Recaps

Shikele’s order forced the Barbarian armies to withdraw, leaving the Iron Bone Tribe officers and their troops stranded in a failed assault on the city. After their forces atop the walls were destroyed or surrendered, the officers retreated and secretly planned an alliance to resist Shikele’s punishment.

• Shikele’s order caused the Barbarian forces to abandon the siege, leaving the Iron Bone Tribe troops on the walls without reinforcements.
• Saster’s defenders intensified their attack, killing many trapped Barbarians and driving the rest into panic.
• The remaining Barbarians tried to flee down ladders and ropes, but Heavy Crossbowmen shot many of them; others surrendered.
• The trapped Barbarian troops were wiped out in less than a quarter of an hour, and the officers below the walls withdrew.
• Several Iron Bone Tribe officers secretly gathered to form an alliance against Shikele’s expected punishment.

After several Legion Commanders disobeyed Shikele’s orders and suffered casualties, they feared punishment but convinced themselves he would not dare move against the Great Chieftain’s direct troops. Shikele declined to punish them or risk a night attack, and prepared his forces to rest before resuming battle.

• The Legion Commanders discussed Shikele’s outsider origins and agreed to stand together against any punishment.
• Shikele’s messenger told the Legion Commanders that they could skip reporting that day and should attend a military council the next morning.
• The Legion Commanders decided to return to their separate camps and wait to see what Shikele proposed at the council.
• Shikele’s trusted officers urged him to punish the disobedient commanders, suggesting they had let their guard down by separating.
• Shikele rejected a night attack, saying it would waste troops and risk a disastrous clash while the enemy was nearby.
• Shikele ordered his officers to rest their troops, explaining they would not fight the next day but would fight again the day after.

Shikele explained to Gak why he had reported his officers’ actions to the Great Chieftain instead of punishing them himself. He waited for the Great Chieftain’s reply and ordered Gak to watch for the returning messengers.

• Shikele sent Gak to see the dissatisfied officers out, then learned they had urged Gak to change his mind.
• Gak reported that Shikele’s messengers had safely departed with spare horses and should reach the Great Chieftain by the next evening.
• Shikele said he had sent the battle report and his next battle plan to the Great Chieftain, who alone could decide how to punish the officers.
• Gak offered to kill any officer who had betrayed Shikele, but Shikele said the officer’s actions did not amount to betrayal and that punishing him could fracture the troops.
• Shikele told Gak to stop discussing the matter, wait for the Great Chieftain’s reply, and bring the messengers to him as soon as they returned.

After the Barbarians’ failed advance at Blue Lake Bay, Shikele reassured his commanders and adopted a strategy of wearing down the fortress defenders while avoiding costly attacks. Marvin recognized the limited threat and kept the defenses supplied as Victor and the Army Department received his reports.

• Shikele told Gak that the Great Chieftain would judge the commanders who had acted independently, and Gak realized someone might report directly to Heshima.
• After a quiet night, Shikele summoned the senior Barbarian commanders to a war council while Marvin kept the fortresses on alert.
• Shikele blamed the previous defeat on the enemy’s cunning and proposed wearing down the defenders’ manpower and equipment; the commanders approved his plan.
• Shikele did not pursue the commanders who had disobeyed orders, easing their fears that they would be punished.
• In the following days, the Barbarians used herdsmen and slaves in weaker attacks, while Marvin conserved his forces and relied on Two Rivers County’s ample supplies and military trains.
• Marvin sent battle reports to Victor and the Army Department, who were satisfied with his performance and considered his assessment that the Blue Lake Bay Barbarians were weaker.

Victor repositioned troops around Blue Lake Bay and ordered closer intelligence gathering while the siege continued without major changes. Shikele received word that Heshima had sent reinforcements and paused the assault to welcome them.

• Victor withdrew Santos's Third Regiment and sent 3,500 reserve soldiers to take its former position behind Blue Lake Bay.
• Victor ordered the Intelligence Department to track the Barbarians as he revised his battle plan.
• Shikele grew concerned after nearly ten days passed without a reply from Heshima or the messengers he had sent.
• On the tenth day, Gak brought Shikele a messenger who explained that he had traveled with a reinforcement force from Heshima.
• Shikele canceled the day's assault and gathered the Legion Commanders to welcome the reinforcements, which were a day away.

