Chapter 25: The Battle of Gushan (please vote for me, please subscribe (??))
The location of Gushan is very close to the northern wasteland, and it is very cold in itself.
And it was even more so last night. The biting coldness froze the running river in front of River Valley City into solid ice overnight.
In the morning, a few humans were pulling small carts to cut ice on the running river to get water, but the sound gradually interrupted their movements.
At this time, whether it is the humans or elves stationed in River Valley City, or the dwarves who have returned to the Gushan Kingdom.
Everyone was startled by the "rumbling" sound that was getting closer and closer, and everyone looked in the direction of the sound.
Immediately afterwards, under everyone's gaze, four Earth-devouring Insects appeared magnificently in the south of Gushan as the earth shook and the mountains shook.
At that moment, the movement they caused made countless people despair. Fortunately, they shrank back into the ground immediately afterwards.
As the Earth Eaters retreated, everyone heard a dull horn sound coming from Raven Ridge.
Amidst the sound of the horn, large numbers of orcs wearing simple black armor lined up in a neat square formation and walked out of the tunnel.
At this time on Raven Ridge, Azog was giving an order to the army to attack with his own flag and dull sound of horn.
He didn't care about the humans and elves stationed in Riverdale City.
Azog brought more than 15,000 Uruk soldiers from Dol Guldur this time.
In his order, he ordered a part of the army that came out of the tunnel first to attack River Valley Town to contain humans and elves.
The remaining Uruk, accompanied by a dozen trolls who came out of the tunnel, ran straight towards the gate of Lonely Mountain.
Azog planned to use his overwhelming superiority in numbers to break through the gate of Lonely Mountain, kill all the dwarves inside, and then turn back to deal with the humans and elves stationed in River Valley City.
Allen was currently in Thranduil's camp, discussing defense issues with elves and wizards.
After he heard the rumbling sound, he already knew what was going to happen.
With a serious face, Allen said to the surprised Thranduil and Gandalf: "The orcs are coming."
After finishing speaking, Allen rushed out of Thranduil's camp and loudly called his personal guards, asking them to notify everyone in the city to enter a state of war.
And he took Hermione with him and immediately mounted the elf horse. While shouting "pick up weapons and prepare to fight", he ran towards the city wall where his soldiers were stationed.
At this time, a large number of Uruk soldiers rushed towards River Valley City from the tunnel.
They wore crudely made iron armor, held scimitars, and carried a shield that could only cover their left arm.
Like a black torrent, it silently approached the frozen running river and was about to attack the valley city.
Allen's infantry, the commander of the Archer Corps, Bandak and Alleyne, have always obeyed Allen's orders and led their troops to guard the city wall at all times.
After the two of them saw the earth-eating insects emerging from the mountains, their hearts suddenly fell into despair.
In their lives, they had never seen such a huge thing. They could not imagine how they could resist such a huge creature crushing them and complete the task assigned to them by Allen to hold on to the city wall.
Although they will not run away for this, their loyalty to Allen makes them willing to fight to the end.
But facing such an enemy, they couldn't see any hope of victory, so they could only risk their own lives to fulfill their loyalty and duty.
Fortunately, the geophagous insect's own characteristics are only suitable for use as a transportation tool.
They quickly retreated into the mountains and disappeared, replaced by groups of Uruks swarming out.
Seeing these barely familiar enemies, Bandak and Alleyn's hearts suddenly returned to their stomachs.
Their spirits were revived. They were not afraid of such enemies, no matter how numerous they were. As long as they could be killed, they would have a chance of victory.
Then the two men began to loudly order their soldiers to occupy the main position and attack the approaching enemy.
Two hundred archers holding elven bows were the first to take action. They had the longest range. Standing on the high platform behind the city wall, they had now begun to form a covering attack on the enemies on the other side of the river.
In a very short period of time, they poured out five waves of arrows, accurately landing on the formation of Uruk soldiers. Each blow could take away the lives of dozens of Uruks.
After the continuous shooting, the archer troops took a short rest. After all, they were using elven longbows and needed time to relieve their sore and numb arms.
The five hundred spearmen standing on the city wall took out their hunting bows one after another. Their shooting range was shorter, and the power of their bows and arrows was not as good. They could only hit nearby enemies.
Therefore, after the enemy crossed the rushing river, they also began to fire freely at the Uruk soldiers walking across the river bank.
