Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 466: Rendezvous and Surprise

Claude arrived at the crossing of the Dolinibara River at the end of October, from the Eastern Mountain Defense Front command, which took a total of 28 days, six days behind General Albert. But now that there are four floating bridges on the river, the two additional floating bridges were arranged to be stationed at the ferry to guard the 108th regiment, and Colonel Lemandock, the leader of the regiment, stood respectfully at the ferry to receive Claude.

Colonel Lemandock and Colonel Fareos, the local guard of the 114th regiment, were old men of Claude, moving from the 1st division of the Legion of Thunder to the local guard sequence. Colonel Lemandoc had recurred from old injuries to his waist, while Colonel Fareos had applied for a report to go to the local guard corps because he was too old to keep up with his conscious strength.

“General Albert has led the second division of the Thunder Legion to Lake Lang City, killing an enemy cavalry and an infantry battalion for the first time in combat with the Hicks, with nearly 2,000 casualties himself. General Bolognick sustained minor injuries, leading two regiments and one battalion to defend Lan Lake City for twenty-seven days, and much of Lan Lake City was hit with rubble. At the time of his rendezvous with General Echelente, there were only over 4,000 horses left under his command..."

Colonel Lemandock briefed Claude in detail on the front lines and General Albert's placement with them.

Major Mason Hughes, as Claude's deputy, plotted on the map a line of confrontation between the two armies outside Lake Lang.

“Your 108th regiment and one or four regiments from Fareos have been placed on the Dolinibara River Defense Line, and now three local guard regiments have been deployed on this line. The integrated 117th regiment has been ordered by General Albert to go to the town of Ginko to strengthen the guard force of the Claude Defense Line. The local guard regiment, formerly stationed along the coast of Bering Ghana, has arrived on the Claude Defense Line...”

Claude threw down a smile of satisfaction until now, when he finally let go of his heart. General Albert did a good job, not assembling these local guard groups to come and rescue Langhu together, but first strengthening the guard force in these two key locations to relieve his own worries.

Don't look at the war now that the Hicks have taken a lead and fought in the war zone, but he shouldn't have had to take down Lan Lake City, so he gave the Legion of Thunder a thousand miles to help out, and there was no unexpected ending to the next war.

“Major Mason Hughes ordered the troops to cross the river and camp across the shore for two days. Get Colonel McJackie and Captain Blovik.” Claude commanded, "Colonel Lemandock, please ask your men to camp for our soldiers this time so they can rest early. They've been on the road all day and night, and all they need is a good night's sleep. ”

“Okay, General, I'll have my soldiers help build the camp and get you something to eat and drink.” Colonel Lemandock left with a toast.

Colonel McJackie and Blovik soon appeared before Claude.

“I need you to complete a mission.” Claude took a spot map: "Fishing harbour towns, which are at the mercy of the Hicks, food supplies that they can collect within our direct jurisdiction, but arms and ammunition must be equipped with this logistical supply corridor. Our first division will stay here for two days, recover from fatigue and then head to Langhu City for reinforcements.

But you, Battalion 131 and the Wolftooth Squadron, can only rest one day and leave tomorrow night for Fishing Harbor Town. I do not need you to occupy the fishing port town, I just need you to destroy it, burn it in white, and cut off the Hicks from supplying armaments through ocean carriers and floating stack bridges. As long as we destroy Fishing Harbor Town, the Hicks outside Langhu will never escape again. They will be the credit of our Thunder Legion Horse Knife. Do you understand? ”

McJackie and Blovik salute each other: "Got it, General. ”

Claude waved: “You two troops cross the river first, find a quiet place to camp, and set off tomorrow night on your own without notifying me. Be careful not to be caught. ”

After Magic and Blovik left, Claude looked again at the confrontation line between the two armies on the map. Claude's curiosity is that the Hicks' offensive style has changed dramatically, attracting the full attention of the heavily concentrated battlefield from the eastern frontier mountains and then sneaking into the fishing harbor town, which is an alien version of the Mingxi stack road crossing Chencang, which is amazing.

It's just that the Hicks' offensive tactics became rigid and old-fashioned when they landed in the fishing port town. Although Lan Lake City is the seat of the administrative center and theatre command of the directly administered theatre, seizing the prestige of Lan Lake City to fight the theatre raises its morale and sweeps away the shadow of the failure of the first four colonial wars, the strategic position of Lan Lake City is less important than that of the Dorinibara River Defense Line.

If Claude is the front line commander of the Hicks, all you need to do to land in the fishing port town is send a division of light riders to watch Langhu City, and you don't need to launch an offensive to trap the city's guards. Another light rider drove straight to the Dolinibara River Defense Line, disarming the river's defenses, then arrived at the port of Patres after the two subsequent Standing Regiments landed, accompanied by a two-sided assault on both sides of the fleet to capture this deep-water port, and finding a berthed port for the Neptune and the Joint Fleet were the most important keys to the war.

