Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 930: Military Deliberations (Part 2)

“Your Majesty, I think we should open up another battlefield!” suggested young Wilder, who had previously proposed the formation of the rapid-mobility troop previously the military conference of the Orc army. “The way we are exhausting everything now, the army’s efforts will be in vain. It’s better to open up another battlefield and put more pressure on the humans!”

Emperor Ilo froze briefly, then looked at his advisers.

He had always believed that professional matters should be left in the good hands of the relevant professionals. He had never made decisions for matters with respect to stratagem. He always consulted the experts before anything else.

At this moment, the advisers, who had long discussed this matter, were all nodding in agreement.

“That’s right. For our army to confront the humans here, there’s actually no need for so many of us.”

“Though we can’t possibly disband the troop and send them back to farm at the fields, it’s still possible to assemble and mobilize part of the troop to attack other places.”

“And by putting a little more pressure on the humans, perhaps we can earn a little more opportunity for our side.”

Since everyone in the advisory body had reached a common consensus, Emperor Ilo nodded and gave his consent for this matter. Then he tasked the staff of the advisory body to see to the arrangements for the deployment of the troops, as well as to choose the target of the attack.

In fact, there was nothing much to choose for the target of attack. To attack the humans from the Orc Empire, there were only two directions. It was either heading eastward to attack the Kingdom of Light or going to south to attack the Kingdom of Eagle.

If they chose to attack the Kingdom of Light, they had to attack the solid line of defense of the Great Wall. At present, the two sides were engaged in a confrontation here. Every three days, there would be a small fight, and every five days, there would be a big fight. But no matter how they fought, they could not arrive at a conclusive outcome. They were only wasting food supply, material resources and lives in vain.

If they chose to attack the Kingdom of Eagle, they had to attack the northern fortress group comprising several fortresses. Emperor Junero had previously captured a few of these fortresses, but later on, because of the battle of Sun’s Death Day, he lost most of his fortresses and only managed to retain one of them.

In recent years, there was no further outburst of war between the Kingdom of Eagle and the Orc Empire. The defense of the northern fortress group seemed to be slightly slackened. But now that there was a great war between the two races, it was impossible for the Kingdom of Eagle not to deploy troops along the defense line of the fortress group and ensure that it was heavily fortified with troops. This was, regrettably, going to be another tough battle!

But when did the Orcs ever fear war?

So what if it was a tough battle? They had fought against these fortresses back then and even gained an advantage!

So when the news that the Orc Empire was preparing to form an army to attack the Kingdom of Eagle came out, all the Orc armies signed up with great enthusiasm. In the end, the ones who won the opportunity to participate in this war were the few races who were known for their valor or speed.

Of course, there were also a great number of flying troops.

If they wanted to attack the northern fortress group of the Kingdom of Eagle, then of course, they needed to confront their famous Sky Knights. So flying troops were essential.

The Orcs had always been fast workers. In as short as a few days’ time, a great army had been selected. They wasted no time and set off right away, speeding towards the Kingdom of Eagle.

It was very difficult to hide the movement of the army from its enemy. Though the humans were currently in a disadvantageous position with regards to spell confrontation, relying on their large number of air forces, they were still able to complete the reconnaissance work. So the moment the Orc army just started the war, the human commanders were promptly provided with intelligence.

Learning that the Orc had re-divided its troops and sent a great army to head in the southwest direction, which was obviously towards the Kingdom of Eagle, the king of the Kingdom of Eagle could not sit still all of a sudden. He quickly bade farewell to the headquarters of the allied forces and hurried back to his kingdom to preside over his army.

He knew his own country businesses well. Since the split with the Duchy of Griffon, the Kingdom of Eagle’s military power had been greatly weakened. Although there had been no further large-scale war against the Orc Empire over the years and its population had recovered somewhat, he had never been able to make up for the shortcomings of his country’s inherent deficiencies.

If the Orcs were to attack the Kingdom of Eagle at the beginning of the battle, perhaps he could be able to hold out by relying on ample preparation and the support from other nations. But after a few months of war, the armies of all the other countries had suffered heavy losses. The Kingdom of Eagle was no exception. In particular, its air force—the humans’ air force was primarily from the Kingdom of Eagle.

