The Rodman Hills were named after the first colonial adventurer who arrived here. It was the easternmost mountain range of the Balingana Colony. It was made up of a dozen hills about 200 to 300 meters above sea level.
Shiksan's Tanya met a stubborn resistance from the Aueran garrison there. The enemy had set up a strong defensive line on the hills in an attempt to stop Tanya's unstoppable advance.
But in front of the powerful Tanya army, the enemy's resistance was like a castle on the beach. It didn't take long for the brave Tanya soldiers to destroy them. In just a day, they had lost seven hills.
One of Tanya's divisions had already penetrated deep into the Rodman Hills, while another division had set up camp outside the hills to protect the logistics and other supplies.
So far, Tanya's army had suffered heavy casualties as well. They had lost almost seven battalions, and another regiment had been sent to the rear to defend the captured towns. Now, the army had lost almost three regiments of troops.
But for the high-ranking officers of Tanya, it was all worth it. As long as they could break through Rodman Hills, they would be able to reach Dorinibla River immediately. That would mean they were the first to conquer Balingana and the first of the four armies to reach Dorinibla River. That was an undeniable merit.
The high-ranking officers of Tanya's army held a celebratory feast in the main camp behind them, preparing to break through the three enemy hills in the morning and reach the banks of the Dorinibla River in the afternoon.
As for the hills on the outskirts of Rodman Hills, they didn't care about them. With a breakthrough in the centre, the enemy troops on the outskirts would naturally retreat. Otherwise, none of them would be able to escape if the main army turned back.
In the heat of the wine, they suddenly noticed the cups and plates on the table dancing. A few of the officers who had drunk too much laughed out loud. They couldn't drink anymore. They were really going to get drunk. Look at the dancing cups and plates on the table …
Finally, an officer who had drunk less and was still clear-headed came back to his senses. He shouted in panic, "Enemy, enemy attack!"
Ranger launched a surprise attack on Tanya's main camp in the wee hours of the morning. More than twenty thousand warhorses trampled the red soil of Nubissia and charged into the enemy camp. They drew their sabers and killed every Tanya soldier they saw.
The soldiers of Tanya's army, who had just woken up from their sleep, did not even have the time to organize an effective counterattack. They abandoned their armor and rushed out of the camp towards the depths of the Rodman Hills. Because at that moment, all of them knew that the only way to save their lives was to run to the front barracks …
Ranger didn't chase after the fleeing soldiers. Instead, they cleared out the surviving soldiers in the rear of the enemy camp and captured nearly five thousand who surrendered. Then, they fortified the camp and surrounded the enemy in Rodman Hills.
There was one thing about Rodman Hills that the Tanya soldiers didn't know about: there was no water source in the hills. There was only a small river next to the camp at the rear.
That was bad news for the thirty thousand soldiers who were surrounded in Rodman Hills. They didn't find a single drop of water even after digging three metres deep. Instead, they were exhausted and thirsty.
Mustering their courage, the officers of Tanya ordered their soldiers to charge at the three hills in front of them. They intended to break through the enemy's defences and reach Dorinibla River in one go. That way, they would be able to drink as much water as they wanted.
It was only then that they realized that the two hills in front of them were impenetrable. No matter how many times they launched an assault, they were met with failure. It was completely different from the hills that were easily conquered yesterday. They couldn't even get within 50 meters of the defensive positions, leaving behind only layers of corpses that covered the entire front of the defensive positions ….
It was the first time the Shiksan soldiers, who hadn't experienced war in more than forty years, understood how intense the war was. It completely overturned the offensive and defensive tactics they were taught in books.
What they thought was that the two sides would line up in a neat square formation, march in a line, and only open fire when they were dozens of meters away from each other. Then, they would launch a melee attack, but this did not appear on the battlefield at all.
The soldiers of the Tanya Corps had lined up neatly and marched towards the enemy's defensive position, but they were bombarded by artillery along the way. When they were two hundred meters away from the defensive position, they became targets for the enemies hiding in the trenches. When they were a hundred meters away and ready to charge, the enemy had used four light infantry field cannons to cover the entire frontline, and not a single soldier could make it to the enemy's defensive position.
