"It seems that deciding to come here first was the right choice. The threat posed by these Goths is indeed extraordinary." After eating a few pieces of venison, Qin Ze picked up his water bottle and looked at the ruins in front of him.

"Yes, Your Majesty, we suffered heavy losses this time, and now..." The soldier beside him replied, also turning his gaze in that direction. At this moment, the mountain pass had already completely changed its landscape.

In this collapse, the troops that had attacked the pass were almost completely wiped out, and many of them were not even found dead. Only a very small number of soldiers who had not yet reached the pass were lucky enough to survive, and then they all withdrew back to the main camp.

Now, there are fewer than 50,000 troops left in the entire base camp, and since entering the Enzos Mountains, the total number of casualties has reached more than 300,000. Looking back at every battle fought in the past, no battle has ever suffered such high losses.

This is certainly because the terrain has been extremely unfavorable since entering Enzos, but without this collapse, things would never have turned out this way. Now that the mountain road has been washed away and buried, it seems that the troops are no longer able to leave Enzos via the usual route.

"Your Majesty, we must find another way out," the soldier continued.

Qin Ze took a few sips of water from the kettle and nodded, saying, "Of course, the Goths used their geographical advantage to create obstacles for us, but now that everything has been destroyed, we will have equal conditions to fight them."

Qin Ze put down the kettle and then said indifferently, "Although the road is destroyed, it's not a major obstacle."

"Send scouts to explore the way after dawn tomorrow. There's no need to find any wide roads, just a path that can cross the pass. Although the collapse is serious, it shouldn't have destroyed all the mountain roads outside the pass."

"After finding the path to cross the pass, we tried to find a mountain path that had not been affected by the landslide and continued along that route."

After he finished speaking, the soldier hesitated and said, "Then it will probably take our army quite a while to get out."

Qin Ze shook his head and said, "No, I mean finding a safe route that can escort me out."

"The troops here will not go out with us. They will stay in Enzos to set up outposts, build fortifications, and establish a complete defensive line."

At this point, Qin Ze stood up and said in a deep voice, "From now on, we will take over Enzos, and once we leave Enzos, I will be the army."

"With the loss of Enzos as a shield, the Goths' next battlefield will be the plains, where we will dominate the battlefield!"

——

The next day, the first day of February, at the crack of dawn, the snow had stopped, and the ground was covered in white. At the foot of the eastern mountain of Enzos, Dingle led his cavalry away from the post station early in the morning, heading towards Salibia.

Although the weather and road conditions weren't great, Dingle estimated that if they traveled quickly during the day and rested at roadside inns at night, they could reach Salibia within five days. Before that, according to information received yesterday, General Saskia, who had been ordered by the Emperor to lead the Fifth Army to Enzos, would arrive at Pariston on February 4th.

Dingle knew that the messenger who had left the post station the previous evening had already delivered the final results of the Battle of Enzos to the various post stations, meaning that Admiral Saski would receive the news before meeting him. Therefore, he did not intend to wait for Saski at any location during the rest of the journey. The army group was traveling along the main roads, but if they wanted to reach Salivia as quickly as possible, they could take other routes.

Before leaving the post station, Dingle specifically left a few cavalrymen behind, ordering them to wait there for the arrival of the Fifth Army, and to report in detail to General Saski about all the battles they had experienced in the Enzos Mountains during that time.

As for what the Fifth Army would do next after arriving in Enzos, Dingle believed that Saski would make the corresponding arrangements, and all he had to do was to arrive in Salibia as soon as possible, personally deliver the letter to von Palen, and then determine what measures von Palen would take in this war. After determining von Palen's attitude, he would then take the next step accordingly.

——

Meanwhile, Qin Ze, who was still trapped west of the pass, also sent out a large number of scouts to explore the route early this morning.

He believed that after the collapse orchestrated by the Goths, they would think that he would not be able to get out of Enzos in a short time. Now, Qin Ze planned to take advantage of the Goths' misjudgment to get out of the pass ruins in the shortest possible time, and then deploy a new army to prepare for war.

After sending out thousands of people to explore suitable routes, results came quickly. Around 4 p.m., an exploration team brought back news that they had crossed the pass through the ruins and found the remaining road of Cornflower Avenue, which was buried by rocks on the other side of the pass.

Finding the broken road made things much easier. Qin Ze then ordered his men to continue exploring along the remaining path to ensure they wouldn't encounter any more Golgar ambushes on the remaining stretch of the journey. Of course, this was a precaution, but Qin Ze believed it was absolutely necessary.

Then, one piece of reconnaissance information after another was brought back by the communications soldiers who kept returning, and it was already seven o'clock in the evening.

"Your Majesty, we have surveyed the area along that road for two kilometers and have not found any enemy forces during this time. In addition, we have found several hidden outposts along the way, but there were no traces of the enemy inside. Based on the above, we can conclude that the enemy forces have exhausted all their strength in the battle at the pass."

Qin Ze stroked his chin and said, "That's pretty much what I thought. They've already gone so far as to destroy the peaks and perish with us, so the possibility of them holding back a trick up their sleeve is indeed not very high."

"So how far is it from Enzos?"

The communications soldier immediately replied, "According to the markings on the map, we roughly estimate that it is about two kilometers away. From the highest point, we can already vaguely see the terrain outside Mount Enzos, but it is not very clear because it is dark."

Qin Ze nodded in satisfaction: "Good, the information we gathered today is enough to ensure that the journey ahead will be smooth."

"Don't stop tonight, keep scouting ahead, but be careful. No matter if there are Golts in the road ahead, we must try our best to hide our tracks."

"Furthermore, we will leave Enzos after I join them and form a new army."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the communications soldier replied.

"Escort me out of the mountain pass early tomorrow morning."

“Let’s give the Goths a surprise, no, a shock…” Qin Ze stroked his chin and corrected him.