When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1251 Engineering Offensive
"Understood." Alexei quickly jotted it down in his notebook.

"I've covered the big picture, but are you clear on the smaller details?" Horn stretched and stood up, asking casually before leaving.

He always respected the opinions of frontline officers because they were conducting on-the-ground investigations and had a very strong interest in the matter.

However, he wouldn't have high hopes, as not every officer had such ideas.

Putting away his notebook, Alexei nodded earnestly: "I was just about to tell you this, because my offensive needs your help."

Horn, who was about to climb down the rock, became interested and turned around: "Where do you want to attack? What kind of help do you need?"

"Thick Bull Fort, I need a clockwork crane and an engineering corps."

The location of Thick Bull Fortress itself is not crucial; it is situated about a hundred miles north of the fortress complex and is not garrisoned by vampire troops, only by auxiliary forces.

Moreover, that location is neither tactically dangerous nor strategically important; it is a place that military strategists do not contend for.

Taking this place seems to have neither advantages nor disadvantages, and may even prolong the battle lines.

Why attack Thick Beef Fortress?

After saying the name, Horn almost lost his composure.

Perhaps it's because Norn is known for naming things after local specialties that this kind of name is found everywhere.

In the southern fortresses, shrimp burgers, cod burgers, and herring burgers are all common.

The northern burgers are various cheese burgers, beef burgers, and thick beef burgers.

Alexei didn't notice the fleeting smile on Horn's face, and instead began to explain seriously.

"Your Majesty, please hear me out..."

The normal attack on Baconburger followed his old strategy: attack the baconburger first, then the baconburger.

But every time he breached the bacon burger, there was a problem: he couldn't continue attacking the bacon burger.

Bacon Fort was situated on high ground and had a waterway for the rapid deployment of reinforcements.

The roads to the bacon burger were in terrible condition, and although there was a river nearby, it was not navigable and could only be transported by land.

The logistical gap between the two sides is too large, and the vampires always manage to gain the upper hand.

If the Norn Restoration Army had tens of thousands of soldiers, they could certainly crush them directly.

But he didn't, and if he mobilized such a large force, the royal court would definitely retaliate, and it was very likely that a major battle would be fought.

Therefore, if the Holy Alliance does not have plans for a major battle, it is unlikely that they will be able to crush the enemy head-on.

“…Therefore, it is very difficult to open up the land route, so I want to start with the waterway,” Alexei said, composing himself.

"The Seine River, where Baconburg is located, I remember, is neither upstream nor downstream under our control, is it?" Horn asked rhetorically.

"Yes, that's why we're attacking Thick Bull Fortress; it's right next to the Saf River."

"Can the Saf River connect to the Seine River?" Horn immediately turned to ask the surveying staff next to him.

The surveying staff officer, caught off guard by Horn's surprise test, stammered for a while before finally managing to say, "They are not connected, Your Majesty. The Seine River flows southwest here, while the Saf River flows southwest before reaching Thick Bull Fortress, then makes a turn and flows due south..."

Before the surveying staff could finish speaking, Alexei interrupted, "The Saf River used to flow into the Senier River eighty years ago, but it changed course due to earthquakes and floods and began to flow south."

At this point, Alexei couldn't help but get excited, and his teeth chattered a little.

He knelt on the rock, pulled a faded, creased map from his notebook, and laid it flat on the limestone.

Seeing Alexei's enthusiasm, Horn felt it wouldn't be right to do nothing, so he squatted down and cast a concerned look at Alexei.

Alexei tapped his ink-stained knuckles on a spot on the map, unable to contain his excitement.

"Your Majesty, please see that if we capture Hou Niu Fort, we should first clear the old river channel and then build a dam here."

No need for a strong or high dam, just a temporary weir will do, and a ditch less than 500 meters long can be dug.

Water flows downhill, and the river water will be diverted into the old riverbed and flow into the Seine River.

Then we can use Thick Bull Fortress as a logistical hub and directly attack Bacon Fortress.” “In that case, won’t the vampires be on guard?” The surveying staff officer, having lost face before, couldn’t help but question.

