Currently, he was fighting against a nine feet tall warrior of the Sandpeople while breathing heavily. The other side was waving around a wooden stick as long as two men causing a small area to open up around their fight. Unfortunately, Neiman’s mount had already been crushed to death, and it was only thanks to his extraordinary reaction and agility that he was able to stay alive. But without a mount, his heavy armor lead to a rapid consumption of his physical strength. And when he once more stepped sideways trying to dodge, his foot slipped and he was hit by the stick in the middle of his chest. The strength of the attack that came hitting against his armor was so huge that it broke into two pieces.
His blue cloak swayed once more through the wind before he finally disappeared in the crowd.
Half an hour later, the knights who were still left fighting had become less and less and when the Sandpeople turned in the direction of Timothy’s hill, he grit his teeth and gave the order to withdraw. His entire group of people began their retreat northward. Compared with the huge force he had previously led into battle, the new King now merely had three hundred people still left around him.
Since the end of the Month of the Demons, it has only rained for two days in the West, all the other days had been sunny days, apparently, this was compensation for all the snow during the winter. The musty air in the office had also been swept away, becoming fresh and clean as nature, and when he opened the windows the sweet smelling fragrance of spring would sometimes float into the room.
At this time, the road between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold had nearly been restored to its former quality. But with each passing day, Roland would become particularly more concerned about the matter with the stronghold.
Every year after the return of land traffic there would also be merchants coming to Border Town selling their fresh goods, but until today he had yet to see any merchant coming in from Longsong Stronghold. Lightning was by now flying two times a day to Longsong Stronghold, to ensure that they would have an early enough warning to be well prepared for the enemy’s arrival.
Over the past week, the First Army has entered the comprehensive exercise stage, which included setting up the defensive line in order to welcome an enemy’s attack and also trained in how to pursue and attack an enemy. For the former they heavily relied on Lighting to always inform them of the distance between them and the enemy, the artillery and gun teams would shoot according to her orders — making it much easier, regardless of whether it concerned giving orders or acting on given orders. For example: Shooting solid shelling at 800 meters and 500 meters, while using canister shelling when the enemy approached 300 meters, and firing with firearms at 50 meters and so on. As long as they saw Lightning raising the corresponding flag, the team leader would then give the signal to his team to attack.
The key for the victory on the battlefield laid in the pursuit and attacking stage. According to Roland’s plan, when the enemy was defeated, they would turn around and retreat to Longsong Stronghold, for which they would also need to use three days. Even if the Duke fled on his own, leaving his militia and the hired mercenaries behind, he would still need two days for the journey, so he had to stay for at least one night out in the wild.
This gave the First Army the perfect chance to chase them. The whole process of monitoring would be done by Lightning, while the first army would always be out of the enemy’s scouting distant but ready to catch up at any moment. The artillery and ammunition would be transported by the town’s civilians. When the enemy had established their night camp, it was time for the First Army to completely encircle them, and at dawn of the next day they would start the attack, completely annihilating the opposition.
Even though the plan didn’t seem complicated, it was almost impossible to coordinate the two troops because of the absence of any modern communication devices. Roland could only hope for the witches, to make up for the lack in communication. How the final result would end up, even he himself was unsure.
