As expected, Orlando's Royal Knights arrived at the town of Pamela the next afternoon. Seeing Orlando and others who were still in high spirits, Ryan couldn't help but express admiration in his heart. The Royal Knights were worthy of being The most powerful army in mankind, even if they run thousands of kilometers day and night, they can still launch the next attack immediately and be enough to defeat the opponent. At this point, the three elite troops built by Ryan himself cannot do it. And this, This is the biggest difference between Imperial City and Cassano.
Soon, the entire Royal Knights were settled. Now, the town of Pamela and the nearby military camps have a population of 120,000 and more than 20,000 war horses. This is almost what the imperial capital can provide. All the strength to launch a local battle,
"Ryan, this is the topographic map of the western part of the prairie." During the combat meeting, Orlando pointed at the giant map that covered the whole table and said to Ryan: "Pamela where we are is here, and from here to To the west, the entire three thousand kilometers is boundless prairie."
Ryan's eyes moved slowly along Orlando's hand, and what Orlando continued to say came to his ears: "In this environment, it is impossible for us to cover up our whereabouts, and the tens of thousands of troops are even more important every day. Drinking water is a huge amount, not to mention the food and grass for people and horses."
"We can't give up our baggage, because once the Clay tribe implements the tactics of fortifying the wall and clearing the country, we will collapse soon." Orlando took out small flags one after another and placed them gently on the rivers or lakes shown on the map. Then he said with a smile: "So, we just need to advance step by step, heading west along these rivers or lakes. At the same time, scouts will be sent out in all directions to destroy the Clay tribes and camps as much as possible, forcing them to gather and fight. Let’s fight.”
"The amount of water stored in these rivers and lakes is extremely huge. It is impossible for the Clay people to interfere with us by poisoning. At the same time, these water sources are also the survival of their herdsmen, and they have gathered as many people as possible along the way. Small tribes, as for how to find them, leave it to your archer corps."
Ryan nodded. Orlando's strategic arrangement is very sound. Although the army is dispatched and the rear is a little empty, many things cannot be done immediately in a hurry. Instead, we must be careful to guard against falling into the opponent's trap due to impatience. , so Ryan will temporarily let Allen take over his position as lord, and then he will arrange everything before setting off.
"Jonas, wait until Ryan's archer army finds the enemy's position. If there are not many people, they will deal with it on their own. But if the strength is too strong, you will launch the attack." Orlando saw that Ryan had no objection, so he He said to Jonas: "The Clay herdsmen live in pursuit of water and grass. It is impossible to organize enough warriors to fight against our tens of thousands of troops in a hurry, so we will go very smoothly at the beginning."
Jonas nodded and said: "That's for sure, General Orlando, but with you and Ryan here, no matter how strong our opponents are, we can defeat them."
"No, the Royal Knights will not participate in the war." Orlando said with a smile: "During the entire march, the scouts must be as relaxed as possible, and must hide the traces of the Royal Knights to the greatest extent. This is why we mobilize so many The reason for the war horses, because in addition to increasing our mobility, they can also confuse our enemies so that they will not realize that the Royal Knights are still hiding among them.”
"Ah, this is it." Jonas asked doubtfully.
Before Orlando could explain, Ryan spoke first: "If you were the leader of the Clay tribe, Jonas, when you knew that a legion that you couldn't win head-on came to your grassland, would you still Are you going to deliver it to your door stupidly?"
"Ah, I understand." Jonas clapped hard and said excitedly: "In this way, the enemy always thinks that we are just infantry on horseback, plus some excellent scouts. When the main force of the two sides fights, the Royal Knights will They can launch a sudden charge, and by that time the Clay tribe has no retreat."
"That's it." Orlando said with a smile: "Attack them unprepared and force them to engage in a war of attrition with us. Only in this way can we achieve the purpose of our expedition. Otherwise, the whole Clay tribe will continue to migrate to the west. Will we continue to do so?" Chase them to the Hengduan Mountains?"
After the military meeting was over, Ryan discovered that Orlando was accompanied by his old friends. This time, in order to hide the traces of the Royal Knights as much as possible, Orlando even mobilized four magisters from the Imperial Capital Magic Guild, among whom was... Drokos and Melinda were also among them. When friends met, it was naturally a lively scene. Especially when Ryan showed off in the imperial capital as Fabia, he was naturally made fun of by Androkos and the others. ,
After the joke, Ryan and Androkos talked about using magic to conceal their whereabouts. Androkos told Ryan that since this time the entire coalition army had 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 logistics personnel, just relying on a few of them It is impossible for a magister to use magic to cover the battlefield. He can only detect the enemy's movements through magic such as "Magic Eyes", so that the commander can send out scouts to target the enemy's situation as early as possible.