After a while, the archers who had rested began to rain arrows on the enemies on the other side of the river again.
This time they adjusted the frequency of shooting arrows to ensure a steady stream of shots at the enemy before the arrows were exhausted.
One hundred crossbowmen had already stepped onto the city wall, mixed among the spearmen, and accurately killed the enemies that were getting closer to the city wall.
These several long-range strikes actually curbed the momentum of Uruk's attack for a moment.
Azog on Raven Ridge noticed this. He was not surprised and just shouted "Break the wall."
The dull sound of the horn sounded again from Raven Ridge.
A troll with a boulder on its head, its body covered with arrows, ran along the Uruk formation onto the ice of the flowing river, and rushed toward the city wall like a madman with its head lowered.
This scene happened to be seen by Allen who stepped onto the city wall.
Allen, who was holding the talisman bow tightly, always felt that this scene seemed familiar, but this did not affect his performance.
Allen grabbed five talisman arrows directly from the quiver with his right hand, and then quickly pulled the bowstring, nailing each sigil arrow into the exposed abdomen of the troll.
Each talisman arrow could slow down the troll's speed. Until the fifth arrow shot by Allen within ten seconds, the troll stopped and fell to the ground. After struggling for a few times, he lost
life.
At this time, 5.6 large rocks flew over from a distance and accurately hit a small section of the city wall.
Allen, who had just shot the troll to death, watched with dizzy eyes as dozens of his spearmen were knocked away by these boulders, not knowing whether they were alive or dead.
Because the troll had attracted some of the arrows, the spearmen's shooting speed had slowed down a bit after they fired several more times. It was also because of the attack of the trebuchet that dozens of spearmen lost their combat effectiveness.
After a while, some Uruks approached the city wall. They climbed up one after another along the broken stones of the collapsed part of the city wall.
At this time, Alleyn had been slightly affected by the bombardment just now and had not yet reacted.
Allen discovered this and was about to rush over with his personal guards to block the gap so that the orcs could not easily climb the city wall.
At this time, it was Fatis. He had already led the heavily armored soldiers holding broad shields and rushed towards the Uruk soldiers who were climbing up.
Then, humans and orcs collided fiercely on the city wall.
The hoplites raised their shields and pushed the orcs hard. At the same time, they waved their weapons to attack the Uruk in front of them by slashing or stabbing them from above and through the gaps in the shields.
The crossbowmen and spearmen holding hunting bows also changed their targets and began to shoot at the Uruk soldiers who were about to rush to the city wall. Under the attack of a large number of arrows, a vacuum zone was formed.
At this time, the dozens of Uruk soldiers who had already rushed to the city wall became a lone army.
Soon, they were all killed due to the brave fighting of everyone.
The hoplites raised their shields again and occupied this dangerous section of the city wall to resist the enemy's attack.
Under the city wall, there were gray-black or black corpses lying there, and inside the city wall, Bader had already led the Chang Lake Town militia to start searching for and rescuing the wounded.
Those who can still move will be carried back to the temporary hospital. Those who die immediately will no longer receive any attention and can only be dealt with by humans or orcs after the war.
At this time, Allen had already focused on the six or seven trolls carrying trebuchets on their backs, and they were already preparing to fire the second shot.
Allen knew that if he didn't kill those guys, he would have to watch his soldiers being killed by flying stones in the next battle.
At this time, a woodland elf conflict force of thousands of people plus five hundred elf archers came to the city defended by humans.
This is Thranduil standing at the highest point of the city. He discovered Allen's pressure and sent his own soldiers to assist humans.
The elven archers who arrived also occupied a high platform with a good view in the city, and together with Allen's archers, they formed a continuous attack on the orc troops.
The elven conflict soldiers formed a golden shield wall on the city wall, and in cooperation with Allen's spearmen, they continuously killed the Uruks who were gradually climbing up.
Then, five or six more boulders flew over, but this time the enemy's accuracy was much worse, and only two rocks hit the crowd. Even so, it caused irreparable damage to the elves and humans.
And from the river valley city, stones also began to fly out and hit the orc army. The rolling stones smashed into Uruk's phalanx, grinding out black passages.
It was Bud who arranged for the Changhu Town militia to use the two repaired trebuchets to launch a counterattack against the enemy.
With the help of elves, humans face much less pressure when defending the city wall.
