The Final Battle with the Faith Order, Part One

After finalizing the battle plan, Santos put away the map and led a few of his guards down the mountain to rejoin the main force.

At this moment, the main force of the Expeditionary Army was still hiding on the back of a hillside, intending to hold out for a few more days and then take action if trouble broke out at the Faith Order Headquarters.

However, once the Expeditionary Army makes its move, Santos plans to launch an attack in the early morning, taking advantage of the fact that most of the Faith Order are still asleep, and quickly breach the fortress.

Once the fortress is captured, the Expeditionary Army can advance unimpeded and directly seize the selected target points.

At that time, Santos will continue to lead part of the main force forward, while Artillery will be deployed at the high points to support the main force of the Expeditionary Army in suppressing the Faith Order's counterattack.

Santos felt it was worth a try to wait for the Faith Order to fall into disarray; if he could minimize his own losses, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

The Intelligence Department also has people lurking within the Faith Order. Although these people are currently just peripheral members and ordinary believers, they can still promptly report on the situation inside the valley where the Faith Order is located.

However, Santos did not intend to leave everything to luck. If more than three days passed, the Expeditionary Army would immediately launch its attack. If the delay went on, the existence of the Expeditionary Army would definitely be exposed. In any case, this battle was inevitable.

However, Santos did not expect everything to go so smoothly. On the second day that he and his troops waited patiently, the Intelligence Department's people planted within the Faith Order brought new information: the newly arrived Barbarians immigrants had clashed with the Order Warriors guarding them because of the spring hunt.

Neither side backed down, and the conflict escalated into a riot. Although no one died, at least several Barbarians immigrants were captured and taken away by the Order Warriors, which fueled the Barbarians immigrants' rebellious sentiment.

Currently, the area inhabited by those immigrants is experiencing widespread looting and vandalism by the Barbarians immigrants.

Just Faith Order was about to send people to control the situation, the Barbarians immigrants set up roadblocks on the road, blocking the Faith Order's forces and preventing them from entering their settlement.

Everything caused great dissatisfaction within the Faith Order, and several groups of Order Warriors were deployed to the outskirts of immigrant settlements, preparing to use forceful measures.

Upon receiving this intelligence, Santos was overjoyed; he hadn't expected problems to arise within the Faith Order so quickly.

He decided not to wait any longer, since the brothers had been eating cold food every day for the past few days, and he felt sorry for them.

At 5 a. m. the next day, a large number of the Order Warriors were stationed in the valley where the Faith Order was located, on the outskirts of the Barbarians settlement.

These Barbarians warriors had been on guard against the movements of the Barbarians settlers all night. Although nothing happened overnight, everyone was exhausted and listlessly awaited the arrival of daylight, hoping that other troops would relieve them.

Just then, a loud "bang" suddenly came from afar, instantly waking the drowsy people.

Everyone looked in the direction from which the loud noise came, right at the entrance of the valley. No one knew what had happened. But soon, loud noises began to occur one after another, and thick smoke billowed from the fortress at the valley entrance.

At that moment, the entire fortress at the mouth of the valley was covered in smoke from the explosion, and no one else knew what had happened.

However, the Order Warriors were not fools at this point, and they naturally guessed that something must have gone wrong with the fortress at the entrance to the valley.

However, these Order Warriors were not allowed to go there at this time. Their orders were to guard the settlement of the Barbarians immigrants and prevent them from leaving, which could lead to an escalation of the riots.

There's a problem at the entrance to the valley; they have no orders and dare not move around freely.

Just as the commanders of those Order Warriors had already dispatched messengers and were anxiously awaiting orders from their superiors, the troops inside the fortress at the valley entrance were already in complete chaos.

The towering ice wall that once formed the outermost part of the fortress had been smashed to pieces, and many of the defending soldiers were injured by the flying debris and ice.

All of this happened so suddenly, and it was beyond everyone's imagination, like a natural disaster or the end of the world.

The Order Warriors defending the city had no idea where the enemy had come from, or what kind of attack it was that could have damaged the fortress so badly.

Just as they were still in a state of confusion, they suddenly heard a deafening sound of war drums, and then through the thick smoke, they saw countless figures rushing towards them.

Although the defending Faith Order suffered a sudden attack and heavy casualties, the brave Order Warriors maintained their fighting spirit, thinking of using their weapons to stop the enemies attacking the fortress.

As the Order Warriors converged on the breach in the city wall, they suddenly saw streaks of light and thick smoke appear in the enemy ranks, followed by a series of crackling explosions, and the Order Warriors at the breach fell to the ground.

The other Order Warriors who hadn't yet reached the breach were stunned; this unpredictable attack completely overwhelmed them.

Although they didn't know what had happened, seeing what had happened to their companions, they dared not go any further. They could only hide among the ruins, not daring to reveal themselves easily.

With no obstacles in their path, the Expeditionary Army soldiers seized the opportunity to advance rapidly.

When they arrived at the fortress, all the troops carrying Type One Rifle immediately set up their rifles and aimed at all the breaches in the fortress.

Meanwhile, the troops that had not yet completed their re-equipment, especially the heavily armed infantry, immediately began to bypass them and advance towards the gaps in the ruins.

These Heavy Infantry were responsible for clearing out the remaining enemy forces at the fortress walls and paving the way for the main force.

Soon, as these heavily armed infantrymen charged into the ruins with large shields and giant axes, the last remaining defenders were wiped out.

Even the bravest and most Order Warriors were wounded, and they were powerless to withstand the attack of fully armed Heavy Infantry.

The fortress defenders were quickly wiped out by the Expeditionary Army's heavy infantry. Only 30 minutes had passed since the Expeditionary Army launched its attack, and the vanguard of the Expeditionary Army had already captured the fortress at the entrance to the valley.

The vanguard sent a battle report to Santos and the follow-up troops immediately after taking control of the fortress.

Upon seeing the battle report, Santos was surprised by the smooth progress of the battle. He immediately ordered all units to speed up their march so that the faster they could reach the city, the sooner they could seize the high ground. Once the cannons were in position, the Expeditionary Army would be invincible.

However, the cautious Santos did not overlook his escape route; although Mizhene had yielded the way, he did not intend to join the battle.

However, Santos was not at ease with this collaborator who was still wavering. He specially arranged a rearguard force with several Artillery to stay at the entrance of the valley. If Mizhene's forces changed, this force would be enough to hold the place and prevent Mizhene cutting off their retreat.

Santos then led the main force of the Expeditionary Army into the valley and advanced toward several predetermined objectives.

Meanwhile, the Faith Order Headquarters finally realized what had happened. Although they didn't know what had occurred, since the Faith Order had been attacked, they had to retaliate.

The apostles of the Faith Order had now all gathered together, and they began to devise a plan to organize their forces to retake the fortress at the entrance to their valley.

However, at this moment, a considerable portion of the Faith Order's troops were still tied up in the settlement of the Barbarians immigrants, leaving the apostles with very limited manpower.