On October 23, at the Mosilaga Mountains on the border between the Amphiston Territory and the Beringana Territory, Claude and Colonel Cevichter, who had arrived three days ago, were stationed on the hill.
"...Compared with Port Patres, the capital of the Robidos Territory, the situation in the Beringana Territory is more critical. The capital of the Beringana Territory, Bricaman City, has been besieged for nearly three months by the Krado Army, the colonial garrison of the Kingdom of Hicks.
By the end of the month, the remaining four towns had fallen. According to the confessions of the prisoners, the enemy believed that the city of Brikaman could be captured in another month. And once the city of Brikaman fell, the entire Beringana Territory would also fall to Greece.
Under the control of the Kingdom of Kes...
The situation in the Robisto Territory is much better than that in the Beringana Territory. The capital, Port Patres, is well-defended. The Hicks Kingdom's Colonial Garrison Panclair Corps has launched several attacks, but they were all repelled.
It is said that the casualties were quite heavy. As for the five towns in the direct territory, except for the three towns on the other side of the Dolinibara River that were captured by the enemy, the two towns behind Port Patres are still in our hands...
…
But the crisis in the Robisto Territory does not come from the land, but from the sea. The Sea King Fleet of the Hicks Kingdom dispatched a squadron to cooperate with the Panclair Army in attacking the capital Patres Port, using ship-borne heavy artillery.
Bombarded the city defense artillery position in the port. The enemy prisoners confessed that their squadron lost two warships and was damaged three more warships, and had to return to the port of Vibato for repairs. Although they won the battle, they could not
Port Tres also suffered heavy losses. The port was almost in ruins, and half of the city defense artillery was lost...
Now it seems that the Robisto Territory will not be in danger of falling in a short period of time, and the war situation is very good. But if the Beringana Territory falls, the enemy's Krado Army will flow down the river and meet with Panclair.
If the legion is united, and the squadron in Vibato Port has finished its repairs and is making a comeback, but the city defense artillery in Port Patres cannot be replenished, it is likely that it will not be able to hold on for too long under the enemy's attack.
…”
This is the real battle situation observed by the reconnaissance cavalry team of the 131st Ranger Battalion for more than 20 days in the two direct jurisdictions of Ghana and Robisto. The daring Belklin even personally led a team through the enemy's blockade.
The line entered the Port of Patres, the capital of the Robisto demesne, and had a warm and cordial meeting with the governor, Count Falvat, and the admiral, Colonel Trested. He came back to convey the urgent needs of these two to Claude.
Requirements: They need city defense artillery, the more the better, so that they can have the confidence to hold on...
The question is where did Claude get them city anti-fire artillery. These are heavier than the medium infantry field artillery equipped by the Ranger Division. They are usually placed on the forts of the city wall as a support point for defensive firepower.
Come and use it. Among other things, the entire Amphiston demesne, that is, the capital of Greno Castle, has four gates on the city wall, and other towns have no layout.
In addition, even if Claude had city defense artillery on hand, he would not be able to transport it to the Port of Patres. There is no way to break through the enemy's blockade by land. Such heavy city defense artillery moves slowly. Even if the road is smooth, it will take a long time.
It takes time to deliver. It is more convenient to take the sea route. For example, the sixteen city anti-artillery guns deployed at the port artillery position in Port Patres were delivered by sea to prevent pirates from suddenly attacking Port Patres.
.Of course, it is said that the only artillery position left in the port is the Qimen City anti-aircraft artillery...
But now the Sea King Fleet of the Kingdom of Hicks is showing off its power at sea, and it only sent a squadron of about twenty warships to attack the Port of Patres. Even though the squadron came, the outcome was not very good.
It looked good, but the second one was sunk and the third one was injured, so he had to return to Vibato Port to rest. However, there were still two or three enemy light patrol warships patrolling the sea outside Patres Port day and night to prevent other direct jurisdictions of the kingdom from passing through the sea to Patres.
The port transports supplies and replenishes troops.
Claude has never understood what the Kingdom's two maritime fleets are doing. The Storm Fleet is unable to go north to defeat the enemy under the pretext of protecting the safety of the new route. But what about the other Dreadnought Fleet? There is no trace at all, leaving Hicks alone.
The kingdom's dozen or so broken ships have been wandering around in the waters directly under the kingdom's jurisdiction, as if they were in uninhabited territory...
Well, Claude was distracted again and didn't know where he went.
On the other hand, Colonel Sevict looked around and asked: "Lieutenant Colonel Claude, do you mean that we will set up the defensive front here?"
Claude came back to his senses and nodded: "This is the border area between two direct territories. The Beringana Direct Territory is located in the Albato Prairie, while the Amphiston Direct Territory is in a mountainous area and is mainly engaged in mineral development.
