"Have you heard?"

"What did you hear?"

"The one we are waiting for is the Lion of Cintra."

In the camp, soldiers wearing the black eagle and red ridge emblem were talking in low voices. Wind blew from the distant Mahakam Mountains, bringing with it bursts of bird calls and crow cries.

The captain kicked the soldier who was talking nonsense hard and shouted, "Everyone knows this. Don't you know why you are wearing armor? Ah!"

The sentry who was beaten and scolded adjusted his helmet and said angrily: "I thought I was wearing armor to go to the front line, but I was assigned to the rear."

"Do you have any objection to the Queen's order?!"

The captain became furious after hearing what the sentry said.

The sentry shrank his neck, but suddenly said to the captain: "It is for the queen that we should be at the front now! The Nilfgaardians have crossed the Yaruga River! Damn it, they actually did it! We should mobilize every man and gather every sword now!"

"Instead of, instead of staying here and staring at this silent mountain!" The sentinel's voice became louder and louder until it turned into a roar, "Is that our enemy? How should we deal with it? Use swords to chop those trees and rocks?"

With a "bang", the sentry was kicked to the ground again. The captain was so angry that his neck turned red. None of the other sentries nearby dared to provoke him at this time.

The sentry lying on the ground looked very young, with a light fuzz on his mouth instead of a beard, which gave him the stubbornness that only young people have. The captain did not pursue him anymore, but just pointed at him while panting, and then sighed.

"Don't talk nonsense in the barracks, or your tongue will get plagued!"

The young sentry stiffened his neck: "For Queen Mi Wei!"

"For Queen Mivi's sake, that's why we have to wait for the Lion of Cintra to come back!" said the captain viciously.

"We can't resist Nilfgaard alone, even with the help of Aedirn... and Cintra promised to bring us the help of Skellige, and they went deep into Mahakam to seek another reinforcement. If they come out at this time, it can just solve our urgent needs..."

"The people of Cintra have long said that the pirates from Skellige would come to help, but now we haven't seen a single ship!" the young sentinel shouted, "And dwarves... dwarves... we shouldn't put all our hopes of saving our country on others!"

"It's good to be aggressive, young man." The captain said fiercely, "But what do you think we are doing? We are at war! We can't just rely on passion, we need a lot of things... Damn it, why am I telling you this? You're just a soldier, what do you know!"

The captain's voice deepened. "And the Nilfgaardian Ironclad Army... Before we faced them, no one expected them to be so powerful. They fought us like the regular army fighting the conscripted army... Only the Lion of Cintra had ever frightened them. If he appeared on the battlefield, at least it would boost morale..."

"We don't need morale. To defend our country, each of us is willing to sacrifice our own blood!" The young sentry seemed determined to be beaten up by the captain today. "As long as we..."

His mouth was suddenly covered, but it was not because the captain was angry and didn't want to hear any more crazy talk.

All the sentries tilted their heads slightly, and the ground shook slightly. It was the familiar sound of horse hooves.

With a swish, the young sentry got up from the ground, and all the soldiers drew their weapons and formed a battle formation to guard against the sudden arrival of the army in the middle of the night.

Amid their nervous eyes, a horn sounded from far away in the darkness; it was a signal from friendly forces.

“Woo——”

But they still didn't dare to relax until the sound of galloping horses slowed down not far away, and then a fire illuminated the vision, allowing them to see a flag.

The three lions flag of Sintra.

…

Even in the middle of the night, the soldiers guarding the city were still busy opening the city gates and welcoming the Cintra troops in.

By the time daybreak came, Queen Mi Wei had already hurried over.

Compared to the last time they met before entering Mahakam, Queen Miwei had become visibly haggard. Her face was barely neat, but her hair had obviously been neglected for a long time, her skin was no longer shiny, and her golden armor was covered with dust.

All this just added to her heroic spirit of fighting on horseback. For a moment, the people of Cintra even saw some of Queen Calanthe's shadow in the person in front of them, and couldn't help feeling a little dazed.

"Your Majesty Mi Wei, have you just retreated from the battlefield?"

Mi Wei shook her head and didn't have time to exchange pleasantries with Lan En: "Let me make it short, Lan En. I need help now."

