Chapter 397: Wild Wolf Knights!

Amidst the shouts of battle, simple wooden rafts were thrown into the river, and the serf soldiers leaped onto them one after another.

Each raft could carry about ten soldiers; this time, the kingdom's great army spent three days preparing over three hundred rafts.

Thus, three thousand soldiers could be transported to the opposite bank in a single wave.

Of course, when the first batch of serf soldiers crossed, they would bear almost all the beastmen's attacks, making them the most brutal batch of today's battle.

As soon as those three thousand barely landed, the beastmen servant army surged forward like wolves and tigers.

A dark mass of thirty thousand directly overwhelmed the three thousand.

By now, the rafts had already rowed back to the middle of the river; they had nowhere to hide and could only grit their teeth and fight fiercely against the charging beastmen servant army.

One round trip for a raft took only three minutes.

Soon, the second batch of serf soldiers arrived by raft.

However, in those brief three or four minutes, only one-third of the first three thousand landed serf soldiers remained alive.

The other serf soldiers had already become corpses, and the blood had turned the originally emerald-green river water red.

Facing such a situation, the nobles didn't even blink an eye.

Because this was war; to achieve victory, sacrifice was always necessary.

And the second batch of serf soldiers was no better off; by the time the third batch arrived, their casualties had also exceeded half.

Then came the fourth batch, the fifth batch... until after the tenth batch of rafts had ferried troops, the serf soldier force finally managed to secure a foothold on the opposite bank, no longer being driven back into the river.

Of course, the casualties suffered were enormous; in less than a single hour, the thirty-thousand-strong force of serf soldiers had lost at least five or six thousand.

"Very good, we have finally secured the beachhead!"

"Yes, now the difficulty of the offensive will decrease!"

However, regarding these casualties, the nobles remained indifferent; instead, they wore relieved smiles because they had secured the beachhead.

Especially for the later two batches of nobles, the more advantageous the situation on the front battlefield became, the fewer casualties they would need to suffer.

"Second batch, attack!"

Merely securing the beachhead was obviously just the beginning.

Soon, the President's order was issued again.

Woo-woo-woo!

Amidst the sound of the horn, the second batch of noble forces also charged toward the riverbank.

"The second batch of manpower has entered the fray! I wonder if they can defeat the beastmen army!"

"Yes! If they can, that would be wonderful for us!"

"I think there is hope; sixty thousand against forty thousand, although ten thousand of them are beastmen, the combat power of those servant armies is too weak, even inferior to the serf soldiers!"

And as this second batch of noble forces began to appear, the nobles of the third batch started discussing in a cacophony of voices.

Among them, the vast majority of nobles, like Mil and others before, were merely here to fulfill their conscription.

They sought no great merit, only that their subordinates would die fewer.

Therefore, everyone hoped to defeat the beastmen across the way without having to appear themselves.

And amidst everyone's discussion, the situation also seemed to be developing in a positive direction.

As the thirty-thousand-strong second batch landed on the opposite bank, the beastmen servant army began to slowly retreat backward.

"Gervas, it seems we won't have a chance to grab any merit this time!"

"Sigh, what a pity; I was originally thinking of grabbing a few beastmen heads!"

Mil, Ian, and the others looked as if they had lost hundreds of millions, making Gervas want to beat them up just by looking at them.

Of course, these fellows probably didn't know that their regret was a bit premature.

Because, according to the only useful piece of intelligence from this morning.

This group of beastmen apparently had a cavalry unit of several dozen beastmen.

Although he had never personally witnessed beastmen cavalry before, Gervas also knew the might of beastmen cavalry.

Compared to human cavalry, the beastmen's mounts were a species of giant snowfield gray wild wolves.

This magical beast, the Snowfield Wolf, belonged to the First-Grade Magical Beasts; although its combat power was not particularly strong, its greatest advantage was its sufficiently large size; its body length of over four meters was enough to carry the tall beastmen into battle.

Thus, such fierce beastmen cavalry could often defeat many human cavalrymen with few.

And now, since these beastmen cavalrymen had not yet appeared, it meant there were still changes in the battlefield.

And the facts were indeed so; just as the scale of war began to tilt toward the human side.

A sudden horn sound came from the opposite side.

"What's going on?"

All the nobles were utterly baffled.

Because the beastmen's horn sound was actually a signal to attack.

But they were clearly retreating; how could there be an order to attack?

Roar-roar-roar!

"Ah! Look over there, what is that?"

Of course, everyone's doubts were soon resolved.

"Not good, it's the beastmen's Wild Wolf Knights!"

"Damn it, these beastmen actually hid Wild Wolf Knights!"

"My Lord, are the Wild Wolf Knights very powerful? It seems their numbers are not that many?!"

"Of course they are powerful; one Wild Wolf Knight is worth at least five elite light cavalrymen; fifty Wild Wolf Knights are equivalent to more than two hundred and fifty light cavalrymen!"

"Now our cavalry is blocked by the Pearl River and cannot go to support; think about it, what fate will the serf soldiers face against more than two hundred cavalrymen?"

"This..." Some nobles who were not very familiar with the Northern Border heard this explanation, and their expressions immediately changed.

Two hundred-plus light cavalry; under normal circumstances, any single Hou Jue or Duke's contingent could handle them.

But the problem is the stone bridge is blocked; only the serf soldiers can reach the opposite bank.

And in the combat of the serf soldiers, even with a huge numerical advantage, it is still full of variables.

"Roar! Slaughter these two-legged sheep!"

Roar, roar, roar!

Just as the nobles felt an ominous premonition in their hearts, the Wolf Knights had already charged to the front of the battlefield.

Amidst soul-stealing roars, they plunged straight into the ranks of the serf soldiers.

The scene that followed was truly like wolves among sheep.

Wherever they charged, the serf soldiers there scattered in panic.

Even though some serf soldiers tried to resist, they were quickly crushed.

Although due to the harsh military law, the serf soldiers did not yet collapse entirely, the previous advantage was obviously gone.

Once again, the Beast Army began pressing them toward the riverbank.

"Damn it!" The Northern Legion Commander-in-Chief, seeing this, turned ashen.

The two Dukes also showed solemn expression.

"We must find a way to open the stone bridge passage quickly!" Duke Hernand suddenly spoke.

"But the losses would be too great; there are two thousand orcs there. If we want to break through the stone bridge from the front, we might have to suffer more than double the casualties of elite guards!" The Legion Commander-in-Chief's face was ashen.

The elites he spoke of were not the guards of minor nobles.

They were the fully armed soldiers of the Northern Legion and the elite guards of the Duke families.

"We cannot worry about that! If we do not find a way to clear the stone bridge and let the cavalry pass to help, the serf soldier contingent is in danger of collapsing!" Hernand spoke solemnly.

The Legion Commander-in-Chief's face changed again and again; if that sixty-thousand-strong contingent collapsed, the casualties would certainly be significant.

And this also meant that in this great battle, they had failed.

"Northern Commander-in-Chief, I and several nobles above the rank of Hou Jue will provide half the manpower, and you Northern Border Legion will provide half! Let us launch the attack immediately!" Seeing the Northern Legion Commander-in-Chief still hesitating, Hernand urged again.

Since Duke Hernand had spoken to this extent, the Northern Legion Commander-in-Chief no longer hesitated. "Good! Duke Hernand, then let us begin clearing the passage!"