397: Chapter 384 First unify the surrounding areas, then look towards distant lands.

The streets of Keton City were as bustling as ever.

Street vendors called out loudly to attract customers, and the bakery Shop Owner put out a sign displaying the latest bread styles. Fashion-conscious girls paused outside the windows of clothing stores, discussing the merits of the outfits on the mannequins with their companions.

Zhang Mu walked past the girls with his hands behind his back, swaying slightly, and said to the two people a step behind him, "See those young girls?"

The two turned their heads to look at the girls still chatteringly standing before the window. "We see them."

“Although Lake is still in a truce period, war is not far away. They don't seem worried at all about being affected. Why? Are they certain of Lake's victory?”

“Probably...” Domit hesitated for a few seconds. “That's not very realistic.”

“Setting aside the outcome of future wars, even regarding the previous battle against the allied forces, probably no one except the First Army Soldiers thought we could win.”

“Even if we won, those who believe we will eventually fail and perish probably still make up the majority. After all, our enemies are every Kingdom except ourselves.”

“Mm.” Zhang Mu nodded in agreement, then followed up by asking, “Then why is that?”

“Uh, sorry Lord Marshal, I don't know.”

Zhang Mu didn't make it difficult for him and said to himself, “Because they have no idea what their fate would be if Lake were defeated. Naturally, they don't worry about the war's outcome, and they've never considered contributing to the war effort.”

Domit knew the answer to the question now, but he still didn't understand why the question was raised.

Perhaps realizing he was being too profound, Zhang Mu explained directly: “As managers of a Kingdom, many times we cannot force the subjects to understand everything.”

“Especially when one usually doesn't care about cultivating the subjects, but expects them to understand everything at a critical moment—that's a bit nonsensical.”

“This logic applies to the issue of the rangers as well.”

Zhang Mu stopped and turned to look at his adjutant: “You're right. Those who become rangers and then oppress the poor people of their own class don't deserve pity.”

“Don't say the situation is special right now and I can't find time to deal with them. Even if I had time, I wouldn't waste energy guiding them.”

“Like I said before, they're all poor people. Why can other poor people honestly clear land and live off the Kingdom's rewards, while they run off to commit all sorts of evil?”

“So should we follow the example of other cities and just execute the rangers upon capture?”

Zhang Mu tapped Domit on the head. “Are you stupid? Was everything I said for nothing?”

“Uh...”

With a sigh, Zhang Mu continued walking forward: “Don't worry too much about the rangers who have joined the darkness; just chop them down to save trouble. What we need to pay attention to are those who haven't fallen after becoming rangers, or haven't fallen too deep.”

“They can be saved, and it just so happens we can save them. There's no reason not to.”

“But you just said we can't find the time right now...”

“I also said that the premise for shelving an issue is that the situation is within our control.”

The adjutant carefully took up the conversation: “Could you be more specific?”

“Give them a chance. Those who take the initiative to accept it are saved. Those who are unwilling, once caught, will be taken outside the city and beheaded.”

Domit thought of something and said with slight excitement, “We could launch some relief plans modeled after the Land Decree, like those willing to work a proper job will...”

“Are you stupid?”

“If we do it your way, in the future, if they want something, they'll just cause trouble first, and the Kingdom will give it to them after the trouble is over. How could we have that?”

After scolding him, Zhang Mu turned and entered a restaurant. He ordered a few dishes after sitting down before continuing: “We proceed with both hands simultaneously.”

“Isn't the second batch of factories in Keton City about to be completed?”

“Set aside a few production lines to manufacture daily necessities, so that workers can be recruited from the populace.”

“Hmm... at that time, you guys calculate the annual income of a local Farmer. Set the wages to be slightly lower than a Farmer's annual income.”

“On the other hand, increase the intensity of the crackdown. As soon as a gathering of rangers is discovered, immediately send troops to disperse them, and deploy more patrol teams within the city.”

“Maintain this for a year. After that, those who are still being rangers won't need to be distinguished; handle them with violence.”

Domit asked, “Will there be any omissions? For example, if there aren't enough job positions and they have no choice but to continue being rangers?”

Zhang Mu was silent for a moment. “There is no such thing as a perfect solution in this world.”

The two were stunned for a moment. After snapping out of it, Domit's expression was heavy: “I understand.”

He indeed understood this logic. Back when he was still in the Resistance Army, was he not also in the midst of desperate darkness? Otherwise, why would it have been necessary to travel everywhere, bitterly searching for a turning point?

Who cared about them back then?

Now that someone was giving the rangers a chance, it was already a stroke of luck.

After quickly finishing the meal, Zhang Mu led the two back to the parliament building and began arranging the counter-offensive matters.

First, they sorted through the collected intelligence.

