Clouds of Gloom

In August of the seventh year of Heinrich XI, the skies over the Northern Territory seemed shrouded in invisible war clouds, and the air was thick with the oppressive atmosphere of an impending storm.

The Sauron Tribe's long-planned, unprecedented autumn raid has finally erupted!

The main forces of Sauron from Frosgard and Yarvik poured out like a flood bursting its banks, continuously flowing out of the northern wasteland and splitting into two routes to head towards the long Northern Border Greatwall Defense Line of the Goldflower Kingdom.

Sauron army split into two groups.

The first force was a surveillance and containment unit, personally commanded by the experienced Sparrow Corps Commander, Ulf.

With its elite Sparrow Corps at its core, supplemented by the vassal Skarn Tribe, its total military strength reached 24,000 men.

The main mission of this large army is not to attack fortified positions, but to carry out strategic deterrence and blockade.

Among them, 15,000 of the most elite soldiers were deployed Fran City, building a continuous fortification and adopting a strong offensive posture.

Their primary objective was to firmly tie down the main force of the Fran City Legion under Earl Rochefort, preventing it from diverting troops to support other fronts.

This troop strength figure was the minimum limit personally set by the Great Chieftain Harald.

Because this newly appointed Earl Rochefort was completely different from the previous governors of the Northern Territory who cowered in their castles and sought only to protect themselves.

In the years since he took office, he has launched numerous proactive attacks, all of which have been small-scale raids, but the aggressiveness he has shown has been enough to alert the Sauron leadership.

Not to mention, it was under his covert support that such a troublesome "holdout" as "Carnford" emerged.

In addition, Ulf had to send 5,000 troops to guard the Frosgard stronghold.

After all, although the Goldflower Kingdom's large-scale garrison in the Northern Territory was a thing of the past, some remnants of guerrillas and resistance forces were still active in the mountains.

With the entire army deployed, the rear is left vulnerable. We must guard against these "flies" taking advantage of the situation to harass the supplies or even attack the elderly and weak left behind.

After such extensive deductions, Ulf was left with only about four thousand mobile troops that he could directly mobilize.

This force was originally composed mainly of highly mobile Skarn cavalry. The plan was to follow the Main Corps into the pass after it successfully broke through key defenses such as Blackstone Pass or Worton Fort, and to quickly plunder deep into the heart of the Broomflower, so as to obtain some real spoils for the Sparrow Corps.

However, plans often change.

Just before the army set off, scouts brought back the latest intelligence about Carnford: that damned border Lord had actually built a wall nearly three hundred meters long at the foot of the mountain!

The appearance of this city wall completely disrupted Ulf's plans.

Originally, his plan was to deal with a small stronghold like Carnford by sending a few hundred men up to drive the garrison back to the stone castle on the mountain, and then camping on the main road down the mountain to starve them out—simple and effortless.

But now, this wall means that Carnford has the ability to hold out and counterattack for a long time at the foot of the mountain, and it is no longer possible to take it down easily with a small number of troops.

"Damn Karl von Schmidt! Damn Carnford!" Ulf cursed inwardly.

The situation was dire, and he had no choice but to draw another 1,500 men from his already stretched mobile forces to surround and monitor Carnford.

This detachment consisted of four hundred infantrymen, two hundred cavalrymen, and an essential nine hundred auxiliary soldiers and slaves responsible for transporting supplies and constructing fortifications.

As a result, the number of troops that Ulf could actually use for maneuver plummeted to less than two thousand.

With this small force, they think they can follow the main force into the pass to plunder?

Forget about making a profit; if they were to encounter the regular army of the Broomflower in the wealthy heartland, it's hard to say who would annihilate whom.

Left with no other choice, Ulf had to completely abandon the idea of following the main force into the pass to make a fortune, and instead focus all his energy on containing Fran City and dealing with the unexpected "hard nut to crack" that was Carnford.

The second army, however, was the true and sharpest spearhead of Sauron's autumn raid!

Their forces were even larger and their offensive even more ferocious, divided into three incredibly sharp arrows that plunged straight into the heart of the Goldflower Kingdom.

The Western Route Army was the strongest, with a force of up to 50,000 elite troops!

This force, composed of the most renowned and fiercest fighting legions of the Sauron Tribe — the Wolf Corps, the Bear Corps, and the Tiger Corps —is the absolute core of the Sauron Army.

Their strategic objective was to concentrate overwhelming forces to forcefully break through the relatively weak western branch of the Blackstone Pass in the Northern Border Greatwall Defense Line.

Once a breach is successfully breached, the army will not hesitate to advance unimpeded, its forces aimed directly at the heart of the Goldflower Kingdom in the south—its capital, Plai!

Of course, Royal Capital with 50,000 troops.

The true strategic intention of the Western Route Army was to create unprecedented panic and strategic pressure within the kingdom with overwhelming force, forcing the kingdom's central government and King Heinrich XI to panic and urgently mobilize troops from various regions to return to defend the king.

This will greatly weaken the defenses of other vast areas, creating unprecedented strategic space and a near-vacuum zone for the raids of the other two armies.

The central army, with a strength of 28,000 men, consisted of the Hound Corps, the Sword Corps, and the Rain Corps.

They will launch their attack from the east side of the central route, choosing several small passes, such as Worton Fort, which have relatively weak defenses, as their breakthrough points.

Once they enter the pass, their goal will be to sweep through the vast, fertile, densely populated grain-producing areas and commercial towns east of the Royal Capital, which lack standing armies.

This army will form a powerful pincer movement with the western army, further dispersing, stretching, and exhausting the kingdom's defenses, leaving it unable to attend to both ends, thereby maximizing the results of plunder and continuously taking the kingdom's wealth and food to the north.

The Eastern Route Army was led solely by the Horse Corps, renowned for their speed and mobility.

They will operate in the strategically important and easily defensible cities and passes outside the Great Wall, launching rapid and deceptive raids and realistic feints.

Their core mission was not to break through the pass, but to serve as a powerful strategic feint force to keep the elite Broomflower Border Army stationed in the surrounding fortresses entangled.

Through a continuous offensive posture, the most elite troops in the Northern Territory were unable to easily leave their defensive zone and return to reinforce the ravaged core areas in the interior.

The army, totaling nearly 100,000 men, was like three torrents of steel carrying destruction and greed, crashing violently against the long northern border of the Broomflower.