War Approaches

After more than two hundred years of development, human territory has undergone numerous modifications.

In recent years, the fiscal surplus of some cities amounted to about 100,000 gold coins, and the fiscal deficit of 37,000 gold coins was not particularly severe. Depending on the gold coins stored in the Treasury, they could compensate for the degraded deficit.

After the financial meeting, the annual celebration since Damian ascended to power quickly arrived.

Damian was considered the immortal, magical emperor who guided humans to absolute greatness. Although most people still believe in the goddess, the church's influence in human territory diminishes each year.

During the annual celebration, the main cities would have a ten-day fair.

Even in heavily guarded factories and scientific research institutes, except for those who need to be on duty, everyone has returned home to celebrate the holidays with their families.

During the annual festival, the city's shops are also particularly prosperous, and artisans sell various small products on the streets.

Due to the harsh environment in the north, residents in this area don't like to save much money. Both high-income people and ordinary people tend to spend everything they have on the most essential things, always thinking about the future.

In reality, this national characteristic doesn't favor much capital accumulation.

But changing the social atmosphere and people's concepts is not an easy task.

Damian didn't want to get involved with his citizens' decisions and desires; he would let them develop their beliefs as they wished, but certainly, many trust him more than other entities that haven't helped them in recent times.

Shortly after the annual celebration, primary schools in the human territory began recruiting students.

This year, Damian reduced the enrollment fee again, lowering the annual enrollment fee for primary school to two silver coins and fifteen copper coins, and demanded that the school provide free breakfast. Although these breakfasts only consist of goat's milk and whole wheat bread, they can still reduce the burden for children from common families.

Tuition fees have been reduced, and the number of free people has increased significantly. This year, hundreds of thousands of children are enrolled, accessing the scholarship for first-time students, and it will only increase if the student is useful.

Those children with talent for magic would be sent to magical academies, and the others would enter primary school, where they would know if they had the talent to continue learning or not.

These magic-qualified students received special attention from their teachers. After starting meditation practice, they would join the Mage Association to supplement their initial training.

In early February, soldiers in human territory began to mobilize fully and entered an emergency alert.

The Magical Balloon Troops and Night Guard Cavalry began to launch their legions, exploring the northern area of the Blue Mountains, searching for the whereabouts of infiltrated demons.

The reconnaissance cavalry brigade will also send elites to cooperate with aerial reconnaissance force operations.

After years of development, the Great Wall is now equipped with three squadrons of magical balloons. Each squadron is equipped with eight balloon teams. Along with the balloon teams trained by headquarters, more than 30 balloon groups can be deployed for combat.

After many years of training, the Aerial Cavalry Group has trained a cavalry of five thousand airborne soldiers. The griffin eggs captured that year also successfully hatched. Additionally, the griffin population has expanded in recent years, with a number of young griffins exceeding twenty thousand.

By the time of the next demon invasion, there should be two squadrons of five thousand griffins available and another five thousand in reserve.

Because there are magical archers in the balloon team to contain scent-detecting demons, the human aerial reconnaissance force can now compete with the demon aerial reconnaissance force.

However, the situation in the north, where the enemy is strong and humans are weak, has changed a lot without Damian's intervention. To avoid stimulating the demons' desperate situation, Damian ordered them to reduce the intensity of aerial reconnaissance and continue focusing on ground reconnaissance.

The reason demons and, in their time, orcs could take the initiative in the fight against humans was that, besides numerical and strength superiority, overwhelming reconnaissance force advantage was also an important reason.

Once the demons realize that a large number of aerial reconnaissance forces have been created on the walls, they will inevitably concentrate their efforts on destroying the most dangerous areas first.

Although human territory has developed rapidly in recent years, it's only now comparable to demons. And all this is thanks to Damian for creating truly important inventions for technological, military, and defensive advancement.

Through frequent research, the demon army gradually became exposed to Damian's eyes.

This time, the demons mobilized a large army and massed towards the newly built magic walls. According to scout estimates, there were already three demon legions in the northern zone, totaling more than 250,000 soldiers.

This powerful force cannot be countered solely by wall forces. To ensure that intelligence information was correct, Damian sent four magical balloons and over a dozen reconnaissance cavalry that either died or disappeared. Even two griffin cavalry members were injured. One griffin was so badly injured that it might not be able to fly for a while.

After detecting the main demon march route, Damian immediately wrote a request for help to the main army in the rear.

Because the reconnaissance force is generally weak, humans' strategy at the borders has always been to divide their troops to protect, consume demon power, and then wait for demons to retreat to counterattack.

This strategy is very passive because it only focuses on eliminating the strongest targets. Every time orcs invade, the northern region suffers great losses.

However, the reconnaissance power is not as good as the demons' due to their ability to fly, and any proactive attack will be one-sided and transparent to the orc army.

Hastily abandoning the strong castle and leaving the defense line that has been in operation for many years will inevitably cause great losses in nearby regions.

Years of war experience have also shown this. A few years ago, the human army fell into the demon's trap, and nearly half the legion was destroyed.

After receiving the letter requesting help from the frontline territory, the legions nearby moved as soon as it was known that the enemy was once again close to their borders.

