In the northern wastelands, while the northern city was under construction, in the wastelands northwest of the Sierra de Lotas, a large number of orcs were moving southward.
Summer was about to pass, and the sun in the sky was not as hot as before. Groups of green-skinned orcs were advancing southward on the barren wastelands.
"Chieftain, we don't have much food left," an orc said to Roguessus.
Roguessus was silent for a moment. "How much food do we have left?"
"Including today's food, it's only enough for us to last a week. It's summer now, and we have to hunt and gather along the way. It'll take us a month at most," the green-skinned orc said.
Roguessus's eyes suddenly lit up. "A month! That's enough time! "
"A month later, it'll be the harvest of the southern human kingdoms. As long as we break through the stronghold, the food outside the city will be ours!"
"That's enough for our entire tribe to eat for a whole year!"
"This time, we want to have a piece of warm and fertile land under the sun!"
At the same time, the Rahrens Kingdom, Florence Kingdom, and Seren Kingdom had received news of the orcs' invasion. These kingdoms had been paying attention to the orc tribes in the northern wastelands. When they saw the orc tribes moving southward, they immediately sent back the news.
The invasion of the Beastmen at this time put a lot of pressure on the human kingdoms. There was still a month before the harvest, and the nobles were reluctant to burn their fields. Most of the farmlands outside the city belonged to the nobles, and they wanted them to burn their own fields? The stingy nobles wouldn't do that. As for the orc invasion, that was the army's problem.
The orc invasion also made a few kingdoms nervous. The nobles near the northern border began to recruit soldiers. As for the refugees that had been promised to Suhlen, they were forced to join the army. In a short period of time, the number of soldiers in the northern nobles' hands increased by two to three times.
However, even though the number of soldiers increased by two to three times, the strength of the army didn't increase. Instead, it decreased. These soldiers were basically farmers who had just put down their hoes and picked up their weapons. They could defend the city, but they would probably mutiny and run away as soon as they entered the battlefield.
The Florentine Kingdom, the Rorens Kingdom, and the Seren Kingdom all began to increase the number of troops in their respective fortresses. The Florentine Kingdom's Blackstone City used to only have 5,000 troops stationed there, but after receiving the orcs' invasion, the number of troops increased to 30,000 in less than a week.
Rauluns' Beast Blood Fortress and the Seren Kingdom's Canyon Pass had also increased their troops. At the same time, the nobles of the Northern Lands had also issued a mobilization order. All sorts of military supplies were being collected. Many merchant convoys that were ready to depart were stopped. Then, some soldiers took the order and confiscated the goods of these merchants.
These goods would be returned after the war ended. Of course, this was just an official statement. In fact, these goods would not be returned even after the war ended. In the end, they would only be compensated according to the lowest price of these goods.
It wasn't that they wouldn't be compensated at all. In this era, those who could form merchant convoys had the backing of nobles. If there wasn't compensation, those nobles wouldn't give up.
The human kingdoms in the north and the Northern Wastelands were separated by the Naphael Mountain Range. This Naphael Mountain Range stretched for thousands of miles. The main peak of the mountain range was covered in snow all year round. Many wild beasts and magical beasts lived there. Although this mountain range separated the humans from the Northern Wastelands, there were still many paths that could be passed through.
The Blackstone Fortress, the Beast Blood Fortress, and the Canyon Pass were the three largest paths through this mountain range. These canyons were much easier to traverse than the other paths through the mountains. There was no problem for large carts to pass through. Apart from these three canyons, the other paths were rugged, steep, and difficult to pass through. There were many places where carriages couldn't pass through.
Some of the most dangerous paths were steep cliffs on one side and bottomless abyss on the other. There was only a rugged path that was less than half a meter wide. Most of these paths were used by smugglers and merchants. Not only were these paths difficult to traverse, they were also life-threatening. If they accidentally bumped into the magical beasts that lived there, they would lose both their lives and their wealth.
The Beast Blood Fortress was the gate to the north of the Raurons Kingdom. Once this place was breached, the three northern provinces of the Raurons Kingdom would have to face the assault of the orcs. Ever since Count Collin had received news that the orcs were heading south, he had immediately started preparing for battle. There were only three thousand soldiers stationed in the Beast Blood Fortress. Among them, there was an army of five hundred knights. These knights were the backbone of the Beast Blood Fortress.
