Chapter 410: Marquis Marquis Aosiding Full of Suspicion!

Adams left.

After hearing Gervas's praise, he happily returned.

Of course, before leaving, he handed Gervas a letter, saying he had wanted to write it for him earlier, containing some reflections on the battle at Grey Stone Bridge.

Gervas was naturally surprised that Adams carried a letter with him.

But Adams explained that he had not known when Gervas would send someone to find him.

So he could only carry the letter with him, to avoid missing Gervas's subordinate later.

Hearing this, Gervas did not know what to say.

In any case, this son of a Hou Jue had surely struck great luck.

Trusting oneself, the future is boundless! Good work!

And when he returned to his own camp, Gervas opened the letter; upon reading it, he was naturally amused.

This Adams had experienced a "Dragon King Returns" plot, yet remained unaware of it!

……

"Father?!"

"Hmm! Adams, why so late today?"

When Adams returned to camp and reached his tent, he found his father still awake.

"Father, I had a very good time today, so I stayed out a bit later!" Adams did not mind and casually made up an excuse.

As for discovering that Gervas was Lord Harry, he did not intend to tell his father.

After all, he had already promised Gervas.

Of course, there was another reason he concealed it from his father: he worried that upon learning Gervas's true identity, his father might develop other thoughts about Gervas.

This included not only having other designs on things like white sugar.

It also included the possibility that his father might look down on Gervas, and so on...

After all, his father had never spent time with Gervas and certainly did not认同 Gervas as much as he did.

So continuing to conceal Gervas's identity was beneficial for both his own family and Gervas.

"Is that so?" However, his usual nature was something his father, Hou Jue Marquis Marquis Aosiding, naturally knew well.

Hearing this reply, he was instead full of suspicion.

In the past, even when friends invited him, Adams would always arrive early.

Moreover, after returning, let alone looking so happy, he sometimes even bore the fatigue of social obligations.

But today, he had suddenly changed his nature; if there were no problem, Hou Jue Marquis Marquis Aosiding certainly would not believe it.

"Of course it is! Father, why are you still awake so late?"

"I heard you had not returned so late and was a bit worried, so I waited for you a while! By the way, the one who invited you today was Larni, the son of Count Just, right?"

"Yes, Father, what is it?"

"Nothing. Seeing how happily you played, you may interact with them more in the future!"

"Interact with them more?" Adams instinctively frowned; if it were not for Lord Gervas, he certainly would not have gotten along so well with Lark and the others.

Therefore, he certainly would not interact with them more in the future.

"What, is there a problem?"

"No... no problem. I will seek more contact with them in the future. Father, I am tired; I will rest first!" Knowing that too many words lead to mistakes, Adams simply slipped into his tent.

Seeing this, Hou Jue Marquis Marquis Aosiding frowned. "Could it be he met a woman he likes?"

He had already seen that the reason for his eldest son's change tonight was not that Lark.

But besides Lark, he could think of no other possibility, leaving only women as the possible cause.

……

Time passed, and two days later arrived.

Because of the great victory the day before yesterday, the grand army rested for two days in Red Shicheng.

After resting, the grand army set out again, since vast tracts of land were still in the hands of the orcs.

During these two days, the rangers also explored the area north of Red Shicheng and obtained much useful intelligence.

According to the intelligence, after those orcs retreated last time, they withdrew to a small city two hundred li from Red Shicheng and gathered with a band of orcs there.

According to preliminary exploration, the integrated orc army numbered at least around fifty thousand, of which ten to fifteen thousand were Behemoth orcs, and the rest were vassal troops.

Of course, this news was secretly passed by Adams to Gervas, learned from his father, Hou Jue Marquis Marquis Aosiding.

In fact, Gervas himself had the more accurate number of orcs.

Inside the city named Bokacheng, there were eleven thousand Behemoth orcs and forty-three thousand vassal troops, so the total orc army was fifty-four thousand.

It can be said that these integrated orcs had restored their previous combat power.

After four days of marching, the kingdom's hundred thousand troops finally arrived outside Bokacheng.

However, perhaps because the battle outside Red Shicheng made the orcs cautious, this time they did not even send teams out to harass the kingdom's grand army outside the city.

This was very rare before; in past battles between these orcs and humans, they won more than they lost, which cultivated their habit of launching proactive attacks.

Unless their strength differed too vastly, there was simply no need to rely on cities for protection.

But this time, the orcs inside Bokacheng tightly closed the city gates and quietly observed the kingdom's grand army from the city walls.

"This time it will be difficult; these orcs are not moving out!"

"Yes, the orcs on the wasteland are already so hard to deal with; now we must attack them, the difficulty rises straight up, and casualties will be huge!"

"I heard there are two roads continuing north from Red Shicheng. In my view, it would be better to bypass this Bokacheng first and advance along the other road. These orcs cannot hold Bokacheng for long; once we have recovered all the other directions, we can turn back, and by then these orcs will probably have already left!"

"Baron Ian, your idea is good, but what if these orcs detect our detour and secretly follow us? Then they will join other orcs from the north to attack us from front and rear; wouldn't we be finished?"

Looking at the ten-meter-high city walls of Bokacheng ahead, the small nobles immediately grew nervous.

After all, such a tough bone would require a great cost to crush, and that cost, naturally, would be paid by the petty nobles.

As for the other route, it could indeed avoid Bokacheng and head north.

But as Mil said, detouring carried equally high risks.

"The Grand Commander orders: the entire army begins setting up camp!"

At that moment, several messengers on warhorses began galloping.

Upon hearing this order, everyone knew they had to swallow this tough bone.

Thus, the army began setting up camp, then rested and prepared for battle.

Until the next morning, the assembly horn finally echoed throughout the entire camp.

"All troops assemble, prepare for battle!"

Amidst these shouts, the petty nobles led their subordinates out of the camp and spread out before Bokacheng.

What reassured Mil and others was that their attack order remained at the back.

This time, the noble forces were divided into five groups, twenty thousand per group, so Gervas and his men were assigned to the fifth group.