Kuba arrived at Blue Lake Bay with a vanguard and promised reinforcements, including fifty thousand herdsmen and slaves, while the Barbarians struggled to break the defenders’ fortifications. After a private meeting with Kuba and receiving Heshima’s letter, Shikele gave Gak secret orders that left him shocked and pleased.

• Shikele welcomed Kuba and learned that Kuba was the vanguard, with the main force and fifty thousand herdsmen and slaves following.
• Marvin learned that the Barbarian camp had received reinforcements and was relieved that Victor had insisted on sending the Reserve Force.
• Shikele hosted Kuba at a welcoming feast, but Kuba left early, preventing Shikele from questioning him.
• Kuba returned privately with Heshima’s token and letter, and he and Shikele spoke until late into the night.
• Shikele summoned Gak and gave him orders, which Gak eagerly left to carry out.

Shikele resumed the war council after Kuba’s reinforcements arrived and used the camp exchange to leave Iron Stone and the other seven Legion Commanders vulnerable. Kuba announced the Great Chieftain’s order, and the eight were executed for disobeying military commands.

• Shikele ordered the units, especially the eight Thousand-man squads under the Great Chieftain, to surrender barracks to Kuba’s arriving reinforcements.
• Iron Stone and the other seven Legion Commanders lost half their guards and contact with their units while their camps were exchanged.
• Kuba presented the Great Chieftain’s written order condemning the eight Legion Commanders to death for acting without authorization and ruining the campaign.
• Kuba’s Legion Commanders seized Iron Stone and the other seven in the tent, while Gak and Shikele’s guards disarmed their remaining subordinates outside.
• Kuba rejected Iron Stone’s pleas and explained that the Great Chieftain had ordered the executions to punish the men for defying military orders.
• Kuba’s men slit the eight Legion Commanders’ throats and carried out the execution order.

Shikele and Kuba purged the troops loyal to eight executed Legion Commanders, then divided their surviving soldiers. After reinforcements arrived, Heshima ordered the detached force to join the main assault and capture the Blue Lake Bay fortresses, leaving Shikele and Kuba to prepare for a costly attack.

• Kuba executed the eight Legion Commanders, and Gak arrested and killed their trusted subordinates as Shikele and Kuba purged their forces.
• Shikele and Kuba agreed to divide nearly seven thousand surviving soldiers, with Shikele selecting two thousand elite troops first and Kuba taking the rest.
• Nearly sixty thousand reinforcements arrived at the Barbarians' camp, including craftsmen and large numbers of herders and slaves.
• Kuba announced Heshima's order for Shikele and Kuba to capture the fortress complex with nearly forty thousand fighting men and their supporting force.
• Shikele ordered the army to rest for four or five days while craftsmen built siege equipment, then commanded every unit to attack without retreating.

Heshima ordered Shikele to capture the Blue Lake Bay fortress and join the main Barbarian offensive before thaw and dwindling food supplies endangered the campaign. Victor prepared a newly refitted mobile force with Mortars, leaving his troops ready to carry out a new battle plan.

• Heshima gave Shikele a deadline of April 20 to capture the Northern Frontier nobles' fortress in Blue Lake Bay, then join Kuba in a pincer attack on Two Rivers County.
• Heshima hurried the offensive because the thaw would soon let the Northern Alliance Army move and the Barbarian army had only about half a month of food left.
• Victor concluded that the Border Fortress could withstand the Barbarian forces and began shaping a new plan using the Two Rivers Legion's secret weapons.
• Santos's Third Regiment refitted near Woodfort City, where Victor equipped it with a Mortar battalion and six infantry Mortar platoons.
• Victor's forces received more than two hundred Mortars in total, completing the mobile force's refit and preparing it for his new battle plan.

Victor planned to lead nearly thirty thousand troops to attack the Barbarians besieging Blue Lake Bay, while Marvin struggled to hold the fortress cluster until reinforcements arrived. After Victor authorized the use of Flowering Shells, Marvin’s garrison broke a major Barbarian assault and forced Shikele and Kuba to halt their attack.

• On April 8, the reinforced Barbarians launched a fierce assault that left the Blue Lake Bay fortresses heavily damaged and short of supplies.
• Marvin requested permission to use Flowering Shells, and Victor authorized their use and allowed him to deploy the Thunderous Wrath cannons if necessary.
• Marvin arranged for reserve troops to enter the fortress cluster under cover of darkness, while Victor continued his plan to attack the Barbarians from the rear.
• On April 9, Blue Lake Bay’s trebuchet crews struck an elite Barbarian unit with Oil-Flame Bombs and Flowering Shells, killing its commander and routing the attackers.
• Shikele and Kuba executed surviving warriors who had retreated without orders, then halted the assault as the Barbarians’ morale faltered.

