Palin Winterburg came to the high platform of the castle. From here, he could see at a glance the direction of the inner city barracks - the imperial flag with red stripes on a black background was flying high there, and fierce and aggressive soldiers were Activities between camps, and farther away, you can see mage towers standing in the inner city. The mage eyes on the towers are constantly monitoring the entire area.
He raised his head again and looked to the distant west - however, today's gloomy sky and the mist in the air blocked his sight, and he could not see the winter that was now in the hands of the Cecil people. Wolf Castle, of course, cannot see the more distant Changfeng Fortress.
Is Andesa still safe in Cecil territory?
The Earl of Winterhold sighed softly and put aside the meaningless worries for the time being. Then he used magic to communicate with several mage towers set up in the inner city and confirmed the eyes of each mage. No abnormalities were found.
The main task of these mage eyes is not actually to guard the direction outside the fortress - what they are really guarding is the Knights' garrison inside the fortress and several additional barracks outside the city.
Those barracks are filled with warrior-minded knights and soldiers, as well as devout to fanatical priests and battle priests. They are the main force of this war - and the biggest consumable. Since the beginning of the war, the number of troops in the Winterhold area has increased to more than six times the normal level, and up to now, new soldiers and priests are constantly rushing to the front from the rear every day, making this narrow battlefield more crowded and dangerous.
In the view of Palin Winterburg, what the magic train transports from the rear every day is not troops, but fresh corpses.
What is different from ordinary "corpses" is that these "corpses" gathered in Winterfort are very easy to lose control. They are soaked in fanatical thinking impulses, and their nervous systems and external perceptions have mutated into Something that looks human but not human. They appear to be ordinary humans on the outside, but inside... they have become something twisted that even dark magic cannot penetrate.
However, in this place at the forefront, these dangerous and twisted polluters still have a way to control them-just strictly follow the rules of war to restrain them and let them unleash the madness in the divine world in time. Stress, or the administration of large doses of neuroleptics, can suppress their destructive impulses or slow down their rate of mutation, at least temporarily.
This is a dangerous balance. Every day is like walking on a knife edge, and Parin Winterhold’s task here is to maintain this fragile balance on the knife edge and keep it at the threshold where the situation goes out of control. Within the scope... consume these fresh "carcasses" with the highest efficiency and the best way.
He felt like a technician controlling the combustion cauldron in a burning rock acid chemical plant. Every day he was accurately calculating the fuel and alchemical combustion accelerants to be put into the fire. Human lives were coldly handled in his hands. calculations, ready to be thrown into the blazing flames of war the next time the furnace door opens, and here he maintains the heat of these flames, in order to gradually remove the pollution suffered by the empire, explore and weaken the power of the Cecil people, collect data on the battlefield, and adjust the balance of the scales...
He knows that everything he does has a great significance Meaning, but he still found it all disgusting.
War wasn't supposed to be like this - and he wasn't supposed to do this.
“It’s colder here than I thought,” a voice came from the side, waking the distracted Earl of Winterhold from his thoughts, “But I can’t tell where Aldernan is from here. The cold here is even more unbearable - the cold here is like a blade, hard and sharp, and the cooling in Aldernan is like a mire, damp and suffocating."
The Earl of Winterhold turned his head following the sound and said. Standing next to him, Earl Clement Dart nodded in greeting - this Aldernan nobleman came to Winterfort with today's troop transport, and he was nominally the commander of the supporting army. , and in fact... he was also one of the "consumables" transported by the magic train.
“This winter is colder than in previous years,” said the Earl of Winterhold. “Soldiers from the central and southern regions have a hard time adapting here. But compared to the northern border of the Cecil people, The environment here is considered mild."
"Soldiers..." Clemont Dart repeated the word softly, his eyes looking into the distance and scanning the barracks with the imperial flags flying." Earl of Winterhold, these are outstanding young people, really outstanding... They should all have a bright future, and they should not die in this cold winter."
Parin Winterhold. After being silent for two seconds, he slowly said: "Mortals are so fragile when faced with the malice of gods. Our motherland needs to be reborn from the ashes, and what you see... is the price of the flames."
