Global Lords: My Territory Heart Is a World Tree

"Regardless, besides the armies right in front of us, no other Human Race Lord’s forces will make it here in time," a lord at his side spoke up.

Mei Yuan glanced at him and let out a scornful laugh.

"Did you really think I sent those parasitized heroes back just to farm some points? What are a few points to me?"

"I gave them orders long ago to lie in wait and parasitize those lords. The ones who could be infested, have been. The rest are all extremely cautious, always keeping their original elite heroes by their side. We simply haven’t had an opportunity."

"If we tried to force an infestation, I’m afraid it would just alert the other lords, which would make the situation less than ideal!"

The lord blurted out without thinking, "Then just order the elite heroes we released to agree on a time! When the time comes, they can all strike at once. Wouldn’t that solve the problem?"

"And you’re the brilliant one, are you?" Mei Yuan was getting angry. The Eye Demon that had infested this lord was practically challenging his authority.

"Those lords don’t even attend war councils in person. How could we possibly find an opportunity for them all to strike at once?"

"Enough with these pointless ideas. Let’s just focus on how to break through. Killing the Human Race’s soldiers and heroes to weaken their potential to advance as lords—that’s our mission too."

Another lord spoke up, "Let’s make camp first. In this situation, a blitz is out of the question. If we charge straight in, they’ll be well-rested and waiting for us. We’ll have no way to fight."

Mei Yuan agreed with this idea. He ordered the soldiers on the mountain to find a gentle slope and make camp on the spot, preparing for a war of attrition against the enemy.

"We’re up on the mountain, and there’s so much wood and stone all around. It’s the perfect chance to build Catapults and smash them!!"

"Right!"

"Great idea!"

"That’s Ah Pu for you, always smarter than the rest of us!!"

The surrounding lords unanimously agreed with the idea.

After receiving their orders, the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Legion began to fell the mountain’s trees with abandon, quickly clear-cutting the entire nearby forest.

They then made camp on the gentle slope facing the pass, and one crude stockade after another sprang up from the ground.

Once the stockades were complete, the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Legion began constructing Catapults with practiced ease.

Throughout their campaign, for every city that resisted, they had always used Catapults to clear the way. It always worked, rendering the city’s outer walls useless. Then, they would rely on their superior numbers to win through street fighting and simply steamroll the city.

As a result, they had all become extremely skilled at building Catapults.

...

When Li Hua saw what the Northern Expedition Legion was doing, he felt an even deeper sense of regret. If they had just arrived a little earlier, they could have cleared the forests on those two small mountain ranges. Then the Northern Expedition Legion wouldn’t be so leisurely setting up camp and building Catapults now.

"What in the world were those two brothers, Zhao Yunxiang and Zhao Yunfei, doing? Didn’t I tell them to clear the surrounding mountain forests?" (They were the lords of the territories belonging to the two cities at the pass; the two brothers were very lucky to have been stationed together.)

At his side, a somewhat embarrassed Eugene Scott replied, "They did clear them. They just... didn’t clear the forests on the enemy’s side of the mountain."

"Then what did they clear? They left all those forests on the opposite mountain untouched?"

Eugene Scott pointed to the great mountains flanking the pass. The side of these mountains facing the Northern Expedition Legion was completely bare. "There used to be forests there."

Li Hua took a look and said with a helpless sigh, "Fine. I suppose clearing the forests there is good too. It’ll keep the Northern Expedition Legion from sneaking behind our backs to cause trouble when we’re not paying attention."

"Looks like the enemy is building Catapults again. How are we doing on our artillery?"

(Since the Northern Expedition Legion had used Catapults to lead the charge on their entire campaign, it was easy for everyone to guess their tactics.)

"Don’t you worry, Boss Li. Aside from you, the rest of us went down the technology route. The principles behind artillery are simple; the only tricky part was getting good gunpowder."

"But with Lin Yu offloading a huge amount of Flame Stones to us on the cheap, we were able to use them as a substitute for high-quality gunpowder. We’ve built a ton of low-grade artillery. They won’t cause mass casualties, but they’ll have no problem going head-to-head with their Catapults."

(Flame Stones are a product of the Fire Element Collection Workshop.)