Under the ominous sky, the warhorse snorted out sprays of saliva, uneasily pawing at the dirt with its hooves.

Riding on horseback, Horn held up his binoculars, gazing towards the Alman Army in the distance.

On the other side of the village full of barns, precisely to Horn's north, stood clusters of colorful light and shadow.

Unlike the Salvation Army's unified uniforms, these guards, wearing colorful clothes and even pajamas under chainmail and armor, looked like the mosaic stained glass of a church window.

They formed a series of extended lines, firmly guarding a stretch of elevated terrain running east to west.

On both sides of the Lai Xi River, the Cuirassiers and Kush Knights rode alongside the Squire Knights of the Alman Army.

The iron flow of warhorses and swords sped across the yellow-green grassland, occasionally intersecting, sending blood mixed with sparks flying in the air.

The dust and fine sand kicked up by the hooves fell onto the surface of the stream, polishing the previously smooth river surface to a frosted texture, reflecting no blue sky.

Perhaps because the stream couldn't reflect its own splendid appearance, the sun hid behind the clouds.

In the hour-long standoff between the Salvation Army and the Church's forces, the once clear sky quickly turned a deep blue, stained by both white and dark clouds.

As Horn slightly raised his binoculars, it was as if he was staring upwards from the ocean floor.

"Will it rain?" Lowering the binoculars, Horn asked Patrick beside him.

Patrick claimed to have developed a special secret technique, which, despite causing pain, allowed him to sense whether it would rain.

Hearing Horn's words, Patrick rubbed his knee, closed his eyes to feel for a moment, and said, "I don't feel much pain in my knees or ankles, so I guess it's just overcast."

Horn sighed with regret, thinking that if it rained, Jeanne would be able to maximize her combat effectiveness.

The Salvation Army's current position was five kilometers from the Church's camp, and eight kilometers from Rapids City on the Biqi Castle-Rapids City King's Path.

Despite Horn's cautious approach, he was unable to achieve the expected surprise attack.

Initially, he planned to move to a small town near Rapids City after capturing Biqi Castle.

This way, structures and positions could diminish the knights' combat abilities while also easing the pressure on Rapids City's defenders.

The plan was progressing smoothly, as he captured Biqi Castle on July 21, leaving only twenty kilometers to Rapids City.

But, unsurprisingly, an unexpected situation occurred once again.

Previously in Tisen Town, Jeanne killed a small noble claiming to be the "chief knight of Countess Marika."

She initially thought, as in most cases, this knight was just trying to scare people with a title.

At first, nobody paid attention to this babbling knight until dozens of scouting cavalry arrived.

The rude knight turned out to be the chief knight of Countess Marika's household.

He was originally sent by the Countess to Xiaochi City to investigate, temporarily staying in Tisen Town.

Due to his overly ornate decorations and carrying his own heraldic flag, seen as a mocking object, Jeanne sent him to see the Saint Master in an instant.

With the subordinate failing to report on time, the Countess dispatched cavalry to investigate.

This investigation shockingly revealed that, unbeknownst to them, a large army of over ten thousand had appeared near Biqi Castle.

This led to the current situation Horn now faced.

Upon arriving near Vicentor Manor, they were blocked by enemies estimated to be twice their size along the roadside.

Unlike the wheat field terrain of Langsande County, Lower Reif County and Hotam County both featured continuous earth slopes of four to five meters, along with webs of streams.

However, unlike Hotam County, Lower Reif County was mostly streams, and after meeting enemy scouts, Horn marched swiftly.

The infantry and cavalry of both sides engaged in mutual pulling and scouting, finally determining their current positions and formations.

Horn failed to seize advantageous terrain and could only gaze across a Y-shaped stream towards the Church's forces from afar.

This time, he still employed a modified diamond-shaped positional warfare mode, grouping two legions together.

The frontline was made up of two groups of four Black Hat Legions, specifically the First to Fourth Legions, totaling 2000 men.

The second line consisted of two Black Hat Legions on the left wing and two new Imperial Guard Legions on the right wing, positioned 90 meters from the first line, flanking the two frontline groups.

The far right side of the second line consists of two Black Hat Legions of pure long spear new recruits and all of Xiaochi City's 1,200 troops forming a large array.

