Chapter 601: Chapter 601. To Defeat Without Attacking
At the low hill where the First Demon Army set up camp, they also set up a field command center. It was here that Amon and Xin Wuming were monitoring Steam Water City. A large table with Khode’s map was laid on this table. It was from here that Amon sent orders to the many detachnts that raided the surrounding settlents.
Xin Wuming was now looking at the map. Most of the ti, he followed Amon’s order without bothering to question the reason. After Amon’s recent explanation about why they had not attacked Steam Water City, he noticed a peculiar thing with the positioning of their detachnts.
They raided the small settlents and forced the survivors to migrate. However, the way the army detachnts were positioned made it so everyone who fled were forced to move toward Steam Water City. It was their soldiers who herded the survivors here.
"Brother... Are we raising the city’s population on purpose?" Xin Wuming asked.
"We are," Amon answered.
"Why...?"
"You will see," Amon answered without providing any details. "This will take so ti. As I said, patience. You’d better spend your ti training and cultivating. No need to worry about other stuff for now."
Xin Wuming thought that was easier said than done, but he had learned to put complete trust in Amon. Since Amon had said so, he excused himself and returned to his tent to cultivate. Amon cultivated out in the open while continuing to monitor the city.
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Ti continued to pass. Things continued to move while all parties went about their matters.
Half a year had passed since Farghous invaded Echos, but Echos still couldn’t chase the invaders out. They managed to limit Farghous’ advance to only the two conquered cities. Skirmishes continued to happen. Battles were repeated, but no one gained an advantage over the others.
In terms of army size, Farghous had the advantage. Echos was stretched thin due to the conflict with Khode. Even before that, Echos had experienced more turmoil than Farghous. The rebels and conflicts with Kazhan’s tribes caused them to constantly lose soldiers. Farghous possessed more stable growth, which allowed them to accumulate soldiers without disruption.
Still, Echos had the terrain advantage. Farghous relied on a continuous supply from their country to sustain the invasion. Echos didn’t have the sa problem. Rations and volunteer cultivators continued to trickle in from all over, allowing them to maintain their fighting force.
Hence, the situation could be considered as a stalemate.
During this period, another event occurred, which prompted an official stalemate. The King of Echos had a wedding. The would-be queen was a commoner nad Yang Li. Many kingdom officials opposed this wedding, but Huang San would have none of it.
Due to the circumstances, the kingdom could not hold a grand wedding. The wedding would be simple for the royalty’s standard, but Huang Ti still had to return to the capital to attend the wedding.
Out of respect, the King of Farghous proposed a ceasefire for one week. He himself took this opportunity to return to Farghous to deal with problems that resulted from his absence. He promised Huang Ti that he would not co again if Huang Ti did not join the battlefield. The two had an agreent and were content to leave the fighting to their armies.
Amon received the news and an invitation to return to Echos to attend the wedding. He congratulated the couple via a ssage talisman but refused to leave Khode.
As for the war between Gyleth Marx against the combined forces of Kazhan and Oredolia, Gyleth Marx had the montum at the beginning of the war. Gyleth Marx took over almost half of Oredolia’s territory during their advance, but it slowed down after that.
The resistance beca fiercer when Gyleth Marx’s army approached the headquarters of the Temple of Divinity, which also served as Oredolia’s capital.
Oredolia didn’t have a large territory, but almost all its population was the Temple of Divinity’s faithful followers. Hence, when the enemy was nearing the gate to the embodint of their faith, these followers willingly joined the fight, even when they had neither the training nor the equipnt to support them.
Kazhan didn’t stay idle. For so reason, Gyleth Marx seed to concentrate their invasion on Oredolia. It didn’t show much interest in invading Kazhan’s territory. This gave Kazhan the room to launch aggressive moves directly toward Gyleth Marx’s territory. This forced Gyleth Marx to divide their force, further causing difficulties for Gyleth Marx to advance their invasion.
In a mild way of putting it, all the forces that moved around the world seed to reach a weird kind of equilibrium, where neither side could advance, yet they refused to retreat.
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"No change in the enemy’s camp?" An aged man with a long, black beard asked a soldier on the wall.
The soldier turned to the aged man. He could see the tenderness in the man’s eyes. His tense mood, from having to constantly monitor the enemy, dissolved after eting that gaze. He answered, "No change yet, Mayor Shi Zhang."
Shi Zhang nodded absent-mindedly. "So long as they don’t attack this city or the refugees that co here, we shouldn’t worry about them."
"I understand, Mayor. I will notify you imdiately if they make any move."
"Very good," Shi Zhang nodded appreciatively while smiling at the soldier. This brightened the soldier’s mood considerably.
"Keep up the good work. We are counting on you," Shi Zhang said before walking away. The soldier returned to looking at the Echos Army’s camp. His morale had recharged.
Shi Zhang walked along the city wall and studied the refugees moving toward them. The number had significantly lessened this month. He figured that most of the population who fled the onslaught of Echos’ army should have probably arrived.
He then turned and looked inside the city. The streets were filled with tents to accommodate the refugees. Rubbish was everywhere. He sighed. It couldn’t be helped. With so many people here, it was difficult to maintain order. His city guards had notified him of the increase in cris committed by the refugees. He told the guards to be lenient with those people. They had already experienced many hardships due to losing their hos.
As he made his round, two won walked over to him. One was Zee Min, a Khode General who also took refuge here. Her army helped the city guards maintain order. As for the other woman, she was his beloved wife as well as his capable aide, An i. She was the one overseeing the various administration issues of the city.
"Husband, we need to talk," An i said. Her expression was serious.
"Do you an in private?" Shi Zhang said with a smile.
"This isn’t the ti to joke. We have serious trouble," An i replied. She was used to her husband’s carefree manner, but it still annoyed her at tis.
"Sigh, honey. We have been in a serious matter ever since that army showed up," Shi Zhang gestured at the Echos Army’s camp outside. "Worrying about it doesn’t help matters. We can only do what we can and the best we can."
"I’m afraid that approach is not sufficient this ti," An i said. Her face remained serious. "I have made a rough calculation. With how crowded we are, we won’t last a year."
"What do you an?" Shi Zhang asked. His forehead started to furrow.
"We can’t feed everyone," An i said.
"Don’t we have the artificial farms in the Northern part of the city to help us produce food?"
"They are not enough," An i replied. "They are designed to feed our normal population, and perhaps a little bit more. If we must feed the refugees as well, our storehouse will sooner or later run out of rations. We must either expand the farms outside the city wall or reduce the mouths we need to feed."
Shi Zhang shook his head. "Expanding outside ans they are unprotected. The enemy can just destroy it before we can harvest anything."
"Then we must chase away so of these refugees," An i stated.
"That is out of the question!" Shi Zhang exclaid.
"Then at least, turn away the people that keep coming here!"
"We can’t turn away people in need!"
"Then, what? Are we going to just pretend there is no problem? Sooner or later, our storehouse will be empty. People will be hungry. What happens when people start to starve to death?"
"We can... We will think of a solution. There will be one. We can’t give up on these people just because of a difficulty in the future."
"This future is fast approaching," An i warned. "Whether you like it or not, we must do sothing about it."
"I’m afraid this is what the enemy wants," Zee Min interrupted their quarrel.
Shi Zhang and An i turned to her. Shi Zhang asked, "What do you an, General Zee Min?"
Zee Min looked at the Echos Army’s camp with a grim expression. She said, "I always wondered why they just sit there and do nothing with the refugees flooding into this city. Now, I understand. They want to defeat us without attacking the city. They want to starve us to death."
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