The formation of the orcs is thin on both wings and thick in the middle, and there are four groups of orcs in the middle camp, and two teams on each wing, one of which is a half-orc team, and the half-orcs are very powerful archers.

Half-orcs are a race of some special species of orcs and humans, mainly of medium-sized orc blood such as werewolves and leopard people.

Because they are half human, half-orcs have more flexible hands and can shoot arrows with bows. Their strength far surpasses that of human soldiers, with an average strength of more than six points, and if they are promoted to the rank of professional, their strength will improve greatly.

Because of their great strength, the orcs use strong bows and crossbows, and their long-range striking ability is very strong, far exceeding that of human elite soldiers.

If it weren't for the fact that the orcs had difficulty giving birth and were very scarce, humans might not be opponents when fighting against orcs.

Generally speaking, the half-orc brigade, like the snake body heavy infantry and the silver moon wolf cavalry, is the elite unit of the orcs, and will only be incorporated into the main army with the highest number.

The orcs pulled out of their stronghold this time and mobilized a lot of elite soldiers, not only snake-body heavy infantry, silver moon wolf cavalry, and hawkish scouts, but also a new special class, half-orc archers.

This orc brigade is very lethal to the soldiers led by Haaland.

Breaking through the two echelons of the orcs, Richard saw that the cavalry cluster was a little sparse, and immediately understood that the Warcraft cavalry brigade had fallen off his horse and left some people behind. Seeing that there was chaos in the middle camp of the orcs, the orcs were rushing into the third echelon formation.

In order to maintain the stability of the formation, the leader of the third echelon orc immediately commanded the soldiers and began to kill the fleeing orcs.

Seeing that the orc camp was already crumbling, Richard knew in his heart that it was not time to stay strong, so he immediately activated the magic power in his body and released a second starlight bomb.

After being promoted to a seventh-order warrior, Richard's spiritual power increased a little more, and there were already fifty-three points, and according to the standard of the attribute panel, there were already 1,272 points of mana. Normally, it costs 360 mana to release the Starlight Bomb. The magic power in Richard's body, releasing three starlight bombs, was slightly exceeded.

The second pillar of white light slammed into the third echelon of the orcs, shaking the mountains again, and the third echelon of the orcs suddenly suffered heavy casualties. In just ten minutes, the orcs were bombarded by two starlight bombs in a row, and the serious casualties broke the orcs' will to fight.

Breaking the hands of the orc army, Richard still didn't stop, he injected the remaining mana into the Starlight Necklace, and released a third starlight bomb, this time aimed at the left flank of the orcs.

The white pillar of light slammed into the orc brigade, and another cloud of smoke rose high, and the scene of the earth shaking and shaking appeared again, and in the blink of an eye, the explosion point was the center, and the radius of a few hundred meters suddenly turned into dust.

In order to give full play to the advantage of long-range projection, the half-orc archers were lined up in a very dense formation, and they were suddenly blown up by the starlight bomb. Although the quality of the orc archers was higher, the casualties were also not light, five or six hundred were killed on the spot, and more than a thousand were wounded, only a few orcs escaped, but they were already frightened and their will to fight collapsed.

The Half-Orc Archers are orc elite soldiers, and once they are restored, they will still be a difficult opponent for the Harland army. Killing a half-orc can be costly.

Seeing that the half-orc brigade had been defeated, Richard commanded the Warcraft cavalry and frantically rushed towards the left flank of the orcs. Richard spared no hand on the wounded orc cavalry, and drove them all to the ground before stopping.

The Warcraft Cavalry Brigade took advantage of the chaos to defeat the left flank of the orcs and kill all the wounded orcs. A half-orc brigade of two thousand men, only one or two hundred soldiers broke out of formation and saved their lives.

The middle army and the left flank of the orcs collapsed, and Richard saw that the right flank of the orcs did not collapse, but stabilized the team, and did not want the Warcraft cavalry to increase casualties, so he slowly retreated.

Richard led the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade back seven or eight hundred meters, withdrew from the range of the orcs, and immediately spoke: "Sort out the formation, and each squadron will report the number." ”

"One, two, three, four! ……”

A number of reports came, and after the squadrons reported the numbers, the losses were quickly counted, and the Warcraft cavalry led by Harland was armored cavalry, and the soldiers were also equipped with force field shields, but they were flanked by the half-orc brigade with bows and arrows, and there were still about seventy or eighty dead and wounded. Thirty-six of them were killed in battle, and forty-three of the Warcraft horses were lost.

This casualty was already difficult to bear for the first brigade of the Warcraft Cavalry, with a total number of nine hundred people.