They don't have time for Gallar Array training, and it's just long spear soldiers, so they are arranged in the Deng Jia'er Array they are most familiar with.

This pure long spear Black Hat Legion was expanded half a month ago, with a ratio of veterans to new recruits approximately one to four, only replacing the senior officers.

These new recruits were mostly guards before, after simple political education and discipline training, with some veterans inserted, they went directly to the battlefield.

Horn's expectations for them are simple, to be a group of qualified line fillers, just holding the line is enough, not expecting them to counterattack.

Besides, they really can't counterattack, if distinguished by whether or not they are armored into heavy and light divisions.

Then, the Black Hat Legion has roughly half of its long spearmen heavily armed and one-third of its Holy Gunmen heavily armed, while the Imperial Guard has all long spearmen heavily armed and half of its Holy Gunmen heavily armed.

Among the two new Black Hat Legions of over a thousand men, there are only a hundred sets of armor, probably only the soldiers in the front row can wear them.

How to develop more Holy Gunmen is truly a challenge.

The third line is right behind the first line's two legions, led by Horn with two Imperial Guard Legions.

They are positioned about 120 meters in the rear, with 80 wizards and 20 fireball crossbows led by Mormon sandwiched in between.

As for the remaining cavalry forces, the Holy Gun Cavalry is on the left wing of the first line, Kush Knights on the right wing of the second line, and North Knights beside Horn acting as rear guard and reserve.

Meanwhile, 2,000 Defensive Army men guard the baggage and carts on the right wing of the third line, along with 120 conscripted Xiaochi City cavalry and the Defensive Army guarding these supplies.

Both sides are currently inactive, with the church army intermittently sending light cavalry for harassment, while Horn is only making minor adjustments at the brigade level.

It seems like both sides are waiting for something.

"Your Majesty, the scouts we sent to Rapids City have returned."

Qianqian's neutral voice rose from behind Horn, who turned around with the reins, only to see Qianqian, in light cloth attire, jogging over.

Qianqian, on the battlefield, is always in men's clothes, his neckline slightly open, and from Horn's high angle, sparkling sweat could be seen sliding down his white collarbone.

Horn asked helplessly: "What's the word from Rapids City?"

Originally, based on the principle of relative avoidance, as part of the decision-making team, Qianqian should not be involved in the front lines.

Horn intended to leave Qianqian at the rear of Biqi Castle, and have him come after they stabilized upon reaching Rapids City.

Despite working under Horn temporarily, Qianqian belongs officially to Catherine's side, and hence naturally cares about his family.

Upon hearing that Rapids City was besieged, he was more anxious than Horn.

Finding out that the entire church army had moved out, Horn concluded simply: the opponent, with no hope of capturing the city, decided to deal with the reinforcements first.

After all, learning from the allied forces of Xiaochi City's mistake, Horn would have made a similar decision.

So, the church army marching out = weakened rear + absence of key commanding officers = unable to capture Rapids City.

But Qianqian couldn't rest easy, went to Rapids City with scouts personally, determined to verify the situation himself.

"Lord Catherine says," Qianqian wiped his forehead's sweat with a handkerchief, "the enemy's attacks have been weak these two days, and tells us to take it slow, not to rush, also be careful not to divide forces, they might ambush us."

"See, isn't it almost what I said? Are you reassured now?" Horn spread his hands, grinning.

Qianqian blushed a bit with embarrassment: "I was too anxious."

"It's fine, better to have insurance." Horn took the binoculars again for observation, "You sent scouts there, in case of an emergency, they can still report back."

After confirming that Rapids City wasn't breached, Horn found himself with some leisure time. Once time is on his side, he transitioned smoothly into his familiar rhythm of positional warfare.

The battle of Pavia, and Black Mountain Castle, were like this.

Today, without much geographical advantage, he couldn't corner the opponents like in Pavia and Black Mountain, forcing them to attack.

In the end, neither dared to move and both sides sat idle for an hour.

But after defeating Nidesar and rescuing Xiaochi City, things changed.

"Tell Mormon to roll out the fireball crossbows," Horn commanded Hakuto, "let the church army taste 20 fireballs and 10 Red Dragon Breath Fireballs first, see if they'll continue to sit idly."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.