Seeing that the steppe barbarians had already been dispatched, Venerable Harlem took the first step, and together with the thousand-strong team of masters, he soon came to the outskirts of the Celestial Fortress.

By the time Venerable Harlem arrived, the vanguard of General Anton's main force had already appeared. And General Overmars has also withdrawn to the fortress with his own troops, ready to defend to the death. Seeing that the supplies outside the city were about to be lost, Venerable Harlem was in a hurry and began to chant loudly, making preparations before the forbidden spell.

The power of the forbidden spell is extremely amazing, but the chanting time is also very long, especially the movement is particularly large, so the attention of the main force is immediately attracted.

The main forces temporarily stopped the operation, waiting for the order of General Anton. Forbidden spells also have limitations, and they are not troublesome to deal with. Either evacuate the range of the forbidden spell, or interrupt the chanting. Whether to attack or defend, this requires General Anton to decide.

In fact, the forbidden spell of Venerable Harlem was only a false shot. He doesn't really cast the forbidden spell. The forbidden spell is an indiscriminate attack, even if the human coalition forces don't dodge, as long as the forbidden spell comes down, all the materials outside the city will still be destroyed. Venerable Harlem is gambling, betting that the main force will retreat in the face of difficulties. As long as it dragged on for a while, the troops of the steppe barbarians came.

General Anton really hesitated. It's still an old question, the importance of materials to the demons, that's just speculation. And interrupting the chanting of a holy magician is not an easy task. So he chose to back down.

The whole army began to retreat, but just halfway through the retreat, General Anton suddenly figured it out. If that demon saint magician wanted to release the forbidden spell, why didn't he enter the Thunder Fortress? For a saint magician, this little distance was not a problem at all. And in the fortress, it's much safer than outside.

General Anton immediately changed his order: stop the retreat, detach a small force to interrupt the chanting, and the rest of the troops began to destroy the supplies outside the fortress as originally planned. However, the advance and retreat of the army was not so easy. This comes and goes, and wastes the time of several hourglasses. And it was during this time that the steppe barbarians finally arrived......

......

Looking at the Serlei Fortress that was close at hand, General Anton was extremely desperate in his eyes, and he was almost about to succeed, but the goddess of fate made a joke.

They hadn't closed their eyes for three days and three nights, and the staff officers around General Anton hadn't slept much either, so at the last moment, they made a mistake in judgment and wasted the precious time of two or three hourglasses.

Needless to say, let's clean up the mess! General Anton ordered his adjutant in a low voice: "Don't make a noise, first give the military headquarters a battle briefing, we have lost, explain our losses, and let the military headquarters make arrangements as soon as possible." The Guana River must not be lost! Once again, I would like to reiterate to the other troops that they should preserve their strength and retreat as much as possible. The most important thing is that Count Tipp, whose troops are the last elite of the Northern Army, must be preserved. Go ahead, don't let anyone see it. ”

Seeing that General Anton's spirit was a little decadent, the adjutant was a little worried: "Your Excellency, you ...... you."

General Anton patted the adjutant on the shoulder and squeezed out a smile: "I'm fine, I still have to take the children back." You kids are so nice. Without further ado, let's go!"

......

Then, General Anton jumped on the roof of his carriage and gave a loud speech to the soldiers who were a little confused around him: "Everyone, although we are all tired, we have finally mobilized the main force of the demon race, which is thirty miles to the southwest. I'm so proud of you because you have done miracles. But there is still one breath left, we have to completely destroy the main force of the demon race. Now I order: Southwest, decisive battle! For victory!"

"Long live! Long live the Empire!"

The cheers resounded in the sky again. No one doubted the words of General Anton. If you can really have a decisive battle with the main force of the demons, the fatigue of these few days will be worth it.

The morale of the whole army was high, and they sang military songs and rushed to the battlefield that did not exist. At the last moment, General Anton used a lie to successfully turn the retreat into an attack in another direction......

Later, the mainland named this battle the "Battle of Sacrifice". This was thanks to the propaganda of the Reich and the Holy See after the defeat. In any case, although the troops sacrificed a lot, they completely left the demons with no time to take care of them, so that a total of more than 1.3 million civilians in the Red Lion Principality withdrew across the Guana River.

However, although such propaganda was necessary and did establish a glorious heroic image, the fiasco of the battle was also a fact, and after this battle, the Northern Army was completely disabled.

Of the 700,000 horses at the time of departure, only about 300,000 eventually fled to the Guana River. Of course, if you also count the Red Lion Duchy's troops that eventually withdrew in Lion's Tooth City, it would be more than 400,000.

Among them, the Thorn Flower Knights of General von Bourn only came back with less than 40,000, while the main force of General Anton's Northern Army only returned with more than 100,000.

But the final sacrifice was basically on General Gore's side, and they were basically wiped out. If it weren't for Heidelberg's division that ended up playing at a high level, even General Gore himself would have been thrown on the battlefield.

However, General Gore's sacrifice was exchanged for the survival of General Anton's main force. After all, the forces of the demon clan have been attracted by General Gore. And the final command of General Anton is no less remarkable. First of all, the troops of the steppe barbarians did not pursue. They have already secured the supplies of the Serlei Fortress, and will also receive a large amount of compensation agreed upon with the demons. In that case, there is no need to fight anymore. And then General Anton made a series of strange moves, and finally jumped out of the encirclement dangerously.

On the contrary, Dipu's troops only suffered about 10,000 casualties, and there were basically no injuries. This is also the result of the demons' temporary inability to pay attention to this force. And the casualties of the demon clan are also not small, with a total of more than 100,000. Combined with the previous casualties, it is already nearly 200,000 or so. So you have to take a break and lick your wounds, right?

......

On 30 September, Dip led his troops back to the north bank of the Guana River. Since the Imperial War Department had already received news of the defeat, it did not know the exact number of losses, so it prepared for the worst. According to the order of the military headquarters, the remaining General Dimiit dismantled all the pontoon bridges on the Guana River, and now the personnel can only rely on boats to cross the river.

And this time ushered in a big peak of retreat, the fall of Lion's Tooth City, which made those people of the Red Lion Principality who were originally lucky also despair. The north bank of the river is already crowded with people, and the boats on the river are transporting to the south bank day and night...... (To be continued.) )