When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#569 - Two meetings

After the initial defeat of the first Edict Legion, the subsequent three attacking Edict Legions became much more cautious.

Although they left behind a total of twenty-nine knight corpses, it was still within an acceptable range.

Most of the knights suffered minor injuries, and after being treated with divine magic to save their lives, they drank potions and activated breathing techniques, allowing them to return to the battlefield the next day.

This is also one of the foundations of the power of transcendent knights.

As long as it's not a fatal injury, they can be rescued and even return to the battlefield in a few days.

Almost every half hour, Prince Condé sent out an Edict Legion to attack, while forbidding them from drinking potions.

When the Death Squad arrived, he even sent infantry to charge once.

However, Horne saw that Prince Condé was using them for training and refrained from using the Clockwork Grenades and the last ten Red Dragon Breaths.

Since discovering that neither side intended to engage in a decisive battle, Horne and Prince Condé both held back some of their resources.

Around the wagon fort, the low-intensity battle between the two sides stretched from noon to evening.

It wasn't until the arrival of the Savior Army's subsequent forces that Prince Condé slowly retreated under the surveillance of the Kush cavalry.

However, they didn't go far but set up camp in a farm about five or six miles from the battlefield.

Prince Condé put a piece of roasted magical beast meat into his mouth: "Have all the bridges and fords been burned?"

"They've all been burned, we can't even find a boat."

"Hmph, I knew it." The Prince flipped the roasted meat over and sprinkled some pepper, "Send this piece of meat to Lord Lacunio, and tell him it's incredibly delicious... Have the Alphos arrived yet?"

"They have, they're already waiting outside the door."

"Let them all in."

Sitting imposingly on the soft chair, Prince Condé's gaze swept across the faces of the company commanders who filed in.

Adjusting to a more comfortable posture, the Prince looked at Ellard, who was the last to enter, and asked, "Does the Savior Army know that Melia is coming to reinforce us?"

"I interrogated those two orderlies and the Holy Sun volunteers, and they didn't know at least until today."

Although Ellard had escaped twice, he was, after all, an old subordinate of the Prince, so he wasn't severely punished, only stripped of his position as company commander of the Edict Legion.

The Prince leaned his head back on the chair: "Are you saying that my knights are also traitors?"

"It's hard to say." Ellard scratched his head, "I believe in the integrity of the Edict Knights, but they've captured a lot of mercenary knights, and they have loose lips."

"As long as the Edict Knights don't talk nonsense, the news below is blocked, Gallian, am I right?"

"Absolutely blocked." Gallian, having been reprimanded, quickly stood up and responded.

Although Prince Condé's face was still slightly red, his mental state was slightly better than in the previous days: "See what their attitude is tomorrow, if they pursue, it means they don't know, if they harass, it means they do know."

"Your Highness is wise." Several company commanders immediately flattered him.

Standing up from the chair, Prince Condé, who was a bit more robust than before, walked up to the company commanders:

"The main goal of today's battle is to let you know what kind of enemy you're facing. You've seen the Devil Winds, you've suffered from the Lightning Witch, and although that sonic sphere didn't appear, you should be familiar with their methods, so you won't panic later."

With his hands behind his back, Prince Condé walked behind the company commanders and shook his head with emotion: "Flystream Fort, Thousand River Valley, a strategic location that has been contested by military strategists throughout history in over fifty large-scale wars, often ending in the victory of the nobles and the church.

The largest uprising was decades ago, the Shudeshau and Alpha brothers uprising supported by the former Duke of Kush.

I had the honor of leading dozens of Temple Knights to suppress that rebel army and achieved a great victory. Everywhere we went, the faithful welcomed us wholeheartedly. I never thought that in just a few decades, things would have reached such a dangerous point."

"These short-haired farmers are just clowns..." The commander of the Death Squad, Steinberg, immediately started flattering him.

Prince Condé, however, smiled disdainfully: "If you think that way, you're the clown. The Savior Army is definitely an enemy worth fighting."

Seeing Steinberg hesitate and not dare to speak, Prince Condé turned to walk towards the chair: "I think if they don't know Melia is coming to support us, they will definitely withdraw the wagon fort tomorrow and face us head-on."

"Then what if they keep hiding behind the wagon fort?" Alphos asked softly.

"Impossible, if we cross the river by pontoon, their grain will be robbed for nothing." Prince Condé confidently drew a red circle in an area, "If the battle starts tomorrow, we'll continue fighting, we can't let them join up with Melia! Do you understand?"

"Understood, Your Excellency."

The company commanders received their orders and prepared to leave.

"I'll say one last thing." Standing by the door, Prince Condé's voice was as seductive as a devil's, "If I become the lord of Thousand River Valley, would I be stingy with a duke's or several earl's positions? Everyone, work hard!"

…………

About 2 miles away from the battlefield, on a flat piece of ground, was Horne's camp.

After finishing dinner, Horne gathered everyone together to prepare for a pre-battle meeting.

Unlike strategic military meetings, which are mostly small meetings, Horne always holds large meetings for tactical military meetings.

Around the central bonfire, Horne, along with the commander of the Guard Battle Group, Das, the commander of the Black Crown Battle Group, Jeshka, and the commander of the Holy Grail Cavalry Regiment, Jeanne, sat cross-legged on the animal skin carpet.

On the outer circle of benches sat the 12 legion commanders and the captains of the various cavalry squadrons.

Further out were the 12 legion scribes leading 24 child soldiers and Fric Middle School student copyists, but they had no seats and had to stand.

