191: Chapter 189 War?

When Zhang Mu, who had mysteriously disappeared for three days, returned to the City Lord's mansion using his Shadow Technique, Solon and Domit were pacing anxiously in the hall.

Seeing Zhang Mu stride into the living room with his hands behind his back, they rushed over, reaching out to check if the City Lord had been injured.

Seeing the two of them about to start poking at him, Zhang Mu's face darkened: "Stop, stop, stop! What are you two doing?"

"Lord City Lord." Solon saw that he looked fine and lowered his hands. "You went to spy on Joey and then disappeared for three days. We thought..."

"Ran into a bit of trouble."

Zhang Mu waved his hand dismissively, led the two to the study, and sat in the wooden chair behind the desk: "Solon. How much do you know about Joey?"

"He is one of the two Vice City Lords of Gur City. Aside from his routine visits to the Council Hall to handle official business, he rarely makes an appearance."

"Is that so..." After a moment of contemplation, he asked again, "What is his relationship with the City Lord like?"

"Well..." Solon frowned slightly. "They occasionally dine together in private. Other than that... the City Lord generally doesn't let me accompany him when he goes out."

Hearing that he didn't know much, Zhang Mu, who had already mentally prepared himself, wasn't too disappointed.

The City Lord was, after all, a Magister.

As a non-Professional assistant, Solon could at most approve official documents at home. There was naturally no reason to bring him along when leaving the city for matters requiring force.

However, since even this private secretary didn't know what the City Lord and Joey were plotting in secret, Zhang Mu had no clues to continue his investigation.

Lowering his head in thought for a moment, he recalled Joey attempting to recall the Soldiers stationed at the construction site: "The construction site is located on the grasslands fifteen kilometers north of Gur City. Who would be hindered by the Soldiers stationed there?"

"Have you discovered something unusual?" Solon's expression was somewhat grave.

Hearing the seriousness in his tone, Zhang Mu became interested: "Tell me what you know."

"Lord City Lord, Gur City is located on the northern border of the Lake Kingdom and is the first and most important line of defense against foreign invasion from the north."

"I know of Gur City's duty to defend the border, but what do you mean by it being the most important line of defense?"

Domit, who had been silent for a long time, took over: "Gur City is surrounded by mountains and forests; it is the only thoroughfare from the northern territory to the central region of the Kingdom. Once occupied, enemy cavalry legions could enter the plains where marching is easy, split into small squads, and pose a massive threat to the lives of the populace leaving the city."

"Once the enemy army gains a foothold in Gur City and possesses a stable rear, their infantry legions can proceed steadily, surrounding the cities one by one from front to back until the supplies inside are exhausted, forcing them to surrender."

"And for the Kingdom to annihilate the cavalry on the plains and stop their harassment is obviously extremely difficult. Without exception, they can only allow the enemy to slaughter villages without churches, reducing the Kingdom's grain production."

Zhang Mu nodded in agreement; this situation was indeed fatal.

Although one could dispatch highly mobile High-tier Professionals to hunt them down, it was impossible for the enemy cavalry units to consist entirely of ordinary people.

In fact, the enemy would secretly hide top-tier Professionals within their army, specifically to snipe at the Professionals sent by the Kingdom to suppress them.

In the eyes of Zhang Mu, a person from Blue Star, this style of warfare was extremely bizarre.

Simply surrounding cities without attacking only increased the consumption of supplies, and the guerrilla cavalry only attacked villages; towns and cities remained untouched.

However, the various countries had no solution.

Because of the Church's rule that "the use of force is strictly prohibited in human gathering places," if anyone dared to attack a place with a church, the attacked country would laugh themselves to death.

Consequently, countries desperately researched how to wage war without violating this rule.

Eliminating living forces, reducing grain production, and forcing the enemy to surrender voluntarily became the only way to win a war on the Saul Continent.

Unless both sides were confident of victory or were forced to strike, field battles basically never occurred.

After pondering the little bit of knowledge his senior had told him, Zhang Mu regained his focus: "There's a problem. What does this have to do with the Soldiers I sent out of the city?"

