Chapter 1379 - 1295: Pre-Battle Planning

Chapter 1379: Chapter 1295: Pre-Battle Planning

In earlier times, it was rare for someone of the Pope’s status to personally lead a Holy Seat campaign.

But in the eyes of most Holy Alliance people—especially the old Thousand River Valley People—it really isn’t anything new.

Back in the founding days, when Horn’s papal status as the Saint’s Grandson hadn’t yet gained broad recognition, he already had the nickname "War God Pope."

In several major wars, Horn had almost never been absent; this time is no exception.

Once the decision was issued, the Holy Alliance’s political machine began running at high speed.

The first step was to reallocate funds originally earmarked for other theaters to the Central War Army.

Then, all the newspapers started wildly exposing the illegal business operations of many of the wealthy and oligarchs—monopolies, unfair trusts, syndicates and so on—starting to prepare public opinion.

Very quickly, Horn gathered the wealthy class, oligarchs, and old-money noble families from across the Holy Alliance in the ry Court Barracks and held a symposium.

Among them were not only oligarchs who had migrated in from outside, but also entrepreneurs who had risen on the back of Holy Alliance economic policies.

They only had to pay a bit less than the ordinary oligarchs.

At the symposium Horn announced the Wartime Excess Profits Progressive Tax Act, and notified them of the issuance of Pillar Bonds.

As for those who were too busy engaging in monopolies, forming trusts, and syndicates to show up, he simply ordered the Cheka to arrest them all.

After two days of meetings, this wealthy class had collectively made up back taxes, bought bonds, donated money, paid fines, and even "voluntarily" purchased several rows of townhouses in the ry Court Barracks.

As a result, the military budget was put together within a week; they handed His Holy Father roughly sixty to eighty thousand Gold Coins.

That was about enough to keep the Holy Alliance’s cash flow normal, since those sixty to eighty thousand Gold Coins could leverage a doubled multiplier.

In other words, using those sixty to eighty thousand Gold Coins, they could print around a hundred and twenty thousand gold pounds’ worth of Devotion Notes.

During these seven days, Horn had no intention of sitting idle; he hadn’t fought a war in too long, and His Holy Father was warming up.

The ry Court Barracks again recreated the situation back when forces were sent to Xia Lvcheng; in front of the Holy Seat Mansion, staff officers came and went, and carriages jammed the streets like a bog.

Monks and delegates in high-quality cloth monk robes hurried down the streets with files and red lacquered wooden document cases in their arms.

After several rounds of meetings, the situation on the Huaqiu City front had become clear.

"We can see that after they took Laurel Fortress, the vampires launched an offensive from two directions."

Standing before a massive wall-sized map, Bernardo pointed at positions on the map with his baton.

In front of him, on the long table in the Fate Room, two rows of senior officers sat half-turned to look at the map.

By the windows, war corps clerks and staff officers were busily taking notes.

"In the White Sand direction, there are thirty thousand vampires from the Archelon Clan Army and the Noir Clan Army.

In the main attack direction, Golden Fleece Beach, there are thirty thousand Royal Palace Imperial Guard, plus seventy-five thousand vampires from the Ravennor, Sylvaticus, and Nereus clan armies.

In the Windmill direction, there are two reserve armies totaling fifteen thousand vampires.

As for the River Island area, there are roughly forty thousand vampires from the Sanguinon and Vespera clan armies."

Because the Sustaining Council had been continuously infiltrated by the Cheka, the vampires’ deployments inside the Holy Alliance—while not exactly fully transparent—were at least very clear in terms of unit designations and rough numbers.

Even so, these numbers are still staggering.

Just along the Golden Plains alone, there are nearly two hundred thousand vampires, and that’s not even counting those in the Storm Cape area.

And this figure is already after their attrition against Falan and after sending troops to reinforce the Northern Route Army.

Preliminary estimates put more than a hundred thousand vampires in the Roaring Corridor, and another twenty to thirty thousand garrison vampires in the Thorn Garden region.

If you add the Servant Army, the Royal Court’s total strength this time could reach around half a million.

For an empire, that kind of military mobilization capability is already sky-high.

Remember, back in the day, the combined armies of the empire’s three great kingdoms didn’t even reach four hundred thousand.

And they were fighting at home; the Royal Court’s current force is just the Expeditionary Army—at least one-third of their troops are still stuck on the Western Continent and can’t come over.

