Chapter 495: Chapter 16: Before the Battle (2)_2
The entire High Court was in complete chaos.
"I really can’t believe they can be this disorganized, do they have no basic military knowledge?"
"No, I think it’s quite normal." Belle said to Jones, "Previously, I couldn’t have imagined it either. The Blood Clan has no books on warfare, we haven’t been involved in a war for over ten thousand years. Even, it’s questionable if there’s ever been a real war in Blood Clan history. The largest battles I’ve heard of involve a few Blood Clan Lords sending out their zombie armies, totaling no more than a thousand people. Although we often see operas depicting human wars, most of the plot revolves around love, discussing the details of war is very rare, you could even say there’s none."
Alright, that’s indeed the case, reminiscing, if Jones hadn’t gone to the human world, following Gray, he would also have no concept of war.
The entire Blood Clan had touched upon a field that was a blind spot in their knowledge.
Amidst this chaos, the Blood Clan spent three months.
...
In late April of the Fourth Year of Silver Moon, the well-prepared City Lord of Giant Snake City, Jones, finally ordered the mobilization of the army.
To be cautious, Jones didn’t choose to take surprise attacks using spatial channels, but instead, positioned the army into formation and then slowly advanced towards High Court. For the entire Blood Clan, it was a nightmare.
One must know that along this path, there were countless castles and the full assets of numerous Blood Clan Lords. This included Cousin Susan’s family.
Hmm, her father had already been conscripted to High Court, leaving only her and Aunt Sarah at home.
When seeing Jones, Cousin Susan’s expression was quite complicated. After all, Jones used to be her "fiancé."
Jones didn’t even glance at her, focusing on comforting the extremely terrified Aunt Sarah.
Although Cousin Susan was very annoying, Aunt Sarah overall was quite good to Jones. At least she once considered him as her son-in-law, didn’t she? Jones didn’t make it difficult for them, he directly released them. He even gave them some money, buying their castle and all their slaves.
By contrast, other Lords weren’t so lucky.
"All the slaves in occupied territories will be liberated. All lands occupied by our army will be shared by the residents of Giant Snake City. And the wealth on them as well. Simply put, it’s confiscated. Unless the landowner declares they are renouncing their loyalty to the Elder Council, but I know they won’t give up."
"But didn’t you say you would protect private property?"
"That’s limited to the properties I promised to protect, which were investments in Giant Snake City. It does not include enemy properties. Each of them has someone conscripted to High Court, don’t they?"
Jones’ advance was very slow, on the way from Giant Snake City to High Court, he steadily annexed territories, liberated slaves, confiscated all enemy Lords’ properties without exception. During this process, Jones also gained significant support from liberated slaves, further strengthening his forces.
However, the strength wouldn’t grow much. After all, from a certain perspective, slaves weren’t much better than their owners. At most, they had stronger fighting spirit, but they also hadn’t received any combat training, needing to be trained from scratch.
This caused quite a stir in High Court, from a certain perspective, it pushed for the integration of High Court’s military. Of course, no one knew how effective such integration would be.
In any case, by June of Silver Moon Fourth Year, after six months of turmoil, the armies of both sides finally confronted each other at the Yadesi River on the Kolin Peninsula.
...
Appearing in front of Jones was an enormous zombie army, endless, wearing a variety of armor. It was obviously assembled temporarily.
The total number was around four million, much greater than Jones’ Undead Army.
However, besides zombies, there were only Blood Clan members. Of course, there might be some other races’ logistics units, but those were negligible.
The zombies were walking in heavy armor, while the Blood Clan members were all staying in airships. The countless airships blotted out the sky.
Among these numerous airships, one enormous red airship like a flying city-state was suspended in the sky, an extremely spectacular sight.
In contrast, Jones had less than three hundred thousand Undead troops and close to fifty thousand troops assembled from other races.
However, looking around, Jones’ army was much better equipped than the opponent’s. Due to enough preparation time, even the lowest Skeleton Soldiers were dressed in the finest armor they could bear, armed to the teeth.
There was almost no "foreplay," Jones directly ordered the horns to be sounded.
The army started marching in unison, advancing along the Yadesi riverbank bit by bit.
In response, the zombie army on the other side also began to advance bit by bit. However, it was not in unison, but scattered. You could often see some zombies falling due to instability, quickly tripping the ones behind them, eventually causing a large area to fall.
Adelle was dumbfounded.
Whenever this happened, Blood Clan supervisors would come down from the airships, whipping the zombies into order again.
Jones stood on a bone dragon, quietly gazing at the enormous red airship.
The people inside the red airship were also quietly observing him.
Time slowly passed, both armies steadily advanced.
Until they were about a hundred meters apart, the Undead from Giant Snake City launched a charge, roaring as they rushed towards the enemy.
The zombies on the opposite side seemed to also want to charge, but their speed was too slow.
After a few dragon roars, the dragons soaring in the sky quickly swooped down, several Dragon Breaths swept across the front lines of the High Court’s army. All touched zombies were instantly burned to ashes.
Following that were the Undead Giant Elephants. Large numbers of Undead Giant Elephants trampled directly into the enemy lines, followed by countless Undead Spiders and Skeleton Soldiers.
The zombie army’s front line seemed to collapse instantly. But quickly, they stabilized again.
The undead had no fear; this was the same for both Giant Snake City and the Elder Council. A zombie army of up to four million was enough to use corpses to build walls.
Many Undead Knights began rapid maneuvers and assaults under the command of Liches.
The Giant Snake City side even set up giant trebuchets. Operated by their zombies, the firestones tearing through the night sky were like a meteor shower, bombarding the positions of the High Court’s army in large swaths. The scene was one of flesh flying everywhere.
Of course, occasionally, airships were hit, but with Blood Clan members on them, they could inject magic power into the airships, forming shields. So, even when hit, it just shook slightly.
"Should we launch a full assault?" Elder Adrian asked softly to Elder Bartholomew sitting in the high-backed chair beside him within the airship cabin.
"Why launch a full assault?" Elder Felix interrupted, "It’s just starting, isn’t it? Their Liches haven’t even entered the battlefield. Let them fight, four million zombies. Even if they stand still and let them slaughter, the attackers will be exhausted, their magic powers drained. Don’t forget, the advantage of zombies is their thick, tough skin."
Adelle’s father, Prince Louis, was on the same airship, quietly watching the three elders from a distance.
Meanwhile, the Blood Clan Lords on the other airships, pulled to serve as "soldiers," were already feeling the pain.
Those zombies... are all money. Each step of an elephant squashes five hundred gold coins. One Dragon Breath of a bone dragon erases at least several thousand gold coins... Not to mention their armor.
After a long silence, Elder Bartholomew turned his face, softly said to Elder Felix, "Send out a squad to deal with those Undead Knights. Leave no cavalry alive."
"Alright," Felix responded.