After listening to Earl Stein's words, everyone relaxed and leaned back in their seats, looking at the territory's military commander with ease.
Just as Su Li summarized, after this meeting, everyone was full of expectations and hopes for next year's endeavors.
As long as development is stable, the finances will gradually balance next year.
In this case, a light war and a large amount of spoils are indeed an opportunity to improve the territory's finances.
So Su Li sat back in his chair, leaning against the backrest and armrests, and looked at Earl Stein, asking, "Then, Marshal, please continue to introduce the details."
Earl Stein calmly replied, "In the southwest of our territory, due to the unstable situation, a rebel army has emerged. They have been capturing cities and territories, growing in scale, and attracting a large number of peasant mobs, forest bandits, cultists, and Chaos Knights."
"Currently, their size has reached more than 3,000 people, and they have broken through four or five strongholds, destroying at least two border pioneering territories, and are still wreaking havoc in the southwest region."
"Through our scouts' investigations, we speculate that this harsh winter has made it difficult for them to sustain their food supply, so they had to launch a rebellion. Of course, it may also be a conspiracy launched in secret by the followers of Tzeentch. We have seen many Tzeentchian army vanguards and Tzeentchian Chaos Warriors among them, and there are even rumors that there is a Tzeentchian Blue Scribe among them."
"If there really is some powerful spellcaster in the opposing army, then we may have to ask Her Highness Aeryria to join our team to help us fight against Tzeentch's powerful magic."
A rebel army has appeared?
This situation was indeed beyond Su Li's expectations. For the current strength of the territory, this is not considered pressure at all. If anything, it can even be considered a big gift before the end of the year.
The opponent's scale is about 3,000 people, including a large number of cannon fodder units such as peasant mobs and forest bandits. The main force may only be a few hundred armored elites.
The Black Forest Territory's 2,000 elite troops, combined with nearly 500 church knights, would crush them in one charge.
As long as it is confirmed that there are Chaos followers and demons inside, the church knights will enthusiastically participate in the war, and they will even be fully armed and gather here on their own without Su Li's call.
This is the most important way for them to gain glory for the goddess. The main purpose of the church knights is to help human territories fight against the armies of the evil gods and promote the teachings of their church.
In this case, if more than 3,000 rebels are killed in battle by the hundreds, and hundreds are purged and purified, there will still be one or two thousand of those bewitched civilians and looters left. They can provide the territory with a large amount of slave labor after the Spring Awakening Ceremony.
These ordinary people, as long as they have not been exposed to too much Chaos, there is still a possibility of redemption.
The number one beauty of the elves, Morathi, was a bewitching female prophet rescued by the Phoenix King Aenarion from the army of Slaanesh.
Moreover, behind the prosperity of the Empire's upper echelons and cities, countless devout followers of the Churches of Tzeentch and Slaanesh lurk. These people live ordinary lives on the surface, but in reality, they collude in secret, plotting wrongdoing.
Many ordinary people, even if they come into contact with them, have no way of detecting that they are followers of demons.
This is a bit like the situation of this rebel army. Those huge numbers of the lower class are no different from the civilians living in the city. Although they are ruled by followers of Tzeentch or Slaanesh, to be honest, the followers of Tzeentch may be too lazy to corrupt them.
To supply such a legion to fight across hundreds of miles, the number of farmers maintaining logistical support may be several times larger, especially after the victory, the army and prisoners combined may be close to 4,000 people.
Supplying such a huge team with food all the way would mean that the territory would not be able to do anything else.
Escorting prisoners is too slow; it is faster for them to march over themselves.
After the Green Dragon War, the territory slightly suppressed the pace of external expansion. In addition to the revenge on Duke Archibald of the Solland province, the inability to withstand the supply pressure of external expansion was also an important reason.
If this legion can be successfully pacified before the end of the year, and thousands of people are captured, it will be equivalent to the Black Forest Territory completing a military expansion.
So Su Li raised his hand and calmly said, "Then this matter will be entrusted to you, Marshal. Since you have already proposed this plan, you must already have a detailed plan?"
Earl Stein confidently replied, "For such a simple battle, many generals and knights in our territory have already proposed many feasible plans. After browsing through them, I feel that Gryphon Knight Edwin's plan is good, so I plan to hand over the command of this battle to him."
"Okay, I trust your judgment, my Marshal. Give me the battle plan later, and I'll take a look."
With the last matter arranged, the meeting was declared over.
Then Edwin personally reported his combat plan to Su Li. The core of the combat plan still conforms to the characteristics of the Church of the Radiant Sun Goddess, first luring the enemy into the pre-selected battlefield, and defeating the enemy with overwhelming advantage in a situation that is completely favorable to oneself.
