Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 489: The Stars Are Overlooking the Vast Plain

The Battle of Jericho Canyon ended peacefully.

Under the three-dimensional firepower coverage of magical artillery, magicians and air cavalry, the federal troops hiding on the cliffs of Jericho Canyon were unable to organize an effective counterattack and were collectively buried in the sea of ​​fire.

The only minor incident during the period was that when the bombing was halfway through, two ice mammoths suddenly appeared and tried to break out of the encirclement. As a result, they were hit by the simultaneous fire of two magic artillery and died on the spot.

At first, Xiahou Yan didn't understand how the orcs hid two mammoths in the canyon with no cover. It was not until he saw the embarrassed expression of Prince Michael that he realized it was the work of the "Meursault Invisible Satin" exported by the demons.

However, this little trick of the federal army failed to cause any waves after all: although the Ice Demon Mammoth could crush ordinary infantry formations, it could only end up being defeated when facing the long-range firepower of Frost Maple Ridge that it could not even touch.

When the outcome of the battle was already decided, Xiahou Yan specifically asked Master Lowry to use magic to speak to the remaining orcs in the canyon, demanding that they immediately lay down their arms and surrender in order to obtain a way to survive. However, the other side's response was a weak but firm war song.

"These greenskins are purebred, ah, tough guys!" Eldridge commented, "Once they're on the battlefield, ah, it's either life or death, there's no such thing as surrender."

"Then let them die gloriously." Xiahou Yan had no choice but to make a gesture and order the air cavalry to start the second round of dive bombing.

In order to ensure that no orc troops were left in the canyon, the Frost Maple Ridge "Wagner" special forces, after completing the large-scale fire coverage, carried out targeted strikes and cleanup operations that lasted for an entire afternoon until sunset.

After half a day, a huge round pit had appeared in the middle of the Jericho Canyon, where the orcs were stationed, cutting the canyon in half. This artificial landform, created by countless spells, artillery fire, and ammunition, was charred and lifeless, with only the remains of countless orc soldiers, shamans, and war machines scattered all over the ground.

Xiahou Yan first selected several Enzi'e troll shamans to pray for the souls of the fallen orcs, and then ordered Chris Mann to take the soldiers to clean up the battlefield.

In the early stages of Frost Maple Ridge, the equipment and supplies captured on the battlefield were one of the most important sources of income for the territory. After each battle, Mayor Joel would lead the clerks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to register the spoils and then store them in a unified warehouse, and no soldier would be allowed to hide them privately.

However, now that Frost Maple Ridge is becoming more and more wealthy, it has long looked down on the overly backward weapons and equipment of the federal army: the manufacturing technology of the orcs' equipment is very crude, not only is it far inferior to the current standard equipment of Igor's Pioneer Army, even the value of transporting it back to the territory for collection is quite limited.

Taking into account that it was not easy for the soldiers of the "Wagner" special forces to follow him on the expedition to the Central Plains of the Empire, Xiahou Yan specially allowed the soldiers participating in this campaign to collect the spoils left on the battlefield as rewards, but the maximum amount each person could carry was limited to not hinder normal marching and combat.

Thus, as the bright moon rose, the devastated Jericho Canyon was filled with Frost Maple Ridge soldiers who were picking up orc relics with smiles on their faces, just like a group of old farmers who were diligently harvesting crops in the fields during the harvest season in late autumn.

Prince Michael Gowther felt a chill as he witnessed this scene.

From the perspective of the Demon Prince, even if they could not share the spoils, the daily treatment of the Frost Maple Ridge soldiers was already good enough.

This group of wilderness thugs all wore priceless magic metal armor, and their daily military pay was several times higher than that of ordinary soldiers or even high-end mercenaries. When their lord was happy, he would give them some rewards from time to time. Compared with the poor people in the Central Plains of the Empire who suffered from war and the regular soldiers who were forcibly conscripted, even the lowest-ranking trainee soldiers in the Frost Maple Ridge team had a rich living standard like a country gentleman.