After five or six attacks, not a single Tanya soldier was willing to line up and die.
On the other hand, the officers who were urging the soldiers to line up again felt a chill run down their spines. The soldiers were looking at them with bloodshot eyes.
The thousands of corpses on the hill were a ghastly sight to all. It wasn't an attack, but a massacre that would send them to the slaughterhouse.
The remaining 25,000-strong Tanya had lost all morale. The officers sent messenger eagles to the other four corps for help, hoping that they would descend from the heavens to save them.
However, it was only in the evening that they received a reply from the other corps. Apart from Kujoa, which was the furthest away, Wicklan, Cybok, and Faybort had all sent a reply asking them to hold on for another four to five days, promising that they would arrive in time to save them.
Those without food could last seven days, but without water, they wouldn't even last three.
The night before, Upland's ambush caused the soldiers who fled to the frontlines to drink almost all the water they had in reserve. They didn't even have water to cool down their cannons.
It wasn't until the next day when they couldn't find a water source even after digging three metres underground that Tanya realised they were in a desperate situation. Their desperate assault only ended with their heads bleeding in front of three small hills. All the soldiers had lost their morale and fighting spirit. They knew they were done for.
Another day later, the 26,000-strong Tanya who couldn't hold on any longer raised the white flag and surrendered to Ranger, ending their tour of Nubissia.
What awaited them was a ten-year period of labor and construction of public facilities in the colonies. Before them, the surrendered members of the Pancry and Krado Corps had already thrown themselves into the construction in full swing.
In the battle of Rodman Hills, apart from a logistics line that stayed behind to guard the town, Tanya suffered around 20,000 casualties. Nearly 40,000 of them became Aueran captives. That was no different from a slap in the face to the Shiksans who sent five standing corps to Nubissia.
Wickren, Cybok and Faybort, who arrived at Rodman Hills four days later, only managed to find traces of the battle.
They sent out all their light cavalry scouts in a frenzy to find traces of the enemy.
After all, it wasn't possible for a small force to wipe out Tanya. Coupled with the tens of thousands of captives, they should be able to find out where the enemy went.
Unfortunately, the Dorinibla River was just beyond the Rodman Hills, and on the banks of the river the scouts found traces of a large force boarding a ship.
It was obvious that the Aueran defenders had been hiding in the shadows like a viper. While the Shiksan corps were invincible, they suddenly pounced out to bite the unsuspecting Tanya. After setting up an ambush at Rodman Hills and annihilating Tanya, they retreated to the other side of Dorinibla River. That was what the high-ranking officers of the three corps were certain of.
In the eyes of the commanders of Wickren, Cybok and Faybort, even if the enemy managed to annihilate the Tanya army, they must have suffered quite a lot of casualties.
Even if they won a great battle, they would probably return to the other side of the river to lick their wounds and recover. They probably wouldn't be able to attack again for the time being.
So, the three corps set up camp along the banks of Dorinibla River and waited for the equipment to cross the river to be delivered. They also sent their soldiers to cut down trees to make boats and pontoons to cross the river and continue their assault on Robisto.
After receiving the eagle messages from the three corps, Kujoa, who was at the westernmost edge of Balingana, finally breathed a sigh of relief. While Tanya's forces were wiped out, the enemy had retreated to the other side of the river. That meant there was no longer any resistance in front of them.
Kujoa could boldly march all the way to Dorinibla River and set up camp to find a suitable crossing point. That would force the enemy to split up their forces and lessen the pressure on the other side of the river for the three corps to cross.
But then, the marching Kujoa was suddenly surrounded by Ranger's light cavalry.
Countless battles had shown that infantry would never be a match for cavalry in the vast grasslands.
Even if they outnumbered the enemy by a factor of two, the terrain had no cover, and there were no weapons that could form a barrier. Coupled with their relaxed march and lack of alertness, Kujoa's army crumbled in less than a quarter of an hour when they were ambushed by the enemy cavalry.
