Chương 132: Heat

It required several days of continuous, rapid marching for Vivienne's column to traverse the thoroughfares. The precise moment they materialized before the perimeter of Poloia, her mind was plunged into absolute shock—Count Fischer's colossal host of seventy thousand personnel had actually suffered a total, unmitigated defeat! The high official receiving Holy Saint Vivienne was none other than Count Fischer's trusted senior house retainer.

He proceeded to articulate a meticulously detailed exposition regarding every operational shift that had unfolded over the preceding weeks, before personally escorting her into the command quarters to view the still-comatose Count. Gazing upon Count Fischer—the supreme operational commander of the entire human host, who had now been permanently stripped of an entire leg—Vivienne's countenance grew exceptionally grave.

Her internal assessment of the tactical lethality posed by the internal Demon Army was instantly elevated to one hundred and twenty percent. Vivienne initiated her deployment by personally casting high-tier restoration magic upon Count Fischer. Operating in her capacity as the Holy Saint, the healing spells she commanded were of the absolute highest divine tier; under the influence of the soothing holy radiance, Count Fischer successfully broke through the threshold of his deep coma, regaining full consciousness.

Still in a state of profound physiological frailty, Count Fischer inquired in a raspy murmur: "My Lady Saint... what precise mandate brings your holy person to this theater?" Vivienne articulated her reply with absolute, unyielding gravity: "My Lord Count, this humble maiden has been personally dispatched by the order of the High Primate. I have arrived to assist the grand army in shattering the defenses of Poloia, liberating the common populace, and restoring absolute peace to the realm!"

Count Fischer executed a slow, tragic shake of his head, his face saturated with bitter regret.

"My Lady Saint... your arrival comes far too late. My forces have already sustained total tactical defeat, and the grand host has entirely fractured into pieces. A mere twenty-five thousand troops remain under my direct banner; at this current juncture, maintaining basic self-preservation poses an immense, grueling trial."

"There is an underlying tactical reality of which your Ladyship may be unaware: our remaining twenty-five thousand troops are fundamentally incapable of executing a withdrawal even if we desperately desire to do so. So long as we remain firmly entrenched behind our earthworks and defensive trenches, we can still maintain a baseline tactical deadlock against the monsters. However, the exact second we break camp to initiate a march, the enemy will inevitably surge out of the city gates in full force.

Facing such immense pressure, the soldiers will refuse to throw their lives away to hold the line, and our entire host will be relentlessly hunted down and slaughtered to the absolute last man!" Vivienne's features were filled with immense, sweeping shock. How could the regional theater have devolved into such an extreme, catastrophic state?!

"Can the operational prowess of the Demon Army genuinely be so preposterously formidable?" Count Fischer nodded slowly, his eyes closing in deep, agonizing pain.

"Exceptionally formidable! They not only possess specialized kinetic armaments that unleash thunderous, deafening reports, but their baseline military discipline is also exceptionally draconian."

"My house retainers informed me of intelligence gathered from municipal escapees: several goblin soldiers previously snuck out of their encampment to engage in illicit pleasures. The supreme goblin chieftain personally intercepted the deserters on the spot—and executed not only the offending goblins themselves, but systematically slaughtered the entire company of over one hundred men to which they belonged under collective responsibility!" An expression of absolute, unadulterated shock blanketed Vivienne's face.

Standing nearby, Paladin Commander Thor felt his eyelids twitching violently in pure apprehension. The baseline military discipline enforced within their own Holy Paladin Order was already universally recognized as exceptionally rigorous; yet, when a Paladin committed a severe violation, the punitive measures were strictly localized to the individual offender—at absolute worst, the transgressor faced personal execution.

The Demon Army, however, operated under a far more ruthless paradigm, directly executing an entire hundred-man company under collective punishment! For an army forged under the crucible of such terrifyingly absolute military law, how preposterously unbreakable must its baseline discipline be? The mere thought caused a cold sweat to break out across his back. Vivienne remained locked in a profound, heavy silence for a considerable duration before slowly rising to her feet.

She turned her gaze through the tent flaps, locking her eyes onto the looming stone battlements of Poloia.