Then, the legions were ordered to prepare for defense and, subsequently, the annihilation attack.

"The human territory has expanded three times, and the wall, which is practically the last defense alternative, was located far behind where they are defending now.

The current geographical location is crucial, serving as a focal point for defending the northern territory. However, due to the limited number of soldiers, they all had to hold their ground with what they had.

Before the war broke out, Damian originally planned to mobilize soldiers to strengthen the defense of the surrounding counties.

Between ten thousand and twenty thousand soldiers were mobilized to reinforce weak points and prevent any openings that could damage the defensive lines.

Damian could have the remaining troops under his command and act as a general reserve force.

This time, Damian didn't have to lift a finger because his war generals were ready to carry out orders and annihilate the enemy.

This 400-kilometer defense line has four defense focal points.

The westernmost is the group of fortress walls. Due to reinforcements sent by the Northern Army, there is no need to send more magical golems.

According to aerial reconnaissance, there are approximately half a legion of demons in the northern part of the defense line.

A large army is stationed in the mountain territory in this direction. Not only is there a brigade stationed in the swamp basin, but there is also half a regiment of mages stationed at the military station.

Through reconnaissance, it was discovered that the demon army advancing towards human territory surpassed three legions, totaling about 200,000 troops solely in the offensive.

The first to fight against the border territory were demons with the first line of defense.

The stone castle is located in the northernmost part of the mountains. This castle is located east of the thunder castles, only 180 kilometers from the lair of the legendary sleeping dragon.

The location of the canyon castle is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Camps were built on the mountain ridges on both sides of the north, which could support each other with the castle facing the canyon. This castle is entirely a military fortress. Apart from the garrison, there are hardly any people nearby.

"Attention, demons are coming; light the smoke quickly; kill every demon; and don't forget to load the crossbows; help each other put on the damn armor. Damn corporal, what the hell are you doing naked while loading the cannons?"

Defenses in this part of the north extend about thirty miles to the wall, with brick watchtowers built every ten miles, capable of lighting smoke inside at any time.

The watchtower was built on the crest of a mountain with a very good line of sight and could monitor the enemy from a great distance. Large trees surrounding the area were also cut down, and a trench was built in the back through which one could quickly descend the mountain.

A small-scale military station was established at the foot of the mountain. There were more than a dozen war horses stored in the military station, which could allow defenders to quickly retreat to the rear.

Extending northward along the canyon stronghold, more than twenty watchtowers of various sizes were built in the northern part of several valleys.

Depending on the terrain, dozens of scouts are stationed in these watchtowers, with only a few soldiers. The total number of scouting cavalry stationed in the watchtowers along the north exceeds 2,300 regular soldiers.

It was by relying on these frontline scouts that the situation of the enemy at the northern end could be determined.

Since the discovery of flying demons, the defenders of the canyon castle have begun to mobilize fully and can enter a state of war at any moment.

On the third day after the appearance of the flying demons, the demon army appeared in the north.

The demon vanguard waved a bunch of weapons and let out majestic shouts. The demon captain was relatively barbaric. Perhaps he relied on his experience from three years ago and hastily launched a siege without careful investigation.

There are about two thousand soldiers in this demon brigade, divided into seven or eight races. They crowded in confusion and began attacking the defense line established by the defenders of the canyon castle.

The valley in front of the Canyon Castle was only a hundred meters wide. Two thousand demons entered, and chaos ensued immediately.

The soldiers on the castle walls seized the opportunity and shot arrows with crossbows they had in hand.

The arrows were like locusts, constantly shooting through the shields and leather armor of the orcs, and for a moment, shrill cries echoed in the canyon. The demons who thought they were facing the same humans from two hundred years ago were sorely mistaken.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, the demon captain immediately mobilized his elite troops and heavy infantry, rushing into battle with the hope of scaling the city wall and breaking through the defense line.

As a result, the defenders had already set a trap, and when the entire brigade appeared on the battlefield, they immediately threw dozens of alchemical bombs.

After bursts of smoke, crossbows were already firing from the city wall, and officers also used enchanted crossbows to target the larger demons. In an instant, the losses of the demon ranks exceeded more than half of their original numbers.

Seeing that the demons were about to be annihilated, the demon captain hastily urged the demons in the sky to launch a surprise attack to cooperate with the serpents.

As a result, two hot air balloons rose within the castle.

There were magical archers in the hot-air balloon, also equipped with explosive arrows. The flying demons did not realize it, and three of them were hit by explosive arrows, exploding into pieces in the air.

Seeing this scene, the demons felt fear and did not dare to step forward.

Without the cooperation of the demons in the air and without disrupting the battle line, the demons were quickly surrounded and annihilated by the defenders.

The main backbone suffered heavy losses, and the demons could not withstand the casualties, wanting to retreat from the battle line shortly after.

Seeing the demons retreat, catapults were fired from the city wall one after another. The area had already been marked with a firing board beforehand, and countless stone bullets fell amidst the retreating demon ranks.

Defenders from the camps on both sides also fired arrows from high places. The demon brigade, besieged from three different sides, could not hold out for long and was quickly wiped out.