Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0086: Victory without Celebration
"Your Majesty, you should lead the 1st Regiment back to Seris immediately! With our troops in the south, it should be enough to deal with the counterattack of the Holy Demon Empire." Wilkes suggested: "If the strength of their counterattack is about the same as it is now."
"It's impossible that there won't be almost the same number of troops. If the enemy still only mobilizes this small number of troops, then the commander must be crazy." Chris shook his head and said, "The route the enemy is most likely to choose is to attack Seris directly from the direction of the Higgs Kingdom."
"We can't base our victory on the premise that the opponent's commander is crazy. We must be fully prepared. Only in this way can we ensure that we will not suffer any losses in any direction!" Chris said here and looked at Wilkes.
"The first six divisions we formed have already entered Alante. The only defenses in the rear are the Training Corps and the 7th and 8th Divisions... This is indeed very dangerous." Wilkes looked at the map and said, "So it is necessary for the 1st Division to return to Seris."
"In fact, we have been marching south for so many days. The 9th and 10th Divisions in Ceris should have been formed. Their weapons should also be complete." Chris calculated the time and said to Wilkes: "I will lead the 1st Division north, and then order the 10th Division south to help you consolidate your defense line."
"There is no need to send the troops south. We still have General Wagron's 2nd Division as a reserve, and at least ten garrison regiments as reserves and reinforcements. We are capable of fighting." Wilkes shook his head, and at this moment the door of the room was pushed open from the outside.
"Your Majesty! The commander of the Prairie Empire, Xisai, wants to see you." An officer came in and reported the news that the commander of the Prairie Cavalry wanted to see Chris: "They said they were about to return to the Prairie Empire and wanted to see you before they left."
"Are they so impatient to talk to us about compensation? I know they suffered heavy losses this time. Almost one-fifth of their troops were wiped out by the dragon knights..." Chris smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"I think, as an ally, it would be better for you to meet these cavalrymen from the grassland. At least, we need to know how much money they want." Wilkes advised Chris.
"Okay! I'll just meet them. Let General Cisse come in. I'll wait for him here." Chris ordered helplessly.
Bourjois walked out, and soon a middle-aged officer wearing traditional armor followed him in. He had the traditional hairstyle of the Steppe Empire and a shaggy beard underneath.
He walked in front of Chris, then suddenly knelt on one knee, bowed his head and performed the most noble greeting of the grassland people: "Your Majesty the Great Emperor Ailanhill! Your most loyal friend on the grassland, Xisai, salutes you!"
"..." Chris was somewhat overwhelmed by the scene before him. It took him a long while to realize that the other party was expressing his respect to him. Then he said, "General Cisse, please stand up! I am very happy to have your friendship."
He paused for a moment, and after the other party stood up, he continued, "But it seems that you addressed me wrongly. I am not the emperor of Elanhill. I am only the Grand Duke now."
"Your Majesty! I saw your victory with my own eyes. There are still corpses of giant horses and broken magic armor left in the wilderness. You are already the greatest monarch of the Mortal Empire for being able to defeat the army of the Holy Demon Empire!" Xisai explained to Chris after he stood up.
He looked at Chris as if he was looking at his most admired idol: "I have completed my mission, and I will return to the grassland with my troops tomorrow. Every warrior on the grassland will remember your greatness and generosity!"
"Your trade has changed the impoverished status quo of the grassland empire. We no longer need to rely on looting to feed our children, so everyone on the grassland will be your friend!" After saying this, Xisai nodded in greeting, then respectfully left Chris's room.
Chris looked at Wilkes beside him and shrugged his shoulders: "I thought he was here to ask for my commission."
"As time goes by, you will see how far-reaching the impact of Maritza's battle is." Wilkes said to Chris, "There will be countless people fighting for you and praying for you... It won't be long before you can get everything you never dared to think of before."
"I hope so!" Chris felt that this matter could be used. After thinking about it, he looked at Burjos and said, "Since this battle will have such a huge impact, we should take advantage of it."
"I declare that the city of Maritsa is officially renamed Dragonfall City! This is a great city where countless dragons fell!" Chris said with a smile: "I want everyone in the world to know that there was once a great army here, a mortal army that could defeat the magic army!"