Santos kept the Third Regiment’s advance forces from attacking early so Victor’s plan could destroy as many of the Barbarians’ core troops as possible. After the defenders received reinforcements and supplies in a surprise nighttime assault, the Blue Lake Bay Garrison held out against further attacks through April 12.

• Santos rejected the two infantry detachments’ request to attack and ordered the advance forces to wait for the main army.
• The Barbarians attacked the Blue Lake Garrison on April 10, but their dispersed siege lines made the Flowering Shells less effective.
• Shikele and Kuba halted the assault after sunset and stationed guards around the Small Fortresses.
• Marvin led the Third Regiment’s advance contingent and the garrison in a nighttime sortie that broke through the siege lines and delivered reinforcements and supplies.
• The Blue Lake Bay Garrison used the reinforcements to withstand the Barbarians’ assaults on April 11 and April 12.

As the Barbarian armies renewed their assault on the Blue Lake Bay Fortress Cluster, the exhausted garrisons prepared to make their last stand. The Small Fortresses neared collapse, but a sentry spotted possible reinforcements arriving.

• Kuba and Shikele enforced strict discipline and prepared another dawn assault after cutting off the Small Fortresses from supplies and reinforcements.
• Lafor and Bram discussed their families and their duty to Marquis before returning to rest for the coming battle.
• On April 13, the Barbarians attacked the Main and Small Fortresses in relentless waves, leaving Marvin unable to spare fire support for the smaller defenses.
• The Small Fortresses raised black-and-red flags to signal their final hour as the Barbarians intensified their attacks.
• A sentry in the Main Fortress's watchtower shouted that reinforcements had appeared.

The Marquis’s Golden Sunflower forces arrived at Blue Lake Bay, forcing the Barbarians to lift their siege and turn to face the new threat. As Marvin led the fortress troops out to join the fight, Shikele and Kuba realized the approaching army was smaller than they had feared.

• The Marquis’s Golden Sunflower reinforcements arrived, and the Barbarians withdrew from the fortress walls to reform against them.
• Bram carried the wounded Lafor from the wall; both men fainted from exhaustion and blood loss, and a medic treated them.
• Marvin led nearly six thousand combat-ready troops from the Main Fortress, while the Small Fortresses sent out their remaining fighters.
• Shikele and Kuba turned most of the Barbarian army toward the Marquis’s force and, seeing it numbered fewer than thirty thousand, grew eager to fight.

Victor’s outnumbered force used nearly two hundred Mortars to break the Barbarian attack and advance against their disorganized army. The Two Rivers Legion’s battle lines crushed the shaken vanguard as the battle continued.

• Victor deployed his troops and formed a large artillery line while Kuba and Shikele gathered Barbarian cannon fodder for an attack.
• Victor ordered the Mortars to fire, devastating the charging vanguard and striking the Barbarian combat troops and Cavalry behind them.
• The explosions panicked the Barbarian warhorses and threw both the vanguard and rear forces into chaos.
• The Two Rivers Legion advanced through its artillery position and met the disorganized Barbarian vanguard.
• The Legion’s armored troops pushed forward and overwhelmed the weakened Barbarian army.

The Two Rivers Legion exploited the Barbarian army’s disarray and used mortar fire to destroy the deadly gap between its cannon fodder and elite troops. Victor then ordered the Legion to advance through the broken vanguard, while Kuba and Shi Kele were left with no choice but to keep fighting.

• The Barbarian elite formed ranks for infantry combat after cannon fire panicked their horses, while their commanders tried to push the cannon-fodder troops forward.
• The Barbarian cannon fodder collapsed in a crush as they tried to retreat and the elite tried to advance, trapping the army in a chaotic bottleneck.
• Victor confirmed that the contact zone was safely distant from his troops and ordered the 60mm mortars to bombard it while the heavier mortars continued targeting the Barbarian rear.
• Mortar shells obliterated the contact zone, killing cannon fodder and elite soldiers alike and breaking the Barbarian formation.
• The Two Rivers Legion advanced through the broken vanguard, and Victor sent most of the militia forward behind the regular troops.
• Kuba and Shi Kele chose to keep fighting because they could not safely flee and feared the Great Chieftain’s punishment if they returned without their troops.