Once the port of Patres has been captured, a standing army will be deployed to guard the Dolinibara River defensive line against the return of the battlefield troops on the front line. Then two fleet-controlled waters could be used to transport all four of the standing regiments of the Rodex Bay colony, slowly encroaching on the guard forces of the five direct jurisdictions south of the river, and the colonial war would inevitably end in the victory of the Kingdom of Hicks.

But now, after landing in the fishing port town, one of the Hicks' light riders and two standing regiments knew to stare at Lan Lake City, and this delayed nearly a month before taking over Lan Lake City. Instead, they waited for the Thunder Corps to come back from the mountain front. It can be said that when General Albert led the second division across the Dolinibara River, the Hicks lost their last hope of winning the colonial war.

Claude finds it odd that the Hicks' forward and backward commands differ from the heavens, as if they were temporarily transferring the main command of the front line. As now, General Albert's second division has arrived in Langhu Town, and a group of more than 30,000 light riders arrived as the first reinforcements, and the Hicks still have a confrontational formation in Langhu Town, which is simply unknown.

Don't look at the fact that the Hicks still have more than two standing legions, but his Light Rider Corps now has only one more division left. At first, the Royal Knight Reserve Corps of the Hicks entered the Langhu City area carelessly and was ambushed by the guard forces, which lost nearly two regiments before withdrawing. We will no longer dare to attack Langhu City for security and sweeping only on the outskirts, while sending two regiments to Mormari territory to collect logistics such as grass...

And the two subsequent Hicks Standing Regiments fought the Guard in Langhu City. Don't look, more than 13,000 horses remained under General Bolognick, but the Hicks' casualties were several times higher than those of the Guard. The war loss rate was almost 45 to 1. The two Standing Regiments had almost reimbursed one, and the remaining 67,000 horses were also demoralized and defenceless.

Under these circumstances, Claude really doesn't understand where the Hicks are going to stand against the Legion of Thunder outside of Lake Lang City, and still thinks they have the advantage?

The Hicks who attacked Claude in the mountains couldn't help it, because the mountains were narrow, and you stood on this side of the hill and you saw the Hicks less than a hundred meters away, but in front of him, you had to go down to the bottom of the hill, then climb up, and in front of the enemy, you had no strength to gasp. Besides, the Thunder Regiment was supposed to be an offensive Light Rider Regiment, but the Mountain Warfare gave up its own hiking march, which was impossible. The battlefield was stretched, and the Thunder Regiment had to go up...

One third of the area under Amphiston is hilly and two thirds is plain lake. Lan Lake City is right on the plain, next to the lake, and the terrain is perfect for light cavalry raids and guerrilla tactics. Here, let's not say that the Hicks are now in two semi-armed regiments, and even if they doubled their strength, Claude would never have seen it.

Two days passed in a hurry, and the soldiers regained their spirits, and the long march horses looked energetic and energetic after careful feeding. Claude was very satisfied with the inspection and ordered the assembly horn to be blown and the departure order to begin.

“Colonel Diaveed, this time your three regiments are at the vanguard, maintaining march speed, and rushing to Langhu City in three days. If you run into enemy rides on the way, then don't let them go and tell our boys that Hicks is lined up outside Lake Lang City waiting for us to give them a ride! Go, don't let our enemies down...”

“Yes, General!” Colonel Diaved paid tribute to a courteous man who made an exorbitant payment. Formerly the pioneer of the Legion's path was not one group in Berkelin or two regiments in Muried. Today it is finally your turn to three regiments, accompanied by battle tasks. Diavid is determined to take the three regiments to the first division to get a head start, and never let the five regiments in the second division show off.

General Albert's war reports had been sent to him, and his second division, after crossing the river, took a full day's rest and rushed to Langhu City, where the 1305 regiment was the pioneer of the road. Day and night, two and a half days later, on the outskirts of Langhu City. A battalion of the lead troops of the Fifth Regiment discovered a security defensive position deployed by the Hicks outside the city, which was used to protect small units of the city's guards from escape, with only one battalion.

So this 5th Regiment light mount camp broke into the camp and slaughtered, attracting rescue from the Hicks' Royal Cavalier Reserve Regiment light mount camp. Then the remainder of the 5th regiment arrived and entered the battlefield spontaneously. The same is true of the Hicks, who are increasingly involved in the rescue effort. By the end of the second division, the 1305 regiment had all been put into battle, and the Hicks' light cavalry had been rescued by two regiments...

