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

The moment the glass bottle shattered upon impact, it sprayed scalding oily liquid everywhere. The liquid clung to the stone wall and burned fiercely. If Barney hadn't reacted quickly, he probably would have been engulfed in the inextinguishable flames and burned alive.

"Ahhh?! Quick! Immediately order the path from the roof to the stairs to be sealed off! Those Isgardians want to annihilate us from above!"

Barney screamed as he tried to extinguish the burning oily liquid flowing in through the window, while issuing his orders.

The order was effectively conveyed, but the oil, belching black smoke, burned even more vigorously when splashed with water.

Barney was forced out of the command room by the towering flames and black smoke. He was in a sorry state, and it was at that moment that the Ysgard airborne troops, under the cover of the Gryphon Riders, finally landed on the roof of the fortress.

The soldier wielding two swords quickly broke through the Roman crowd operating the defensive equipment on the rooftop, and with the help of the red dragon, attempted to break open the door leading to the stairs.

"The rest is up to you. I can't go in with you now that I'm in armor." The red dragon smashed open the stairwell door and spewed dragon breath into the stairwell, causing the garrison ambushing inside to scream in agony. "The second batch of reinforcements will arrive in five minutes, but I'll have to support the infantry fighting in the streets along the way with the griffin riders."

"Isn't their advance going smoothly?" The paratroopers tossed another blue bottle into the stairwell, giving them a few more words before the flames inside were extinguished by the ensuing cold. "And you can't provide support for the guys still holding out inside, can you?"

The advance of the Issugard army is progressing very smoothly, at least from the air.

Faced with the paratroopers' curiosity, the red dragon simply shook its head before taking flight:

"The progress is going smoothly, but our strength here is invaluable, and we must avoid casualties—I'm leaving now."

The dragon departed, and the flames on the rooftop staircase were extinguished by a mixture of chemicals and magic. The elite Edelweiss paratroopers of Ysgard, wielding twin swords, stormed the fortress and, after utterly crushing the remaining morale of the fortress garrison with their diverse martial arts, completely captured Drake Harbor at 5 PM on March 2nd.

The colonial army of Issugard lost about 100 infantrymen, while the Romans left behind at least two thousand corpses—they were trying to use tactics from the age of cold weapons to fight against Issugard's powerful ships and cannons, and the dense formation almost made the Issugardians laugh.

They didn't even need precise aiming; a rough shot and a fire would take them down. Nothing could be more reassuring than this: at a distance of less than 200 meters, the Romans had to pay an extremely heavy price for every meter they advanced.

When the cost exceeds a certain level, they naturally collapse.

The vast majority of people chose to surrender on the spot, because even if they escaped the city, they had nowhere to go. Moreover, other parts of the Roman Empire were suffering from famine. Rather than wandering and starving in the wilderness, it was better to become prisoners of war and at least be able to get some food in Drake Port.

But faced with so many surrendered people, even the commanders of Ysgard were having a headache for a while.

Through capturing them, they discovered that the Roman soldiers here, besides the "new recruits" mentioned by the merchant's informant, were mostly a group of conscripts who had only recently undergone training. They carried only a sword as their weapon; upon closer inspection, their shields were actually made of furniture...

This, this doesn't even mean it damaged the Roman military district's recruit pool—it's just that we captured a port that only had conscripted soldiers stationed there... But you fucking let a bunch of conscripts guard the city?

"So, are there something wrong with your brains?"

The commander of Isgard stared in disbelief at the Romans bound hand and foot before him. He couldn't understand it—was this some kind of humiliation from the Romans?

Sending a bunch of conscripts to guard a vital port city? Are you...are you out of your minds?

Originally, this was the question the commander of Ysgard intended to ask.

But then I thought about what the Romans had done in the past... hmm...

Forget it.

They really have no brains.

After the commander of Isugard waved his hand, signaling the paratroopers to take him down, everyone could hear Commander Roman utter these words:

"If we still had our factories and those steam-powered weapons... you wouldn't have been able to break in so easily..."

What kind of joke is this?

The commander of Ysgard was delighted:

"You actually knew that those industries you personally destroyed and sold off were so important? I even heard that His Majesty the Regent immediately started developing industries to save you after seeing our merchant ships—and you bunch of little brats sold him out and still think he'll come back to save you? What an April Fool's joke!"

