Volume 7 Chapter 128 Defense lines collapsing
Time passed and December came. It entered the period of deep winter where snow filled the air and chills came from the north.
During this season, the traditional idea of the continent was to not engage in any military operations.
Because not to mention fighting in this cold weather, soldiers might even die from marching in this snow, not to mention that it would be much harder to march on the slippery mud roads.
So winter had always been a season of peace in the traditions of the Sines Continent, no country would choose to make war during this time.
But…..the traditions were broken this winter.
In mid November, the Lampuri Kingdom had defeated the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army at the Gregory Hughes Mountain Range. They had annihilated close to two thirds of the two hundred thousand soldiers, even shocking everyone to kill one of the symbols of invincibility in the eyes of countless people, an Arch Magus.
With just this one battle, the tide had completely turned around.
Before this, the Lampuri Kingdom army had been repelled under the attack of the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army. When they fell back to the Gregory Hughes Mountain Range, they had almost lost half of the territory they had taken from the Falk Kingdom.
At that time, everyone felt that the Lampuri Kingdom wouldn’t be able to resist and would be chased out of the Falk Kingdom by the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army.
If the Marlow Empire was a bit bolder to break the tradition of not allowing Arch Magi invade other countries, the Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire allied army could even invade the Lampuri Kingdom.
Moreover, this was very likely.
Because in the war that swept over the Sines Continent, the ones fighting were one of the major representatives of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp and the other was one of the two empires. At the same time, with the powerful Mana Magic Kingdom joining in, this included all the Arch Magi other than the two at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Then adding in the Magicians Guild that had existed on the Sines Continent for thousands of years supporting the camp of the two empires, with their powerful support, it wasn’t that strange if they broke the tradition.
After all, one could think of countless reasons for the battle.
If it really happened, the Lampuri Kingdom army would find it hard to resist the attack of the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army. In the end, the Lampuri Kingdom might even be destroyed.
However……this battle at the Gregory Hughes Mountain Range had changed everyone’s predictions.
Perhaps some people had guessed that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be able to help the Lampuri Kingdom deal with the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army, but no one had guessed that the Lampuri Kingdom would completely rout them with a single battle.
What played the most decisive role was that the Lampuri Kingdom army had actually killed an Arch Magus and heavily injured the other three Arch Magi.
Gods! This was the result that came from facing an army of two hundred thousand along with several hundred High Grade Magicians, several dozen Great Magicians, and four Arch Magi!
With the lineup of the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army, everyone had thought that they wouldn’t even know how to lose, but they never thought that they would collapse from a single blow by the Lampuri Kingdom army!
This result had caused everyone to start doubting the battle power of the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army.
Everyone no longer believed that the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army could defeat the Lampuri Kingdom, everyone even started to doubt if the two empires could win.
There were two main reasons why the camp of the two empires could completely suppress the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp during this time.
One was because they had the absolute numbers advantage when it came to Arch Magi, this allowed them to suppress the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp in a direct conflict.
The second was that they had greater foundations and more people, allowing them to attack in different directions, forcing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp to meet them.
However, after this battle in the Gregory Hughes Mountain Range, everyone found that Arch Magi weren’t as invincible as they imagined. Even four Arch Magi working together couldn’t resist the attack of the Lampuri Kingdom army. One of them even died while the other three were injured, causing the biggest advantage of the two empires’ camp to disappear.
It also brought up a major issue of the war. It was that the normal army of the two empires were like children in front of fully armed men when facing the armies of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce camp, they couldn’t resist at all and could only wait to be beaten.
In this battle, after the death of one Arch Magus and wounding of three Arch Magi, the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army still had one hundred and sixty thousand troops with quite a few military magic machines produced by the Marlow Empire, so it could be said that they were still quite strong.
But under the attacks of the Lampuri Kingdom, this army of one hundred and sixty thousand couldn’t resist at all. They had suffered massive casualties in just an hour, losing over half their troops and almost being annihilated.
Compared to this, the Lampuri Kingdom had announced that they suffered almost no casualties!
