When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1180 Wow, updated!

Lacunio's statement about encircling and annihilating the Shooting Army did not mean he intended to go to the Broken Stone Plains to do so.

Whether it was out of Lacunio's own will or Serfaye's orders, the Holy Alliance was the strongest enemy they would have to face in the end.

Serfaye's idea regarding the Holy Alliance is to fight on the outside front; he will not easily provoke war before completing preparations.

The Holy Alliance is located inland, with limited territory and population.

As long as they seize the empire's territory and possess its population and resources, they can wear down the Holy Alliance even by simply outlasting it.

Let's put it this way: with the Empire's 100 million people, plus the Royal Court's 100 million vampires and undead, how could they possibly lose to the Holy Alliance with its 10 million people?

At that time, the Holy Alliance, being a landlocked country, will be stretched thin and without a suitable outlet to the sea. Who will it turn to for help?

The Holy Alliance lacks sufficient strategic depth. Although it possesses natural endowments, it still relies heavily on importing external resources.

With the addition of the Blood Pact Gunners newly trained by the royal court, whose strength is comparable to, if not equal to, that of the Holy Alliance, the Holy Alliance has no reason to win.

Although Serfaye's strategic goals were somewhat urgent, her execution of those goals was actually slow and cautious.

For Lacunio, the tactician in charge, the most crucial step right now is to completely undermine the confidence of the Norn Castles and turn them into tax farmers for the royal court.

In previous battles, thanks to Lacunio's command and the vampires' unexpected unity, the confidence of the Norn Bear Fortress people was crushed.

The next step is to completely destroy their self-esteem.

When faced with Lacunio's army, many of Bear Castle's troops were routed.

The only force capable of resisting, and even retreating with ease, is the Fat Beef Fort Shooting Army.

For many of the Bearburg residents who still harbored a desire to resist, Alexei, the son of Archduke Petrov, and his musketeers were their last hope.

Many of the nobles of Bearburg shared the idea that "everything will be fine as long as Alexei's musketeers launch an attack."

Lacunio was determined to shatter that notion himself!
"We crushed most of Bearhold's territory last year and rested for a winter. It's time for us to make a move."

"I've been waiting!" shouted an ogre wearing a large gold earring. "When, and who?"

"Don't rush, Big Golden Ear." Lacunio pressed his palm down. "Listen to me first."

Lacuño's army is now slightly superior in quality to the musketeers; otherwise, the musketeers would not have retreated.

Behind the shooting army, there is also the Holy Alliance, which has not been fully mobilized.

The best strategy at present should be to strengthen first and then weaken.

If we don't give the Holy Alliance a chance to get involved, and directly crush the Shooting Army, the remaining small groups of troops will be easily dealt with.

After listening to Lacunio's analysis, the many vampire barons and counts nodded in agreement.

Instead, a bald vampire dressed in a high-necked suit asked, "But how do we wipe out the Shooting Army, which is hiding in the Shattered Stone Plains?"

"Or should we stage a few massacres to lure them out?"

Lacunio's expression dimmed for a moment, then he shook his head: "No need, they've already come out on their own."

To be precise, although Andrei, as the commander of the battle group in the Shakira Plain military district, was very welcoming of the surrender of the firing corps.

But both Groyev and Alexei chose to refuse.

They didn't like it, so they were directly rejected.

Those who know, know, mainly because the two were afraid that the shooting army would be annexed by Andrei.

This chapter commander from Fran is quite adept at this tactic; during the Battle of Shattered Stones, he absorbed countless mountain knights to strengthen his own forces.

With this dark history, don't even think about getting Alexei and others to hand over the army to him.

As for Andrei, he was quite dissatisfied and attempted to forcibly annex the territory.

Fortunately, Busak found him and talked with him for a whole night, which made Andrei give up the idea.

Andrei's attempt to annex the shooting army stemmed not only from lingering warlord instincts but also from his own pressure regarding a shortage of troops.

Every era has its problems; no country or army is perfect.

Even within the Holy Alliance army, certain problems exist.

The most obvious issue is resource allocation. Elite, high-performing, well-trained, and veteran battle groups naturally enjoy more benefits and resources than other battle groups.