The magicians who accompanied the army immediately cast healing spells to heal the soldiers' wounds. Richard picked up the arrow shot by the orc, weighed the shaft, and muttered, "The orc archer is really not easy to deal with." ”

The arrows shot by the orcs were one and a half meters long and weighed about four or five hundred grams. With such a heavy arrow, the power of firing is already equivalent to that of a small bed crossbow.

Although the power of the bed crossbow is great, the accuracy is not enough, but a good half-orc archer still has a high accuracy in firing heavy arrows.

Such a heavy arrow can penetrate steel armor from a hundred paces away. Even a magical beast like the Iron Wildebeest, wearing heavy armor, can't withstand it at close range.

In the army led by Haaland, only professional officers have this kind of strength and accuracy of archery.

If it weren't for Richard's decisive release of three starlight bombs to change the tide of the battle, the result of this battle would definitely not be good, even if the Warcraft cavalry broke through the orc camp, there would definitely be many casualties.

Richard led the Warcraft cavalry brigade and defeated the resistance of the eight orc brigades, killing more than 4,500 orcs in this battle, and more than 4,000 injured orcs, plus a part of the rout, and finally the orcs gathered only about 5,000 troops.

Most of the wounded orc soldiers were captured by the army led by Haaland. Due to the lack of medical treatment, it was not cost-effective to treat the wounded orcs, so they were quickly gathered and killed. A small number of wounded orc soldiers who managed to withdraw could not keep up with the pace of the main march of the orcs in the cold and freezing. Very few were able to return to the departure camp, and most froze to death halfway through.

The commander of the Orc Eastern Front saw the battle from above.

After this battle, the Commander of the Giant Boss knew that Haaland had mastered a powerful legendary fourth-order magic item, and if he didn't solve this problem, it would be difficult to defeat his opponent on a frontal battlefield.

Although the Orc Empire also has legendary fourth-order masters, such as the Orc Emperor and the Red Dragon Prince, they are all great masters equivalent to the legendary fourth-order. But it is impossible for such a heavyweight to come to a poor and remote place like the Eagle Mountains to deal with Richard.

The opponent of the Orc Emperor is the great man of the Holy Spirit Radiance Empire.

The only thing the Titan Commander can count on is the help of the Steppe Governorate, and relying on the Legend of the Steppe Governorate, it is difficult to defeat Lord Harland who has a Legendary Fourth-Order item.

I'm afraid the time has come when the battle line in this area has to retreat.

In just over a hundred years, the Grassland Governorate and the Grant Kingdom have been defeated again and again, first in the Dragon Canyon, giving up the Black River Valley, the Dragon Canyon, and then more than a hundred years of tug-of-war, forced to withdraw from the southern foot of the Eagle Mountains, and now even the northern part of the Eagle Mountains can not be defended.

In more than 100 years, the battle line of the orcs has retreated about 500 kilometers to the north. If you continue to retreat and retreat, I am afraid that you will not even be able to hold the northern prairie.

Thinking of the terrifying scene in the future, the Giant Legion Leader was also very worried.

After Richard defeated the orcs, the situation became more and more favorable to Haraland's territory, and after finding that the battle situation was unfavorable and could not achieve the strategic goal, the orc army had to retreat.

This time, the orcs unusually used troops in the winter, and wanted to pull out some battles, but lost 15,000 troops but found nothing, and finally had to withdraw in disgrace.

The casualties of Haaland's troops added up to only about 1,400 people. Among them, only more than 500 people were killed, which is far from being a broken muscle and bones.

After this battle, the defensive line in the northern part of Haaland's territory has finally been stabilized.

Richard defeated the Orcs in the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, and the Fort William Fair was finally over.

This year's trade fair added the Liberant Elixir, bringing 50,000 gold coins to Haaland's territory in extraordinary material income.

This batch of transcendent materials entered the territory, which can greatly reduce cash expenditure.

On November 25, 3270 in the Dawn calendar, Fort William was crowded with outsiders, and the trade fair had already ended. The crowd that came to Fort William was mainly to see a new thing in Haaland's territory.

Today is the completion ceremony of the railway from Fort William to the No. 1 coal mine, and Rogge, the civil magistrate of the Harland Domain, together with his sister Sophia, rushed to the scene to watch the departure ceremony of the steam train in person.

The railroad has been around in Haaland's territory for more than a decade, but it used to be horse-drawn trains, mainly built in mining areas, and the tracks were mainly wooden, with the better sections nailed with thin steel plates to wooden cabinets.

As coal production grows, horse-drawn rail capacity is no longer sufficient.

In recent years, due to the discovery of rubber substitutes, Haaland's industrial level has been rapidly improved, and last year steel production reached 18,000 tons and iron production reached 30,000 tons.

As of October this year, the Duchy of Haaland's steel production had risen to 22,000 tonnes and iron to 35,000 tonnes.

From the perspective of steel production capacity, the preconditions for the construction of railways have been barely met.

