Chapter 124 Spectre Clearing Operations - Preparation
Few days have passed. The Emperor, Princes and the clearing operations team have been busy preparing for the mission.
General Farauld decided that there would only be eighty knights going out of the capital to disperse across the Empire and attack the enemy. The rest of the forces will come from the forces stationed locally on the target points.
Everyone agreed to use swarming tactics for the Phase 1 of the operations to overwhelm the Spectre and achieve victory. For the swarming tactic, the chain of command and control will be sacrificed for agility, focus and convergence.
With their small numbers and time constraint in getting acquainted with the local forces, it was the best strategy applicable. They had to attack fast, uniformly and strongly in order to ensure that the Spectre was caught off-guard and be completely defeated.
Since the chain of command was decentralized, the crux of this strategy is uniformity.
Every attacking unit shall adopt the same tactics in dealing with the target forces. They will continue to do it repeatedly until all they converge and overwhelm the remaining forces.
There were a total of 44 targets, haphazardly distributed within the Empire. With the consensus of everyone, the whole army will be divided into three divisions.
The first division will be the North-East Division, with 4 five-man team subunits from the capital, complemented by forty to sixty local unit troops. They will be in charge of targeting the 8 identified locations located in the north and east territory.
After eliminating the forces, two of the subunits will stay for phase two and the others will advance to reinforce the southeast. The four subunits will be led by Second Prince Antoine, the Viridescent Summoner's Left and Right Commands and one of General Farauld's Lieutenants.
The next was the West Division, consisting of 5 subunits complemented by the similar number of local forces.
They will target the 9 identified locations in the west and just like the North-East Division, they will leave 2 sub units behind for the Phase 2 and proceed to overwhelm the south west. They will be led by First Prince Kazimir, with the left and right commands of the Amethyst Warlocks and two of Imperial Sky Night's Lieutenants.
The last division was the South Division, with the remaining 7 subunits, which were divided under the leadership of Leon and General Farauld. They will be targeting the first fourteen out of the twenty seven target locations in the south, and converge with the first two divisions to sweep the remaining half.
The small army units will simultaneously attack on the first batch of the targeted locations and strive to achieve victory within a day.
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After recuperating, they will commence the second wave of attack. By this time, the forces on the North, East and West Territory would be settled, and the assigned sub units would quickly transport to the south territory for the third wave.
Finally, after all the target areas had been raided, they had to address the aftermath. In this case, the people assigned to stay would be led by the Princes and a counterpart Lieutenant from the Imperial Sky Knights.
The overall plan was estimated to be finished in three months to half a year, depending on how well Phase 1 was executed.
The Emperor had opened the treasury in order to utilize the precious mana stones to shorten the travel time of the troops and to also allow them to depart from the capital silently.
He even decreed to buy a large bulks of notification papers in order to ensure that the coordinations would be more agile and convenient.
With this, everyone hopes that all will go according to plan.
The tedious coordination and preparation made the days pass by and in a blink of an eye, it was already the day for the troops to depart from the capital.
The troops were set to depart past midnight and teleport to the sixteen pre-identified locations. They have the rest of the day to part with their families and attend to their matters before meeting at the rendezvous point, the Sun Tower, for teleportation.
For Leon and Eli, it was rather a busy yet melancholic day. Eli silently worked to pack all of Leon's things in his space pouch.
Before the two met, Leon didn't need to spend time to prepare for these things. He would just silently proceed to lead his troops, only armed with his sword, a few rations of dried food and water, then a stack of notification and spell papers.
But now, Leon watched helplessly as Eli busied herself in the past few days to make a lot of food rations for him. From food to clothing, his new favorite baby powder and sleeping kit, Eli meticulously planned and prepared for everything.
To add to this, he also received a lot of magical items from Grandpa Andi and Grandpa Ben in hopes to lessen the burden of his small army in dealing with the Spectre.
Thus, Leon's pretty empty space pouch was almost torn because of over capacity. Luckily, Grandpa Andi gifted him another space bag with a larger capacity, in this way, he was able to carry all the items his future wife, Eli, had packed painstakingly.
