Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1969 Three Forces
Sitting at his desk in the Hall of Diligent Governance, Zhou Xu was reviewing intelligence on the three forces that their Great Zhou Dynasty was currently facing, a slightly worried expression on his face.

Of these three forces, the North Sea Dragon Clan is the most difficult to deal with, so we won't consider it for now.

On the Orc Alliance side, there are too many uncertainties.

Meanwhile, according to known intelligence, the Orc King's tribe is far away from them, while the Orc tribes closer to their Great Zhou New District have all suffered at their hands before.

Even wild beasts, like wolf packs, will normally only target those weaker than themselves as prey, and will not provoke those stronger than themselves.

If wild beasts are like this, then orcs are even more so.

In this situation, if their Great Zhou army were to take the initiative to attack and start a war with the Orc Alliance, wouldn't that be tantamount to asking for trouble?

Not to mention, you should get something out of this trouble you've created for yourself.

Orcs are so poor, you'd fight to the death, surely not just to expand the undead army's strength?

Their Great Zhou doesn't primarily rely on the Undead army; the Undead army is essentially a functional force for them, so doing this would be a huge loss.

And this doesn't even take into account what to do with the territory you conquer after defeating the orcs.

Deploying troops here will increase the pressure on manpower, and developing the area will increase the pressure on finances. In short, it's a money drain.

But if you fight and then leave, isn't that just wasting military funds and creating trouble for no reason?

Therefore, the existence of the Orc Alliance is, to some extent, also a nuisance.

The best course of action would be to leave them alone, just like before.

The problem now is that there are too many forces they're not dealing with right now, which is making people uneasy, fearing that they might all explode one day.

The root cause of all this is the Dark Elves.

If the Dark Elves don't appear, then it's just the North Sea Dragon Clan and the Orc Alliance, and they can afford that risk.

Now that the Dark Elves have appeared, the delicate balance of pressure on the Great Zhou Dynasty has been broken.

From a purely strength perspective, the situation of the Dark Elves is relatively simple.

The Hydra, as a colossal unit, was thick-skinned and could spew corrosive venom, making it impossible for melee units to get close. However, this had little impact on the Great Zhou.

Their Great Zhou doesn't have many purely melee-focused units left.

We'll just send the steam tank troops over there, and there will also be aerial bombardment from dwarf gyroplanes. How could that not deal with this guy?

Even if Hydra has a superior physique, can it withstand the tanks, artillery, and bombers of the Great Zhou?

Putting aside the Hydra issue, the Dark Elves are essentially just a single Eredar at the Transcendental Realm.

Whether others have the combat power of the Vajra Realm or the Saint Realm is actually irrelevant.

For the Great Zhou Dynasty today, combat power at the Vajra Realm and Saint Realm levels is no longer the key factor influencing the outcome of a war; the Transcendent Realm and Nascent Soul Realm are.

Ignoring the combat power of the Vajra Realm and the Nascent Soul Realm, they could easily defeat a dark elf who only had the combat power of the Transcendent Realm.

Because they can send two directly, it's very simple and straightforward!
But the problem now is that the Dark Elves are hiding overseas, and their Great Zhou has no ships on the other side of the Elven Forest.

Sending ships over by sea is impractical; even disregarding the distance, they don't know the route. Therefore, if they want to launch an attack, they must first build a shipyard and establish a naval force on the other side of the elven forest.

At this point, even going out to sea is difficult, let alone taking the initiative.

After setting sail, putting aside the Dark Elf warships, the Hydra issue needs to be given serious consideration.

The threat posed by the land-based hydra and the sea-based hydra is quite different.

If Jabbar's water mage group or Boreas were here, they could handle it, but unfortunately, both of them are on guard against the North Sea Dragon Clan and are stationed daily on Barton Islands and Mithril Island, so they can't come here.

However, it won't have a big impact; at worst, he can just make the trip himself.

More importantly than that, if they want to take action against the Dark Elves, they definitely need to ascertain the Elven race's intentions first.

With the elves included in their grand plan for the future of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the existence of the dark elves does indeed affect, and even threaten, them. However, at this stage, this matter is ultimately an internal affair of the elves.

Regardless of their geographical location or the nature of the matter, they need the understanding and support of the local elves to take action.

The best solution would be to have the elves join forces with them in the attack.

With Elf King Light, a combatant at the Transcendent Realm level, the Great Zhou's forces can be deployed with greater ease.

After all, they also need to be on guard against the Orc Alliance on the other side, and they can't transfer all their combat power away.

Of course, this matter is not urgent, or rather, it cannot be rushed.

Currently, their Great Zhou and the three surrounding forces are stuck at a delicate point, and it is unknown when an incident could suddenly break out.

If you're lucky, nothing major might happen for the next ten or eight years, or even a decade or two.

If you're unlucky, something bad might happen at any moment; who can say for sure?
Under these circumstances, even if they could persuade the Elf King Light to join forces with them to wipe out the Dark Elves, building docks and shipyards, and then constructing ships, would be a time-consuming and labor-intensive undertaking.

Where can this be resolved in a short time?
Not to mention that Zhou Xu didn't intend for Hilke to immediately bring up the matter of annihilating the Dark Elves with Wright.

It's clear from Hilke's description that Wright himself was still hesitant and hadn't yet made up his mind to exterminate the Dark Elves.

Their decision-making, or their attempt to force Wright to make a decision, might backfire.

In situations like this, just go along with what the other person says and that's it.

After the message was sent, Hilke quickly confirmed his emperor's thoughts. Now he knew exactly what to do next.

During this period, King Light of the Elf Kingdom would spar with him every day.

One of Wright's purposes in doing this was to hone his skills and improve his strength so that he could defeat Ereda when they faced each other again.

Wright did not hide this purpose from Hilke, so Hilke often discussed this topic with Wright.

On this day, taking advantage of the discussion, Hilke raised a question.

"Staying passive like this is too disadvantageous for us. Haven't you thought about taking the initiative and eliminating the threat from the dark elves?"

Faced with this question, Wright paused, his emotions a mix of emotions. After a two-second silence, he slowly spoke…

(End of this chapter)