When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1252 The Reappearance of Insects
Not long after arriving at the border, Horn quickly returned to Silver Bay City.

It even started raining halfway there, so the first thing Saint Sun did upon returning to Silver Bay City was to change his clothes.

Having changed into a woolen coat that had just been heated by the sun, Horn stood by the window, waiting for the staff officers to arrive.

This isn't the staff dawdling; they're also gathering information and developing plans.

Outside the window, on the surface of Yinwan Lake, more than a dozen fishing boats are slowly returning home in the cold rain.

The nearby Silver Bay City is surrounded by a wall built of rough stones, which is about two zhang high, and moss and wild grass grow sparsely on the top of the wall.

The city wall stretches along the lake shore, with the lake at one end and the hilly terrain at the other, connecting with the distant fir forest.

Three towering gun emplacements stand atop the city wall, their brass-colored muzzles protruding from the dark gun positions.

"Open fire, blast their mothers!" Horn exclaimed in his hometown dialect for no apparent reason.

His exclamation wasn't out of melancholy or lamentation, but rather a genuine desire to bombard those bastards in Nannon with cannons.

With the help of the Holy Alliance, they had initially suffered defeats but ultimately won, stabilizing their alliance with the vampires.

But soon, the Norn lords went from the stage where a desperate army is bound to win to one where a victorious army is bound to become arrogant.

Herring Fortress serves as the logistical hub for both Cheeseburg and Bobbit Fortress, two key locations, and is home to a large number of Norn troops.

After being relieved of their duties at the front lines, everyone from aristocratic officers to low-ranking soldiers immediately transformed into wolves and jackals.

They wreaked havoc on the surrounding markets and villages, making the local nobles and gentry extremely resentful.

Previously, the large army was stationed there and things were fine, but now that the army has been rotated and vampire spies have stirred things up.

Alright, they've seized the city and rebelled!
Herring Fortress is a fortified city; otherwise, it wouldn't have been used as a logistical base.

Now that's bad. With the loss of Herring Fortress, two important frontline strongholds will immediately run out of supplies.

Unfortunately, the logistics of the Norn people in this trench were severely hampered, with food transport being greatly delayed.

Every time, the frontline troops would have been starving for two or three days before a new batch of food arrived.

Now that the Pigeon Fortress is besieged by the royal army, it is in dire need of food.

Then Herring Fortress just happened to block this batch of new food, so if Pigeon Fortress couldn't get a supply for three to five days, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Horn was actually slightly on the verge of breaking down at this moment.

Years later, he once again felt the same helplessness he had felt back in the Gulag when facing so many scoundrels and incompetent teammates.

"How can you defeat vampires with this bunch of insects around?!" Horn hadn't used this kind of sentence structure in many years.

Just then, the conference room door opened, and a group of military officers and staff, including Andrei, arrived.

Piles and rolls of intelligence were piled up and eventually turned into a map of Norn troop deployment on the wall.

If it weren't for the signal transmission, Horn would probably only have known that the Pigeon Fortress had fallen, let alone have seen the troop deployment map.

He closed the stained glass window, shutting out the wind and rain, and then Horn walked to the table with his hands behind his back, slamming them onto the tabletop with a thud.

"You are aware of the situation at Herring Fortress, but what about the situation at Pigeon Fortress?"

“The Pigeon Fortress is a military stronghold. There’s no problem with drinking water inside, but food supplies are indeed running low,” a staff officer said. “We estimate that they will surrender if they run out of food for a week.”

"Are there any troops that can be mobilized in the surrounding area?" a Scourge officer asked. "Can't a few thousand troops be mobilized within a week? There aren't many civilian militia in Herring Fort either."

Andrei scoffed dismissively: "You're oversimplifying things. Herring Fort has fortifications. Even though the civilian militia is small and weak, they can still hold off several thousand regular troops with the help of the fortifications."

And you haven't even factored in the travel time. By the time the Norn army breaches the city, the royal court will probably have already captured the Pigeon Fortress.

Otherwise, where would those citizens have the courage to stand up and resist?

