Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

"You don't ask about the many married women in Longmen?"

"We're not familiar with each other..."

"Uh..." A very convincing reason.

"I heard you're planning your honeymoon in Syracuse? Why?"

"It's not a honeymoon, it's business—" The little tiger shook his long, honey-colored hair and listlessly stirred the coffee in his cup. "It's business, to see if Syracuse is likely to choose a neutral or friendly stance, and also about business cooperation..."

"What business opportunities are there in Syracuse?" This was also what Old Chen was curious about.

“It produces red wine, grapes, olives and wheat. It used to be the third largest grain exporter in Terra, and now it is the fourth largest. Of course, there is a great possibility of cooperation with the farms.”

The prospect of establishing a monopoly on grain production, distribution, processing, and trade was also very tempting for Syracuse.

Moreover, the relationship between Syracuse and Letania is... extremely bad, just how bad?

That is, the main body of the Syracuse, the Sicilians and the Letanians, were basically mortal enemies, and their greatest desire was to eliminate the other.

Syracuse: A city in Sicily, Italy, the birthplace of the Mafia. Its motto is: Morto Alla Francia, Italia Anela (Destroying France is Italy's desire) – an abbreviation of Mafia, which is the Mafia…

This would both block Theresis's retreat and restrain Letania, killing two birds with one stone. Syracuse, surrounded by Victoria, Kazdel, and Letania, would probably be very willing to have such an ally, even if it's just to boost their morale, it's much better than being all alone.

Meanwhile, Theresis began mobilizing and training the troops. "This won't do!"

Therese looked at the military strength chart and the ongoing exercise in front of him. The coordination between the troops from various tribes and nobles was basically zero, and their equipment was of varying quality.

Those enlightened nobles from the south were clearly opportunistic; they were doing business with New Kazdel while simultaneously sending people to Theresis. He knew these people were simply wavering, wanting a good price to sell themselves into servitude.

If the New Kazdel Republic agrees to retain their privileges, merely changing the titles and flags—the masters are still masters, and the commoners are still commoners—even if it means shedding a little blood and cutting off some flesh for the commoners to maintain social order, they will accept it.

The only difference is how much blood is drawn; they might bluff for a while, trying to minimize bleeding and maximize their gains.

But Theresis also understood that once the Yankees took over the Wild Horse Valley in the center, the Southern guys wouldn't be much more willing to resist when facing the Titan armor and that train.

They would immediately sell him out and switch allegiance to a new master. However, the Yankees didn't seem to be making any moves, so the southern cities were also somewhat wavering, which gave Therese an opportunity.

However, this also means that his forces are composed of three parts. The first part is his confidants, who believe that Theresis is the only one who can save Kazdel, who followed him in fighting the Queen, who followed him to Victoria, and who have now regrouped under his command.

These people are his most staunch supporters. As long as he doesn't do anything foolish, they are just like those people in the North; they are all idealists, only their ideals and methods of realization differ.

The second group consists of nobles and chiefs who have been driven to desperation by the Yankees. Their slaves are escaping, and the Yankees are now sending armored trains and paving machines to rapidly build motorized railways to pick up these runaway slaves.

Moreover, they do not recognize noble privileges, do not recognize the so-called chieftain and tribal system, and have even abolished most of the Sarkaz traditional customs, striving to create a brand new, integrated, and complete Sarkaz nation.

Instead of being called Sarkaz but being a loose group of dozens of tribes and seven or eight races.

These nobles might not want to support Theresis's ideals, but they were even less tolerant of the Yankees.

The last and largest group simply felt threatened by the Yankees, and their alliance with Theresis was partly due to the higher offer from the Yankees, while the Yankees, for some reason, did not offer a higher price. These people were pure opportunists.

These troops can be roughly divided into four categories and levels. The first level consists of troops brought by Theresis's confidants and a small number of staunch supporters, who are well-equipped.

They are basically equipped with Lateran firearms and smuggled Victorian muskets, and the team also has professional swordsmen and Sarkaz sorcerers. By Terran standards, their combat strength is that of an elite regular army.

The second tier consists of the troops of the die-hard supporters and the troops of the border nobles who were driven to the brink by Lao Xia and his group; these are considered regular troops.

Basically, it can ensure that most people have armor, vehicles, and standard equipment, so that they can at least cause some damage on the battlefield and put considerable pressure on the enemy.

Further down are the majority of Theresis's troops, composed of various conscripts, including cavalry sent by chieftains, hired Sarkaz mercenaries, and recruited wilderness bandits, etc., with a wide variety of equipment.

However, they still possess some combat capability, and can disrupt production and hinder supply lines by exploiting gaps in the enemy's defenses. They can also defeat small groups of troops by leveraging their numerical superiority.

Finally, there were the conscripts from Theresis, the conscripts from the south, the conscripts from the local chieftains, and so on.

Basically, they have no advantage other than numbers. If they can lock morale, they can effectively deplete the enemy's ammunition. If they cannot lock morale, they will effectively deplete their own scouts.

The only purpose of organizing them was to prevent these people from defecting to the North and becoming soldiers on the other side. Other than that, no one expected these units, which couldn't even muster a few crates of standard weapons, to fight.