It was reported that the Saint-level experts of the various nations in the allied forces had not appeared for a long time. Barring any other surprises, it could be confirmed that all Saint-levels had departed for unknown destinations.

The royal families of various countries felt as if the end of The World had come. Some fled with the royal treasuries, leaving their countries leaderless and in great chaos. Among those remaining, half were mobilizing for war, using the slogan 'Lake is a nation of heretics, the whole continent is its enemy' to rally the military. The other half was rather peculiar, as serious rebellions had broken out within their borders.

Unlike Novak's overt rebellion, which was actually a loyal arrangement for the royal family's escape, those were genuine usurpations of the throne, and the captured royal family members were directly hanged.

No one knew what madness had gripped the Legion Commanders and city lords who rose in revolt. Even if they succeeded, Lake would attack in a few days; what was the point of gaining the throne?

Regardless, the internal situation was indeed a mess.

Confirming the news was correct, Zhang Mu simply excluded these Kingdoms from the first batch of offensive targets.

The strategic goals of the counter-offensive were first to eliminate surrounding threats, and second to train battle-ready troops. Regardless of which point, Kingdoms embroiled in internal strife would not serve a positive purpose.

So naturally, Zhang Mu turned his gaze toward the Kingdoms that were mobilizing for war.

After slight consideration, Zhang Mu decided that for this counter-offensive, the First Army would stay behind. The legions that had participated in the Defense of Lake would serve as a backup to guard the borders, while the new legions composed of a large number of Farmers would serve as the main force of the attack.

The military order was issued. Having rested for many days and with his body already growing 'rusty', Domit immediately returned to the camp to carry out the preliminary resource allocation work.

Provisions could actually be transported using Zhang Mu's “The World”, but Zhang Mu couldn't be the one to deliver them for all future wars. The various legions eventually had to become familiar with conventional methods of warfare.

For this operation, Domit planned to utilize the newly produced military trucks.

Besides testing the effectiveness of the trucks in actual warfare, it was also for the purpose of letting the Soldiers adapt to the new tools.

As for truck drivers, Domit had trained a batch. There weren't many, but they were sufficient to support a small-scale campaign.

Military orders were sent out one by one from Domit's tent. The recruits training around Keton City immediately packed up and set out, crossing the eastern border one after another and moving rapidly toward the positions of the allied forces.

Zhang Mu observed from the Command Post. When Domit became free, he asked if there were any empires from further away launching a long-range raid on Lake.

Domit shook his head.

To be honest, Zhang Mu found this very strange.

Everyone on the continent knew that the gods had not appeared for ten thousand years. Now they suddenly appeared and even explicitly stated that Lake was the Ice and Snow Empire, the former First Empire of the continent, and was a heretic.

Reasonably speaking, even if the major empires didn't send armies, there should be High-tier Professionals coming to watch the spectacle.

However, the reality was quite the opposite. Except for the Elves who had sent a large army, the other empires were unusually quiet, as if this had never happened.

Zhang Mu sprawled on the reclining chair: “This is really fresh. I thought that with the descent of the divine oracle, all the Kingdoms and empires on the continent would send forces to besiege us. In the end, let alone the distant places, even our neighbors are half fighting us and half watching the show. Is this a joke?”

“Watching the show? Kingdom?” Domit, who was looking up at the map hanging on the wall, turned his head and asked.

“Who else could it be?”

Domit scratched his face for a while: “It is very strange. I originally thought the organizer of the allied forces would be Kingdom, after all, they and Lake have had a thousand-year-old grudge.”

“Right? Back then, the two countries fought until their brains were coming out.”

“It is indeed incomprehensible.”

“Then let's not think about it.” Zhang Mu stood up from the reclining chair, walked to Domit's side, and looked up at the map. “How is the battle situation?”

“The vanguard has exchanged fire with the enemy a few times.”

“Because our main forces are all new legions and the Soldiers have only received preliminary military training, plus the enemy has a large advantage in low-tier Professionals, we didn't gain much of an advantage.”

“The good news is that the morale of the recruits is quite good, and cases of desertion are rare.”

Domit had not only been on the battlefield but had also fought on the front lines many times. He knew very well how blood and fire could devastate the will of recruits, so the vanguard's current performance had already reached his ideal state.

Zhang Mu stood with his hands on his hips: “No, it's too slow. We need to speed up the pace of the advance.”

“It's possible, but...” Domit hesitated for a few seconds and emphasized, “Casualties will definitely increase that way.”

“Time.” Zhang Mu tapped the wall through the map. “Our time is very tight.”

Domit didn't understand where the urgency was, since clearly no one except the allied forces was paying attention to Lake, but since it was the Marshal's command, he would naturally obey.

