Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 625 "The Mess"

As night fell, Vaughn hurried into the command post with a stack of battle reports in his hand. He saluted Commander Pierce with a fist salute, "General, these are battle reports from the front. A copy has been sent back to the capital and delivered to His Majesty."

Pierce nodded, took the document, and began to examine it carefully... The air force had already returned to the Hope Hill County base by evening, and the artillery positions set up more than 30 miles away from Goreth had just finished bombing.

After six hours of continuous bombardment, the fifty new magic-powered cannons consumed nearly 20,000 shells transported to the front lines, making them a veritable military spending shredder in this battle... In fact, if continuous firing hadn't caused the cannon barrels to overheat, and the artillery positions hadn't adopted a compromise of alternating firing, the amount of ammunition consumed would probably have been even higher.

As for the number of casualties, it was completely negligible—it was expected that there would be no casualties among the ground troops, and the air combat mages who carried out the bombing mission were also quite cautious. During the entire operation, only two fast airships failed to gain altitude in time due to improper operation, which led to them being pursued and entangled by the winged beings... Fortunately, the high-level spellcasters in the team intervened in time and rescued the pilots before the airships crashed.

"The results of the battle are impossible to count..." Vaughn scratched his head in frustration. "Countless demon lizardmen were killed in the Holy City, not to mention the reinforcements who were buried alive after the complete collapse of the Saint's Rift. Our reconnaissance airships only dared to observe from a distance and had no way to observe and calculate up close."

Moreover, both men were well aware that a large portion of these casualties likely came from the Church. Based on intelligence obtained from the Church, they knew that at least ten thousand Church Inquisition soldiers and ordinary believers remained in the city before the bombing began. According to reports from the returning reconnaissance airships, after the indiscriminate bombing blocked their only escape route south, over a thousand people died in the stampede at the city gate ruins.

Many were also killed by the fleeing Lizardmen. With both sides cut off from retreat by the Northern Army, the vast city of Goris became a living prison for trapped beasts, a real hell amidst blood and fire...

Many winged beings managed to escape the Holy City, but soon ran out of energy from the black water and red light, and were unable to obtain supplies from the nearby floating island fortress, so they chose to land on the ground to hide temporarily... This was exactly what the special forces team that had been lying in ambush had planned. With the combined use of explosive guns and sniper rifles, it was only a matter of time before they were wiped out.

“There are also large numbers of Lizardmen ground troops who didn’t have time to enter the Holy City. After the Holy City was bombed continuously, they chose to turn around and flee to the north.” Vaughn explained, pointing to the map spread out on the table. “We suspect that the river with abundant water flow to the north of the Holy City may be a branch of an underground river. Although it cannot allow the enemy’s floating islands to pass through directly, it can transport troops without hindrance.”

Pierce hummed in agreement and casually asked, "Just send someone to blow up and cut off the upstream section of the river. These guys won't have it so easy to climb out of the abyss with their bare hands once they're out of the water."

Vaughn nodded in agreement and promptly turned to make the arrangements.

……

Harvey also received the battle report from the front at almost the same time. After quickly glancing at it, he summoned Reiner and Asdaren.

"Hiss—20,000 cannonballs, Your Majesty. If I remember correctly, this has almost requisitioned all the cannonball reserves of Silverpine City and Golden Radiance City, and another 10,000 have been urgently transferred from the capital... Teleportation arrays, transport airships, and ironclad ships are being used to transport them in turn. It's simply a bottomless pit of military expenditure."

Reiner meticulously calculated on his fingers, his words conveying a deep sense of anguish—a long-range firepower strike beyond everyone's comprehension, coupled with lightning-fast air raids… the costs and resources required were equally unexpected. Reiner, who managed the kingdom's purse strings for Harvey, naturally understood the implications. The military operation had indeed plugged this unexpected defensive loophole, but other than that, it yielded no other benefits.

The holy city of Goris is now reduced to ruins, and the entire city has completely lost all its value... Tens of thousands of people, the vast wealth accumulated by the church, a large number of rare collections and magical materials, some of which were definitely taken away by the evacuating moderates, and the rest were either destroyed by bombing and fire, or completely buried in the collapsed gap of the saints, along with the demon lizardmen who invaded the city.

Even Asdaren couldn't help but suggest to Harvey, "I think after this operation to rescue the Holy City is over, we should forcefully demand a war reparations from the remaining remnants of the Church in order to completely make up for our military expenditure losses."

Harvey shrugged noncommittally. "We can have the intelligence officer in charge of liaising with them keep in touch with those remaining high-ranking church officials. I believe that if they have no other choice... they will choose to cooperate unconditionally."

"No way out?" Reiner paused for a moment, then exclaimed, "Your Majesty, you intend to stop their southward evacuation?"

Harvey chuckled and slowly explained, "Why would I need to stop them? They were already desperate... More than 10,000 ordinary believers, a Judgment Army composed of thousands of bloodline knights, and a large number of church priests and high priests, if they don't disperse and seek their own places, any kingdom in the Southern Territory will regard them as a major threat."

Orland was a strong supporter of the magical capital of Alaye, so naturally he would not defect to take over the exiled papacy. Eisengard, which originally had the deepest religious foundation, now had nearly half of its territory lost and was ravaged by foreign races. The royal family of the Duchy of Barkley, which was originally the largest in the central South, suddenly preferred to befriend Saint Valentine and no longer regarded them as political allies...

If they were to go to the more distant Pharos or Iruvia, probably less than 30% of the believers would be able to stay and follow the church to the destination. The vast majority would flee halfway due to the hardships of the journey or lack of food and clothing, and some would even gather together to become small groups of rioters who would harass the surrounding areas.

It's not an exaggeration to say they were desperate.

Asdaren seemed to have guessed Harvey's thoughts, and after a moment of contemplation, said, "Your Majesty has already thought of a place for them? Forgive my bluntness, but believers who have been thoroughly brainwashed by the Church are not worth accepting and absorbing... They are even more difficult to convert than those illiterate poor people."

Harvey raised an eyebrow and said, "Who said I intended to take them in? My real plan is... to block all their escape routes to the south, and then force them to return to the Holy City of Goris to guard the blocked gaps in the saints' territory for me, just in case!"

Harvey had no intention of cleaning up this complete mess for the church.

(End of this chapter)