While the battle of Barren Mountain was resuming, the Crimean Fortress in the rear was also very busy.

After returning from the ruins of the Black Flame Pass, General Baldwin, who was stationed there, began to repair the fortress, mainly under the castle, and some earth priests were also invited to renovate the underground structure of the Krimu fortress and add the solidification of earth psionic energy.

Obviously, General Winter Wolf didn't want the tragedy of the Black Flame Pass to happen in his defense area, and the threat of those rat people was a bit too big to force General Baldwin to enter the war state in advance.

However, the Crimean Fortress is so large that it is more of a small fortress than a fortress, and it is a defensive area consisting of a large three, small and four fortresses built on the mountain pass surrounding the eastern part of the filthy swamp, although the depth is not as exaggerated as that of the Black Flame Pass, but there are also two large lines of defense.

For the past four hundred years, it has been a real front line against the Black Plague, so it was not easy to renovate, and with most of the Silver Dwarven Priests still dealing with the tunnels beneath the Barren Mountain area and reinforcing the Maginot Line, General Baldwin had limited support.

Moreover, the group of armed blood servants in his hands has also been returned to Transasia, and the dispatch of more than 10,000 people to the Barren Mountain has caused a short-term manpower gap in the Crimean Fortress, which is really helpless.

But the good news is not without it!

When the general asked the lords of the Kafhoka region to cooperate in the war, the other party could always prevaricate, but after the news of the fall of the Black Flame Pass spread, when he asked these lords to cooperate with the work, the other party was eager to send all the miscellaneous private soldiers in the manor to help.

The heat made Baldwin fully understand the pressure these guys were facing at this time.

They probably didn't think that the Translancians would be able to stop the gnolls in the filthy swamp, and that if they didn't do it, they would repeat the tragedy of a hundred years ago, and they heard that now there were cowards who had abandoned their territory and run back to Nordutov, and obviously they didn't think that the nobles who were wolf girls would have to pay for their lives for this newly occupied land.

There are even people who think that Kafhoka, which is next to Translasia, is a hot potato.

General Baldwin didn't even bother to comment on this stupidity, he was now very busy, and was making great efforts to reorganize his legions, hoping that in the worst case scenario he would be able to defend the frontier of this new kingdom for His Majesty.

Fortunately, the wolf girl also knows the general situation.

Especially after Lord Pa Ying personally went to the Borean Castle and "discussed the benefits" with the young queen in the Ice Palace, Baldwin's requests were responded to as quickly as possible, and the main body of the Winter Wolf Legion could not be moved lightly to defend against the Western Saharan barbarians in the north, so the Great Wilderness Legion stationed in Borisgrad received an order to support the Crimean Fortress.

The legion was stationed in this place, and was still known as the "Great Wilderness", and was apparently the absolute elite force of Nordutov's already antiquated military system.

They always get the best supplies and the best training, and even the sluggish military reform has been done to arm them first, and even the Winter Wolves have to be ranked behind this army.

It is enough to see the status of this army in the society of the North Yankees.

If the Winter Wolf Legion is the strongest northern border guard, then the Great Wilderness Legion is the most trusted henchman of the kings of the past, and if the wolf girl can get an emperor's crown in the future, then the Great Wilderness Legion is very likely to become a real "Royal Army".

It also definitely deserves this heavy glory.

Its predecessor was the main army used by the hero King Boris to conquer the Great Wilderness, and it can be said to be one of the national symbols of the Nordtov Kingdom, this army has countless honors in the past, the most dazzling one is the fourth black plague a hundred years ago, with the Jackal led by the King of Biting Bones under the city of Borean Fortress.

They defended the capital for four months, and the battle damage of the entire legion reached an astonishing 270%, and the establishment was almost on the verge of revocation after being defeated twice, but the last batch of recruits recruited from the North Wind Fort lived up to the will of their ancestors, and they were forced to guard in the real corpse mountain and blood sea to the moment when the tide of battle was reversed, well, an important reason why the Jackals failed to capture the North Wind Fort a hundred years ago was that the great "Winter General" from the Great Wilderness was powerful.