"For the innocent masses of Poloia, even if the Demon Army possesses formidable strength, they must be resolutely and systematically eradicated!" She whirled around, her luminous eyes meeting those of Count Fischer resting upon the cot.

"My Lord Count! In my capacity as the Holy Saint personally designated by the High Primate, I cannot stand idly by while the common populace inside those walls is savagely trampled and abused by demonic beasts. My Lord Count! I formally request that you lend me your full support!" Count Fischer let out a long, hollow laugh, shaking his head in absolute helplessness.

"My Lady Saint, the baseline morale of the soldiers under my command has already entirely dissolved; it is a statistical impossibility to organize another offensive operation. I fear I am fundamentally incapable of rendering meaningful assistance to your cause."

"An offensive operation is entirely unnecessary!" Vivienne reached up with her right hand, firmly grasping the sacred teardrop pendant resting across her breast.

"We merely require your forces to hold their current positions..." Concurrently, along the high battlements of Poloia's city walls, Li Qinwu stood with a broad, cheerful grin as he surveyed the human entrenchments spread across the outer valley. In his internal estimation, the entire siege campaign could be decisively brought to an absolute conclusion within the next handful of days. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Ever since the last major engagement—where the shattered breach along the wall was successfully defended and the human forces' most resolute, desperate charge was completely broken—the enemy had failed to launch a single offensive action for a half-month. Furthermore, the human host appeared to be rapidly disintegrating from within; day after day, individual house echelons could be seen abandoning their defensive works.

The diverse aristocratic banners fluttering across the entrenchments grew increasingly sparse, until a mere twenty-thousand-plus troops remained stationed within the trenches. These remaining twenty-thousand-plus men continued to rely on their complex network of pre-dug defensive trenches to maintain a static blockade over the four primary city gates. The core striking force of over ten thousand regulars was concentrated directly before the West Gate, where their primary command encampment was similarly situated.

Li Qinwu had long since analyzed the underlying reality: after enduring a continuous series of operational failures, the baseline morale of the human regulars had completely dissolved. Total organizational collapse was merely a matter of time. Li Qinwu nurtured an intense desire to completely swallow the opposing host—or at bare minimum, thoroughly liquidate their primary striking force before the West Gate. However, he remained exceptionally patient.

He understood with absolute clarity that the party who ought to be consumed by frantic anxiety at this juncture was the enemy, not himself. If he were to rashly lead his forces out of the gates to launch a direct assault while the enemy remained firmly entrenched behind their complex network of defensive works, his units would inevitably sustain severe, unnecessary casualties. Furthermore, the actual volume of elite troops he could comfortably commit to an open-field offensive was strictly limited.

He possessed precisely 1, 200 Punishment Army regulars and 2, 500 heavy-armor infantrymen. These comprised his absolute core elite—the exact forces he could confidently deploy to initiate a high-stakes field assault. As for the auxiliary cohorts of goblin recruits, utilizing them to hold static wall defenses was perfectly adequate, but committing them to complex open-field offensive maneuvers was far too risky.

To achieve the absolute maximum tactical harvest at the absolute lowest operational cost with such a tight force composition, the optimal strategy dictated launching a relentless pursuit the exact moment the enemy initiated a tactical withdrawal! The psychological line separating a structured tactical withdrawal from an absolute, unmitigated rout was often nothing more than a sudden shift in collective mindset.

Having suffered successive defeats, the human regulars were already entirely fixated on fleeing back to their home territories. The moment they broke camp to initiate a march, if he unleashed his elite columns to conduct a high-speed pursuit, the human regulars would care for nothing except personal flight. The moment their military cohesion dissolved, a total, unstoppable panic-rout would instantly materialize.

Over the past several days, Li Qinwu had continuously conducted visual surveillance over the enemy positions. He noted that the human forces remained hunkered down within their trenches not because they lacked the desire to flee, but precisely because their command apparatus recognized the extreme danger of a total rout, leaving them paralyzed and terrified to make a single move. Thus, Li Qinwu was content to play the waiting game.