"I only see meaningless consumption and a long tug of war, but I can't see any effective counterattack - whether it's a counterattack against the Cecil people or a counterattack against the gods," Clemont said solemnly Said, "Tell me, is there really any point in burying mentally contaminated soldiers and priests in this narrow battlefield? Is this cutting blood and poisoning, or is it a waste of life?"
The Earl of Winterhold looked into Clement's eyes and nodded slowly after a long time: "I choose to trust your Majesty's judgment."
"...What a good reason," Clement said The count smiled, took a deep breath of the cold air from the north, then turned around and slowly walked towards the exit of the high platform, "No matter what, I am already standing here...leave me a good seat."< /p>
Palin Winterburg watched Clement leave slowly. He narrowed his eyes slightly. In his mind, he had already begun to calculate the value that this "conservative opposition noble" could produce here. , and where the support army he brought should be consumed.
......
On the defense line of Winter Wolf Castle-Shadow Swamp, the cold wind is blowing through the rolling hills and low woods distributed along the frozen soil. Some loose snow is covered with The wind rises,It spins and slaps on the relay piles on both sides of the railway, and within the shimmering track shield, the heavily armored and majestic armored train Iron Throne - the Earthly Serpent is moving forward along the railway line at cruising speed.
The repulsion generators on both sides of the train shone with the brilliance of runes. The mechanical device at the connection between the repulsion point and the carriage slightly adjusted the angle, slightly speeding up the train. The train was blown up by the wind from a distance. The snowflake passed through the shield harmlessly and was sucked into the bottom of the whizzing car. On another parallel track some distance away from the train, there was an Iron Scepter light armored train serving as a guard and "Earthly" The Anaconda went abreast.
In the engineering compartment at the rear of the Iron Scepter’s escort battery compartment, which is responsible for maintaining the railway tracks, a war technician had just finished adjusting the valves and screws of some equipment. He looked up from his work and revealed Looking out at the snow-covered plain through the narrow window on the side of the carriage, I muttered softly: "This damn snow has finally stopped... I haven't seen a few sunny days since the middle of the foggy month."
"Sunny days are not necessarily a good thing...Those Typhons may be more active than before," another war technician shook his head beside him, "They have come to destroy the railway more than once, although the big Most of the time it has no effect... But it is said that they almost succeeded in blowing up Line 7 last time."
The war technician who spoke before curled his lips and did not continue the topic. He came to the side of the carriage and talked. He crossed his eyes and looked at the snowy world outside more seriously - a military train covered with armor, with narrow windows and all windows covered with a layer of steel mesh would certainly not have a good sightseeing view, and all he could see was a A vertical, narrow landscape, in which listless groves and snow-stained hills are rapidly receding, while in the sky farther away, you can vaguely see what seems to be There were iron-grey shadows floating in the sky.
That should be a sign of another snowfall - this damn winter.
"What's wrong?" The companion on the side asked casually, "What did you see?" "," the war technician muttered, "Judging from my experience, it's probably a snowstorm."
"You, a machine repairman, have experience in judging astronomical phenomena?" His partner dismissed it with disdain. He curled his lips and turned to look at the window on the other side of the carriage - outside the narrow, thickened glass window, the Iron Throne - the earthly python's huge and imposing body was crawling on the track not far away, rumbling forward. travel.
......
In the tactical section of The Mortal Python, frontline commander Maryland was standing in front of the command seat, looking attentively at the many marks on the map. On the desktop at his hand On the computer, communication devices, drawing tools, and organized data files are kept in order.
After a moment, Maryland suddenly raised his head and looked at the adjutant beside him: "How long will it take to arrive at the combat location?"
The adjutant immediately replied: "Arrive at the shooting area in thirty minutes - leave the shooting area in forty minutes. ”
Maryland nodded: “Well, the time is just right... Notify the arsenal department to start pre-filling the cooling water for the rainbow generator, and the power ridges at both ends will heat up the engines in advance - we will enter soon The Typhons' warning range, their response speed recently has been much faster than before. "
"Yes, sir. ”
Maryland’s attention returned to the map in front of her, and between the winding and straight lines on the map, the respective control areas of Typhon and Cecil were intertwined like a jangle. .