He estimated that with all the meat, fishes, pickled vegetables and fruit preserves, he could feed the entire Crimson Blades in one month if they opted to eat without restraint.
"Leon, just make do with this… I haven't studied enough to produce canned goods and vacuum sealed food from my previous world, so I have no choice but to use the old fashioned way to preserve these food rations.." Eli told Leon with deep regret in her eyes.
Too bad, if she was able to do this, Crimson Blade's mobility and logistics would improve by leaps and bounds. However, she was simply too busy juggling between research, motherhood and training her physical combat skills.
She was even called from time to time to navigate the next steps for flourishing the black hair industry which was about to be officially launched in the entire Belizia Kingdom in the coming months.
Moreover, she hoped that she would never do this again for Leon. She hoped that Leon would never leave for war and put his life in danger ever again.
"It's alright, this is more than enough." Leon looked at Eli with sincerity and gratitude. "I couldn't thank you enough for preparing all this."
He was holding Little Han in his arms, maximizing the remaining time he could spend with his little son. Great sadness appeared in his eyes, as he knew that he would not be there to celebrate Little Han's monthly celebration.
He hugged Little Han tenderly, remembering his warmth and face, deeply etching it in his heart.
He snuck a look towards the busy body Eli and gave a defeated smile.
How he wanted to give her a hug too… but too bad, Eli would be angry if he did that.
He could not do anything but to keep on hugging and interacting with Little Han to compensate for his loss of not being able to hug Eli before he leaves.
It was already deep in the night, only a few hours before their departure in the Sun Tower. The family of Three, along with the five blades, used the cottage's teleportation array to travel to the Crimson Blade's barracks.
As Leon promised, Eli had to see all the Crimson Blades and pray for their safety throughout the missions. But because of the tedious preparation in the past few days, they only managed to do it hours before the departure.
They teleported to Leon's study in the barracks, and they proceeded to enter the Crimson Blade's strategy room.
Even if it was already deep in the night, the room was well lit and filled with energy because of the people waiting inside. Seventeen strong and mighty young men dressed in low key guard clothes looked at Leon, Eli and Little Han with excited gazes.
With unison, they stomped their feet, half knelt to the ground and bowed.
"The Crimson Blades greets the Wielder of the Sword!"
"The Crimson Blades greets the Future Madame and Young Master!"
Leon nodded and reciprocated their greetings, Eli let out a simple smile and a cordial greeting.
Leon's cold and commanding voice resonated in the hall. It was the first time Eli saw Leon in his war god mode!
His pair of crystal blue eyes emanated a sharp glint while his body stood like a mighty rock. His low magnetic voice sounded like thunder, penetrating every listener's heart.
"The time has come for us to take the first step to eliminate the Spectre! Now is the time to face our nemesis! Now is the time to bring our people their most deserved peace!"
"Let us straighten our backs, tighten the grips to our sword and command our knees to remain stable and unshakable!"
"Take a step forward to kill the enemy, swing the sword for victory!"
"OHHHHHH!!" The Crimson Blade's shouted in unison. Their deep desire to defeat the Spectre resonated in the hall, it als penetrated straight to Eli's heart.
"Before we leave, Eli, the mother of my precious son, Johann, will plead to the heavens and seek the blessings of our Great Creator. Everyone, in solemn bow!"
The entire Crimson Blades, including Leon, who was still carrying Little Han, knelt on the ground, looked up to the sky with submissive eyes and bowed their heads in humility.
Eli stood there in silence, placing her hands into her heart, she uttered these words wholeheartedly.
"Oh, may You bless the brave men,
Great One who brings forth strength and might!
Grant them the heart that will never relent,
For it is for Your glory that their hands chose to fight!"
"The wicked stood strong, bringing terror,
To the weak and poor who pleads for your salvation.
And so, Oh Great One, let these men end the horror,
Strongly, they go forth and come back, still clothed with Your Holy protection!"