Even further out were the captains of the various fifty-man teams, but Horne didn't force them to come.

Gathering such a large group of people was to ensure that the grassroots officers knew what they should do on the battlefield and why they should do it.

This way, even if something unexpected happened, the grassroots officers would know whether to adapt and how to compensate, which is very important.

"The most effective aspect of the wagon fort tactic is to have the enemy mainly attack." Jeshka stroked a sword mark on a wagon board fragment, "If the enemy bypasses us, it will be difficult to be effective."

The biggest problem with the wagon fort tactic, like the Crescent Moon Formation, is that both are defensive battle formations.

If the enemy doesn't attack, bypassing or exhausting the defenders are both major problems.

Historically, the Hussite wagon fort was victorious in every battle, in addition to the ingenious command of the one-eyed war god and the development dividends of firearms.

The two most important advantages were "knights were unwilling to retreat in front of lowly commoners" and "receiving local support, with no logistical problems".

Later, with the change in the knights' views and the development of artillery, this tactic, like the Crescent Moon Formation, slowly disappeared from history.

The problem that Horne and his men encountered was that the proud Prince Condé and the Edict Knights, after suffering a series of setbacks, lowered their proud heads to these commoners.

The two sides became evenly matched opponents for the first time.

"In the end, we still have to spread out the formation and fight." Horne used a branch to stir the bonfire, "We can't hide behind the wagon fort forever, this wagon fort was originally set up to protect our people landing."

Hotam County is a good place, it's good because it's full of plains and the land is fertile.

Hotam County is also a bad place, it's bad because it's too suitable for cavalry to gallop.

In the past few days in Flystream Fort, Horne took a map and personally ran around the surrounding area with Andre and others.

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In the end, the battlefield he chose was next to the Nauan River tributary called the Ham River.

This area has a wide river beach area, and there are also undulating hills in the transition area between the plains and the river beach, which can effectively limit the enemy's cavalry when combined with the river.

For this reason, he transferred all the ships and burned all the nearby fords and bridges, leaving only the one that two legions had crossed during the day.

After the two legions crossed the bridge, they also completely destroyed it.

These alone cannot completely block Prince Condé in this area, but if combined with Horne's Savior Army, it is entirely possible.

Hakuto held up the map: "We have already used the wagon fort to attract Prince Condé to the vicinity of the river beach. If we take the initiative to attack, Prince Condé will definitely have to meet us in battle."

"What if they don't meet us in battle?" A voice came from the outer circle, a Fric Middle School student with a feather pen between his fingers, raised his hand and asked.

"Then we'll follow them and launch an attack on their infantry." Horne used a branch to draw the river's course on the ground, "If we drag them for three to five days, they won't be able to afford it with their supplies."

In the early stages, Horne sent cavalry to constantly harass Prince Condé's supply convoys, not hesitating to destroy infrastructure and even tacitly approve of looting, all for the sake of now.

"Playing rogue, too shameless..." Someone whispered in complaint.

Several legion commanders and captains immediately stood up, their angry gazes scanning the crowd, and those who were seen couldn't help but shrink their necks.

Horne laughed: "War is playing rogue, there is no distinction between despicable and noble, it itself is a product of political contradictions that cannot be resolved."

Jeshka smiled: "Warfare class can be taken later, let's first think about where to fight tomorrow, how to fight, and assign tasks."

Horne couldn't predict the future, so the specific battle plan still had to be formulated before the battle.

This was already a fairly advanced system, in this era it was common to decide how to fight only when encountering the enemy.

Soon the legion commanders and battle group commanders began to speak up, and the efficiency of reaching a conclusion was very high according to the rules of procedure.

After comprehensively considering and rejecting several routes, a battle plan quickly took shape in the hands of two staff officers.

"Okay, the plan is set, everyone eat and drink enough and go to sleep, get enough energy, tomorrow is our decisive battle."

Horne stood up, patted his butt, and wanted to leave, but no one responded, everyone was looking at him.

A child soldier gently opened his mouth: "Don't you have anything to say?"

Horne was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that according to custom, he should give a pre-war mobilization speech.

Although he didn't have a manuscript, Horne had given too many speeches this year and had already integrated the knowledge of the speech class at the Women and Children's Activity Center of that year.

Clearing his throat, he stepped to the bonfire and began to brew.

After completing the draft, he raised his head and looked around at the crowd in front of him.

The white moonlight shone on everyone's shoulders, reflecting each other with the dancing flames, illuminating faces that were either young or old.

Some were familiar to Horne, and some were the first time he had seen them, but their eyes were all so clear.

He opened his mouth, but he didn't say a word.

For the first time in such a long time, Horne stalled, the flames were scorching his back, but he didn't know what to say.

After a silence of more than a minute, Horne suddenly smiled bitterly:

"I know you all hope that I can give an inspiring pre-war speech, but I can't say it, because this is, after all, a very difficult battle."

"I don't want to say any declarations of victory, because I don't have any confidence in victory."

"War will kill people, and although I really hope to see a few more familiar faces after the war, I know that's impossible."

"People will definitely die tomorrow, maybe it's you, maybe it's him, maybe it's even me."

"Then should we retreat? No, we choose to move forward, because this is a war that cannot be retreated from, a war that determines fate."

"This war not only determines the fate of countless people in Thousand River Valley now, but also determines the fate of countless people in Thousand River Valley in the past and the future."

"So regardless of success or failure, our death is by no means meaningless, perhaps history will not remember us, but people will remember history."

"I am here, only hoping that everyone, hoping that we, can review this life before death, and then say——"

"I have done what I should do."