"Huh" Claude let out a long breath and looked at the majestic Wickham Castle in the distance.
On February 8, 587th year of the Holy Light Calendar, after a long journey of more than ten days, Claude led the light cavalry battalion of the 131st Regiment to the vicinity of Wickham Castle, the capital of the Cromwell Territory. Hidden in a snowy mountain forest.
"Sir, according to our reconnaissance, two enemy regiments are currently stationed at Wickham Castle. One of them is the logistics battalion of the Sebok Standing Corps of the Kingdom of Hicks, responsible for the task of transporting supplies. The other is from Hicks. The local garrison group transferred from the colony of the Kingdom of Kes is responsible for guarding Wickham Castle."
The battalion commander of the light cavalry battalion, Major Belclin, who had already arrived in the Cromwell Territory, reported the early reconnaissance results to Claude: "Due to the massacre in November last year, the slums around Wickham Castle have already been destroyed. There would be no existence of Nikancha people. This made it impossible for us to pretend to be Nikancha people and sneak into the city, and we couldn't move around the castle.
Because the logistics transportation lines have been repeatedly attacked by us, Wickham Castle has now suspended the operation of transporting logistics supplies to the town of Hunter Bull in the Beringana Territory. However, the convoy transporting supplies from Vibato Port is still separated by half a mile. Come here every month or so. I once pretended to be a lost adventurer and got into a convoy. I heard from the drivers that the supply reserves in Vibato Port were running low, and most of them were transported to Wickham Castle. "
Claude tightened his leather robe tightly. The winter in Nubicia was really too cold. Even with the thaw period in February, he still felt the cold air seeping into the gaps in his clothes. Even if he is wearing leather clothes and pants, leather gloves on his hands, leather boots on his feet, and a leather robe outside. But after just standing for a while, my whole body felt stiff. Of course, maybe this has something to do with Claude riding on a horse for a long time in the wind. In such weather, riding on horseback is simply a torture.
Stomping his feet, Claude cursed, it was really not the right time for such weather to surprise Wickham Castle and destroy the military supplies stored in the city. But military orders are like mountains, and you must carry them out no matter how reluctant you are. The order written by General Michelich requires Claude to burn the enemy's military supplies stored in Wickham Castle before the end of February, so that the enemy will lose the last life-saving straw and end the war that has been going on for more than four months. war.
Since the war started in October last year, the 131st Ranger Regiment led by Claude has cut off the enemy's logistical material transportation routes as planned, preventing the military materials stored in the enemy's rear from being transported to the front line. Even if the enemy uses a regiment of troops to escort the material convoy, the result will still be that the escorting troops will be defeated, either completely wiped out, or some quick ones will escape early before they see the situation. As for the supplies, they were either seized for personal use or burned on the spot. On the contrary, the regiment headquarters has more than two hundred brand-new four-wheeled freight carriages, all of which are carefully selected as the best trophies.
General Michelich led the Ranger Division and part of the First Overseas Field Army to encircle and annihilate the Tanya Army of the Kingdom of Hicks and raid the Kuzoa Army in two battles. Claude's 131st Ranger Regiment and did not participate. At that time, Claude was busy leading his troops to attack the logistics transport convoys of the Kingdom of Hicks, and seized countless grain, grass and military supplies. The delivery to the rear was enough for the Ranger Division and the Overseas Field Corps for more than half a year. This greatly reduced the burden of supplying supplies across the river from the Robisto Territory, and won a major merit award from the Corps.
In December, the enemy learned the lesson and no longer used a battalion to escort the logistics convoy, but instead assembled a garrison regiment. But at the same time, Claude directly summoned the four battalions under his command. In one raid, he defeated the guard group escorting the convoy, and took advantage of the situation to capture the enemy's most advanced logistics in the Beringana Direct Territory. Base, the town of Lokid, a fire reduced this town once famous for its bison leather goods to ashes.
Since then, the logistics bases in the Kingdom of Hicks have known that with their own strength, they cannot withstand the attacks of enemies coming and going on the logistics convoys. In addition to strengthening the defense of the towns that serve as various logistics supply garrison points, we can only hope that the standing corps on the front line will send troops back to escort them. But unfortunately, the remaining three standing legions on the front line were unable to protect themselves. They finally dispatched a division of troops to escort the supplies, but they were swallowed up by the Ranger Division before they even reached their destination.
It snowed heavily in January of the New Year. The three legions of the Kingdom of Hicks, Viklen, Sebok and Febot, huddled together by the Dolinibara River to keep warm, forming a stronghold to protect themselves. The cities and towns where logistics supplies are stationed have lost their morale, and are no longer planning to find ways to deliver supplies to the front line. They just stay in the towns and defend to the death. So the 131st Ranger Regiment could only endure the cold and wind in the wilderness of the Beringana Territory. Claude was so angry that he wanted to capture the next town by force to survive the cold weather.