Kuba and Shikele regrouped their forces and advanced against the Two Rivers Legion as Marvin's Blue Lake Bay garrison moved in from the flank. The battle began with the Two Rivers Legion splitting its formation to face both Barbarian forces, and the armies clashed in a brutal melee.

• Kuba and Shikele gathered their surviving fighting troops and advanced toward the Two Rivers Legion after the artillery barrage routed the Barbarian vanguard.
• Victor ordered the artillery to stop firing as his mobile forces and the Blue Lake Bay garrison prepared to face nearly twenty thousand Barbarian elites.
• Marvin advanced with the exhausted Blue Lake Bay garrison to draw Barbarian troops away from Victor's force.
• Shikele and Kuba split their forces, with Shikele moving to attack Marvin's troops and Kuba containing Victor's mobile forces.
• Victor marched to meet the Barbarians, and the Two Rivers Legion split into two formations to block both enemy forces.
• Kuba and Shikele ordered their troops to press forward, and the four formations collided in a bloody melee.

Marvin’s troops reached the battlefield and joined Victor’s mobile force, which was pressing the larger Barbarian army despite being outnumbered. Hours later, Lafor woke in the Main Fortress infirmary and learned that the Marquis’s forces had annihilated the enemy and captured its commander-in-chief.

• Marvin hurried his troops to the battlefield, where Victor’s forces had already gained the upper hand against the Barbarians.
• Victor’s Heavy Infantry broke through the front of Kuba’s ten-thousand-man squad while the right wing held back Shikele’s forces.
• Marvin’s arrival increased the pressure on the Barbarian formations, which struggled to hold their ground.
• Lafor woke in the infirmary and learned from an allied soldier that the battle had ended in total victory, with the enemy commander-in-chief captured.
• The soldier began describing the artillery bombardment and the mobile force’s fighting to Lafor.

Victor's mobile force broke the Barbarian army at Blue Lake Bay with hand-thrown Grenades, and Shikele surrendered while Kuba died in battle. As the militia began clearing the field, Victor's troops prepared to head south by train for a decisive battle, while Lafor's Third Regiment was expected to remain at the fortress.

• Victor's grenadiers threw bulky Grenades into the Barbarian ranks, scattering the tightly packed formations and shattering their morale.
• The Two Rivers Legion pressed its attack and routed the collapsing Barbarian units despite Kuba and Shikele's efforts to rally them.
• Shikele surrendered with his guards, while Kuba died beneath stray arrows from the Two Rivers Legion.
• The militia began clearing the battlefield and taking prisoners as Victor's mobile force returned to camp to rest.
• A soldier told Lafor that Victor's troops were preparing to board a train south, while the Third Regiment was expected to defend Blue Lake Bay Fortress.

Lafor learned that his injured leg needed rest and that Bram was safe, while Marvin asked Victor to let part of the Third Regiment join the decisive battle. Victor approved a force of 1,000 men to go with Santos, leaving most of the regiment to guard Blue Lake Bay.

• Lafor tried to get out of bed to join the decisive battle, but a medical worker ordered him to rest after surgery and warned that he could damage his leg.
• The doctor told Lafor that Bram was only exhausted and would recover after sleeping, and Lafor settled back down.
• Marvin reported that the Blue Lake Bay Garrison had held off the Barbarians after thirteen days of fighting, suffering more than 5,800 casualties.
• Victor assigned the depleted Third Regiment to keep guarding Blue Lake Bay, with four militia battalions to support its defenses.
• Marvin offered to stay behind while sending 1,000 Third Regiment soldiers to the decisive battle, and Victor approved, ordering them to go with Santos.

Victor departed by military train for the Northwestern Border Fortress, while Marvin remained in Blue Lake Bay to manage the battle’s aftermath and nearly one hundred thousand Barbarian prisoners. The chapter left Marvin preparing to divide the prisoners among four camps and put them to work as Victor advanced toward the final decisive battle.

