East of West Sail Harbor, a five-meter-wide stream cut across endless farmland.
On the left lay a picturesque rural countryside; on the right, craters and smoke covered the ground. The entire wilderness seemed divided by the stream into two sharply distinct worlds.
A bridge of reinforced concrete connected heaven and hell.
It was a bridge the Legion had built for the Empire.
And now, heavy trucks with six pairs of road wheels rumbled across that bridge, rolling eastward in a mighty column beneath the numb stares of tenant farmers and serfs.
It was the Southern Legion's 30th Ten-Thousand-Man Corps.
It was also one of the Southern Legion's few armored ten-thousand-man corps.
Besides soldiers armed to the teeth and menacing artillery pieces, the trucks carried gleaming Conqueror No. 10 heavy tanks!
This endless steel column was headed for Lion City, the capital of Lion Province.
Although the Boro Kingdom had not originally been part of the Southern Legion's first-phase offensive plan, plans could never keep up with change. The Alliance bombers taking off from Ox Province Airport had created a massive threat to the Southern Legion's supply line leading toward the three northern provinces.
By the Legion's usual style, a threat had to be dealt with. At worst, they would fight on two fronts and beat up the east and north at the same time.
Thus, on the day after Ten-Thousand-Man Commander Otterley reached Surak County in northern Lion Province, General Gurion deployed another five ten-thousand-man corps to the eastern front. Led by Ryan, commander of the 30th Ten-Thousand-Man Corps, they prepared to seize all of Lion Province and Ox Province farther east in one stroke.
According to intelligence, Eudono had gathered an army of two hundred thousand to defend Lion City!
That was nearly one-tenth of the entire Boro Kingdom's