Badge in Azure

At this point in time, the commander of the sixth camp then instructed his trusted soldiers to leave Viscount Piac. Even though the battle had ended, Viscount Piac’s face was still white as sheet. He could never have imagined going through a battle of such proportions. During Metatrin’s defensive war, he only contributed some money and hired a few people to help in defending the city walls, while he himself hid in his residence.

The cavalrymen removed their armor and took out the items from the pouches hanging around the warhorses. These items were metal bottles filled with Restorative Water. Saleen had specially given it to the cavalrymen for restoring physical strength. The infantrymen also got some.

The infantrymen did not remove their armor as they did not deplete much physical strength. They did not have warhorses, so they had to stand ready to react to any new situation.

Two emblem groups of infantrymen began cleaning up the battlefield. This so called cleanup was to ensure that the enemies were fully dead and to remove any valuable items from the enemies’ bodies.

The soldiers from the sixth camp were like a bunch of ants. They acted in regulated movements and they did not create any unnecessary noise.

The envoy group from Holy Rock City also got off their horses and rested. The two sorcerers remained silent, deep in thought. Duke Barde was planning something as he readily agreed when the sixth camp requested to take a one hour break.

A usual cleanup of the battlefield would require more than an hour, but the sixth camp did not need any prisoners. They only wanted equipment. The alchemical arrows and metal arrows which were expended had to be retrieved. The soldiers had to inspect their armor for any damage, those who needed a new set of equipment had to inform their commanders quickly.

Very soon, the casualty rate of the sixth camp had been calculated; one-hundred and seventy-five soldiers were dead and nine-hundred and fifty soldiers were wounded.

Of the dead people, there were over one-hundred light infantrymen. There were dozens of cavalrymen whose injuries were too serious that even a mage would not be able to save them. None of the heavy infantrymen died, only a few of them sustained light injuries.

There were about one-thousand injured personnel, less than one-hundred sustained serious injuries. The formation of the sixth camp kept fluctuating, allowing it to always outnumber the enemy. The moment one got injured, they would immediately fall back.

“Let the lightly injured people carry the heavily injured people back to Metatrin and send five-hundred people to protect them,” the camp commander swiftly ordered. Saleen placed a lot of emphasis on the sixth camp. This commander had just defected to Saleen, so he paid a lot of attention to the loss of soldiers. This battle could have been fought better.

The injured soldiers were gathered. The heavily injured personnel were placed on chariots, while the lightly injured people were bandaged. Riding on the infantry’s horses, the injured soldiers began the return trip along the original route while being protected by five-hundred troops.

When this group of soldiers returned to Metatrin City, Saleen was still occupied with issues from the mercenary group. Upon learning that the sixth camp was ambushed within Phoenix’s borders and sustained around one-thousand casualties, Saleen had mixed feelings.

Saleen was worried because he did not have sufficient generals. Since the country was just established, there were not many reserves. Going to war so quickly would be detrimental to development. Saleen was overjoyed because the chaos in Phoenix had given him a reason to join in the war though.

It was no small matter that an envoy group was attacked.

Saleen immediately traveled to the palace from the alchemy factories in the southern city and summoned all the nobles which were conferred by him.

“Congratulations, my king.” Duke Renee was the first to speak. She was a person from the Tiffany family. The grand mage Tiffany who came to Metatrin City was also from the same family. Many talents had left this family, but it never declined.

In a mage’s words, it could be said that the bloodline of this family was naturally powerful.

Renee was a very intelligent person. When she first decided to defect to Metatrin, she kept the lowest profile, yet she had brought along the most money.

Now that Saleen had established a country, she begun devoting all her efforts to planning.

“There is nothing worth congratulating.” Saleen scanned the other nobles, and noticed that the nobles were mostly jubilant.

“The Phoenix people have rebelled, it definitely wasn’t an accidental assault. There is nothing to rob from an envoy group, their actions were ordered by Solar City. I think that County Queen Lex’s Huoxing City is also in danger. My king, you have to contact County Queen Lex quickly, both countries have to sign an agreement to quash the rebel soldiers in Phoenix together!” Renee was simply speculating and she could know what had happened in Phoenix. Her political instincts were very strong.

“My king, Renee is right.” Irene added, “By cooperating with County Queen Lex, we can enter Phoenix rightfully. The rations in the north are only sufficient for ourselves. The moment you expand, we have to rely on Phoenix’s granaries to rear the armies. It is the same case for Bitter Water County too. My king, please make a decision soon, don’t wait for Holy Rock City to define their stance!”

“What do you guys think?” Saleen looked at the other nobles.

Aini said, “I am willing to build a new city for you, you can delegate the matters over there to me.”

At that moment, Saleen was more assured. “With Aini developing the new city, the new city can be constructed much faster. Aini can summon a huge number of spirits, conserving my own troops. These troops can immediately participate in the war in Phoenix.”

“I can deploy five-thousand troops,” Guya declared forthrightly.

“I can provide one-thousand!”

“I shall give seven-hundred!”

“Five-hundred…”

“Two-thousand!”

The nobles generously donated their troops. In the blink of an eye, Saleen already had an army with more than twenty-thousand soldiers. He did not need to provide equipment for this army, he only needed to provide some logistical support and reward the nobles with lands.

