After flicking the cigarette in his hand and putting his thoughts back, Richard stood up and asked:
"Have you found the orcs' grain depot?"
The orc jungle has been operating for several generations. In addition to well-equipped cottages, material reserves are also indispensable. Every orc cottage basically has a basement for storing grain, preparing the defenders for at least three months.
Materials.
Since most of the food and supplies are protected by the orcs in the basement, they can basically survive the dragon's breath.
The terrain in the dense forest is complex and vehicles cannot pass through it. Even the cavalry is greatly restricted in the forest, let alone the carts pulling grain. They can only rely on civilians to carry the bags, so Richard's northern route
It is not easy to supply an army of 100,000 in a dense forest. The supplies that can be carried with the army are no more than ten days. The supply line is not long before passing through Langshou Stronghold. We can still get timely supplies from Dragon Scale Fort. Now it is broken.
After the Langshou Stronghold, they defeated three strongholds in a row for three days with almost no breaks. They had already entered the forest for more than a hundred miles, and the supplies of Dragon Scale Castle had long been unable to keep up. This was because the logistics were not harassed by the orcs.
According to the current intensity of the march, supplies are actually out of touch with the army. In order to reduce consumption, the first thing the army does after breaking through the stronghold is to search for the grain and grass supplies stored by the orcs.
"Sir, we have found it. The quantity is enough to consume the army for one day. If we save a little, it can last for two days. This is all the credit of the kobolds."
It's unknown how long it would take ordinary soldiers to quickly find the orcs' supplies in the ruins, but it would be different if there were kobolds in the team.
The cellar where the orcs stored food was found in the ruins of Yan.
"No need, let the whole army eat with open stomachs tonight, and there will be a high-intensity march next, so the soldiers must be fed."
"Assemble the troops, set up camp on the spot immediately, bury the pot and make food, rest early, and continue moving forward when the sun rises tomorrow."
"Master Richard, if we continue to advance, the food and grass from Dragon Scale Castle will soon be delivered. It is better to stop and rest for a day and wait for the supplies from Dragon Scale Castle to be delivered."
"Where are the supply teams now?"
"We passed Langshou Village yesterday. Let's rest for a day. They should be able to deliver it the day after tomorrow."
"Then let them go back to Langshou Stronghold without having to send them away, and order Longlin Castle to send people to repair Langshou Stronghold and store some of the supplies in Langshou Stronghold."
After Richard paused and thought about it, he seemed to have thought of something, and simply decided to give up the follow-up supplies and ordered the transport troops to return to Langshou Village, the first pass into the forest.
However, after Richard issued this order, senior officers, including several system heroes, frowned, with worried looks on their faces.
They are all a group of people who lead troops to fight, and they all have an instinctive rejection of being separated from the supply line. No matter what era, no matter what era, no matter how capable the army is, they will all become soft-footed shrimps after three days of starvation.
"Sir, it would be too unstable to seize the orcs' food and grass alone. With the current situation, we will definitely be able to break through the northern dense forest with a steady attack."
Arcee thought that Richard had tasted the benefits of seizing the orcs' supplies, and in his youth and arrogance, he took it for granted and prepared to advance quickly by relying on war to support war.
It is not impossible to support war with war, but the risk is too high. As a veteran, I basically reject this kind of behavior, and the advantage is now in my own hands. Just fight slowly and steadily. There is no need to take risks, so I immediately came out to dissuade Li
Observe some radical behavior.
But Richard shook his head and said:
"If we fight steadily, we will play into the hands of the orcs. When we fight slowly and spend a month or two fighting the orcs in this forest, I'm afraid that when we go out, we will encounter the main force of the orcs who have packed up the army in the middle."
Now that the war has basically started, it is not a big problem to put the plan on the table. And although Ren and Saul have done a good job of keeping the plan secret, the senior officers in the North Route Army are still somewhat ignorant of this operation.
There is some speculation as to its purpose.
"Does Lord Richard mean that he is not very optimistic about Lord Saul's actions along the way?"
"No one can guess the outcome of the war until the last moment. Since I have come to lead the Northern Route Army, I must complete the tasks of the Northern Route Army. We must pose enough threats to the orcs in a short period of time to reduce the pressure of the main army in the middle.
pressure."
"So, is the mission of our Northern Route Army to act as bait to attract the orc army?"
After Richard basically revealed the plan, several system heroes and Kurtz, who had known the plan for a long time, did not react at all. However, including Alsi, several senior officers who had been following orders changed their minds.
They originally thought that the task of the North Route Army should be to cooperate with the main offensive operations of the middle route, but now it is clear from what Richard said that he is going to be a bait. The degree of danger is not at the same level. The relaxed mentality gained along the way is now
It dissipated all of a sudden, and everyone's expressions became serious.
After being silent for a while, Arcee, as a veteran, asked:
"Then what is our mission?"
"My mission is to break through the northern dense forest, enter the Orc Plateau, pose a threat to the Orc King's capital, and try to mobilize the main force of the Orcs to create opportunities for Lord Thor."
"I understand, sir."
Alsi seemed to understand why Richard acted so radically. If it was to cooperate with the main force in a grander plan, then compared to that kind of million-level battle, the 100,000 people of the North Route Army could indeed be used as
He came to sacrifice the chess pieces, so he stopped trying to dissuade Richard and just said to himself:
"Since I joined the army at Longxing Pass, I have experienced hundreds of battles, large and small. There are basically few comrades left around me at the beginning. I never thought about leaving Longxing Pass alive. It is mine to die fighting for the kingdom.
pleasure."
"It is our honor to die fighting for the kingdom."