Even if the collapse of the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army was a major reason, this casualty report had completely flipped everyone’s general understanding.
After this battle, no one believed that the traditional armies of the two empires would be able to pose any threat to the new armies of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards, with their large amounts of new military magic machines.
Then adding the fact that High Grade Magicians, Great Magicians, and even Arch Magi couldn’t change the tide of battle like everyone imagined, the results were obvious.
The two empires couldn’t face the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in direct combat. The only way to change this situation was to use their greater foundations and greater use of strategy to stall until they burned out the other side.
The battle of Gregory Hughes Mountain Range had happened in early winter which was good news for the two empires.
Because once winter came, even if the Lampuri Kingdom had a great advantage, they would still temporarily stop all their operations and stop moving forward, giving the Marlow Empire time to breathe.
If they could rebuild during winter, it would be hard to predict what would happen in the battles next year.
However……the Lampuri Kingdom surprised everyone by not giving the Marlow Empire this chance to breathe.
December 6th, when heavy snow filled the piece of land south of the Marlow Empire that once belonged to the Falk Kingdom, the Lampuri Kingdom surprisingly launched an attack. In just half a day, an army of thirty thousand with several hundred Magic Tanks and Magic Combat Vehicles had arrived in Saint Ros City that the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army had retreated to from the Gregory Hughes Mountain Range.
After fighting for half a day, Saint Ros City was broken into and the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army only had twenty thousand people escape.
December 9th, the Lampuri Kingdom army chased down these twenty thousand troops to Slow Valley in the north of the original Falk Kingdom.
The Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army couldn’t resist, so General Phil took the initiative to surrender and the army was destroyed.
Three days later, the Lampuri Kingdom army invaded Nylan City that was on the border of the original Falk Kingdom, integrating it back into their control after it was taken by the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army.
Everyone believed that since the Lampuri Kingdom had taken back all the territory that they had captured from the Falk Kingdom, they would stop there.
After all, ahead of them was the Marlow Empire’s territory and if they continued forward, they would be invading the Marlow Empire.
Fighting back against the Marlow Empire and invading the Marlow Empire were two completely different concepts.
In the hundreds of years since the Marlow Empire had been founded, all the countries that had invaded the Marlow Empire had been seriously defeated, even the Candra Empire wasn’t an exception.
No one believed that the Lampuri Kingdom, which had only been a small country on the continent more than ten years ago, would invade the Marlow Empire, even if they had beaten the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army.
But the Lampuri Kingdom had crushed everyone’s guesses with a single fact.
On December 23rd, the Lampuri Kingdom army that had rested for ten days moved out and crossed the Marlow Empire’s south border, officially invading the Marlow Empire.
Although the Marlow Empire hadn’t expected the Lampuri Kingdom to dare invade, they had already prepared their defenses. After the Falk Kingdom and Marlow Empire allied army had been defeated at Gregory Hughes Mountain Range, they called back the army that attacked the Drake Duchy and assembled the border guards from other places.
Putting importance on the Lampuri Kingdom army’s battle power, the Marlow Empire had gathered almost all the power of the empire. They had five Arch Magi alone and there were over three hundred and sixty thousand troops.
However……this didn’t mean anything.
From December 24th to December 30th, after a week of fierce combat, the Marlow Empire army had suffered one hundred thousand casualties, eighty thousand troops were heavily wounded, and four hundred High Grade Magicians, nine Great Magicians, and two Arch Magi had died in battle. After suffering these heavy losses, they couldn’t resist the Lampuri Kingdom army any longer and suffered a disastrous loss.
The Marlow Empire’s defense line collapsed and the Lampuri Kingdom army pushed in.
On January 1st of year 3783, the first day of the new year, it was an important celebration of a new year for many others on the Sines Continent.
But for the important people of the Marlow Empire and the camp of the two empires, it was a day where they were filled with fear and apprehension.
Because starting that day, from this year on, as the Lampuri Kingdom invaded the Marlow Empire, it meant that the traditions that the two empires represented would collapse like the Marlow Empire’s defense lines……