Chapter 1068 Operation Torch

The morning after the sports meeting, when Roland walked into the reception hall, all the officials who had been waiting there stood up.

"Everyone, sit down." He walked to the main seat, looked around, and said loudly, "I believe you all know the reason why I summoned you here - the war has begun!"

"This is not just a matter for the military. From this moment on, I require the managers of every agency and department in the Kingdom's administrative office to have a basic understanding of the situation and direction of the war, and to actively use their own capabilities. Let’s work together to cope with this expedition!” He said word by word, “Since the establishment of Neverwinter City, we have certainly achieved impressive results, but before the crisis of divine will, all of this was like a castle on an ice floe - not After capturing the ruins of Taquila, the red mist may engulf the entire continent at any time, and by then the devil will no longer be able to stop it. So this battle can only be won, not defeated!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Barov and others said in unison.

"Very good," Roland looked at Edith, "Next, the General Staff will explain the specific strategic direction."

"Yes," Beidi Pearl stood up and caressed her chest gracefully, "Please allow me to use a large map to explain."

She walked to Roland's side and tapped the map of the Western Territory on the background wall. After many revisions and additions, this map included almost half of the wild and uninhabited land, and the city of Neverwinter was also transformed from the center at the beginning. The position became an insignificant dot on the edge. Anyone who takes a quick glance will realize how small the human settlement is, and this is also one of Roland's original intentions.

He hopes that his ministers and officials can look further ahead, instead of being obsessed with the existing interests all day long.

"The first thing to make sure is that this Northern Expedition is different from what we have experienced in the past. It will last for a long time." Edith said straight to the point, "I hope everyone understands that we cannot speed up this battle. The battle is over quickly."

The sight-obstructing tactic used during the Battle of the North Slope will definitely not be used again - the distance between the Hidden Forest and the Taqila ruins is much greater than the destroyed outpost, and the time to lay the railway is at least measured in months. It must be impossible to keep the devil unaware.

On the vast fertile plain, the enemy had an absolute advantage in mobility, so Roland gave up the fantasy of winning by surprise from the beginning, and planned to invest superior forces in a head-on confrontation with the devil.

There is no doubt that this will be a battle of spears and shields.

This plan was already known to everyone, so no one seemed surprised.

Only Barov asked, "So do you have an estimated time?"

"It depends on the intensity of the devil's counterattack." Edith said calmly, "The General Staff commissioned the Taquila Witches to conduct multiple simulations. It is assumed that the scale of each enemy attack is similar to the Battle of the North Slope. One week later, If we do it once, within three months we can put the fortress guns in each other’s faces.”

"But they are not fools and cannot repeat the same mistakes over and over again."

"Yes, I think the devil will soon notice the role of the railway, and even the hidden forest at the rear. Of course, we are not unprepared - because the war situation is full of variables, I hope that the Executive Office can take the worst possible approach Plan to allocate resources."

"The worst-case scenario is..." Barov frowned.

"From spring to winter, until the new evil moon comes." Edith answered calmly.

"Isn't that tantamount to failure?" The old manager grinned, "This is not in line with His Majesty's requirements."

"As long as we don't withdraw our troops, the battle will not end. It can be called a stalemate at best." Beidi Pearl smiled slightly, "We will wait until the snow melts the next year and then fight again." Seeing the expressions of embarrassment on the faces of the ministers of the Executive Office, she added One sentence, "But the possibility of such a situation is not high. After all, the reproduction speed of devils cannot match the production of bullets. I am just taking it as a precaution."

Barov pondered for a moment, "In this case, I need to mobilize food from other territories as a reserve - the golden second seed has been distributed to all parts of the kingdom. If nothing happens, there should be a lot of surplus in this year's harvest. Collect them all. If so, it can basically meet the needs of the First Army for one year.”

"That's no problem," Agriculture Minister Seni Daly responded. "I will write to various city halls shortly."

"The work of the Ministry of Chemical Industry must also be adjusted," Barov continued, "to produce as much gunpowder and explosives as possible."

"There are only so many manpower, unless we reduce the production of some perfumes and soaps." Chemical Industry Minister Kemo Stryer spread his hands.

"Perhaps we can rent a group of alchemist apprentices from neighboring countries to support Gray Castle..." He looked at Roland, "I heard that Chenxi also has several alchemy workshops. Although they are not in Glow City, if His Majesty comes forward, then The Lord of the Dawn should do his best to cooperate, and he will definitely not care about the return period. In addition... there are more than a hundred people in the First Army stationed in the Cage Mountain area. The alchemists of Wolf Heart and Everwinter can also try to consider it. ?”

"In principle, it's no problem," Roland nodded with satisfaction, "Let's make a plan according to your ideas."

He was really pleased with the other party's performance.

At the beginning of the unification of the kingdom, he had thought that the new political system might need two to three years to run in before it could play its due role. After all, it is quite difficult to change the inherent thinking - for decades, these people have been accustomed to the secular rules that all territorial matters belong to the lords and the lords do not interfere with each other. They are suddenly required to broaden their horizons and put other things into consideration. It would be too difficult to treat the territory as part of the territory that can be driven.

However, he found that he had underestimated the charm of power.

When the power in his hands suddenly expands several times, even if he is not aware of the nature of the change, he will try to use it. Barov is the one who performs the best.

Not only did he see the Kingdom of Dawn, he even thought of the possibility of using the army to exert influence and seize resources from further away.

After everyone finished the discussion, Edith continued, "However, it is not enough to destroy the devil's station head-on. For some reasons, we must eliminate all the enemies as much as possible. This requires us to cut off the devil's retreat before the final general attack is launched. , including the sky and the ground, and only witches can do this."

"Some... reasons?" Barov wondered, "Wouldn't taking a detour to the rear greatly increase their risk?"

"Because of the curse." Roland took over the topic. "There is a high-level devil among the enemies who can cast magic spells from a long distance. The principle of its operation is not clear yet, but it is probably similar to the church witch Black Veil. If it can escape , even if the First Army wins, it will be a tragic victory."

There was a sudden intake of breath in the hall.

He could kill just by making eye contact. A single encounter killed more than 700 people in the First Army, which was the largest casualty since the formation of the army. That battle made everyone remember the name Black Sha.

If the devil could cast a curse with his gaze, then it would be a natural choice to kill him first.

Roland glanced at Lightning, who had his head buried in his chest at the end of the long table, and couldn't help but sigh to himself.

He could completely guess the other person's mood.

Let the sisters take this risk for her, even if no one complains, she will probably feel extremely guilty.

But now there is no better option.

Roland stood up from the main seat, "In short, the purpose of this expedition is to completely eliminate the threat of the obelisk before the War of Divine Will, and at the same time weaken the devil's war potential. The operation is codenamed "Torch". The enemy's light of hope is also the original fire that illuminates the entire fertile plain. Please do your best to open up new territories for Graycastle! "

Everyone stood up, touched their chests and bent down.

"As you command, Your Majesty!"