If we only consider the equipment on paper and the elite troops on Theresis's side, it is not without fighting power. He has four Victoria-made land battleships, one flagship and three smaller gunboats.

Afterwards, they almost sold everything they owned to buy a batch of standard-issue equipment from Victoria and Rembiton, including trucks, light armored vehicles, fast-moving motorcycles, and heavy equipment such as Originium Artillery.

At the same time, Sarkaz's abundant warlock resources allowed him to train a warlock regiment comparable to an artillery regiment. However, their numbers were small, and they needed to be used with caution.

In addition, the cavalry force has about 15,000 men. If they can be commanded well, they will be a real threat to New Kazdel, which currently has a small number of men. Even with armored trains, they cannot protect all the production areas.

As for infantry, professional Sarkaz mercenaries are also very skilled in battle; they are even comparable to the troops under Old Xia's command.

After all, these people are veterans who have been honed on the battlefield for their employers in various countries.

If equipped with the same gear as Lao Xia and taking advantage of the terrain, even Da Die's shield guards might be defeated.

There are also a large number of auxiliary troops and vassal noble troops. They cannot be the main force, but they can still fight on the flanks and provide support.

However, all of this is on paper. Theresis's actual military strength is extremely limited, and its only chance is that Victoria would not want a powerful Kazdel bordering it, as do the Great Yan and Lungmen.

Letania did not want to see a powerful Sarkaz nation on its doorstep. Supporting the obviously weak Theresis to reduce Kazdel to ruins and completely extinguish the rise of the Sarkaz race was their greatest interest.

The Sarkaz regent needed to beg for help from another enemy at the cost of the complete annihilation of his entire tribe in order to continue the war. This made Theresis age considerably overnight. He didn't know how Theresia had managed to keep these countries from directly interfering.

Perhaps she saw the filth and undercurrents beneath the surface of these countries and chose to end the civil war with her own death, or at least end it superficially, thus completely cutting off the possibility of foreign intervention.

“The Tower of Babel…” Theresis slammed her fist on the table. These people didn’t care about the future of the Sarkaz. They needed the Sarkaz to do things, but they didn’t care that the country would be destroyed.

“It’s good to smash it up. Otherwise, a bunch of nobles, factory owners, and two-faced scoundrels can openly use the system of popular election to enter our decision-making level. What’s the difference between this new country we’ve built and the old one? It’s just a change of name but not substance. How can we renovate the house if we don’t smash the bottles and jars?” The doctor didn’t care about the consequences at all, which was also the biggest point of contention between him and Theresa.

"Moreover, it would be better to get rid of them all at once..." The doctor had no intention of offering a price to the South; what he wanted was to force this person to Theresis's side and then wipe them out completely.

However, in order not to provoke other nobles and capitalists in the world, he could not be too aggressive. This refusal to make an offer could be seen as a test to see who would make the offer first, so that he would have the initiative and avoid making enemies of the whole world.

The Doctor has always been adept at striking a balance between knowing when to use someone else's rules to restrict them and when to use his own rules to seek personal gain. This isn't the first time he's sold out both sides.

[PS]

Chapter 28... I'll write the adult version when I'm interested. Besides, even if I did, I wouldn't publish it... lol.

Chapter Thirty Syracuse

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

A few days later, "The Regent of Kazdel claimed that the establishment of the New Kazdel Republic did not conform to the norms of the Terran international community, refused to recognize it as a legitimate government, and called it a usurper. The Republic has not responded to this. Does this express a certain political attitude? Let's hear what the experts have to say..."

"A spokesperson for Qazimir called on both sides to exercise restraint and calm, and expressed support for Kazdel's new exploration of political and national systems..." This is the content of Qazimir's joint press release.

"The Ursus royal family is attending the inauguration ceremony of the 'Great Gler' power plant today. This power plant, invested and built by Titan Industries, is said to reduce Originium consumption by 40% compared to conventional Originium power plants. Its byproducts will provide heating for millions of residents of Saint-Germain, making this winter potentially exceptionally warm. Next, we will hear a speech from His Majesty the Emperor..." [Gler means "city"]

"Due to a large number of Sarkaz refugees crossing the border, Letania has issued an emergency mobilization order, with more than 2.5 Guards members gathering toward the border."

The Royal Guard is the close-combat unit of Terra's army. Since firearms are monopolized by Laterano, ground battles, except for the armored fleet, are mostly conducted at close to medium range. The Royal Guard is the basic combat unit that focuses on close-combat.

It refers to a branch of the military, similar to infantry or armored forces, rather than a specific organizational structure.

Similarly, there are vanguard units that emphasize mobility and are mainly used for boarding operations of armored fleets and engineering tasks, so that follow-up units can be deployed and deployed for combat.

There's not much difference between armored troops and tanks; they mainly consist of vehicles and armored vehicles, and are also equipped with heavy equipment, etc.

As for special forces, it doesn't refer to the Earthly meaning, but rather to special units that do not have normal functions, such as units responsible for firefighting and countering biological and chemical attacks.

