Chapter 793 Chapter 24. Prelude
On the early morning of the third day of the hunting plan, sporadic rat-men began to appear in the grassland outside the forest.
The military minister of the Windmill Principality, the first to arrive, volunteered to hand over these stragglers to them.
Facing the ignorant and arrogant military minister, Annan had no choice but to ask him to send a crony to follow the dragon-taming boy Elder and Ghost on a trip to the north.
This time they came back twice as fast as last time... which meant that the distance between them and the rat men was half as close.
The military minister's crony's hair was messy and messy, his face was frighteningly pale, and he almost fell down after slipping off the dragon's back.
He was speechless: "Ratmen...there are so many ratmen..."
The Minister of Military Affairs felt uneasy and hurriedly asked: "How many are there!"
Annan simply Show him the magical image captured by the ghost.
When he saw the Ratmen stretching as far as the eye could see, the Minister of Military Affairs also trembled: "I, we must tell... tell the empire! The Ratmen are heading north!"
Annan calmly returned the magic stone to the ghost: "The empire already knows, they are the targets of our hunting."
"We... hunt them?"
The expression of the military minister is like I heard a group of ants trying to build a sand castle to meet the tsunami...
"Will the empire send us to die?" Annan asked back.
As a result, the Minister of Military Affairs became inexplicably silent...
"What did I say wrong?" Annan looked at Blom in confusion.
"The reputation of the Tatooine Empire is not good..."
"I know that the King of Bones, a country of barbarians, regards bone tools as their beauty..."
"That's not what I'm talking about, but that the empire has been brutally suppressing the surrounding countries... So many vassals can't be bought as gifts by buying Fast pants."
Annan almost laughed, almost I understood what Blom meant: The empire was a cruel and cold empire in the eyes of the surrounding countries and lords, but they dared not speak out. After all, those who obey the empire may not die, but those who resist the empire will never live.
"The Empire is not something to be loved, but something to be feared..."
With emotion, Annan asked: "What is Black Watch's reaction now?"
"They are in our northeast. They were stationed about 30 miles away."
That is, the upper right...
Annan felt a little relieved. There was a strong ally at a close distance to help share most of the pressure. The rats they encountered. The tide can be reduced a lot.
Standing at the camp that was much higher than the forest and looking to the south, Annan could vaguely see the end of the line of sight, and could not tell whether it was the Great Wall of the North or the cloudy black horizon.
The storm came as expected.
The pouring of cement in the camp has stopped, and the final result is a large camp nearly twenty meters higher than the forest. The cost was that this stronghold consumed all of Liberty City's cement reserves and borrowed some from the Empire.
The "war merits" you strive for are best worth every penny.
The fourth legion was sent to the northern grassland to clean up the wandering ratmen. Everyone else, including Hellfire, was carrying supplies and digging trenches.
Magic cannons and orichalcum cannons are set up on high platforms, and the awnings built by the goblins can prevent the cannons and muskets from misfiring in storms.
This preparation left an ugly scar in the heart of the forest.
The elves were indifferent. They hate the rat men more than destroying the forest.
Thirteen meteor hammers specially made by Annan for the thirteen white dragons were also sent. A spiked iron ball weighing nearly 200 pounds dropped from the end of the approximately 20-meter-long iron chain.
At that time, the white dragons will just grab the meteor hammer and plow the ground repeatedly in the air.
As for the situation outside, the result brought back by the dragon-taming boy Elder and the painter was that the front line of the rat tide had approached the one hundred-mile "hunting ground" designated for hunting. Other forces began to sense something was wrong and sent scouts to the north to investigate.
Annan watched silently, he had already reminded them.
"How long will it take for the force coming here?"
"They said they would arrive before noon tomorrow..." Blom answered.
"Where is the Rat Man?" "Probably later."
"It's too late. Tell them that the rat tide is a hundred miles away, and let them decide whether to come or retreat."
Now, Annan has one last thing to do.
"Do you want to return to the Northern Great Wall?" Annan asked the military minister of the Windmill Principality.
This half-day of contact allowed Annan to judge that he had some abilities, but not much.
"I..."
Annan knew what the Minister of Military Affairs was hesitating and said directly: "I think there should be no force to retreat now. If you do, you will be the first."
After all, they didn't care about the rat tide Annan said.
"Then I won't retreat, the Windmill Principality is with you!" The Minister of Military Affairs gritted his teeth with courage.
Annan nodded: "Since you don't want to retreat, I hope that there will be only one voice here for the next battle. Don't worry, I will treat everyone equally and will not deliberately send your soldiers to die."
"Of course, I understand why there can only be one general on the battlefield!"
The Windmill Principality's troops only have about 500 people, but they are exactly the professionals Annan needs: 320 of them are warriors and 40 are elites. , there are twenty members of the mage group, and the leader of the mage group is a level 13 archmage.
Annan divided everyone into three parts, and all mages were organized into a mage group, responsible for targeting the rat tide, rat warlocks or powerful targets in the rat tide, and taking action when the battle situation is critical.
All professionals and hellfires who can attack from a distance are integrated into Fermi's men. They are the backbone of the camp.
The remaining heavily armored orcs, warriors and golems held the line of defense.
These are the powers on the surface, not to mention that Annan can summon the two epics at any time - if it doesn't work, he will bring his ancestors to the battlefield!
After the war, the empire must be anxious with Annan...
In the evening, after digging the fifth gully around the camp, the goblins retreated.
Annan no longer cares about the sparse rat people in the grassland, and lets everyone make fires, cook, and get enough rest...
In the darkness before dawn, Annan was awakened from meditation.
Blom lowered his voice: "There is some movement in the north..."
Annan followed him out of the tent.
Overlooking the entire forest, everyone in the dark camp like a low mountain was awake, no one made a sound, and the entire camp was filled with silence and solemnity.
They stood silently and hurriedly to their positions, their faces alternately flashing dark red and pale.
The pale white comes from the muffled thunder surging in the south, and the dark red comes from the magical brilliance that breaks out in the northeast.
"Is that the direction of Blackwatch?"
"Yeah."
They have already fought against the Skaven.
"Why is there no light source?" Annan asked.
"Avoid the main force of the Ratmen - hush..." Blom suddenly signaled Annan to be silent and looked intently at the darkness ahead.
The camp was silent as the soldiers in the front row repeatedly released their weapons and wiped the sweat from their palms.
The dull air could almost condense into water...
Rustling...
Amidst the rustling of the bushes, several Elf Rangers sprang out of the woods. Leap to the camp.
"They are coming..."
As the elf ranger finished speaking, a gust of wind blew over the forest, blowing away the dullness and bringing the sound of mice squeaking in the darkness.
(End of this chapter)