"Lord City Lord." Solon explained patiently, "Gur City has mountains and forests to the east and west, and the Kingdom is to the south behind it. If there is an enemy invasion, it can only come from the north."

Zhang Mu understood now: "So, the Soldiers stationed fifteen kilometers outside the north of the city serve as a warning?"

"Yes. If the enemy wants to occupy Gur City, the only way is to surround the city before we can react."

It was true that Gur City had mountains and forests to the east and west, but it wasn't impossible to march through; it was just that a large army moved very slowly.

If the city discovered the enemy situation in advance, they only needed to notify the Kingdom using a sound transmission crystal before the enemy could deploy the Magic Array that sealed magic power, and then just wait for reinforcements.

It was clear that with that construction site outside the north of the city, there was no possibility for the enemy to surround Gur City silently.

By the time they discussed this far, the matter was clear—Joey was attempting to commit treason.

However, Zhang Mu still had one doubt: "Isn't the Silent Forest to the north of Gur City? Where would an enemy army come from?"

"This..." Solon looked at Domit, "You have stayed in the Silent Forest for many years. Is it possible for the Lagu Kingdom army on the other side of the forest to cross through?"

"Impossible!" Domit shook his head firmly, "Not to mention the Core area, even the Magical Beast Tide on the periphery would be enough to inflict heavy casualties on an army composed mostly of ordinary people. Even if they paid the price of heavy casualties and bypassed the forest edge to reach the Lake border, if only two or three out of a hundred Soldiers remained, what would be the point?"

"No, no, no." Zhang Mu had a contrary opinion, "Don't fall into an experience trap. If that so-called Lagu Kingdom really couldn't get through, would Joey be jumping around for no reason?"

"Does the Lord City Lord mean they have a way to safely cross the Silent Forest?"

"I can't think of any other possibility." Zhang Mu scratched his face, feeling a bit of a headache.

His construction project was still far from finished, so running away was definitely not an option.

As for fighting, because of the natural barrier of the Silent Forest, Gur City, despite being an important border city, had a number of Soldiers and combat power that were quite explosive in the Kingdom's military circles.

So, they certainly couldn't win by fighting.

At this time, the best choice was to immediately report to the Kingdom and request military support.

But for the same reasons as above, the royal family would simply not believe that the Lagu Kingdom army could cross the Silent Forest.

One must know that for a large army to march long distances, the supplies consumed are massive.

And because the cities around Gur City had been destroyed by the Magical Beast Tide some time ago, they couldn't even procure enough food for a large army. It would have to be brought in from even further away.

In summary, unless there was concrete evidence, the army would absolutely not come.

If Zhang Mu submitted letters repeatedly and the King cautiously sent Professionals to investigate, the enemy could just stay put.

Could the Professionals stay in Gur City permanently?

"How about we pay more attention to the direction of the Silent Forest, and if we discover the enemy, we immediately notify the Kingdom..."

Before Domit finished speaking, Zhang Mu vetoed it: "That won't work. Actually, from the moment everyone assumed Gur City wouldn't be attacked and let the military preparations and grain storage fall into ruin, the outcome of being surrounded to death was already doomed."

"The enemy will definitely have a few High-tier Professionals go ahead to deploy the sealing Magic Array outside the city. Even if we sent Soldiers to report, it would be impossible to escape their pursuit."

"I think the reason Joey is so intent on pulling the Soldiers back to the city is just to be safe; he is worried that if we let the Soldiers scatter and flee, the High-tier Professionals might miss catching some of them."

The deadlock before them left Solon and Domit speechless, looking at each other.

The study was quiet for a long time, then Zhang Mu stood up abruptly: "I remember, the Gur City army isn't at full strength yet, right?"

"Yes."

"You two, drop everything else and recruit Soldiers to full capacity."

"But Lord City Lord, Soldiers recruited in an emergency lack training and will only have a negative impact on the army's combat effectiveness. And we lack High-tier..."

"Do as I command."

As Zhang Mu said this, he stood up and hurried toward the outside of the city.