Five hundred heavily-armored knights were mounted on warhorses that were similarly armored. They were the strongest soldiers in the human kingdoms of this world. A knight, man, horse, and armor weighed up to five hundred kilograms. When they charged, there was no need to talk about weapon damage. Just the impact alone was enough to rupture the internal organs of an adult orc.
The thirty thousand reinforcements from the kingdom had also arrived. However, this did not make Count Collin relax. According to the information from the frontlines, the orcs could be said to have turned out in full force this time. They were facing an orc army of at least a hundred thousand men.
Outside the Beast Blood Fortress, the various antlers and barricades from before had been completely destroyed. The ground was a mess, with corpses and bloodstains everywhere. The air was filled with the nauseating smell of blood. In the battle that had just ended, the orcs had not gained the slightest advantage. However, they had also successfully accomplished their battle objective. All the defensive facilities outside the fortress had been destroyed.
The human soldiers guarding the fortress were still rather excited. Although the orc army seemed to be large, the fortress had taken advantage of the natural terrain. The orcs could not make use of their advantage in numbers at all. The narrow terrain meant that they could only put in a small number of soldiers to attack. The steep mountain walls on both sides of the fortress provided them with a natural side protection.
Below the walls, a large number of corpses were piled up. The nauseating smell attracted a large number of vultures. Some scavenger crows were also cawing in the sky. Normal beasts were afraid of an army, but these birds did not have many scruples. When night fell and the battle ended, it was time for them to have a full meal.
The orc army camp was only ten miles away from the fortress. At this time, a large number of orc supervisors were using leather whips to drive the kobolds, goblins, and other slaves to cut down trees. Then the orc craftsmen would make simple siege weapons.
Although the orcs' civilization could not be compared to that of the humans, their social system was much stronger than that of the gnolls, kobolds, and goblins.
Just three days after the battle between the humans and orcs at the Beast Blood Fortress, the Blackstone Fortress and the Canyon Pass also broke out in battles. After a short period of probing, the orcs began a powerful attack.
Suhlen knew that the orcs would invade later. After all, the Northern Citadel was not on the path of the orcs. The closest battlefield to the Blackstone Fortress was only three hundred miles away. To the north of the Northern Citadel was the Sierra de Lotas. If the orcs wanted to attack the Northern Citadel, they would have to go around the Sierra de Lotas and attack from the northwest.
After knowing that the orcs were attacking, Suhlen immediately called back the army that was clearing out monsters and bandits in his territory. The Northern Citadel now had seven thousand soldiers. Most of them were spearmen. There were four thousand of them, followed by two thousand archers.
Originally, Suhlen wanted to form more archers. However, archers were not like spearmen. A wooden stick and a sharp spearhead were enough. The archers' bows needed good materials. Although the centaurs and gnolls had cultivated wood to make bows, the amount was limited.
It was hard to form a two thousand archers. Most of them were still using birch bows. The strongest among them were the gnolls. The strongest of them had already become a gnoll magic archer. They could add elemental effects to their arrows.
Most of the gnolls were still at the gnoll archer level. As for the gnoll phantom archer, there was not a single gnoll archer. The main reason was that gnolls needed twice as much experience to level up as humans. But even so, the accuracy and range of the Half-Elf Archers were much higher than that of human Archers.
Su Lun sent out all the scouts to keep an eye on the movements of the Beastman army. At this time, the Beastman army shouldn't know about Su Lun's city. Once they knew that there was a human city here, the Beastmen would definitely attack.
At the same time, the construction of the wizard tower in the city did not stop. However, Suhlen sent out a large number of people to start digging the moat. Before, only a small part of the moat was dug out. After the orcs were dealt with, there were no more enemies in the area. Therefore, the moat was stopped.
Now, it was just a restart. Suhlen's moat would directly lead the water from the Red Sand River. The moat was about ten meters wide and three meters deep. The water in the moat was flowing. Suhlen even had the Underground Spring ability to lead two springs from the ground, allowing the water to flow into the moat.
Since the North City was located on higher ground, there was no need to worry about the water flowing into the city. The moat was not only for defense, but also for water transportation. Suhlen planned to build a dock outside the city after the war. It would allow ships to transport goods from the Red Sand River to the city gate through the moat.
The North City's moat was being built as fast as possible. The caravans in the city had also received news of the orcs' attack. These caravans could not return to the human kingdom before the war ended. They could only stay in the North City for the time being. The guards and mercenaries of these caravans were also called up. Suhlen did not plan to send them to the battlefield. He wanted to prevent them from causing trouble.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
