Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 174
Thought for the Day: War is no art.

In the books of human history, wars are always endowed with too much legendary color.In some of the famous battles, regardless of whether the two sides won or lost, too many unnecessary colors and meanings were added in the writings of later generations.

And only when you are in it, you will find that when steel and flesh collide and collide amidst countless shouts, and decide whether to stay or not for each other's will, what are the embellishments that those later people put on it with their own imagination? It looked so dry and pale.

The pack horses and crowds of the brigade spread from the road on the plain. From a high-altitude overlooking perspective, such a team winds and turns for several kilometers on the simple road paved with loess in the old era, and continues to the end of the sky.

This is the original battlefield condition created by the lack of infrastructure under the backward productivity.

No matter how advanced the organization, the meticulous plan is finally implemented in this environment, just like a knight in white will have to fight the enemy in muddy water after all.It will inevitably reveal the ugly form of war.

Once the number of people exceeds one thousand, it will fill the field of vision; once it exceeds ten thousand, it will be boundless.And this is especially true when such a team is marching on a relatively narrow road.

Calvin was standing next to the central attack group at this time, on a high ground outside the torrent of cavalry and dragoons in the brigade, observing the marching state of the entire army from the perspective of the highest will of one side of the war.

The troops in front of him totaled 16 people, including logistics support personnel, and they were operating closely under the organizational structure he personally set up with seemingly chaotic but orderly inertia.

The troops carried a lot of supplies but they were only enough for short-term use. More supplies were dispatched and assembled from the rear as planned, and then rushed towards their reserved battlefield, so that the main force he led could be replenished nearby after the war.

Since the start of the war, the tribal side led by Calvin has clearly used its own cavalry advantage to the extreme.

The vanguard of nearly 9 people set up nine legions in units of [-] people. The three legions were the main attack direction, led by Alan Janus, Elvis, and Mars, and they were like sharp knives towards the south. The long border of the neighboring Principality of Norton is inserted.

The elite leading troops had been scattered into the enemy's rear on the eve of the war. With the cooperation of their cavalry and dragoons, the main force penetrated and surrounded various passes in the area, and then started a battle with absolute superiority. A short but intense skirmish.

This is the end of the era of cold weapon warfare and the beginning of the germination of gunpowder weapons.

The gunpowder technology that the southern countries regarded as a treasure was a joke in Calvin's eyes.But he was not in a hurry to come up with equivalent weapons after the southern countries possessed gunpowder technology, but chose to give the opponent a big surprise when the war started.

The small-scale pass was easily captured, and the fortress that was difficult to conquer also fell with a huge roar in front of the prepared high-energy explosives.

As for the truly large fortified cities, the lightly armed legions that came out chose to surround them instead of fighting them, and left them for the main force that arrived later. Calvin's heavy artillery would let them know what the roar of the God of War is.

The effect of such tactics is obvious, and it is an incomprehensible war mode for the enemy countries that are still in the era of feudal knight duels.

Under this type of fixed-point attack, the enemy's top management can't even have a clear understanding of their own situation. The front pass has not been lost, but the middle passage and the rear warehouse have both been lost.

But the commander in charge of this direction did not wait for the warning from the rear until he died in battle...

The commanders of Wangcheng couldn't understand the battle situation they were facing.The alarm on the border had just sounded, and before the troops of the enfeoffed knights from all over the place could assemble in response to the call, the snowflake-like report of the fall of the region had already appeared in the eyes of the nobles of the royal city before their flags.

But even the timeliness of these reports is not much left. After they have been processed through a simple and backward mechanism with unclear rights and responsibilities, and then submitted to the higher level, they have delayed too much precious time.

Inefficient battlefield information is presented on the table of the monarchs of the southern countries, but it is actually outdated before it is put on the table.

Even more alarms failed to be reported, and they disappeared silently in the fixed-point interception of the leading troops.

This is a collision of tactical concepts across the ages, and it is also a tactical thinking that clearly recognizes the latitudes of intelligence, timeliness, organizational strength, and execution effectiveness. pressure.

