The process of war preparation and march was uneventful. Arthur's side once tried to send some scouts and harassment troops in an attempt to use the Forest in the east to slow down the Chloe army.
This is a very effective tactic. The Eastlanders are locals who are familiar with the geographical environment and can often harass large groups of enemy troops with a small number of troops.
It is precisely because of this special geographical environment and barriers that Altia Empire has been protected. In recent years, due to the advancement of technology, the national power of the Republic of Croland has greatly increased. Without the Forest empire in the east, it would be difficult to resist the military power of the Republic.
However, the reality is that the harassment tactic went bankrupt not long after it was implemented. The Forest that people in the East were familiar with became a monster that Consume killed. Several harassment troops totaled nearly a thousand people, and in the end only a few people came back.
The people came back and were useless. They were all crazy, shouting only words like monsters and devils.
Things like this cast a gloom on Arthur's side from the very beginning of the war, and a field battle with Swarm monsters would undoubtedly result in defeat.
Every combat insect is agile and good at fighting. With the help of Swarm Network and night vision capabilities, compared to humans, the more complex the terrain, the better their combat effectiveness is.
They are killers hiding in tree trunks and ghosts in the grass.
Losing Forest outside the city wall means losing the support of nearby towns and residents. The three outer fortresses and Meteor City are effectively isolated.
This situation is extremely bad for Arthur. A long-term siege without external support is meaningless, and failure is almost inevitable. The Chloe army does not need to do anything, it only needs to continue to maintain this posture of siege.
But Chloe Army's choice once again exceeded Arthur's expectations. They chose what seemed to be the worst military option...
Attack the city by force.
In the outermost fortress, Arthur stationed 15,000 garrison troops. This was a purely military fortress with almost no civilians living there.
The solid bastion design from the Republic makes the entire fortress extremely strong. The magic crystal gun on the city wall basically has no blind spots when shooting. Because of the invention of the bombardment scale, the hit rate of the magic crystal gun has also improved a lot.
The first round of attacks launched by Jonathan and Ymir was basically useless, only destroying part of the city wall and causing two thousand casualties.
After watching the siege, both of them remained silent, their faces as black as coal.
"His Majesty Queen handed over 50,000 troops to us to make us perform meritorious service. Arthur is really an iron bastard. With such a strong fortress and such ferocious magic crystal weapon firepower, he is treason! He is a traitor to the empire!" After saying this, Ymir cursed a lot.
In terms of military literacy, Jonathan is slightly better, but he also has no experience in commanding such a large army and attacking a bastion.
As an old aristocrat, his accomplishments prevented him from using dirty words like Ymir said, but he was still angry at his own incompetence.
In fact, all kinds of talents here at Chloe are relatively scarce. After all, she came on the scene too late, and all the talents with ability and ambition were attracted by her three brothers.
Originally, she could absorb Robert's talent system, but because of her lack of composure, Cam and the others carried out a massacre.
Therefore, the person Chloe has the most military talent is Duke, but Chloe doesn't like Duke at first. He once wrote a letter to educate her as an elder.
Moreover, Duke cannot be allowed to do too much, as he already has a vague feeling of becoming the backbone of the nobles.
Chloe, who was sitting in the king's tent, also frowned. She expected that Arthur would be difficult to fight, but she didn't expect it to be so difficult.
The design of the bastion is really genius. The city wall has a diamond-shaped structure. Even if the soldiers risked rushing to the city, they would still be shot by fire from the side walls.
This kind of fortress design has not been popular for a long time, and most military generals have not summed up a good way to deal with it. Chloe originally wanted to seek help from knowledge in the memory in his mind, but found nothing.
Maybe Swarm feels that this kind of fortress is not difficult to deal with and is not worth occupying precious genetic memory space.
"Are we going to use the power of Swarm again?" As soon as this idea came up, the Swarm units in the small network started to get excited, even Cam, who seemed to be very sensible, was the same.
"No, let Swarm fight all the battles. What's the use of the human army? Aren't I, the human Queen, a joke?" This idea soon gained the upper hand.
"Let Jonathan and Ymir each lead fifteen thousand men and launch attacks from the front and rear directions. I will command the magic cannon troops to support them." Chloe ordered.
Three flying insects outside the king's tent also flew into the sky. They will provide Chloe with a high-altitude perspective to guide the magic cannon to accurately bombard.
Soon the Chloe army was ready. Jonathan and Ymir's arrangement of one south and one north could not only flank the enemy, but also allow the two to compete with each other to exert greater combat effectiveness.
Following Chloe's instructions, fifty magic crystal cannons lit up sparkling fireworks with shells on the walls of the bastion. The Chloe armies from the north and south also launched attacks. Due to the width of the battlefield, only a total of 10,000 siege troops entered the battlefield.
The commander of Arthur's army in the bastion was just an ordinary baron. Like Heinrich, he was born into a military family, but his talent and reputation were not as good as Heinrich's.
Arthur put him here because he was capable and loyal.
"Everyone, don't panic. Follow the drill plan. Stay spread out. The magic crystal guns and crossbowmen wait until the enemy reaches the best range before attacking."
In the strongest position in the middle of the bastion, the bastion commander calmly directed the battle through the Psionics mage's Clairvoyance and communication skills.
He kept a close eye on the advancing speed of the Chloe Army infantry. When the enemy crossed the marked firing line, he ordered, "Start continuous shooting."
The shooters on the city wall quickly leaned out and shot outward. After completing the shooting action, they immediately hid behind the city wall.
Another soldier will hand him a new weapon, then take his weapon and start reloading, using this method to improve shooting efficiency.
Although the front row of the Chloe army held large shields and wore heavy armor, and many mages provided Psionics shields, they still suffered heavy losses from magic crystal projectiles and crossbow arrows.
The mage's shield and solid steel cannot protect everything, and the armor-breaking effect of magic crystal projectiles is very good.
Chloe wants to use the precise shooting of the magic crystal cannon to suppress the shooters on the city wall. Although the hit rate is indeed high, the effect is not ideal.
The strong city walls limit the power of cannonballs. Even if they are hit by cannonballs, the shooters who are scattered in positions will not suffer too much loss.
The distance is too far, coupled with the crenels in the city, even if Chloe's long-range troops are sent up, it will be difficult to cause much damage to the enemy, and it will also expose itself and cause heavy losses.
The war situation slipped in a direction that was not conducive to the Chloe army from the very beginning.