"That...that's because we had no choice!" The Roman man's face flushed red as he stammered in defense, "Who knew you despicable people would do such a thing?!"

"In our eyes, you're just a naked young woman spreading her legs to attract customers, and you actually think the people you're lured over won't grope Roman's thighs? What naive fools! Even the savages of the forest wouldn't be as simple-minded as you, or as stupid as you—just admit your shortsightedness and ignorance, isn't that enough? What do you need a fig leaf for? Even if a bunch of shit-covered trash had a fig leaf, wouldn't they still be covered in excrement and piss?"

"You...you mustn't slander my innocence!"

"All the Romans still on the continent of Elusia, all the Romans still serving Roman, are a bunch of idiots! Alright, enough talk, get him out of here—I want to see how the Romans are going to fight us with their swords now, alright!"

The Romans were taken away, and the commander of Issugard was momentarily distracted from his work—but he quickly recovered. The logistics officer had brought over the post-battle report, and the situation was dire.

The only minor cost to the Issugardians was the depletion of their ammunition reserves.

Although food might not be a problem for the time being, even if they held out for another year or two, the colonial soldiers could still enjoy plenty of fish and meat every day thanks to their coastal advantage.

However, nearly one-tenth of the new rifle's paper-cased cartridges were used in this battle...

“One-tenth? And this is only the first day.” The commander of Isugard felt a headache coming on. “And the high-explosive shells of [Schwarz] have already been used up by a quarter?! At this rate, they will have to return to their homeland to resupply ahead of schedule... Damn it, immediately calculate how long our current ammunition inventory can last! Immediately transfer the ammunition from the merchant ships, and strictly prohibit anyone else from approaching.”

The colonial army moved quickly, and in less than half an hour, the commander of Isugard felt a chill run down his spine.

If we were to engage in another low-intensity, high-stakes war, our current ammunition supplies could sustain us for another five or six battles.

However, if the colonial army were to engage in a fierce battle with the Roman and Allese forces, the remaining ammunition would likely be almost entirely lost after a single battle.

On the naval front, the high-explosive shells used by the Shizhui forces would only last for one naval battle at most before they would have to evacuate back to the mainland to find supplies. In other words, while the colonial forces have indeed gained a bridgehead, they will most likely be unable to obtain supplies until a land route to the United Nations is established...

In addition, with the Aleser's light and agile naval fleet harassing them in the future, it may be difficult for merchant ships to reach the ports of the United Kingdom by sea to obtain supplies... But, we can't attack the western ranch areas for the time being, can we?

The commander calculated the distance and realized that he would run out of ammunition halfway to the western ranch and capture the city, which made his expression even more serious.

“We must temporarily risk obtaining supplies by sea,” he said through gritted teeth. “Let [Shizhui] use this last naval battle of our time to cover our merchant ships as they head to the ports of the United Nations and load cargo there—although the Alessars will seize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack when we search for supplies a second time, it’s better than us sitting here and waiting to die.”

"Shall we go now?"

"Yes, let's go now—I'll contact Lady Nia right now and hope she can bring us good news."

The messenger left. It was after the messenger left that the commander took out the magic mirror used for communication from his pouch.

He resolutely chose to contact Lady Nia, and after patiently waiting for her to respond for a long time, he finally heard her voice.

“This is Nia—don’t fucking tell me you’ve got trouble again.”

Cold sweat instantly dripped down his face.

The commander of Ysgard opened his mouth, but in the end, he still reported the current predicament.

Chapter 11: Allese's base-trading tactics and... 8K

Honestly.

Nia is so embarrassed she wants to die.

This was not only because their colonial army was frequently involved in accidents.

More importantly, when Nia came to find Yang Hao, she happened to run into... well, he had just finished his afternoon tea and was probably taking care of his child.

To be honest, when the child cautiously hid behind His Majesty Yang Hao and then subconsciously uttered, "I don't like this mother either," Nia was dumbfounded, and Yang Hao was also stunned...

However, Yang Hao had seen a lot in life, so he recovered quickly—but Nia was stunned by the sudden attack.

She had never experienced being called "Mom" in her entire life.

Not to mention, it even means his mother is disgusted?!

Couldn't that little girl have a little more manners?! Do I look like the kind of elf who would starve children?! Seriously...

