Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 366 - 6: Who is the Real Rebel?_2

Some of them had joined the Forbidden Army through achievements in martial arts tournaments, others were descendants of older Forbidden Army members, and children of the Conqueror’s followers, all unquestionably loyal and from good families.

But their enemies were not from common stock.

Iolion had consented to the matter.

He sat alone on the throne, watching the Black Iron Forbidden Army with swords at their backs, marching out in single file, leaving the entire court desolate.

The White Steel Princess’s raid had severely weakened the Holy War Army, stripping them of their siege capabilities for several days.

The Heavenly Pegasus Plain had become the stronghold for the Holy War Army. All labor from villages and towns was gathered to support the Holy War Army, restoring the camp.

The White Steel Princess was extremely annoyed as she watched from the city walls.

"How did everyone suddenly become a guide?"

"Who exactly are the rebels here?"

"When my loyal army arrives, I’ll slaughter all of you!"

...

Several days later.

The loyal army hadn’t arrived, but the enemy arrived as expected.

Sacred songs floated in the air, melodious and sanctified, purging the soul.

They appeared as if through a haze of dust.

The Demon Hunting Knights, the Judgement Court Knights, the Holy Temple Knights.

Flags of the Thirty-Three Divine Seating flapped loudly, three major Church Knight Orders cleared the way, 333 Holy Song Nuns chanting the holy hymns, followed by Divine Mysterious Nobles and tens of thousands of believers, composing the main force of the Church Court.

The White Steel Princess watched this scene from afar.

Black Castle was built during the Conqueror Period, later expanded over a century, backed by the Southern mountains, with tall and solid walls on three sides, making it extremely difficult to capture, guarded by five hundred Black Iron, to breach it was pure folly.

But merely defending the city was not a foolproof plan — Black Castle was densely populated, under extreme pressure, if the Holy War Army just prolonged the siege, Black Castle would fall without a fight.

And indeed, that was the case.

The Holy War Army didn’t rashly attack but encamped right there.

Common soldiers camped in the open, knights pitched tents, and some lord’s tents were as large as houses, especially the main tent, conspicuous yet spacious.

The White Steel Princess suppressed the urge to launch a second raid.

She was extremely sensitive to the movements of the war, faintly sensing that the Holy War Army was baiting.

Surprise tactics only work once; the enemy would be prepared the second time around, a rash attack would trap them all inside.

There were seven to eight hundred knights just from the three major Knight Orders, nearly a thousand qualified Conquest Knights, and four to five thousand riders.

The military units from the Church in Divine Mysterious had indeed come out in full force.

Even more terrifying was her sighting of around one to two hundred of Divine Mysterious’s Shield Guard Army — with Divine Mysterious Kingdom’s main battlefield far in Cangyue, aside from the Shield Guard Army, only a symbolic aid of troops had been sent.

But was this all?

The White Steel Princess pondered, clearly, it wasn’t everything.

She looked out towards the distance from the city wall...

...

The River Valley Army was the first loyalist army to march onto the Heavenly Pegasus Plain.

There were Church spies everywhere here.

"Obviously, Lord Fury did not stop them," Bishop Eric in red said.

"That’s the Blasphemers’ army, very fearsome," someone commented.

The Holy War Army and the Blasphemers had clashed twice, both times disastrously defeated, with an annihilating battle each time, few escapists remained.

"Devour them!" the Church decided unanimously in a high-level meeting after much deliberation.

The Church and Roman had long-standing grievances; even Iao III had not dared to massacre believers on a large scale, how dare you?

The Blasphemers had been the main targets of the Church, second only to the Black Iron King, in recent years.

Now, it was truly a narrow road for foes.

Decisively, they gathered the army, beginning to surge toward the River Valley Army.

The plain terrain offered no natural defenses, and their location was originally farmland — which no one farmed anymore, as everyone had rebelled.

Jet, observing the enemy situation, immediately used the supply carts to form square defensive structures, deploying his armored Guard near the gaps between the carts. He also positioned the Heavy Equipment troops at the weaker defensive points and then ordered the rest of the troops to take up bows and arrows, ready to shoot.

The Holy War Army surrounded the River Valley Army’s convoy like a tide, but faced some difficulties with this situation.

The general marshals discussed briefly and finally decided to attack in waves.

They committed fifty thousand men, first attacking for an hour before assessing further.

The first batch consisted of ten thousand Holy War soldiers without armor – since an exact count was not possible, an approximation sufficed.

Compared to the River Valley Army, their numbers were fewer, but the assault was straightforward.

