This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

Chapter 144: Belated Fatherly Love

Although he had broken away from the coalition and returned to Lagug, Dick's intelligence personnel continued to monitor the coalition's movements in real time and would occasionally bring him some juicy gossip.

Just as Dick had predicted, after he left the Allied Forces, the forces descended into a bloody power struggle. Marquis Richard, who replaced Dick as commander-in-chief, didn't have much genuine military talent, but he was quite adept at political maneuvering, forming factions and eliminating dissidents within the Allied Forces, engaging in a fierce and arduous struggle.

These lords probably believed that the worst was over; the orcish sweeping army had been severely damaged, with less than 10,000 of the original 30,000 orcs remaining. For the humans, this loss was an irreversible rout, making it virtually impossible to mount a decent offensive again.

Meanwhile, the allied forces had swelled to over 50,000 men and had strong fortresses to defend, giving them such a huge advantage that they didn't know how they would lose!

What's even more infuriating is that the Marquis Richard seems to genuinely want to claim credit for everything, trying to take all the victories the Allied forces had previously achieved under Dick's command.

He commanded the raid on the orc camp and was present during the defense of the city. Marquis Richard's men tried to spread such news to achieve the effect of "historical record".

However, in terms of actual results, the Marquis was clearly too eager for quick success. These battles had only been over for a few days, and he dared to spout nonsense in front of tens of thousands of people in the Allied camp. So many people below hadn't collectively lost their memories, so who would believe his fabricated story of a great victory in the subspace?

In short, Marquis Richard's attempt to reap the benefits failed, which led to his inexplicable growing resentment towards Dick.

Meanwhile, on the orc side, Ramon's main force made slow progress. The pass fortress was much harder to breach than they had imagined, because the fortress garrison had received some support from the Lord of the Southern Mountains.

When it comes to their own interests, the nobles of the empire are still quite willing to fight to the death.

The lords of Shannan knew that if the fortress were breached, they would be the first to suffer if the orcs crossed the central mountain range. Therefore, they were very attentive to supporting the fortress, providing manpower and food as needed, just like the Northern Alliance at the beginning when they were united in their efforts.

Dick judged that if the pass fortress could hold out until the end of winter without being breached, the orcs would most likely choose to retreat before spring, taking the people and supplies they had seized back to the wasteland.

The Empire will achieve a superficial victory, but at the cost of most of its northern region being ravaged by orc invaders. Millions of displaced refugees will await the Empire's aid, and the entire northern region will be unable to recover for the next three to five years.

This was not the outcome Dick had hoped for. He did see the war as an opportunity, but if much of the North was ruined, Ragug would not be able to escape the catastrophe.

So Dick decided to raid the orcs' stronghold and force them to withdraw their troops early.

By using the "Great Memory Restoration" spell on the orc prisoners, Dick has now pinpointed the exact location of the orcish stronghold.

After Ramon largely unified the wasteland orcs, he gathered all the tribes together and built an orc city deep in the wasteland.

It was not only the stronghold of the orcs, but also their religious holy site. If orc shamans wanted to obtain power from the gods, they had to complete the so-called ascension ceremony in the holy site. Therefore, that place had extraordinary significance for the orc race.

In addition, Dick also learned about and studied the political structure of the orcs through these prisoners, and found that they were not a monolithic group, and like the humans, there were various factions fighting among them. The mysterious act of sending people to kill the previous sweeping legion seemed to be Ramon's intentional act.

Ramon, the Beast King, is essentially more like the leader of the Horde Alliance. Ramon is only the nominal supreme leader of the Orcs. For the sake of political balance, there is an Elder Council below him. The members of the Elder Council are mainly the chieftains of powerful tribes and the highly respected shamans in the religious world.

The responsibility of the elders is to supervise the Beast King, which can provide a certain degree of checks and balances on Ramon.

Ramon wanted to achieve centralized power within the Orcs and have true absolute authority, so he disliked the Council of Elders who hindered him at every turn. However, he couldn't do anything about these elders in the short term and couldn't break ties with them for the sake of internal unity.

If Dick leads his army deep into the wasteland and threatens the orcs' stronghold, their elders will definitely demand that Ramon return to reinforce them immediately, or even bypass Ramon and arbitrarily transfer the front-line troops.

Therefore, attacking the orc city would be equivalent to "relieving the siege of Wei by attacking Zhao"!

