Chapter 630
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"Split into five teams to stop the expeditionary army? We are talking about twenty-five-thousand regular soldiers . " Saleen disagreed with Nailisi's suggestion . It was right to seize this opportunity to train the troops, but if a camp was split into five portions each team would only have two-thousand people . That was akin to two emblem groups, the enemy would have ten times the manpower .
With more than ten times the difference in manpower of the Holy See's army could even use the besieging technique to extirpate two emblem groups of forces .
"Master, you don't know something . While you were away Daniel selected one-hundred people to inherit death magic from him . Currently, about eighty of them are high grade disciples already . As long as the dead soul flame is present twenty people can immediately transform into low grade death mages . We just have to assign two death mages to each team and we will be able to deploy two-hundred skeletal warhorses . "
Saleen moaned . Among his soldiers, most of them had not undergone a real battle, with the exception of the pirates and the swordsmen from Sregl Island . In a bloody battle the morale of these soldiers would be difficult to sustain . Only soldiers who had experienced the tribulations of war could be trusted .
The Holy See did not deploy the sacred knights, it allowed Tanggulasi's imperial family to send their army of twenty-five-thousand regular soldiers . In a field battle, these twenty-five-thousand men would definitely enjoy an absolute advantage . "A death mage can preserve one-hundred skeletal warhorses . Even if I send all my death mages there will only be twelve-hundred skeletal warhorses . That will not be adequate for my men to attain a speed advantage . I still have to deploy the three kings, otherwise this camp of mine will most likely be devoured by the Holy See's army . "
"Banchajanna does things incoherently while Diyabannersa has the tendency to act impulsively . I shall let Judikaka notify Lex's army, then he will return and receive the sixth camp . We have two months to prepare . " Saleen conjured an idea in a flash . It was necessary to stop the Holy See's army . If it could arrive at Metatrin City without getting damaged Saleen would have a tough time defending his city .
Lex had taken the first camp to Bitter Water Prefecture to participate in the war, leaving Saleen with the second to sixth camps . Saleen had set up the sixth camp when Lex was about to leave, while the other five camps had been trained by Lex all this while .
The sixth camp consisted of a mixed composition, there were barbarians and Caucasus people in it . The core of the command was made up of swordsmen from Sregl Island . Saleen's agenda for creating this camp was obvious, he wanted to establish a human army which was fully in his control . All the recruited soldiers could only be twenty years old at max . The sixth camp did not want anyone who was older than twenty years old .
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No one in this young army had an aristocratic background, Saleen could deploy them without any worry . The recruitment of these ten-thousand people took several months . Many people registered, but only few were accepted . Eventually, some skilled Caucasus people trained by Sika had to be added in so that the composition of this camp was complete .
The proportion of Saleen's troops to the number of civilians was on the higher side . As a result, during the planning of the troop composition, the auxiliary troops did not belong to any specific camps . They would be assigned to whichever camp was going out for a field mission . The main objective of the five camps was to protect the city . During the defense of the city the scale of logistical support would be very small . Even if there were only twenty-thousand auxiliary troops it would be sufficient for use by the five camps .
As Saleen assembled the sixth camp he decided to use a mixed composition for it with the intention of lowering the demand for logistical support . The sixth camp had ten-thousand men and it was split into emblem groups . As long as two emblem groups were together an offensive formation could be formed already .
As Qin had many mages it could coordinate logistical support more easily than the other empires and it was the same case for Saleen's sixth camp . Each brigade was fitted with a low grade mage, an emblem group would require at least one grade-4 grand mage .
The sixth camp had more than one-hundred low grade mages . Each emblem group could be paired with more than ten low grade mages . These low grade mages would not be useless . During battle,the lethality of a low grade mage was equivalent to that of a few swordmasters . With the presence of low grade mages the warriors would be able to obtain a steady supply of treatments such as Restorative Water .
A low grade mage could activate a special spatial equipment in the army . These special equipments were crates with a volume of about one cubic yard . They relied on a magic array to maintain their balance and the space inside was only two cubic yards . The interior space might only be double the exterior volume, but the function of these wooden crates was immense because such crates were extremely sturdy . The volumes of logistical items placed inside were calculated by their specific volume . A normal box with five to six cubic yards of space might not even be able to contain these items .
Even though this army only had this one advantage its transportation capacity was five times that of a normal army .
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Saleen assigned Gurney, who had been recalled back to Metatrin City, to this camp as a deputy commander . The position of the chief commander remained vacant . At the moment Gurney still did not have the ability to take up the role of a chief commander .
This battle did not involve a large scale confrontation between two armies, so Saleen did not assign a commander to Gurney . This mission would be split into five parts and two emblem groups would act together .
