"It's foggy?" Aledo was surprised and rushed out of a conference hall in the Stone Castle barracks. Behind him, he was followed by Brighton and other generals who had just been working with him to designate the next battle plan.

At this time, Aledo and Brighton's troops had already assembled at the south gate of the stone castle, and they were about to launch a siege against Mary Castle. The army used almost all its logistical forces, trying to take advantage of the opportunity.

This attack established a fixed position for erecting a 64-pounder under the castle walls of Marienplatz.

It is said that although heavy artillery was used to blast open the wall of the stone castle last time, the frame of two heavy artillery was actually sacrificed. After all, due to the limitations of the casting process, the 64-pound heavy artillery cast by Aledo's artillery craftsmen only had one

A bronze cannon that shoots stone bullets. In addition to the short-range impact caused by the astonishing caliber of the shells, its round range, accuracy, and damage are completely inferior to the power of the 12-pound field gun.

But after all, in order to break through the special walls of Fortress Maria, the most primitive and crude method is often the most cost-effective. Therefore, no matter how ineffective the bronze cannon is, it is much more advanced than the traditional wooden stake battering ram. It’s just that

In order to be able to flexibly transport and erect such a big thing, the craftsmen of Eledo racked their brains and came up with a way to use a large number of huge pieces of wood to carry the weight of the giant cannon to serve as a launcher. Although this launcher

It can indeed support the firing impact of such a heavy artillery, but it can only sustain it for a dozen times at most, which is the limit.

Just like the previous attack on the stone castle, after exceeding this limit, the huge launcher will be dismembered and collapse. Therefore, if you want to carry out more stable shooting, you must have a solid fixed launch platform. This is cement.

This material is undoubtedly the most suitable, but the problem is that Aledo does not have such a thing in his hands. Of course, he must have relevant information on cement in the library of the Council of Sages, but the problem is that he no longer has time to arrange for people to go there.

It was stolen over there. But now that there are no advanced building materials like cement, Aledo had to use some crooked ideas.

Alchemy, here is the solution prepared by Aledo. Of course, the alchemy in his hands did not come from Michael's side, but he spent a lot of money and investment, and even used some dirty methods to obtain it from the black market.

A method that can be obtained in China. This alchemy is much more effective than cement pipes. It can directly transform soil into corundum, which is the mineral second only to diamond. It only requires the materials needed to perform this alchemy.

It was very expensive, but Aledo still tried every means to prepare it. At the same time, although the casting time of this alchemy is much slower than that of the same amount of cement, as long as you start casting it before evening, by the second

Before the sun gets angry, the roar of the first heavy artillery can be heard.

With these foundations in place, you only need to choose a suitable location under the city to establish a fixed fort position when attacking Maria Castle, and then you can use the remaining 31 64-pound bronze cannons to bombard Maria

The walls of the fortress.

Aledo and the generals were not in a hurry to rest after entering the stone fort. Instead, they summoned all the craftsmen to conduct detailed field inspections and discussions on the location of the fixed fort, and finally finalized a very special plan not long ago.

A suitable location. Originally, Aledo was also worried about any unexpected surprises before the plan was implemented. After all, judging from the supplies brought by the army this time, the army could not withstand a long-term war of attrition. He could only take advantage of the current trend.

It is enough to capture Maryburg with all your strength. At the worst, you must try to break the morale of the opponent in the subsequent battle. Otherwise, the balance of the war this time will definitely tilt towards the enemy's side.

Aledo followed the sentry and rushed to the southern wall of the stone castle. Aledo was able to clearly see the abnormal situation in the distance without the help of a telescope. On the blurry horizon, the tower was still clearly visible.

Mary Castle has been shrouded in thick fog for some time. The entire Mary Castle seems to have been erased from the paper with an eraser without a trace. It seems that this thick fog is not ordinary.

It is a natural phenomenon, and according to reports from the sentries, this fog seems to have been spreading to all directions since its emergence.

"It doesn't look like a naturally occurring fog..." said the noble general beside Brighton.

"Indeed, the weather is very sunny today..." Brighton looked up at the sunny sky and responded: "This fog comes so unexpectedly."

"I agree with you." Aledo said while observing the fog with a telescope: "This sudden heavy fog...could it be caused by a magician?"

"The magicians of the Principality of Michael cannot do this at all, but alchemy can." Robert, the centurion of the Camon Wolverine, said with certainty: "This is definitely a defense method for Mary Castle. Your Highness

, I suggest that we need to reconsider the battle plan just now."

"A sudden fog..." Aledo slowly put down his observation glasses, then pointed at the fog in the distance and looked at Robert and asked: "Can it block our artillery shells?"