It's not just about money and benefits, but also about personnel selection and promotion.

The reason why the Black Champion used to target the Guards was because the Guards always took more than their share.

But since the black hats were changed to black crowns, the situation has changed, and they have become the first tier to enjoy resources.

Those groups like the Divine Punishment Warband and the Faith Warband, which fought the entire Second Thousand River Valley War from beginning to end, belong to the second tier.

As for the Fire Lizard Chapter and the Shadow Raven Chapter, they can only be considered the third tier, the kind of chapter where new recruits would turn pale upon receiving a recruitment notice from these chapters.

The lowest-ranking of these were the Shashiyuan Reclamation Corps or the New Five Counties Reclamation Corps in these military-controlled areas.

It's the kind of desperate scream a recruit would have upon seeing a recruitment notice.

The Shattered Stone Plains are too desolate. What's the difference between going there and being exiled to the eastern county of Black Snake Bay?
Many new recruits were unhappy when they went to Black Snake Bay, let alone the even less populated and more desolate Shattered Stone Plains.

If Horn hadn't intentionally sent his soldiers to train and garrison outside their hometowns, we would probably soon have witnessed the strange sight of the entire warband being filled with soldiers stationed at their garrisons.

This makes it easy to create the impression of a family of military officers.

However, Horn made an exception and allowed Andrei to recruit soldiers on the spot, precisely because of the lack of manpower.

Groyev was initially hesitant about Andrei's offer to recruit him.

At the critical moment, it was Alexei who noticed the problem and rushed to the Broken Stone Plain, preventing the firing army from being annexed, both openly and secretly.

At the same time, Alexei also made his own request.

An army isolated far from home will eventually be forgotten by its people.

Without sharing the pain, what gives you the right to pretend nothing happened and return to enjoy it in the future?

Therefore, Alexei demanded that even if the shooting corps needed to be under the protection of the army in the rubble field, they must leave the border from time to time.

Firstly, it was to make its presence felt, and secondly, it was to ensure that Bear Fortress was not completely annexed.

Therefore, starting from the beginning of 1459, Alexei personally led his army to attack small groups of vampires on numerous occasions, or to punish treacherous nobles.

Because Lacunio adopted a hands-off approach, Alexei has recently gone a bit too far.

After explaining the situation, Lacunio was about to elaborate on the next steps in tactics and strategies when a soft cough came from the side.

"Is it really unnecessary?" Governor Shanluan rubbed the cold iron finger guards on his thick fingers. "But I think it's very necessary, to boost morale before the battle."

The vampires present all showed expressions of approval.

Lacunio's veins bulged on the back of his hand, and he remained silent for a moment.

Governor Scheherazade smiled and looked at Lacunio: "Your Excellency Lacunio, I suppose you can't understand this kind of joy, can you?"

"His Chosen One has bestowed upon you second-generation-level source blood. Just one taste will allow you to experience the same joy as us."

Lacunio knew what "happiness" meant by Schruan.

He also knew that for the royal court, killing humans to forge the flesh-and-blood furnace was the key to creating the Blood Pact Gun.

Unlike Prince Condé, Governor Scheherazade never interfered with Lacunio's strategies and tactics, and often stood on his side to subdue the vampire generals below him.

But to Lacunio's dismay, the warlord's primary task seemed to be to lure him into becoming a vampire.

Lacunio didn't know why he insisted on being a human being, but he persevered despite the difficulties.

“I believe this will result in missed opportunities,” Lacunio said softly. “Are you going to disregard the great moon—Prince Serfaye’s—target?”

When the word Serfaye was mentioned, several vampires instinctively shouted "Hooray!"

Serfaye used special blood infusions and hypnotic spells to control the vampires through a hierarchical network.

Hypnosis and illusion are obviously techniques that vampires use, but none have ever been able to use them to the extent that Serfaye did.

Lacunio brought up Serfaye, and Schruan didn't say much, only saying, "I will consult His Majesty Serfaye," before falling silent.

Lacunio glanced around: "Any objections? If not, let's proceed as planned!"

(End of this chapter)