Haven't you seen the bloody battlefront, where the Eastern and Central armies of the empire were forced to squeeze shoulder to shoulder into military camps and fortresses due to the military budget crisis? Not only did they have to eat coarse food on weekdays, but they didn't even have a decent pillow or quilt to sleep on;

On the other hand, the "Wagner" special forces of Frost Maple Ridge occupied Swan Castle in the north as their base. Every few days, a convoy would travel thousands of miles from the Soul-Splitting Land to bring sufficient food, fuel, equipment and news of their hometown - these military supplies were supplied by Miss Katarina Igor and Mayor Joel to the lord's troops, and the regular army of the empire had no chance of getting involved.

The wealth of the Frost Maple Ridge soldiers was so well-known that several imperial chambers of commerce had recently sent trade convoys to the front line with great courage. These chambers of commerce set up stalls in Swan Castle and were determined to do business with the Frost Maple Ridge soldiers, selling them clothes, snacks and consumables on a daily basis, and had become the military vendors of the "Wagner" special forces.

Before setting out from Swan Castle this time, Prince Michael Gowther even saw with his own eyes that a temporary brothel run by the elves of Everday City had grandly opened in Swan Castle, and the entrance was crowded with the scum of Frost Maple Ridge who wanted to consume.

"In the Soul-Splitting Land, commoners live like nobles, nobles live like emperors, and Lord Elliot Igor lives like the Most High Holy God" - this proverb that has been widely circulated on the continent recently is obviously not groundless.

The most difficult fact for Prince Michael to accept was that while the regular soldiers of the Empire and the Federation were sacrificing their lives and blood, the infantry of Frost Maple Ridge didn't even need to participate in the battle in person:

The long-range heavy firepower represented by the "Apocalypse" chariot and the Frostmaple Ridge Air Force led by Sindragosa can eliminate all living creatures within sight from 800 meters away, and the soldiers no longer need to engage in close combat during combat.

The infantry team brought by the lord was stuck behind the chariot for a long time today!

Military statisticians later calculated that the casualties suffered by the "Wagner" special forces during the battle were not as great as those caused by the scramble for spoils after the battle.

Prince Michael cursed in his heart, what the hell is going on?

The lively loot-dividing meeting lasted until eight o'clock in the evening, when the Frost Maple Ridge soldiers reorganized their ranks, carrying large and small bags, and, under the leadership of Chris Mann, escorted Prince Michael Gowther back to Swan Castle.

Tomorrow morning, Grand Duke Grimm Rosario will send a troop of Eastern troops to take control of the area around Jericho Canyon. The threat of the federal stragglers just north of Thorn City should be over.

Xiahou Yan did not go home with the main force, but brought Master Lowry, Master Lingge, Master Moliere and Eldridge, a group of five people, to the vicinity of the orc garrison in the canyon, and surveyed the ruins here under the light of the stars and the moon. Several of the men were actually a little confused: the battle was over, and the secret base dug by the federal orcs on the cliff had long been destroyed by Frost Maple Ridge. What was there to see here?

But the boss is the boss, and since the lord is interested, they can only accompany him.

Under the cold moonlight, Xiahou Yan walked past the charred remains of the "Flesh and Blood" chariot, ignoring the corpses of the orc soldiers piled up by the Frost Maple Ridge soldiers, and then stopped beside the body of a dead Frostwolf.

The fur of the Frostwolf was burned away by the attached flames caused by the "Flame Candy", leaving only broken and blackened flesh.

What really caught Xiahou Yan's attention was a piece of cloth pressed under the Frostwolf leather saddle. Thanks to being sandwiched between the Frostwolf's back and the leather, the cloth was isolated from oxygen and luckily remained intact in the doomsday purgatory-like disaster.

  Xiahou Yan pulled out the piece of cloth and looked at it in the moonlight:

The cloth was woven with fine threads and had intricate totemic patterns on it. Xiahou Yan could only barely make out the sun and a roaring lion.

"Can you see anything?" He smacked his lips and handed the cloth to his men.

  Master Moliere was the first to reach out and take the cloth, examining it carefully before asserting:

"This frost wolf is not the mount of the orc wolf cavalry. The wolf saddles of the federal wolf cavalry are all uniformly equipped, and there will be no such totem emblem cloth. Look, there are instructions from the god of war written in ancient orcish language on this totem cloth! This shows that the owner of this frost wolf is a shaman, and he must be a high-level shaman who is above the level of wolf soul shaman and is allowed to ride a wolf to participate in the war!"

