Section 286 Awareness

"This is information coming back from the front. ”

Bayral stood in front of the map and pointed his small stick to an area on the map. "Combined with the inference of the information obtained from various places, the current ...... The Chaos Legion seems to have temporarily stopped its siege, instead choosing to divide its forces and plunder. This news is proven over and over again...... That's right, the Chaos Legion didn't stop accumulating strength to launch a more fierce offensive, but seemed to have given up!"

This is a room in the castle in the center of Neustria, where people sit around a long table. In other words, it was a military meeting attended by high-ranking military officers. The meeting was attended by no more than a dozen people, and it was an important meeting for the army gathered in Neustria at this time to decide the next move, that is, the future fate of this huge army.

"Whew......" Someone in the room let out a long sigh. That's a clear sigh of relief.

"The Sarek City thing...... Is it going to be repeated?" said a voice relaxedly.

"If this qiē wasn't a deliberate disguise, then the situation would have been even better than we had anticipated," Bayrell said. There were still a few people in the room who didn't seem to figure it out - most of them were Tiberius' officers, and it was the first time they had come here to face the Chaos Legion. "In this area...... All the inhabitants who did not evacuate had already taken refuge behind the strong fortifications. To use an analogy, these places are like sturdy walnuts, and the Chaos Legion will have to pay a huge price to attack them. That's right, the Chaos Legion has an overwhelming superiority in combat power, just like we all know, in fact, as long as they are willing to pay the price, these small castles and villages will definitely not be able to defend anything, and sooner or later they will be breached. But in these battles...... Their valuable power will be depleted in these worthless battles, and of course, in terms of time...... I think we can be patient for the time being......"

An officer from Tiberius objected that the Chaos Legions' assault on the town might mean that they would solve a large part of the logistical problems - a tactic that is common in the case of intra-human wars. In order to attack a well-defended city, it is necessary to give priority to attacking a small city with poor defense capability and a small number of troops, and accumulate materials and manpower for attacking large cities.

In this case, the correct choice is to send troops to harass and avoid the Chaos Legion from achieving the goal of fighting to support the war.

But after Bayrell and Parro gave a detailed account of the situation in the northeast of Gruny, the opponents stopped. The defensive line to the northeast of Gruny is tried-and-tested. This is because when the Chaos Legion invaded in the past, it more than once adopted the tactic of skipping the White Keep and attacking the depth of the kingdom instead. As a result, almost all of the human settlements in the area were built into fortified fortresses. And because of the Chaos Corps' reputation for being ferocious, the inhabitants will fight to the end rather than surrender. If they want to capture these fortresses, the Chaos Legion will have to pay far more than they gain.

As the conversation continued, Ashrufat's eyes were fixed on the military map in front of him. The map is large, detailed and precise. It hung on the wall, taller than even a grown man's hand. This is a very luxurious equipment for human armies, as many generals throughout history have fought against a map that is ambiguous or even full of errors.

But for some reason, Ashrufat felt that it was still not good enough. In some of his dreams, he has equipment far more luxurious than a map. No, those are just dreams...... He shook his head, trying to get the thought out of his mind, but another voice seemed to whisper in his head.

That's not a dream...... The voice said. Didn't you already know?

"Lord Count," Beller's voice suddenly rang out, stirring Ashrufat. "What's wrong with you?"

"Ah...... I'm fine...... You go on......" said Ashrufat.

"In short, considering that there are still some soldiers in our army who are suffering from injuries and diseases...... Taking into account all aspects, I have built a temporary garrison to wait for further development. Beller seemed to see that Ashrufat was a little distracted, and did not delve into the previous topic. With that, he returned to his place and sat down.

"I heard about the scouts ahead...... The losses are significant. Parry, who was opposite Bayral, said suddenly.

"The losses are heavy. "The light cavalry of the Chaos Legion is superior to ours......"

"They call the lightly armed infantry and cavalry marauders. Parry said. "The scouts of the Chaos Legion are the Marauder Cavalry. These cavalry were the mobile force for raids. They may not be able to confront the hoplites head-on, but when it comes to reconnaissance, flanking, detours, etc., they are much better than ours. And it is said that most of them are believers in the blood god, and they are not afraid of death when fighting......"

“...... The harsh living conditions in the wasteland also make their physique much better than ours. Not only people, but also horses. There is a big difference in this regard. This is not only on the march, but also on the battle. Many injuries that were enough to kill our soldiers, but the Chaos Warriors were able to endure and continue to fight......" explained another man on the side. "In the case of scout warfare conducted by light cavalry, the superiority in equipment, training and discipline is not obvious, and our army is completely suppressed. To get information on the enemy's movements, it is necessary to pay a lot of casualties. ”

The reason for this is that there are some people in the coalition who have never fought against the Chaos Legion. For example, Ashrufat, as the Supreme Commander, is one of them.