Saleen never expected the nobles to be so enthusiastic. The noble who donated five-hundred soldiers was a third class baron whom Saleen had newly conferred, this title was the most inferior among all the nobles. Saleen had only conferred a small number of nobles, this baron still had a chance of entering the palace to join in the meeting. A third class baron donating five-hundred troops was akin to going bankrupt.

This baron possessed adequate foresight. In this campaign, his soldiers could follow the king’s army, which meant that he could be promoted to a viscount very soon. Such a chance would not come by very often. Only the nobles who followed a king from the start would be able to obtain substantial rewards.

Saleen’s kingdom was cohesive because he had sufficient mages and received external assistance from Lex, he was also never stingy on benefits. As long as Saleen could make a profit, he would surely give a share to the nobles close to him.

Take Guya for example. The forces she brought could actually help her stand independently. She still could not rival Saleen as Saleen had dozens of times more mages than her.

Saleen did some quick calculations in his mind, “The troops provided by the nobles can amount to more than twenty-five-thousand people. If I deploy ten-thousand soldiers, coupled with some mercenaries and auxiliary troops, then this army will have more than five-thousand troops. If I am not greedy, I can defend Huoxing City without any problems. There are only two cities near Huoxing City. If the three cities are united, a barrier can be formed. Huoxing City also has a five-thousand man army provided by Lex, these five-thousand men are elites. That means they can defend the city easily. This time around, my actions are actually justifiable, it will be impossible to chase me away in the future.”

Saleen immediately asked Daniel to calculate the number of troops being deployed and the amount of corresponding logistical support required. Saleen also contacted Bitter Water County immediately to try to ask Lex to deploy the ten-thousand man army from Loulan’s borders.

“It will be sufficient to have my new city at Loulan’s borders.” Saleen guessed that Lex would not attack from this direction, otherwise she would not have invaded Loulan using the small road behind Bitter Water County. At that moment, Saleen realized the importance of having nobles. “After all, my forces are insufficient. With many nobles following me, I can organize an army for a campaign anytime. I will provide the resources and mages, while the nobles will fight for me. This is also the structure of authority in the other empires. The imperial family will wield the strongest authority, but it will not devour all the profits.”

Saleen was currently in a tight situation. Due to the development of a new city, he could not set aside more resources. The army that was going to invade Phoenix would not be organized recklessly. At the very least, Saleen had to be responsible for a portion of the nobles’ equipment. Saleen had made the decision to deploy troops, so he could not use the mercenary group’s resources.

Saleen had even distributed the equipment left behind by Lex. Many of the nobles’ soldiers were newly recruited. Without premium equipment, the number of casualties would be disturbing.

The alchemy factories worked at full speed in preparation for the war with Phoenix. Saleen would not go deep into Phoenix and would not attack Solar City. Solar City was a majestic city, it was the core of Phoenix. Such affairs should be left to the people from Guderian City. As a result, Saleen’s equipment was still defensive in nature, there were not many offensive weapons.

“Five-thousand of Lex’s men are stationed in Huoxing City, so that city won’t collapse so soon. Once my sixth camp arrives, coupled with the soldiers from the envoy group, these over ten-thousand people will be able to put up a mighty defense. Huoxing City will be defended for the time being and once my army arrive Lex’s army will be safe.”

Saleen still possessed more than one-hundred-thousand level-4 magic nuclei, these magic nuclei were in the process of being segmented. The shards from the segmentation were all given to Eleanor. Eleanor was currently in the southern gardens trying her best to cultivate magic plants.

Saleen did not know how she managed to store the magic seeds. When Saleen imprisoned Eleanor the last time, he did not discover anything on her. Now that Eleanor had taken out the magic seeds, the southern gardens were filled with horrifying plants.

The plants were horrifying because their consumption was even higher than magic beasts. They were watered with nutrients configured from the Restorative Water, as well as fertilized with magic nucleus powder.

Eleanor concentrated most on cultivating star vines, this magic plant grew the fastest and was a material used for weaving elvish armor. Every day Saleen would give intestines of magic beasts to Eleanor, they were a kind of nourishment for the star vines. At night, he would send troops to harvest the star vines.

Of course, the elvish armor woven for the soldiers would not be similar to Sika’s. It was very convenient to wear and remove. The exterior of the lightweight elvish armor could still be fitted with an extra layer of metal armor, which was akin to the equipment of a heavy infantryman.

Chariots used for transporting rations and equipment were also produced in large numbers. Qin’s logistic chariots could be used to form a chariot formation in a field battle to deal with cavalrymen. The cost of production of such chariots was not cheap at all. The structure of the chariot had to be tough enough to withstand the anti-seismic force produced by the shots from a heavy crossbow.

Saleen had distributed all his armor and equipment, then he filled up the vacancies in the second camp, fitting the soldiers with elvish armor. Fortunately, Eleanor had been engaged in this activity very early on. Saleen could not possibly deploy his troops within a week otherwise.

What made Saleen torn between crying and laughing was that many of the nobles whom he did not reward had deployed varying numbers of soldiers in their own name, requesting Saleen to add their troops into the campaign army. Saleen decided not to bring along the mercenaries, the army would be formed by the nobles and the second camp. There was a grand total of fifty-two-thousand soldiers.

Under the command of the second camp’s commander, these fifty-two-thousand soldiers left Metatrin City powerfully, traveling towards Phoenix. Their objective was Huoxing City. As for the towns along the way, they would be obliterated if the people did not surrender.