At present, the “sky knights” that was the pride of the Kingdom of Eagle, had suffered heavy casualties and was left with less than 30-percent of the original headcount. There were not many left from the land troops either—there were still many ordinary troops, but there were only a few elite ones, who were trained via the new training method, left.

Besides, so what if there were still troops left? Could he bring the troops from the defense line of the Great Wall back to his Kingdom of Eagle?

To get from the defense line of the Great Wall to the defense line of the northern fortress group of the Kingdom of Eagle, the Orcs could dress themselves in appropriate attire to gallop across plains and grasslands. But the humans had to cross many lofty mountains and high ranges. There was no way they could go any faster, even if they wanted to.

So in the end, he could only bring a handful of masters and the remaining sky knights back and ask for the support of the rest of the countries.

Since the great war began, the Republic of Northwest had imposed restrictions to all its transmission formations. Other than those who needed to purchase their personal living supplies, as well as the refugees, who were allowed to pass through the transmission formations, residents of other countries were no longer allowed free passage. Without the most convenient means of travel in this world, wanting to be a step faster in returning to the Kingdom of Eagle before the Orcs with such a geographical advantage was no easy feat at all!

Fortunately, with the efforts of the magicians, they were still able to make it back to Eagle Wing City in time.

Once they arrived at Eagle Wing City, this king, who had to address Leon as “Great Granduncle” based on their positions in the family hierarchy, immediately issued a great mobilization order. All the strong youths who could be found within the country would be mobilized to put together a great army. They would then hurry to where the northern fortress group was.

At the same time, he was persistently urging the Duchy of Griffon, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to send support troops as soon as possible.

He did not know if he would be able to make it in time, but now, he could only do his best and give it a shot.

Of course, he also sent a letter to Leon to request for help. But this time, Leon clearly rejected him.

“Before I was a senior member of the Igor family, I was first the archbishop of the Church of the Void Mask,” Leon had replied as such. “For the war this time, the Church of the Void Mask is taking a neutral stand. So this will be my take on the situation as well. If you are worried, you can send some of the younger members of your family to the Void City. I will protect them well and take good care of them.”

There was nothing the king could do. So he did according to what Leon suggested and sent a few of the more outstanding descendants of the Igor family over to Void City. His intention was to at least ensure that there was still a continuity of his family’s bloodline. He did not want this family, the most splendid and long-standing family in the history of human countries, to weaken, or even come to an end in his generation.

After everything was done and the army had been assembled, he personally led the army into battle. With a make-it-or-break-it determination, he led this barely cobbled together army, as they galloped straight to the defense line of the northern fortress group.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Thousands of Springs was also mobilizing emergency troops. They traveled along several relatively “low and short” mountains and crossed difficult, rugged mountain ranges as they hurried over to the Kingdom of Eagle.

The support troop formed by the northern government of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins might have a much easier path to take—crossing through the northern part of the Great Marsh and a part of the Graystone Mountains, in any case, was much easier than having to cross broken ridges and mountain ranges—but the speed of their marching army was much slower than the former.

Because this army of soldiers of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins who were rushing over to the Kingdom of Eagle to render support were confronted by the Marsh army, who was similarly in a rapid march over to the Kingdom of Eagle for the purpose of intercepting them.

The soldiers on one side were more elite, while the other side had control over the geographical landscape. Both sides were inextricably locked in battle. Even though the situation was relatively in favor of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, wanting to break through the barrier was not something that could be achieved within a period of 10 days to half a month.

As for the Duchy of Griffon, they clearly very close, and they had an easy path to travel on. But because they had previously deployed a large number of troops to ensure that all was well for the delivery of logistics at the defense line of the Great Wall, now they did not have many good soldiers left to deploy.

So when the humans and the Orcs once again had to fight each other on the battlefield of the northern fortress group in the Kingdom of Eagle, it was expected that the humans would be at a disadvantage...