500: Chapter 480 Destroying the Eastern Territory, Confrontation with Ganno

The overall tactics formulated by the two Legion Commanders exuded an air of "caution."

They divided the total of seventy thousand Soldiers from the two legions into three groups. The smallest group served as the vanguard; after capturing a defensive line, they would rest in place and send out scouts to search the surrounding area, ensuring there were no enemy ambushes.

Afterward, the main force would set out. Once the two groups merged, the vanguard would then rush to the next battlefield, repeating the cycle continuously.

The Ninth Legion Commander did not feel that this overly steady—even "timid"—advancement tactic damaged his reputation, just as he didn't believe Lake had to crush an opponent to demonstrate bravery.

The Ninth Legion Commander's combat style primarily embodied assertiveness; when encountering enemies, there was no need for much concern—annihilating them would end the war.

Upon hearing this, many people subconsciously sketched an image of him in their minds—strong muscles, empty head.

But in reality, among Lake's many Legion Commanders, he had the best tactical course grades, second only to the Sixth.

In the early hours of the next day, following the original plan, the vanguard set out under the cover of night, marching toward the enemy camp closest to the main base.

They arrived half an hour later.

The moment the enemy camp's fence came into view, the infantry raised their rifles and charged, while the artillery set up portable, easy-to-carry mortars on the spot to provide fire support.

The enemy didn't seem to expect an attack at this time. Chaotic footsteps echoed from within the smoke-filled camp, and panicked cries of "Enemy attack!" rang out everywhere. Soldiers burst through the tent flaps and ran out, looking around to see what was happening.

Perhaps it was the first time the vanguard had encountered such incompetent enemies, as they froze for a few seconds before charging in.

The battle between the two sides was quickly decided; the enemy collapsed at the first touch.

The infantrymen who kicked open the camp gates watched the enemy Soldiers running everywhere and fired a couple of shots at random. Before they could even check if they had hit anything, the enemy Soldiers were already screaming and running toward the back gate.

The infantrymen looked at each other and ultimately followed orders by abandoning the pursuit. Adhering to the principle of "leaving no prisoners," they shot the remaining Soldiers in the camp. For those lying on the ground wailing from mortar shell injuries, they delivered a finishing shot to end their suffering, then cleaned up the messy camp.

The battle report reached the Ninth Legion Commander's desk ten minutes later.

He was greatly amazed after reading it. If this kingdom had indeed plotted a conspiracy, intending to feign defeat to lure Lake into a reckless advance, the Ninth Legion Commander had to express his admiration.

One must know that the boundary between a feigned retreat and a real retreat is sometimes not that clear.

The high-level decision-makers know it's a fake defeat, but the Soldiers know nothing about it. They only see the enemy advancing triumphantly while their own side flees in disarray. If the same scene repeats, how can one expect the Soldiers to maintain morale?

It wouldn't be surprising if they all turned into deserters.

The Ninth Legion Commander couldn't distinguish the authenticity of the enemy's rout, but he didn't need to care; he simply fought steadily according to the decided strategy.

After a day of rest and replenishing ammunition and other supplies, the vanguard set out again on the second day. They discovered an enemy camp at noon and emulated yesterday's offensive process: after a round of mortar fire, the infantry deployed into formation and charged.

The enemy also emulated yesterday: you dare to shell, I dare to die; you dare to attack the camp, I dare to flee.

After pulling down five camps in a row like this, the vanguard commander reached a certain mountaintop and looked down; the enemy kingdom's border city came into view.

The city walls were high. The vanguard had abandoned heavy firepower for the sake of marching speed, and with limited troops, a forced assault would likely result in heavy losses and be difficult to conquer. To be safe, they camped in the mountain forest, waiting for the main force to arrive and rely on howitzers to blast open the city walls.

Three days later, the Ninth Legion Commander, aided by the Special Operations Squad, arrived leading the main force. After a brief rest, he ordered the Artillery Regiment that evening to bombard the city walls continuously until they collapsed.

Under the devastation of powerful artillery fire, the thick city walls held out for only half an hour. As a hole was blasted through in one spot, the entire wall slowly crumbled, kicking up a sky full of dust.

A large number of infantry stepped over the broken bricks into the city, only to find that the defenders had already fled.

The Ninth Legion Commander thought for a moment. Once the Secondary Legion behind him arrived, he handed over the city's defenses and led his legion deeper. On the fifth day, they encountered a second city, and after several hours of heavy assault, they successfully blasted open the city gates.

As the infantry cleared the remaining enemy Soldiers in the city, he stood atop the wall overlooking the shops lined along the streets and the houses of varying heights. He was certain in his heart: the enemy kingdom had no conspiracy; they were truly suffering defeat after defeat.

Where were their elite legions?

The Ninth Legion Commander couldn't help but be puzzled.

In the battle several months ago, the over one hundred thousand Soldiers gathered by various kingdoms were all annihilated. The loss was indeed not small, and they would be unable to organize a campaign of the same scale against Lake in the short term, but that didn't mean they had lost their defensive power.

They were temporarily unable to attack because the number of First-Tier Legions they held was only enough to garrison the kingdom's borders and guard against sneak attacks from neighboring countries.

If they were as united as the Allied Forces and gave each other enough trust, the legion that attacked Lake last time wouldn't have had only over a hundred thousand Soldiers, but would have started with a million troops.

However, the current situation was that the Ninth Legion Commander had captured border legion camps and two cities in succession without encountering any decent resistance. Where were their First-Tier Legions?

The Ninth Legion Commander recalled the gathered intelligence.

These kingdoms were currently attacking each other, and their First-Tier Legions were basically all deployed on those battlefields. Uh... could it be that the campaigns were at a stalemate, and they couldn't spare troops to intercept us?