It wasn't that there weren't brave officers who gathered their men to put up a strong resistance in an attempt to buy more time for the main force to defend.
There were also many fearless cannoneers who braved the threat of being ambushed by the enemy and loaded their light cannons in a well-trained manner, preparing to fire.
They swore that they would make the enemy pay the price even if they had to give up their lives.
But the brave soldiers of Kujoa didn't realise that the enemy they were facing wasn't just a group of light cavalry.
Noticing that some of Kujoa's troops were ready to defend, the rampaging Ranger soldiers didn't rush into the enemy's defensive formation. Instead, they opened up a distance, got down from their horses and started firing with their muskets.
Crisp gunshots rang out. The cannoneers beside the cannons, the neatly lined up infantry, and the soldiers of Kujoa fell to the ground one after another.
The soldiers of Kujoa collapsed again. They wanted to counterattack, but the enemy was lying on the ground. They charged at the enemy, but the enemy got up from the ground and rode away. By the time they caught up to them, a few cavalrymen would pass by, and with a flick of their sabers, they would be decapitated.
It was three in the afternoon when the three corps stationed at Dorinibla River received Kujoa's urgent request for reinforcements. The ambush on the grasslands was nearing its end.
The three corps could only watch as Kujoa followed in Tanya's footsteps. They were too far away, after all. Even if they set off immediately, it would take them five to six days to reach the battlefield. Kujoa clearly wouldn't last that long.
Another Shiksan corps was wiped out. Kujoa lost almost half of its men and another forty thousand soldiers became Ranger's captives.
Ranger also paid the price of a field line in the ambush, but the number of casualties and cripples amounted to only a thousand. Another three thousand injured soldiers would be able to return to the army after receiving medical attention.
Even though they'd received permission to expand, Ranger was still the same folk that wiped out the two Shiksan standing corps. The native soldiers hadn't even reached Nubissia yet.
It could be said that Ranger's two battles were won by the weak. First, they lured the Tanya army into an ambush, then used light cavalry to assault the enemy's rear camp and force them into a water shortage. Then, they used their fortified positions to push the enemy into despair, finally forcing Tanya to surrender.
After wiping out Tanya, they attracted the attention of the other three enemy corps, leaving Kujoa alone in the west.
Ranger used the Dorinibla River to move their forces to the west of Balingana and used their mobility to silently surround Kujoa's forces. Then, they launched a surprise attack and crushed the enemy's resistance, wiping out Kujoa's forces in one fell swoop.
The loss of two corps gave the remaining three corps the misconception that they had fallen into the Aueran garrison's trap. They believed that Cromwell's unstoppable advance and Balingana's unstoppable advance were signs that the enemy was luring them into a trap.
So, Wicklan, Cybok and Faybort decided to stick together instead of splitting up to prevent the enemy from taking them out one by one.
At that moment, bad news came from the rear. Almost all the supply convoys were attacked by the enemy. Not a single one of them could transport supplies to the three corps' main camps.
After some discussion, the three corps sent out a folk to escort the supplies from the rear, but they were ambushed by Ranger.
The folk had two light cavalry lines in it, but they weren't a match for Ranger at all. When they finally broke out of the encirclement, they rushed back to the main camp to report the situation and the folk was swallowed up by Ranger.
The fate of the folk made the three corps even more certain that they were surrounded by the enemy. The light cavalry they sent out didn't return either.
Their soldiers even discovered that the enemy's light cavalrymen were spying on them from the surroundings of their camp. From time to time, they would see the enemy's light cavalrymen appearing in the distance …
Fortunately, the three corps had enough supplies to last them for a month. If they used them sparingly, they would be able to last longer.
They weren't willing to leave Dorinibla River and placed their hopes on Seaking's fleet, hoping that they could open up a channel to transport their supplies and send them across the river to the hinterlands of the Aueran colonies.
As long as they could cross the river and defend it, the Aueran garrison in Balingana would be like rootless duckweed. They would have no choice but to surrender.
The strategists of the three corps believed that most of the enemies had surrounded their camps and that crossing the river was the only way to turn the tide.