Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 178 The Vanishing Wilderness Alliance

Today is still a rare sunny day, bringing a little more warmth to the cold north.

When Fujiro ordered the entire army to march out and launch the final decisive battle against the Wilderness Alliance.

Excluding the logistical cooks, the wounded and the soldiers who stayed behind, a total of more than 6,000 soldiers of the Thorn Legion marched towards the camp of the wilderness natives.

The Legion of Thorns has a total of more than 8,000 people. Excluding cooks and auxiliary soldiers, there are about 6,000 real soldiers. This is also the configuration of a standard large legion in the North.

Florina took away a thousand-man cavalry regiment, and including those who died or were injured in the past few days, there were still more than four thousand people in total.

Together with the 3,000 soldiers who came to support from Bailiu City last night, the number of people jumped to more than 7,000, even if more than 1,000 were left behind to guard the garrison.

In terms of numbers alone, they have surpassed the Wilderness Alliance, which suffered greater losses.

In these battles, they left behind thousands of corpses, which means that their actual combat power is probably less than 6,000.

"Everyone, there is a discovery ahead."

Sikai, wearing sophisticated cavalry armor, came on horseback from a distance, then dismounted and trotted over when he approached the team.

The reconnaissance missions had always been completed by the cavalry squads of the Thorn Legion, but since Florina took the cavalry squads away.

Sikai, who is experienced in scouting, was unanimously approved to be in charge of the scouting mission of the vanguard army this time.

From the time we set out until now, there was only a hint of pale sky on the horizon, but now the scorching sun is already high in the sky.

They had been walking for several hours, and according to previous information, they would be able to reach a location five hundred steps away from the Wilderness Alliance Camp around twelve o'clock.

"Sikai, what did you find?" The lord pulled the reins, and the tall horse under him immediately stopped and then dismounted.

Although there were only gnoll cavalry in Highcliff Castle, the lord naturally had horses in order to maintain his noble demeanor. Even the kid Mir rode a white horse following behind him.

"There is a fortification built by a group of wild people ahead. It is roughly estimated that there are more than a thousand people defending it. They are a group of bugbears and lizardmen."

Fujiro took out a map and spread it on a small stool. Sikai pointed to a small dot.

A group of insignificant officials, sitting in the open air, held a military meeting around a small stool covered with a map.

"A thousand people defending, but only hobgoblins and lizardmen..." Fujiro pondered for a moment: "Do these wilderness people have other plans?"

If we follow the previous stereotypes about this makeshift group in the wilderness, with only a garrison of about a thousand people, the Thorn Legion can send out a 500-man assault team to deal with this group of punks.

Not to mention that now they have nearly 7,000 people, so they can just push forward.

But after suffering two losses, Fujiro no longer dared to underestimate the wilderness coalition forces. Perhaps the fruits of victory would still be theirs in the end, but there was no guarantee that they would not lose a big piece of meat.

But he really couldn't figure out what the point of deploying garrisons in this position was, with only such a small number of people.

Moreover, this stronghold was obviously built in the past two days.

It's hard not to wonder if there's a deeper meaning hidden in this.

"Is this place an important military stronghold?" The lord asked, looking at the location pointed out by Sikai.

He looked left and right, but couldn't tell whether this position was naturally defensive or a very important choke point.

He even began to doubt whether the military knowledge he had learned was too low-level and he could not see the sophisticated arrangements of these wilderness bumpkins.

"No." Sikai shook his head. It can be seen that he was also full of doubts before: "It's just a hillside with only a few dozen steps of gentle slope."

"Besides, the enemy has already spotted our scouts. Whether to attack or take a detour, we must make a decision as soon as possible."

“Are there city walls?”

It is winter now, and you only need to pour water on the stacked stones or weeds to form a natural wall, which will save time and effort.

If this group of wilderness coalition forces built a high enough city wall, then a thousand defenders, even if they were just a bunch of small fry, would be enough to withstand the attack of several thousand people.

The catapults were still behind the main force. They were the vanguard, and it would take some time to pull the catapults here, but it was obviously too late.

"It's only three blades high, and it's made of dry wood and grass piled up and watered."

"Three blades? Panda has more than three blades!" The lord sneered three times.

This kind of wall can probably be knocked down with one kick, and it only provides psychological comfort but has more practical significance.

"Maybe it's a bait created by the enemy? The purpose is to make us arrogant or attract our attention?" Fujiro frowned, but he was still cautious. "From the first two battles, it can be seen that the other side definitely has a commander who knows military knowledge. There is no problem in organizing some basic tactics."

"Fujiero, I have to admit that I did have some preconceived notions about you. I thought you were eager to gain military merit and be promoted to a noble, so your strategy would be very radical. But the reality is - you are too cautious!"

The Lord criticized mercilessly.

In his opinion, it is meaningless to set up a defensive stronghold here, both from a tactical and strategic point of view.

No, the only function is to remind the Wilderness Alliance in the rear so that they have time to prepare.

But for this kind of thing, it would be enough to send out scouts to keep watch. It is really difficult to figure out why we have to go through the thankless task of building a stronghold.

As for Fujiro's guess, the Lord thought comprehensively that this group of wilderness natives only have those two in command.

