Chapter 135 Preparation before the war
Hekou Town, castle banquet hall.

After listening to Rhodes' speech, all the pioneer knights fell silent.

"Attack Sarko Ice City again?"

Charlie, Byrne and the other five Knights of the Round Table murmured to themselves, recalling the unsuccessful war.

That was the first large-scale battle they experienced after arriving in the North.

From the initial ambition to the frustration after a series of setbacks.

Although the final outcome was not bad, the failure to capture the Wolf Chief's city definitely left an indelible knot in everyone's hearts.

Now that they have experienced several wars, both their own strength and their army have grown.

After hearing Rhode's decision to attack the city again, many pioneering knights couldn't help but have some ideas in their minds.

Rhodes scanned everyone's faces and could sense their intentions.

But that was all. No one was in a hurry to speak, but waited quietly for his next words.

Rhode understood the reason. They were no longer the naive knights they had been when they first arrived, and they would not agree to send troops on a whim like they did before.

Questions such as how to conduct the siege, who will be responsible for the main force, and how to distribute the spoils all need to be determined in advance.

If he couldn't see any tangible benefits, no matter how much the knights of the alliance praised him, Rhodes would never be able to borrow a single soldier from them.

"Both the cold wave and the appearance of the White Frost Cult are proof of the impending turmoil in the North. In order to ensure the safety of the territory, we need to capture Sarko Ice City as a strategic fortress to resist the barbarian army."

Rhodes opened the map, which showed the Hanshui River Basin and the distribution of the territories of the Alliance Knights.

The locations of each territory are scattered, making it difficult to form an effective barrier.

In this case, the location of Sarco Ice City becomes extremely important.

If the alliance occupies the Ice City, they can station troops there and use it as a barrier to form a pincer attack with the territory in the rear.

In order to avoid the risk of being attacked from both sides, the enemy did not dare to easily cross the Ice City and attack the heartland of the alliance.

"As long as we occupy Sarko Ice City, each family can avoid the threat of being sieged one by one, and other companions can quickly provide support."

Rhodes explained the strategic significance of Sarko Ice City.

The Alliance knights nodded in agreement. The five Knights of the Round Table maintained their expressions, but the ordinary pioneer knights' emotions were more obvious.

After all, the security attributes of Sarko Ice City after its capture are particularly important to them.

After they had digested the strategic significance of Ice City, Rhode continued:

"I will be the main force in the siege and will be responsible for breaking down the city walls. In addition, the distribution of spoils will continue to follow the previous organization of the six alliance regiments and will be distributed fairly by the six regiment leaders."

The other five Knights of the Round Table were most concerned about the distribution of the spoils.

When they heard that Rhode was still distributing the power among them and did not forcibly take away the dominant position, their eyes lit up.

"I agree to send troops." While others were still hesitating, Charlie spoke first, staring impatiently at the Sarco Ice City on the map.

The two strongest members of the alliance both decided to attack the city.

Byrne, Okaf and other Knights of the Round Table no longer hesitated and nodded in agreement.

"Very good, it seems we have reached a consensus."

Rhodes looked at Charlie happily, and understood his thoughts from his fiery eyes.

Charles did not acknowledge his dominant position. He probably wanted to prove himself and regain the right to speak by using his outstanding performance in the upcoming siege war.

Just as the opera house is to dancers, the battlefield is the stage for knights to perform.

Rhodes was not disgusted, he agreed with his ideas and looked forward to his performance.

"The six alliance regiments are allocated according to the military size of 1,000 people per regiment. If there are insufficient soldiers, civilians can be arranged to join the logistics transport team as replacements. Every three logistics transport soldiers will enjoy the minimum military merit allocation of one front-line soldier."

Rhodes said, "Who has any objection?"

Seeing that no one objected, he decided the outcome of the resolution.

"Then from now on, the alliance will enter a state of war. Each family will gather soldiers and gather at the entrance canyon of the Dragon Ridge Plain in half a month!"

After the banquet, the Alliance Knights did not stay in Hekou Town for long, and hurried back to the territory to reorganize the soldiers who were going to battle.

During the preparations for the war, Rhodes released a list of demands for military supplies, which continued to attract merchants.

The already bustling business environment in Hekou Town has become even more prosperous.

After dealing with the armament issue, Rhodes went to Mole Town.

The list of soldiers going into battle was confirmed from the Third Divine Arrow Battalion stationed locally.

After traveling back and forth in the three territories in his hands and solving the military problems.

Rhodes finally returned to Pingdingshan and came to the center of the magic pool where the mountain lake was located.