Therefore, we have set up a defensive position in the Mosilaga Mountains, and we can rely on the terrain to withstand the attack of the enemy's superior forces. As long as this defensive front is set up, we do not need to consider the enemy coming from the direction of the Albato Prairie.
As for the border area between the Robisto Territory and the Amphiston Territory, the main reason is that the more than ten miles of flat land is easy for the enemy's large armies to pass. We need to set up trenches and cover walls on that flat land.
Only in this way can the fortress be connected to the defensive front here and completely protect the southern rear of the entire Amphiston Territory. In this way, even if the two territories of Beringana and Robistoe fall into the Kingdom of Hicks
With our hands, we can still use this defensive front to drag down the enemy to death..."
Colonel Severit looked at the map, raised his head from time to time to look at the surrounding terrain, and finally nodded: "The terrain for setting up the defensive front you chose is good, but the amount of work may be too large, and it takes too much time.
It’s also long…”
Claude laughed: "It doesn't matter if the workload is heavy and the time is long. Anyway, we have plenty of manpower. The young and strong Nikancha people imprisoned in the towns are used to do coolies for this defensive front. In addition, we visited some time ago
Didn’t the reconnaissance cavalry of the 131st Battalion capture more than one brigade of Hicks Kingdom’s colonial garrison? You can also use them as coolies. Believe me, their number will soon increase...
"
This is not a joke by Claude, but a fact. For his young officers like Muriel, this war is all about gaining merit. They followed Claude's orders and suppressed the Nikancha in the town.
After the people rioted and reorganized new local garrison forces, they sent their scout cavalry into the war zone to perform reconnaissance missions.
It was originally thought that the Kingdom of Hicks was the dominant power in the northern region of Farea continent, and its army must be very powerful. However, after a small-scale contact battle with the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry squad, an unbelievable fact emerged.
It was placed in front of the officers and soldiers of the 131st Ranger Battalion. No one expected that the combat effectiveness of the colonial garrison of the Hicks Kingdom was so poor. Apart from their courage, they had nothing else to offer. To put it bluntly, this battle
The strength is simply worse than that of the Kingdom’s local security camp...
Just like what Belklin, the captain of the light cavalry, told Claude about the first time he encountered the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry squad, he led a light cavalry squad of four people into three groups of arrows one hundred meters apart.
Laimi headed towards the Robisto Territory. As soon as he turned around a mangrove forest, he met a small group of light cavalry from the Hicks Kingdom coming from the opposite direction. At first glance, there were only four people in Belklin, and the twelve Hicks on the opposite side
The reconnaissance cavalry of the Kingdom of Si became more courageous, drew their swords, shouted, and rushed towards them on horseback.
Belklin said that they were also panicked at the time. The enemy was coming with such ferocity and ferocity that they wanted to turn around and run away immediately. However, seeing that the enemy only waved their sabers and did not pick up their muskets, the four of them calmed down and raised their weapons.
Aim the musket and fire when the enemy approaches a distance of 70 to 80 meters, then turn around and run without looking at the outcome...
I just ran for nearly a hundred meters and didn't hear any movement behind me. When I turned around, I realized that the enemies had stopped. After careful calculation, I saw that the four people with four shots had only hit the three in the front. Probably two were killed and one was injured.
The remaining nine enemies stopped chasing. They picked up their muskets and fired them at the four men of Belklin. It was obvious that they didn't know where the guns had gone. Then the enemies gathered up the corpses and
The wounded man turned around and ran away, leaving the four people at Belklin stunned...
Since the enemy was about to run away, of course the four men from Belklin had to pursue them. At the same time, they signaled the two groups of men and horses following behind to pass by from the left and right sides. They reloaded their muskets with bullets on the spot and rode in pursuit. The enemy's nine
The horsemen were furious when they saw the four men from Belklin chasing after them from behind. Six of them separated and rushed over. The four men from Belklin reined up their horses and raised their guns, hitting three of them again, and then drew their swords and faced them...
…
There was no fighting, and there was no close combat on horseback, because the remaining six enemies still on horseback had turned their horses and fled in unison, not even caring about the wounded and corpses of their companions who were originally tied to the backs of their mounts. It’s just that
None of them escaped, and two groups of cavalry who moved forward from both sides had blocked their escape and raised their muskets.
So the remaining six Hicks Kingdom scout cavalry all reined in their mounts, jumped off, raised their hands and became prisoners obediently. This result almost made Belklin hurt his jaw, because
He was so surprised that he didn't believe what he saw, and his mouth opened too wide...
"Sir, I think the enemy is really vulnerable," Belklin reported: "The tactics are old-fashioned, and even the muskets equipped are old-fashioned. You can't even imagine that we only discovered when we attacked a transport convoy.
