(Let me apologize first. It should have been the Anduin River, but it was written as the Andes River by mistake.)
The terrifying river surged violently and churned with muddy mud, as if there were countless angry monsters hiding under the water, waiting to devour the humans.
Due to the lack of preparation, dried alfalfa leaves, large pieces of houses, and woven reed mats typical of the Gondorian people could be seen everywhere on the river. The surface of the river was overflowing with a strong fishy smell that almost made one vomit.
Such a scene was completely different from the blue sky and white clouds of the Anduin River, with white sails dotting the water and the waves as smooth as a mirror! Fortunately, although the flood seemed to be overflowing on the vast Pelennor Fields, the water level was not very deep. The shallower parts reached up to the calves, while the deeper parts reached up to the waist at most. To be honest, a flood of this level was probably the biggest threat to Kimbang. The others only needed to make sure that they did not fall. The chances of them drowning were very small.
In the end. The Anduin River was the longest river in the Middle Earth, on the same level as the Mississippi River, the Amazon River and the Nile River on Earth. Therefore, it was very unrealistic to stop the flow of the Anduin River and use it to flood the seven armies without heavy construction machinery.
In fact, as early as in the Nightmare Realm, Knight and his think tank team had proposed a plan to break the dam, but it was rejected in the end because they had calculated and analysed that a water attack must be kept secret. Theoretically speaking, it was almost impossible to break the dam on a large scale under the supervision of the 200,000 Orc army. At best, they could only use the flood channel created by Minas Tirith every year to water and fertilize the Pelennor Fields.
What good would that do?
Letting the Orcs drink water and roll around in the mud seemed to be a very good idea, but! Don't forget that the Terran Alliance had a very important reinforcement force, the Rohirrim cavalry. Without them, the Terran Alliance would never have been able to hold on until Aragorn returned with the Ghost Army.
Therefore, for the Pan-Human Alliance, watering the Pelennor Plains on a small scale would only disgust the Orcs, but it would be extremely disadvantageous for them!
Imagine the miserable state of the poor Rohirrim cavalry when they lost their momentum in the swamp. So when the knight's think tank team proposed this plan, not only was it quickly rejected and asked to keep it a secret, these people also kept praying that the other party would not think of this key element.
As the flood flowed past, the morale of the remaining soldiers of the Human Alliance gradually recovered. They realized that after the first few waves that washed away a few dozen people, the flood gradually weakened. Not only that, even at its peak, the water level only reached their waists at most. Therefore, they slowly calmed down.
However, as the saying went, the less one knew, the happier one would be. At this moment, Knight and the others were feeling extremely gloomy. In fact, they already knew that these guys in front of them would definitely have a backup plan. Moreover, it would be a vicious backup plan that was interlocked like a chain!
Soon, those who were struggling in the muddy water saw a dense swarm of sampans and rafts approaching from the distance! These small boats probably had a very shallow draft, so they could probably sail freely in the swamp. Without exception, all of them were pirates who were shouting excitedly!
These pirates were all dressed up in an ugly manner. Their hair was disheveled, and their clothes were mainly black and extremely tattered. Due to the prevalence of a flea-like parasite on Middle Earth, it liked to hide in the hair, causing a lot of trouble and spreading diseases, approximately 30% of the pirates were bald. They shaved off their hair to prevent this parasite from breeding.
However, the pirates were also wearing standard leather armour. From this, it could be seen that the Corsairs of Umbar had almost formed a nation. The leather armour was made from two layers of animal skin, and a cushion made from the fibre of the local red coconut tree was placed in the middle. It provided good protection against arrows and swords, and at the same time, prevented the spread of fire. Some of the boats were even lit with barrels of fire, which seemed to be used to ignite torches and fire arrows.
To the remaining trusted aides of Sheyan, persuading these heavily suspicious pirates was extremely smooth. When the conditions were right, success would follow naturally. Compared to a bloody massacre on the battlefield, they felt that building a dam to weaken the enemy was the most cost-effective method. In fact, if not for the supervision of the Dark Lord Sauron's faith, these bunch of shameless pirates would have already dispersed in a hubbub.
It could be seen that the biggest weakness of the pirates was their lack of organisation and discipline. In a battle with a regular army, this kind of motley crew would often be looked down upon. Under normal circumstances, if the tens of thousands of Corsairs of Umbar fought on land against the thousands of elites left behind in Minas Tirith, they would surely suffer a crushing defeat.
It was no wonder that the Corsairs of Umbar had such a weak presence. It was not without reason that they were looked down upon by everyone.
