After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

This was yet another conquest by the Khan in the south—the Khan entered the city with his guards, head held high. But before entering the city, he once again publicly announced the discipline of the Khuttod Khan's army:

"After entering the city, looting and harassment of the local people are not allowed! We must maintain discipline in this city. As for those small groups of troops who escaped through the [secret gate], we need not pay them any attention. Let them spread our fear across the grasslands, which will facilitate our subsequent rule."

"Father Khan, what about our previous plan..."

A kheshig (guard of the guard) stepped forward. The Khan glanced at him, then whispered in his ear:

"Have trusted men send small units disguised as Polan troops to raid villages in Roman territory ahead of them, and spread the news that some nomads are planning to plunder under the pretext of the Khan's southward march."

Hutok Khan explained each word carefully, ensuring that his kheshig understood the meaning of every single one.

"But try to minimize casualties among our soldiers. Make them look as much like a defeated Polan army as possible. Ideally, after they send reinforcements, let the Polan run right into the Roman defenses—that way, once we defeat the Polan, the Romans will lower their guard against us... Do you understand?"

"...Yes, Father Khan."

The Kheshig nodded, and before entering the city, selected a contingent of personal guards to leave the battlefield and head south.

Meanwhile, outside the festive city of Constantinople, Yang Hao and Finn were reviewing intelligence brought by prisoners of the defeated Polan army.

In short, they concluded that Polan was probably dead. A nomadic people still using iron tools facing an elite army equipped with siege weapons and steel armor... it would be an injustice if Polan hadn't died.

The only problem is that Yang Hao and Fen don't know exactly when the Great Khan will head south—but if there are no surprises, he will need time to recuperate, and the United Nations will have time to build its defenses.

"The serpentine barbed wire should be able to stop their centaurs from advancing further. Combined with stone walls and trenches, and a network of firepower consisting of machine gun golems and howitzer golems, a defensive line against the Huttod Khanate army will be completed on the plain. Their trolls may sound formidable, but in the face of these revolutionary weapons, they are nothing more than slow-moving targets."

Then comes the defense line in the forest... Unless Hutod Khan is incredibly tough, he will definitely choose to march through the forest after suffering some casualties when facing our defense line..."

Building defensive lines across both the entire plains and the vast monster forest simultaneously? That's impossible. If Yang Hao possessed a nation of tens of millions of people, it might be somewhat possible... but their combined population barely reaches a million. Under these circumstances, how could he possibly construct a defensive line to stop the entire barbarian tribe from advancing south?

Yang Hao racked his brains, and just then, Fen suddenly said strangely—"Let the nomads into the forest? Are you sure you're not letting them commit suicide?"

Why do you say that?

Yang Hao was somewhat bewildered, but after seeing Fen casually create a network of vines in the forest that could trip horses, he understood that Hutot Khan had no choice but to advance south across the western plains.

Chapter Seven: War and the Preparation of Demons (8K)

......

Neither Bayez nor Gaparia intended to accept Polan's defeated army.

On one hand, the elves loathed the task of caring for prisoners—on the other hand, the Bayrzens lacked the capacity to manage them. But ultimately, the most important issue was that the United Nations had no need to accept prisoners at this time.

So after executing these troublesome routs in the forest, Yang Hao ordered his troops to find a suitable place on the grassland to build a defensive position or fortress and mark it. Meanwhile, he and Finn immediately returned to Constantinople to discuss things with Theresa and the others.

After all, this was no small matter with the Roman Empire. The fact that the northern barbarians had already adopted steel weapons and siege equipment was something Yang Hao had never even considered. They were the first truly formidable enemy the United Nations had faced since its establishment.

More importantly, the Khan seems to possess the same prestige and ability as Yang Hao's sworn brother... Overall, the barbarians will be a formidable enemy of the United Nations in the future—especially considering that the United Nations' population is simply insufficient to support a protracted war. Yang Hao hopes to keep the barbarians out of the north at the lowest possible cost.

