Chapter 1921: Chapter 1914: Strategic Confrontation

“Of course,” Oklo Laf nodded and said, “we have our own logistics and don’t have to rely entirely on your side.”

“Actually, if you want to meet all the needs, it’s not impossible, just a bit troublesome.” Cheng Ziang smiled and said.

“Haha, if we rely entirely on your side, there’s a chance of being impeached by certain individuals, so I hope you understand.” Oklo Laf said with a bitter smile.

“Alright, that’s also good, so I’ll take my leave now, Your Excellency the Commander.”

“Farewell, Mr. Cheng.”

Actually, Cheng Ziang was not joking, but rather reminded of the historical story of Mulberry Rice from the Warring States period.

Having Lipei supply the entire logistics for the West United Army of Aud is as easy as it is difficult.

After all, spending a massive amount of resources to supply your enemy, if word gets out, those unaware of the strategy will surely criticize it severely.

Economically, it’s also not worthwhile, unnecessarily supporting an additional one hundred thousand mouths, while headquarters has to increase its logistics expenditure on Lipei.

However, on a strategic level, this is actually quite a good plan.

After all, Lipei’s logistics are almost limitless, completely capable of sustaining these one hundred thousand troops. Once the supply is completed, there would be numerous possibilities to manipulate.

Firstly, once the supply to the Aud Army is realized, under good confidentiality, these one hundred thousand troops can continue to consume supplies from the Aud Army’s rear; this enormous supply would directly fall into the pockets of senior officers.

Even if the secret is leaked, and the Aud Army rear cuts off supply to the West United Army, Lipei can still control these hundred thousand troops through logistics supply.

At this point, what these hundred thousand Aud soldiers’ loyalty yet remains to be seen.

Fighting a war for the king without being paid. Instead, it is the enemy ensuring their logistics, so whose army is the Aud Army, after all?

Once such a situation arises, Lipei can achieve control over the Aud Army, transforming it into its own external mercenary force.

Furthermore, even if these one hundred thousand Aud soldiers are loyal to the king, once Lipei suddenly cuts off logistic supplies and launches a surprise attack, these troops would collapse easily.

After all, having formed a path dependency, once the path is cut off, they could hardly sustain. Whether or not they would retreat entirely depends on if Lipei would launch an attack.

If you ask why Lipei can stand against the powerful Aud Army?

Luo’er’s answer would probably be summed up in two words: wealth.

The outcome of this meeting was surprisingly good, with one side unwilling to attack recklessly, and the other side taking the initiative to make friendly gestures. In such circumstances, a subtle compromise was reached between the opposing sides.

After completing the mission, Cheng Ziang and his group were to return to Lipei’s main city. To report back swiftly, Cheng Ziang boarded the long-waiting Transport Plane and returned to Lipei’s main city in just a few hours.

Upon returning to Lipei, Cheng Ziang quickly reported the meeting’s results to Luo’er. He also proposed his idea of supplying aid to the enemy.

Facing such a proposal, Luo’er was, at first, undecided and decided to put it on hold temporarily, depending on the situation.

After all, mishandling such matters may cause dissatisfaction on both sides, being criticized internally for supporting the enemy, while externally feeding the ingrate.

Although Cheng Ziang had analyzed the benefits of this plan, under the present circumstances, achieving such results seemed excessively challenging.

The looming war was easily dissolved by Luo’er and others, yet unexpectedly, the internal reaction within Lipei was inconsistent.

Some believed Luo’er was too weak, selling out the country for honor, using Lipei’s logistics to support the enemy, thus aiding them. Others thought Luo’er wasn’t weak, just fearful of war, so he readily compromised.

The discourse behind these two claims suggested that the Lipei people seemed to understand war too superficially, thinking the Lipei Defense Army should engage the Aud Army in battle to defend its interests. Some even hoped to proactively attack, defeating the formidable enemy at the border.

In truth, anyone truly knowledgeable about war would never say such things.

In the East Continent, Luo’er experienced the West Outer Heaven War and the Dongsheng Empire War. Thus, he profoundly understood what war meant.

The so-called best warriors have no heroic war achievements; war is an extension of politics, not merely an act of violence.

If it was possible to avoid the outbreak of war through negotiation, although it might sound repressing, it is indeed the optimal solution.

Even the headquarters that continually provided logistics to Lipei shared the same viewpoint.

After all, one kilogram of bullets is much more expensive than one kilogram of grain; why spend the most to achieve the same?

Therefore, Luo’er ignored these doubts entirely.

As the saying goes, if someone discusses with a rocket expert about which coal to use for launching rockets, the expert losing just by considering it seriously.

Luo’er knew very well what he was doing, not only understanding locally, but having a comprehensive understanding of the entire situation before making such decisions.

Gudelv dispatched a hundred thousand troops, seemingly a massive endeavor.

Yet it was already stated before, to conquer Lipei, at least two hundred thousand troops would be necessary to achieve it.

Sending only a hundred thousand troops indicated Gudelv did not intend to start a war in the direction of Lipei, only aiming to intimidate Lipei.

Precisely because Lipei understood this aspect, the subsequent meeting took place.

Since the highest command level of the Aud Army didn’t have a determined combat will, why should the actual executors be overly concerned?

Under such circumstances, with Lipei’s emotional persuasion and added incentives, the outbreak of conflict could be prevented.

This was also a crucial reason Cheng Ziang could succeed.

Yet ordinary people didn’t understand this level of connection, instinctively seeing Luo’er as too weak, compromising with the Aud Army, intending to sell out Lipei.

Fortunately, Lipei didn’t implement a traditional democratic system, and especially during times of crisis, leaned towards a centralized authority.

This environment allowed Luo’er to formulate external policies without considering public opinion and without fearing being hijacked by the populace’s views.

After all, professionals should do professional work, and in this matter, no one is necessarily better than Luo’er.

While Luo’er was very satisfied, some people were unhappy. Those who relentlessly advocated for Gudelv to attack Lipei wished nothing more than to hear the glad news of Lipei’s fall immediately.

But just as Luo’er thought, the fact that Gudelv only deployed one hundred thousand troops to attack Lipei already spoke volumes.

If he genuinely intended to conquer Lipei, he would have mobilized half of his troops for a sudden assault on Lipei already.

The apparent contradiction also indirectly reflected a situation, showing that Gudelv did not wish to become a satellite of a particular Earth nation group.

He never saw the Odelanqi War as a part of the New Cold War, preferring to view it as a marker of Aud Empire’s rise.

Nevertheless, while the thought is easy, doing it is tremendously difficult.

Almost all of the Aud Army’s weapons and equipment rely on Earth’s national import aid. Though he exchanged massive amounts of gold in return, it was minuscule compared to equipping millions of soldiers.

Despite Gudelv’s decades of scheming, considering the current weapon ammunition reserves of the Aud Army, it could only sustain three months of high-intensity offensives.

Thus, Gudelv would not lightly offend the envoys from Earth unless absolutely necessary.

Gudelv was well aware of Lipei’s position within the entire war situation; his concern was that, once Lipei was captured, the Church Court and Shani people might wildly launch counterattacks, turning Lipei into a war machine.

Existing intelligence confirmed his suspicion, showing that the Church Court was secretly dispatching Forbidden Curse Mages to Lipei. Such actions undoubtedly confirmed Lipei’s significance.

Would deploying massive troops to capture Lipei lead to a prolonged stalemate, continuously investing manpower into the cycle of attrition?

Or should full force be used against the Church Court first and, after capturing the Church Court, use it as a bargaining chip for negotiations with Lipei?

Evidently, Gudelv leaned towards the latter option.