However, in mid-January, Claude received an order written by General Michelci, requiring the 131st Ranger Regiment to surprise Wickham Castle, the capital of Cromwell's territorial dominion, and burn down Hick before the end of February. The Kingdom of Sri Lanka stores military supplies there.
This is not a whimsical task that cannot be accomplished, but last year when the kingdom's residents were relocated to the Castle of Wickham, Claude was ordered to dig a secret passage outside the city in Wickham Castle to prepare for the future. just in case.
At the beginning, the five standing legions of the Kingdom of Hicks placed their logistics base at Wickham Castle, storing all military supplies from Vibato Port. Although the 131st Ranger Regiment led by Claude successfully cut off the enemy's logistics supply route and prevented the enemy's logistics supplies from being transported to the front line, General Michelich had to guard against the sudden withdrawal of the enemy's three standing legions. Wickham Castle, in which case the war will drag on again.
"Sir, in fact, if we gather the whole regiment, we can capture Wickham Castle. Why should we burn those stored supplies? The military supplies needed by the five standing legions are a great wealth. If we can seize it, we will Made a fortune," said Belklin.
Claude shook his head: "Burning these reserve supplies will cut off the enemy's hope. If we occupy Wickham Castle and seize these supplies, then we will lose the initiative on the battlefield and put ourselves in the open. Being able to wait for the enemy's attack means that these wealth have caused us to lose our mobility and flexibility. In order to protect these wealth, we have to defend Wickham Castle and fight to the death against the attacking enemy.
For us, although the military supplies stored by the enemy in Wickham Castle are valuable, they are not what we urgently need. The previously captured enemies had already made it clear what the supplies were, which were nothing more than grain and grass, military uniforms and winter clothing, ammunition and guns, as well as some daily necessities and luxuries enjoyed by senior enemy officers. For us, those alcoholic drinks and high-end ingredients can be used immediately. It is not cost-effective to sacrifice the lives of soldiers for these things.
We have our own food and grass, and we have no use for the enemy's military uniforms and winter clothes. As for those ammunition and guns, they are inconsistent with the standard equipment of our kingdom. I believe you don't like these things either. You will only be burdensome if you carry those daily necessities. If we take possession of Wickham Castle, these things will indeed be worth a lot of money after the war. But for the enemy, it is the hope of survival. They will fight desperately to attack Wickham Castle before they run out of ammunition and food.
If you think about it, you will understand that if the enemy's three standing legions break camp and retreat, the Ranger Division will not be able to block their retreat. It would take a month to get here from the Dolinibara River, and I believe that by that time all the food and fodder brought by the enemy would have been exhausted. Even if Wickham Castle is occupied by us, it will be the only way to survive in the eyes of the enemy, and they will attack desperately. Do you think our regiment can withstand nearly 200,000 enemy attacks
On the contrary, we burned the military supplies stored in Wickham Castle. So even if the enemies of the three standing legions immediately retreated, we can only feel despair when we get here and see the supply warehouse reduced to ashes. After breathing a sigh of relief, they no longer had any intention of fighting. Without food and grass, they were hungry and had to surrender to us in order to survive. General Michelich asked us to burn the reserves here, just to destroy the enemy's three standing armies at the minimum cost. Do you all understand?"
Sometimes Claude had to break down some strategic details and reasons and teach them to his cronies, hoping that they would grow up as soon as possible. Sometimes it is not a good thing to be promoted too quickly after having too much credit. For example, after Belklin was promoted to major and became the battalion commander of the light cavalry, he was relatively good at tactics, but his overall view was poor and he was easily seen on the surface. blinded by the phenomenon. Otherwise, he would not have said that he wanted to capture Wickham Castle. It sounded like he was greedy for money. The fact is that the victory in the attack on the enemy's logistics transport convoy some time ago increased his arrogance and he did not take the enemy seriously.
"Sir, I understand." Belklin said with some shame. Next to him, Blovik, McJack and other close aide-de-camps also nodded.
"Okay, now we have to think of a way to get close to the castle." Claude smiled and frowned: "If we had known earlier, we wouldn't have dug the exit in the moat. We would rather dig harder and dig deeper. "Farther"
The exit of the secret passage dug last year was in the moat outside the castle. It was camouflaged so that the enemy could not easily discover that there was an entrance to the secret passage into the castle. But the problem is that it is winter now, and the snow in the moat is a foot deep. Coupled with the melting period, the surface looks completely white, but in fact, if you step into the moat, you will definitely be covered in mud. If an enemy pokes their head out on the city wall and takes a closer look, it will be easy to find the traces left by someone sneaking into the moat.