"This time, in order to confirm the movement of Chaos, our army sent a large number of scout troops. The enemy also sent corresponding outlying scout troops. In order to get information, our army lost more than two hundred people before and after...... "Beller explained. "I will report on the casualties and losses later. ”

"Our light cavalry must all be armed with muskets, right?" asked Ashrufat. "And the enemy's hussars should not have been equipped with long-range firing weapons. That doesn't work?"

"In scout warfare, muskets can make unwanted noises, so many soldiers don't carry muskets on reconnaissance missions. In addition, the accuracy and range of the pistol were very poor, and in the face of the superb riding skills of the marauder cavalry, it was difficult to grasp the correct timing of the shot in actual combat, so our soldiers suffered a great loss. Bayrell said. "Whether it's horse fighting or equestrianism, we are at an absolute disadvantage. ”

"Will the enemy fluff a shot?" asked a man sitting at the end of the long table. "Abandon Gaohua City...... What else do you target?"

"No, there are still a large number of Chaos legions left under the city. Bayral replied. "The defenders of the city should not be mistaken. They also deliberately launched a tentative counterattack. ”

"How did it turn out?"

"By surprise, we achieved good results. Bayral replied. "Inflicted considerable losses on the unsuspecting enemy. But the results of the battle turned out that this was not a disguise. And this long victory...... Well, it's not repeatable. Gaohua City is mobilizing all its forces to repair the fortifications. ”

"How's the city's supply stockpile?" Ashrufat asked, seemingly unintentionally.

"It's definitely not a problem to stick with it for a year. In addition, although the defenders suffered casualties, they were still numerous, and if they could use this time to recuperate, they should be able to recover some of their strength quickly. Bayral replied. "This is thanks to General Rafa's previous arrangement. ”

He smiled and glanced at Parry. But I couldn't tell whether the smile was approving or sarcastic.

"Anyway, the situation looks in our favor?" someone asked.

"To be honest, it's hard to tell. Parry spread his hand and made a gesture. "Truth be told, the Chaos Legion has gotten smarter in recent years, and they're all now trying to find a way out of the battlefield. And they've succeeded more than once - in fact, even this time, they've only narrowly missed it......"

As he said this, Parry's eyes were on Ashrufat. Now, everyone could sense that the Lord was a little absent-minded.

Rumor has it that Ashruphat fell under some curse when he killed the Chaos Wizard. Because too many people have witnessed the Chaos Wizard turn into flesh and blood all over the ground. Stories of defeated Chaos wizards imposing evil curses on their defeated heroes at the cost of self-destruction in desperation are so widespread that Eshurufat's situation soon changes.

According to the storybooks, these curses, which hold the last power of cultists, are always very evil and despicable. Most of them are not even the type that is immediately lethal, but a deeper, longer-term effect. And it often brings disaster to family members and descendants - because in the common belief that a quick death is not the most terrible thing, that it is terrible to live without death.

Although it is said that Ashrufat repeatedly emphasized that his body is healthy. But rumors are impossible to break off because of his statement.

However, at least the conclusions of the meeting were easy to make. This is because due to the impact of the previous epidemic, there are still a large number of soldiers in the army who have not yet recovered. In addition, the imminent crisis in Gaohua City has been suspended, and in addition, there is no understanding of the specific actions of the Chaos Legion, the distribution of troops and other factors, so in this case, sending troops to fight is not the best choice, on the contrary, waiting for the recovery of combat power for the time being, waiting for the combat power of the Chaos Legion to be further consumed is the right solution.

This is true even for Parry, who has been fighting before. Although it is true that some people have mentioned the battle plan of taking advantage of the chaotic division of troops to concentrate all their efforts on attacking the enemy army under Gaohua City. However, considering that the strength of the Chaos Legion under the city was unknown, this mention was vetoed. If you can't defeat the enemy quickly, things will turn out to be flanked by the enemy.

The meeting ended quickly, and the attendees left, leaving only Ashrufat.

His eyes had been looking out the window—as it had been during the meeting, in fact—and it was a long time before a cold wind blew in through the window before he came to his senses.

There was a reason why he was so out of shape, because today, just before the meeting began, he met with a Chaos Spy. Or more specifically, a Tzeentch believer.