Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

The result of surrendering or fleeing was nothing more than being executed, and all the wives, children, brothers, and sisters left behind by the nobles being executed or enslaved.

Therefore, if their lord dies, these guards would rather commit suicide than surrender—unless a few are truly willing to die.

However, unless absolutely necessary, no nobleman would deploy these private armies to the battlefield, because they are extremely expensive. If they are lost in battle, their military strength will visibly diminish, rendering them unable to protect their interests.

So unless they are besieged in their own castle or their own home, these private armies will not be easily dispatched.

In contrast, the neighboring army, composed of rogues and vagrants, was sufficient to handle daily combat and suppression needs, while the conscripts recruited from farmers were used as cannon fodder without any regard for their welfare.

Therefore, apart from the city lord's own family and some private armies affiliated with him, the other noble private armies persisted in fighting at the lord's request and were extremely difficult to deal with.

The only way to get them to lay down their arms is for their lord to surrender. Of course, the nobles are not necessarily incapable of surrendering; as long as Kazdel guarantees their interests and safety and agrees on a ransom, then surrender is entirely possible.

After a night of fierce fighting, Kazdel's flag was finally raised over the main building in the core city, signifying that the mobile city had been captured by Kazdel. The supply and logistics troops that followed quickly began treating the wounded, replenishing ammunition, and providing food.

Tons of starch were sent to the city's storage area, and Letania's inventory was sealed off, awaiting inventory before relief was distributed.

The rumbling wheels and tracks rolled across Grand Boulevard, the buildings on both sides filled with citizens with conflicted expressions, some standing openly on balconies, others hiding behind curtains, nervously watching these new conquerors or future rulers.

"This is the Sarkaz army, completely different from what's in the news..." In official propaganda, the Sarkaz are portrayed as an army of thieves, bandits, and mobs, dressed in filthy robes, wielding scimitars and crossbows, plundering everywhere.

In reality, the group entering the city appeared to be a regular army with standard equipment. Perhaps their uniforms were not as glamorous or handsome as those of Letania, but the uniforms made of durable and sturdy fabric were clearly those of a regular army.

The weapons were quite varied, mainly because the transition between several types of firearms left the army with no time to complete the complete re-equipment. Fortunately, apart from the assault rifle, the remaining ammunition all used the same standard turret barrel, with different shapes and performance, which did not affect logistical supply issues.

"They also have vehicles, tanks, and flying gunboats." The grand entry ceremony effectively quelled the local resistance; it wasn't appeasement, but pure intimidation.

After all, unless the other party is acting perversely, few ordinary people would risk their lives to resist, especially when the cost of resistance is too high and the chances are too small.

Of course, there were also times when, at the beginning of the entry into the city, the officers repeatedly issued orders and the logistics were sufficient to maintain military discipline, and the emotions of the people in the occupied areas were barely kept stable.

However, as the war progressed and the occupiers gradually became lax, discipline deteriorated rapidly to the extreme. Frenzied looting and requisitioning of supplies made life unbearable for the people in the occupied areas. Eventually, small acts of resistance turned into a city-wide uprising.

For example, the German army's entry into Paris is a typical example. For the first two days, they pretended to maintain order and discipline, but after that, logistics became strained and German supplies began to run out, and everyone knows what happened.

The Japanese army's time was even shorter; they couldn't even maintain it for the first two days, and could only barely put on a show for the first few hours of the first day.

Terra followed this pattern, so its good performance in the first two days did not make the people in the occupied areas lower their guard.

If this period can be maintained for more than six months, then the wave of resistance will begin to gradually subside.

However, in a normal war, who the hell would invest so much manpower and resources in such a thankless task—am I here to fight a war or to help the poor?

However, the rolling steel and the war knights flying overhead at the beginning of the city entry ceremony effectively made the locals consider the cost and success rate of resistance.

However, this is the only city in Letania that has been occupied. The Doctor and his team have no intention of turning the war of resistance against aggression into a new war of aggression. Even though Kazdel has nominally declared war on three countries, in reality, it is only fighting one country and is under less pressure than anyone else, so war-weariness is high.

After all, war means death. Sarkaz already had a small population, and the influx of refugees brought security and resource distribution problems. In addition, the war supplies they had previously stockpiled were almost depleted. It would be best to end the war as soon as possible.