Just when Claude and others were thinking about how to sneak into the castle outside Wickham Castle to carry out the sinful act of murder and arson, the three legions of the Kingdom of Hicks, Wickron, Sebok and Febot, were expecting The Sea King fleet finally arrived in the waters of Port Patres, the capital of Robisto territory. Without saying a word, it directly launched an attack on Port Patres.
The fierce artillery battle lasted for three days and three nights. Relying on the tactics of long-range bombardment during the day and incoming attack at night, the Sea King fleet almost destroyed the entire Port of Patres. This was the largest maritime attack that the Port of Patres had suffered since its founding. The bombardment by nearly a hundred warships from the Sea King Fleet almost reduced the Port of Patres to ruins. To use almost this adjective, the Sea King Fleet still did not win. The ruined Port of Patres still had seven or eight artillery pieces fighting back.
Forty-seven warships were damaged and had to return to Vibato Port for repairs, and 21 warships sank in the waters near Port Patres. But for the Sea King Fleet, the destruction of the city defense artillery position at the entrance of the Dolinibara River is the greatest victory, which means that the Dolinibara River can flow unimpeded. So the remaining thirty-two ships of the Sea King fleet carried nearly fifty ocean-going transport ships upstream, preparing to arrive at the garrison camps of the three standing legions.
But what the Sea King fleet did not expect was that General Michelchi had already asked people to set up a river block chain on the Dolinibara River, blocking the way of the fleet. Then three secret heavy field artillery positions set up along the coast suddenly opened fire, sinking three ocean-going transport ships and a warship in the first round.
The unprepared Sea King fleet launched a counterattack after suffering heavy losses, but at this time the Ranger Corps mobilized almost all the light infantry field artillery and rushed to the battle site to join the artillery battle. Although the fist-sized projectiles of the light infantry field artillery could not cause direct damage to the warships of the Sea King Fleet, the red-hot projectiles still ignited the sails when they fell on the deck, posing a great threat to the sailors and crew on the ship. .
One after another, the ships began to catch fire, and the scale of counterattack fire from the remaining warships of the Sea King fleet became smaller and smaller. The warships were hit one after another and slowly sank. The river was full of sailors jumping off the ships to survive. But in February, the river was freezing cold. Many sailors and crew members suddenly sank while swimming in the river and never came to the surface again.
The ambush and artillery battle on the Dolinibara River on February 12 was the most tragic day in the history of the Hicks Kingdom's Sea King Fleet, because it was not at sea and lost in the decisive battle between fleets and fleets. Instead, they were ambushed by the enemy's army in an inland river. They used heavy field artillery and light infantry field artillery to sink and burn most of the battleships and ocean-going transport ships. Only eight battleships and 11 were damaged. The ocean-going transport ship luckily escaped destruction and returned to Vibato Port.
It can be said that the Sea King Fleet of the Hicks Kingdom has suffered heavy losses from the bombardment of Patres Port to the ambush on the Dolinibara River. Although there are still more than fifty warships that have withdrawn to Vibato Port, they are all injured. They cannot even return to the mainland of the Hicks Kingdom until they are fully repaired. Within a year and a half, there will be no more ships at sea. The flags and cruising battleships of the Hicks Kingdom’s Sea King Fleet are no longer visible.
After learning about the tragic outcome of the Sea King's fleet, the three standing legions no longer hesitated and immediately broke out of camp and embarked on the road back to Wickham Castle, which was directly under the jurisdiction of Cromwell. The Ranger Regiment did not block the enemy's retreat, but only captured the three towns in front that the enemy used as logistical supply stations, and evacuated all supplies so that the enemy could not get supplies.
On February 25th, Claude personally led a capable team, wearing the military uniforms of the Kingdom of Hicks, and took advantage of the negligence and carelessness of the enemy guards on the castle to enter Wickham Castle through a secret passage. Then at midnight, fires broke out in several warehouses storing grain and grass. Taking advantage of the enemy's panic when putting out the fire, Claude led his men to open the castle gate. The well-prepared officers and soldiers of the 131st Ranger Regiment rushed into the castle, quickly defeated the enemy and captured the entire castle.
The next day, more supply warehouses were set on fire. Claude led the 131st Ranger Regiment to escort the prisoners and drove hundreds of carriages loaded with loot to evacuate Wickham Castle. The fire raged for two days, and the whole of Wickham Castle was reduced to ashes.
On March 10th, the rainy season came. In the cold and humid continuous heavy rain, the three standing legions of the Kingdom of Hicks finally arrived at Wickham Castle after twenty-eight days of long march. What awaited them was only a dark and gray landscape. ruins.
The officers and soldiers of the three standing legions of the Hicks Kingdom who were suffering from hunger and cold finally despaired. They could no longer persist for half a month to return to Vibato Port. All the officers' mounts and the leather goods of the soldiers were eaten by them. Got it
When the Ranger regiment's flag appeared in front of them, all Hicks soldiers laid down their weapons and raised their hands in surrender.
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