• Victor ordered Santos to take Marvin’s unit after a delay, then boarded a military train bound for the Northwestern Border Fortress.
• Santos told Marvin his regiment and the follow-up guard units would need at least two days to prepare before Marvin’s troops could join his camp.
• Marvin went to a settlement behind Blue Lake Bay to handle battlefield cleanup, defenses, and the captured Barbarians.
• The Two Rivers Legion had captured nearly twenty thousand Barbarian fighting troops, including almost seven or eight thousand men who surrendered with Shikele, and captured Barbarians totaled nearly one hundred thousand.
• Victor took Shikele with him to question him and use his knowledge of the Barbarian army during the coming decisive battle.
• Marvin planned to divide the prisoners among four vacant settlements and assign them heavy labor while they remained afraid of the Two Rivers Legion.

Marvin visited the settlement’s construction site and reunited with Zoro, a former cavalry subordinate who had become a militia battalion commander. Zoro explained how his successful carriage company had led him back to military service.

• Marvin arrived at the settlement, where militia and barbarian captives were building the outer walls.
• Zoro recognized Marvin and reported that he had once served under him as a captain in the Third Regiment’s First Cavalry Detachment.
• Marvin asked about Zoro’s injured left hand, and Zoro said it remained weak and ached in rainy weather.
• Zoro explained that he had refused Marvin’s earlier offer to join the territory’s private army because he thought Marvin pitied him.
• Zoro told Marvin that he had built a successful carriage company and later became a militia battalion commander after his transport unit was placed under his command.

Marvin inspected Zoro’s POW camp and then arranged for Saster to form a force from the Third Regiment for the final battle. After hearing that every unit could volunteer soldiers, Bram eagerly prepared to return to combat while Lafor sought medical clearance for him.

• Marvin praised Zoro for running the POW camp and moved the regiment’s two cavalry detachments to support all four camps.
• Marvin and Saster agreed to form a force for the final battle, with Saster selecting soldiers from across the regiment, including its hard-hit detachments.
• Bram woke in the infirmary, and Lafor told him the regiment was sending troops to the final battle.
• A messenger announced that soldiers could volunteer in squads or larger groups, and Bram left to gather willing, fit soldiers from his detachment.
• Lafor reminded Bram to respect anyone who did not want to fight and stayed behind to find a doctor who could certify Bram’s recovery.

Bram selected healthy volunteers from his detachment for a temporary squad, and the regiment’s hardest-hit detachments assembled three companies for the final operation. Deputy Regimental Commander Saster added those companies to seven others, forming a thousand-man force in which every unit from the regiment could take part.

• Bram and Lafor found that only a little over seventy soldiers in their detachment were healthy enough to participate, and Bram held several rounds of selection before choosing the squad.
• Bram brought the selected soldiers to the infirmary, where Ram had prepared medical certificates so Bram could register as their captain.
• Bram and Lafor learned that the other Small Fortress detachments had suffered similarly heavy casualties, but each still selected at least one squad for the operation.
• The five hardest-hit detachments assembled three companies totaling a little over three hundred troops, and the officer in charge reported the results to Saster.
• Saster assigned one company from each of the two Cavalry detachments and planned to draw five more from other units, bringing the force to one thousand men.

Marvin approved Saster’s temporary force and asked the Marquis to protect the regiment’s veterans as they prepared to depart. Meanwhile, Victor’s Guard Corps reached a concealed camp near the Northwestern Border Fortress, where Victor kept his arrival secret and refused to weaken the fortress garrison.

• Marvin approved Saster’s force and urged him to avoid heavy losses, then sent the Marquis a telegram asking for special consideration for the troops.
• Saster’s force prepared to leave Blue Lake Bay Station alongside Santos’s regiment as militia helped transport supplies.
• Marvin completed the handover with Saster and Santos before leaving the crowded station.
• Victor’s Guard infantry reached the Temporary Camp behind the Northwestern Border Fortress, while his Guard Cavalry remained a day away.
• James proposed moving fortress detachments to protect Victor, but Victor refused to avoid alarming the garrison and weakening its defenses.

Victor assessed the defenses at his camp and awaited the Northern Frontier Allied Army while worrying about ammunition and the Barbarian army’s strength. Meanwhile, Levant struggled to send uniforms to the front before dusk because Woodfort City’s docks had run out of available ships.

• Victor judged his camp secure and assigned Marvin’s thousand troops to remain with the main formation and guard him.
• Victor received Alex’s telegram outlining the allied forces’ routes and plans to join the frontal battle and block the Barbarians’ retreat.
• Victor worried that his troops had too few shells to face the Barbarians’ large army in a field battle.
• Two Rivers County’s transport network moved troops and supplies toward the border, while Levant confronted merchants and officials about a shipment of uniforms delayed by a shortage of ships.