Chapter 1255 - 1180: Wow, an Update!
Lakunio said he would encircle the Shooting Army, and it certainly wasn’t about running to Shattered Stone Plain to encircle the Shooting Army.
Whether out of Lakunio’s heart or Serafe’s orders, the Holy Alliance was to be the final and strongest opponent to deal with.
As for Serafe’s thoughts on the Holy Alliance, it was about fighting on the outer lines, not easily provoking the battle before preparations were completed.
The Holy Alliance is situated inland, with limited territory and population.
As long as they can seize the empire’s territory first, possess the empire’s population and resources, they can wear down the Holy Alliance through sheer attrition.
Put it this way, can an empire of a hundred million people plus a hundred million vampires and undead from the royal court not defeat a ten-million-population Holy Alliance?
When the time comes, the inland Holy Alliance, stretched on all fronts, without a suitable port, who can they seek aid from?
The Holy Alliance does not have enough strategic depth, even though it has natural endowments, it still requires a large import of external resources.
Combined with the royal court’s newly trained blood pact gun soldiers, who, if not equal, are nearly equal in strength to the Holy Alliance, the Holy Alliance has no reason for victory.
Although Serafe’s strategic goals are a bit urgent, she is in fact cautious rather than hurried in her strategic execution.
For Lakunio, the tactical executor, the current most crucial step is to completely erode the confidence of the Norn castles and make them tax collectors for the royal court.
In previous battles, relying on Lakunio’s command and the unexpected unity of vampires, they broke the confidence of the Norn Bear Castle people.
Next is to completely erode their pride.
Facing Lakunio’s army, many Bear Castle soldiers crumbled in defeat.
The only ones able to contend, even retreat calmly, were the Fat Cow Castle Shooting Army.
For many Bear Castle people who still have thoughts of resistance, the son of Duke Petrov, Alexei, and his Shooting Army
Many Bear Castle nobles held this thought—"As long as Alexei’s Shooting Army launches an attack, everything will be alright."
Lakunio intends to personally shatter such thoughts!
"Last year, we defeated most territories of Bear Castle, rested for a winter, now it’s time to act."
"I’ve been waiting for this." An ogre with big gold earrings shouted, "Well then, when? Who do we kill?"
"Don’t rush, Big Gold Ear." Lakunio pressed his palm down, "Listen to me first."
Currently, Lakunio’s army is slightly superior in quality to the Shooting Army, otherwise, the Shooting Army would not have retreated.
Behind the Shooting Army, there’s also the Holy Alliance which hasn’t been fully mobilized.
The best strategy now should be strong first, then weak.
Don’t give the Holy Alliance a chance to intervene, directly defeat the Shooting Army, and the remaining small groups will be easily solved.
After hearing Lakunio’s analysis, many vampire Barons and Counts nodded repeatedly.
However, a bald vampire dressed in a high-collar suit asked: "But the Shooting Army is hiding in Shattered Stone Plain, how can we annihilate them?"
"Or should we create a few massacres to lure them out?"
Lakunio’s expression dimmed for a moment, shaking his head: "No need, they’ve come out themselves."
To be exact, although André, as the military commander of the Shattered Stone Plain military district, was very welcoming to the Shooting Army’s submission.
Yet Gloev and Alexei both chose to refuse.
Not directly refusing in the manner they like.
It’s just that those who understand know the main reason is that both feared the Shooting Army being annexed by André.
This battle commander from Falan excelled at this trick during the Shattered Stone Plain war, annexing many Mountain Knights to strengthen himself.
With such a black history, expecting Alexei and others to hand over their army to him was wishful thinking.
As for André, he became quite dissatisfied, attempting a forced annexation.
Fortunately, Busak found him and talked through the night, and André then gave up this notion.
André’s attempt to annex the Shooting Army was, apart from the residual instinct of a warlord, driven by the same pressure of lacking soldiers.
Every era has its problems, there is no perfect country or army.
Even within the Holy Alliance Army, certain problems exist.