So what exactly should be done?

After returning to Constantinople, which was still basking in joy, Yang Hao took Theresa and Naruja to the conference room. Inside, apart from Naruja, who was clearly clueless about the situation, the other two were worried about the northerners' attack.

“After all, they’re northerners,” Theresa muttered. “Back when the Roman Empire was occupied by barbarians, we knew very well how powerful those barbarians were… In terms of population, they outnumbered the elves and Bayerjas, and in terms of physical strength, they were several times stronger than the Bayerjas—not to mention peculiar races like trolls and centaurs…”

They are our formidable enemies. If their goal is truly to clear all obstacles to their southward advance and reclaim their former glory, then not only Isgard and the Roman Empire, but also Alessar—even our united nation will become a thorn in their side... Constantinople's location is so precarious, after all.

"While the location is advantageous, it's also become a thorn in the side of the north-south corridor. What can we do? Besides, we can't possibly abandon our homes, can we?"

Yang Hao patted Theresa on the shoulder and tidied her hair. Just then, Finn frowned and said, "Instead of thinking about the enemy's strength, let's start mobilizing resources based on our current configuration."

They decided to build a castle on the western pasture plains to stop the barbarians from invading from the south. But how big the castle should be and how to arrange the defensive facilities became a real problem.

It is foreseeable that the castle designs of Constantinople or Bayern from a thousand years ago would be unusable. Firstly, they would require a large amount of stone, and secondly, such castles are not suitable for the modern age of firearms.

If ancient city walls were always higher, but their thickness was correspondingly reduced, then the castle Yang Hao envisions today is more like a "fortress".

On the sand table that Fen created with magic, it took the form of a rhombus, with cannons that could be placed at each node, and the walls were not vertical but rather steep slopes.

Its height is not as high as the old city walls, but conversely, its thickness and construction difficulty are more substantial and simpler than those of ancient castles.

More importantly, this type of diamond-shaped castle is well-suited for construction on pastures and grasslands—firstly, there isn't much stone on grasslands, so in addition to the outer stone bricks, the interior filling is best done with wood and rammed earth. Although wood isn't everywhere, it's easy to obtain near forests.

Secondly, soil is everywhere. When building a castle, one can dig trenches while raising the height of the rhomboid castle with the excavated soil. This is the most suitable large-scale building for Yang Hao at this stage, and it can also be easily constructed using the [Earth] magic.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the rhombus-shaped castle offered no traditional blind spots for musketeers. Archers could easily use the steep slope of the walls to attack any target they desired, while cannons positioned on the walls could unleash devastating fire on enemy mega-units and siege forces from above. This not only inflicted greater casualties on the builders but, more importantly, facilitated a shift from defense to offense in the musketeer era—a win-win situation.

The diamond-shaped fortress will be a powerful stronghold to prevent the barbarians from moving south—not only that, it will also be the best defense against invasions from other places in the future.

But then again...

"We may only have six months, or even less than four months, left at most."

While Yang Hao was sculpting the layout of the rhomboid fortress by hand on the sand table, he also drew as many necessary items as possible on the sand table.

"The first thing to complete is the main body of the fortress, followed by the blockade of the surrounding forest and the digging of trenches... In front of the trenches, we also need to set up a gentle upward slope on the enemy's path of attack."

In this way, our archers on the city wall can see them approaching us at a very slow speed, and the visual difference created by the steep slope can stop the barbarian battering rams and siege towers at the top of the gentle slope, preventing them from advancing even half a step.

However, even with the help of mages, it's impossible for us to complete such a fortress in less than four months, let alone fill it with supplies... Furthermore, the mages can only dedicate a portion of their time to assisting with the fortress's construction, as we still need to use [vines] in the northern part of the Demon Forest to stop the barbarians' advance through the forest...

Furthermore, we also need manpower or the oak factory to produce the barbed wire.

