After inspecting the battlefield, Grand Master Emmerick felt a chill run down his spine.

Surrounding Ladan Castle is a crescent-shaped valley, with the winding yet barely straight-flowing Nao'an River on one side and a descending crescent mountain range on the other.

Where the gradient of the descending mountains meets the plains, there stretches a range of hills spanning about seven to eight miles.

Between the river and the hills, there is only a narrow passage about two miles wide for large groups of cavalry to pass through.

Moreover, on the hilly terrain, there is a bastion line manned by over a thousand people.

The bastions are constructed along the ridgeline, made with oak planks and rammed earth cores due to the lack of time to transport mortar.

Along the top of the bastions, the firing slots are arranged in a serrated pattern with Holy Guns pointing outward and lances swaying in the air, reflecting dazzling sunlight.

In front of the bastions are natural slopes formed by the hills, facilitating the shooting of the Holy Gunners.

They even dug a trench deep enough for a person under the bastions to prevent infantry attacks in masses.

The gaps between the bastions are blocked with chevaux de frise.

The Saint Alliance Cultivators specially wrapped many vines and branches on top, causing potential trouble for knights with poor eyesight charging forward.

Horn brought several thousand Defensive Army soldiers, and they weren't brought for nothing.

These Defensive Army soldiers usually maintain public order in the countryside and act as militia reserves.

They aren't very good at fighting, but they are quite capable of digging.

Even Bether probably never imagined that his first task as Horn's Staff Monk would be to supervise the Defensive Army in building fortifications.

"Demon! Devil! Fiend! Heretic! Blasphemy!" Priest-in-Charge Wacław couldn't help cursing repeatedly after arriving at the scene and observing the battlefield.

At this moment, however, the Grand Master calmed down: "Isn't it the knight Stentok in charge of scouting? Where is he?"

Very soon, Banner Captain Stentok hurried over, dismounted, and performed a bowing chest salute before the Grand Master.

"Have you scouted the nearby terrain? What's the situation?"

Stentok took out a map of Shattered Stone Plain he had obtained, which had many more detailed markings added.

However, Grand Master Emmerick refused to accept the map and instead asked, "Did you see the obstacles on that hill?"

"Yes, I saw them."

"Can we climb up from the outside, say, launch a night raid from behind them?"

Stentok considered it carefully, and finally said, "We found a smuggler's path, but we don't know if the Thousand River Valley People know about it."

"Since it's used for smuggling, it suggests they don't know about it; if they did, it wouldn't still exist," Priest-in-Charge quickly interjected.

After a brief exchange, Emmerick made the decision: "Stentok, gather your knight commander, try at night, and Lord Cosme will stand by, ready to coordinate with Banner Captain Stentok for the attack."

That afternoon, being stalled in front of the hill defenses, they organized several feigned attacks, and the Border Knight Order had to set up camp.

Priest-in-Charge Wacław didn't sleep all night, waiting eagerly for good news from Stentok.

Around five in the morning, he heard the galloping of horses.

He immediately wrapped himself in a blanket, lifted the tent flap, and walked out just in time to see Cosme dismount.

"How did it go?" Wacław asked eagerly.

"It was a trap. They had placed rolling stones and grapeshot cannon on the mountain path, as well as fluorite lamps. About six hundred soldiers were captured, including one hundred and thirty-two knights."

"Those bastards!" Priest-in-Charge Wacław was furious, forgetting his clerical demeanor, "Always hiding like turtles, dare to come out and face us."

The attempt at a sneak attack doesn't mean it's impossible to take the position head-on.

This defense line of a thousand people, they have eight thousand in the frontline alone, and this line only has a few cannons, which they certainly are not afraid of.

But it's not worth it.

How many courageous knights would it cost to attack such a position?

Even if they traded one for one with these soldiers, they would be at a loss.

But bypass it, and with this less than a kilometer gap plugged, any disruption to the logistics becomes highly annoying.

