Marco and his men arrived here in the evening. It was only two hours away from the White Blade River Bridge. Marco arranged for the troops to rest here, just in time to reach the side of the bridge when the sun rose to the right position.
The White Knife is the largest and longest river in the North, rising in the Lonely Hills behind the Dreadfort, with a tributary from Long Lake, and winding south to enter the Bite at White Harbor.
After leaving Winterfell, there are two bridges on the way to Dreadfort, one is the Oak River Bridge, and the other is the White Blade River Bridge. Just now, the scouts of "Wolf Fang" sent information that the Bolton family's army had already set up a battle formation at one end of the bridge, seemingly preparing to launch a decisive battle with Marco's Valyrian Empire army.
This time, the Bolton family seemed to have gone all out, sending out a total of nearly 3,000 heavy infantry troops, and they also placed rows of giant crossbows on the opposite side of the bridge, seemingly to use them to deal with Marco's dragons and griffins.
Although I don't know what other tricks they have prepared, it seems that Marco's side can only bite the bullet and go up. If they are not defeated head-on, it will take a long time to reach Dreadfort.
At this time, Marco's command tent was also crowded with people. Henk Crowl was left by him to sit in Winterfell. Now Marco only had Rope Dan Magner as a hero. The remaining Bloodhand Black Stone and Elok Stern were stationed at Hardhome.
Now Winterfell, Griffin's Roost, and Hardhome have all been connected by two-way portals. Marco no longer has to worry about returning to Hardhome to provide reinforcements, so he can send a large number of troops to the battlefield to completely eliminate the threat of the Bolton family.
On a simple sand table in the camp, everyone was watching Aegon Targaryen's operational plan with great interest. This was a task given to him by Marco, and it was also an exercise for him.
Aegon was holding a thin oak stick, pointing to the location of the White Knife Bridge on the sand table, and explaining to the crowd:
"Our current troop advantage is greater than the enemy's, but the enemy has already established a defensive line, so I think we should give priority to using catapults and crossbows to suppress the enemy's firepower. After the enemy's bridgehead troops are injured and disabled, our soldiers will continue to follow up and fight against them.
The most important thing is that we need to use this method to test the enemy's attack distance and intensity, because according to the report of the scouts, the enemy has deployed a large number of giant crossbows on the other side of the bridge. After we break thru the enemy's blockade, the dragons and griffins will descend from the sky to destroy the giant crossbows deployed by the Bolton family."
Aegon's battle plan was affirmed by everyone, and many people nodded in agreement. Since Aegon's allegiance to Marco, he has experienced many wars, and his vision and way of thinking have been greatly improved.
Brynden Bloodraven nodded in agreement and said to Aegon, "Not bad, at least you know how to use our advantages now, but have you ever thot about using the golem troops to break through."
Egon heard the words and said strangely: "Uncle! Are you testing me? These golems can be used to move things and harass the enemy, but there is no way to use them to break thru the army. It would be better if they were made of stone, but unfortunately they are all made of earth."
Marco was somewhat relieved to hear this, and said, "Your observation is still relatively detailed, but this time, you are still a little bit off. Don't draw conclusions about certain things without experimenting and actually testing them. In fact, these golems are one of the main attack forces this time. We want to test their performance and upper limit thru this battle."
Aegon was a little surprised to hear this, and said, "Then how do they break the formation? Their bodies are too fragile. If they face the dense square formation of soldiers, they will basically have difficulty breaking through."
Brynden smiled and walked to the sand table. He picked up a chess piece representing the golem and drew a parabola at the bridge. He turned to Aegon and said:
"They don't need to attack head-on, they just need to drop from the sky, and our heavy catapults can just do this!"
The next morning, the Valyrian Empire army, which had been assembled, came to the White Blade River Bridge in a neat pace under the rhythm of dense drums. The first to attack was still the Protector soldiers. After seeing the soldiers of the Valyrian Empire, the Bolton family's giant crossbow also took the lead in launching an attack.
