The Villain Saint is my secondary account

Holman pointed to the plumes of smoke rising in the distance, "But the commander of the entire army should be someone else. The enemy has a thorough understanding of the terrain of the Kingdom of Doum and the Western Frontier. We have tried several times to avoid a direct confrontation and to intercept them from the flank, but we have failed."

"Ah."

Ye Xiao stroked his chin. "Have you found out where the supply points for these steam tanks and airships are located? The battle line that stretches across almost half the continent from the Duchy of Tedeh should have hubs for transporting and stockpiling magic crystals."

"According to the information provided by the scouts from other worlds, the core hub of the supply network covering the western frontier should now be located in the occupied western city of Strøms, about 120 miles from here."

"Every ten to twenty miles along the route, several temporary supply points will be set up in villages and towns,"

He sighed, “I tried sending light troops to cut them off, but the enemy’s defenses were quite tight. Each supply point had several outposts, and their troops were highly mobile and could return to their posts very quickly. There were also fake supply points set up as traps, which made little difference to the results.”

"Most importantly, as long as we don't take Strøm, even if we destroy a few camps, the impact on their overall army will be very limited. Their warships will bombard us once and then return to Strøm to repair and resupply, and they will be back in full force to attack again in a couple of days."

Holman's tone was somewhat helpless, "Forgive my ignorance, but I have never seen such an army and tactics before. If it weren't for the giant magic cannon in the fortress, Sandbar Fortress would probably have been lost by me."

"Their army's behind-the-scenes commander is elusive, and his exact location is still unknown. Furthermore, the way they mobilize and transmit orders is extremely secretive. Even after the small team that infiltrated the rear circulated through several cities, they were unable to gather any intelligence."

“This is not your fault, Mr. Holman.”

Ye Xiao patted the commander on the shoulder with an air of maturity, but he was deep in thought.

The tactics of the steam legion of the Duchy of Tedeh are far too sophisticated. These troops, which should not exist in this era, are seeing battle for the first time. Why is the enemy commander so familiar with this way of fighting?

With a slight thought, he opened the system panel and logged into the player forum.

Now, this place is in complete chaos. Ever since the civil war in the imperial city, Ye Xiao has instructed Skadi to vigorously develop talent from among the players. The company seems to have sensed something and has begun to have its forces recruit players.

This also led to heated arguments among players on the forums after Tedeh and Loren went to war.

Some say that the Holy Maiden of Light is an evil god, and that the Loren Empire has fallen under the control of the evil god's forces and urgently needs the Duchy of Tedeh to save it. This is the company's position.

There are also those who firmly support the Saintess and criticize players like Tedeh as utter bullshit, accusing them of being bastards who took advantage of the widespread debuffs suffered by Loren players after the civil war in the Imperial City to act as lackeys for the natives of the other world and wage war of aggression.

Of course, there are also various neutral parties: "We players should unite, protect ourselves, and not get involved in this kind of conflict. That saintess is indeed a bit strange, but I don't think Tedeh is a good person either."

Radicals: "It's only a matter of time before a feudal tyrant like Loren is defeated."

Conservative: "Do you really think that noble parliamentary system in the duchy is a good thing? It would be best if both sides were wiped out. Blood is flowing, and no one should be left alive."

Evolutionary theory supporters: "The weak deserve to be oppressed. Who told you to be so unlucky to be born in Loren?"

Evolutionary Theory Executor: "It's really stupid that the comments don't show the rank. If you're so capable, tell me where you live, and I'll take an airship there to see how strong you are."

Summer Job Opening: "Goblin clearing in Crane Town, Duchy of Tedhe. Experienced players and above are welcome. Room and board provided. 300 gold coins per job."

A victim of the scam said: "Damn it, never accept any missions issued by the Tedeh region. He told me that he could earn 300 gold coins for one mission. I believed him and got on the carriage. When I woke up, I found myself in the Western Frontier of Loren."

……

Looking at the various posts, Ye Xiao felt overwhelmed.