Specifically for this battle, Edwin plans to send out a caravan carrying a large amount of food, and then attract the attention of the rebels.
After the rebels take the bait, they will decisively retreat, attracting the rebels to chase into the ambush circle.
The battlefield for the decisive battle was chosen in a basin called Starfall Land, which is a plain not far from the southwest of the territory, formed by a meteorite impact. The terrain gradually rises from south to north, with huge meteorite fragments scattered on the ground, and then a series of steep cliffs are formed on the north side.
The reason for choosing this place is that a full 4 cannons and 3 mortars are set up on the north side, which can cause huge damage to the rebels from a high position.
However, the dwarves will not open fire the first time the rebels enter the range, but will wait until the rebels have entered half of the range before firing fiercely at full power, putting the rebels in a dilemma.
To continue charging forward, they have to charge from the lowlands to the highlands, facing the overwhelming barrage of attacks from a large number of dwarven musketeers and halfling archers in the north of the basin.
But if they retreat, they can only be attacked and covered by artillery fire continuously, and their formation will inevitably be unable to maintain.
Then at this time, the human cavalry launches a fierce assault on the retreating rebels, and the rebels, like a plate of loose sand, have no way to form an effective counterattack.
Earl Stein and Hild will not participate in this battle and will be used to train new generals.
In order to ensure Edwin's win rate, Handsome Gilles will lead the Knights to cooperate with him.
At the same time, to prevent any demons or Chosen from appearing in the rebels, Aeryria will help to guard the area.
Of course, unless the opponent has a powerful spellcaster, Aeryria will not take action.
This is also the first time Aeryria has cooperated with the Black Forest Territory's army, which is already quite like the prototype of the Empire's main army.
Some Elector Counts of the Empire will ride dragons to the battlefield. Of course, most Elector Counts prefer their griffons. For example, the Emperor of the Empire likes to keep dragons in the royal zoo, while he rides a griffon to the battlefield.
Su Li didn't have a particular fondness for griffins; he was a man determined to become a dragon knight.
Especially since Aili Ruirui was a beautiful little dragon girl, Su Li wasn't stingy about riding her into battle in various ways.
After reviewing the battle plan, Su Li rode Aili Ruirui for an entire night of knightly training, and then ordered the army to set out the next day, preparing for an ambush.
The first wave to set out was undoubtedly the merchant caravan used to lure the enemy. In this world, merchant caravans often served as spies and intelligence gatherers.
The caravan's route deliberately passed through areas with frequent rebel activity. The caravan's flags prominently displayed the Black Forest Territory's emblem, while the caravan members were scouts and light infantry disguised as merchants. Along the way, they deliberately abandoned some damaged carriages, with sacks of grain on them, and even intentionally allowed rebel prisoners to see the caravan's movements. All of this was sending a signal to the rebels: "There is a large amount of grain here, easily obtainable."
Sure enough, the rebels quickly took the bait after discovering this caravan. Hunger and greed drove them to abandon caution, and they frantically launched a pursuit of the caravan.
But they didn't know that the reason these caravan members dared to be so bold was entirely because they were all battle-hardened veterans with the Eagle Eye vision blessed by the Radiant Goddess. They were able to manipulate the bloated rebels at will.
So, when the rebels chased the caravan into the Starfall Land, the scene before them made them ecstatic: on the vast plain, a large human caravan was slowly moving north.
The rebels excitedly howled and charged into the basin, launching their pursuit.
And what followed became a foregone conclusion.
According to the plan submitted by Edwin, he had already set up artillery positions in the cliff群 to the north. Four cannons and three mortars were hidden in the gaps between the meteorite fragments and the cliffs, with their muzzles pointing south, and the firing elements calculated.
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When the rebels chased to about half the range from the cliffs, the dwarven artillerymen decisively fired a volley. In an instant, the cannons roared! The huge explosion echoed across the plain, and the shells rained down on the rebel ranks. Meteorite fragments were blasted in all directions, and the rebel formation was instantly disrupted.
The dwarves' artillery not only caused great physical damage, but also created psychological deterrence. The rebels immediately realized that they had fallen into an ambush. The performance of this rabble was even worse than the professional officers of the Black Forest Territory had imagined. Some continued their reckless pursuit, while others were already terrified and hysterically retreated.
Before the entire formation had even been bombarded for a few rounds, it was in complete chaos. The army of three thousand was completely disorganized, scattered across the plain like loose sand, stretching for more than ten miles. In this situation, they couldn't even cooperate with each other, let alone resist.
Just as the rebels were plunged into chaos, Gilles' cavalry decisively charged out from the east and west sides, sweeping the flanks of the rebels like the wind, completely scattering the already chaotic rebels.