Most conspicuous is the issue of resource allocation.
Those elite, with achievements, excellent training results, battle groups with seniority, are naturally entitled to more benefits and resources than other groups.
It’s not only about money and treatment, but also personnel selection and promotion.
The Black Champion used to target the Imperial Guard because the Imperial Guard always took more.
But since changing from Black Hat to Black Crown, things have changed, they too became the first tier in resource enjoyment.
Battle groups like the Divine Punishment Battle Group and Chongxin Battle Group, having fought throughout the second Thousand River Valley War, belong to the second tier.
Battle groups like Fire Lizard and Shadow Raven, these can only be counted as the third tier, recruit new soldiers who would hate being assigned to such groups.
The lowest status is those military district’s Shattered Stone Plain opening battle group, or the New Five Counties opening battle group.
These belong to the level where a recruit would scream in despair upon seeing them.
Shattered Stone Plain is too desolate, going there is akin to being exiled to the eastern county of Black Snake Bay.
Many new recruits are displeased going to Black Snake Bay, let alone to a place even more sparsely populated and barren like Shattered Stone Plain?
Had Horn not intended for soldiers to train and garrison outside their hometown, we’d soon see a spectacle where the battle group consists entirely of local garrison troops.
This easily fosters those kinds of officer families.
Yet Horn was especially generous in allowing André to recruit soldiers locally due to the lack of manpower.
Originally, Gloev was somewhat hesitant about André’s recruitment.
At the crucial time, Alexei sensed the problem, rushed to Shattered Stone Plain to prevent the Shooting Army from being annexed overtly or covertly.
Simultaneously, Alexei also put forward his own request.
An army isolated outside for too long will be forgotten by its people.
Without shared suffering, what reason do you have to return and enjoy privileges in the future as if nothing happened?
Therefore, Alexei demanded, even if the Shooting Army needs protection from the Shattered Stone Plain army, it must occasionally leave the boundaries.
One reason is to maintain presence awareness, and the other is to ensure the Bear Castle Territory isn’t completely annexed.
So starting from the beginning of the year 1459, Alexei personally led his army to repeatedly attack small vampire squads, or use this to punish traitorous nobles.
As Lakunio adopted a policy of non-interference, Alexei has been overstepping lately.
After introducing the situation, Lakunio was about to continue explaining the next steps of tactics when a light cough echoed from the side.
"Is it really unnecessary?" General Shanluan rubbed the cold iron sleeve on his thick fingers, "But I think it’s very necessary, especially for boosting morale before battle."
The vampires present all showed looks of approval.
Lakunio’s hand veins bulged, silent for a moment.
General Shanluan smiled at Lakunio: "Mr. Lakunio, you probably can’t experience such joy, can you?
The God-Chosen Majesty granted you second-generation grade source blood, just a taste and you could experience the same joy as us."
Lakunio knew what Shanluan meant by "joy."
He also knew that for the royal court, killing humans to create flesh crucibles was key to manufacturing blood pact guns.
General Shanluan was unlike Prince Kongdai, he never interfered with Lakunio’s strategic tactics, and often supported him in pressing down the vampire leaders below.
But Lakunio was helpless that the general’s primary task seemed to be tempting him to become a vampire.
Lakunio didn’t know why he insisted on remaining human, but he persevered with difficulty.
"I believe this would lead to a loss of opportunity." Lakunio’s voice was quiet, "Would you ignore the great moon—Her Highness Serafe’s goals?"
Upon mentioning "Serafe," several vampires subconsciously shouted "Long live."
Serafe controlled the vampires through the special source blood infusion combined with hypnotic spells, completed through a tiered network.
Though hypnotic spells and illusion techniques are typical for vampires, no one has used them to Serafe’s extent.
After Lakunio invoked Serafe, Shanluan had little to say, only mentioning "I will request instructions from Her Majesty Serafe" before quieting down.
Lakunio scanned the room: "Any other objections? If not, let’s proceed this way!"