However, that's how players are; unless there's a real cataclysmic crisis forcing everyone to unite, they generally have their own ideas and opinions.

Of course, there are definitely company trolls stirring things up. They can just find a few player guilds and give them some gold coins. There are plenty of people who would be willing to do this kind of work, which is to earn money by simply typing on a forum, without having to go out and take on adventure quests and fight to the death.

As for whether it's right or wrong, that's actually the least important thing.

This also shows that the company has indeed taken advantage of the Tedeh Duchy's name to openly pursue a strategy of developing players, which is exactly the same as Ella's approach of recruiting players under the name of the Loren Empire.

Therefore, Ye Xiao has begun to determine that the commander of Tedeh's army is probably also a player.

Furthermore, Holman's description of the opponent's tactics was very similar to the style of a famous commanding player from his previous life.

He was originally a member of the rebel army that was fighting against the world-destroying witch Ella, and he was also on the recruitment list that Ye Xiao handed to Skadi.

At that time, the other party was Ye Xiao's superior in the legion, and it was that player who led the sub-legion to break out of the northern border, defeat the demon general Holman's multiple sieges in the western frontier, and finally kill Holman to take back the western part of the Loren Empire from the world-destroying witch.

Because of his unique achievements, he was later hailed by players as the "Desert Fox".

Chapter Twenty: The Cryptography War

Is it a coincidence of fate, or a deliberate act by the company behind the scenes? Unexpectedly, in this life, Holman's nemesis once again stands opposite him.

Ye Xiao felt a pang of emotion. He had once been a lowly soldier under the enemy's command, but now, times had changed, and he had become their adversary.

Fortunately, it was that player, and Ye Xiao, having received intelligence from the previous encounter, was quite familiar with his tactical deployment style.

He was browsing the player forums not to express his feelings, but to find a post that could verify his conjecture.

Sure enough, he soon found a very unusual post at the bottom of the forum.

It was a seemingly meaningless sequence of letters. The poster was an anonymous player, and the comments section was empty, with no replies or comments.

But the moment Ye Xiao saw the post, he knew that this was exactly what he was looking for.

Intelligence systems became especially important in the later stages of the war between the players and the Doomsday Witch in the previous life, as the battle lines stretched and the situation became more complex.

Although the situation wasn't as polarized as it is in this lifetime, even back then, not all players belonged to the rebel army.

In fact, a large number of players bewitched by the witch are lurking in the rebel army. They will reveal the deployment of the rebel army, the movements of key leaders and top combat forces... Even in the final stage, the rebel army is still overwhelmed by various spies planted in the army by the world-destroying witch.

The same situation was playing out on the battlefield between the Loren Empire and the Duchy of Tedeh.

Nowadays, everyone is aware of the convenience of players transmitting messages through social systems, while the Loren Empire and the Duchy of Tedeh also send players behind enemy lines to infiltrate intelligence units and intercept messages.

Although messages sent to friends via the system are one-to-one, on the battlefield, player groups are often divided into squads or guilds to act collectively. This means that if a spy is present in such a group, they can reveal the entire team's movements.

On the other hand, unless they are in the main city, players cannot "connect" with the system to receive private messages.

But there aren't that many main cities on the battlefield. If you have to deliberately return to the main city to send and receive messages every time, in areas like the Western Frontier where there are large deserts, the efficiency of players sending messages won't be much higher than that of carrier pigeons.

Therefore, the divine realm that Ella can use to synchronize messages is a terrifying existence that is a dimensional reduction attack for large-scale army operations. In the previous life, the rebel army was once brought to the brink of collapse by this kind of battle situation where their own intelligence was leaked like a sieve, but the enemy could synchronize various messages in real time.

However, players always have their own ways of coping. Since the 2.0 update, although players cannot chat privately outside the main city, they can still view forum posts by paying universal points in small towns or villages.