At night, the bright moonlight falls on his shoulders.

Rhodes slowly raised his hand, confirming that he had further control over his magic power.

This is due to the Snow Moon Rabbit's innate ability to condense moonlight.

More importantly, in the afterimage of the northern border, he received the blessing power of Alice.

Controlling the vast amount of third-level magic power, even though it was only a brief glimpse, still allowed him to make great progress and his wizard level reached the advanced first level.

Rhodes pointed his palm at the magic field area, and under the witchcraft of the spiritualization of the earth veins, the earth began to surge again.

The number of magic fields he could contract doubled, adding another two hundred acres.

Successfully transformed the planned 400 acres of land into magic fields.

After completing the transformation of the Demonic Field, Rhodes integrated the mottled divinity into his body and began his own transformation.

As the higher spirituality merged into it, the power hidden in his blood was activated.

After consuming five hundred units of mottled divinity, icy white mist gushed out from all the pores of his body with the sound of his heart beating like a drum.

There are also traces of dirty dark red blood mixed in it, which are impurities accumulated in the body over the years.

Impurities are wrapped in mist and excreted from the body.

With the help of the ice mist, Rhodes could clearly feel the sense of relaxation coming from all parts of his body, as well as the gradually expanding sense of power.

He bent his legs in a lunge and stretched out his arms to hug a three-meter-high stone pillar in front of him.

"Get up!" Rhodes gritted his teeth.

With all his strength, he successfully lifted the seven-ton stone pillar.

Rhodes swung the stone pillar in the air, drawing exaggerated arcs.

Ten minutes later, feeling the soreness in his arm muscles, Rhodes put down the stone pillar and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Beishuang's bloodline has awakened successfully, and he has entered the second level, becoming a true Frost Knight.

Different from the first-level extraordinary knights, the special thing about the second-level awakened knights is that they can master innate skills and exert the magical power of magic.

As a Frost Knight, Rhodes' awakened innate skill is [Frost Blade], which can give the weapon terrifying freezing damage.

It is not a physical enhancement of talent.

But after entering the second level of knighthood, his strength reached an astonishing number, and he was able to lift objects weighing more than seven tons.

The second level is a completely new field, which means the knight's absolute dominance on the battlefield.

Even without using any talent or skills, just relying on the most basic numbers.

Now, Rhode could transform into a humanoid chariot by picking up a long-handled weapon, and slaughter the ordinary troops in all directions, achieving the feat of destroying the army alone! The next morning, Rhode, who had just been promoted, woke up a little excited.

After washing his face and calming himself down, he came to the Magic Steel Plant in Pingdingshan to confirm the most critical preparations before the war.

An icebreaker beast was lying in the open space in the center, yawning lazily.

Two soldiers were standing by, taking care of it carefully.

From time to time, we feed the old man some high-quality barley straw to keep him lying quietly on the ground without moving.

On the back of the icebreaker, a weapon craftsman was busy installing a thick steel gun barrel with the help of his apprentice.

Rhodes watched from the side, and only went forward to find out what was going on after the weaponsmith finished his work and relaxed.

"Sir, please look, this is the latest large siege cannon 'Sun's Wrath' that was completed at the steel mill!"

Seeing the lord coming, the weapon craftsman introduced himself excitedly.

"With the help of the tools of the God of Forging that you provided, this 'Wrath of the Sun' is forged with high-quality steel. It is four and a half meters long and can fire a 24-pound solar cannon with a range of ten kilometers. One shot is enough to destroy a five-meter-high conventional brick wall and create a gap large enough for a carriage to pass through!"

As the weapon craftsman gave his passionate explanation, Rhodes looked at the cannon mounted on the back of the icebreaker beast and couldn't help but feel excited.

The power is secondary. After all, the explosive power of the sun mushroom spores is terrifying, and it will naturally not be much worse after being made into a solar cannon.

What really amazed Rhodes was the range!

If I heard correctly, ten kilometers?
What's the point of fighting this war? After the war starts, the enemy won't even have the chance to see his army, as they will be sent to heaven by a round of artillery fire.

Rhodes didn't rush to open the champagne. After some understanding, he understood the problem behind the range.

Being able to shoot ten kilometers away and being able to hit a target ten kilometers away are two completely different concepts.

As a smoothbore cannon without rifling, the shell technology is also in its primitive stage, and long-distance accurate positioning is basically a dream.

Not to mention ten kilometers, as long as the distance is more than five hundred meters, whether you can hit the target depends entirely on luck.