Thirty minutes later, the Iron Throne and the Earthly Python will enter a specific shooting area. During the approximately ten minutes of travel, this train will use its onboard rainbow cannon to attack the target. Launch a powerful bombardment from a certain edge stronghold on the Feng side - but in fact this distance is slightly far away. The rainbow beam should only be able to burn some of the enemy's outer walls and ancillary buildings to a limited extent, and there may even be no casualties. How much, but it doesn't matter.
The sudden rainbow strike is enough to make the Typhons on the entire defense line highly nervous, and they will make large-scale mobilizations to deal with the possible upcoming official. Attack, a large number of reconnaissance troops will be sent to try to determine the Iron Throne's next route of travel and whether there are more armored trains and convoys nearby. After they are all busy... The Iron Throne - the Midgard Serpent will return to Shadowmarsh. Station, where Maryland would treat herself to a nice cup of coffee and a hot bath if possible—while wondering when the next armored train would leave, and where the next real frontal strike would begin.< /p>
As for the data collection and analysis of the Typhons' military operations in this process... he will work with the staff team.
This is what he has been doing frequently in recent times. This thing is also one of the tactics he and General Philip worked out together - its core idea is to give full play to the mobility of Cecil's Mechanical Legion and its strike capability of releasing a large amount of firepower in a short period of time, relying on the Winter Wolf Castle-Shadow Swamp area Several railway lines and temporarily built forward railways, with the three armored trains Zero, Mortal Python and the recently installed War Citizen as the core of the operation, carry out non-stop harassment-advance-harassment-advance < /p>
The new rainbow main gun of the armored train is powerful and has an ultra-long range. When the shooting angle is suitable, it can cause a huge blow to enemies at very far distances. Relying on this, the armored train and its escort vehicles The group constantly patrols the railway, randomly raiding Typhon's fixed strongholds near the ultimate range, and the enemy will have to move frequently to fight or avoid attacks. If they simply abandon those strongholds and keep their distance from the Iron Throne in the plains For mobile operations, the tank squadrons mounted on the Iron Throne will immediately enter the battlefield for mobile harvesting, or simply withdraw, consuming the enemy's energy.
If the Typhons retreat as a whole during this process., then the engineering crew accompanying the armored train will immediately start taking action - laying a "forward railway", further broadening the scope of the Iron Throne's activities, and setting up temporary stations and energy transfer stations to provide magic energy supplies for tanks and infantry - -If the Typhons sit idly by, Cecil's Legion can build a large number of criss-crossing defense networks and strong fortifications in the new occupied area within a week.
If the Typhons don't want to watch all this happen, then they can only counterattack Cecil's occupied area at a huge cost.
At first, Maryland would choose to fight head-on against those Typhons who were not afraid of death. However, after realizing that those legions of extraordinary beings with constant morale, fearless of life and death, and huge scale, once they fight for their lives, they will be completely defeated. After being able to cause huge damage to the mechanical army, he chose another plan: if the Typhons counterattack, then fight them for a while, and then retreat immediately once the victory is achieved. The mechanized corps moved at a speed unmatched by conventional infantry on the railway line. The Iron Throne and its affiliated corps that performed "harassment-advance" were quickly able to retreat into the protected areas of artillery positions and permanent fortifications, and the only thing the enemy could do was , that is, destroying those unfinished fortifications and the temporarily established "forward railway".
This kind of loss was almost negligible for Cecil's engineer troops.
This kind of advancement can be endless - if there is no order from the imperial capital, Maryland feels that it can completely rely on this improved version of the "steel advancement" tactic to bulldoze the country step by step before the end of the Brumaire. The entire Winterfort defense line even advanced all the way to Aldernan...
But the Imperial Capital gave the order after all... At least at this stage, the Empire has no plans to attack Aldernan. Intend.
Maryland exhaled softly.
That’s okay, after all, there are polluted areas over there... The shadow of the out-of-control gods hangs over the land of Typhon, and it’s not a good idea to go too deep.