Then Nia was immediately embarrassed: how could she have thought of such a thing? But before she could recover, Yang Hao's next words made Nia even more embarrassed:

"Sigh... Anna, you can't just call everyone you know well 'Mom,' okay? It's really impolite. And besides, I don't really think Miss Black Dragon can take care of a non-oviparous child..."

"Huh?! You think you can just let me try?! Who said we dragons only take care of oviparous creatures?!"

"But where would you find dragon eggs to try now?"

Yang Hao was just trying to lighten the mood with a joke, but Nia's strong reaction surprised him—but then again, are dragons really oviparous?!

He imagined Nia incubating the eggs... then subconsciously shuddered before quickly trying to ease the tension.

As a result, Nia seemed to be surprised by her own words again—she just stared blankly at Yang Hao for a long time before muttering: Let's talk about something serious.

"..."

And then, we arrived at the present moment.

Anna was temporarily taken care of by Naruja, who was waiting outside. Yang Hao and Nia awkwardly met in the reception room without saying a word. Then, they coughed twice in unison to temporarily break the awkwardness and get down to business.

"In short, I apologize for my earlier frustration..."

"No, I shouldn't have joked with you. Sorry. So let's get down to business."

"Ah."

The black dragon, his face full of shame, nodded, and then spoke with difficulty, saying that the colonial army hoped to obtain supplies from the United Nations at sea. In other words, they hoped to have boxes of the paper-cased ammunition currently produced by the United Nations delivered to the port and then transported to the ships for resupply.

Yang Hao looked utterly bewildered upon hearing this. He set aside the question of why Isgard didn't first attack the western ranch territories—why would you have us supply you with merchant ships when the Ares could send fleets to hunt your caravans at any moment?

No, did your ship carry three basic loads of ammunition? Otherwise, there's no way to explain where you got the audacity to use merchant ships for transportation.

We certainly aren't worried about throwing supplies into the sea, but you Isgardians fighting across the ocean don't seem to care about your merchant ships being hunted down and sunk... That's a good question indeed.

Faced with Yang Hao's strange behavior, Nia simply stated with a grim expression that the colonial army's accompanying fleet was also not adequately supplied. The accompanying fleet could only protect the merchant ships for one round trip at most, and the rest depended on the merchant ships' own efforts.

"In other words, at least ensure the delivery of the first round of supplies?"

"Yes. The colonial army hopes to obtain more supplies before planning to advance westward and open up the passage... After all, even if we tried to budget for the large-scale deployment of new rifles, we still underestimated the ammunition consumption of these weapons."

“That’s no problem. But you’ll have to provide the merchant ships yourself—but I must warn you, Nia. Our United Nations doesn’t have a navy, so don’t expect us to be able to help at sea.”

"I understand. Thank you for your kindness... I'll be leaving now."

Having accomplished this important task, Nia breathed a sigh of relief and left, suppressing her embarrassment and shame.

It was after Nia left that Yang Hao fell into deep thought.

On the one hand, he already knew that the colonial army was currently severely lacking in logistics, and that before the first batch of supplies arrived by sea, the other side had no spare capacity to go west to open up land trade routes with the United Nations.

On the other hand, Isugard's battle fleet will soon be heading to the homeland for resupply: in other words, will the Alesers be able to regain control of the seas along the Roman Empire's coast for a long time to come?

Um...

Yang Hao muttered to himself, "If we can only ensure the first batch of supplies, can the Isugardians really... successfully open a passage on land?"

He took out the map drawn by the elves from the drawer, glanced at it briefly, and then shrugged and said, "No."

The Isgardians might inflict terrible casualties on the Romans on their way to the Western Ranch of Romans, but they would never be able to conquer the city that stood on the ranch.

Because they had too little ammunition. Even including the supplies Yang Hao brought this time.

"We'll need at least three transport trips to get them enough supplies... But what can I say? Let them figure it out themselves—when they're starving, they'll naturally beg us to come south... But if possible, I hope they can be more cooperative."

Yang Hao shook his head and pressed the bell to summon the spirit.

......

On March 3, after spending the entire night packing and transporting all the cardboard-cased ammunition produced in the small golem factory in Constantinople, the United Nations watched as Ysgard's fleet arrived and then departed with its supplies.