Chapter 59 The Prestige of Victory
Having secured a decisive victory against the main forces of the Dwarf Empire, Sun Li naturally would not let go of the spoils of war within his grasp—namely, the Phunipo region and the vast plains of the former Franconian Empire!
This region was blessed with rich iron ore and exceptionally fertile land, producing grain that far exceeded the consumption of the local population. This was the primary reason the Dwarf Empire had been so eager to conquer it, as they desperately needed massive amounts of grain to brew their favorite fine wine!
Indeed, the Dwarf Empire’s homeland of Rhed consisted of little else besides iron ore and stone. While the dwarves lacked no shortage of materials to forge weapons of slaughter, their quality of life left much to be desired...
In particular, the dwarves were one and all hopelessly addicted to alcohol!
Thus, whether viewed from the perspective of daily living or historical grievances, it would be a wonder if the Dwarf Empire did not itch to invade human territories!
Unfortunately, the pitched battle against the Song Kingdom completely jolted the Dwarf Empire, which had been basking in the glow of victory and spoils. In a single engagement, fifteen thousand elite dwarf soldiers were simply wiped out, and the number of survivors who managed to crawl back did not even amount to a fraction of that force!
How many elite fifteen-thousand-strong forces did the entire Dwarf Empire possess? The answer was one and a half, and now only half of that remained...
Stricken with grief and shock, the Emperor of the Dwarf Empire also came to the sobering realization that he was temporarily incapable of participating in the hegemony of the European continent!
On the one hand, the Dwarf Empire began expanding its military once again to replenish its losses and defend its core heartland, while also studying the advanced weapons of the Song Kingdom, particularly their grenades and long-range rifles.
On the other hand, they hastily dispatched a diplomatic mission to conclude a peace treaty with the Song Kingdom—which was, in essence, a disguised surrender. If the Dwarf Empire were to lose another war, it would face total annihilation!
Moreover, the fearless, death-defying spirit displayed by the Song soldiers on the battlefield had deeply shaken the upper echelons of the Dwarf Empire. This battle demonstrated to the entire European continent what the finest iron-clad army in the world truly looked like!
Since their weapons fell short of the enemy's, and their soldiers' combat resolve was similarly inferior, the Dwarf Empire had no choice but to vomit back out the territories it had swallowed. Gathering their remaining troops, they silently licked their wounds back in their impoverished homeland. At the very least, the barren region of Rhed would not become the primary target of Song aggression...
After his main force of one hundred thousand was reduced to fewer than ten thousand men, Sun Li busily used reward points to redeem Minié riflemen and reorganize his regular army. Simultaneously, he dispatched vast numbers of the Blue-Shirted Army—local garrison forces of the Song Kingdom, or rather, constabulary units.
In one fell swoop, he scattered over one hundred thousand Blue-Shirts to seize territory. Composed of civilian recruits generated by the system and given a few months of basic training by system instructors, Sun Li could continuously summon these troops as long as he had gold coins.
Riding the triumphant momentum of the Song army's great victory, the other nations of the European continent dared not provoke this seemingly colossal Song military force. Even though everyone knew these were merely second-tier troops of the Song, the previous battles had instilled a natural sense of dread in the indigenous powers of Europe toward any army flying the Song banner.
The anti-Song alliance, which had originally banded together to eliminate Sun Li the butcher, abruptly lost its clamorous momentum. Although no faction other than the Dwarf Empire went so far as to beg Sun Li for mercy, every member of the anti-Song coalition tacitly placed themselves strictly on the defensive.
Indeed, facing such an overwhelming Song Kingdom, adopting a defensive posture was all they could possibly do for the time being. Venturing out into the field for offensive maneuvers was something they did not even dare to imagine...
And the Dwarf Empire was universally acknowledged as a formidable military power on the European continent!
This was precisely why Sun Li dared to deploy the somewhat unreliable Blue-Shirts to seize territory. Once a fearsome reputation was established, any enemy would have to weigh their own strength very carefully before daring to provoke the Great Song.
Like a plague of locusts, the tens of thousands of Blue-Shirted soldiers swept across the Phunipo region and the Franconian plains. Across this vast territory, the banners fluttering atop city walls changed hands daily. One after another, the flags of the Dwarf Empire were cast aside and burned, while the imperial Dragon Banners of the Song were hoisted high above the cities, allowing the Blue-Shirts to conquer this massive expanse with virtually zero casualties.
The human civilians who had long been oppressed by the alien dwarves did not show any strong aversion to the rule of the Song. Just as previously anticipated, territories that had undergone the Dwarf Empire's purges were exceptionally "clean," making it effortless for the Song Kingdom to take them over!
Of course, this also had a great deal to do with the fact that the Song Kingdom was likewise a human nation. No matter what, being ruled by one's own kin was vastly superior to being subjugated by an alien race, wasn't it?!
To ensure the baseline combat effectiveness of the Blue-Shirts, Sun Li promoted veteran soldiers from the local garrison forces who had participated in pacification campaigns in Jinzhou to serve as grassroots squad leaders for the new recruits. The senior officers, meanwhile, were drawn from the Red-Shirted Army veterans who had survived the dwarf campaign.
These Red-Shirt veterans primarily formed the command echelon. Rather than being dispersed among the Blue-Shirt ranks as officers, all mid- and lower-level officers within the Blue-Shirts were trained system civilians with prior combat experience.
Instead, the Red-Shirt veterans were organized into separate elite squads. Attached to every Blue-Shirt legion of over ten thousand men would be a small Red-Shirt detachment of one to two hundred soldiers.
These specialized detachments were primarily responsible for crushing stubborn pockets of dwarf soldiers who stayed behind to resist on their own initiative—or rather, to throw their lives away.
The dwarf soldiers who dared to defy orders and remain behind were highly scattered, almost entirely devoid of any organized formation. Yet these dwarf soldiers were, without exception, stubborn "fools" who did not fear death—at least, that was how the Blue-Shirt soldiers described these frenzied dwarves who charged forward only to meet their doom.
Therefore, to prevent the massive Blue-Shirt army—the vast majority of whom were raw recruits—from suffering embarrassing casualty ratios at the hands of these scattered dwarf forces, attaching small squads of veteran Red-Shirts to each legion proved to be utterly essential!
If a large-scale defeat were to occur, the fearsome reputation forged by the Song Kingdom and the Dwarf Empire in pitched battle would truly be dragged through the mud!
As facts proved, this configuration was remarkably scientific. The sporadic dwarf soldiers encountered along the way were thoroughly annihilated by the Red-Shirt detachments like dry weeds smashing through rotten wood, leaving no need for the civilian-armed Blue-Shirts to even dirty their hands. The psychological benefit was immense: watching the dwarf soldiers being effortlessly slaughtered, most of the Blue-Shirts harbored the reassuring thought that the enemy was nothing special after all.
The morale of the entire Blue-Shirt army remained remarkably high throughout, which was vital for a newly minted army taking to the field for the very first time!
However, the good days of the Blue-Shirts met a formidable challenge upon reaching the city of Bernia. In this former capital of the Franconian Empire, nearly two thousand dwarf soldiers were heavily garrisoned—a figure that vastly exceeded the expectations of the twenty thousand Blue-Shirts tasked with taking over the city.
It seemed the Blue-Shirts were finally about to experience a true baptism of fire!