The problem now is that even though Ramon took away the main force of the orcs to invade the Empire, their homeland still has hundreds of thousands of orcs. Unlike humans, the orcs' elderly, weak, women, and children still possess considerable fighting power; the entire orc race is practically a nation of soldiers.

At this point, Ruby Eyes offered Dick a suggestion: if they insisted on marching into the wasteland, the army would have to travel 1,600 kilometers by land after crossing the fjord to reach the orc city. The route would be through vast, uninhabited desert areas where food and water would be difficult to obtain locally, making the journey extremely risky.

Instead, they should first take a boat and travel more than a thousand kilometers north along the coastline, landing in the heart of the wasteland. The straight-line distance from there to the orc city is only a little over a hundred kilometers. This would greatly reduce the logistical burden on the troops, and they could also equip the warhorses that were originally responsible for carrying supplies with combat cavalry.

Dick thought about it for a moment and realized that the plan was indeed good, but the problem was where would the ships to transport troops come from?

The ship girls under his command only have ship equipment forms and cannot actually transform into ships.

The woman with the red jade eyes replied succinctly.

"Borrow it from your own family!"

"what?"

Ruby Eyes reminded Dick that, according to the first transport team, the second batch of supplies from the south of the empire would arrive in fifteen days. It would be the same size as the first batch, consisting of ten 8,000-ton paddle steamers. After that, a fleet would arrive every twenty to twenty-five days until the war in the north ended.

The grain and cotton in the south are not worth much. The real investment is in transportation capacity. Judging from the frequency of the material transportation, the Best family has mobilized at least three fleets to run this route in a loop at sea in order to ensure that such a large amount of materials can be delivered to Lagug continuously. This cost is not something that Lagug can afford at present.

Therefore, for this generous material support alone, Dick should sincerely thank the Duke for this belated fatherly love.

Ironically, Dick later learned that it was his own hand that was repeatedly stalling the Imperial Central Government in its efforts to send reinforcements to the north, and that he was the one constantly sabotaging and hindering things behind the scenes.

Calculating the days, the second transport fleet is expected to arrive in Laguge in four days. Unloading at the new port will take another two days. The paddle steamers can replenish their coal on the spot in Laguge. The freed-up transport capacity will be sufficient to carry three thousand cavalrymen and their warhorses.

Chapter 145: The Northern United Front

On the Allied side, Marquis Richard felt that his role as commander-in-chief was not as smooth as he had expected, because his subordinates clearly lacked the proper respect for his noble status.

Especially after that lowly bastard publicly humiliated him, several lords withdrew from the allied forces one after another because they were unwilling to obey his orders, which made the Marquis furious.

He couldn't understand why these minor nobles dared to defy him, the only marquis in the entire northern region, whose sister was the fourth imperial consort, and who was the brother-in-law of King Hessen VII. They even gossiped behind his back, slandering him as inferior to that little bastard named Best, saying that he didn't have the courage to face the orcs head-on and take the initiative to attack.

This infuriated the arrogant Richard, so he decided to pull off a major victory, one even more devastating than Dick's. He wanted to prove himself, to show those blind fools that his greatness, that of Ad Richard, was far beyond the reach of that laughable little bastard!

Richard personally took charge, using his extraordinary wisdom to devise a plan to mobilize the entire Allied forces to wipe out the remnants of the Orcish sweeping legion, aiming to reclaim the lands west of the Ner River that had already fallen.

However, when the Marquis proudly announced his grand ambitions to the public, the nobles below quickly split into two factions.

One faction supports Richard's plan. Some of these supporters are former lords of the West Coast who are eager to reclaim their fiefdoms with the help of the Allied Forces. Others, like Richard, are opportunists who joined the Allied Forces later. They have never faced the ferocious orcs and do not understand the true strength of the orc race.

Opponents, on the other hand, felt that Richard's "all-out attack on the whole family" plan was unreliable and worried that their men would be used as cannon fodder by Richard.

And in fact... that was exactly what Richard was planning to do.

"Please feel free to express any opinions you may have."

"My lord, we support you!"

"But... taking the initiative is too risky. Shouldn't we play it safe?"

"What's there to be afraid of? Those orcs have already been defeated, and they are no threat at all now."

The nobles present spoke one after another, and without exception, everyone's remarks were based on ensuring their own interests, and they could not reach a consensus on whether to attack or defend.

