The Frost Fortress, also known as the Little River Valley, is located in a waterway confluence area, surrounded by water on two sides and backed by a mountain, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.
The broad rivers and lakes create a natural defensive barrier that prevents Hammond’s rapid advance, and this terrain makes it difficult for Hammond to bypass the Frost Fortress to continue assaulting another city.
The Frost Fortress has continuously utilized bridges and ferry crossings for effective defense and ambushes, but after several attempts that proved largely ineffective, they withdrew their forces and concentrated on defending the Frost Fortress itself.
Hammond’s speed of advance was extremely fast, and along the way, the cities and fortresses were generally subdued after being bombarded by cannons for a day or two. What seemed like normal siege warfare gave Hammond a sense of blitzkrieg.
Apart from a few nobles with their own guards, most of the militia forces were conscripted by Doug.
After all, Doug had discovered that these small noble scattered forces could not stop the offensive of the Graythorn Territory, and there was a real possibility that the militias would defect on the spot. So, without hesitation, he began to crazily draft more population from these western nobles to concentrate forces.
Seeing the situation was turning unfavorable, these nobles offered only token resistance before surrendering. After all, the Graythorn Territory’s slogan was that “people from the Northern Border do not fight each other,” and these nobles still believed that they were merely changing governors and could continue to enjoy their lavish lifestyles.
However, it was clear that some nobles misjudged the situation; in the eyes of this governor, certain nobles could not be considered “humans” at all.
Those who favored the so-called “freedom and openness” atmosphere while severely exploiting others were all purged.
Those who refused to accept the “Noble Reform Ordinance” and “Land Distribution Act” were also stripped of their properties.
This might provoke strong resistance from other nobles, but for Hammond, the rebels among these nobles were actually a good thing.
Hammond moved so swiftly that the officials taking over the cities were far behind his siege and conquering speed.
If he did not clear them all, Hammond worried that these nobles might pretend to surrender, only to rebel again later.
However, those officials had finally caught up with Hammond’s pace; this was the first time Hammond encountered such tough resistance.
Seeing the Frost Fortress knights continuously ambushing and conducting surprise attacks at the beginning, Hammond even had an illusion that he was fighting against his past self.
However, the opposing side was clearly more rational than Hammond had been back then, or in better condition. The Frost Fortress was not like Silverwing City, which was almost defenseless and trivial; failing a surprise attack did not require them to launch a desperate charge like Hammond had to.
If the surprise attacks failed, the opposing side only needed to retreat back to the fortress to continue defending.
Under repeated bombardments by cannons, part of the Frost Fortress walls did collapse, but the soldiers quickly used the cover of night to bring many burlap sacks filled with sand and quickly rebuilt defenses, continuing to hold the walls.
Hammond felt a tingling on his scalp; the Frost Fortress was indeed a legitimate military stronghold, and this was just the outermost wall. Even after capturing it, there were still several walls within.
There might also be hidden passageways for troop movement between these walls. Even if he took the outermost walls, Hammond dared not easily enter the city in a short time.
Hammond had often thought about how he would act if he were the garrison of a certain city and had constantly visualized strategies in his mind.
Now, it seemed that this situation had genuinely occurred.
However, Hammond was not in a hurry.
Due to the overwhelming ease of victory, his initial troops had effectively become the main attacking force, leaving the real main forces, just like the officials, far behind.
Now, the main attacking force had finally arrived.
Darsi saluted Hammond, and after a brief interaction, he admired Hammond greatly; after all, Darsi came from a hunter background in the mountains, relied on good eyesight and accurate shooting, and had joined the ranks early to reach his current position.
In contrast, Hammond was a proper Lars Knight, and during their time together, Darsi had learned many things from Hammond.
Thus, even though Darsi held a higher military rank, he showed great respect for Hammond.
Hammond liked this young man very much; although still quite young, he could see that Lauri was training Darsi to be his next capable aide.
This was something that would have been impossible in previous armies; Darsi and Lauri had no blood relation or conflicting interests, and Darsi wasn’t even a Professional, yet he could be treated as Hammond’s right-hand man, getting to handle many of the larger affairs to gain experience.
Although Darsi had previously contradicted himself, at that time, each served their own master, and Hammond even praised Darsi’s decisions and calmness, fully sharing his knowledge with him.
However, Hammond thought too much; Lauri was merely taking full advantage of the governor’s effective working spirit to exploit Darsi madly.
These days, there were many people willing to be exploited by Lauri to the point of queuing, but Lauri still felt that Darsi was the easiest to work with.
Lind did not treat Darsi as less than a person either; although he pushed people to their limits, at least working for Lind was genuinely rewarding and prestigious.
Moreover, even though Darsi was young, he was experienced, competent, and not afraid of losing favor.
“What is the current situation?”
Perhaps due to Lind’s obsession with military food, Darsi was now eating much better than before, and he could no longer be seen as someone who had previously lied about his age.
“Breaking through the front is somewhat difficult; Frost Fortress was probably built according to this terrain. Although we have collapsed the first segment of the wall, it will be hard to capture it in the short term.”
After speaking, Hammond gave Darsi a lesson, who was not from a noble knight background and was unfamiliar with such fortifications.
The collapse of the first wall of such a fortress had no real impact; entering through the downed wall could easily lead to traps.
After all, Frost Fortress was constructed during the peak of the Lars family, when the Northern Border boasted a mix of elite soldiers and Professionals, as well as the Demon Clan using high-level Bloodline Magic.
When these two sides did not consider sustainability, in terms of firepower alone, it was not much weaker than the current Graywhite Territory, and Frost Fortress was built with this standard, structurally much more reasonable than the Beitang Defensive Line.
“Is it possible to build a floating bridge to attack from another direction?”
Hammond’s advance troops did not have many siege weapons, but Darsi’s main attacking unit could be said to be fully equipped.
“The opposing side also has Professionals, and while they may not have cannons, there are still trebuchets. Under long-range fire, the floating bridge would also be hard to be effective.”
Darsi nodded and said, “Then let’s continue with the frontal attack. Our speed of assault is too quick now and we need to give those behind some time to digest the results, plus the governor said that time is on our side; we just need to proceed steadily.”
Now, Hammond somewhat understood why the governor was so obsessed with firepower advantages; it was indeed useful, and more crucially, using firepower to bring the opponents down could save many of their brothers from dying.
