483: Chapter 76, Caught in Dilemma_2 483: Chapter 76, Caught in Dilemma_2 Due to the lack of light, it was currently impossible for those on the city wall to overlook the entire battlefield.
Count Martins, commanding the army, was purely relying on intuition.
Looking at the constant stream of magical lights, Count Martins knew that the time to attack had arrived.
Any later and the expeditionary forces outside would be cursing.
This was not the time to let down these allies.
In the upcoming battles, the Moxi Duchy still needed the expeditionary forces to continue contributing.
“Send out the order, aim the lights at the Orc Army Camp.
The Defensive Army’s First, Second, and Third Legion will attack, side-by-side with the expeditionary forces against the Orc Army!
Ensure that bright magicians accompany the soldiers.
When the chance arises, they should light up the Orc Army camp using illumination spells, carrying with them all illumination scrolls and half of the Scrolls of Attacking Power…”
Following the orders, countless lights suddenly brightened.
An unknown inventor had even added a reflective casing to the magical lamps that directed the light forward as much as possible.
A group of alchemists, who were also institutionalized magicians, followed up with a complicated magic formation that no one could understand.
The glow emitted by countless lamps gathered together.
The city wall, originally illuminated by magical lamps, dimmed again as the light was all redirected above the Orc Army.
It was as if a sun had descended from the sky, illuminating the camp as if it were daylight.
Such a sudden spectacle made the Orc soldiers quite uncomfortable.
The dazzling light brightened their path but also exposed their figures.
Having located their targets again, the crossbows and Magic Crystal Cannons from atop the walls started firing again.
The first thing the troops deploying from the city brought with them was a rain of magic.
Countless scrolls whirled in the air, instantly shredding the Orc Army’s formation.
Before the Orc officers could order a closure to the formation breach, the troops had already broken through the gap and started slaughtering.
Having seen the Moxi Army’s aggressive attacks, Balatz was so outraged that he started swearing.
The Expeditionary Army only relied on armor and weapons; in contrast, the Moxi people directly used magic.
No matter how strong the Orc Army’s formation, they couldn’t withstand these types of relentless attacks.
After a round of magical rain, a large area had been cleared.
Any resistance in the face of such extraordinary power seemed feeble and ineffective.
The intense battle had begun, but the situation was beyond Balatz’s expectation.
His past experience was useless in front of the power of alchemical magic technology, which had reached an extreme he had never heard of before.
At this moment, the night’s cover only belonged to the enemy, as they were still enjoying the “daylight” brought by the lights.
“Issue the order, let the experts with the army undermine the magical lamps on the enemy’s city wall.
Those can’t be allowed to continue shining!” Balatz hastily ordered amidst the chaos.
Countless figures flew out from within the army, heading straight for the city wall.
Unfortunately, the command was too late.
These figures had just sprung out and were already exposed.
Crossbow arrows shot at them; those who were lucky enough to break through the rain of arrows from the troops had then to face the interception of the Moxi experts.
This battle was destined to be unprofitable.
The magic methods on the city wall could not be destroyed, and the Orc experts who had stormed out suffered heavy losses.
Hudson, who was commanding the battle from afar, witnessed the massacre caused by this unequal technological advancement, and he was greatly shocked.
He had learned something – magic could be used like this.
Indeed, human potential is often forced out.
The sudden outburst from the Moxi people caused Hudson to reassess this unreliable ally.
Originally, Hudson had planned to undermine the morale of the Orcs first, and then make use of the chaotic fight in the darkness to gradually dismantle the Orc Army.
Now it seemed that such a complicated plan was entirely unnecessary.
Facing the joint attack of the expeditionary force and the defensive force, it was only a matter of time before the Orc Army collapsed.
The morale of the hastily assembled Orc Army was not high to begin with.
It was further dampened by Hudson’s gains, and now, it was utterly devastated after witnessing the collapse of their comrades.