For a whole month, the legionnaires who went forward did not even meet the resistance of the establishment during the leap forward.In the eyes of professional soldiers, medieval knights led dozens or hundreds of militiamen, just like their lords, it was a pitiful joke
The vanguard of 3 troops in the central direction, under the command of Alan Janus, ate all the planned tactical targets along the way, and even the only remaining large fortress city was tricked out of the main force by his intelligence, and then declared to fall .

Under such a background of the battle situation, the functions of the base camp have undergone changes that make Calvin and his staff members dumbfounded:

The expected task of attacking the fortified city no longer exists, but the planned heavy siege supplies are still arriving one after another accompanied by second-line supplementary troops.

The footsteps of the 15 people in the base camp became slower and slower under such a background, and finally became a mobile logistics support point, and a large-scale circulation military camp that continuously dispatched security forces to maintain stability along the way and received the results of the battle ahead...

The war continued in this way.The six legions in the other two directions also rushed all the way, strangling the unformed lord troops in various places at their doorsteps.

Started in March and ended in September.In six months, the first country adjacent to the northern continent collapsed under the iron hooves of the tribe.The tens of thousands of troops directly under the royal family and the powerful nobles scattered all over the country did not delay the tribe's offensive plan for one more day.

Until the central cluster led by Allen arrived at the foot of the royal city, the remaining two countries would not even have time to complete their respective combat preparations.

The nobles and merchants in the royal city were still unwilling to wake up from the reality of failure until the city was broken, like a dream.It is difficult for them to understand why they failed so simply despite having tried their best.

After the king offered his crown and seal, he was imprisoned in the deep palace to wait for Calvin's trial.

The court nobles who once held power had their wings completely cut off under the clear and definite power takeover plan of the General Staff.

Calvin's policy direction is very clear: bypass these large nobles, point the butcher knife directly at the middle-level nobles of the kingdom, and kill the real maintainers of these ruling classes, and the big nobles who have lost contact with the grassroots will completely lose the possibility of rebellion and restoration.

A great noble without subordinates and vassals is like a fish out of water, unable to catch any waves anymore.They can only curl up in the dark corner of their mansion, waiting for their doomsday in hatred and curse...

The northern continent has entered the cold season since July, and the increasingly cold environment has sharply increased the logistical pressure.

Calvin was no longer eager to attack the remaining two countries. Under his order, the various legions of the tribe began to garrison on the spot, absorbing and digesting the previous battle results.

The first phase of the war ended, and Calvin turned his attention away from the war, and began to examine the military management.

A war that is too smooth is a double-edged sword.While forging the confidence of the tribal army to win, it also contributed to their contempt for the enemy and their increasingly obvious arrogance.

Whether it was Allen, who was in command at the front, or Calvin's own subordinates, an overly optimistic view of war began to appear among grassroots officers, and even some legion leaders and mid-level staff officers also vaguely revealed this tendency.

This is the inevitable result of human nature, and it is also a manifestation of the lack of training of the officer team.

Calvin knew this and was prepared for it.The leaders of the legions in the base camp who had been unable to participate in the front-line war were summoned, and under Calvin's order, they rushed to the front line with the middle-level officers of the staff headquarters.

And Allen, Elvis and others in the front also redeployed their troops, and began to quietly replace the original troop leadership composition with the addition of the legion that was constantly coming to the rear for rotation.

The officers who returned from the front line were transferred to the newly formed staff and re-educated in the teaching brigade that accompanied Calvin.

They will temporarily withdraw from the war and review the previous war from the perspective of an outsider.

The decisions made by these commanders in the previous battles will also be evaluated by Calvin one by one during this period, so that together with their learning results, they will determine where they will go in the future.

This back-and-forth mechanism is not only applicable to high-level generals, but has also been extended to middle and low-level officers of various legions.

War is a melting pot, and a victorious war is a feast.The law of the able and the mediocre is particularly evident at this time.

A large number of mid-level and low-level officers with outstanding abilities have emerged in this half-year battle, and they will walk the path their predecessors walked for more than ten years in a short period of time, and directly become the backbone of the army.

It is precisely because of this that the stability and purity of their thoughts must be guaranteed, which is also the focus of the work of the entire tribe at this stage...

It was already December in the depths of winter, and the cold air flow swept down from the north, making the Principality of Norton, which is located in the temperate zone, also covered in silver, with heavy snow falling.

