Knights and Magic Wand
Chapter 570 - 570 270 Risky Military Maneuvers_2

570: Chapter 270 Risky Military Maneuvers_2 570: Chapter 270 Risky Military Maneuvers_2 After tallying the statistics, Baron Balfe’s Thorny Flower Army, the Baldim family’s reinforcement forces, and the Shatai Griffin Group suffered a total of over eight hundred casualties in this battle.

Meanwhile, the elite alliance forces that launched the surprise attack on Fenlidun, consisting of seven hundred heavy cavalry from Kantadar and the Avalon Knights, sustained a combined loss of over a hundred soldiers.

Neither the Ranger Knights nor the elite Holy Lake Knights had any fatalities, with only a small number of knights lightly injured.

The total casualties approached a thousand, with the heaviest losses concentrated in the main alliance force led by Balfe, which was tasked with holding off the advancing Undead Corpse Sea.

However, considering the destruction of nearly ten thousand Corpse Ghosts—achieving a kill ratio approaching ten-to-one—and successfully repelling tens of thousands of undead entrenched in this large city, this was undoubtedly an epic and decisive victory.

As such, the expressions during the military council were not overly grim.

Not long after the meeting concluded, a group of knights inspecting the various granaries around the city hurriedly returned to report an astonishingly good piece of news to Leon.

Perhaps because Fenlidun City differed from Ashford Port, where warehouse zones were concentrated, the granaries within the city were extremely dispersed.

The Corpse Ghost Lord had only located and destroyed some granaries near the Upper City and the military camp areas.

In the Lower City District, the granaries scattered near various marketplaces had remarkably survived intact.

Combining the stored grain from all the granaries, the total inventory amounted to no less than ten thousand tons.

Once the knights departed, Azeryan, after some thought, reminded Leon, “I’ve heard that before the war, Fenlidun City housed roughly ten thousand families.

Given how swiftly this city fell, it’s quite possible that the homes of its former residents still hold a significant amount of recoverable food reserves.”

“Hmm.” Leon nodded at the suggestion and promptly ordered, “Immediately organize the warriors to search for them.”

As the city no longer had any living inhabitants, Leon felt no hesitation in scavenging unclaimed resources.

At present, ensuring that his surviving soldiers had enough to eat was more important than anything else.

Azeryan, upon receiving the command, immediately went to carry it out but turned back after a few steps to ask, “Leon, it’s not just about the food.

The unclaimed wealth in the city might also add up to an astonishing sum.

Should we collect that as well?”

“Of course,” Leon affirmed with a nod.

Although the social and economic system of Eastern Kantadar had already completely collapsed, this money and these goods could still retain their value in the rear lines far from the war zone—in Western Kantadar or even within Orland’s territory.

“Gather Lord Irem, Lord Balfe’s forces, and quickly consolidate all the city’s resources into a centralized storage point,” Leon instructed without hesitation.

Though technically this land belonged to the Baldim family, and his actions of “scraping their turf” as an outsider could be seen as improper, the wartime necessity of sustaining his forces as the Alliance’s commander made this entirely reasonable.

Moreover, from a certain perspective, he was helping to reclaim territory on their behalf.

That being said, any personal property belonging to the Count Lunaf Family would be returned, but the rest of the unclaimed goods within the city must be repurposed as military supplies to ensure the Alliance’s continued fight against the undead.

In fact, Leon had no plans to lead his forces back to the North Shore of the great river for replenishment.

Until the war concluded, he decided to temporarily use Fenlidun City as a base to command the large-scale military operations.

Baron Yevan and Knight Ron’s Shatai Griffin Group would undoubtedly be willing to continue fighting under his banner.

As a result, excluding Count Runav’s reinforcements, Leon found himself with a directly commandable force of no less than five thousand soldiers.

Now that the city’s grain provisions could sustain his army, Leon realized—almost by accident—that he had the means to lead an entirely independent military campaign without relying on the Baldim family’s support.

It wasn’t that he intended to break away from the Eastern Nobles to face the undead alone, but with food supplies in hand, Leon felt far more confident.

At the very least, for the foreseeable future, he no longer needed to depend on others to ensure the safety of his troops.

…The next day.

Having rested and regained his vigor in Fenlidun City, Kovis took to the skies aboard a Stormhawk on Leon’s orders, delivering swift reports of the victory to the North Shore.

Meanwhile, by that afternoon, the troops clearing the battlefields in and around the city had conducted a preliminary assessment of the spoils of this battle.

In addition to the ten thousand tons of grain stored in the granaries, the army recovered another three thousand tons of food scattered across the city.

This was sufficient to feed an army of five thousand soldiers and their horses for nearly two months.

As for the wealth collected, excluding items difficult to appraise, the easily quantifiable gold, silver, and copper coins, along with various pieces of jewelry, had an estimated value of no less than eight thousand gold crowns.

Of course, the only problem lay in how to convert these valuables—which were difficult to trade for their equivalent worth in Eastern Kantadar—into the military equipment and resources the Alliance needed.

After some thought, Leon decided to wait for an opportunity to dispatch a messenger to seek the assistance of the Sealing Lord in Glade County.

Fenlidun was too far from the rear lines, leaving him incapable of independently managing such wealth.

Besides the grain provisions and the portion of the wealth temporarily used to incentivize the soldiers, the spoils that could be put to immediate use were limited to what could be salvaged from the weapons and armor stripped off the corpses of over a thousand fallen Corpse Ghosts.

Although most were already damaged—riddled with rust or in desperate need of repair—some were still functional, and even marginal utility was better than nothing.

Of course, these tattered remnants were of no use to the lavishly equipped Illaril Knights.

The Ranger Knights, too, were unlikely to have much need for them.

Though small in number, the Avalon Knights found limited value in these salvaged items—only a few damaged noble plate armors pried from the Corpse Demon Knights might be of practical use.

The crude armor taken from regular undead soldiers held little worth for the fully outfitted Avalon troops as well.