The winter of that year was exceptionally cold, and even the army commanded by the King of Biting Bones could not maintain its full combat strength in a climate of more than minus forty degrees.

To put it simply, the Great Wilderness Legion is a force with a "military spirit", and it is the real anchor of the "Giants with Feet of Mud" Nordtov, and their dispatch represents the final decision and will to war of the wolf girl, and it also temporarily alleviates the worries in General Baldwin's heart.

The wolf maiden gave her most trusted general more than that, as at noon on the third day of the Barren Mountain Blockade, a special item was delivered to the Crimean Fortress through a strange winged beast and its equally strange pilot.

The winged beast had a rather peculiar appearance.

It was like a combination of an eagle and a giant wolf carved out of stone, with a slender body like a wolfdog, and a head like a wolf, but with a pair of broad wings and forelimbs like eagle claws, and a grayish-white granite body, but if you look closely, it is not difficult to see that this thing is a living creature, and it is only a strange color of feathers.

It's a vulture!

A beast that lives only in the bitter cold of the Great Wilderness, with the gregarious habits of a wolf and the speed and ferocity of an eagle.

There is only one creature in this world that can tame the vulture as a companion and a war beast.

It was the short man standing beside the vulture.

He is the same height as the Silver Dwarf and Brass Dwarf, but is more "emaciated", with rough cheeks covered in ice and grayish skin, and his eyes are blue, like jewels in the cold wind.

However, because of his skin color and posture, this dwarf wearing bearskin armor and carrying a hunting spear always looked unsmiling, as serious as a stone.

But if you underestimate this guy because of this, you will definitely be poked a few holes by him with a war spear.

This is the Frost Dwarf.

Frost Dwarves, to be exact.

The last of the three dwarven clans, possessing more primitive and austere habits than the silver dwarves, and a more stubborn and conservative character than the brass dwarves' branched shield dwarves.

They live in the Great Wilderness near the Frost Castle in the North, have their own territory like the Thorn Vampires, and are a self-governing race within the Nordtov Kingdom, and have been friends of the Romanov family ever since they assisted the Hero King in the conquest of the Great Wilderness.

In the hundred years since the usurpation of the Rurik dynasty by the powerful vassal Rurik, the frost dwarves have completely severed contact with the northern Yankees.

It is said that the heirs of the Hero King were able to escape the liquidation of the Rurik dynasty by relying on the protection of the thorn vampires and frost dwarves.

As a result, although the Frostdwarves are nominally not involved in the politics of the Nordov kingdom, everyone knows that the Frostdwarves are loyal allies of the royal family, and only each king has the ability to convince them to join a war.

"Hats off! The wolf lord who runs on the ice field! ”

Seeing General Baldwin on the flying platform with his cane, the Frostdwarf messenger who had come to deliver the things immediately greeted in a thunderous voice:

"I have brought greetings from the lord of Badr and a gift from Her Majesty the Wolf Maiden to you, please come forward and receive it!"

It was a rather rude request, but General Baldwin didn't care.

He had dealt with the Frost Dwarves for most of his life in the North, and he knew that these rough guys were so temperamental, and formalism was an essential part of dealing with the Frost Dwarves.

The general took a few steps forward to see the messenger take something wrapped in a white bearskin from behind him, and untie it to reveal a stone scepter carved with the heads of a wolf, a tooth-bursting bear, and a golden eagle.

He handed it to the general and said in a loud voice:

"Frost Castle has sent 8,000 Iron Foot troops here to support you in the battle against the Gnolls, and Lord Badr will also come over, but he is not the commander, he came here because of personal matters, you are the commander!

The Acting Lord and Her Majesty the Wolf Maiden have appointed you as the Honorary Commander of the Iron Foot in the Black Calamity, and we will fight to the end with the Winter Wolves in this stale castle. ”

"Eight thousand Iron Foot Army?"

