1161 Im Here to Invade You Part 1 (1/2)
Saleen said to Marquis Carloranna, \”I'll take care of Pompeii City. You won't have to bear much of the brunt from the assault. You can use the materials I provide to build new armies, which can be trained when attacking Pompeii. The true battlefield should happen between us and the Holy See.\”
\”Your Highness, you've brought less than 2000 with you!\” While Marquis Carloranna was very impressed with Saleen's powers, he still deemed it to be too straining for Saleen to take on the Grand Duke personally. From his perspective, the power of one person was always limited.
\”No, I brought 100,000 with me and there are hundreds of level nine ones among them. The Grand Duke's Pompeii's estate is not a true duchy, so he can't have amassed too large of an army. Take down Pompeii City and it'd be the end of everything. I'll leave the rest to you.\”
Marquis Carloranna knew that the mage would not lie to dupe his allies, but the marquis was unable to see Saleen's army. Saleen smiled. \”I can guarantee that my demon army has absolute loyalty.\”
\”Well then, Your Highness Saleen, I've heard that you're capable of employing special equipment to mobilize large demon armies. Now I wonder if we can be of help in anything at all.\”
\”Marquis, whether Lex ends up becoming empress is of no concern to me. What I'm concerned about is your loyalty towards her, and how far you'd back her. The war between the Holy See and Qin might slow down due to what is happening in Daliang City, but the war will come back sooner or later. The south side of Qin is connected to Cloudflow geographically. Would you fight Cloudflow for Lex?\”
Marquis Carloranna answered without much doubt, \”I and the other two marquises are willing to back Her Highness Lex to become the next empress, but our current emperor… well, he's still Lex's biological brother after all. We'll only be able to keep things as they're now until he steps down, not supporting any of the prince's decisions.\”
His words were as clear as they had to be. The current Qin emperor was of common folk and of poor health. Lex, on the other hand, was a level nine sorcerer and could live at least for over 1000 years.
\”There are more than 300 nobles in the southwestern region other than you, and they have considerable military power. How many of them do you think you could sway to your side?\”
\”274 of them. The others are not worth buying over.\”
\”Excellent. Few places in southwestern Qin are connected to Cloudflow. What you need to do is to make sure the remaining ones will not get any chance to sneak up on you. Your enemies will come from Cloudflow.\”
\”What about Pompeii City?\”
\”I won't be handing the city over to Safilos once I'm done taking it.\”
\”Are you sure about that, Your Highness?\” Carloranna did not fear Safilos. What he meant was if Saleen was sure that he could hold Pompeii City. The city was right beside a river, which made it tactically important.
\”Safilos won't be a problem. The problem is Alchemy City.\” Saleen paid close attention to Carloranna's expression. No fluctuations were seen on Carloranna's face. He's truly a golden grand swordmaster. They might have reservations about mages, but they do have limits.
\”Your Highness, Alchemy City has never posed a threat to the empire. It was due to the expansion of the empire's power throughout the ages that led to how things are today.\” Carloranna's view was new, but Saleen had no intentions of delving deeper to see if it was accurate. He only needed Carloranna and the nobles to not fear Alchemy City.
Saleen asked for 20,000 soldiers from Carloranna. He did not ask for them from Carloranna alone. It was a total gathered by all three marquises as well as some from other nearby nobles. The 20,000 soldiers were tasked with escorting Saleen into the grand duke's estate, and he had no intention of saying hi first. If that proved inadequate in angering the Grand Duke, then Saleen would resort to writing a letter demanding the Grand Duke to hand over his son.
Southern Qin had always been prosperous and powerful. The three marquises and over a dozen nearby nobles took just one day to gather the needed numbers for Saleen. It had to do with being prepared, but being able to mobilize a 20,000-person army meant that the southern nobles' combat capacity had always been intact.
Saleen stayed at Gauss City for two days before meeting the southwestern nobles, signing over 300 contracts and taking the 20,000 soldiers onto the Grand Duke's turf.
Saleen only took notice of the perks provided by his status. He was able to get the southwestern nobles to comply because he was a king and had land and troops. It was as if he was begging for help even though it was a joint operation.
The wars that Saleen participated in before usually involved millions, but wars involving 10,000 were large enough. The 20,000-persin marched and protected Saleen's entourage all the way into the Grand Duke's territory. The nobles siding with the grand duke panicked.
The first to rise against Saleen out of panic was a viscount who attempted to mobilize his forces, about 1000 soldiers, to stop Saleen's attempt. Saleen was invading, after all!
It was the kind of response that Saleen had wished for. He commanded his army and crushed the noble's personal guards. The viscount did not expect Saleen to truly make a move, and Saleen did more than that. He took well over half of the opposing forces prisoner.
While hostilities between the southwestern nobles were not really serious, but Grand Duke of Pompeii's actions had led many to resent him. The Grand Duke's noble army suffered over a hundred casualties and the rest were taken prisoner by Saleen, who then handed them over to the southwestern nobles to be returned to their respective territories. They would be dealt with after the war was over.