Xiahou Yan hummed: The clergy of the Glorious Federation have always been known for their martial virtues. Any orc shaman who advances to the wolf soul level will obtain his own wolf mount and can ride the wolf to participate in battle from then on.

Back in the Desolate Era, the priests of the Imperial Supreme Church were all extremely powerful, and it was common for them to sing hymns on horseback and then immediately swing their swords to kill people - but nowadays, the priests of the Empire may have difficulty even climbing onto horseback.

"Shaman. That's why I want to stay and check." Xiahou Yan sighed and frowned. "You saw the scene this afternoon. How many shamans were singing war songs in Jericho Canyon? It's not less than when we were fighting against a regular Federation division, right? You also know that orc shamans are just like human magicians. They are rare species in the entire society. But I'm confused. How many shaman reserves does the Glorious Federation have now? Why is there so many shamans even in a remote base like Jericho Canyon?"

"I think, ah, I know the answer." Eldridge looked at the cloth in Master Moliere's hand, his eyes lit up, "Look, ah, this sun and lion pattern, isn't it, ah, the symbol of the Greenskins' Roaring Sun Division? This shaman is the shaman of the Roaring Sun Division, right..."

"The roaring sun?" Xiahou Yan narrowed his eyes.

In his memory, the Roaring Sun Division was also an old unit of the Glorious Federation. Its main base was located in the southern part of the Glorious Federation, in the hot area south of the Bronze Desert.

——The Igor Expeditionary Force that launched a surprise attack on the Federation last time, after passing through the Dust Mountains through the elven secret passage, if it had not gone north into the Dolores Plains, but instead crossed the Bronze Desert to the south, it would have entered the jurisdiction of the "Roaring Sun" Division and run into this group of elite soldiers of the southern orcs.

But the real special thing about the "Roaring Sun" Division is that, ever since historical records began, it has been a thorough federal garrison force whose main responsibility is to maintain regional law and order rather than to engage in external warfare.

The appearance of the shamans belonging to the "Roaring Sun" Division in Jericho Canyon meant that the Glorious Federation was undoubtedly also mobilizing troops on a large scale and sending all the manpower that could be mobilized to the front line of Thorn City.

——Just like the Inquisition on the Empire's side made a brilliant appearance, the Federation Orcs also clearly sent out their best troops and began to use their best battle sequences.

Xiahou Yan intuitively felt that this war was inevitably sliding into a huge, chaotic, and out-of-control state, and the fate of all ethnic groups on the continent seemed to have never been so closely involved in the vortex.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Xiahou Yan didn't know. He looked down at the totem cloth in Master Moliere's hand, then looked up into the distance.

The stars and the moon are mottled, and the mountains and rivers are crisscrossed.

……

Almost at the same time when the Frost Maple Ridge "Wagner" Special Forces won a great victory in Jericho Canyon, a fierce battle was also taking place on the banks of the "Al Higgins" River, 40 miles southeast of Thorn City.

  "Al-Higgins" is a pure Orcish word, which means "cut off the head" when translated into the common language. This place name actually implies two historical evolutions of this place:

First, this small river located in the southeast of Thorn City, flowing from east to west, has been under the control of the Glorious Federation and the Orcs for quite a long time, so its naming method also follows the rules of the Orc language.

Second, in all the wars between humans and orcs throughout history, the "Al-Higgins" River has always played the role of a corpse disposal plant: the orc army would cut off the heads of the human soldiers who died in the battle, and then dump the bodies into the "Al-Higgins" River. So much so that according to historical legends, the water of this small river is an ominous blood-red color all year round.

This seemingly inconspicuous river is actually an important military transportation node in the Thorn City area: go upstream eastward along Al-Higgins, pass the "Sword Heart Pass" guarded by heavy orc troops, and you will soon reach the heartland of the Glorious Federation.

The Imperial Military is convinced that the Federation Orcs have been secretly using the Al-Higgins River to transport supplies from Redstone to the Thorn City area to support the Orc invasion.

Therefore, only by capturing Al Higgins can the throat of Thorn City be strangled and the connection between this fortified city and the rear area be completely cut off.

The Fourth and Fifth Brigades of the Second Corps of the Imperial Central Army were responsible for carrying out this mission.

— and reinforcements from the Inquisition.