The rebels' rout was far faster than expected. They tried to find cover to avoid the cavalry's charge, but the terrain of the Starfall Land was too open, without any natural barriers to rely on. The iron hooves of the knightly legions trampled the rebels' corpses and wounded, and blood dyed this land that had been struck by meteorites red.
And their overly stretched and loose distribution made it impossible for them to cause any damage to the cavalry. They were completely lambs to the slaughter. A single fleeing soldier often faced the siege of more than a dozen elite knights, while the fleeing soldier's other comrades might even be dozens of meters away.
In this situation, although there was indeed a Tzeentch spellcaster in the monster wave, there was simply no chance to reverse the situation.
Aili Ruirui had been circling in the air, and when she discovered that there were not many guards around the enemy's spellcaster, she decisively swooped down from the air, and actually relied on the jagged and ferocious bone spurs of the Green Dragon to cut the spellcaster into pieces in close combat.
This kind of warfare was the Green Dragon's favorite.
When one's own side has the advantage in numbers and the overall situation is set, when the other side is about to collapse and one's own side has already launched an attack with thunderous cheers, the insidious and cunning Green Dragon, who has been observing for a long time, decisively strikes, thereby decisively determining the victory or defeat of the battle.
After the war, Aili Ruirui transformed into human form, and looked at the countless prisoners kneeling densely below on the cliffs, her cold and delicate brows slightly furrowed.
She had originally planned to fight the war against the Black Forest Territory in this way.
But she just didn't know why, in the end, the ending became that she had to be blindfolded every night, kneeling on the white sheets, being conquered and whipped by Su Li.
Of course, Su Li was not aware of Aili Ruirui's doubts.
On the last day of this year, the night before the Spring's Rebirth Ceremony was about to begin, Xilu De found Su Li in the hot spring and reported the good news of the war's victory to him.
"Lord, Edwin and Gilles have sent back a front-line victory report. We have already killed the rebel commander and the wizard in battle."
"Edwin is very thorough in his handling of the aftermath, ordering the execution of 845 Greenskin Warbands, cultists, Chaos Knights, and heinous looters."
"We have captured 1742 peasant thugs, forest bandits, and some Badlands nomads."
Su Li leaned back against the artificial mountain in the hot spring, enjoying the gentle massage Ingrid gave him. After killing Duke Archibald, his reputation soared, and no petty thieves dared to cause trouble again, so he had recently enjoyed and toured many places in the territory.
Even in some holy places, he and Ingrid and Aili Ruirui left many traces of cultivation.
Under the relaxation of his mood, there were faint signs of a breakthrough in his cultivation progress.
This made him secretly surprised. Could he really be a cultivation genius?
If he continued to develop at this rate, he might really be able to break through to a high-level elite knight, or even a champion knight, next year.
So he had been in a good mood recently, lying back and asking: "Are there still Greenskin Warbands in the rebels? Are they mercenaries? Do we have any special captures among them?"
Greenskin Warbands sometimes accept the employment of some rebels, and there are even some notorious Greenskin mercenary regiments.
Many races in this world are known for being mercenaries.
In this regard, the most outstanding are of course the Ogre mercenaries.
Xilu De nodded and replied: "We captured about 230 Ogres among them. However, they have already been targeted by the halfling caravans that follow our army to provide supplies and seek business opportunities."
"The halflings are willing to pay 10 gold coins per person to buy these mercenary prisoners from us. In addition, they will buy elite Ogre Bull warriors for 230 gold crowns."
The corners of Su Li's mouth rose. Sure enough, everything was as Marshal Orstein said, this was an opportunity.
Before he even had time to deal with these spoils, he was already able to earn nearly 3,000 gold crowns.
It would be great if every battle was so easy. If he fought two or three battles a month, he would be able to save a considerable amount of wealth for the territory.
But that's not all. Xilu De continued: "We also selected elites from the prisoners to replenish the Blacksteel Redemption Knight Order. This time, a total of 3 elite knights, 10 formal knights, and 27 trainee knights were selected. These people were all imperial fugitives, thugs, wandering knights, or looters with many crimes on their bodies. We plan to have them serve in the Blacksteel Redemption Knight Order for a period of time to wash away their sins before considering whether to absorb them into the territory."
Su Li nodded in satisfaction. With 40 new knights, the Blacksteel Redemption Knight Order would reach a size of 300 people.
These 40 knights alone are worth nearly 1,000 gold crowns at slave value.
The remaining labor force is worth at least 5,000 gold crowns.
This battle's revenue is at least 10,000 gold crowns.
Su Li said with a smile: "On the last day before the Spring's Rebirth Ceremony, such good news has come. This is a good sign. Order them to return to the territory as soon as possible and prepare to go into production immediately after the grand ceremony tomorrow! We missed this ceremony last year, so we must hold a grand one this year."