The front-line Holy Warrior Soldiers raised their Large Shields and began charging to break the formation.

"All units on the southern side are ready!" Nathan shouted and at this moment, the Vanguard had dismounted as well.

The soldiers guarding the southern convoys readied their arrows.

The training of archers was extremely challenging, and mastering the standard Longbow was not something the common Hunting Bow or Short Bow could compare to.

However, shooting thirty times three times daily, morning, noon, and evening, two to three months of such training would strengthen the muscles and bones, enabling even the dullest individuals to master shooting techniques, albeit with less precision.

But Roman never aimed to train archers en masse to become like the Sniper units—turning all into Divine Archers.

His requirement was simply for them to achieve the standard range and correct shooting direction.

By this standard, even those auxiliary troops could qualify as competent archers.

"Fire!" Nathan ordered, as soon as the enemy approached within a hundred meters.

The southern defense forces, about two thousand strong, fired off two thousand arrows. While not enough to blot out the sun, it certainly resembled rain.

In this era, Cavalry clad in Heavy Armor was the primary fighting force on battlefields, infantry being less efficient support troops, while archers, due to training difficulties, were hard to gather in large numbers, even Crossbowmen being scarce.

Hence the first wave of the Holy War Army severely underestimated the power of the Archers and suffered heavily.

Though they had shields, not all were equipped, and most were farmers who had sown fields their whole lives.

After getting struck by arrows, they screamed in agony and then fell to the ground.

With continuous volleys of deadly arrows for three rounds, lasting less than half a minute, the entire southern line was a bloody river, a ghastly sight that left many Knights and Priests agape in shock.

The attack quickly resulted in a rout.

"This is the weapon of the Devil!" The generals, after recovering from their shock, became extremely indignant.

Damn it! That’s way over the line! How could you possess such mass destructive weapons!

"Attack! Attack! We must destroy them, destroy the minions of the Evil King!"

The second wave of the attacking force numbered about twenty thousand.

If it had not been for the plain, the formation could hardly be deployed in another terrain; they surged forward densely packed.

"For the All Gods!" They bellowed, boosting their morale.

Pushed by those behind, with mixed feelings of excitement and fear, they could not see the situation ahead clearly. Only hearing continuous screams, their bodies went limp, and instinctively wanting to flee, but trapped in the dense ranks they had no direction to escape to, and were forced to charge forward.

Some did not die from the descending arrows, but were tripped by the bodies of their comrades and trampled to death by their own.

But they indeed charged forward.

Dressed in tattered clothes, looking emaciated with dirty faces, they easily resembled a zombie horde.

"Guard unit! Form up!"

Sword and Shield Soldiers and the Long Spear formation of the River Valley Army advanced past the wagons, rapidly forming a defensive line. The Super Long Spears instantly impaled the first hundred or so charging soldiers.

"Hold the line!" Kao yelled loudly, but his voice was faint in the noisy environment.

The Sword and Shield and Spear defense line was nearly broken, shaped severely by the assault, almost pushed back behind the wagons, but they held on with tough quality and instinct from training.

Behind, arrows fell like rain, but at the front line, brutal hand-to-hand combat ensued.

The attacking Believers’ force struck overwhelmingly with objects like Short Spears, Long Spears, knives, and axes which caused minimal damage to plate armor, hardly breaking through.

The combat readiness and physical conditioning of the Guard unit far exceeded ordinary troops; well-equipped, a sword and a shield, Long Spear thrusts killed as many as came.

No matter how like a tide the enemy surged forward, they could not breach the three tight ranks.

After battling for about twenty minutes, the River Valley Army rotated in three groups to confront the enemy. The Believers surged like a tide and retreated as one, leaving behind only a mass of bodies, with corpses nearly piling half a meter high at the frontline.

And the third attack wave from the Holy War Army swiftly commenced.

The first eight thousand who had routed were regrouped, plus an additional more than twenty thousand from the third wave, totaling over thirty thousand, truly indistinguishable from a zombie horde.

"Front army retreat, rear army forward!"

Jet figured it out. The Holy War Army fiercely attacked the southern defenses, prepared to break through regardless of casualties.

And the southern troops indeed could not withstand it.

Sword and Shield Soldiers fighting for three to five minutes saw significant drops in physical strength, barely holding on by sheer force of will, their steel knives notched from use.

Initially one strike per man; later it took four or five strikes to kill just one.

Fortunately, their comrades from behind rotated in timely, replacing those who were physically exhausted.