Suggestion

Antonio rode a white horse through the Gabella camp, making his rounds.

The moans of wounded soldiers constantly reached his ears. Though he had spent many years on the battlefield, hearing such painful sounds still tore at his heart.

He knew that many of them would not survive the fever to come, and would leave this world forever.

At times like this, Antonio desperately wished that the heaven preached by the Church truly existed, even though he hated the Church at the same time.

Those who were uninjured or only lightly wounded saluted and cheered when they saw their commander passing nearby.

Antonio acknowledged them with a stern expression, carefully hiding his grief without revealing the slightest trace of it.

Gabella's culture made its soldiers yearn for a commander who was ruthless rather than compassionate.

Antonio and his army were in the Kriel Kingdom—a vassal state north of the Gabella Empire—facing the Orcish army marching south.

Although he had successfully seized supreme power in the coup, the threat posed by the northern orcs was also very real and unfolding before him. Now that Antonio controlled the empire's central government, he could not simply ignore it, or his legitimacy would suffer greatly.

Thus, after the situation in the imperial capital had stabilized somewhat, Antonio left the Old Marshal MacDonald in charge of the rear and personally led the army against the orcs.

The spear marching south and the shield moving north collided head-on. The two sides fought several major battles in succession across Kriel, with victories and defeats on both sides.

Overall, the Orcish Cavalry held the advantage. They also had more troops—counting their main force and the human slave armies they had subjugated, they numbered over a hundred thousand.

The Gabella army, meanwhile, prevailed in elite quality, but was smaller