General Baldwin was taken aback, and he immediately sensed the sincerity of the frost dwarves, and took the scepter and asked:

"My stubborn friend like a rock in the wind, your Iron Foot Army is only 30,000 men, why are there so many dispatches this time? I don't think I have the face to make the Frost Dwarves empty their homes for me. ”

"Of course you don't have that face, little Baldwin, your dad and your grandfather came back to life and begged us to be the same."

The frost dwarf messenger laughed, not caring about the general's face.

This is normal.

In the conservative and formalistic society of the Frost Dwarves, the only people who can be chosen as messengers are respected dwarves, who are themselves dwarven lords with status, and he even has friendships with Baldwin's father and grandfather.

He looked left and right, lowering his voice. Well, no matter how low the voice of the Frost Dwarf is, it can probably be heard by the guards around him.

In short, he said in a thunderous voice:

"It's hatred! Baldwin Jr.

Lord Badr has found the cause of the unexpected death of his father, our last High Lord, Tiral.

That's not an accident!

It was the bandit leader of the Western Sahara Barbarians, Moder Skullstealer, who orchestrated all this.

The Skullstealer's gang has been wiped out by our hunters, but the dog thing ran ahead of time, and he's still carrying our holy artifact, Winter's Strike! It took a lot of effort and a lot of money to track down the bastard somewhere in the Dark Mountains through the defective Celestial Guardian Wizards in Port Jose.

If Badr wants to inherit the throne of lord, he must take back the holy relics and slash the villain with his own hands, just as Her Majesty the Little Wolf Girl invited us to send troops against the gnolls.

Anyway, it was a convenient thing, and the elders generously sent a team of eight thousand people at one time. ”

"The Western Saharian barbarians crossed half the continent to the Dark Mountains? Why do I think there's something about this that you didn't tell me? ”

General Baldwin's eyes narrowed, but the frost dwarf rolled his eyes and said:

"If you don't tell you for your own good, don't ask, I'll leave now, don't leave me to eat, bring me a few bottles of wine to drink on the way, the Iron Foot Army will be here in a month at most.

Hold this place up!

Don't be defeated by the gnolls, we need to collect your corpses. ”

"You foul-mouthed dwarf! Can't you say something good? ”

General Baldwin stomped his feet angrily, but he knew that the frost dwarf was a ghost, and he didn't have a door on his mouth, so he could only shake his head, and wanted to call his adjutant, Colonel Duke, but Colonel Duke would still organize a defense in Bafonte Canyon, so he could only call his other lieutenant and get the gluttonous dwarf a bag of wine and put it in the sidecar of his fierce mount.

But before the general could wake up from the joy of having the support of both the Great Wilderness Legion and the Frost Dwarven Iron Foot Army, a battle report from the Barren Mountains lifted his relieved heart again.

"What? Lost almost 2,000 people in last night's battle!? Is this a battle fought with feet? ”

Baldwin looked at the handwritten battle report from Colonel Duke, his face darkened, and he began to wonder if the Trancians had deliberately let the gnolls go and let them attack their own army.

But after reading the battle report, the general could only sigh helplessly.

If it weren't for Lord Murphy's entanglement of some gnolls in the Shadow Valley, I'm afraid last night's battle at the southern end of Bafant's Canyon would have only been more tragic.

There was no danger to defend in that terrain, and the position created by the silver dwarves was not perfect, not to mention that Duke was still facing the most fanatical bloodscar clan among the gnolls, and it was already good to be able to fight like this.

"General, do you want Colonel Duke to retreat into the swamp?"

Another of Baldwin's lieutenants whispered:

"I can understand the need for this blockade, but continue to hard-top in that terrain, I'm afraid. It will cause quite terrible damage. ”

"I know that too, but Governor Murphy himself is guarding the Valley of the Shadows, and the Filthy Swamp and Maginot Lines will take time to continue to improve, and the reinforcement of the Crimean Fortress has only just begun, and the current castle simply can't handle the damn rat man's underground raid.