"Oak factories still have places within the Elf Kingdom where they are planted, but Your Majesty, Regent, I must remind you that this will cause the oak mines to produce negative output."

"Yes, that's what's giving me the biggest headache."

The United Nations has long relied heavily on metals from the Elf Kingdom's underground mines for production and trade. With its appetite for metal resources now growing exponentially, [mineral production] has become a problem the United Nations must solve...

There are only a few mines within the Elf Forest, and in the territory of Bayrzans, although they have a large amount of [Demon Ore] to mine, the underground mineral veins are very scarce... If you had to name one, there would only be some iron ore, and even that is not suitable for large-scale mining.

In other words... the United Nations need to find new iron ore deposits on the continent of Elusia. Come to think of it, the Great Khan possesses steel weapons; doesn't that mean they've already found their minerals in the mountains of the Sorrowful Mountains in the north?

That's a good question. But right now, Yang Hao can't travel to the northern plains with a group of centaurs who run faster than the wind, so after thinking it over, Yang Hao can only focus his attention on the Roman Empire.

Besides the pastures in the west, the parishes in the north, and the coast in the south, the Roman Empire could always find rich iron ore deposits in some mountainous areas.

Among them, the mountains surrounding Kagard, which was once completely destroyed by Yang Hao and the Ling tribe and is still in ruins, contain mineral resources. There are also mineral resources on the mountains surrounding the monastery where Theresa once served as a nun in Shkur village...

Um...

Why don't we find some time to go back and take a look? Anyway, we always have to expand to meet domestic needs. Or, after we stop the barbarian invasion, we could try to go back and take advantage of the opportunity to assist Ysgard.

Yang Hao fell into deep thought, but he still didn't put down his work.

"For now, let's temporarily halt the production of [Metal Golem], that big mouth that consumes so much iron ore. We need to produce [Barbed Wire] and [Weapons] first. I'll personally demonstrate the design of the barbed wire in Gaparia later."

Besides that, we'll tentatively decide to conduct mineral mining in the mountains of the Roman Empire... Now, let's return to the issue of choosing which defensive structures to build—it's impossible for us to construct a complete rhombus fortress in just a few months, so we have to make some trade-offs...

The height of the city wall will be set at 5 meters, and the moat will be 2 meters deep and filled with easily made sharp wooden sticks or broken porcelain. Then the size of the entire rhomboid castle will also be appropriately reduced... We don't need this castle to completely block the roads to the south and north; we just need it to be positioned in the middle so that it can threaten the enemies on both sides of the road at the same time.

Besides that... in terms of the overall castle design, we can skip building the rear section. Or rather, it doesn't matter if the rear section is somewhat perfunctory; ideally, even if the barbarians conquer it, they won't be able to use the rhombus-shaped castle to stop our attack from this direction.

“But… if the latter half of the castle was built carelessly…” Hearing this, Theresa looked somewhat bewildered. “Doesn’t that mean the latter half of the entire rhombus castle will become its biggest weakness?”

“Yes. That’s the effect we want. And Theresa, do you think they would risk being attacked from three directions—by the castle garrison, our main force, and the forest—to besiege and attack the castle from the rear? Impossible, they’re not Romans.”

By deliberately making the rhomboid castle face the direction of Constantinople and by being careless in its construction, not only could the cost and time required for construction be greatly reduced, but more importantly, it also meant that even if the barbarians did capture the castle, they would not be able to rely on the castle to gain much help in their attack on Constantinople.

To use a classic example, it's like how the battlements of a city wall are always built facing outwards. Archers on the wall can use the battlements to protect themselves from enemy fire, thus gaining protection from the wall.

Once the city walls are captured, if the enemy wants to continue their attack on the inner city from the outer walls, their side facing the inner city will be completely exposed!

To put it simply, it's like the naked apron Yang Hao remembers... there's fabric covering the front, but the back is completely exposed.

...Mother Teresa tried it yesterday. It was incredibly exciting.