That's... that's too absurd.

He was unwilling to believe that these kingdoms were actually crazy to such an extent—directly ignoring a foreign invasion and not caring that their cities and territories were being occupied, just busy fighting with their neighbors?

After some thought, the Ninth Legion Commander paused the offensive, ordered the Soldiers to rest in the city, and had the Special Operations Squad use their stealth abilities to travel to the other end of the kingdom's territory to observe the battlefields there.

He wanted to know if these kingdoms were truly fighting each other.

Half a month later, the Special Operations Squad returned with solid intelligence.

The war was not fake; the two countries were practically beating each other's brains out. The Special Operations Squad hid themselves and peered from the periphery of the battlefield for three days. During that time, High-tier Professionals from both countries died every day, and low-tier Professionals and ordinary Soldiers suffered countless casualties. There were so many corpses that they couldn't be cleared in time, left to lie across the wilderness to be pecked by birds and gnawed by insects.

Furthermore, it wasn't just these two kingdoms fighting; the other kingdoms were also in a heated struggle. The level of bloodshed was no lower than the former, and in the most intense areas, Saint-levels had already fallen.

The Ninth Legion Commander thought about it and guessed that having fought to this point, they had probably long abandoned their reason. Their only goal was to take down the enemy.

But... what was the trigger for the war?

They couldn't have launched an attack simply because their neighbors were an eyesore and they felt unhappy, could they?

Regarding this question, the Special Operations Squad brought back the answer.

The root cause was simple, all centered on the over one hundred thousand Soldiers wiped out by the Ninth Legion Commander.

After the failure of the great battle, the countries blamed each other, all attributing the guilt for the defeat to other nations and demanding compensation for their losses.

None of the countries believed the fault was their own, so naturally, they were unwilling to bear it.

Several hot-tempered kings immediately slammed the table and turned hostile, assembling their elite legions to boldly invade their neighbors, hoping to make up for their losses through plunder. Coincidentally, everyone had the same idea.

Two of Lake's legions had beaten them to a pulp. Hearing that the main force was about to return to the East, it was unrealistic to rob Lake, yet they weren't reconciled to their losses. What to do?

Other than seeking compensation from neighbors weaker than themselves, there was no better way.

These nations had existed here for thousands of years. Even after the Church's ban was lifted, they hadn't been able to conquer each other, indicating that even if there were gaps in their national power, they were definitely not too disparate.

After the war began, the warring parties basically had wins and losses, and no single country achieved an overwhelming victory. As the casualty figures soared, they found themselves in a difficult position to back down.

A few individual kingdoms were overwhelmed but didn't dare to withdraw their troops, fearing that as soon as they did, the enemy nation would take the opportunity to raid their borders.

With multiple factors combined, it finally resulted in the current awkward situation where the countries were caught in a meat grinder, wanting to retreat but being unable to.

After hearing everything, the Ninth Legion Commander burst into laughter. He hadn't expected there to be such fools in the world.

They were now at their weakest; what was he waiting for?

The Ninth Legion Commander reported the intelligence to Domit, requesting to launch an all-out attack immediately to strive to annihilate all their elite legions before the countries could react. After receiving Domit's permission, he led the army overnight to the next city.

The plan went very smoothly.

Having confirmed that the kingdoms had no conspiracy, the Lake army came out in full force, capturing cities and territory everywhere.

The kingdoms' cities were occupied one by one. Because the speed was so fast, some kingdoms didn't wake up until the Lake legions surrounded their capitals, realizing their kingdom was just one step away from destruction.

They hurriedly contacted neighboring countries to request a truce. The neighbors weren't so stupid as to be beyond saving; knowing that if these were destroyed, they would be next, they not only actively stopped the war but also sent reinforcements to help them resist Lake.

Regrettably, thinking of uniting now was too late.

Lake had already occupied key strategic cities, controlled all major transport routes, and cut the nations into small pieces to be surrounded.

When they tried to contact their neighbors, they found that no matter which direction they sought an alliance from, their envoy teams would encounter Lake Soldiers, and the breakthroughs by High-tier Professionals were also ineffective.

Lake seemed to have a secret weapon; their High-tier Professionals would always be mysteriously attacked and fall from high altitudes screaming.

One king didn't believe in such things and boldly ordered three Saint-levels from his country to set out in three different directions, and then they all died.

The state of their deaths and the process were the same as the High-tier Professionals. While flying in the sky, holes suddenly appeared in their bodies. They couldn't find where the attacking enemy was, nor could they see the specific appearance of the thing creating the holes.

With all means failing, they seemed forced into a slow death.

With the enemy countries all trapped in the encirclement and victory seemingly in hand, Domit was in no hurry to launch a general offensive. He instructed the Legion Commanders to station in place and just pay attention to the enemy's High-tier Professionals impacting the defensive lines.

Domit's move was intended to reduce his own side's battle losses.

The kingdoms' First-Tier Legions had been severely depleted in their mutual warfare and Lake's encirclement. If this were Blue Star, it would mean the nation had become meat on a chopping block, but this was the Saul Continent. A kingdom's legions being wiped out didn't mean it had completely lost its combat effectiveness; there were still Professionals, and there were still Saint-levels.

If the kingdoms were driven to a dead end and abandoned defense, letting all Saint-levels and High-tier Professionals move out, Lake, with its limited Special Operations Squads, would be unable to completely intercept and snipe them. At that point, the ordinary Soldiers of the legions would surely suffer.

It was better to boil the frog in lukewarm water, leaving them a sliver of hope of defeating Lake. Once the Saint-levels and High-tier Professionals were gradually picked off, there would be no need to fear their desperate struggles.