Chapter 153: Sending Out Tens Of Decapitated Heads
Despite the ruckus, the number of players that quit the Dawn Mercenary Team was not great.
They numbered a few hundred. These players were impatient and hot-tempered which was a factor in their decision to quit. They wanted to fight for the freedom of Iron Nation.
The critical factor that kept the majority of players from defecting was the City of Dawn!
As in the eyes of the players, William was a compassionate Half-Elf Lord.
The City of Dawn did not have any slaves, and the residents did not have to worry about food and lodging. The happiness index in the City of Dawn was much higher than the two Human nations.
This proved that William was a magnanimous Lord. They were mercenaries under William, so they had no reason to quit because of the aristocracy of the Black Lava Nation. It was not worth quitting.
Iron Nation had claimed it was fighting for freedom.
Yet, out of the hundreds of thousands of slaves residing in the city, only twenty to thirty thousand had been freed and given status as that of commoners.
The players realized this. They were not fools.
A professional player named Anyu Huixin created a discussion post.
"Why is an old King who is used to aristocracy propagating the notion of freedom all of a sudden?"
The post had a lot of valuable content.
Especially conspiracy theories.
Anyu Huixin stated that the old King was being used as a puppet. Otherwise, the King would not have made such a dramatic turn.
The King had freed some slaves. But if his thoughts were so noble, why didn't he free all of them?
He made use of the crimes committed by the slaves to make them provide cheap labor. Did the King think that all other people were fools?
Anyu Huixin mentioned that the critical keyword 'freedom' was typically used by power-hungry rulers. It served as their morality banner to incite many wars.
The players of the City of Dawn and Black Lava Nation supported Anyu Huixin's speculation.
However, the players of Iron Nation did not care if the conspiracy theory was true or not.
In the cut scenes of the open beta, a person had been shown controlling the throne of Iron Nation .
It was a benign battle for freedom and to change the disgusting aristocratic system.
Of course, people would still be suspicious.
Some players discovered that the hidden organization Freedom Alliance was spread all over Iron Nation.
For a moment,
The players of Iron Nation became more vocal. They believed that the leader of the hidden organization was the man who controlled the throne.
The influence of Iron Nation pervaded the forum and more and more novice players chose to join Iron Nation.
There were hundreds of thousands of players who would fight for Iron Nation. Without any other missions at hand, there were about 80,000 to 90,000 combat-ready players.
As time would pass by, the numbers would only increase.
William was invited to the frontline combat conference room.
He only saw three people present inside.
Violent Dragon was not seated. Instead, he was standing at the side with a young man.
He was no longer the legion commander-in-chief. Generally, it was not a good idea to change a commander in the midst of a war.
But Violent Dragon was better suited for leading his soldiers into combat. He had only been appointed the commander for the Rhine River battle because he was familiar with the border, and the battlefield was not complicated. So he was able to handle it well.
Since it was a war between the nations, the senior commanders of the Black Lava Nation would be making their appearances.
Marquis Salz was the father-in-law of the current King Nedrick.
He possessed a master bloodline. He was 126 years old, was almost at the end of his lifespan.
As he was involved in wars ever since his younger days, numerous internal injuries had accumulated on his body. As such, he stagnated at the middle-level.
Though he attained level 79, he did not upgrade to the high-level. Only his attributes and bloodline were upgraded.
In William's previous life, Marquis Salz had used all his efforts to sustain the dying Black Lava Nation for a period of 11 months and 13 days!
It was an arduous task for him.
William believed that Marquis Salz was only good at defending a city. His performance in sieging a city was poor.
Though the hundred years of Black Lava Nation history, the nation had been on the receiving end of wars...
Even though they held the upper hand, the Black Lava Nation had met a serious setback in their offensive maneuvers. The Black Lava Nation was fond of being beaten, so they started building defensive walls...
"It was a precarious situation for the Iron Nation, still, the Black Lava Nation was unable to defeat its enemy. If Iron Nation is not defeated in a short period of time, I'll suffer massive losses.
If this war drags on, when Darkness descends upon us, they will all be defeated."
William wanted to shorten the war duration. He intended to make use of the remaining time for rapid development. Though the City of Dawn had terrain superiority, it did not possess enough soldiers to fend off the final assault of the Darkness invasion.
He glanced at a twenty-year-old person.
The person was Black Lava Nation's new Count Diablo who had a legendary bloodline.
He was a level 65 warrior with two legendary quality hidden occupations.
But these were not important.
He had the nickname of War Gang Leader...
When William was sizing up the people in the room, they were also observing the young Lord of the City of Dawn.
They regarded William highly as he was a powerful Half-Elf who controlled a large army.
Marquis Salz smiled cordially at William and said, "As Lord William is here, let's start our discussion."
"How does Marquis Salz intend to attack?" William went straight to the point.
Salz was unperturbed, but he felt pain in his heart. In the southeastern region, besides the City of Dawn having a terrain superiority, Iron Nation's Rhine City also had a geographical advantage. He only had options to attack the three fortresses defending the Iron Nation.
The fortress that was in front of them could not be detoured. It had to be conquered using brute force.
More importantly, the Iron Nation had many legions...
Although four of their legions lost in the Dragon slaying and Rhine River battles, the nation still managed to deploy 27 regular legions within a short period of time.
With the addition of mercenaries and the chosen ones, their soldiers amounted to 160,000-170,000.
Black Lava Nation had 40,000-50,000 fewer soldiers!
Having lost in numerical superiority, it was an uphill task for them to attack the Iron Nation.
The King of Black Lava Nation was highly ambitious, but Salz was unable to hold the Rhine Bridge for long.
Salz wanted to drag the war for a year. According to the empire rules, Black Lava Nation would have 30 years of truce!
Salz had other plans. Since the King did not want to drag out the war, he could only make use of other options.
Marquis Salz pointed at the nearest military fortress and said, "The central military fortress has three legions and 20,000 chosen ones. The fortress is easy to defend but hard to defeat. If we attack the city, the other two fortresses would send troops to reinforce the city.
"But I'm not without options.
"We have prepared 1,300 catapults. I intend to deploy 300 catapults daily and attack the city day and night. I don't care about the damage inflicted but we have to protect these catapults. We'll attack with the catapults for seven days.
"At the same time, we will distract the other fortresses with feint attacks.
"When the enemy soldiers are exhausted, we'll attack at night and charge into the central fortress."
William sighed. Marquis Salz was steadier than William...
William knew what Salz was going to say next.
For example, Salz would pat on William's shoulder and say, "The chosen ones of the Dawn Mercenary Team are able to revive, so they can hold back the reinforcements of the other two fortresses. I can increase the war stipends..."
Was William a fool who would put himself at risk?
William raised his hand, and without any hesitation, he said, "Tomorrow, we'll attack the city directly. Use the catapults, and increase our war stipends. I'll let my mercenaries charge multiple times even while the catapults are tossing rocks. When we have occupied the ramparts, then you will charge."
Salz gaped in astonishment. Was that how the chosen ones could be used as cannon fodders?
William raised his brow. Why not?
The important thing was that William received sufficient rewards!
The reason why William incited the war was to make use of the players' ability to revive. The players would have this ability as long as they had not attained level 30.