Although it cannot send messages, this viewing function is more than sufficient for transmitting intelligence in real time. Through player commands and reception, messages issued from a main city can quickly reach all battlefields on the front lines.

The problem is that the post is public; players on your own team can see it, but players on the opposing team can also see it. It seems a bit foolish to broadcast your own team's important information to everyone so openly.

This also gave rise to encrypted intelligence. While it can be publicly sent on forums, the drawback is eliminated if only players on the same team know how to decipher its contents.

This was something that should have evolved over a long period of time during the war in the previous life, but when Ye Xiao saw that string of meaningless letters, he realized that this thing had indeed come out ahead of schedule.

This is why Holman always felt that the opponent's army was quite flexible in its movements, and that no matter how he deployed his troops, he could hardly find any weaknesses in the opponent's defenses.

One side was still using messengers, while the other side was using a means of transmission equivalent to radio, making their military operations on completely different levels in terms of agility.

The Empire has very limited manpower to send players behind enemy lines as spies, as it is difficult to recruit many such talents in just a few months.

Encrypted information systems, being core intelligence, should be of paramount importance to the Tedeh Legion, so it's understandable that they weren't able to obtain such information.

But now that Ye Xiao has discovered this thing, it only confirms his conjecture. Even he cannot decipher its contents for the time being.

The encryption method used by this player leader was not a simple codebook comparison, but a mechanism known as the "Enigma Machine" on Earth, which was deciphered here through a cipher machine created by a magic circuit.

In simple terms, this encryption method involves distributing multiple cryptographic machines that can be combined and adjusted to create hundreds of different configurations. Headquarters then uses a strictly controlled transmission channel to issue keys to the heads of all cryptographic machines daily.

Then, the receiver and sender adjust the cryptographic machine to the same configuration according to the key, input the plaintext into the machine, output the ciphertext, and send it to the forum. The receiver then obtains the plaintext from the ciphertext input machine on the forum.

This can be considered one of the most complex encryption methods currently available in the world, so simply knowing that this method exists is not enough. Ye Xiao must also find a way to intercept the other party's key and cryptographic machine in order to decipher it.

"Just thinking about it gives me a headache."

Dealing with this player who's full of crazy tricks is giving Ye Xiao a real headache.

It's no wonder that Holman suffered repeated defeats and almost lost his fighting spirit. These overly advanced strategic experiences were simply too difficult for the indigenous people to counter with the knowledge they had accumulated in the present world. They couldn't even figure out why they lost the war.

If Ye Xiao hadn't experienced his previous life and had a clearer understanding, he would have had a hard time knowing the intricacies hidden deep within the other party.

But as Holman said, the Loren army had almost no chance of winning if they directly confronted the Tedeh army three days later, and even if Ella sent troops from the Holy City to support them, it would be difficult to completely turn the tide of the battle.

To break the deadlock, one must take an unconventional approach and exploit the opponent's weaknesses.

Finding vulnerabilities and deciphering intelligence are of paramount importance.

As players, they wouldn't use outdated information transmission methods like the three major families' allied forces in the Holy City. Instead, they would encrypt military intelligence and deliver it in batches, making it even more difficult for high-ranking generals to find them.

Even if Ye Xiao and Ella wanted to rush over and behead him, they would have to find him first, otherwise they might even fall into a trap similar to the Lock of Heaven.

Besides, Ella had tried this approach in her previous life, and if it had succeeded, the rebels wouldn't have been able to break out of the North.

In this life, as Ella, I won't die so easily, but I do face the risk of being banished and suppressed in the real world. Moreover, the situation of some of the high-end combatants in the opposing army is still unclear, so recklessness is absolutely out of the question.

After pondering all this, Ye Xiao patted his head, carefully recalling his experiences in his previous life. Gazing at the vast expanse of blowing yellow sand, a plan gradually took shape in his mind.

Chapter Twenty-One: The Stalker

Three hours later, in the desert sixty miles from Shazhoubao.

