossbow that shot out was so fast that it looked like a fiery lightning flashing meteor in the sky.

"Click—click—" But they landed only a little further away from the extinguishing arrows.

Just a hundred and fifty meters outside the city walls, a huge crossbow with a raging fire was nailed to the ground—the silence lasted for about two seconds, and just when everyone was a little worried, the flames spread down the shattered snow to the surface of the ice.

"Bang !!"

The raging fire that ignited in an instant in the confined space rose into the sky and shattered the snow above, and this ditch, which was two meters wide and more than half a meter deep, was naturally another point of guidance from Mr. Sage. Built with the fire at a high price for death squad mercenaries, it was filled with a lot of oil, but it was quickly covered in snow due to the heavy snowfall, so only the extremely penetrating bed crossbow could be effectively ignited.

But despite such excellent and detailed planning, bad weather still worked against them.

"Left! No!" I don't know if the crossbow was fired too deep and the flames lost their oxygen, or the oil below also froze in the bitter cold, and unlike the bright line of fire burning in the middle and on the right, the ground on the left side was pitch black and couldn't be seen clearly.

"Inform the death squad!" the officer in charge of the command roared back, followed by the three sentries blowing their horns in unison.

————The long, dull sound of the horn was the agreed signal, and torches lit up more than a hundred meters outside the city.

", I'll just say it, and I'm really unlucky. "The 200-strong force covered in warm fur is full of tall men with big horses and strong muscles, but you can tell something strange about the weapons they carry.

The group was full of giant swords and axes, as well as a giant hammer that was very heavy at first glance.

Professional hunting mercenary.

People who deal with Warcraft but also large beasts and dragons.

The word war was originally unrelated to them.

But if you're fighting a ghoul, a ghoul with thick teeth and claws, then it's a different story.

"Rush!" A whole wall of fire ignited by fire oil in a two-meter-wide ditch not only provides illumination to see the number and direction of enemy troops, but also provides another line of defense on the perimeter of the wall to kill and injure ghouls as much as possible, so the gap on the left side, which is more than twenty meters wide, must be filled anyway.

"Two hundred meters! The ghoul vanguard has crossed two hundred meters!" the sentry shouted loudly, and it was thanks to the defenders that they had been prepared well under the guidance of the sage, otherwise it would have been too late to open the gates and send troops before the flames were lit.

"Crossbowmen, them!" The two-hundred-strong team was a large hunting mercenary regiment, well-trained and well-coordinated, and under the vulgar command of the squadron leader, a whole platoon of mercenaries armed with hunting crossbows were ready to drive.

The wall of fire that burned in the darkness lit up a wide area, and they used this lighting advantage to quickly kill the ghouls who were at the head. The melee troops, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to rush forward and found out the cause as soon as they got closer.

"The crossbow missed, and the snow didn't break!" one of the mercenaries shouted, "Who brought the shovel?"

Obviously, even with the correction of the arrows and the extremely high accuracy of the bed crossbows made by Padrosi, more than 70% of the 12 crossbows failed to hit a target 150 meters away and 2 meters wide that only knew the general bearing.

They had been fighting with numerical superiority, and it only took one shot to hit and ignite an entire section of the ditch.

"Luck doesn't seem to be on our side, prepare to meet-" The mercenary who shouted earlier was one of the two deputy captains, and as soon as he finished speaking, he immediately opened his chin and looked at the dense cluster of ghouls running on all fours.

"Five hundred...... Eight hundred ......"

"it!" and the squadron leader who had commanded the crossbowman unit before rushed up with a scold, grabbed the giant hammer behind his back and jumped towards the ditch.

"I can even put down a dragon lizard, you icebreaker hoa

"Shit, stupid, it's time for you to lose weight!" Fortunately, the deputy head of the regiment decisively dropped his weapon and grabbed him.