For a time, humans, elves and Uruk were in a stalemate on this section of the city wall.
Allen left the city wall with his personal guards. He was going to deal with the biggest threat to the defensive forces.
And the biggest threat they faced was the six trolls carrying trebuchets.
After Allen, who was leading his personal guards, jumped down from the city wall, he said to Fatis, who was commanding the troops and defending the city wall: "Hold the city wall. I'll be back as soon as I go."
After saying that, Allen mounted the elf horse, led Hermione and the others, and ran towards the gate of River Valley City.
He couldn't just watch his troops die tragically in large swaths under the troll trebuchets.
Allen will lead the Twilight Knights through the entire battlefield and directly kill the two trebuchet teams.
Just as Allen led his personal guards through River Valley City quickly, the dwarves in the Gushan Kingdom had already assembled at the gate of Gushan.
The king of the Iron Hills, Dyne Ironfoot, had never considered relying on the existing defenses of Lonely Mountain for defense.
In order to defend the Lonely Mountain, he had already ordered the dwarf troops to gather towards the gate the moment the earth-eating insects appeared, and was ready for a decisive battle with the orcs.
The first to come out were more than 400 goat cavalry, followed by dwarf chariots, and then 800 dwarf heavy infantry.
Finally, there is the dwarf ax brought by Dain. These things were originally used to deal with woodland elves, but it is obvious that they will now be used on orcs.
At this time, the person standing at the front of the team was Daine Ironfoot, with an angry expression on his face. This was because his talks with Thorin Oakenshield had broken down before setting off again.
Dain knew that with the more than 1,000 troops he brought and the dilapidated city defenses of Gushan, it would be impossible to defend the city under the attack of ten times his own number of Uruk soldiers and a dozen trolls.
In the past, the gate of Lonely Mountain was made of steel mixed with mithril, and had magic bonuses on it. If that gate was still there, Daine could consider defending it.
But that gate had been destroyed when the evil dragon Smaug attacked the Lonely Mountain. Now, they can only rely on stones for defense. What use can broken stones do?
Once the Uruk soldiers, with the help of the trolls, broke through the door and broke the dwarves' defensive formation behind the door.
Then these black scum will flow into the Gushan Kingdom like a tide, and their huge number will inevitably divide and surround the dwarves in the Gushan Kingdom.
When the time comes, the cavalry, chariots, and dwarf axes brought by Dyne will all become useless waste.
At that time, the dwarves trapped in the lonely mountain will have no choice but to be killed in despair during the siege. As an excellent general, Daine will never do such a stupid behavior.
As for those humans and elves, Daine felt that they had too much to take care of themselves at this time. As long as they could hold back more Uruks, Daine felt that he would be thankful.
Originally, Daine, who had arranged the army, hoped that his cousin Thorin Oakenshield would lead the Iron Hills army to have a decisive battle with the orcs.
After all, Thorin Oakenshield, who had recaptured the Lonely Mountain at this time, was respected by all the dwarves of the Durin clan.
In fact, Dáin, who came with his soldiers, was already preparing to honor Thorin Oakenshield as King of Durin.
At that time, under the leadership of the long-bearded king, the morale of the dwarf army will be extremely high. As long as it can cause a lot of damage to the enemy in the early stage of the battle, and with the help of humans and elves, it is not impossible to win this battle.
possible.
But his cousin was no longer the Thorin Oakenshield he knew. The dwarf prince who had great foresight before was now so short-sighted, guarding a pile of cold treasures without knowing that his death was approaching.
After the talks collapsed, Dain angrily led his troops and set up a battle formation to fight the Uruks to the death.
At this moment, Allen led his personal guards, like a gust of wind, rushed out from the bridge, hacking to death dozens of Uruk soldiers who tried to intercept them, and walked along the bank of the rushing river until
He rushed straight towards the two troll trebuchet teams.
The elf archers in their own defense area also found a suitable position in the river valley city. They used the elf longbows in their hands to hit the formation of Uruk soldiers from a distance under the bombardment of the troll trebuchets.
Every arrow that is like a dark cloud will cut down the Uruks like wheat.
This undoubtedly attracted Azog's attention, and soon there was another dull horn sound, and a large number of Uruks and trolls began to approach the area defended by the elves.
But there was a long cliff in the middle. They had no choice but to increase their troops again and rush towards the city wall defended by humans.