These officers who came from the Longxiguan Army were also used to seeing life and death. Although they were shocked by the information that Richard just revealed, they were not afraid. Under the leadership of Alsi, they also reacted and expressed their opinions one after another, for fear of being mistaken for others.
Greed breeds fear of war.
"Ah"
Seeing that Arcee and others had made the atmosphere so tragic, Richard chuckled, somewhat ruining the atmosphere.
"Why do you think I'm going to take you to die? Letting the supply team go back doesn't mean we don't have supplies."
"Then the supply line will get longer and longer as we go deeper. Protecting the supply team behind us will involve more troops. I have other ways to supplement it. Don't worry too much. What we have to do now is to break through the orcs' defense line in the dense forest as soon as possible and enter the eastern plateau.
."
"Yes, Lord Richard!"
Arcee and the others only thought that Richard was comforting them. They still looked solemnly, stroking their shoulders and bowing slightly before accepting the order to leave. They went back to organize their soldiers to camp and rest.
Richard didn't explain too much. He also stayed in a large tent set up by the kobolds to rest for him. After several days of continuous marching, even though this kind of consumption was not big according to Richard's physical fitness, it was still a long time.
The actions of a large army are more about using his brain to direct the actions of the army, which also makes him a little mentally exhausted. He needs to rest early to regain his energy. He must try his best to stay in good condition now that the intensity of the war is not high.
…
Two days later, noon
Giant Wood Village, where the orc army is stationed.
Jumu Village is a large village. Although its geographical location is not as good as that of Langshou Village, it happens to be stuck on the main road that the North Route Army takes from the dense forest to the east of the plateau. The march in the dense forest is no more likely to be detoured than in the plains.
In this kind of terrain, a detour may be a dead end, and even if there is a small road, the army will never be able to get past it, so this orc stronghold is an inevitable target for the Northern Route Army.
There were originally three thousand orcs stationed in Jumu Village for a long time and were in charge of the surrounding forest patrols and small checkpoints. In total, there were nearly five thousand orc warriors under the jurisdiction of Jumu Village. There was exactly one flag regiment. The person responsible for the defense here was Adlu.
Qilwei, the leader of the Orc Banner, was in the limelight.
At this time, Qi'erwei did not stay in Jumu Village, but commanded his army more than ten miles away from Jumu Village. He was followed by only a hundred personal guards, and his body was simply camouflaged with tree branches and leaves.
Since it was him who proposed the tactic, he was the one who implemented it most thoroughly. All the supplies in Jumu Village have been transferred out in the past two days and scattered and stored in some hidden places in the forest in the form of secret supply points. Only he
Only by working with some officers of sufficient rank can we accurately find these secret supply points.
Some of the supplies that were too late to be taken away were simply doused with kerosene and burned up. In fact, no supplies were left for Richard's army. If Richard continued to fight to support war,
It would definitely be a miscalculation. Fortunately, Richard had a more complete idea of obtaining supplies.
"General Qilwei, the people of the First Capital have already fought against the enemy. As in the intelligence, there are a large number of kobolds and half-elves in their army, as well as sharpshooters who can make perfect shots. The people of the First Capital
The casualties are heavy and we can hardly hold on any longer."
"How many casualties were there in the First Capital?"
"More than half of them were lost not long after the contact. The samurai in command is now seriously injured, but he is still holding on. People in the First Capital say that the main casualties are caused by the other side's sharpshooters."
After listening to the other party's description, Qi Erwei's heart skipped a beat. Although he had already learned from the defeated soldiers who had returned from Langshou Village that there was a special army in the human army that was good at fighting in the woods, which was very difficult, but the so-called hearing was
Xu, before he actually collided with the opponent, Qi Erwei was still skeptical about the opponent's description. Now that the bloody casualties were in front of him, he couldn't help but not believe it.
"Did you spot the dragon?"
"No, their dragons shouldn't have been dispatched yet, but the human army is already very close to us."
"Order them to retreat while fighting. There is no need to fight head-on with the human forwards. They can just resist according to the established route."
After paying a certain price for the test, Qilwei immediately ordered the army to change their tactics.
"Yes, General!"
…
On the other side, the North Route Army is in the middle.
Richard looked thoughtfully at the giant wooden village with black smoke rising in front of him.
After the Langshou Village, they successively attacked several orc villages. The North Route Army basically encountered no decent resistance. Most of the time, the orcs guarding the villages were slaughtered by giant dragons without even seeing the army on the ground.
Most of the orcs, and the few orcs that occasionally survived, had no will to fight at all, and basically did not pose much of a threat.
It's just that this time they clearly haven't arrived at the orcs' military stronghold, and the orcs themselves burned the military stronghold. Apparently the orcs have already reacted, knowing that they can only wait to be taken care of by the giant dragon in the military stronghold, so they simply gave up.
The well-equipped stronghold was burned down, leaving nothing for Richard. It seems likely that the food inside was either taken away by the orcs, or burned with the military stronghold.
If Richard had dared to think of using war to support war, he would have been immediately blinded by this situation. Fortunately, Richard had another plan for the supply issue.
"It seems that the orcs have reacted, and the next battle will not be so easy."
"Go and tell General Gru that you need to be careful next time. The orcs are prepared."
"Order the First Legion to send people to cooperate with the Task Force to join the jungle battle with the orcs."
"Yes, sir!"
At this time, the main force fighting in the forest is still the task force composed of kobolds, half-elves and some barrier (elf) forces' system troops. Most of the system troops are still in Richard's hands and have not been used. He has not used them.
I don’t want to waste my precious system troops fighting orcs in the forest.
The four regiments of the North Route Army followed him along the way and had hardly experienced any hard battles. Now it was time to make some moves and fight the orcs.
Soon, under Richard's order, Arcee led all his troops to support the task force that was still entangled with the orcs in the forest.