"Don't fight, retreat!Retreat!" "Whoa!!" The roaring ghouls had already run in front of them on all fours, and the mercenaries began to flee back in a hurry, but fortunately, at this time, the flames of the ditch that had been opened up also began to burst out of the broken gaps, and the deputy commander threw out the axe on his waist with a "hmph-" to beat them smaller, and the surface burned rapidly, and the volatile fire oil scurried up one after another in a very short time.

"Be careful!" the rising flames were always a step too late, and several ghouls pounced before the wall of fire could completely burn, and one head rushed directly towards a mercenary squadron leader who stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Bang!!"

Like lightning and thunder.

In the blink of an eye, the ghoul was pinned to the ground by the heavy crossbow that pierced through his right shoulder.

The two-meter-long iron crossbow was designed to deal with earth dragons, and the ghoul's cortex that could block sharp swords was a joke in front of it.

"Mom......" The mercenary man grabbed his giant hammer and wiped the sweat from his forehead. The ghoul who had been shot right in front of him had its ugly mouth full of fangs dripping black bodily fluids.

"Quick-retreat-return-come-" The sound of the horn amplified by the sound of the horn and the rapid horn sounded one after another urged the mercenaries to rush back, and many of the crossbowmen tried to spin the wheel to wind, but many ghouls had already passed through the wall of fire and rushed towards them with flames all over their bodies.

"Ahhhhh

"Throw it away! Weapons don't matter!" shouted the lieutenant commander, and the crossbowmen, who had been serving as cover troops under his command, quickly threw away their heavy crossbows and fled.

"Roar!!" The ghouls who came and went straight through the wall of fire literally, the high-purity and additive oil burned at an astonishing temperature that caused their protective cuticles to crack, and the oil-rich inner skin was ignited, and some of the high-level ghouls began to scream.

Like moving torches, the group of ghouls approached the city walls.

"Damn it!"

"Archers, move to the left!Spearmen, get ready" Despite the mercenaries' efforts, the wall of fire on the left was not fully ignited. Whether it was instinct or intelligence, a large number of ghouls began to move closer to the left in the dazzling firelight.

"Quick!" At a distance of one hundred and fifty meters, all the mercenaries outside the city ran the fastest speed in their lives. Archers and bed crossbows attacked the ghouls to cover them, but there were still those who were behind being pounced on by the flaming ghouls.

The heavy use of expensive fire oil caused an effective killing effect, and more than a thousand ghouls were set on fire and fell. The faster they rushed, the faster they died, and after only half a minute, the mercenaries outside managed to rush into the city.

"Kill!" the prepared receiving troops stabbed their spears out in unison, killing a few ghouls that had slipped through the net, and then everyone quickly pushed the gate to lock it tightly.

"Bang!" The abominable undead, who was not yet dead, slammed into the door, the sound of scratching could be heard clearly through the half-meter-thick copper wooden door, and the moment the heavy deadbolt was finally locked, the mercenaries all breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the snow.

"Mom...... There is still ...... Next time, even if there is this reward...... Lao Tzu is not doing it anymore—" The leader of the mercenary squadron who made Sledgehammer grumbled, but the battle was far from over.

"Don't let up!" the officers roared loudly.

"Run out of arrows!"

"Ran out of gas!"

"Where is the logistics!"

"Quick!" all kinds of shouts accompanied the rapid movement of torches, and this was not over, just as the mercenaries were gasping for breath and getting up, several city defenders standing under the city walls next to them suddenly noticed that something was starting to move.

It was another thing that the Suomir had told them to set up, something they hoped would be of better use to the other.

"Dig a half-meter-deep pit at the base of the city wall, put wooden bowls of water in it, place one every five meters, and remember to break the ice in time if it freezes. ”

"Uh, Your Excellency, what is this for?"

"Shake. ”

"Uh, what's the shaking?"

"The shaking of the ground, unless you prefer to feel it with your face pressed against the cold ground. ”

Henry said word for word:

"Ghouls. ”

"I'll dig holes. ”

"Oh, the gods are above. The soldier on guard made a gesture of prayer and then raised his weapon.