Chapter 457: Infringing upon the Interests of the Goddess of Nobility
By evening, the probing was over, and the mobilized soldiers who were still alive were allowed to return.
These mobilized soldiers were all quite clever. They lay flat on the ground without moving. Moreover, the Reserve Army Corps did not intend to kill them all, so they managed to survive. Now that they had tested the waters a few times and found that there was no more gunfire, they started to walk back in twos and threes, each one trembling all over and looking back with every step, clearly terrified.
During this time, some also tried to surrender to the Reserve Army Corps, but they were shot dead by the archers on the Border City Alliance side. The Reserve Army Corps, fearing infiltration by spies, was not prepared to accept surrenders either. Therefore, these mobilized soldiers could only return.
After returning, the data was tallied, and the casualties of the mobilized soldiers were actually less than one-fifth. This shows how many people were lying down along the way and how inefficient they were.
Under such circumstances, even fewer mobilized soldiers were able to charge into the enemy ranks, let alone successfully kill anyone. However, as long as there were some, it was enough.
These individuals were gathered together and given better food, and even their families received an extra portion of food. At the same time, the old muskets in their hands were replaced with standard weapons of the Alliance Army, and each was given five bullets. However, the price for this was to become part of the Supervisory Squad.
In the next charge, these selected mobilized soldiers, wearing red armbands, would stand behind the other mobilized soldiers, using bullets and bayonets to force them to charge more effectively, instead of passively lying down and pretending to be dead.
This was forcing these people to their deaths, leaving them no way out. It was obvious how much hatred it would incur, and they might even be seen as traitors. However, looking at the food in their hands, and knowing that if they refused they would be assigned to the first wave of the charge, they seemed to have no choice.
The next morning, after eating a more substantial meal, these selected mobilized soldiers, wearing red armbands and carrying different weapons, stood somewhat bewildered between the other mobilized soldiers and the Border City Alliance Army, under the scrutinizing gazes of their former comrades.
Just as these red-armband mobilized soldiers were hesitating, they saw the Border City Alliance soldiers placing their fingers on the triggers of their rifles, their expressions turning hostile. Gritting their teeth, they turned and pointed their guns at their former compatriots, forcing them to charge towards the enemy’s positions. Anyone who dared to lie down and feign death was directly stabbed with a bayonet.
It’s better to force others to die than to be forced to die oneself, they consoled themselves.
If a person doesn’t cross the threshold in their heart, they will never know how low their bottom line is or what crazy things they are capable of doing. For example, cross-dressing is something you either do zero times or countless times.
Having taken the first step, these red-armband mobilized soldiers, forced to become accomplices, quickly adapted to their new identities. To maintain their privileges, they desperately tried to curry favor with the Border City Alliance Army, while ruthlessly carrying out any orders issued by the Alliance, even if it meant the deaths of many.
It was at this point that Cross, the mastermind behind all this, knew that the mobilized soldiers could be put to use.
The number of mobilized soldiers was enormous, even exceeding the number of soldiers in the Border City Alliance. However, this vast number was difficult to utilize effectively. It was not even possible to issue weapons on a large scale because they were invaders and had destroyed everything these people had. It could be said that they were the targets of these people’s greatest hatred. So while they could be forced to work at gunpoint, it was impossible to expect them to fight with dedication. Therefore, Cross had orchestrated this scene, successfully dividing the mobilized soldiers into two opposing factions and obtaining a batch of usable cannon fodder.
Now, the people the mobilized soldiers hated the most were no longer the soldiers of the Border City Alliance, but those traitors, because often the traitors were the most ruthless.
And these traitors, in order to maintain their status, in order to avoid being demoted back to their original state and then being eaten alive by those people, desperately tried to complete the tasks assigned by the Border City Alliance. Even if it meant personally executing their own compatriots, even resorting to torture, they did not hesitate. Their methods were even more cruel and inhumane than those of the Border City Alliance soldiers.
This simple division gave Cross hundreds of thousands of cannon fodder, which emboldened his actions. He continuously attacked various points along the Glory Alliance border, disrupting their construction while gathering intelligence and looking for weaknesses.
Even at this point, Cross hadn’t realized that he was not facing the main army corps. He hadn’t noticed that the Glory Alliance’s primary focus was on internal development. If he knew, he would probably be even more despairing.
Even now, the Reserve Army Corps’ precise and effective shooting, their coordinated teamwork, their strict discipline, and their devastating machine guns all left a deep impression on Cross. Without artillery support, he would have to rely on sacrificing lives.
The only problem now was that so far Cross hadn’t seen them fire any artillery, so he didn’t know the power or quantity of their artillery. This would obviously result in heavy casualties for the main army corps in the upcoming attack.
Cross believed that the pressure the mobilized soldiers had exerted on the enemy was not yet strong enough. Therefore, he planned to launch a joint offensive, forcing them to reveal their trump cards. The mobilized soldiers were the price he was prepared to pay.
At this time, Owen was no longer paying much attention to this war, which was clearly going to drag on for a long time. Instead, he was preparing to deal with the three gods, led by the Goddess of Nobility.
Although Owen’s Death and Shadow religion didn’t actively proselytize on the surface, his Templar Order had been expanding along with the expansion of the Divine Shield organization. However, since the territory wasn’t expanding outwards before, its influence had always been limited.
But once the territory occupied the Noble Alliance and defeated the Border City Alliance, the population would easily exceed ten million, and they would occupy the thousand-mile-long Northland. At that time, it would no longer be a small-scale operation but a real threat to the Goddess of Nobility.
The Goddess of Nobility favored Owen, but that didn’t mean she could tolerate him encroaching on her fundamental base. Moreover, the Noble Alliance believed in the Goddess of Nobility. Although they weren’t particularly devout, she could at least influence several million people.
The Border City Alliance was militaristic, true, but they worshipped two subordinate gods under her, and she couldn’t abandon them either. Therefore, she sent the God of Knights to Owen.
Although he was confronted, Owen wouldn’t back down. However, he also wouldn’t choose to directly engage in a divine war. So he made a bet with the God of Knights, using mortals as chess pieces and the Northland as the chessboard, to play a game.
At that time, the Noble Alliance hadn’t yet been divided in two, so the God of Knights, seeing that his side held such a great advantage, readily agreed. He even thought that Owen was using this as a way to ease the conflict between the two sides. However, it wasn’t long before the Noble Alliance split.
However, the Glory Alliance’s actions puzzled the God of Knights. They didn’t occupy the land they conquered but instead engaged in large-scale migration, using the population of the Noble Alliance to develop their own territory.
You could say he was ambitious, swallowing up more than half of the Noble Alliance in one go. But you could also say he wasn’t ambitious, because he didn’t occupy the land, only migrating the population to develop his own territory.
Thinking back to how the Glory Alliance hadn’t moved or engaged in external wars for decades, the God of Knights made a wrong judgment. He believed that Owen’s ultimate goal was probably just to plunder the population, essentially still developing his own little piece of land. Therefore, he left.