Richard's gaze, however, fell upon Peter Hoffman and Eugene Banner, who sat to his left and right. These two, in terms of both rank and power, were second only to him, a marquis, so their opinions carried more weight. He, in fact, paid no heed to the thoughts of the other minor lords.

Hoffman's original idea was defensive, and he preferred to play it safe. However, as the number of refugees taken in by the coalition increased, their logistics began to be severely strained. The daily relief food distributed to the refugees was reduced again and again, which also led to a rapid deterioration of the security situation in the camp.

This made Hoffman want to reduce the number of refugees in the camp. One way he did this was to recruit young men from the refugees to serve in the army and then have them "consumed" in the counter-offensive. The remaining women and children could be absorbed by Hoffman's family on the spot, which would be a win-win situation.

Therefore, Hoffman chose to support Richard, and his respectful attitude pleased the Marquis.

Old Banner, sitting to Richard's right, remained silent until a long while before suddenly standing up and speaking.

"Gentlemen, I apologize, but my Banner family also has to withdraw from the coalition."

"Marquis Banner, what do you mean by this!?"

When the old count suddenly announced the withdrawal from the coalition at this time, Richard felt that he had lost face and couldn't help but slam his fist on the table to question the other party.

"Earl Banner, are you afraid?"

"Afraid? Heh! Fighting alongside you bunch of insects, I am indeed afraid of being betrayed."

"What did you say!?"

Upon hearing Earl Banner's words, Richard's retainers were immediately enraged, and the old Earl's sons stepped forward, gripping their sword hilts and glaring back defiantly. The atmosphere in the hall instantly became tense, forcing Hoffman to step in and smooth things over.

The old count snorted coldly, glancing disdainfully at Marquis Richard, who sat trembling with rage in the head seat. In the northern territories, the Banner family was a top-tier powerful clan, their strength not much inferior to the Richard family, who had elevated their titles through marriage. Therefore, he was not intimidated by them at all.

Hoffman still wanted to persuade them to stay; he genuinely didn't want the Banner family to leave the team as well.

Hoffman initially brought the Richards into the coalition in order to counterbalance Dick and old Banner, but the result was counterproductive, and he ended up driving both families away.

Their departure meant that the balance within the coalition was broken, allowing the Richard family to take over and suppress the Hoffman family. They had definitely gone too far!

However, no matter how Hoffman tried to persuade them to stay, the Banner family was determined to leave, and Richard's temper flared up as well, directly threatening that Earl Banner should not come back once he left.

Thus, the two sides parted on bad terms in full view of everyone, causing many previously silent lords to become pessimistic about the future of the allied forces.

After the Banner family withdrew, the power of the coalition was completely seized by the more powerful Richard family, and many opportunistic lords sided with them, further sidelining Hoffman.

Richard was now somewhat obsessed, determined to push forward his military plan. He began a reckless expansion of the army in the Allied camp, setting a "small goal" to recruit 100,000 men, and thus forcing refugees who had originally sought refuge with the Allied forces to enlist.

Some refugees refused to comply, and Richard's conscription team resorted to violence, resulting in several deaths.

In fact, these refugees were not unwilling to fight or reclaim their homeland; rather, they had their own worries, which should have been resolved for them by the lord.

Richard's "traditional conscription model" was too brutal, and the conscripts openly solicited bribes within the camp, abusing their positions. Those who didn't want to become cannon fodder had to give them benefits, but these people had their own conscription quotas to meet, so they could only intensify their oppression of the poor who had no money left to squeeze.

Under normal circumstances, feudal lords conscripted soldiers on a family basis, selecting one or two eligible men depending on the situation. If there were too few men, they would not conscript, or they would provide some food and supplies to replace them.

Richard's wickedness lay in the fact that he ordered his men to conscript mainly refugees, not people from their own territory, so there was no need for any scruples.

Some refugee families had all their men confiscated at once, leaving behind only a few helpless orphans and widows. In this camp where moral standards were rapidly deteriorating, they were practically fish on a chopping block, and might end up being physically devoured by other starving refugees.

When faced with the problem of survival, it is very easy for a person to degenerate into a beast in an instant!

In order to survive, many refugees were forced to begin a second escape.

At the same time that Richard was forcibly conscripting soldiers, Lagug was also preparing for war, but the whole process was much more civilized and formal.

All new recruits who enlisted not only received a substantial military pay, but the conscription office also distributed a full 100 catties of grain to their families in the name of the lord, and promised to reduce their taxes by half a percent the following year.