The military order to urge the advance reached the front line, and the originally lukewarm battle situation immediately became intense.

Motivated by the military merit peerage system, the Lake legions were like a rainbow of momentum, breaking through the defense lines of several small Kingdoms in succession and capturing royal family members alive.

The results were fruitful, but the price was naturally heavy.

With the offensive disregarding casualties, the Lake vanguard was reduced by nearly half and had to retreat to the rear to recuperate and replenish Soldiers.

Seeing this, the various countries of the allied forces thought the fighting would pause and breathed a sigh of relief. But that breath was only half-released when Lake's rotated legions attacked again in rapid succession.

After several months of continuous offensive, except for a few large Kingdoms like Novak's, the rest of the allied nations fell under Lake's artillery fire.

Those Kingdoms that hadn't been attacked and were in the middle of suppressing internal rebellions saw the situation and stopped suppressing the rebellions. They directly led all members of the royal family into Lake to surrender.

Anyway, this land will belong to Lake sooner or later. Why should I waste effort suppressing rebellions?

Let Lake deal with the headache themselves.

However, what happened next left those kings completely dumbfounded.

When Lake went to take over the territories, those rebellious city lords and Legion Commanders very straightforwardly handed over their legions and walked into Lake alone to surrender.

The kings angrily found them and questioned them: since they had planned to surrender all along, why did they still rise in revolt?

The city lord was not annoyed at all and explained cheerfully—surrendering following you, and surrendering by myself, are two completely different things.

When Zhang Mu, who was in the Command Post, found out, he laughed for a long time before stopping.

“Talents, they are all talents.” Zhang Mu wiped away two tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes. “Put them aside for now. What's urgent for us now is to crack the last few hard nuts.”

Hearing this, Domit's gaze moved to the last few areas on the map that had not yet been planted with the flag of Lake.

...

In the early morning, Novak sat on the threshold of his study, arms resting on his thighs, looking out at the morning sun on the horizon.

After a while, his adjutant, fully armored, strode along the corridor to the door.

Novak looked up at him.

Yesterday, he had ordered the adjutant to protect the members of the royal family and secretly escape from the Kingdom's borders. They were riding high-tier magical beasts with extremely fast flight speeds. Logically, they should have been thousands of miles away by now, yet the adjutant appeared before him.

Did some accident happen?

Novak looked at the adjutant's calm but slightly guilty expression and understood that no accident had occurred.

“There was no need.” He did not get angry.

The adjutant lowered his head and remained silent.

With a sigh, Novak stood up: “Where are the King and the others?”

“They have already reached the Magic Array.”

The Saul Continent was vast. If only a few people were going to a distant place, it was naturally impossible to rely entirely on flying magical beasts; that would take forever.

At such times, teleportation Magic Arrays came in handy. However, the materials for setting up a teleportation Magic Array were very expensive—so expensive that an average Kingdom could hardly afford it.

Therefore, if one's own country did not have a teleportation Magic Array but wanted to go to a very distant place, one could only borrow the one from the nearest Kingdom that possessed a Magic Array.

“As long as they've arrived, it's fine.” Novak felt relieved, yet for some reason, he looked lonely.

Seeing this, the adjutant suddenly asked: “Lord Marshal, do you regret attacking Lake?”

“Regret?” As Novak spoke, he smiled. “Of course not.”

“Lake is descended from the Ice and Snow Empire of ten thousand years ago. After they stopped hiding their identity, the banner they raised was for the restoration of their nation. Even if we hadn't provoked them, would Lake have let us go?”

“Speaking of the Ice and Snow Empire... why hasn't Lake changed its national name yet?”

“That's a question that can only be known by meeting the King of Lake himself.”

In fact, there was no deep meaning behind Lake not yet restoring the name 'Ice and Snow'. It was simply that the Second Prince, who had unexpectedly become king, had forgotten about it.

And Zhang Mu and Avril, who did remember, had been so busy with various matters and didn't care much about restoring the original name, so it was shelved.

The adjutant had also asked casually. Seeing that Novak didn't know either, he let it pass and turned to talk about Lake's offensive in recent days: “Lord Marshal,”

“The momentum of Lake's counter-offensive is very fierce. Except for a few Kingdoms with slightly stronger strength, including us, the other Kingdoms have already been conquered.”

“It was a matter of time, not worth being surprised about.”

“Then what about us now?”

“Moyiguo sent news a few days ago, hoping that our few Kingdoms would hold a meeting to discuss how to deal with Lake.”

“Hmm... or rather, how to survive under Lake's iron hooves.”

The adjutant asked tentatively: “Are we going?”

“Why not? Anyway, there's no better way now.”

“When do we set out?”

“Immediately.”