"No, because normally a whole project takes about a year and a half to complete. Even if we start, they won't make any moves too quickly."

"No way, are vampires mentally challenged? They think this little project will take them a year and a half to dig?"

“No,” Horn interrupted the surveying officer, “You think a year and a half is too slow, but in their eyes this speed is normal.”

To be precise, at Saint Union, thanks to its clockwork cranes and the infrastructure engineering capabilities honed over the years, its overall efficiency is two to three times higher than that of contemporary engineering capabilities.

What would take a year and a half for a vampire could only take four to six months for the Holy Alliance.

Alexei continued, "You could even say that the royal court's main forces are either at Beef Fortress or Bacon Fortress; Bacon Fortress is practically empty..."

"Where did you get this information from?" the intelligence officer next to him couldn't help but interrupt.

Alexei didn't even glance at him: "...The intelligence was obtained by the savage tribe, and I have spies among the royal court's servants."

He stopped speaking and looked at Horn with great anticipation: "What do you think?"

Bacon Castle is poorly defended; if we can launch a surprise attack using this method, we might actually be able to take it.

If we can capture Bacon Fort, we will be able to threaten Golden Gate Fort, and even cut the Royal Court's northern army in two, leaving it unable to defend itself.

It doesn't matter if we can't take Baconburg by surprise attack.

With the logistics hub of Thick Beef Fort in place, the royal army must deploy a large number of troops to garrison it, in order to prevent Bacon Fort from being attacked from both sides by Salted Meat Fort and Thick Beef Fort.

In any case, it opened up a new situation for the northern front.

In this way, the Northern Route Army will definitely try to recapture this key point, and then it will enter the stage of the city defense battle that Horn is familiar with, where one soldier advances a day to defend the city.

Anyway, my bastion is better defensively, has higher logistical efficiency, and can outlast you. Let's see who can outlast whom.

Horn could hold out against them for a whole year.

It's possible that the Southern Route Army and the Central Route Army will have to support the Northern Route Army, especially since a portion of the Northern Route Army is on its way to attack Changge City.

Currently, the Dawn Federation and the New Gem Federation control the Nauan River, so they have to take a long detour to get there.

Once the vampire army has gathered in the north, the Fourth El Alliance, located in the direction of the Fran and Nauan Rivers, will launch an attack.

With the vampire army gathering in the south, the Fourth El Alliance, located in the direction of Shattered Stone Plains and South Norn, launched an attack.

That's exactly what we're targeting – your constant back and forth!
If the troops are evenly distributed, then everyone can just focus on internal economic cycles.

Anyway, time is on the side of the Holy Alliance. The longer it drags on, the more big a move the Holy Alliance can make.

Putting aside everything else, once the railway covers the Thousand River Valley and the Ether Spire is spread across every city, the vampires will be in for a world of trouble.

“Excellent, very good.” Horn looked at Alexei with appreciation. “I will send scholars specializing in water conservancy to investigate and design…”

“No need.” Alexei waved his hand, and the centaur next to him immediately took off an oil paper package and gave it to him.

Upon opening the oil paper package, Horn took a closer look and discovered it contained a complete set of pre-designed engineering plans.

"If you have any doubts, you can have scholars take this plan and conduct an on-site investigation."

Seeing Horn's questioning gaze, Alexei puffed out his chest: "Please believe me, I am a full-scholarship graduate of the Hydraulic Engineering program at St. Regis University, and my graduation project ranked second in the entire university, Your Majesty."

After thinking it over again, Horn laughed loudly and said, "Alright, I'll order the engineers to come right away. When will you be able to finish?"

Just as Arikshe was about to speak, he caught a glimpse of a cloud of snow rising up, and a messenger cavalryman galloped towards him.

He consciously stepped aside and let the messenger cavalryman come over to speak.

"Urgent military intelligence from the signal machine in Silver Bay City, Your Majesty." With that, he ordered a cavalryman to hand over a scroll.

Urgent military situation?
With a slight frown, Horn opened the scroll, pulled out a slip of paper, and began to read.

He hadn't even read a few words before he started swearing, which was unusual for him:
"Are all these high lords of Nornburg brainless?!"

(End of this chapter)