The presence of 2.5 Royal Guards signifies that Letania is serious. Typically, a Royal Guard of this size would not be able to launch a solo attack; at least 3000 to 6000 vanguard troops would arrive at the border before the main force to establish deployment camps and defensive positions.

Next, armored and heavy defense units will be deployed. According to Terra's military theory, Letania will eventually increase its troop presence on the border to around 6.

If logistical support is included, the total mobilization of special operations forces would exceed 20.

"Is it really that bad?" Swire sat on the edge of the bed with a cookie in her mouth. The Lytonia spokesperson on the screen looked visibly haggard. What's worse than having a nasty neighbor next door?

The answer is that you have two bad neighbors, and they seem to be teaming up. One of them is fighting at home, and bottles and cans are flying out and hitting your window, but you don't dare to go to their house and smash their door.

For Letania, like Victoria and Kazimierz, the threat from the Middle Wasteland must be dealt with. Although the bandit groups are usually small in size and number, they might find some great treasures in the ruins. Therefore... they must fight on two fronts.

For the nations of Terra, the various ruins and wastelands scattered across the land are also a huge source of threat. They contain all sorts of things: mutants like Nightmares, mutated monsters like Crystal Crabs, and bizarre mutated Originium Worms everywhere. There are even wriggling plants that grow to the size of small houses.

Marna was in a sorry state as he traversed the wasteland, although most of these monsters did not leave the ruins, as if they were restricted by something.

However, the small-scale attacks still require the three neighboring countries to maintain a sizable standing army for defense.

It's like Ursus had to maintain a long-term defense against the demons, and Iberia was forced by the Sea Heirs to build an invincible fleet to sweep through the ocean. In short, Terra is a complete tragedy.

“Yes!” Old Xia said, leaning over and taking a bite out of the outer half of the biscuit. “Stay away from me!” Swire pushed the guy and then shrank back a bit.

“That’s not what you said last night…”

"Get out!" A concise and powerful reply.

“If the Kazdel civil war breaks out, more refugees will flock to the border. They can’t possibly cross the war to come to our side, and these people will become a huge social crisis for Letania. The Sarkaz are naturally susceptible to infection; they can easily become infected, and they also produce a lot of warlocks.” Old Xia put on a serious expression, while Swire was not so nervous and also showed a thoughtful look.

"They not only have to guard against the entry of refugees, but also against Theresis, or us simply taking the battlefield into their territory."

That would be incredibly frustrating for Letania, comparable to North and South Korea fighting each other and then both crossing the border into Chinese or Russian territory to fight.

"So Syracuse doesn't seem to be reacting?"

"Because they have already made a choice, and the geographical environment is also different."

Syracuse is located at the tip of Victoria Bay, a long and narrow bay bordered by Victoria to the left, Iberia to the right, and Syracuse at the tip. Syracuse's overall topography is more like a piece of land protruding from this triangular bay, much like a peninsula.

For them, of course, there was no need to react much to this, and the choice was also very simple: choosing Theresis would not bring any benefits to the Syracuses. Theresis was too close, and it was hard to avoid the kind of behavior that would betray their allies, such as "If I can't beat the Doctor, can't I beat you?"

New Kazdel is far away, and the strategy of befriending distant states while attacking nearby ones is not a sophisticated political tactic or skill.

Especially when the distant ally is extremely powerful, Syracuse's choice becomes much easier.

"Relatively speaking, Letania's geographical location is not so easy to choose. We are to its northeast, and Theresis is to its southeast. Choosing either one could result in being attacked by the other as an enemy."

Therefore, unless they are truly prepared to fully engage in the Kazdel civil war, their only option is to garrison troops on the border; they choose neither.

Moreover, for Letania, either victory would be a threat, and choosing neither would make things worse, or rather, they were already destined to be enemies, so there was no need to pretend to be friends.

“That’s why we came to Syracuse. I thought it was purely a business matter. I hate politics the most.” Swire just doesn’t like that kind of thing, which is why he’s not very enthusiastic about inheriting the family business.

"What if they really get involved?" Little Tiger was a little worried; she knew it was a possibility, for Letania.

With Kazdel weakened by the civil war, eliminating this threat in one fell swoop is a perfectly worthwhile deal.

"Yes, the doctor did mention this possibility. His opinion is similar to mine: whether you're herding one sheep or two, it's still the same. It's better to finish it off in one go than to drag things out for decades."

This is also why the Republic of Kazdel has never tried to recruit defectors or announced any plans to launch an offensive to the south; the former would certainly have greatly accelerated the process of unification.

Even if Theresis collapses overnight, it will create a whole host of internal problems for itself.

Internal problems cannot be solved with swords, but if we do not recruit them, then as an external military problem, we can raise the sword and exterminate them all. This is to show respect to our greatest enemy.

The fact that they didn't launch an attack was also a preparation for this complete annihilation. Killing them all was easy; the real problem was who would take their place afterward. The illiteracy rate in Sarkaz was simply appalling.

Moreover, even if you cultivate your own talent, you cannot guarantee that there will be no factions, cliques, or corruption and degeneration along the way.