There is nothing Ryan can do about this. After all, if Ryan can completely cover the traces of 70,000 to 80,000 people, or even directly transport these 70,000 to 80,000 people to the hinterland of the Clay tribe using the "Gate of Time and Space" magic, then Ryan is not A magician, but an existence comparable to the main god. Obviously this is impossible, so the only thing Ryan can do is to take turns with Androkos and the others to use mana to maintain the operation of the "Magic God Eye" magic circle, so as to provide early support for the magic circle. Orlando gave an early warning of the enemy's situation,
The entire expeditionary force set off at dawn on the third day. Ryan called the captains of his 5,000 popular shooters to his side, gave detailed instructions, and then asked them to take their men to the main force on a squad basis. In the surrounding realm of the army, since the entire Fengxing Archer Corps had practiced scouting when they were in Cassano, it seemed to be done in a similar way.
Jonas, on the other hand, led 20,000 phalanx infantry and 20,000 archers as the main force and slowly advanced to the west under the warning of scouts. As for the 20,000 logistics troops, they were also selected from the imperial army. They brought all the baggage They are all loaded on the cart, and then several people work together to push the cart forward, maintaining a double-file formation during the march.
This double-file formation is one of the best ways to fight against enemy cavalry harassment on the plains. Once attacked by enemy light cavalry, just turn the carts in front and behind the entire formation and you can immediately form a solid formation on the plains. A defensive position, a cart as tall as one person is enough to resist enemy attacks, and the soldiers in the position can stand firm and wait for reinforcements or launch a counterattack.
The expeditionary force had little to gain on the first day. After all, the Clay tribe and the Imperial City have been in a state of war. It is impossible for the residents of both sides to run to each other and fight as far as they can at any time. They just met hundreds of Clay tribe's scouts. These scouts thought they could teach the invaders a lesson with their horses and bows. Unexpectedly, Lane's Windwalking Archer gave them an unforgettable memory.
As a legion of wind-traveling archers carefully built by Ryan, the entire legion of 5,000 people were all trained by the leader of the elf wind archers, Moon Temple guard Seres and others. The mithril longbows they are equipped with have a longer range and more accurate hits. To be precise, those Clay tribe scouts who planned to take advantage before leaving were all smitten by the white-feathered long arrows.
However, starting from the second day after the expeditionary force set off, the Fengxing shooters who were on guard encountered more difficult enemies. These Clay warriors were all young adults temporarily recruited from nearby camps. They were about There are 1,200 people. Although the overall combat effectiveness is not as good as the real elites of the Clay tribe, they have lived on horseback since they were young. They are a force that cannot be underestimated.
This group of temporarily summoned Clay warriors were gathered together, preparing to ambush a team of popular shooters. The commander of the Clay warriors, Basel, was about 50 years old and was the Clay warrior's military leader in this area. After the leader, the Basel commander learned that the imperial army had entered the grasslands in large numbers, he immediately sent people to gather together the young and middle-aged people from various tribes with a radius of hundreds of kilometers. At the same time, he also planned an ambush plan.
Basel's plan was very good. Once the ambush was successful, they could judge the enemy's situation through the enemy's corpses. They might even be able to get some alive to carefully inquire about the enemy's strength and main force, and then quickly send someone to notify Abdul. Chief, no matter how big or small, it is a credit,
Since the warning range of the Windwalking Archer Legion exceeds 50 kilometers, which is almost the limit of a round trip in one day on horseback at normal speed, and Androkos and the others' "Magic Eyes" cannot reach such a huge range, so they were The popular shooters who were lured into the siege did not realize that they were about to step into a carefully laid trap.
Yamos, the captain of the Windwalking Archer Legion, was originally an archer among the hunter tribes in the Silent Forest. However, after his family followed Letoz and moved to Cassano, they happened to catch up with Cassano who was forming the Windwalking Archer Legion, so as An excellent hunter, Yamos joined this legion,
After many cruel trainings, Yamos not only was not eliminated, but because of his original hunter background, he performed very well in the training. Even after the entire legion was forming an army, he was promoted because of his excellent results. As a squad leader, he gained the authority to command 50 people.
On this day, he was leading a team on the grassland and suddenly discovered that several elderly herdsmen immediately abandoned the dozens of grazing Talon sheep and fled desperately after seeing them. The sensitive Yamos immediately felt that since this place could Seeing the elderly Clay people and their sheep, there was probably a Clay people's pasture nearby, so he led a team to chase them.