The man subconsciously touched his nose, and then, realizing that everyone was still watching him, he quickly pulled his attention away from Teresa's sexiness from the previous night.

Having confirmed the size of the castle, the area to be protected, and most importantly, the issues of time and cost—that concludes our discussion of defense for now.

It was already afternoon. Since no one had eaten much, Yang Hao had some snacks prepared while the meeting continued.

While eating snacks, Naruja asked blankly, "Do we really have to fight the barbarians to the death? Why can't we get the barbarians, Isugard, and us to sign a non-aggression pact and then fight the Roman Empire together?"

"..."

Everyone was stunned by these words.

After all, it seems that... everyone subconsciously treats northerners as "enemies," believing that barbarians are untrustworthy and that there is absolutely no way to negotiate with them—but things don't seem to be that absolute, do they?

Yang Hao pondered that if Cecilia was a fanatical believer who believed that "as long as you're religious, there's room for discussion," then the barbarians were more like tribal people who believed that "if you can subdue them, then you can sit down and talk"...

In this situation, it seems that Yang Hao really didn't need to keep the barbarians in the north.

If he inflicts unacceptable losses and threats on the barbarians in defensive battles, then presumably the Great Khan would be willing to condescend to come and have a proper discussion with him about what constitutes "mutual assistance between friendly neighbors"...

...Indeed, bringing Naruja along was the right decision—although Naruja may not have realized the impact her natural talents would have on the meeting, from Yang Hao's perspective, Naruja could certainly broaden his thinking and expand his perspective.

However, we'll have to wait until after the war to discuss the specifics—just as Yang Hao was about to adjourn the meeting to talk about tomorrow's wedding, the adjutant standing outside knocked on the door and said that a guest from Isgard was requesting an audience.

“Your Majesty, Miss Nia wishes to discuss important matters with you.” Barry nodded at Yang Hao. “And she wants it done quickly—it’s very important, and she wants you to come alone.”

"Alright then... I'll head over now."

They probably got wind of it.

With this in mind, Yang Hao temporarily left the meeting room.

And it was only when only three women remained that the battleground between them truly began... Narudya, caught between Teresa and Finn, seemed utterly out of place. Perhaps it was due to her simple, easily satisfied nature?

Let the women handle this—In the reception room where Heilong was staying, while waiting for Yang Hao to arrive, Heilong was pale and had no idea why he was having such bad luck.

Just when they had finally secured supplies for the soon-to-land colonial army at a high cost, the United Nations was attacked by the northerners at this critical juncture...

While the exact size of the northern army is currently unknown, it's certain that the United Nations' industrial capacity will be further channeled towards the most pressing aspect of the conflict...

In other words, the United Nations may find it difficult to meet the supply needs of Ysgard, and may even refuse to provide supplies altogether due to the threat from the north.

After all, when things are urgent, you have to deal with the most important matters first... Nia understood, but she still had to try to get the industrial capacity placed on their side...

After all, the colonial army of Issugard was already on the verge of collapse—if they lost the most urgent supplies provided by the United Nations...

(These 20,000 soldiers will die in a foreign land, with no chance of being saved...)

Thinking of this, Nia swallowed hard.

Once again, she was forced to consider what she possessed that she could trade with the United Nations... But right now, if the United Nations truly faced a crisis of national extinction, Nia really had no other means to ensure her side's supplies were plentiful...

What to do? What to do? This isn't just a matter of whether Nia is willing to accept the "unspoken rules," it's a matter that might not even be negotiable...

Miss Black Dragon waited anxiously for Yang Hao's arrival. Soon, Yang Hao arrived. He first greeted Nia, then, his face now lined with wrinkles and gray hair, he sat opposite her. Taking a sip of water to rinse his mouth, he began:

“Miss Nia? Let’s get straight to the point—is there something you wanted to say about coming here?”

Yang Hao scrutinized the black dragon in front of him. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Nia's usual dress and black stockings seemed even more beautiful now.