He would wait until the enemy's psychological endurance snapped, forcing them to break out of their trenches to initiate a retreat; that exact crossroad would mark the moment he committed his entire army to completely swallow and digest the ten-thousand-strong human primary force arrayed outside the West Gate. Li Qinwu's face was saturated with easy satisfaction as he raised his hand to fan his face. Man, it's preposterously hot today... why has the temperature spiked so suddenly?

He paid no further mind to the sensation, assuming it was merely a routine atmospheric fluctuation. Just then, Gobu-Mao came sprinting up to Li Qinwu's position along the battlements, reporting with crisp efficiency: "Boss! The fourth cohort of 1, 200 new recruits has formally entered the barracks to undergo basic training. We possess the green light to initiate the fifth production cycle!" Li Qinwu executed a highly satisfied nod.

"Excellent. Keep a tight, unyielding grip on the recruit training protocols; that pipeline represents the absolute foundation of our Alliance. As for the fifth production cycle, exclude all large-framed draft animals from the roster. Feed them high-quality fodder and let them rest to recoup their physical frames. Assign details to construct heavy transport trailers; the active combat phase is rapidly drawing to a close, and we will require substantial livestock to haul our supply trains."

Due to the previous unbridled, hyper-intensive production cycles, a substantial volume of livestock had perished from physical exhaustion, resulting in progressively smaller yields of goblin offspring per batch. Now that the major combat phase was on the verge of total resolution, this extreme method of rapid force expansion could be comfortably dialed back. At bare minimum, large draft animals could be exempted from the process, allowing them to properly rest and restore their physical reserves.

Gobu-Mao barked his compliance, before reaching up to frantically scratch at his neck. He appeared to be experiencing an intense, uncomfortable itch, leaving several bright red scratch marks across his skin with a few quick swipes. Noting his actions, Li Qinwu delivered a swift, playful kick to the fellow's rear.

"What in the hell, are you growing lice or something? Back the hell away from me!" Gobu-Mao let out an embarrassed laugh as he took several steps backward.

"Boss, I haven't had a single chance to take a proper bath over the past few days... I might actually have picked up some lice."

"Get the hell out of my sight. I'm granting you a one-day leave—go scrub yourself thoroughly clean!" Gobu-Mao let out a wide grin and scurried off. The following morning, within a private command chamber situated inside one of the main gate towers along the high battlements, Li Qinwu rose from his cot. He reached up to wipe a heavy layer of sweat from his forehead. It's sweltering! He donned his heavy steel armor, pushed open the door, and cast a glance up at the sky.

A brilliant, blazing sun hung high in the heavens.

"Ho! Look at that massive sun... summer in Poloia is truly sweltering as hell." Li Qinwu initiated a routine inspection tour along the city walls. The garrison soldiers were standing guard directly under the intense sunlight, drenched in heavy sweat, yet they maintained their designated guard positions without flinching under the heat. Li Qinwu nodded in quiet approval. Even without direct officer supervision present, the troops maintained impeccably straight, disciplined postures.

Baseline military discipline had thoroughly integrated into their psychological foundation; this army was officially fully forged. Li Qinwu resolved that upon returning to the Alliance territories, he would break up the Punishment Army's 10th Company, scattering half of its veteran personnel across the broader army structure to serve as unit commanders.

Concurrently, he would formally reorganize the remaining core of the Punishment Army's 10th Company into the elite 10th Guard Company, designating them as a high-honor vanguard force. This elite Guard Company would be outfitted with the absolute most advanced weaponry, undergo the most rigorous training regimens, and function as a dedicated officer training battalion—from which all future unit leaders across alternate formations would be systematically sourced and deployed.

As Li Qinwu walked and contemplated these structural plans, he crossed paths with a company commander. The officer immediately snapped to attention, executing a sharp military salute. Li Qinwu issued a direct order to the commander: "Pass down my command: stand down all static guard posts directly exposed under the open sun. Inform the troops that given the sweltering heat, everyone is to dramatically increase their water intake." The company commander barked his compliance.

Li Qinwu continued his inspection walk, only to be intercepted by a commander from the recruit training camp.

"Boss! Over the past two days, a massive number of new recruits have suffered severe heatstroke and passed out while standing in formation under the sun. Today, one of them actually collapsed and died on the field... should we perhaps modify the current training schedule?"