Mage Veigar

Chapter 568 Advance as retreat
Ropes City, Imperial Army Headquarters.

Foster received the latest battle report early in the morning.

Vega changed his formation and attacked Ropus City again.

Seeing this, Foster opened his squinting eyes, he let out a long breath and said, "That little devil has finally lost his composure. He has to either retreat or fight. He wanted to fight first, then retreat, and then come back to fight again. This cycle directly exposes his panic. As long as we continue to drag it out, victory in this war will surely belong to me."

"Order!"

Foster continued with a calm attitude: "The entire army must hold the defense line according to the plan. As long as we hold on for another twenty days, our reinforcements will arrive, and victory in this war will surely belong to us."

"Yes, Commander."

Everyone responded in unison, and Foster walked out of the command room after giving the order.

Foster looked at the fallen leaves in the distance and felt the whistling cold wind. He couldn't help but tighten his collar: "Winter...is finally here."

In twenty days, early winter will arrive.

The arrival of winter meant that the empire's four million reserve troops had completed the task of restoring their combat effectiveness.

Although winter is not suitable for marching and fighting, as long as the city of Ropus is not lost, the Empire is still very willing to defeat Vega and regain control of the north this winter.

But it would be different if the city of Ropes was lost.

The Empire probably saw the loss of the city of Ropus, so it chose to postpone the war to retake the north of the Empire until next year, and first attack the Principality of Baya in the northwest. Even a fool knows to pick on the weak.

Can Vega take over Lopus City within twenty days?

It was a fifty-fifty chance before, but when Vega was panicking, Foster thought the probability had become a ninety-nine chance.

Of course, the 1 is Vega and the 9 is Foster.

Therefore, Foster's current strategy is still to defend the city of Ropes to the death and never leave the city to fight a direct battle.

Of course, it cannot be said that the strategy being implemented is exactly the same as before. In the past, if Vega wanted to leave, Foster might have set off a string of firecrackers to celebrate. Now, if Vega wants to leave, he will keep Vega here even if it means sacrificing all his air forces.

Of course, Vega knew this.

He understood that Foster just wanted to drag the situation out. If they launched a siege directly, the probability of taking down Ropes in a short period of time would be less than 50-50. However, if they forced Foster out of the city for a decisive battle, the chance of winning would increase to 30-70.

Of course, three is Foster and seven is Vega.

So the key to the problem is how to get Foster to take the initiative to go out of the city for the decisive battle.

This is absolutely difficult.

Now Foster unilaterally thinks that Vega is anxious, which will make him calmer. Once a person is calm, he will not do anything that is absolutely disadvantageous to himself. Therefore, even if Foster is a fool, he will not leave the city to fight a decisive battle with Vega.

It's man-made.

Just as there is no unbreakable fortress, there is no enemy that cannot be lured out.

As long as you can grasp the key to the problem, you can do what others cannot do.

At this time, Vega's eyes were rolling around, but his face was not frowning, but full of confidence. He seemed to have an idea. It was obvious that he had found the key to the problem and was ready to give it a try.

"Order."

On the second day, Vega said with a big hand: "The Air Force will be responsible for the cover, and the entire army will conduct the siege battle according to the formation."

The order was quite simple, that is, under the cover of the Air Force, the Army launched a frontal siege.

In war, under the premise that the strength of the two armies is almost the same, the defending side has a natural advantage. If there is not three times the number of troops as the defending army, in fact no one can guarantee that a conventional siege can capture a major city.

So the results are out -

After a few hours, Veigar gave the signal to retreat.

In this battle, Vega lost 10,000 men, while the Imperial Army lost less than 3,000. It was clear who was at a disadvantage.

Although he seemed to be at a disadvantage, Vega did not show any expression of frustration on his face. He even laughed happier than Foster, who had won a great victory, in the command room alone. "Hahaha!"

After Vega laughed heartily, he gave another order at the meeting that evening: "Continue the siege tomorrow."

"Yes, General."

The officers of the empire did not like to address Vega as "Your Highness", but their loyalty to Vega was unquestionable, because they had no way out and could only obey Vega's orders.

The outcome of the second day's battle was self-evident; Vega still suffered a loss.

But the losses today were relatively small, with only 5000 soldiers lost. Of course, the number of soldiers lost by the enemy also decreased, to less than 1500.

Day three, day four...

In the next few days, Vega repeated this process, fighting a siege every day, but the number of soldiers lost became less and less, and the soldiers became timid and did not dare to charge forward. The morale of the entire army dropped to a certain extent.

Foster saw all of this.

Now he can conclude that Vega is helpless. As long as he delays for another ten days, he can sound the clarion call for a counterattack as soon as the imperial reinforcements arrive. If everything goes well, he can even leave Vega directly in Rops City.

Time goes by neither fast nor slow.

When the time came to the ninth day.

Vega no longer ordered the army to attack the city that day, but suddenly ordered the entire army to turn around and retreat towards the Lopus Grand Canyon at night. This move happened very suddenly and no one had expected it before.

dong dong dong-

There was a knock on Foster's door.

Foster, who had finally fallen asleep, opened the door with a hint of anger. Before he could reprimand the soldier who knocked on the door, he heard the soldier say in a panic: "Commander, an hour ago, the enemy suddenly retreated to the direction of the Ropes Grand Canyon."

"what?!"

Foster's eyes widened and his voice rose an octave.

"Why are you retreating now?"

Foster muttered to himself, and then a cold sweat broke out on his face.

He suddenly realized that in a few minutes today it would be the tenth day since Vega turned around. During these ten days, he was so overwhelmed by victory that he did not pay much attention to the construction of Vega's retreat route.

He took it for granted.

Since there were no other reports from the scouts, Vega must have given up on building the retreat route.

If you focus on one thing, you will lose the other.

It turns out that Vega attacked the city of Rops just to attract his attention, and then take advantage of his blindness due to the successive victories to secretly build a retreat route so that he could take the opportunity to retreat?
Apparently yes.

Foster was very remorseful.

He thought Vega had lost his composure, but he didn't expect that he remained calm from beginning to end.

It is not too late.

Foster realized that if he sent troops to pursue now, he might be able to keep Vega alive, so he immediately gave an order: "Order the air force to take off immediately. I want them to blow up all the retreat routes before the enemy escapes across the Ropes River at all costs, even if they have to use up their last war airship to complete the mission."

"Yes, Commander."

"Notify the First and Second Legions."

Foster continued to give orders: "Let them set out immediately. The vanguard army will go lightly and must catch up with the enemy before they retreat to the northern hinterland to delay their steps. Our main force will follow to reinforce them."

With the issuance of the two orders, the city of Ropes began to move.

First came the Air Corps, followed by the Vanguard Army, and finally the main force of 23. The three armies followed one after the other, chasing in the direction of Vega's retreat. Foster was eager to keep Vega here.

(End of this chapter)