More than 15,000 people were killed together, all fighting with horseback knives, indissolubly. Finally, the remaining three Light Mounted Field Regiments of the Second Division arrived and the Hicks fled in a panic. The second division lost nearly 2,000 light cavalry troops in the crossing of the light cavalry, while the Hicks lost a regiment of light cavalry plus a battalion of guard positions.

Almost one to three casualties and war damage made the fifth regiment of this second division stand out. General Albert could not help but exaggerate the courage of the Fifth Regiment in the war papers he gave to Claude. Claude didn't mean it, it didn't mean that the captains of his regiment, like Berklin said privately, the captain of this fifth regiment was purely stunned and rushed up like this, and didn't care if it was an enemy trap. We're lucky we didn't have the whole army. Where'd you get that face?

However, many things could not be done as desired. Three days later, Claude led the first division to Lan Lake City, and the third group on the road, apart from destroying the three teams of Hicks reconnaissance light cavalry, did not encounter the large Hicks force, as Colonel Diaved had hoped. Instead, the Hicks stationed outside Lan Lake City discovered the arrival of Claude's support force, which reinforced the guard and security of the battalion and defensive positions.

The only good news about the reunion with the second division was that the leader of the fifth regiment was seriously injured in that cavalry duel and was sent to the rear mountains to take care of his injuries. As for the battalion leader who provoked the cavalry showdown, the glorious battle had long since died in the battle.

General Albert and Claude are naturally well aware of the success of this cavalry showdown. Placing the results of the 5th Regiment in front of all Regimental generals is only to improve morale and strengthen the confidence of victory. Besides, the Thunder Regiment is also a light cavalry regiment. If you kill with a horse knife alone, you can achieve one-to-three battle damage results. If you use a new rifle, are you still afraid to defeat the enemy?

Just as Claude's first division met General Albert's second division in Lake Lang and saw General Bolognick with a bandage on his arm. In a small hill on the outskirts of Fishing Harbor Town, Blovik and several Lycan squadrons were covered with vine weeds, looking as if they were a weed bush, watching the Hicks' fortification and movement in Fishing Harbor Town with a single telescope...

In the evening, Blovik had been squatting in a disguised tent with McJackie and was arranging steps for evening operations: "… the enemy had rebuilt the floating stack bridge with small fishing boats for the inhabitants of the town and dozens of seized offshore bottom carriers, allowing them to sail two quadricycles side by side, speeding up the movement of goods from the ocean to the sea.

At the end of this floating stack is a large offshore transport vessel anchored to the edge of the shallow sea strip by four vessels. The enemy ocean transport vessel docked at the side of the offshore transport vessel, where the same amount of material unloaded from it was piled up before being transported ashore by convoy. On both sides of the floating stack bridge, a fire pit is lit more than 10 metres apart at night, and the patrol patrols the floating stack bridge very closely, once every half hour.

The Hicks also have a battleship cruising here, docked by that offshore transport boat at night. Last night, I found the captain of the battleship aboard the carriage overnight and returned to the ship at 9: 00 a.m. I don't know if that's normal. When the captain returned to the ship, the battleship started patrolling the surrounding waters, and every ocean transport vessel approaching the floating stack bridge had to be boarded and inspected by the officers and soldiers on board before it could approach the offshore transport vessel and dock for unloading.

Besides, the security situation in this fishing port town does not seem to be very thorough. The enemy probably has a regiment of guards and a very traditional layout. Three trenches were erected in the periphery, and every hundred meters a barrage of artillery was erected. The women and children of the town were driven to live in this corner to the east, restricting their personal freedom, and young men and women were captured as convoys of goods...

My advice is to dive by my Wolftooth Squadron at night from here near the floating stack bridge to see if we can get close to the Hicks cruise ship moored next to that offshore transport ship, and if possible we will take the ship and light the offshore transport ship and floating stack bridge to attract the town guards to the fire fighting. Then your battalion will launch another night raid, believing that we will soon be able to accomplish this task. ”

McJackie asked a few more key questions and nodded after receiving a satisfactory answer, simply deciding on the course of action. The soldiers were then ordered to start resting until the hour of attack arrived at night.

At 3 a.m. on 26 October, Captain Blovik of the Legion of Thunder led the Lyceum Teeth Squadron to successfully seize the Nightingale Second Cruiser of the Sea King's Fleet of the Kingdom of Hicks and burn the floating stack bridge built by the Hicks. Meanwhile, the 131th Battalion of the Thunder Regiment, under the command of Colonel McJackie, captured the fishing port town, annihilated more than 2,000 defensive men, captured more than 4,000 Hicks prisoners of war, and won the rescue of thousands of residents of the fishing port town enslaved by the Hicks...