If they withdraw, there will not be enough time. ”

The general clenched his fists and said:

"Duke has to keep going, no matter how hard it is!

Send another 1,500 of the Winter Wolf Monks and Thorn Nightkin in the castle to them to save the lives of the wounded as much as possible, and the field hospital run by the Transanians is not bad, I have personally gone to see it, and sent our wounded there.

That's right, that hell-deserving 'war insurance'.

I paid for them all for the soldiers. ”

——

"Colonel! The hunters report that there is something unusual about the gnolls ahead! They're probably going to attack again. ”

Colonel Duke, who had not slept all night last night and had been busy for most of the day today, had just been squinting on the position for a while, was called out by the herald, he rubbed his eyes and stood up, took his sword in his hand, and strode out of his tent.

On the high ground of the red ground, the colonel could see at a glance the winding trenches ahead, the barbed wire fence and the horses, the soldiers were sitting in the trenches and resting with their weapons, but the corpses of the gnolls left after the battle last night were still scattered in front of the position.

The dwarves had worked hard to shape the terrain into a hillside, making the barbarian attacks more strenuous and the experience of the Transians in the Blackflame Pass had helped a lot last night, at least the combination of the denial trenches and barbed wire would limit the number of kobolds rushing at a time.

The Colonel's troops were well-armed and well supplied, and everything was fine except for the damn terrain and the unsightly blood-scarred gnolls.

"They definitely killed more people last night than we did, are these gnolls eager to meet their evil gods?"

After observing the movements of the gnolls with a telescope from a high place, Colonel Duke scolded fiercely:

"To hell with their evil gods, don't give a damn a damn jump over here into that damn canyon! Prepare the brothers, it's noon, and greet them with accurate artillery fire. How are the dwarves' tunnels dug? Is it ready for use?

Didn't you say that those Transansians had killed a lot of gnolls in the tunnels in the past three days? ”

"It's barely available, Colonel, but it's only done with the main body."

The colonel's adjutant replied:

"It's just that the dwarves said that kobolds had appeared in the tunnel, and it must have been the large-scale actions of the Transancians that made the other party discover the existence of the tunnel and take countermeasures. We don't have a shadow half-elf who is familiar with the terrain to lead the way, Colonel, let our soldiers rush in, it is estimated that they will be blocked and killed by kobolds. ”

"Ah,! I knew that the Transancians had a hand, and it was cunning. ”

Colonel Duke took out his snuff and inhaled hard to sober himself up, he glanced to the other side, and said:

"Putting the Transian walker in front, it did a great favor last night! I now finally know why our Wolf Maiden Majesty wants to follow the Plantagenet to do military reform, if our Winter Wolf Legion had such mechanical behemoths, we would have killed all the Western Saharians in the background a hundred years ago.

This thing is awesome!

It has cannons and armor, it's not afraid of swords, it can breathe fire, and it can trample those fanatical dog things when you step on it, well, I'm starting to like it.

Hey, if you have a chance in the future, you must open it yourself and try the feeling.

Seriously, Moritz, I think I was born to do that. ”

"Well, Colonel, you were known for not being good at horseback riding in the military academy, do you remember the tragedy that happened when you were drunk and rode a horse when we were chasing the barbarians in the Northern Encounter? I think you should get as far away from that big steel guy as possible.

Really, it will bring you misfortune. ”

"Alas, my poor Moritz, do you know why we graduated in the same year, and I am already a colonel, but you can only be a captain?"

"Huh? Why? I'll tell you the truth, I've been curious about this question for a long time. ”

"Hehe, learn to shut up when it's time to shut up, asshole. Now grab your weapons, the gnolls are coming, those dogs have defeated the vampires and plantagenets, they think they can beat us again.

Stupidity!

The children of the Great Wilderness will declare their loyalty with deeds, and they will not think about the past! ”

(End of chapter)