Ibanez, the capital of Mendoza Province, is also the largest port city on the border between the Principality of Norton and the Kingdom of Fallas.

The prosperity here that once benefited from trade in furs and medicinal materials in the north has changed beyond recognition under the ravages of war.

The once-crowded central market and the tax official's mansion have been emptied a few months ago and turned into homes for homeless people and refugees.

This is not an accidental phenomenon. When the king city fell and the news that the king had surrendered to the enemy came here, the merchants and nobles at the bottom had already started packing up their belongings and fleeing to neighboring countries.

Count Pario, the lord of the City Lord's Mansion, showed extra loyalty against this background.

He stuck to his post until the arrival of Allen's legion, and then he led the crowd out of the city under the petition of the elders of the city, and surrendered in exchange for the peaceful takeover of the legion and basic respect for the local people.

Alan Janus personally attended the surrender ceremony, because the geographical location here has special value for the tribe:
As the southernmost territory of the Principality of Norton, when this city is conquered, it means that the last flag of the former Principality of Norton will also be lowered.

All legal symbols of the Principality of Norton have been erased so far.After losing their last spiritual support, the resistance among the people quickly disintegrated...

It is now the base of the legion under Alan Janus.Tens of thousands of soldiers gathered here under his command.

When winter comes, as the only transportation hub within a hundred miles nearby, this is not only the base camp for legion repairs and rotations, but also the starting point for the legion to attack and advance after the snow is opened next spring.

Calvin mobilized more armor, weapons and winter supplies here, and at the same time, more soldiers were moving here to replace those who had been out fighting for half a year.

The logistics supply vehicles transported here from the base camp are stretched across the city, non-stop day and night, even ice and snow cannot stop them.

A hundred kilometers away, the border of the Kingdom of Fallas was startled three times a day. Knowing that winter was not conducive to the use of troops, they watched every move here nervously, and kept silent in front of the increasing power of the legion, daring not to move a little.

In the hall of the former City Lord's Mansion, under the dim candlelight, Allen sat alone behind the table dealing with the government affairs of the legion.

In the space of a few months, his status has changed dramatically.

He is no longer the Chapter Master and Astartes warrior of the Firehawk he once was.Instead, he unknowingly became the lord of a legion with tens of thousands of soldiers under Calvin and in charge of one side.

The identity of the former has been completely abandoned by him with his awakening, while the responsibility of the latter puts a heavy pressure on this warrior who transcends mortals.

Legion management is an extremely complicated job, and it is a heavy responsibility.

But fortunately, this kind of pressure is still within the scope of Allen's handling, probably due to the information processing ability of the Madonna's glands. His genetically modified body obtained from Calvin is naturally adapted to this kind of complicated government work.

Even after working hard every day, he still has the energy to exercise and recover his martial arts for a long time.

But right now he is laughing and laughing because of the letter he received.

The tribe's attitude towards the southern countries is very obvious, and the monarchs and ministers of the Kingdom of Fallas also clearly read this dangerous signal from the increasing scale of troops under Allen's command.

But they dare not fight back.

The tribe's previous attack by the autumn wind that swept away the fallen leaves caused Norton's century-old foundation to collapse in a few months, and it really frightened these aboriginal nobles who had established their country through commerce and had been peaceful for hundreds of years.

This can be seen from the situation in the province of Mendoza.

They didn't even dare to take a bite out of the body of the Principality of Norton, but were willing to wait until Allen and his legion arrived, watching helplessly as the legion conquered the entire province, but they didn't dare to act rashly.

They dreamed of a non-existent peace, but the endless increase of troops from the tribe made them smell blood.

The monarchs and ministers thought hard about the approaching demise to no avail. In the end, they didn't know who suggested it, and they actually hit Allen with doctrine:
"You are a dragon and a phoenix among men, with tens of thousands of soldiers and countless armors. In life, power is given to one side, and in death, there are bells to ring to match. At this time when the heroes are vying for the throne, can An Neng be the successor for others?"

Allen didn't think much, but chose to send the messenger with Xin to Calvin who was still in the royal city overnight.

While the latter was also busy with government affairs, he saw this delightful letter from his new adjutant:
"Hey? This thing looks familiar..."

　update update!Excuse me!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)