"I heard from Great Elder Broval in Mahakam about the current war situation." Mi Wei's eagerness made Lan En involuntarily serious. "But I want to hear you explain it in detail. I need to know what kind of situation we are facing."

Lane paused. “How bad is it?”

A guard behind the queen stepped forward and was about to speak on her behalf. But Mi Wei raised her hand slightly to stop her men. She took a deep breath and said in person:

"I'm about to lose Livia, Lane."

…

What the great elder Brovard said at the time was:

"You are about to lose Mevy, Lord Lannister."

This seems to be the case.

After the failure of the attack on Cintra, Nilfgaard suffered a great defeat at Sodden. They were then divided into several armies and stationed in southern Cintra, Lower Sodden, and on the other side of the Yaruga River, which is only separated from Rivia by a river.

In fact, according to the normal historical trajectory, Cintra should have been abandoned by the North at this time. After the King of the North and the Nilfgaardians signed a peace agreement, Cintra was ceded to Nilfgaard in exchange for the withdrawal of the Black Sun Legion.

But now, with Lann's efforts, the North has reached a unanimous strategic goal of resisting Nilfgaard. Although everyone has different attitudes towards this, the war has continued. The coalition forces of Aedirn and King Mevi have been on guard against Nilfgaard's covetous eyes on the North, and frictions of all sizes have never stopped.

——Under the disguise of these daily frictions, Nilfgaard's sudden attack caught Queen Miwei off guard.

Seven days ago, the Nilfgaardians forced their way across the Yaruga River, invaded Rivia, and defeated all 5,000 Rivian soldiers stationed on the riverbank.

Five days ago, the Nilfgaardians captured the Skala Castle and the Spala Castle on the border of Livia. On the same day, Queen Mivi, who had reacted, led an army of 10,000 to fight against Nilfgaard in the Anglin area.

Anglin is bordered by the Mahakam Mountains to the north, the Yaruga River to the south, Lower Soden to the west, and Livia to the east. The region is famous for its fine wood, especially the local cedar, sycamore, and pine, which are known as "Anglin Gold".

The Nilfgaardians stationed in Lower Soden sent a division of cavalry to Anglin at this moment to provide logistical supplies to their fellow imperial compatriots who had just finished a great battle in Rivia, and to unite their troops.

Queen Mivi suffered an unprecedented defeat, and the army of the United Kingdom of Lyria and Rivia collapsed at the first blow of Nilfgaard's Black Army. Fortunately, the Mahakam Mountains were densely forested and the mountain roads were rugged, so the United Kingdom troops, mainly light cavalry and light infantry, were able to escape and successfully retreat back to Rivia.

Two days ago, Queen Mivi gathered the remnants of her army and joined forces with the 4,000 Aedirnian coalition forces that had hurriedly arrived. They once again fought against the Nilfgaardian army in Rivia, but were defeated again. Three-fifths of Rivia's borders fell, and the Nilfgaardians took over many trading cities and even set up a temporary camp in Lyria.

Yesterday, Queen Mevy retreated north to the borders of Aedirn, and the Lannister Lord of Cintra returned from the mountains of Mahakam.

…

Lan rubbed his brows with a headache. Everything happened too fast.

In his original plan, the nearly 20,000 reinforcements from Queen Mivi and Aedirn were supposed to be used to contain the Nilfgaardian army stationed in Lower Soden, so that he could free his hands to eliminate the black army in Cintra. After the entire territory of Cintra was recovered, Cintra, the United Kingdom, and Aedirn would unite their forces and drive all the black sun armies in Lower Soden and Anglin into the Yaruga River.

I didn't expect that Livia is almost gone now.

Queen Miwei was actually a rare wise ruler in the North, but despite her wisdom, the overall quality of her troops was still not as good as that of the South. Compared with the Nilfgaardian Black Army, which was fully armored and had a high proportion of professional soldiers, the Northern Army, which was mixed with three-quarters of temporary conscripts, could really be said to be on the verge of collapse.

"Lann." Others did not dare to speak much during the conversation between the leaders of the two countries, but Geralt had no scruples.

White Wolf walked forward worriedly and whispered in Lann's ear: "Nilfgaard launched a surprise attack on Rivia, so will Cintra also..."

