Section 356 Scouting

The next day, the Chaos Legion continued its advance. As mentioned earlier, Marven trusted his own judgment and believed that Ashrufat would never just retreat all the way back to Newstria without resistance. Now, he's finally proven his vision.

His troops had taken over the banks of the river without bloodshed, and of course, there was no doubt that by the time they arrived, Ashrufat had completely destroyed the bridge that had crossed the river.

This kind of terrain defended by rivers is generally not considered very favorable. If you have to block the enemy's footsteps on the other side of the river, then it will become what the war book says, "Be prepared for the front and the back, be prepared for the left and the right to be empty, and be prepared for everything to be empty." Unless it's a river that's so big or so fast that the crossing is limited. Otherwise, it is generally believed that the defense of the river is not a particularly good strategy, and it is very easy for others to take advantage of it.

When Marven arrived at the river, he saw the enemy troops waiting on the opposite bank. A large number of cannons and musketeers, crossbowmen occupied the favorable terrain. If they were to be forced, these weapons would be horrific - even as a Chaos General, Marven would not want to throw his men into this hopeless slaughterhouse.

But watching the enemy's military countenance retreat without a fight like this is not the style of a god. So Marven ordered thousands of wizards in the army, and the two sides engaged in a long-range battle across the river.

The battle was actually a bit comical, as the distance was so far away that there were only two means of attacking each other: cannon and magic. Even these two have been greatly weakened in terms of accuracy and lethality because of the distance. A fireball can easily bake twenty people together at a distance of a hundred paces, but at this distance, anyone with eyes can easily avoid it. Even if you don't avoid it, this fireball can't explode much of a killing range after being consumed in the air for such a large distance.

Of course, it's the same with cannons. Trying to hit an enemy at this distance, the difficulty of a cannonball being like shooting a fly with a musket at a distance of a hundred paces is a blind cat's luck with a dead mouse.

In front of the two armies, this kind of battle lasted for half a day. In the end, one cannon was destroyed, and three crew members and two barrels of gunpowder were completely destroyed. The reason for this phenomenon is that the operator accidentally ignited the nearby powder keg himself. On the Chaos Legion's side, a very lucky cannonball hit the two Chaos Wizards, the one of the apprentices, because the real Chaos Wizards were flying in the air with magic disks.

By this time it was getting late, and the battle was over. Both sides collected their troops and returned to their camps.

As mentioned earlier, Marven is an extremely cunning person. The reason why he was deceived by Ashrufat once was that he lost almost all of his gambling capital. But strictly speaking, it's not because he's stupid, it's because he's really smart. It's like an overly elaborate sand castle, and with a slight shake of the base, the whole castle will collapse.

Of course, a person like him would not be bored to engage in such a meaningless battle show (as mentioned earlier, the pitiful results of this battle were even accidental). By the time he ordered this battle of magic and gunpowder, he had already sent his trusted personnel to take a detailed look at the situation in the nearby river. On the surface, he was wasting time, but in fact he was just trying to get some of the other person's attention in this way.

"Master," he had barely returned to the camp when someone came over. It was one of his subordinates he had sent out earlier. With the wings of magic, he had already traveled a large area in this half-day period. That's the benefit of magic. "I've got the enemy's armament. ”

"Come in and talk. ”

Marven's tent was not large, and on the table in the middle of the tent, there was already an accurate map drawn by the hand of a southerner.

"This is their main direction. The subordinate pointed at his hand. "Almost all of the main forces are in front of here, and they seem to think that we will cross the river here. His fingers moved along the river on the map. "Here, here, and here, there are no guards in these places, and even if there are, I think there are only a small number of scouts to influence the movement of our army. ”

"It's normal, they didn't intend to keep us on the other side of the river, they just ...... Trying to stall a little bit. Marven said. "If we live here...... Even if we don't encounter any obstacles, it means time. It would have taken us a day to get here, half a day to erect the pontoon, another day to cross the river – and more if we had used a raft or a ferry – and a day to come back. In this case, we would spend more than three days on a detour. And their purpose was achieved. ”

Marven said in a mocking tone. "Luckily, I know the terrain inside out. Thanks to Rogin, I spent a lot of time on the road in order to find him three times and twice. For safety, some of the roads I had to walk even on. ”

"Here, if I'm not mistaken, this should be a suitable area for river crossing......" Marven's finger poked hard at the map. "How's the stupid Southerners going here?"