Ye Xiao and Li Cheng lay side by side behind a large rock on a hill, holding binoculars and staring at the village below where figures occasionally flickered.

At this moment, both of them were covered in pale yellow thatch, and from a distance, they almost blended into the yellow sand and earth.

The lens at the end of the telescope was also covered with a net woven from hemp rope to prevent glare under the midday sun.

"Brother Ye, we've been searching for so long, what exactly have we been looking at?"

The sun was scorching hot on Li Cheng, and he felt like a shrimp that had mistakenly climbed onto the riverbed, about to die in the dryness.

"Observe the trend."

Ye Xiao said in a low voice, "I need to make sure this place is a bait spot."

Finding a small number of people to build a few sheds and place some scrap metal to create resource points was the trick that player commander liked to use the most.

Since it would be easy for the crow familiar to be misled if it observed from the sky, Ye Xiao had no choice but to approach the camp in person to observe.

Private chat via the system is restricted to the main city at the very least, while viewing forum posts is restricted to villages at the very least.

Ye Xiao wasn't entirely clear on what specific geographical nodes would be identified as "villages" by the system, but he was certain that villages marked on the indigenous map with specific names would most likely be identified as "villages" by the system.

Fortunately, such places are few and far between, scattered around the outskirts of Strømsgodset. After all, the environment of western Xinjiang, with its constant sandstorms, is quite harsh; although the area looks large, the actual population is not large.

On the other hand, the system only re-registers the information of these geographical nodes with each version update. In other words, even if the Principality of Tedeh intends to build new villages nearby, they will not be rated by the system as villages that can actually serve as forum viewing nodes at present.

This greatly reduced the scope of Ye Xiao's investigation.

But his intention was not to burn down these villages. After all, even if those thatched huts were razed to the ground, as long as the system was not updated, players within the range could still access the forum and receive secret reports even if they were just sitting on the ground.

What Ye Xiao needed was the machine used by the other side to translate secret messages, and these machines were usually controlled by players who hid in villages and were known as "message translators".

After observing the village not far away for a long time, Ye Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "This is most likely the place we are looking for."

"Really? It looks like a dilapidated and desolate little village to me."

Li Cheng asked in confusion.

"The guards patrolling the gate have changed three times. The rat familiar that sneaked over from the ground discovered two well-prepared defensive magic arrays along the outer wall."

Ye Xiao held up the binoculars, "And the magic network nodes that extend from here can just cover the front lines, using the magic messages that can only be transmitted over short distances by the Demon King to make up for the last segment of information distance."

"Given that guy's style, supply points that are frequently visited by troops usually don't have interpreters stationed there. Instead, it's villages that look deserted that become the real information hubs."

"Brother Ye, from what you're saying, it sounds like you're quite familiar with the enemy commander."

Li Cheng turned his head to look at Ye Xiao, "Could it be another one of your old flames?"

Ye Xiao's lips twitched. "Don't talk nonsense. He must be a cold-blooded tough guy with cunning eyes, a sinister tone, and a hooked nose."

"So detailed, you've never seen anything like it?"

Li Cheng asked, somewhat surprised.

No, I was just guessing.

In his previous life, Ye Xiao had never met the other party in person. Even the world-destroying witch Ella failed to succeed in several decapitation operations and was fooled. As a common soldier, he would have no idea about the other party's exact location.

“Then I think that’s a stereotype, little bear.”

Li Cheng commented.

"Otherwise, what? The Enigma machine, a steam engine, is just a smokescreen... What kind of decent person would someone be who thinks about these things every day?"

"Tsk, that's true."

Li Cheng nodded.

"Alright, stop babbling and cover me as I go in."

Ye Xiao patted Li Cheng on the shoulder and released a rat from behind the rock.

A rat with a throwing knife strapped to its body curled up into a ball and jumped down the hillside, disappearing into the shadows of the sand dunes as it gradually approached the outskirts of the village.

Li Cheng then took down the specially made long crossbow that he always carried on his back and set it up next to the stone.