Not every one of the seven airships that carried out the reconnaissance mission was as smooth as the Twin Griffins. The first hurdle they had to pass was to cross the calmer wind and snow from above the cursed Wind Emperor Mountains.
'window'.
Don't think that such a passage is a straight line, and the airship can just drive through it. This kind of window where the wind force and wind direction are relatively calm is actually curved.
In particular, there is no clear boundary line in the air to indicate which side is easy to fly and which side is not. How to accurately fly in this kind of window requires not only the ability of the helmsman, but also the observation of the lookout, the judgment of the captain, and even
Everyone on the entire airship has their own responsibilities.
But even if it accidentally enters those restricted areas, the airship will not fall immediately. The destruction of the airship is a possible outcome, but it is not the only one, and it is not the most likely outcome.
After all, airships are not comparable to ordinary birds or flying monsters. In the cursed wind and snow, the operation will be more difficult, and the use of powers will be hindered. But as long as the luck is not too bad, it is nothing to escape safely.
Big problem.
However, there is no guarantee whether the location you leave is the place you want. In a harsh environment, it is a blessing to be able to escape, and there are not so many choices.
The people who can be selected by Old Kaweigong to perform this task are all mediocre people. They still have the ability to accurately fly in the window passage, cross the Fengdi Mountain Range, and come to the north side of the mountain. It’s just that
Everyone has different speeds.
The difference in speed does not entirely depend on the skill of maneuvering the ship. Different routes and passages were chosen, and there were also differences in difficulty and length. But everyone still arrived at the north of the mountain at dawn.
In fact, what worries the senior management who planned the entire rescue operation is whether the airships of the subsequent rescue team have the same level of ship maneuvering and can pass through the cursed Wind Emperor Mountain Range. A little further away, the airships will cooperate with the counterattack.
action.
In the past, when traditional airships wanted to travel from the south of the mountain to the north, the safest option was to take a detour. Few boat owners chose to risk crossing the mountains unless they had to.
The airship force of the Hydel Empire, even if it has the worst ship maneuvering skills, can still be rated as outstanding among all the airships. This kind of dancing-like operation is not a big problem.
What worries the old man are those airship teams from the private sector. Most of them have rushed into the army, or there are some minor problems with the structure of the airship itself.
These glitches probably won't cause any big problems when used under normal circumstances. But if they are put under extreme conditions, such as extremely harsh weather, or fighting with humans and dogs in the air, and continuous tactical operations are carried out, minor glitches may occur.
magnified into a catastrophe.
Therefore, for the subsequent formation of the rescue team, the old man still adopts a voluntary system. All airship captains are allowed to evaluate whether they can participate in such a mission of special intensity.
Even if they don't cross the mountains, staying on the south side of the mountains, the airship still has tasks to perform.
The terrain on the north side of the Fengdi Mountains is mainly hilly, with a few basins here and there. Several rivers originate from the Fengdi Mountains and flow through a large area from south to north, nourishing countless lives.
At the end of this deep winter, it is especially a window period in terms of climate. There is no scene of wind and snow in the sky. There is even a rare winter sun rising from the east, and the sky is clear.
You must know that a day ago, the scene on the south side of the mountain was thick clouds covering the entire sky. The strong wind and heavy snow brought a biting chill to people just by looking at them. There was no need to go outside and let the wind and snow blow.
You can only feel it by yourself.
As for the weather on the north side of the mountain after this day, although the thick snow on the ground has not melted, there is almost no wind and snow, and the visibility is even clearer. It can be said to be the best weather for reconnaissance, but it also means that flying
Aircraft are easily noticed.
Not all airships can follow the example of the Twin Griffins and fly to the height of the stratosphere. At such a height, people with poor eyesight on the ground can't even see it.
But taking the seven airships that perform reconnaissance missions as an example, they fly at the minimum altitude required by the mission. When seen by people on the ground, they are probably not much bigger than ants or bugs. Most people will not realize it at all.
This is the enemy flying in the sky.
Logically speaking, staying at such a high altitude and observing the ground with arcane eyes is the most reliable method of investigation.
However, the operators of the first seven airships were all capable people; in other words, they were not good boys. The old man only wanted information and did not care about the method of obtaining it, or even their life or death.
Speaking of which, the selection of personnel to perform tasks is to select those who have the ability to complete the task and have the highest survival rate. If these people commit suicide, who can take care of them? They are not the parents of these people. They impose conditions and restrictions everywhere.
These people may not even listen.
Therefore, the captain of each airship chose the investigation method that best suited his own characteristics to complete this mission.
To take a step back, in terms of the function of using the Arcane Eyes, not to mention being on par with a certain magician, even the version of the Twin Griffins cannot keep up. So in many cases, we can only use the human eye to make judgments.