"This... I don't know..." Robert lowered his head in shame and anger, because in his opinion, Aledo's question was tantamount to accusing himself of ignorance.

But in fact, Aledo was just asking a serious question. He was also worried about whether this mist really had any supernatural defense methods. But seeing that Robert didn't offer any insightful insights at all, he sighed in disappointment.

He then walked down the city wall.

Robert stayed where he was, watching Aledo and the generals get away from each other, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists calmly. In fact, he didn't really hate Aledo's contempt for him, especially after winning.

After knowing that the opponent was His Highness the Second Prince, he became even more obedient to him. After Robert joined the army with great ambition, he originally thought that His Highness the Prince would attach great importance to himself, a chess piece that had been lurking in the Principality for a long time.

For more than ten years, he has investigated the local intelligence and geographical conditions one by one, and is waiting for them to come in handy when the Duke of Nosk counterattacks.

But the actual situation was that in the first combat meeting after he shamelessly joined the army, which was the discussion they had just made in Aledo where they made the fort plan, Robert did not say a word in the meeting.

It was like he was an insignificant pawn and no one cared about his existence. Because he could hardly understand a word Aledo discussed with their generals. Of course, he also understood because of the other party's army and the weapons they used.

It was very different from the past. These new weapons and brand-new military systems that he had never seen before, and even the various new vocabulary that frequently appeared among them, made Robert feel overwhelmed. Even Nuo, who was regarded as a playboy in his own eyes, was overwhelmed.

Lord Brighton, the son of the Duke of Skok, was also able to express his opinions in the meeting, and almost all of his opinions on the formation and offensive of cavalry and infantry were adopted.

Facing setbacks at every turn, Robert suddenly felt a sense of inferiority. He felt that he and the infantry of Camon Fortress he brought were almost insignificant, so that when the meeting was about to end, His Royal Highness Prince Aledo was assigned to

He took on a seemingly inexplicable task on his side, which was to let the infantrymen from Camon build a defensive formation on one side of the predetermined position and dig all the seemingly inexplicable ditches. Robert didn't have much experience.

He is a rich military strategist, but he also knows very well that this is a siege, but he is still on the offensive side. He just doesn't prepare siege props, but he is still preparing a defensive formation in front of the opponent's city wall? This is simply ridiculous.

!

All kinds of incomprehensible encounters made Robert lose his confidence very quickly. The results of all these were almost completely inconsistent with the initial latent plan and the results promised by the former Grand Duke of Nosk. And for some reason, Robert felt an inexplicable regret.

Gradually, this inexplicable regret unknowingly turned into dissatisfaction with Aledo and others.

But these dissatisfactions are just signs. At this moment, Robert is still looking forward to making contributions in this battle. Even if this war fails, at least he and others can get a certain degree of success after returning to Nosk.

It's just a reward, but no matter what, the more than ten years that I and the people under my command can't be wasted here.

Aledo didn't pay attention to Robert's inner performance. After returning to the conference hall, he made the following preliminary plan with several generals, and then led the army with Brighton to march towards Mary Castle.

The Stone Castle Military Camp is not far from the Maria Fortress, only a little over a kilometer at most. However, the army moved very slowly because it carried all the baggage and was prepared for the opponent's counterattack and ambush. It was almost half a mile away.

About an hour later, the vanguard of the army carefully stepped into the white fog. Of course, before the army approached, Aledo ordered the conspirators' spell masters and the assassins of the Brotherhood of Shadows to investigate.

After checking the composition of the fog and confirming that it was not a harmful gas, he agreed to let the army rush directly into the fog. Because their planned fort position was in the fog, although the sudden thick fog disrupted some parts of the fog.

rhythm, but no matter what, Aledo needs to fort at the predetermined location as soon as possible. Otherwise, if he and others do not gain a foothold under the city this time, they must quickly retreat to the Salanka Pass along the way to rest.

.

Just a few hours ago, Morana sent someone to bring bad news to Aledo. The central area of ​​the Principality of Michael did not rebel on time. That was because there were not many living people in the central area. Specifically

Morana didn't say much about the reason. She just said that the organization that had recently surrendered to the conspirators was a cult and had used the resources arranged by the conspirators in the central region to launch this tragic disaster. Then Morana gave a more emphatical reminder.

Aledo was asked to quickly clear out all those involved in the conspirators who were related to that cult. No matter what, he had to sever his relationship with that cult as soon as possible.

Morana did not explain the specific reason, and she did not say where she was or what she was doing, so Aledo was a little hesitant about her proposal. After all, the conspirator is currently the only one in his hands who can provide spell support.

Organization, he did not want further conflicts to break out directly with the conspirators before the war was over. But despite this, Aledo still listened to another piece of news from Morana, which was exactly what Brydon predicted.