But under Sheyan's scheming, even a piece of scrap iron had to shine. Even a piece of toilet paper had to be used to wipe the face, then the table, and then the legs before it would be discarded. It had to be used to its fullest potential!
Although the Corsairs of Umbar were in a state of disarray at the moment, the Minas Tirith defenders had been washed away by the flood like mud monkeys. Did they have any sense of discipline? Sheyan did not have any way to make the Corsairs of Umbar obey his orders in a short period of time, but he could find a way to make the well-trained enemy a mess!
This was exactly what he meant when he fought the enemy in a disorderly manner. Moreover, the pirates had come on ships, so they had an innate advantage, which made up for their lack of combat effectiveness.
What was even more vicious was that the amount of water that could be accumulated in this short period of time was limited. They only needed to wait for another ten minutes or so for the water to slowly recede from the higher ground of the Pelennor Fields. The Pelennor Fields would become a temporary swamp in two or three days!
This signified that the pirates were unable to escape with their ships once their morale collapsed. In such a muddy environment, the mobility of both parties was weakened to the extreme. Once a battle broke out, the chances of the weaker party escaping was extremely low. Therefore, the weaker party was destined to fight with their lives on the line!
This was the kind of chaotic battle that Sheyan wanted to fight! He wanted to engage in a bitter war of attrition with the enemy by exchanging pieces. Remember the battle plan that Sheyan had drawn up in the beginning? The strength of an individual was insignificant in the face of the power of a battle. The strength of Sheyan's party was like a small wave in a large-scale battle of thousands or even tens of thousands of people. It would be quickly annihilated, and at most, it could only affect one area. But by the time the battle was over, Party Ace's own strength plus their contribution points would be of great importance!
The general situation that Sheyan had initially conceived of would have taken shape!
Of course, as the saying goes, the success of a general is built on the bones of thousands. As for how many of the Corsairs of Umbar would be left after this battle, Sheyan did not even consider it. Out of the tens of thousands of pirates, only a thousand or so would be left to provide faith for the Source of Darkness hall. He believed that the great Dark Lord Sauron would not bother himself with such trivial matters ….
***
This bloody battle might not be as exciting as the previous battles, but the tragic atmosphere was incomparably austere!
Under Sheyan's calculations, neither side had much room for retreat, so they could only engage in a fierce battle. After the flood receded, the higher ground of the Pelennor Fields was extremely muddy, while the lower ground was filled with puddles of water. However, these puddles were all shockingly bright red. Everywhere, one could see the terrible scenes of mutual destruction after the battle.
This muddy environment was really a paradise for long-range attackers. It was very difficult for the enemy to dodge their attacks, and they almost never missed. But if they were attacked, this place would become a nightmarish hell.
Under such circumstances, Legolas, the Elven Prince, could not do anything. His sharp longbow almost had the upper hand. Even the Maritime Alliance and the Blu-ray Party, who had rushed over after hearing the news and wanted to beat the Elven Prince while he was down, lost more than ten people to his arrows!
It must be noted that those who had survived until now were all core members of their respective parties! The two parties had lost a dozen or so people, which was a great blow to their morale. Of course, Aziz, Zi and Aldaris in Sheyan's party had also reaped amazing benefits.
In the end, thanks to the Elven Prince's Solo Dance and Knight's improvisation, they were able to create a dry path for several contestants who were good at earth magic and special abilities to escape into Minas Tirith. In the end, there were still one or two thousand soldiers who managed to escape into Minas Tirith, but more than half of them were contestants.
Compared with the regular army, the biggest disadvantage of these redeemed soldiers was that they belonged to a large number of different masters and fought for themselves. Death was inevitable in war, but the selfishness of the contestants was often much greater than that of the others, so they would often let the storyline soldiers take the lead. Because of this, it was generally accepted that the combat strength of the redeemed soldiers was at least 2: 3 to the combat strength of the storyline soldiers. The soldiers exchanged by the contractors needed to be 300, to be able to match the storyline soldiers of 200 people. Therefore, the more soldiers that belonged to the contestants escaped into Minas Tirith, the happier Sheyan would be.
In comparison, the Corsairs of Umbar actually had nearly 3,000 survivors. This muddy area was like their home ground, giving them a great advantage. Of course, Sheyan was not going to let the survivors be used as cannon fodder to attack the city. Their job was to provide faith to the Source of Darkness hall and keep it unbreakable. Sheyan was not going to let the survivors become cannon fodder. He just needed them to defend the hall well. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to qidian.com to vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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