At this time, Allen and his guards were already running wildly and approached the first troll troop carrying a trebuchet.
Some of the Twilight Knights opened their sigil bows while running wildly, and poured sigil arrows at the trolls, shooting them down one after another.
The other Twilight Knights, holding Noldor sigil bows, kept shooting at the Uruk soldiers who separated from the formation and prepared to approach them.
Among the scattered orc troops that surrounded them, a road sparsely filled with enemies was forcibly opened.
However, the number of arrows in their quivers was rapidly decreasing.
Allen, along with Hermione and several Twilight Knights, charged at the front of the team.
Allen was holding a giant sword in his hand at this time. He kept waving the weapon and slashing at the Uruk soldiers blocking them.
Create an environment where the Twilight Knights holding bows can shoot.
The first troll trebuchet team, which was preparing to launch stone bombs, staggered and fell under the dense attack of sigil arrows. The rocks that flew away before dying also hit the Uruk soldiers.
The square formation caused a large amount of chaos.
The remaining troll trebuchet teams were still shooting at River Valley City from further away.
Between Allen's team and them, there was an entire phalanx of Uruk soldiers.
But Allen did not hesitate. He raised the giant sword in his hand and led the Twilight Knights to charge towards the gap between the Uruk phalanx.
At the moment Allen launched the charge, a hail of arrows flew from River Valley City, accurately covering the square formation in front of Allen.
Under the attack of arrows, the formation instantly became sparse. Allen led the personal guards and hacked to death the Uruk soldiers blocking their way during the charge, and headed towards another troll trebuchet team.
Run away wildly.
This was Thranduil, who was always observing the battlefield, bringing a wave of support to Allen. The stones thrown by the trolls also took away the lives of many woodland elves, which made him have to notice that the trolls had already moved towards them.
Eren rushed over with the trebuchet.
At this time, the phalanx of orcs was already rushing to the gate of Gushan.
Dain looked at the Uruk soldiers in front of him and shouted, "Dwarf Axe"
Ten crossbow arrows, which were more than ten meters in diameter and were as big as umbrellas, spun rapidly towards the Uruk formation in the distance amidst the buzzing sound.
The moment these crossbow arrows hit the ground, the formation of Uruk soldiers was shot to pieces, killing hundreds of them at once.
Then, there was another roar from Dyne Ironfoot.
"Sons of Durin, the central army is dispatched."
"Fight to the death and never retreat."
More than 800 dwarf heavy infantry, amidst roars, formed a three-layered shield array.
The first and second lines are dwarves holding tower shields and swords. They are responsible for withstanding the push of the enemy and killing the enemy at close range. If the teammate in the front dies, the dwarves in the back row need to step up immediately.
.
The third line is the dwarves holding spears. They will use the spears in their hands to continuously cause horrific damage to the enemy.
These heavy infantry formed a shield wall two to three hundred meters long in front of the gate of Gushan, blocking almost half of the space in front of the gate of Gushan.
Seeing the dwarves in a decisive battle formation, Azog on Raven Ridge became excited. The dwarves' behavior undoubtedly reduced his trouble in attacking the city wall.
Azog, who was always keeping an eye on the battlefield, directly issued the order of "full engagement".
The Uruks, who were jogging, began to roar and charge towards the dwarves after receiving the order.
Black figures, one after another, quickly approached the dwarf's shield wall, just like a black stream of water hitting a silver horizontal stone, exploding with a bang.
Facing the charge of the Uruk soldiers, the dwarf standing in the front row stabilized his figure and relied on the strength of his whole body to resist the shield. At the same time, he used the dagger in his hand to pass through the gap in the shield.
, attacking the Uruk soldiers in front of him.
The dwarves in the third row kept stretching out the three-meter-long spears in their hands and pulling them back. With skillful movements, they stabbed to death a large number of Uruks approaching the shield wall in a short period of time.
The blood spattered when the Uruk soldiers died has stained the silver shields of the dwarf infantry black.
However, the killing speed of the dwarf heavy infantry could not keep up with the support of the Uruk soldiers.
Thousands of Uruks rushed up in a steady stream, bravely withstanding the dwarves' shield wall.
They relied on their simple armor and used the scimitars in their hands to find gaps in the shield wall, and fought with the dwarves holding short swords behind the shields.
Under such a fearless onslaught, some dwarves began to retreat little by little, unable to resist the pushing of the Uruk soldiers.