, the principality has indeed prepared a force to cut off the retreat of its own army, with the purpose of blocking Aledo's army directly on the Bar Plains, surrounding it and annihilating it.

Morana did not say which army was coming to take the retreat, but considering the current situation of the principality, without the delay of the noble rebellion, they will definitely send the most powerful regiment to take charge of this matter.

Aledo also knew a lot of information about the Principality Corps, and during the meeting with everyone, he confirmed which regiment would be coming to take the back road. Although they were very reluctant, everyone still did the job.

Be prepared to deal with this.

For heavy infantry wearing heavy armor, artillery is the most suitable suppressive weapon. Therefore, if unnecessary in this battle, the firing frequency of the 12-pound field gun will be reduced to about half because everyone needs to be prepared.

More artillery shells will be used to deal with the incoming heavily armored regiments. And if nothing else happens, the enemy will very likely pull the remaining regiments outside the city to fight with the army during this siege. After all, Michael

The heavy infantry are the most suitable unit to do this kind of thing, so Aledo believed that if Adrian was in his right mind, he would never let the heavy infantry guard the city wall.

The worst plan was that Aledo expected that Adrian would use up all his main troops to fight him in a bloody battle outside the city, because the sudden fog almost confirmed Aledo's idea. The fog

The visibility is really horribly low. When we first entered the fog, we still had a visual distance of nearly 10 meters. But after the team traveled dozens of meters again, being able to see 5 meters was already the limit. Especially

This fog also seemed to obscure the spread of spells by the magicians and the extraordinary senses of the assassins. In short, before arriving at the predetermined location, Aledo ordered the team to advance slowly in a dense formation three times.

The vanguard team at the front is the orc captain Tora and her beast company. At least the orcs' senses and physical abilities are much stronger than humans. This natural beast intuition is simply the most suitable vanguard configuration.

Although everyone including Aledo and Brayton thought so, for Tora and her orc soldiers, this fog was as terrifying as the embrace of death. In this fog

Surrounded by the enemy, their racial advantages were also greatly restricted, and the most critical point was that those fellow orcs with a very keen sense of smell were so frightened that they could hardly stand still. The reason was that they had smelled the

This bloody smell permeates the thick fog. This does not mean that there are already victims in the fog, but this bloody smell is too precipitated, like a slaughtering knife that has been used countless times.

, even if the blood stains are washed away on the surface, the strong smell of blood will still adhere to the blade, time and time again, layer after layer, the accumulation of aging, just like the aging wine in a wine cellar.

, the smell of old blood will also emit a certain unique "aroma".

Unfortunately, there are more than 30 orc soldiers with a keen sense of smell in the beast company of more than 100 people. Although they have all gone through various harsh experiences and training, facing this kind of situation that goes beyond common sense

But they were still frightened and panicked. Fortunately, several elite orc warriors, including Tora, did not appear in this situation. Although they also smelled some of the bloody smell in the fog, they could not compare to those with a keen sense of smell.

The fellow race members perceive it so comprehensively.

"Tora! Stop!" An orc warrior who looked completely different from Tora grabbed Tora's shoulder and stopped her from moving forward.

This orc is a guy with a keen sense of smell. His appearance looks completely different from Tora's lion face. The protrusions on his mouth and nose make him look more like a canine, especially his grin for some reason.

Rows of sharp canine teeth were exposed, and it was full of a wild and manic atmosphere. But Tora and the other orc soldiers knew very well that the reason why this companion behaved like this was not because he was angry.

Or he is trying to threaten Tora, but because he is afraid, and he is still so afraid that he can no longer control the state of his facial muscles. This kind of baring his teeth and claws is a kind of beast-like aggressive behavior, because his

Consciousness requires him to maintain this bluffing posture at all times in order to face the powerful enemy lurking in the fog.

"Tora! The enemy is just ahead..." The orc warrior's voice was very hoarse, and he felt as if he was trying desperately to suppress his emotions. But his tone still made Tora aware of something. It seemed that this

My companion discovered something different.

"What did you find?" Tola put his hand on the other person's trembling arm and asked: "Tell me, what did you find?"

"The dragon...this is the bloody smell of the violent dragon..."

"Whoosh——"

Before the orc warrior could finish speaking, a sharp wolf-fang arrow penetrated his head directly. The skull shattered by the arrow and the red and white brains splashed out, which instantly aroused the anger of Toto.

The adrenaline in La's body surged.

"Enemy attack!"

Tora roared and let go of her companion's body, then pulled out the short spear and long knife from her waist and planned to form a semicircular defensive formation with other orc warriors. But before she could stand still

As they were walking, they suddenly saw a group of figures taller than them emerging from the fog in front of them.
Chapter completed!