This affected their military spirit and morale greatly, almost lethally.
Unknown who started it, but sudden departures from the Orc Army started to occur on both flanks.
In a chaotic battle involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the appearance of a few deserters was not a big deal, but the ripple effect they caused was massive.
“Supervisory team, quickly catch and kill the deserters!”
Just as Baratz issued his command, he realized something was wrong.
At this time, the departure of the supervisory team in the eyes of ordinary soldiers could easily be mistaken for fleeing deserters.
While it seemed that they were hunting fleeing soldiers, they unfortunately ended up leading the others, inciting more followers to flee with them.
Slaughtering each other had become commonplace within the Orc Empire.
If they weren’t from the same tribe, they were considered competitors; if they were of different races, they were even worse, they were “mortal enemies”.
In the resource scarce Orc Empire, if orcs wanted to survive, they could only fight and seize.
Given the enemy, naturally, they would strike at the first chance.
If it weren’t for the constraints of military law, each tribe would have already broken out into a civil war.
“Issue the order to have besieging soldiers come and join the fight!”
Baratz ordered yet again.
In a crisis, he couldn’t care less about the constraint of the military law.
Violating the military law would indeed bring disaster, yet he still had hope for the “conscience” of the commander-in-chief.
Although such a thing is rare among the higher-ups of the Orc Empire, there might be occasional exceptions.
If they were defeated, not only would he die.
His family and the tribe he belongs to would all fall on hard times.
Unfortunately, everything was in vain.
When collapse came, regardless of the number of troops, the end result was the same.
The essence of warfare was about power and morale.
Without absolute power to crush the opponent, the morale of the army was the key to determine the outcome of a battle.
The morale of the Expeditionary Army was high, the Moxi people who were trapped in the isolated city were fighting desperately, the Orc Army was not their match.
Seeing the Orc Army fleeing in all directions, Hudson, instead of ordering a blockade, restrained the momentum of the cavalry and deliberately let them escape.
Of the more than three hundred thousand Orc Army, less than a tenth was annihilated in the recent battle.
If the Expeditionary Army was expected to pursue and kill, even if it killed until dawn, it wouldn’t annihilate a lot.
The best method was still to guide the enemy to slaughter each other.
Not fancying how many orcs would die in the internal strife, as long as the hatred among various tribes was ignited, the army would be ruined.
As for the disaster caused by letting the Orc Army scatter and flee, Hudson believed that the local Moxi nobles could handle it.
If they couldn’t even handle some scattered deserters, it would prove they were weak and deserved to be eliminated by this era.
…
Outside the city of Alentejo, within the Bimon Army Camp, Prince Butzweig, who had just received news of the breakout of the battle, was utterly shocked.
The enemy unexpectedly launched a night attack, clearly not giving him the opportunity to respond.
Whether to rush back now to join the battle was a dilemma.
The Bimon Cavalry Regiment was indeed elite, but they had already consumed much energy in the daytime battle.
If they rushed over two hundred miles, they might only retain half of their strength when they arrived.
Leading tired soldiers onto the battlefield was a major military taboo.
A slight mistake could lead to a big loss.
But if he didn’t send reinforcements, Prince Butzweig wasn’t reassured.
The Orc Army besieging Dapes City was selected from the Five Great Emperor Courts as bait, or rather, discarded pawns.
Forces that could be discarded easily spoke volumes of their combat ability.
If they really had strength, even if they were considered as enemies, they would be allowed to die more valuably.
Vaguely, Prince Butzweig realized that he had fallen into a “trap”, and for a moment, he was in a state of paralysis, not knowing what to do.
“Pass down the order, have the Hawkman scouts mobilize right away to contact the reinforcements of the Great Emperor Courts, urging them to hurry to the battlefield!”
It was already late tonight, it would be better to set off tomorrow morning.
After all, there was an army of three hundred thousand, Prince Butzweig didn’t believe they couldn’t hold on for just one night.