If a new war of aggression were to break out, the consequences would be enormous. At the very least, these Sarkaz, who had only been transferred to the regular army a few years ago, would be able to command their troops with ease when defending their homeland, and would only have minor complaints about reduced treatment, which they could tolerate.

However, once it turns into a war of aggression and loses its legitimacy, it's hard to say whether morale can be maintained.

Therefore, this Leitanian border city was the first and last Leitanian territory to be captured.

Force the other party to sit back at the negotiating table and stop making those unrealistic and strange demands.

Of course, if the other side really insists on fighting on, then the Doctor has no choice but to play along.

Chapter Seventy: The Southern Campaign Ends

Chapter 70

It was the same hall, the same council chamber of Victoria, and the same suffocating flags.

No, it was even more suffocating, because the other side had also brazenly raised the flag of the Principality of Kosiche.

In Terra, where many nobles and feudal customs are still preserved, it is very common for the leaders or lords of two countries to be the same person, and even nobles from different countries to hold territories in common.

On Earth, this is roughly equivalent to the relationship between the King of England and the Grand Duke of Normandy in France.

Therefore, it seems that there is nothing wrong with Grand Duke Kosiché being a high-ranking official in Kazdel, at least legally and traditionally.

Compared to Talulah's ever-impressive demeanor, Duke Letania on the other side looked rather dejected.

After all, his territory was on the border. Since Talulah had suppressed him with a high-ranking noble last time, Letania had learned its lesson and brought in a marginal person with at least a similar rank.

"Regarding the conditions you proposed last time, we accept part of them in principle, but there are still some that we need to..."

"Wait a minute, the conditions from last time are no longer suitable for the current situation. This is our requirement this time."

Talulah presented a thin sheet of paper with demands that went further than before. It not only required Letania to recognize the neutralization of the areas occupied by Kazdel, turning them into a new buffer zone between the two sides, but also to recognize the restoration and independence of Gaul.

In other words, with a single stroke, more than one-third of Letania's territory was ceded to them. Anyone who dared to take this demand back would be hanged by the enraged Letanian people.

Not only that, but they also demanded that Letania relinquish all the territory occupied by the Principality of Kosice. In other words, even if they won the battle on the northern front, it would be a wasted effort.

As for the compensation amount, it naturally doubled, and more unilateral exploitation clauses were added.

However, the previous condition of turning Letania into a colony was not mentioned again, which in a sense shows a bit more sincerity.

“We cannot accept such a request. Gaul has been extinct for over a century, and the Gauls and Letanians are no different from each other. As for the northern territories, Lady Talulah, you should wait until you inherit the title of Duke before asking for them.”

Unlike last time, the other party did not storm out in anger. Instead, they argued their case rationally. This action caused Talulah and her assistant to exchange a glance. It seemed that Letania really couldn't hold on any longer this time and had no choice but to compromise.

However, my conditions directly crossed their bottom line, so even though they were unwilling to accept them, they could only try their best to negotiate.

"Your Excellency says that the Gauls and the Letanians are no different, but the information we have received is not so..." Talu clasped his hands, and his assistant showed a series of photos.

"As far as I know, Letania levies high additional poll taxes and patriot taxes on the Gauls, and most of the Gallic legions have been drawn to the north to fight Ursus without supplies. By the way, you conscript large numbers of young Gallic men to the front lines and then try to wear them down."

"Furthermore, the rations, treatment, and weaponry are completely different from what you described, not to mention the numerous concentration camps in the rear specifically for the Gauls. If the Gauls are also your citizens and there is no difference between them, then why do you do this?"

Everyone knows about this, so no one is surprised where Talulah got the information. In fact, if she hadn't brought it up, both sides would have assumed that she was holding onto this information and waiting to do something big.

"You only mentioned the treatment of the Gauls, but not what they did before that, right?" The other party remained calm, knowing from the contingency plan that the other party would definitely bring this up.

“The Gallic rebels are becoming increasingly rampant, with large numbers of Gauls providing them with funding and manpower. We must suppress them. If the Sarkaz Zionist movement were to rise one day, wouldn’t you do the same?”

