No matter what, Heshima had to secure another crossing point for the Barbarian army. Since the locations chosen earlier had all proved unsuitable, this time he intended to choose a new one.
He made the simplest possible choice: he targeted the stockade farthest from the one Keledu occupied.
Thus, he settled on a stockade downstream, which he would lead his troops to seize and use as a crossing point.
If they could take this crossing point, then together with Keledu's, the Barbarians could build at least three pontoon bridges. Those bridges would be enough to get the main army across, break through the defensive line blocking their passage, and allow them to return safely to the steppe.
Night soon fell, but the opposite bank remained a scene of tense, bustling activity.
The Northern Alliance Army made no attempt to conceal its preparations for a night attack. Large numbers of its troops were being urgently redeployed around the stockade Keledu occupied.
Troops were on the move everywhere, taking up their assigned positions according to headquarters' orders. Once headquarters gave the command, every unit would attack immediately.
Keledu stood atop a watchtower in the center of the stockade. Built by the Faith Order craftsmen under his command, it stood eleven or twelve meters tall, offering a clear view of everything happening around the stockade.
After only a few quick looks, Keledu estimated that the troops surrounding his stockade alone numbered over twenty thousand.
That might have sounded like fewer men than the Barbarians inside Keledu's stockade, but the vast majority of those Barbarians were merely ordinary young, able-bodied men, not properly trained Barbarian warriors.
The actual combat troops belonging to the Faith Order and the Iron Bone Tribe numbered only a little over ten thousand.
The enemy troops being deployed were almost