In the dead of winter, when the entire northern world is immersed in silence and death, at the northernmost tip of the civilized continent, the seaport city of Oerengrad in the northern country of Kislev, is immersed in a lively hustle and bustle.
Rhodes stood on the highest balcony of the city hall, looking at the dwarf team entering the city with a calm mood. They were the dwarf envoy from Dulong City in the north. The purpose was to prepare for the expedition to the ratman's lair - the depths of hell three months later.
Prepare for the pit.
The snowflakes fell in large numbers, as if welcoming these guests from afar. The bustling crowd immediately made way for the dwarf mission. On White Bear Street, the dwarf mission envoys wearing armor and holding rune scepters were so conspicuous.
.
So much so that people began to talk on the sidelines as soon as they dispersed. However, it was Rhodes who acquiesced to the high-profile entry of the Dulong City dwarf envoy into the city. It was even said that he encouraged it. In order to tell the people that the attack
In the pit of hell, Kislev has helpers and allies.
Even though most Kislev ladies have never seen the dwarves of Dulong City, this does not prevent them from understanding the northern fortress. In fact, before full diplomatic relations were established with the empire, Dulong City even became Kisli for a time.
The main trading object of various towns in the north.
It's just that most of the Kislev ladies have never entered Dulong City. Only businessmen, wanderers, and adventurers will go that far.
Rhodes sat in the hall and waited. When the envoys walked in from outside the hall, Rhodes couldn't help but narrowed his eyes and greeted them. Here, there is no distinction between high and low among them, and Sogard, the lord of Dulong City, treated them the same way.
Rhodes. As long as he goes there, the dwarf lord will never neglect him. Therefore, Rhodes cannot neglect him.
After a brief greeting, Rhodes returned to the main seat and motioned for others to take their seats.
The dwarves, with their strong bodies and the weight of their armor, were sitting on the stone chairs, making banging sounds one after another.
"Dear Lord Lord, King of the North, Dragon Conqueror Rod Lawn..."
The leader of the dwarf envoy was about to continue speaking, but was stopped by Rhodes with a gesture——
"I am just the Lord of Elengrad, not the King of the North. There is only one king of Kislev, and that is Denis, the Snow Queen."
Rhodes corrected.
The dwarf messenger waved his hand, "It doesn't matter, anyway, you will always be the guardian of the North and the guardian of Kislev in our hearts."
"Then, let's further discuss the next action plan, High Lord. I have brought Lord Thorgard's manuscript and convey his opinions and suggestions to you."
Rhodes smiled and made a gesture of listening.
Dwarves like to be respected the most. Seeing such a distinguished lord being so polite to them, everyone in the dwarf envoy suddenly felt very happy.
The head of the mission stepped forward, once again made a humble and respectful diplomatic etiquette, and then said loudly——
"Lord Thorgard means that we need to slightly change the original plan and attack the rat cave from underground instead of the frontal attack planned before."
"Underground attack? What kind of underground attack?"
Celta, captain of the Norscan Guard, asked.
"Using the traditional skill of dwarves - digging tunnels."
The dwarf messenger replied loudly.
After saying that, there was a commotion and discussion in the whole hall.
Obviously, this is a big change compared to the previous plan.
Rhodes on the throne narrowed his eyes and thought.
In fact, Rhodes had already thought about such a tactic. The Hell Pit belongs to an underground city. According to traditional tactics, attacking layer by layer will definitely give the rat people enough time to prepare to meet the enemy.
I don’t know how many rat-men Rhodes still have in the entire Hell Pit. If nothing else, the one who brought devastating disaster to the Hell Pit is Grimgor Ironhide. And even though he was massacred by Ironhide,
, Rhodes cannot guarantee whether the pit of hell is already defenseless. After all, the number of ratmen cannot be thought and imagined with human thinking.
As long as there are tens of thousands of rat people in the pit, attacking it will not be easy. And based on the dwarves' intelligence, Rhodes estimates that there are at least one hundred thousand rats in the entire hell pit. If according to the traditional
The tactic is to launch a frontal attack from the gate. As long as the slave rats below come up in waves, it will be a fatal threat to the attacking Kislev army.
The plague had just passed, and Kislev's national strength was still weak. It was impossible to send too many troops to the north, with a few thousand at most. Including the dwarf allies, the total added up to at most 10,000. And if there was a constant supply of ratmen underground.
people surged up to resist the invasion, then, in terms of a war of attrition, the human and dwarf coalition still couldn't withstand the attrition of the rat people.
Therefore, it is still the best plan to dig tunnels directly to the stratum where the rat leader is hiding, and then capture and behead the king in one go. However, humans are far inferior to dwarves when it comes to digging tunnels. And the lives of their troops are all on a single
As for foreign armies, this really made Rhodes uneasy.
As if knowing Rhode's thoughts intentionally or unintentionally, the head of the dwarf delegation then read loudly——
"Tunnel tactics, for this raid, Lord Thorgard and the elders discussed the best plan. We will dig multiple tunnels and head towards the rat man's heart lair. This is not only to confuse the rats, but also to
For our own safety."
With that said, a fat dwarf flag bearer walked out of the envoy group, took an exquisite hand-drawn map to the center of the hall, and handed it to the guard beside Rhodes.
The guard took the map and handed it to Rhodes on the throne.
"Great Lord, this is a rough map of the pit of hell. This map may not be easy to understand. You need to look at it with a three-dimensional perspective."
The dwarf messenger in the main hall said this, while Rhodes listened and opened the map scroll. Different from ordinary maps, as the dwarf messenger said, this map depicting the details of the pit of hell presents a three-dimensional map with a strong sense of perspective.
Sense of view. The general map is a two-dimensional plane, but this map of the pit of hell is three-dimensional.
Just like the perspective drawing of a building, the position of the rat nest functional area on each floor is marked on the two-dimensional plane. The length unit is marked on the ordinate axis. There is no doubt that it is actually the depth from the surface to the underground.
"Currently, it is known that the pit of hell is nine levels deep. The top level, which is the first level closest to the surface, is the largest level. It is where slave rats gather. There are no special functional areas there, only scattered
Mining areas and countless small, chaotic and densely packed lairs. In the pit of hell, 80% of the rats are distributed on this level.”
As the head of the dwarf envoy spoke, Rhodes continued to watch. In the main hall, the two dwarf envoys continued to distribute maps to other Kislev generals.
"These chaotic, disorderly rats are numerous in number. They will only instinctively look for food and carry out the instructions of their superiors. If we attack from the front from the gate, we will only be blocked by these slave rats. And the rat leader below
Then there will be sufficient time to prepare, whether it is to resist stubbornly or to escape in advance."