"With vampires around, how can they not consider the bigger picture?" the officers complained.

Instead, Valentel suppressed his complaints: "You won't even see tomorrow, how can you consider the bigger picture?"

“Although we are too far away to do anything,” Horn said, and the room fell silent. “But we can’t just do nothing. Let’s all discuss this.”

After speaking, Horn picked up the map and leaned back in his chair. The staff officers and officers exchanged glances, then also picked up their documents to read and discuss.

"Or should we launch a surprise attack on the Northern Route Army now and force them to retreat?"

"Are you crazy? By the time news of our attack reaches them, they'll have already captured the Pigeon Fortress. Brother, do you think the royal court also has a signal device?"

"Or we could move the troops from here out..."

"So, should we still hold this line of defense...?"

"Is it too late to transfer troops from Cheeseburg?"

"Cheeseburgers are on the front lines too."

Time passed second by second, the sky gradually darkened, and Horn's face turned ashen, yet he still had no solution.

It seems there is indeed no solution. All feasible solutions lack one necessary condition—that is, the implementers are the Salvation Army!
Given Norn's military capabilities and administrative efficiency, even if he were given a hundred chances to restart, they might not be able to weather the crisis.

Are we just going to stand by and watch our solid defenses crumble again?
Horn couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose: "At this point, everyone is tired, let's go eat first."

Upon hearing His Majesty's words, everyone present realized they were hungry, and they all stood up, preparing to leave.

Clinging to a last glimmer of hope, Horn asked again, unwilling to give up, "Does anyone else have any ideas?"

“Well, Your Majesty, I do have an idea…” a voice suddenly came from behind the crowd.

The officers and staff who were about to disperse paused, looking around to see who was speaking.

Horn turned his head and saw a military policeman in charge of guarding him raising his hand.

“What are you doing causing trouble here, you military policeman? Get out of here…” A general from the Shattered Stone Plains Army immediately stood up and prepared to drive him away.

But Horn reached out to stop him: "I think I remember you. You're from Jinhe Township?"

“Yes, Your Majesty, my name is McGowan, and I was among the first group of Kush boys to enroll on Falling Sunset Island.”

Despite his slight nervousness, McGowan spoke with composure: "Your Majesty, I do have an idea."

“Alright, you can say what you think. No one will blame you if you're wrong.” Horn said, deliberately glancing at the group of arrogant officers.

McGowan swallowed hard: "Your Majesty, there are only three reasons why Herringburg cannot be breached."

The fortifications are formidable, the walls are high, and time is of the essence. If we can resolve these three issues at once, the crisis at Herringburg will be over.

"Nonsense," someone in the crowd muttered. "If it could be solved in one go, would there be any need for discussion?"

"He has intellectual disabilities."

"What do military police know about military matters...?"

Despite being ridiculed by crickets in front of him, McGowan became even more determined: "Your Majesty, I have come up with a plan, and it just so happens that the Holy Alliance will carry it out."

"Stop keeping me in suspense, what's the method?"

"I saw in the Holy See Gazette (internal reference publication) the day before yesterday that the airships have completed their mission of crossing the Dragon Sleep Mountains?"

After several months of design and construction, the prototype of the airship was completed at the beginning of the year.

We've been working on debugging for a while now, and we just finished the mission of crossing the Longmian Mountains last week.

After McGowan finished speaking, the officers present were all dumbfounded. Weren't they discussing the Herring Fortress issue? How did it get involved with the airships?

Before anyone else could react, Horn and Andrei simultaneously slapped their foreheads: "So that's how it is!"

How could they forget that the Holy Machine Court has such a great treasure!
Most importantly, this precious gem is currently in Norn, only a thousand kilometers away as the crow flies.

“A day and a half, or even just a day,” Andrei said first. “We can exchange the goods for soldiers, and once the city falls, we can immediately set off to transport some of the life-saving rations to the Pigeon Fortress!”

"Send an urgent report to the Holy Mechanism Court via the emergency channel and activate the airship." Horn made a decisive decision. "Target: Herring Fortress."

(End of this chapter)