Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters
Chapter 1195 - 24 The Great Alliance Moves Forward (9)_2

Chapter 1195: Chapter 24 The Great Alliance Moves Forward (9)_2

When the assembly call rang, Erno was bewildered; upon hearing the departure order, he was at a loss. He confusedly followed Lieutenant Woods through the wheat field, directly into River Valley Village.

Things must be serious because the usually amiable Lieutenant Woods started giving orders in a stern tone.

But even while stationed behind the low wall made of rubble, what Erno worried most about was the pot of meat soup boiling in the camp.

"I forgot to extinguish the campfire," Erno thought gloomily, "That pot of soup is definitely going to be scorched."

The more he thought about it, the more he felt regretful; the more he missed it, the more sorrowful he felt. After all, it was a pot of meat soup, not only with chicken and duck, but he also added plenty of onions and carrots. Since leaving Mont Blanc County, it was the only food he looked forward to.

So when Lieutenant Woods patrolled along the wall and came to his side, Erno gathered his courage and asked the lieutenant, "Sir, can I go back to camp?"

The soldiers beside Erno collectively glanced at this newcomer lacking common sense, the Centurion wanted to speak but held back, ultimately saying nothing.

Woods, holding his sword, unconsciously frowned, "What do you want to do?"

"When I left, the fire under the soup pot, I forgot to put it out," Erno replied softly, "I... I want to go back and take down the pot. The soup is very good, if it gets scorched, it would be a pity, such a pity..."

Woods stared at Erno for a moment, realizing that the fellow wasn’t trying to fool him or intending to flee the battlefield, because he recalled who the person before him was—a new recruit who’s never lazy or evasive, always sent to do the tough and tiring jobs.

Engineer Lieutenant Woods fell silent, unsure how to explain to this simple young farmer what was about to happen today. So the lieutenant simply patted the arm of the new recruit and walked away without saying anything.

After the lieutenant left, the Centurion approached Erno, looking at him with a complex expression, "You’re really lucky. Aren’t you afraid of being executed as a deserter by the commander for intimidation?"

"Why?" Erno was puzzled, "Why would they treat me as a deserter?"

The Centurion instantly became furious, pointing east with his hand and shouting sternly, "Don’t you understand? The rebels are coming soon!"

Erno was scared into shrugging his neck, nodding frantically.

The Centurion, unwilling to explain further, waved his hand and left.

Not until the Centurion had walked far did Erno dare to ask in a barely audible voice, "But... but the rebels... haven’t they not arrived yet?"

Indeed, from Erno’s position, the field to the east of River Valley Village appeared empty, aside from dust floating beyond the outline of the hills, there was nothing else significant to see.

However, the distance between Erno and the "rebels" loyal to the Grand Council was not as vast as Erno imagined. This distance was constantly shortening because the "rebels" were advancing towards River Valley Town according to a meticulously crafted plan.

A soldier guarding a short section of wall could not possibly comprehend this.

Yet the Council army’s deployment could not escape Colonel Bod’s scrutiny. Learning that Sanel launched an offensive, Colonel Bod hurried to the village’s high point—the church bell tower.

From the church bell tower in River Valley Village, the movements of the two armies within a three-kilometer radius were completely visible.

In Colonel Bod’s field of vision, the first thing appearing from the distant horizon was the gleaming iron tips, followed by the dim sockets, then the black poles, and finally the indistinct figures of soldiers.

Those indistinct soldiers arranged themselves in neat lines, marching steadily from behind the hill contours, only to be bit by bit swallowed from the ankles by those same contours.

However, this so-called "swallowing" was merely an optical illusion; the enemy troops had not disappeared, they were marching straight towards River Valley Village.

Colonel Bod turned around against the church’s bronze bell, moving from one window to another.

In the fields west of the bell tower, soldiers from White Mountain, Thunder Group, and Bian River’s three counties were blindly converging on River Valley Village.

River Valley Village was too small to accommodate troops from three counties, so the army camped overnight in the fields west of the village, with Colonel Bod specially ordering them to avoid the nearly ripe farmland.

However, at this moment of urgency, officers could no longer afford to heed much, leading their men through the fields. In the sea of green and yellow wheat, winding "paths" were trampled out, like lines randomly drawn on canvas by a child.

Colonel Bod frowned, returning to the west window, gazing at the distant smoke and dust, instinctively clutching his broken arm, pondering the enemy’s plan.

The Council army’s deployment seemed superficially straightforward—arranging infantry square formation into a line, deploying cavalry at both ends, and crushing straight towards where the Alliance army was situated.

But if the scouts’ reports of the enemy’s scale were accurate, and Sanel and Chloe were not bluffing, then they would certainly fully exploit the Council army’s manpower advantage, encircling the Alliance army from the flank as much as possible.

Yet the only advantage for the numerically inferior side was geographical advantage.

Unfortunately, the so-called "geographical advantage" was nothing formidable, merely a small knoll, a dozen farmhouses, and a shallow knee-deep river—yet this was all the Alliance army possessed.

"Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp..."

The urgent and heavy sound of boots stomping on the steps arose from beneath Colonel Bod, with the sound growing louder, Gaisa Adonis poked out half of his body from the floor.