In addition, the conscription is also open to refugees, who receive the same basic treatment as locals. They will also be given the right to purchase land in Lagug, which is the opportunity to become citizens.

The tangible benefits made the recruitment process incredibly smooth, and the registration office was practically bursting at the seams.

"See? As long as there is food, there is no shortage of soldiers."

Dick's large-scale expansion of the army was mainly for the purpose of defending the territory. Although the allied forces on the Nie River defense line seemed to be impregnable, some small groups of orc troops had actually infiltrated eastward. There were even traces of their activities in the territory of Lagug, but their numbers were very small. They seemed to be a few unlucky guys who got lost and were hacked to pieces by militias who outnumbered them by a hundred.

Dick plans to expand the army by 5,000 men to replace the standing troops in the defense of the homeland. The veterans who are replaced will accompany Dick on the northern expedition. This time, he is prepared to deploy all his elite troops.

Just then, the second supply convoy arrived as scheduled and docked at the new port in the fjord.

On the same day, Dick also received a message from Earl Banner. The old man had withdrawn from the increasingly chaotic atmosphere of the Allied Forces and casually called over a few of his more compatible colleagues, asking Dick if there was any big job he could get involved in.

Dick replied decisively, "Come!"

Just one day later, Banner led the armies of several other lords to Lagug, clearly heading straight for Dick as soon as he left the Allied forces' gates.

The lords were all old comrades who had fought alongside Dick before. Their character remained to be seen, but they certainly did not lack the courage to fight bravely.

Dick immediately revealed his plan to launch a surprise attack on the orcs' homeland, stating that he had prepared ships and provisions, but this battle would only require cavalry, that is, the most elite armed forces of each faction.

After listening, old Banner pondered for a moment, then looked up and asked Dick.

"You've staked everything you have?"

"About that, a total of two thousand five hundred riders, that's all the horses I have."

"There's nothing to say then, I'll risk my life to gamble with you! I brought six hundred warhorses, and if you can wait three days, I can bring another thousand from home."

"I followed suit too."

Count me in.

As the lords spoke, they drew their swords and huddled together to swear an oath. Dick also took out his staff and joined in, vowing to stand with his allies through thick and thin.

The seven lords present gathered a total of six thousand cavalry. Although more than half of them were just infantrymen who could ride horses, and the horses might not even be true warhorses, their mobility was at least better than that of pure infantry, which met the basic tactical requirements.

It is worth mentioning that one of the lords present suggested that they should also give themselves a name, such as "Second Allied Forces". Dick hesitated for a long time after hearing this, feeling that it was not very auspicious and that it sounded disloyal.

However, they did need a sufficiently resounding name, so the name "Northern United Front" came into being, and Dick naturally became its leader.

Chapter 146: Advances in Two Directions

"Wait a minute! How did we become part of the Northern Alliance?"

Inside the port office building of New Harbor, the ship girls stationed there were collectively dumbfounded when they learned that Dick had named the newly formed allied forces the "Northern United Front".

Dick has a total of five ship girls under his command: Belfast is from the Royal Navy's maid squad, Ding'an is from the Eastern Empire, Kashino is from the Sakura Empire, and Royal Fortune and Golden Deer are sailing ship girls. There isn't a single Russian girl from the Northern Alliance, which makes everyone a little jealous.

"Master, you wouldn't be wishing for a girl from the Northern Alliance here in advance, would you?"

"How could that be! The alliance is called the Northern Union simply because we are actually in the North! You have to believe me."

“I don’t believe you unless you come back to my room with me and I take a lie detector test.”

"You'd better actually take a lie detector test."

With an embarrassed expression, Dick pushed aside the Golden Deer's outstretched tentacles. He was somewhat overwhelmed by this octopus girl who always seemed to have her own lubricant. Mainly, Dick was relatively conservative and had a psychological aversion to those ubiquitous tentacles.

After all, Dick only likes to develop others, not to be developed by others!

So, to change the subject, Dick started talking about serious matters.

The ship girl unit will also join this expeditionary operation. They will escort the transport convoy in the early stages and, after the mobile forces land, accompany the army deep into the wasteland to serve as artillery units.

The ship girls unfold their ship equipment forms, and as long as there is an area of ​​water beneath their feet that can float their bodies, they can do so. As a large settlement with a population of hundreds of thousands, the Orc City naturally has water sources nearby.