"No," Talulah said noncommittally. She wasn't afraid of Letania coming up with such a bad idea. What would be the point of inciting a small group of former nobles and upper-class Sarkaz who had lost their interests?

"We can make some concessions on compensation in response to your demands, but we cannot accept the other parts."

Are you kidding me? If we were to cede a third of our territory at once and give up our rights in the north, what would become of Letania?

However, this time, Kazdel did set a bottom line for negotiations. He would try to achieve a deal in Gaul, preserving as much strength as possible for the Gallic rebels. But his demands regarding the north were simply outrageous; his real aim was a border buffer zone.

If Letania agrees to designate the border city and its surrounding area as a neutral buffer zone, the negotiations will be halfway done. The rest will involve some details such as reparations and penalties for defeat.

These defeated men should have been dealt with. However, Letania insisted on not handing them over to Kazdel for trial, but rather conducting the trial itself. The two sides argued about this for two days, and the legions that had been gathering on the border began to move into Letania again. Finally, Letania relented.

Both sides made concessions, forming a joint court in Lateran to conduct war crimes trials with personnel selected from the four nations, while Letania naturally left the entire crime to the generals.

For Lao Xia and the Doctor, they had no intention of driving the Letanians to the brink of destruction. Holders of the nation rarely seek quick revenge; their swift retribution comes at the cost of the lives and livelihoods of millions.

The quickest agreement was reached regarding the trial and reparations. Letania refused to mortgage customs duties but agreed to use the rights to cultivate and mine some of the occupied northern Kosichean Duchy as collateral to borrow money from Laterano and Victoria as reparations. Of course, Kazdel also offered a lease.

After another day of arguing, and with the border province of Letania facing three crises in a row, it was finally agreed that Kazdel would lease approximately 1.1 square kilometers of land in the Principality of Kosice to Kazdel for a symbolic price of one Leyen per square kilometer per year for 70 years.

However, the rights to conscript soldiers and levy taxes were retained, and Kazdel's settlers and individuals would continue to pay Letania's taxes as usual.

Meanwhile, residents who do not hold Leitanian citizenship are exempt from conscription obligations, but they need to pay a small amount of money as compensation. The same applies to employed Leitanian laborers, but the compensation is more substantial.

The original plan was to lease the property for 99 years, but the other party firmly disagreed, so in the end we had to compromise and lease it for 70 years.

However, it's more than enough time. Seventy years is enough to build a major north-south railway, which might be a good thing for the Letanians—although they now think the Kazdel people will definitely do everything they can to exploit them during those seventy years.

This essentially left the post-war security issues in the occupied territories to Kazdel, and then Letania would enter as the savior 70 years later.

Therefore, the other party is probably secretly pleased that this Grand Duchess Talulah still has the habits of Ursus, and is too greedy for land to see the ways of the world.

However, they didn't know what the Doctor and his group's purpose was. 70 years? At most another 10 years, this road would be completed, and the allied forces of the Kazdel Legion, the Ursus Legion, and the Yan Kingdom troops they had won over would step into the territory of the demons.

If all goes well, the antenna will be repaired in 15 years, assuming the polar aerospace industry remains intact. The biggest damage to Lao Xia's antenna is the approximately 1.2-meter-long gravitational wave oscillation string running through the center, something the Terran ancestors possessed.

However, the gain group and the superfilm signal amplification group above are missing. Nevertheless, these parts are intact. The debris mainly severed the gravitational wave excitation source near the base. Unfortunately, Terra and Xia's industrial capabilities were simply insufficient to complete the casting of this object, or rather, the quality was almost completely substandard.

However, the polar base is different. It has Terra's largest gravitational wave broadcast antenna. All that's needed is to find a way to install the remaining components, and then, using Terra's gravitational wave broadcast as the excitation source, Old Xia's supermembrane signal can be transmitted.

Based on current calculations, this duration is only enough for it to send an SOS signal; it cannot be used for long-term location tracking, but having such a signal is sufficient.

If things don't go smoothly, 20 years from now, using the polar industrial system, we will launch the first batch of spacecraft, followed by the second batch, sending as many personnel and supplies as possible into the Starship.

As for how many of Terra's spheres can survive, that's beyond the Doctor's consideration.