At almost the same time, Marco's ballistae and catapults were also set up and began to bombard the Bolton family's giant crossbows. This batch of ballistae and catapults were directly transferred from Griffin Castle by Marco, and they were all standard war weapons in the system.
The catapults were also very powerful. From the moment the two sides began to bombard each other, the difference was obvious. As the earth golems were moved onto the catapults one by one, the nightmare of the Bolton family soldiers began.
Ten heavy catapults and 20 catapults worked together to throw more than 100 earth golems into the Bolton family's front army like stones.
These earth golems are very hard, and like stone golems, they have only one characteristic, which is "self-repair". They can constantly absorb the corresponding material to fill their broken bodies.
These golems are shaped like the ones in the fifth generation, with two large swords of the same material as the body installed on their hands. The core of these earth golems is made of obsidian, which can fight and operate continuously for about an hour. Because the materials and manufacturing are relatively simple, Marco treats them as disposable consumables.
Once the copper golems reach the later stages, they will become obsidian mana spring cores that can be charged and have stronger endurance. Some mana springs will be injected into this core, and the starting core will be made thru corresponding rune technology.
The Golem Foundry is home to generations of golem technology, and in the near future, many more varieties of golem will be added to Marco's ranks, helping to build his empire.
The "clods" falling from the sky made many Bolton soldiers feel strange. Many soldiers thot that the Imperial Army could not take out stones. Only some veterans who had participated in the Skagos Island expedition swallowed their saliva silently, as if they had associated with some very terrible and immortal monsters.
Soon, some people's worries became reality. The clods of earth that fell into the crowd began to wriggle little by little, and soon merged into a huge earthman more than 2 meters high. Then these earthmen began to attack. The two huge and sharp stone knives in their hands kept waving among the soldiers, wantonly harvesting lives and oppressing the fragile nerves of some soldiers.
After the stone knives were broken, these golems would continue to condense stone knives on their bodies. These fearless golems kept attacking in the Bolton family's soldier phalanx, seriously affecting their defensive formation.
Moreover, some golems were advancing toward the array of giant crossbows, seemingly preparing to destroy them. As the golem troops began to harass, Marco's infantry phalanx also began to advance toward the east side of the bridgehead.
The soldiers raised their shields to resist the crossbow bolts and arrows from the Bolton family. They advanced step by step toward the bridgehead. As the distance closed, some of the imperial soldiers could even hear the shouts of the Bolton family officers.
Soon the vanguard of the maintainer soldiers and the Bolton family's infantry phalanx were docked together, and the blood-colored energy on the maintainer soldiers continued to appear and disappear. This was the effect of Marco's use of blood magic, but due to the influence of blood, these soldiers could not reach the level of the orc soldiers.
The Bolton family soldiers constantly maintained the solid shield formation, making it difficult for the Valyrian Empire soldiers to break thru for a while. Just as Marco was considering whether to send the abyss multi-headed lizards to break the formation, a huge figure more than 3 meters high suddenly rushed out of the ranks of the imperial soldiers.
The level 5 stronghold faction unit chieftain is an orc with the blood of the abyss lord demon. Although he is only level 5, he came out of the refugee camp's portal.
His height, weight, strength, characteristics and magic are all very powerful, and in addition to the characteristics of "Terror Aura" and "Leading by Example", he also has a war cry magic.
The orc chieftain Gothai held a huge ax in his hand, and wore thick armor all over his body. Looking at the solid shield array in front of him, he roared angrily, and directly launched the "Fearful Roar". With the blessing of blood-colored energy, this terrible warrior took the lead and rushed into the shield array of the Bolton family.
The ax in his hands was like a metal storm, directly cutting a huge gap in the dense shield formation of the Bolton soldiers.
The Defender soldiers, under the influence of his trait, charged into the gap with greatswords and shields. In an instant, the Bolton soldiers' formation in the entire bridgehead defense line was completely disrupted, and the soldiers on both sides began to fight one-on-one.