We dare not engage in a head-on confrontation, but we must launch a sneak attack.

So the so-called attracting of attention is most likely to send people to attack from behind or from the side, but now the Thorn Legion is completely crushed in terms of equipment and other aspects.

A sneak attack would be nothing but seeking death.

Therefore, the lord thought that no matter what the tactical arrangements were, we should first send out an assault team to capture this stronghold and then we would find out.

After all, guessing is still a waste of time.

"No matter what, they are just a bunch of little scoundrels in the wilderness. At worst, they will use the old trick of sneak attack. Wouldn't it be easy to find out what the plan is?" The lord finally gave his thoughts. If the opponent was a human army, the lord would definitely not do this. It is never too cautious.

But they were just a group of wilderness natives, and the lord had already seen that from the previous two battles.

This group of natives are completely strong on the outside but weak on the inside. Whether it was the night attack or something else, it proved that their strength was definitely not enough to resist the Legion of Thorns, so they tried to use these strategies to narrow the gap.

If these strategies were carried out by disciplined soldiers, they would definitely have unexpected results. Unfortunately, these hastily assembled wilderness natives are far from being disciplined.

To be honest, if the drow elves had not been supported with weapons and equipment, these natives would have suffered a crushing defeat in their first battle with the Legion of Thorns.

"You can give it a try." Fujiro himself was wavering.

He really wanted to send people to attack, but he was afraid that he would make mistakes in command and ruin his chance of being promoted to the nobility. Now he felt that he was indeed too indecisive.

The lord doesn't even need to take action against such a small character.

Fujiro sent a small infantry squad to launch a tentative attack.

The burly old people advanced forward step by step, holding their steel shields, defending themselves against the sparse stones, spears and arrows thrown from the ice wall. The archers of the Thorn Legion shot arrows from a distance, forcing the natives on the small hillside to not dare to show their heads at all.

Finally, Panda was the first to be unable to bear this protracted attack, and he led the heavily armored Panta warriors directly up the hillside, kicked out a gap, and rushed in to start a no-brainer kill.

When the lord came up, there were only the corpses of the natives on the ground, as well as the surrendered earth elves and lizardmen who were driven to squat together.

They looked in fear at the Penta warriors who were glaring around like an iron tower.

This group of strong panda men, with only a hundred of them, beat them without any chance of fighting back. They were so brutal.

They shivered and were as cowardly as the sheep on the grass.

"They are so weak that they almost collapse on their own once the walls are kicked open."

Panda said this after taking off his helmet.

"As expected. After two defeats in the war, how high can we expect the morale of a bunch of wilderness bumpkins to be?"

The lord smiled, not surprised at all.

After two battles, the Thorn Legion lost less than 10% of its soldiers, while the Wilderness Coalition lost at least 30%.

The fact that they have been able to survive until now without being directly defeated is only due to the fact that this coalition is composed of various tribes united together.

The tribes are led by leaders of their own tribe, so morale will naturally be higher when led by leaders of their own tribe.

This is also one of the advantages of the wilderness tribe.

After all, the people around him are all brothers of the same clan, and the leader has lived together for more than ten years, so it is normal that the morale would be very high.

Otherwise, if it were a legion, with the damage reaching 30%, even the Thorn Legion would probably not be able to withstand such a casualty ratio, and its morale would collapse.

"Someone please explain to me why your leader sent you here?"

Levi held the holy sword and came in front of the captives, looking down at them from above.

The expected sneak attack did not come, and they took down the stronghold so easily.

It always feels so smooth that it's unreal.

"The first one to stand up, I, the master, will be magnanimous and spare your head. You will go to Highcliff Castle to be a slave with food and shelter."

Levi said this.

"Master, those hobgoblins only told us to stay here and they would deliver food to us regularly."

A bugbear plucked up his courage and raised his hand in reply.

It spoke a difficult common language, but fortunately, after living in the wilderness for some time, Levi could barely understand it.

"I was foolish to expect to get information from a bunch of little soldiers."

Li Wei held his forehead helplessly.

Generally speaking, only senior military officers are aware of this strategic arrangement.

How would the soldier know this?

With a wave of his hand, the bear goblin happily ran out of the group of prisoners and was taken away by two orc guards.

Levi turned and left. Not long after, along with the sound of chopping meat, there were wailing and begging for mercy behind him.

These wilderness natives basically all ended up being beheaded, not to mention that they were against the Duke of the North and would definitely be killed as a warning to others.

When faced with these alien races, humans basically want to eradicate them completely to prevent them from continuing to march south to plunder next year.

Levi kept his promise and said he would spare its life, but the rest of its life could only contribute to the construction of Gaoya Castle.

After this little episode, the army set out again.

An easy victory also boosted the morale of the soldiers of the Thorn Legion. After all, taking down this stronghold of nearly a thousand people almost without any casualties was enough to prove that this group of natives were actually easy to deal with, and the previous two times were just accidents.

When it was almost noon, the army finally arrived at a position five hundred steps away from the Wilderness Alliance camp.

The lord stood on a high place, wiped the foggy lens of the telescope, and placed it in front of his eyes, but the scene he saw the next second stunned him.

"Damn it, where are the people?"

He looked horrified at seeing the dead.

(End of this chapter)