Chapter 169: One Insider May Become Two Insiders

A few weeks later, the Black and Brown Marquis agreed to the Second Prince's application.

The second prince brought his army to the Crescent Territory's defense line.

Many nobles who had never been here noticed this six-kilometer-long defense line.

If this line of defense is compared with the Great Wall in the North, which was built and repaired for countless years to defend against orcs and trolls, it is naturally far inferior.

After all, it had only been less than a year since Rand obtained the fiefdom of Crescent Territory.

Although this line of defense was built very early with foresight and was continuously reinforced during the looting process, it was still built very recently.

But it still brought shocking results.

A year ago, Xinyue Territory was still a wasteland where bandits were rampant, but during the period they marched through, they did not see much desolation. Instead, they saw many villages protected by strongholds.

Although some people maliciously speculated that Rand did not surrender these villages, most people did not think so.

And now, there is another line of defense that is not on the map.

There were low walls made of brick and stone, with forts, trenches, chevaux de frise and every few hundred meters, as well as every kind of trap you could imagine.

Did Rand build this line of defense because he was afraid of the Snow Fox Countess?

Or in other words, when Rand first took over Crescent Territory, he had already judged the current situation and began to prepare to build a defense line?

Moreover, the style of the defense line also surprised many nobles. It was a combination of trenches and low walls, with forts nailed like nails at key locations.

With a little imagination, you can understand how difficult it is to break through this line of defense.

The second prince was not that shocked. After all, the defense line here was far inferior to the city wall of Frost Moon Royal City, and there was an atmosphere of rushing work everywhere. In fact, even now, there were still workers repairing the defense line.

The Second Prince's equipment was magnificent, a composite, multi-layered suit of armor with royal ornaments on it.

The horses are also fully armored, and the decorations on their bodies are also very gorgeous.

The second prince took off his helmet and handed it to the servant beside him.

He dismounted and slowly walked towards the core fortress. After continuous expansion and reinforcement, it already had some of the flavor of a baron's castle.

Taner had received the news long ago, and had been waiting for a long time with the knights of the Brown Moon Deer Raiding Group.

Kneeling on one knee, performing the etiquette of knights. Knights are also nobles, but they have special etiquette when performing the etiquette that is different from that of other nobles.

As a man who acts after planning, Taner had naturally learned it a long time ago.

Seeing the second prince approaching, Taner took a look and bowed his head.

Taner had met the current king in the military tent of Black and Brown City when he followed Rand. The second prince now looked very similar to the king, except that he was less calm and had more of the sharpness of a young man.

The second prince with brown hair and blue eyes glanced at Taner who was saluting, then stood still, coughed lightly, and said, "As the commander of the first route of this counterattack corps, I will take over this line of defense."

After saying this, he just nodded his chin lightly, and without paying too much attention to the knights of the raiding group who were kneeling on one knee and performing the knight's salute, he walked into the core fortress.

Taner didn't feel anything about the second prince's contempt. It was too common, and they were just some knights, while this one was a noble prince.

Although he clearly wanted to squeeze them out of the defense line.

But the prince should have taken over the defense, and Rand had already informed him.

But Taner wasn't angry.

Because in a sense, their vacation has finally arrived.

Taner waited until the second prince entered the fort before he stood up, glanced at the troops who were also preparing to enter and take over the defense line.

There are about three thousand people.

This means that the three groups plus the marshal's headquarters probably total more than 10,000 people.

Compared to the civil war period in the Frost Moon Kingdom, the number of mobilized personnel is very small.

But this is actually normal. During the civil war, the Frostmoon Kingdom's troops that went to the north to resist orcs and trolls were all called back. Moreover, this was a war that determined fate, and the nobles took out all their best troops.

But now, even if the strategy fails, the only ones who will be unlucky are some border nobles like Rand.

Now, the army heading to the northern border for autumn defense has already set out. It is autumn and the harvest must be carried out, so too many conscripts cannot be recruited, and the domestic nobles have not yet recovered from the damage caused by the civil war.

If they didn't think they had a good chance of winning and hadn't made a lot of money from the previous looting operations, they might not have been able to squeeze out so many people.

As for the Southern Kingdom.

They also have to prepare for the autumn harvest, and their gold mine war has not yet ended. The intensity of the gold mine war is much higher than the defensive war in the north. Therefore, the southern kingdom needs to prepare for the autumn harvest, prepare for the gold mine war, and they all have their own ulterior motives and are not united enough.

Although they are an alliance of several countries, the quantity and quality of the troops they have deployed are probably inferior to those of the Frost Moon Kingdom.

This is also the reason why the nobles in the Frost Moon Kingdom are more confident and many of them bring their younger family members here to gild themselves.