Yet according to staff calculations, these five hundred thousand mobile troops are pretty much Serafe’s ceiling.

Given the vampires’ genderless and universal-conscription racial traits, if this were the Holy Alliance, we’d be "exploding" a million soldiers easily.

Under Serafe’s clan confederation system, half a million field troops is the upper limit; she’s already emptied out the family silver.

In other words, we don’t need that much—just annihilating two hundred thousand, or even a hundred thousand vampires in formed units would be enough to make the whole structure collapse.

This is why Horn always demands that the war army commanders take destroying the enemy’s living forces as their primary objective.

There are only so many vampire legions. If too many die, the clans will start tearing each other apart.

The Royal Court’s current façade of unity against the outside and political clarity exists only because they’ve used war to divert internal contradictions, right?

Serafe is too radical; she hasn’t completed a lot of necessary military-technological steps.

Or rather, if she wants to carry out a military reform like the Holy Alliance’s, she must first launch an internal religious reform similar to the Holy Sect and carry out a redistribution of resources within vampire society.

But she hasn’t done that; she compromised and made concessions, won over the majority of the clans—and then simply went to war.

Aside from the Holy Alliance Saintess and the Cardinal Group, who vaguely grasp the reasons, everyone else is still in the fog.

"But regardless of her motives," Horn turned to face the other staff officers and commanders, "our objective is single: annihilate their living forces. So even though we’re going in as relief, if the situation becomes untenable, don’t insist on holding Huaqiu City at all costs. Understood?"

"Understood, understood." The Battle Commanders all nodded.

"In this offensive, we absolutely have to coordinate with the Falan Army." Horn shifted sideways to eye the map. "Bernardo, continue with a rundown of the Falan Army."

Bernardo took his baton and resumed tracing lines on the map.

"On the Falan side, please look at the situation map."

The officers craned their necks; some even pulled out field glasses.

On the map, along the Narran River running east to west, two tributaries lay on its southern side.

These are the Inn River and the Isar River; Laurel Fortress and the first defensive line had previously been established on the Isar.

The current second defensive line has been built on the Inn.

Once the Inn is breached, the land from the Inn to Huaqiu City is essentially an open plain, with no terrain left to defend.

"Let me remind everyone of one thing." Before introducing the Falan Army, Bernardo spoke again. "The Falan Army is not as weak as you imagine. Their training level is already about on par with ours back in the Second Thousand River Valley War.

The reason they keep losing is, first, artillery inferiority; second, a lack of a mature command system and large-formation command experience.

Judged purely by single-legion combat power, they’re still not to be taken lightly. Their courage fighting for their homeland deserves your respect."

Bernardo said this because many officers in the Central War Corps loved to crack jokes at Falan’s expense, and he wanted them to take Falan seriously.

With Horn present, the officers obviously couldn’t fool around; even if they were unconvinced, they had to nod along.

Sighing once, Bernardo continued explaining the deployment of the Falan Legion.

Simply put, a hundred thousand Falan troops are arrayed in two straight-line snake formations along the Inn.

On the Royal Court side, the vampire legions in the Golden Fleece Beach direction are making the main attack, while the White Sand legions make a feint.

"In other words, the forces engaged in the battle will be a hundred and forty thousand versus a hundred and twenty thousand; the advantage is on the enemy’s side."

"Not just a hundred and forty thousand—there are at least another thirty to fifty thousand human Servant Army troops."

"What’s their combat effectiveness like?"

"They can’t beat us—but they can certainly disgust you."

"That lot is vile..."

"If I remember correctly, some Servant Army units are under Cheka control, right? Can they play a role?"

The officers murmured among themselves, and soon a sharp question surfaced: "Your Majesty, will this be the Royal Court’s decisive battle with us? If we’re going to aid them, how long will we have to keep it up?"

"First, this won’t be the decisive battle. With summer about to begin, Serafe isn’t that foolish.

Second, as I said earlier, as long as we can hold the second defensive line until summer arrives, we can launch a counteroffensive."

When summer comes, tax revenues flow back in, just in time to mount a major counterattack.

This operation is both a probe and the groundwork for that counteroffensive, making it easier for the North to gain a bigger advantage.

As the saying goes, ’golden corners, silver edges, grass belly.’ Horn is churning the waters in the central sector precisely so the northern front can keep fishing in troubled waters.

Once the northern lands belong to the Holy Alliance and there are no more worries at our back, then the north and south can press in together and wipe out this horde of invading vampires in one stroke!