In 40 to 50 years at most, the starship that has completed the installation of the warp drive will begin to warp towards the nearest star system. During the nearly 100-year warp period, everyone will go into hibernation, which is much more reliable than the previous sub-light-speed journeys that often took dozens of centuries.

As for what will happen to the remaining people of Terra, that depends on when the Sun King erupts. In any case, they won't even need those 70 years before they happily perish.

The two sides argued for a long time over the buffer zone. Finally, faced with the reality that if they did not accept the conditions, the entire province would become a buffer zone, Letania finally gave in. With the main objectives basically achieved, the remaining details were just tedious wrap-up work.

Victoria finally breathed a sigh of relief. Neither the restoration of Gaul nor the defeat of Letania would be good for Victoria. Now, Letania had retained some of the war gains and had extricated itself from the quagmire on the southern front, which was entirely in Victoria's interest.

As for the restoration of Gaul, none of the three parties brought it up again, seemingly choosing to shelve the dispute, which might be very unfair to the Gauls. However, it's clear that the Kazdel people had no obligation to risk their own lives for their independence, right?

At the border, the Kazdel Legion began to retreat in succession, with one temporary legion after another disbanding, handing over their weapons, and returning home.

Meanwhile, the standing army used the occupied cities of Grand as a base to build a new border defense line and awaited the announcement of a peace agreement between the two sides before rewarding those who had contributed to the victory.

Compared to the jubilation and eagerness to return to Kazdel, the Letanians, having their last fig leaf and dignity torn away, were left with widespread despair. The patriotic fervor, already waning due to war profits, propaganda, and nationalism, was further extinguished by these conditions, plummeting to rock bottom.

Countless Letanians chose to numb themselves with alcohol or something else. The protracted war had exhausted their last bit of enthusiasm and energy. What sustained them was only their sense of superiority over the Sarkaz barbarians and the profits they had seized, but now neither of those remained.

The fig leaf and glory of Terra's old empire were ripped off and thrown to the ground, leaving only a devastated reality, a rusty city, and desolate streets. This made the Letanians feel as if they had been abruptly awakened from a long dream, feeling the cold wind under the night sky, and looking at their dilapidated houses and thin bedding.

“These Letanians are in for a good time…” Overlooking Grand City, the Letanians in the occupied territories were in a frenzy even faster than the Sarkaz. They dug out the last can of beer from the ruins, then used alcohol to embolden and numb themselves, and occasionally clashed with the patrolling Sarkaz.

Of course, this is considered restrained, since only truly drunk "warriors" would dare to do this; most people can only lament in their own houses and curse these intruders.

However, the next day they still had to obediently go to the distribution point in front of the city hall to queue up and receive bread and necessary supplies from these Sarkaz people.

To be fair, for most of the lower classes in Letania, there was almost no difference in their lives before and after the occupation. If anything, since the occupying forces did not embezzle rations and maintained order in the city, they actually lived a slightly more relaxed and comfortable life.

The current uproar is merely the last remaining spark of their patriotism and national pride burning within them. Once all of that is burned away, they will quiet down under the pressure of harsh realities.

If this is the case in places like Grand City where supplies are still sufficient, then it's hard to say when the local people in places like Letania, which lack supplies and even those supplies are being siphoned off at every level, will be able to calm down. And even if they are calmed down, what then? For at least forty or fifty years, or two generations, no one will be able to turn them into an army again.

Unless there is massive external support or someone presents a higher level of empathy, these Letanians cannot be mobilized again. However, given the current level of competence among these aristocratic politicians, no one believes they are capable of doing so.

Nobody likes war, not even the Sarkaz, who are portrayed as militaristic and avaricious. They just don't have any other means of making a living besides fighting.

Apart from those that were converted into regular troops, the remaining temporary forces were gradually disbanded and reorganized, and those with families returned home.

For those without homes to settle down, whether it's in acquired concessions, reclaimed border regions, or the border territories of Letania serving as a buffer zone, a large labor force and pioneers are needed.

"Farewell, old buddy!" Chloe placed the rifle in his hand into the weapon cabinet. Every part was cleaned and polished until it shone, and gun oil was applied for protection. His personal belongings in the armor cabinet next to him had been packed up. Finally, he took a photo pasted on the cabinet door, kissed it, and put it in his jacket pocket.