"Here...... There are no troops deployed here. ”

"You're sure. Marven looked at his subordinates coldly. "Southerners, as stupid as they are, shouldn't be careless enough to do that. ”

"I believe so. The subordinate replied decisively. "They have a small force here...... Multiple cannons were set up. ”

"Strange...... Odd...... It's weird. What does this mean?" Marven was stunned for a moment. "In such a ...... Garrison troops in positions of no sense...... Wait a minute...... I want to think about it...... I think I get it. You," he gestured with his hand. "Check it out here tonight. His finger landed on the map, around the edge of the small southerner garrison. "What the hell is going on here. ”

At about the same time that Marven was deploying his next move, on the other side of the river, Ashrufat was also in his tent. He was accompanied by Bayrell, as well as two of Bayer's retinues, Robin and Thaler.

"How's the situation in the rear?" asked Ashrufat. They now know about the fall of Neustria. Due to the Chaos Wizard's huge amount of magic shielding and interfering with magical communications, communication between the front and rear can now only be carried out by fast horses and messengers. Ashrufat also had lost hope in Newstria City, and if he retreated, he wanted to retreat to the side of Gaohua City.

"The messenger has not returned. Béral spread his hands helplessly. "Either way, it will take time for the fortifications to be repaired over there. As long as the city lord there was not an idiot, he must have done his best to get started. The longer we delay, the better. ”

"How many days?" asked Ashrufat. Ever since he got the bad news, he had kept this look - it seemed to be smiling, but when he looked closely, he couldn't help but feel dangerous, even terrifying. Beller was sure that he would not be at all surprised if Ashrufat drew his sword—conjured it—and killed a few people.

"Today doesn't count, five days. Bayrell said. "A very tolerant estimate, provided that the IQ of our opponents remains at the level of ordinary people. After all, the river is average. He looked up at the tent curtain. "It was overcast, and it looked like there was going to be a rain during this time, and if it was heavy, it would mean that we could delay it for a longer period of time with God's blessing. I hope so. ”

"I don't think it's going to be five days. Ashrufat said.

"We burned as much wood as we could. Bayrell said. "In this way, even if the Chaos Wizard is capable, in order to gather the wood needed to build the bridge...... It must take at least a day. ”

"That doesn't necessarily work, what if the Chaos Wizards were prepared for this side when they came all the way? they could collect wood along the way...... You know, they also have a map in their hand, so they must know that there is such a river here. ”

"That's right. If so, I guess it's four days. ”

"We had to retreat in three days. Ashrufat said. "I don't know why, this tactic of defending along the river...... It makes me feel very uneasy. ”

"Are we in any danger?" Beller asked, but his eyes were on Robin and Thaler when he asked the question.

"We were ...... Maintain a distance with the enemy army for two or three days. It's a safe distance, but for the sake of this tactic, there is no safe distance between us. Robin thought for a moment and replied.

"If the enemy somehow crosses the river in a short time...... Meaning, we have no choice but to stop and fight. Because our army has been tightly bitten. Thaler added. "One of the biggest unsettling factors is magic...... This time, the Chaos Legion has gathered an unprecedented number of mages, and they may be able to use this to do a lot of things beyond common sense. ”

"I don't know anything about magic, but I at least know that any magic consumes the energy of a magician. Bayrell said. "If they use magic to cross the river...... That means that there will be a lot of wizards among them who will not be able to go to battle due to exhaustion. ”

"But even so, it is still possible that they will surpass our army in terms of the number of mages they can go to battle. Ashrufat interjected. "I decided, three days, and in three days we will evacuate. Leave a rearguard force bluffing, a few more days of delay counts as a few days. ”

The night passed without incident. The Chaos Legion made no attempt to carry out night engineering. The second day was also very calm, and even the first day of this type of show battle did not happen again. The Chaos Legion seems to have given up on all other operations, and has begun to gather the supplies and wood necessary to cross the river.

In this way, the two armies maintained the initial posture. If anything, the skies are getting darker, and those with more experience say that perhaps an extraordinary storm is coming. This kind of storm is what they say they are looking forward to, because it can cause the river to swell on the one hand, and effectively hinder any construction on the other.

The Chaos Legion's offensive took place on the third day.