Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Next time we meet, they should no longer be of the Terdon Tribe.

With such scarce military forces, the limitations were destined. Colonel Jeska, dispirited, simply didn't show up.

"Scare the Herders, then come back. I don't expect you to perform miracles, just make sure they dare not set up camp within ten miles," Colonel Jeska said when assigning tasks to the two Centurions, "Be careful, don't get yourselves killed out there.

The results were as the colonel had predicted; Winters and Andre's men were capable of creating chaos, but not enough to completely rout the Terdon Tribe.

Even if there were twenty thousand pigs, a hundred or so Cavalry couldn't kill them all.

…

This morning, there was fog.

The dispatched recon Cavalry reported back that several thousand Herder Cavalry were gathering forces along the way, advancing eastward.

The recon Cavalry also reported that they saw the blue horse-tail banners among those Cavalry.

Clearly, the direct forces of the Fire-Worshipers hadn't been defeated, and the Fire-Worshiper himself hadn't conceded.

The battle was far from over.

…

A battlefield is like a pile of blocks stacked haphazardly, the removal of any one could lead to unforeseeable changes.

Last night, Jeska's troops captured the Sacrificial Golden Man.

Yesterday, the Terdon Tribe laid siege to the Bridgehead Fortress.
Find your next read on My Virtual Library Empire

If these two events still seemed to have a cause and effect relationship, then the chain reactions they triggered propagated in a covert manner to the [Northern Encampment] twenty kilometers away.

The commander of the Northern Encampment, Colonel Bod Daniel, could never have imagined that the reason for the Red River Tribe's desperate attack on the city was an accidental detour by a Federated Provinces artillery officer.

The Northern Encampment had two infantry battalions and one cavalry squadron, plus an auxiliary unit of a hundred men, totaling close to thirteen hundred troops.

The encampment was small, but it was sufficiently strong and stocked with plenty of food and ammunition.

The only issue was "water."

To occupy the higher ground, the encampment was built on a hillside.

About three hundred meters from the Confluence River, the encampment couldn't directly access a water source.

This wasn't initially a problem, as the encampment was originally set up to prevent the city's defenders from crossing the river and breaking out, better controlling the riverbank from a higher vantage point.

But now that the Red River Tribe reinforcements had arrived — to the Paratu People's surprise — the Northern Encampment became the first to be hit.

The Red River reinforcements were led by the uncles and brothers of White Lion Yasin, and they surrounded the Northern Encampment without attacking, clearly having seen through the weakness of its inability to access water.

The Red River Tribe outside busied themselves with killing any Paratu soldiers trying to fetch water, while Colonel Bod inside hastened to dig wells, thus the siege became a stalemate.

But yesterday morning, as if on cue, the Red River Tribe suddenly launched an all-out attack on the Northern Encampment.

Colonel Bod didn't know that, twenty kilometers away — on the other side of the battlefield — the Terdon Tribe was also laying siege to Jeska's troops.

Winters didn't know that the great fire they set could lead the Red River Tribe to fiercely attack the Northern Encampment.

No one could see the whole picture of the battlefield, for there was no high ground from which to overlook the thousands of people fighting, suffering, and dying.

For most people, war only happens within fifty meters around them.

Pieces can't see the whole board; the soldiers are pieces, Winters is a piece, Jeska is equally a piece.

Only a handful of individuals can be called players: White Lion Yasin, Sekler, Alpad... But even they can't see the entirety of the board.

Everyone is just struggling within the scope of what their eyes can see, their minds comprehend, and their powers can reach.

Take Colonel Bod for example, he was only thinking about how to hold the Northern Encampment. The grand plan, he neither understood nor cared about.

With a sudden exertion of force, the Red River Tribe caused the casualties of the Northern Encampment's defenders to soar.

Colonel Bod was surprised to find that the attacking Red River Tribe had a considerable number of musketeers; knowing that some Herder tribes were still using bone arrows, stone arrows.

Even the Northern Encampment's defenders didn't have cannons, yet the besieging Red River Tribe forces had brought out four—though they were not very accurate.

The battle raged for an entire day, with the Red River Tribe exploiting the Northern Encampment's lack of heavy firepower, approaching with shield carts and methodically filling in the ditches.

Colonel Bod took advantage of the night to lead his men over the wall, digging up the filled-in trenches again.

When the Red River Tribe army realized the Paratu had left the encampment, they immediately sent cavalry charging.

Both sides took turns in the darkness, clashing in disarray, each retreating after leaving behind a hundred corpses.

…

At dawn today, a thin mist rose from the wilderness.

Nearly ten thousand Red River Tribe soldiers lined up again outside the Northern Encampment, most of them choosing to fight dismounted.

Most of the Red River soldiers were carrying horn composite bows, while a minority bore heavy muskets.

The fog was detrimental to both weapons; the bows could come unglued, and the matchlocks would be more likely to extinguish.

But thinking about the enemy suffering in the same harsh conditions, the mist became a little less unbearable.

Through the thin mist, Colonel Bod couldn't see the enemy's setup, but he knew what it would be like.

There would undoubtedly be shield carts, the treasured heirlooms of the Herders.

There would also be ladders, as the Herders had already leveled several trenches the day before, pulling out quite a bit of the palisade's wood.

Spades and picks would be there too, seemingly insignificant, but they spoke volumes.

The cannons were what troubled Colonel Bod the most, as the opposing Red River general had realized his men were inept at gunnery, posing little threat.

So, quickly changing tactics, the Red River general stopped lobbing solid shot from two hundred meters away.

Instead, he mounted the cannons on shield carts, dragging them within forty meters to sweep the walls with grapeshot.

Inside and out, the encampment was silent.

"You're not bad," Colonel Bod, expressionless, stood by the rampart, muttering to himself in his mind, "but I'm not bad either. If you want to take the Northern Encampment, it won't happen without shedding some blood."