The Bolton family's longbowmen began to attack indiscriminately, and for a time, the entire battlefield became extremely chaotic. As the Imperial Army soldiers continued to join the battle, the Bolton family's soldiers gradually became unable to hold on, and it looked as if they were about to collapse.
Seeing that half of the imperial soldiers had already rushed over, Marco suddenly reacted and quickly ordered the air force to move out, and also ordered the war drum team to start issuing the drumbeat command for a strong attack.
At this time, Brinden, who was on the side, asked Marco with some strangeness:
"Your Majesty! What's wrong? We were about to defeat them, why did you suddenly order a strong attack?"
Marko then called for Lauren the Hawk-Eye, the commander of the crossbowmen, to be on guard for suspicious people on and under the bridge. After the arrangement was completed, he explained to Brynden:
"I suspect their aim is to cut off our troops. This bridge is the only way thru. If it were me, I would wait until half the enemy had crossed before destroying the bridge, so as to inflict maximum casualties on the enemy."
Brinden rolled his eyes at the words and directly entered the shapeshifter mode, opening visual sharing with his green dragon "Star Dream" to prepare to check the abnormal situation on the battlefield. At this time, the giant dragon was preparing to attack the enemy, just as the giant dragons swooped down.
But from the Bolton family's soldier formation, a team of soldiers rushed out, each holding a torch in their hands. As they ran, the flames on the torches remained strong, as if they would not be blown out by the wind.
At this time, in a hidden cave under the eastern bridge embankment, more than 10 soldiers of the Bolton family broke open the cave where they were hiding, and moved out a bucket of viscous liquid from inside, preparing to pile them on the bridge pier.
But they had only just moved a few barrels when a volley of arrows came flying at them. It turned out that Lauren the Hawk-Eye, who had been watching this area, had noticed the problem. Brynden also noticed the situation and shifted back into the body of an officer who was commanding the soldiers.
"From here, the vanguard advances, the rearguard retreats, quickly, quickly, quickly..."
As his order was given, the soldiers in the middle of the bridge began to divert. Although there was still some confusion, the Imperial soldiers in the middle of the bridge were gradually decreasing as time went on.
Marco saw the situation under the bridge thru the farsight technique, and quickly used the war cry magic to shout:
"Don't worry about the people carrying torches, there are people under the bridge, retreat quickly..."
But it was too late for all of this. There was a loud "boom" and a large array of green flames suddenly ignited at the east end of the bridge. Because not too much wildfire was moved out, the bridge structure and soil layer at the end of the bridge were completely blown away.
After the smoke and dust dissipated, a huge pit appeared at the bridgehead on the battlefield. Many soldiers were directly blown away by the terrible power of wildfire. Fortunately, there was soil suppression, and these injuries were not very strong. Most of them were injured by the explosion, and very few people were really burned to death or injured by the wildfire flame.
"Boom..."
With a loud bang, the bridge, which had lost the support of the foundation on the east side, finally collapsed. Some of the soldiers who did not have time to evacuate fell into the water with a wail. The turbulent water flow with ice cubes made the people who fell into the water instantly lose their voice.
If Marco hadn't discovered this situation in time, it is estimated that more people would have fallen into the White Blade River. These soldiers of the Bolton family were originally going to blow up the bridge bottom pillars, but they did not expect to be attacked by Marco's crossbowmen.
"Boom... kill..."
Just as the soldiers who were still in shock were preparing to assemble, the sound of horses' hooves and shouts of killing came from afar.
A mixed cavalry force of about 3,000 people charged toward the soldiers who were still in the midst of the melee in a cone-shaped formation, led by more than 100 heavily armored cavalrymen.
"Roar.. Screech.."
Accompanied by the roar of dragons and the cry of eagles, Marco's air force launched an attack on the cavalry. Vertical dive attacks were always Marco's requirement for them, especially since the death of a dragon meant one less.
The level 5 light magic "Reincarnation" is instantaneous. The longer the time interval, the more requirements for the corpse. Although this magic is against the sky, it definitely has hidden dangers in it, but Marco has not found it yet.
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