Lann frowned. He had thought of this the first time he heard the news in Mahakam. But he still shook his head: "If there is a problem in Cintra, Uncle Mossak, Triss, and the lion members I left there have countless ways to contact me. Since they didn't, it means the situation is still good."

It’s not that Lann doesn’t want to rush back to Cintra as soon as possible, but the land where Queen Mivi, or Livia, is located is too important. They are directly guarding the Yaruga River!

The Yaruga River is the widest river in the North. The upper half of the river can be said to directly divide the north and south borders. The lower half of the river flows through Anglin, Mahakam, Soden, Brug, Verden, and the back of Sintra.

This is where Skellige's ships can sail freely, and if the Nilfgaardians replace Rivia, then the imperial army can go downstream and attack Brokilon where Lann and his men are, completely separating them from the front line.

In the original history, Nilfgaard also sent out the already powerful Squirrel Party along this route. With the help of Esna, the dryad queen who was full of hatred for humans at the time, they passed through the Brokilon Forest and struck Temeria like lightning!

From a strategic point of view, Lann absolutely cannot lose Rivia; from an emotional point of view, he cannot lose Queen Miwei, an ally who has always supported him and is also the first line of defense in the North.

But now that the Black Sun army is approaching, what can he do? The legions of Mahakam, Skellige, Cintra, and Kovir have no way to cross the thousands of miles to Rivia, unless the senior warlocks of the entire Northern Brotherhood of Warlocks act together, but if you think about it, you can know that this is impossible.

He did have a few trump cards that could turn the tide of the local battlefield, such as the Frost Giant, Saskia's dragon body and the red dragon Kelturis. But not to mention that he wanted to keep them as secret weapons to retake Cintra, these powerful high-level combat units were not capable of being a single-person army. They could indeed turn the tide of the battle with the army and appropriate strategies, but if they went upstream when the army was defeated, it would only help a few more people escape, and they themselves might even be defeated.

That's a proper army group, with mixed arms and complete large-scale siege equipment. And according to Nilfgaard's nature, there will definitely be warlock troops to coordinate.

Lan took a deep breath and quickly went over the thoughts in his mind several times. He felt that he still needed to know more information.

"Your Majesty, how much do you know about our current enemy?" Lan looked at Queen Meiwei. "Most importantly - I don't mean to offend you - I want to know how Nilfgaard defeated the front line so quickly?"

It was visibly that the knights and officers behind Queen Mi Wei all blushed.

"I need to fully understand the enemy in order to formulate future plans." Lan said sincerely.

Queen Mi Wei shook her head and signaled her subordinates to stay calm: "Failure is shameful, but we need to face our shame. Simply put..."

Queen Miwei took a deep breath: "They crossed the Yaruga River."

Lann tilted his head to indicate that he was listening.

But Queen Mi Wei did not continue, even she, who was so proud, lowered her head slightly.

"They crossed the Yaruga River... and then?" Lan was stunned.

“Nothing happened afterwards. That’s it.” Queen Mi Wei gritted her teeth. “We never thought they could do this, but they did it. We were caught off guard and retreated step by step. This led to everything that happened later.”

…

Lan felt a slight pain in his temple.

The Yaruga River is a large river that can carry ships and has a swift current. Even the people of Rivia cannot cross the river without large ships and bridges, let alone swimming across the river as a group. None of the defensive strategies of the people of Rivia had a plan for what would happen if the Nilfgaardians could easily cross the river.

But the Nilfgaardians did just that, and the Rivians were beaten to a pulp.

"So what about the enemy? How many enemies are we facing?"

Queen Miwei calmed herself down and said, "It was Nilfgaard's Eastern Army that crossed the Yaruga River. The one fighting us was their [Black Infantry Regiment]. There are about 13,000 men in the battle now. I am stationed in Soden, and it seems that their Third Legion. The one that rushed towards us was a cavalry unit with the banner of the Silver Sun. I think it was the [Ade Finn Division]."

Although the Rivians were attacked by surprise, they had been in a stalemate with the Nilfgaardians for a long time and had collected sufficient intelligence.

Lann rubbed his brow.

"Where is His Majesty Demave? What does he say?"

"Demave should be on his way here, he..."

Before Queen Mi Wei could finish her words, a roar suddenly came from outside the tent -

"Lannister! How dare you imprison my soldiers! How dare you imprison Layla!"