After reporting the situation to Wacław, Cosme scratched his head, "Now, it seems, we can only have the knights dismount and assault."

The Border Knight Order doesn't have the bad habits of the Imperial Knights; they aren't incapable of dismounting to fight on foot, it's just more costly.

If they are asked to ignore this defense line and pass through the less than a kilometer passage, everyone would feel uneasy.

"It has come to this; let's go inform the Grand Master," they concluded.

That morning, the sounds of gunfire and shouts engulfed the hill defenses.

Wearing double-layered armor and bearing massive shields, hundreds of knights launched continuous dozens of rounds of assaults on the towering defense line daily.

It must be said, these Border Knights have spirits and resilience far exceeding that of the Imperial Knights from inland.

They launched intermittent attacks starting from around six in the morning until five in the evening daily.

During the engagement, the Border Knights managed to inflict not insignificant casualties on these elite Imperial Guard monks.

However, despite this, these over a thousand monks still held the Border Knights at bay for a full two days with those two bastion lines.

It wasn't until the infantry reinforcements arrived that this thousand-strong Holy Alliance Army leisurely retreated along the mountain path.

The Border Knights wanted to pursue, but the treacherous mountain path and their lack of marching experience on the path, and with horses unable to fly, they could only watch helplessly as the Imperial Guard disappeared into the mountain coves.

Yet the three leaders of the Knight Order didn't feel much joy from the victory.

Though they captured the position, they incurred nearly a thousand casualties themselves (including the over six hundred captured or killed on the mountain path).

It was at best a pyrrhic victory.

After being delayed in front of the position for three days, they could finally proceed.

Finally, on June 1st, the Border Knight Order, totaling nineteen thousand in troops, reached the area near Ladan Castle.

Although it took just over a week to travel from Bear Chomping Castle to Ladan Castle, it felt exceptionally long to the three leaders of the Knight Order.

Upon arrival at Ladan Castle, the first thing the three leaders did was climb a nearby hill to survey the entire future battlefield.

The morning mist rose from the surface of the Nao'an River, enveloping the valley into a shallow bowl filled with sheep's milk wine.

The towering Red Iron Mountain Range pierced the clouds in the distance; compared to that, Ladan Castle appeared like a small cabin just a person's height.

But as the morning mist dispersed slightly, and the June sunlight fell onto the swaying green grass leaves, the three leaders of the Knight Order, still climbing along the ridge, stood frozen in place.

The grasslands and villages that were once near Ladan Castle had been thoroughly devastated.

Replaced by dense fortifications and wooden arrow towers.

Centered around the knight's main castle of Ladan, there rose a ring of high walls and earthen triangle forts, with dozens of light and heavy spring cannons mounted on the forts.

From the grand master's perspective alone, they could see twelve spring cannons mounted on four triangle forts.

Outside the triangle forts were earth fort fences akin to those they had seen at Xia Lvcheng.

Beyond the fences were the bastions they had seen before, with double-layered trenches in front of the bastions.

Zigzagging trenches, paired with spikes and bastions, resembled the labyrinths of minotaurs in myth, winding and twisting.

Further outside were intermittent shallow pits and grass-covered traps.

These weren't meant to thwart knights but to impede infantry and shield carts.

Of course, due to time constraints, although the outpost defense line bought some time for Ladan Castle, only one directional fortification was completed.

Only the north side of Ladan Castle had these defenses, while the east and south sides had none.

However, even without defenses, they still couldn't pass through.

The earlier floods had already inundated the low-lying eastern lowlands, and the collapse of the Inosen Dam caused the Nao'an River to overflow in the spring.

Horn deliberately didn't repair the waterworks, half-artificially creating a swamp environment to the east of Ladan Castle.

Attacking Ladan Castle from the swamps and marshes?

After standing on the mountain path for a full five minutes, the usually impassive Grand Master Emmerick finally murmured:

"What the hell..."