These emblem group commanders were swordsmen from Sregl Island, the lowest grade of them all was an intermediate grade swordmaster . It was difficult to look for a grand swordmaster, but the people from Sregl Island were reassuring . They were not old and it was only a matter of time before they all advanced into grand swordmasters .
Saleen meticulously planned the advancing and retreating route of the army, he also specially created ten maps . He gave them to the grand mages serving the ten emblem group commanders . Saleen had arranged for someone to draw these maps . No one had ever created such a specific map of the region north of Phoenix to date .
He then went to organize the logistical matters . Disposable items like crossbows, rations, and intermediate-size magic equipment which could be dismantled needed to be supplied .
Judikaka had been deployed in advance, the spirit king was going to inform Lex's army to get ready in advance .
Death mages had also been allocated to each emblem group, they were responsible for the logistical support . With skeletal warhorses, the logistics elements would not affect the advancing speed of the army .
Feeling that everything was in place, Saleen asked Sika to deploy another few hundred Caucasus magic wolf warriors to Deep Forest Town to gather intelligence .
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It was only when the sixth camp left Metatrin City that Saleen began considering that he needed to resolve a problem; his identity .
Lex had left and Saleen had already prepared all the things needed to create his false identity . Narnia also came by every day to train him . At the moment, Saleen's actions vaguely resembled that of a noble from the fourth dynasty already . It was fortunate that the fourth dynasty did not have too many rules for its nobles, so Saleen did not face much difficulty grasping these rules .
Jola gave Saleen a suggestion . When Saleen heard Jola's idea he nodded in agreement .
Saleen was to execute this plan starting with the youngsters which had separated from the four big families; Aini from the Clyde family, Irene from the Williams family, Renee from the Tiffany family, and Sharman from the Rolande family . When these four youths came out of their families they had brought along huge amounts of funds, experienced businessmen, and a certain number of private soldiers .
Aini and Irene would surely collude with Saleen . Even though Irene had some conflicts with Saleen, Irene herself knew that she wanted to carve out a career Metatrin City . She would be impartial . It was indeed a little troublesome to rope in the other two youths .
The people from the Tiffany family had been engaging in commerce and investment earnestly all this while . Even though the Rolande family had interacted with Daniel many times Baroness Guya still had no intention to initiate contact with Saleen ever since Sharman returned .
Guya was waiting and observing the situation, she was eyeing the benefits Saleen would give . Saleen still had not openly accepted the nobles who came forth to settle down, there was no status . If Saleen was incapable even a young lady would not invest her assets in him .
Jola's idea was to use the two incoming grade-9 mages to convince the youths from the other families . Once the people from all four families were converted, Saleen would then use this circle of nobles as a core to expand his own influence .
Originally, Saleen was still thinking of a location to build the ten story magical tower he had promised to gift the two grade-9 mages . Now that the Holy See had deployed its forces to invade his city Saleen had lost all worries . He planned to choose an island to build the magical tower for the two grade-9 mages . At the moment he decided that he would construct the magical tower west of Metatrin city in the town where Lex's army was stationed .
Aini's parents did not deceive Saleen, those two grade-9 mages were indeed persuaded by their friend and they were coming to visit Metatrin City . Currently, Metatrin City had been fully developed . Other than the magical towers, the rest of the amenities were fully built . Saleen could receive the two grade-9 mages already . What Saleen needed to do right now was to wait for the mages' arrival . He would then have to convince them to settle down for good .
After making this decision Saleen no longer felt anxious . There was news about the two grade-9 mages, they would be arriving within the next two to three days . Seizing the next two days of free time, Saleen went to visit the arena .
The construction of the arena was very smooth, it was located west of the city . This location, spanning almost one mile, housed a cluster of public buildings . Other than this central arena a dozen other mini arenas were designed and scattered in the vicinity . As the main works were completed, the spirits had been withdrawn . At the moment, there were many smiths in the arena who were building chairs for the spectators, they were also drawing and engraving various patterns along the passageways .
Seeing the arena getting built, Saleen knew that many professionals would come to Metatrin City to try their luck very soon . By then, Saleen would have many more options .
"The demonic city is good, but before my foundation is stable, I still have to maintain a low profile . "
Just as Saleen was about to discuss the rules of the arena with Daniel someone suddenly came and reported that the two grade-9 mages had arrived . The mages were waiting in the temple for Saleen . The moment Saleen learned about this information, he was inevitably flustered . He quickly ordered people to invite Aini's parents over, then asked Diyabannersa and Banchajanna to come and meet him .
Saleen had to take some precautions, the visitors were grade-9 mages after all . With two spirit kings by his side the two grade-9 mages would not be able to kill Saleen swiftly . This would buy Saleen some time to take out his clan badge, which would pose a threat to the grade-9 mages too .