At the same time, some dwarves died under the scimitars held out by Uruk soldiers with their lives.
Suddenly, the dwarf shield wall in the middle showed signs of being unable to hold on.
Moreover, a large number of Uruk soldiers came over at this time and were already preparing to surround the dwarves' shield wall from both sides.
At this moment, the sound of "buzzing" sounded in the air again, which was another wave of dwarf axes.
These ten crossbow bolts once again accurately hit the Uruk formation that came up, interrupting the rhythm of the Uruk attack. The number of enemies that did not increase in a short period of time reduced the pressure on the dwarf shield wall.
.
Dine Ironfoot divided the dwarf goat cavalry into two parts, and he led one part along the hillside east of the Gushan gate, drawing a semicircle and bypassing the dwarf shield wall.
Then, shouting "Sons of Durin", waving the war hammer in his hand, and responding with "Fearless to death", he rushed towards the orc troops that had been smashed by the dwarf's axe.
The other part was along the west side of the dwarf shield wall, also shouting "Be brave and not afraid of death", and rushed towards the orc troops.
They continued to charge forward along both sides of the Uruk soldiers' formation, like a white wave that broke up the black sand pile and continued to surge into the interior of the sand pile.
For a moment, thousands of Uruks were rushed to the ground by the big-horned goats, and then countless sheep hooves trampled on them.
Those who fell to the ground and were still moving would be killed by the dwarf cavalry who followed and waved their weapons.
At the same time, there were also a large number of dwarf cavalry who were torn off or threw down their goats by the fearless Uruk soldiers. The unlucky dwarves would soon be killed by countless scimitars and spears.
The lucky dwarf stood up quickly, waving the weapons in his hands and making a final struggle with the Uruk soldiers surrounding him.
With the help of the dwarf goat knights, the shield wall of the heavy dwarf infantry quickly eliminated the enemies in front of them and began to advance forward. Not only did they save a small number of the goat knights who were still alive, but they also broke their formation.
Arriving near the Riverdale Bridge.
Suddenly, the dull sound of the orcs' horns sounded again in the direction of Raven Ridge.
A dozen trolls who had been mixed in the Uruk formation and walked slowly took action after hearing the order.
They held iron-headed clubs and moved forward, their huge bodies squeezing away the Uruk soldiers in front of them.
They actually cleverly avoided the path of the dwarf cavalry charge, and rushed towards the dwarf shield wall along the center of the Uruk soldier phalanx.
At this time, the five chariots of the dwarves were running along the bank of the rushing river on the west side of the Lonely Mountain, one after another, in the direction of the trolls.
No Uruk could stop the charge of the dwarf chariots as they galloped across the battlefield.
The dwarves in charge of the crossbows in the car aimed at the trolls approaching the dwarf shield wall, and kept turning the triggers. Soon, several charging trolls were killed by their crossbow arrows.
But the trolls who survived their attack were about to charge towards the dwarven shield wall.
At this time, the dwarves in the back row of the dwarf shield wall suddenly projected the spear in their hands. The fast-flying spear penetrated the bodies of several trolls in an instant and nailed them to Uruk's formation.
among.
In the end, three trolls resisted the dwarves' attack. After they approached the shield wall, they smashed the shield wall that the dwarves were proud of with just a powerful swing and smashed it to pieces.
Then, with their huge bodies and terrifying brute force, the trolls squeezed into the dwarves' formation, waving their arms and weapons, knocking away the surrounding dwarves, widening the gap in the shield wall, but soon
They also died under the spears and crossbows of the dwarves.
But the trolls' mission has been completed, and they have been followed by dense Uruk soldiers.
They cut off the dwarves' shield wall along the gap opened by the trolls. Suddenly, the seven hundred dwarves were divided into four parts, surrounded by Uruk soldiers, fighting on their own.
At this time, Thorin Oakenshield, who was standing on the wall of Lonely Mountain, was staring blankly at the battlefield in front of him.
The dwarves in the expedition team all looked at him with longing eyes. They wanted to go out and fight, instead of watching their compatriots fight desperately on this city wall, but they themselves stayed away.
And Thorin Oakenshield, with such eyes, returned to Thror's hall, that is, the place covered with gold, where he fell into a deep struggle, his honor, his reason, his
His sense of responsibility and his family's dragon disease are desperately resisting.