In addition, the steam engine was invented for five years, and the technical level has reached the standard of making a steam boiler.

Despite some design problems, a short time for finalized production, and a bit of a rush to get on the railway, Richard still gave financial support. Because of the large amount of money invested, more than 30 kilometers of railway lines have been built in the Haaland territory this year.

As the flame in the steam engine boiler burns more and more, the pressure is finally increased, and the cylinder pistons on both sides are slowly working under the impetus of steam, and the connecting rod pushes the wheels to rotate slowly under the action of the piston.

The steam engine used in this locomotive was low-horsepower, only ninety horses, and consumed about 150 kilograms of coal per hour, and the train did not run too fast, about thirty or forty kilometers.

Behind the steam locomotive hangs a coal water carriage, which is loaded with one or two tons of coal and a small amount of fresh water, which can keep the train running continuously for more than ten hours. Twelve wagons could be hung from the No. 1 coal mine to Fort William in just one hour, and one steam locomotive could transport 120 tons of supplies.

A steam locomotive runs back and forth eight times a day and can transport more than a thousand tons of coal from Coal Mine No. 1 to Fort William. A steam train, running eight times a day in three shifts, requires at most seven or eight train drivers, a dozen steam engine repairmen, and less than 100 stevedores.

At present, there are more than 800 workers transporting coal from the No. 1 mine, not counting the cost of hundreds of horses.

With 800 men and hundreds of horses, it was difficult to transport a thousand tons of supplies to Fort William on horse-drawn tracks. Because of the steeper sections, it is impossible to climb up by relying on horse-drawn tracks, and can only rely on manpower transportation, and the time for loading and unloading is very labor-intensive.

Now with a high-horsepower steam engine, it is possible to carry more than a hundred tons of cargo over mountains and mountains, as long as the slope is not too large, it can easily go over mountains and mountains.

Seeing the train emitting black smoke and pulling more than 100 tons of goods, Sophia said in a slightly excited voice: "As long as the north-south railway of the Eagle Mountain Range is repaired, our supply will become very easy, and when the railway goes, it will be our land." ”

"There is a lot of snow in the Eagle Mountains, and even if the railway is built, it is difficult to pass in winter. However, the railway can quickly mobilize materials and has a great role in promoting the economic development of the territory.

Barony Harden, the Flying Eagle Fort area is considered a rich area, but because of the distance from the coal mines, the price of coal is so high that when I went there to inspect, I found that the residents were reluctant to buy coal and timber, and actually collected cow dung.

With the railway train, the dispatch of our materials will be very easy in the future. A few coal trucks a day can transport large quantities of coal to remote areas. With the railroad to move supplies, we can easily maintain price stability, which is very helpful for stabilizing the rule. ”

"Now the steam boiler technology is not mature, the failure rate of the steam locomotive is high, and the construction of the railway requires a high investment, the repair of a kilometer requires 1,500 gold dollars, the railway transportation needs a higher cost, and the economic benefits are far less than that of water transportation.

However, water transportation is greatly restricted by the terrain, but the railway line can be built deep inland, and with the railway, it is very convenient for us to transfer troops. With a few locomotives, we can move thousands of soldiers hundreds of kilometers away, and the territory will have to connect the railway lines even if it does its best.

If we build the railway line to Barony Harden this year, we can quickly deploy troops to defeat the orcs. The losses in this region will not be so heavy. According to the statistics of the civil affairs department, this orc invasion caused an economic loss of millions of gold coins, and if this money is invested in the construction of the railway, it can build 700 kilometers of railway, which is enough to repair the railway from Barony Harden to the Twin Star Castle. ”

Standing next to Sofia, Powell looked very excited, and now Powell has transformed into a civilian official, mainly responsible for managing the construction of Haaland's territory. The construction of this railway test line was completed under the auspices of Powell.

In the past ten years, the development of Haaland's territory has changed with each passing day, which has greatly impacted Powell's nerves.

Eighteen years ago, the men of the Haaland family were still accumulating merits and fighting for promotion to the aristocracy, Powell thought that if he struggled all his life, he would be able to see William promoted to baron and his children promoted to the aristocracy.

Unexpectedly, eighteen years have passed, Richard has become the Duke of the Grant Kingdom, and the surname Haaland has left a great name in the Grant Kingdom, and it will inevitably appear in the history books in the future.

In the past five or six years, new things have continued to appear, and a large part of machines have replaced labor, and productivity has been greatly improved. The advent of the steam engine changed the mode of production and greatly increased the national strength of Haaland's territory. Powell has been overwhelmed by these years of experience, and he has to accept new things every year.

At this moment, Powell looked at the thick black smoke, and a huge cast-iron train flashed in his eyes.

Under the wheels of the big era, everyone is a small person.

(End of chapter)