Bourjois felt his hair stand on end. His battle would go down in history because of this name change, and the Fallen Dragon City would become a "holy land" in the minds of mortals because of its defeat of the Magic Empire.
"Another thing is that from today on, all offensive operations will be stopped , and all troops must shrink the defense line as much as possible!" Chris continued to give orders after announcing that Marica was renamed Falling Dragon City.
The Ailan Hill troops heading south had almost used up all the ammunition they carried, and many troops were waiting for supplies to be shipped from the rear. However, these supplies could only replenish their ammunition consumption and could not support Chris to expand the war again.
The shortcomings of logistics supply have always existed, and the pressure of production in the rear is indeed a headache. With more and more new weapons, the production of ammunition is naturally greater.
With the popularity of revolvers, the demand for pistol bullets is increasing. Because of the intention to promote submachine guns, the production of pistol bullets has been expanding, which also occupies a large amount of raw materials.
At the same time, the number of rifles produced has also increased. The number of troops equipped with Mauser 98K rifles is now ten times that before. Almost all infantry regiments need Mauser 98K rifles, and the weapons eliminated due to training consumption also need to be replenished.
Some of the new weapons were even exported, with about 1,000 Mauser rifles that had been replaced due to training wear and tear being exported to the Steppe Empire. The cattle and sheep obtained in exchange for these new weapons allowed the meat canning factory in Ireland Hill to resume production of its own canned beef and mutton at full speed.
Supporting an army of 200,000 or more is not an easy task. Providing weapons, equipment and supplies is a very delicate job. Now, no matter what kind of weapons, they are very important to the soldiers of Ailan Hill.
Machine gun carriages were in urgent need of every unit, and the weapons produced were basically distributed to newly formed units on the spot. Although the machine gun production line had expanded its production capacity after expansion, this weapon was still in short supply.
As the number of machine guns and rifles increased, the supply of bullets became a problem. Dozens of bullet factories were now producing day and night, but they still could not meet the consumption of the front line and the needs of training.
What is even more depressing is that with the continuous expansion of production, there is a shortage of raw materials - because of the rapid construction of railways, the demand for steel is also constantly expanding, and now Ireland Hill's steel production capacity is beginning to be stretched again.
The reserves of raw material copper are close to zero. Even if the grassland empire and the copper mines in Tubao and other places are desperately supplying, it still cannot meet the production needs. Synthetic rubber can only be maintained with difficulty. The types of raw materials required by industrial civilization are too many, so many that people always lose sight of one thing while focusing on another.
This is because victory in the war brought infinite benefits, otherwise the economy of Ireland Hill would have collapsed on its own without anyone else having to do anything.
In addition, due to the limitation of transportation capacity, the supplies in the rear were piled up like a mountain, but the supplies at the front were always insufficient. The consumption on the road was so much that it made people laugh and cry. To transport a cart of ammunition to the front line, another cart of fodder was needed...
"Next time, we won't fight the war this way! We will open new factories in Naru, Dragonfall City, and Volavor to increase production capacity... and lay more railways to save on transportation costs!" Chris summed up a few words in a sullen manner, and then ended this victory summary meeting.
That day, he led a regiment out of Dragonfall City and returned to Seris. He did not feel the excitement of defeating the Magic Empire, nor the joy of winning the war. He just set out on the road home with a heavy heart.
On the other side, three giant dragons landed outside a magnificent castle. Knight Commander Ildo jumped off the dragon's back and walked quickly into the castle gate. On both sides of the huge wooden door, the guards looked at Ildo strangely, who was dusty and a little embarrassed, wondering why he looked like this .
Ildo ignored their gazes and went straight to the gate of Governor Joseph Bakalov. Without even bothering to tidy up his clothes, he pushed open the huge door.
"Sir! General Moss ordered me to deliver the news from the front line!" Irdo walked up to Joseph Bakalov, knelt on one knee, held up the letter from General Moss, and reported loudly.
"Why are you in such a mess?" Putting the young dragon clinging to his arm at his feet, Joseph Bakalov stood up, walked up to Irdo, took the letter from his hand, glanced at Irdo who was covered in dust, and asked majestically.
"Mortals have developed new weapons... My dragon knights suffered heavy losses..." Irdo did not dare to hide anything and talked about his losses: "I only brought back 3 out of 25 dragon knights."