The soldiers escorting the convoy were still equipped with old-fashioned muskets with bell mouths, obsolete items that couldn't even be inserted into the bayonet. And when they found out that we were attacking the transport convoy, they immediately blew the whistle and lined up, preparing to fire a salvo.
Resist our raid. I was shocked..."
Belklin said that they lay down on the ground and started shooting at the neatly arranged human-shaped targets. In fact, it was only a squadron of light cavalry with less than 60 people who launched the attack. They attacked more than 200 hicks
The logistics and heavy transport convoy escorted by a large group of soldiers from the kingdom was probably preparing to head to the enemy's military camp outside the city of Porto Patres, the capital of the Lobisto Territory, and happened to be bumped into by the searching light cavalry squadron of Belklin.
Originally, Belklin didn't want to encircle and annihilate anything. He just wanted to harass some enemies, kill some enemies, and then ride away on horseback. But he didn't expect that when the enemies encountered a surprise attack, they would be lined up with human-sized targets, and the most important thing was this transport convoy.
We didn’t carry any light artillery as defensive firepower. There’s nothing to say now. Let’s just shoot the target. Then we fought two rounds, especially the enemy officer standing next to the queue giving the command. He should be a captain.
After being killed by Belklin with a single shot, the enemy collapsed and could not escape the four legs of the light cavalry, so the more than 130 people who were still alive put down their weapons and became prisoners.
The number of reconnaissance cavalry, patrols, and transport troops of the Hicks Kingdom captured by the 131st Ranger Battalion is almost 300. Among them, not only the light cavalry brigade was captured, but also the four directly affiliated field brigades.
The dispatched reconnaissance teams all brought back prisoners. The only answers they reported about the combat strength of the Hicks Kingdom's colonial garrison were that they were vulnerable. As Murield said, no matter it was a siege,
The Crado Army in Bricaman City, or the Panklei Army besieged outside Port Patres, they are all the same...
Claude decided to lead the 131st Battalion of Rangers into the White Collar Ghana Territory to resolve the crisis of the siege of Bricaman City. Although Port Patres, the capital of Robisto Territory, was also besieged by enemies, their situation was
It is much better than Bricaman City. If the Hicks Kingdom does not continue to increase its troops, it would be wishful thinking to rely on the sparse combat power of the Panclair Army to capture this well-defended and strong port city.
Colonel Severit has led the 034th Ranger Regiment to the Amphiston Territory, just in time to take over the defense and garrison duties of the entire territory. For more than a month, Claude's 131st Ranger Battalion has been preparing for the territory.
Colonel Witchett's takeover laid a very good foundation. Not only did he learn about the war situation in Beringana and Robisto, he also reorganized the local garrison of the Amphiston Territory, and at the same time imprisoned
Nearly ten thousand young Nikancha people who participated in the riot provided the first batch of labor for the defense front that was about to start construction.
In addition, Claude also personally led a team to survey the border areas of the entire Amphiston Territory and Beringana and Robisto, and initially drew and designed the plane of the entire defensive front.
A schematic diagram of the layout and construction of various defense facilities. Colonel Servicit only needs to follow the drawings to complete the task of the first batch of reinforcements assigned to them by the division headquarters.
"When are you going to set off?" Colonel Sevict asked with great concern. Compared with the tasks of building defensive lines and training reserve forces that he has to perform, the tasks that Claude's 131st Ranger Battalion will take on can be said to be
Go through life and death. We must go deep into the enemy's rear to raid and destroy the enemy's logistics and transportation camps, and cut off the enemy's command and material supply transportation. It is like a sharp knife inserted into the enemy's heart and becomes a serious problem for the enemy. This batch of follow-up reinforcements for the Kingdom's Ranger Division will be
Arrive in time to ensure your arrival.
Even though the combat power of the Hicks Kingdom's colonial garrison is not as strong as everyone imagined, it can even be called insignificant. But after all, Claude's battalion has too few people, less than 2,000
We have to deal with the enemy's two legions with more than 100,000 troops. This raid mission deep behind enemy lines can be described as dancing on the tip of a knife, and it is easy to hurt yourself.
"In two days," Claude replied, "I have ordered all the battalion groups to assemble in the mountain town of Rosas, which is the mountain town closest to the Beringana Direct Territory, and use it as a starting base."
Two days later, Claude led the 131st Ranger Battalion into the Beringana Territory.
At the same time, Colonel Sevicit had already led his men and the young labor force of the indigenous mixed-race residents to start construction of a defensive front on the border.
"Sir, what should we call our defensive front?" Colonel Sevicit's adjutant asked, holding the construction drawings. According to regulations, a defensive front like this needs to have a name, which will make it easier to approve documents and construction funds.
Colonel Cevichte thought for a while and replied: "The survey and design work of this defensive line was completed by Lieutenant Colonel Claude. Let's name it Claude's Defense Line after him."