Even the King of Frost Moon Kingdom probably thought so at this time.

Taner led his men out of the way so as not to hinder the army from entering the defense line.

It's obvious from the looks of these people that they don't want to be involved in this battle. Perhaps, as Rand said in his recent letter, they don't want to share the fruits of victory, which they believe is likely to be won.

But for Taner, it really was a good time to have a holiday.

Since forming the raiding group, he and Fenris have been leading the army, either raiding or garrisoning, for more than half a year.

Besides, I have been nervous all the time and really need to rest. As for the fruits of victory, I will talk about it after they win.

Apart from anything else, the Snow Fox Countess was indeed a troublesome opponent. At least he suffered a loss during a looting operation.

Now is a good time to recuperate.

Tanr called to Fenris to set up camp.

When he led the raiding group to raid the Snow Fox Territory before, it was Fenris who was stationed here. Later, when they withdrew, Fenris did not go on other missions. They stayed together during this period.

Taner looked at the somewhat indignant Fenris with a smile: "Why do you care so much? Lord Rand said that it's a good time to give us a holiday."

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Fenris still couldn't stand it: "We're just going to leave the line of defense to them?"

"It's what we should do, and giving it all to them can also reduce the damage to the soldiers in the hideout." Taner now has a scruffy beard. More than half a year of military career has made his face a little haggard, and he hasn't been keeping a good look of his beard.

Now it can only be said to be maintained at a presentable level, but not as neat as before.

The same goes for Fenris. Fenris' original job was a messenger, and his appearance had always been something he needed to pay attention to, but now, as the general of the pioneer group, he could only say that he had become unkempt.

But it is still better than Taner. At least his beard is trimmed regularly and he looks cleaner.

But his expression was very unhappy, because the defense line was built by the hideout, and it had consumed a lot of manpower and material resources of the hideout.

Now it was kicked away.

Moreover, even if they win the battle later, the hideout will not get any credit.

Taner stroked his unshaven beard and watched Fenris fall into deep thought. Fenris was younger than him, but also quite mature and steady, otherwise he would not be able to take on the responsibility of an envoy.

And now that he is so angry, he has obviously put himself in the role of a powerful force.

It seems that we have made considerable progress in persuading Fenris to join the den.

However, Taner did not say much, for fear of exposing Fenris and making him angry.

He just asked him as the commander-in-chief to arrange for his subordinates to set up camp as soon as possible, otherwise they would have no place to stay tonight.

But they became comfortable afterwards. Although there were no buildings to shelter them from the wind and rain, the soldiers had long been accustomed to sleeping in the open air, and they no longer needed to guard the defense line.

It was very hard for hundreds of them to guard the six-kilometer-long defense line.

The hideout can now gather more than a thousand soldiers, but many of them are new recruits temporarily recruited this year. They are still training in the rear. They may be pulled out to fill in the gaps when the situation is critical, but now, at least the new recruits in the rear still need to be trained well.

Therefore, there are actually not many people guarding the defense line. If it weren't for the knights of the Marquis of Black and Brown and the Earl of the Stag, the number of people here would be even smaller. They are just elite.

At least ordinary mercenaries and conscripts, and even some small legions equipped with a small number of cavalry, would not be their match.

On the other side of the defense line, the Snow Fox Countess received a tip-off.

The military reputation of Countess Snow Fox in the Kingdom of Lunsa is much higher than that of Rand in the Kingdom of Frostmoon. Moreover, due to the previous looting of the Kingdom of Lunsa and the invasion of the Northern Allied Forces, the Southern Kingdom was generally frustrated, so the setback of Countess Snow Fox did not affect her reputation much.

What really affected her was the looting by the Brown Moon Deer Raiders under the tricolor flag during this period, as well as the failure of previous military adventures.

The former resulted in the fact that there was no need for autumn harvest in many places in her Snow Fox Territory this autumn, because the people and food, including seeds and even soil in the village, had all been robbed.

The latter directly led to a sharp drop in the number of knights under her command, and the mixed quality of the new recruits directly led to a decline in her control over the army.

But now, she glanced at the army roster next to her.

This time, the country still gave her a lot of support, and she summoned her vassal states early on.

Now is the perfect time to attack.

When she had fewer troops, she was somewhat helpless in defending the line, but now that she had more troops, she could use many strategies.

And she heard that the disgusting Rand and his disgusting commander Taner did not seem to be officially involved in this military friction.

She didn't quite understand the political situation within the Frost Moon Kingdom, but she didn't think that the new opponent would be more disgusting than the previous one.

Even though she has suffered a lot, she will not underestimate the enemy or take risks again.

At least when facing this mysterious Viscount Rand, whom she had never met but had caused her heavy losses, she would no longer underestimate the enemy.

(End of this chapter)