Moreover, the original form of the arcane eye is like clairvoyance. When it is focused on where it is, it can only see the scene there. In the past, it was projected in the crystal ball, and it was turned into a flat surface on the airship.
Screen. There is no scanning function, and of course there is no programmed batch processing.
Based on this rudimentary function, in order to obtain enough intelligence, their investigation methods were limited. The risks in investigation increased accordingly.
The simplest way is to fly close to the ground. Then send enough lookouts to watch the ground with the naked eye from the airship.
This kind of bold action will certainly attract attention from the ground. Although not all camps have lookouts paying attention to the sky. But as long as one or two people look up inadvertently, they will have a chance to spot the airship in the sky.
Fortunately, the coalition of demons and orcs does not have air supremacy. Even if there are demons who are good at flying, they may not be able to operate in such a cold winter, or against airships and other aerial fortresses.
Especially those performing reconnaissance missions are all airships that are known for their speed. If there is really a demon or an orc that can control a flying monster and takes off from the ground, the airship can accelerate and escape at any time. The speed of the new airship is not that high.
Kidding.
Therefore, even if everyone's actions are indeed discovered, no airship has yet launched a battle with the coalition of demons and orcs, so everyone still prioritizes the reconnaissance mission.
For a while, the demon coalition did not realize what the movement of the airship meant. Coupled with the influence of the cold winter, most demons or orcs still muddle along and let these little bugs fly high in the sky. At most, they can scare the opponent.
expel it.
It means that even if they want to argue, they have no good way to deal with an airship flying at such a height.
This is not an alliance between two sides pretending to maintain peace, and they can also issue diplomatic condemnations to each other. Of course, both sides in the war are willing to take any damage they can. If they can't cope with it, they can only swallow it hard and find other ways to return it.
Therefore, the dangers encountered in this reconnaissance mission were far less than what everyone imagined before setting off. The collection of intelligence also went smoothly.
It's just that the humans trapped in the demon-occupied areas are still alive, but the situation is worse than expected. Because some people are not just surrounded.
The worst situation for those who are still alive is to be locked up in something like a prisoner-of-war camp. To put it bluntly, it's like being on a ranch, being raised by demons and orcs.
What is the purpose of this? People who discovered this situation cannot imagine at all. But everyone agrees that it is difficult to carry out rescue in such a situation.
The original rescue plan envisioned a quick in and out, with no thought of fighting the enemy. So for the surrounded humans, the most ideal situation is that their defense line is still maintained. As long as this line of defense can delay time, then flying into the air
The boat force will have a chance to evacuate the surrounded humans.
But if humans have been controlled, it is impossible to evacuate the humans without defeating the demon or orc guards.
There is nothing worse than this, than the humans who have been scattered into the Orc military camp. Such people are likely to die before the rescue plan can be implemented or drawn up.
These pitiful examples were accidentally discovered when the airship used its arcane eyes to scan the ground barracks from a long distance. People on the reconnaissance mission did not want to think about whether there would be more of the same victims. They knew it very well.
, such a person is definitely ranked last in the rescue order.
As for those human gathering places that are surrounded and have not yet been conquered by the demon coalition, the areas that have the best chance and are easiest to rescue are those areas that can still rely on magic towers to survive.
In addition to the people being protected by it, there are also organized soldiers who cooperate with the magic tower to establish a strong defense line. However, these locations also seem to be in danger, because they do not have much food reserves, and it will be very difficult to survive this winter.
.If there were no supplies, it might be over without waiting until spring.
As for other large human gathering places, the allied forces of demons and orcs just besieged them but did not attack them. These places usually have geographical advantages, such as canyons and hills.
The demon coalition forces that were previously on the offensive were not in a hurry to split up their forces and remove these strongholds, so they sent some troops to block them. And their situation also became very difficult after a winter.
All in all, the problem of food shortage is the biggest reason why these gathering points were saved with great efforts before, but as time goes by, the hope will become increasingly slim.
Being able to survive more than half of the winter is not only due to their long-term performance, but also the inadvertent mercy of the demon alliance. Perhaps this was not the original intention of those evil creatures, but the demons chose to attack the south first instead of sweeping away
The entire north side of the mountain range is indeed the reason why these human gathering spots can exist.
On the one hand, it is also because these locations are not at the main traffic points of the march, so they have a chance to be preserved. Especially the few remaining magic towers.
In fact, after seeing the current situation, those who conduct reconnaissance missions will feel that any location that can still be maintained is suitable to be preserved and become a nail for the human side on the north side of the Fengdi Mountains. Of course, civilians and
The old and the weak still need to evacuate.
But how to operate it depends on the arrangements of the big shots. And in order to retain these nails on the north side of the mountain, regular supplies must be available.
Even if airship traffic is relatively smooth now, whether air superiority can always be maintained is still an unsolvable problem.
In short, regardless of withdrawing or not withdrawing, it is still a difficult problem.