The target here refers to large fixed targets such as sentry towers.

If it were a small moving target like a soldier, if he was hit by artillery, it must be because he had angered the goddess of misfortune in his previous life.

It is easy to solve this problem, just provide firepower coverage.

As long as the entire battle zone is occupied, there is no need to worry about aiming.

Rhode wanted to implement this kind of bold money-throwing strategy, but unfortunately the limited resources in the territory did not support it.

Then the only option is precision shooting.

"Let me think about it. The most basic sight uses three points to determine a straight line. This is not difficult."

It is not difficult to install a mechanical sight on a gun, but the difficulty lies in how to teach soldiers how to use it.

Even the simplest curved trajectory involves a series of parabolic coordinate calculations, and behind it is the accumulated knowledge of classical mechanics.

Professional artillery is a highly qualified cultural branch of the military.

Unfortunately, most of Rhodes' soldiers were illiterate.

For them, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing beyond the ten fingers is no less than reading an incomprehensible book, and there is nothing in their heads except question marks.

"It's literacy education, take your time." Rhodes smiled and shook his head, not caring too much.

Development must always come step by step.

As for now he can only temporarily serve as the gunner.

Rhodes sat on the back of the icebreaker and directed it to the foot of the mountain, then adjusted the angle of the gun barrel.
During this process, he turned his view to the ravens in the sky and used the bird's-eye view to calculate the distance between him and a hillside in the distance.

After determining the firing angle of the gun barrel, Rod ignited the cannon.

With a huge roar, fire was reflected in the distance, and large pieces of rubble and ice flew into the sky.

After continuous shooting tests, Rhodes gradually mastered the artillery shooting skills.

At the same time, the effective firing range of this artillery was confirmed.

Within three kilometers, large targets can be located and struck.

Once this distance is exceeded, accuracy drops rapidly and the trajectory of the shell becomes unpredictable due to technological problems.

This result is pretty good, at least it is more than enough to attack the Sarko Ice City.

Time passed quickly as Rhodes confirmed the various armaments.

The day for the alliance army to assemble is coming soon.

Early in the morning, at the intersection outside Pingdingshan.

Soldiers from three battalions, from Mole Town, Hekou Town and Pingdingshan, gathered here.

They are all in high spirits, lined up neatly on the road, ready to set off at any time.

While waiting, in front of the Iron Wall Camp, the members of the Alvis family who had recently joined Rhodes were chatting in low voices.

Chief Meg, the Extreme Knight, looked over the army with a look of amazement:
"No matter how many times I watch it, I can feel the amazing vitality of this army. Instead of being afraid of war, they look forward to it. This is really..."

The other family brothers around him were speechless.

They were both pleased and disappointed at the strength shown by the lord, as the family's hope for independence was becoming increasingly slim.

The eldest son, Kroll, nodded in agreement, his eyes revealing the same yearning and excitement as those soldiers.

His obsession with his family is not that deep.

The understanding he gained during this period made him realize that military merit and promotion were not limited by status, and Kroll saw a brighter future in this!

When a slight tremor was felt from the ground, the army, which had been a little noisy, suddenly quieted down.

Everyone stood upright, their eyes turned in unison towards the source.

In that direction, four fully armored ice-breaking beasts were marching towards them.

Rhodes was standing on the one in the front.

Holmes came forward to greet him and reported the military situation to him.

Of Rhodes' three knight battalion commanders, only Holmes followed, while Noah and Loren stayed behind to defend the territory.

Rhodes looked at the army in front of him.

For this war, he summoned thirty snowfield cavalry, six heavy armored sword guards, six ice bow hunters, and four ice-breaking beasts from the extraordinary soldiers.

The ordinary army had three hundred cavalry, five hundred heavy armored infantry, two hundred longbowmen and two hundred crossbowmen.

The total number of troops participating in the battle was over 1,200.

Half of them were veterans who had experienced several wars, and the other half were new recruits who joined during the period of great military expansion.

By using the method of old soldiers guiding new soldiers, these new recruits can grow as quickly as possible through the tempering of war.

Thanks to the cultivation of high-quality barley and high-quality black wolfberry, the military strength of the territory has increased significantly.

Even if more than half of the military forces are deployed in this war.

This time, Rhodes didn't need to worry about the territory's defense being empty.

After confirming that everyone was present, Rhodes drew his sword and pointed it forward, shouting:
"All troops set off!"

"Target: Sarko Ice City!"

Amid loud shouts, the soldiers excitedly raised their weapons and set off on the journey.

(End of this chapter)