"I'll provide you with a fleet of cargo ships on my side. The next batch of weapons and equipment you send over, I want it twice this shipment!" The Nancy Empress looked at Salaman, the Flame Elf Queen.
The weapons and equipment sent over this time only equipped part of the army.
They were still far from enough for the Nancy Empire to counterattack along the whole line.
"That's no problem. The next batch should be shipped over in about fifteen to twenty days. During this time, you'd best stay mainly on the defensive. Besides that, for consumables like the ammunition those weapons need, I can give you the production technology directly. You can produce these consumable shells yourselves," the Flame Elf Queen Salaman said.
The Nancy Empress looked at the Flame Elf Queen Salaman in great surprise; she had never imagined the other side would actually be willing to share the technology for producing those shells outright.
Though shell-production technology was no cutting-edge technology,
to provide the production technology free of charge was still something she had never expected.
"To tell the truth, I'm really curious about your Fierce Dragon Kingdom. Your King is actually so generous," the Nancy Empress said with feeling.
The Flame Elf Queen Salaman said calmly, "Because we know very well what the right thing to do is. The Doyle Empire is our most important enemy right now. Compared with holding this enemy in check, that technology is in fact nothing much. If we're defeated, then all the technology in our hands will in the end belong to the enemy. So rather than that, we may as well fight to the death. That's our philosophy."
The Nancy Empress was silent a moment, thought for a while and said, "Convey my respects to that Fierce Dragon King of yours. I won't say our two sides will be friends forever. But at least on the matter of the Doyle Empire, we'll be friends forever."
Very soon,
the merchant fleet, laden with every kind of raw material and goods, set out from the Nancy Empire back to the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
And the situation on the Southern Continent quietly shifted too.
Though in broad terms it was still the Southern Alliance that held the initiative,
the helicopter gunships they had relied on had lost their advantage on the battlefield entirely.
Because the Nancy Empire was equipped with the Poison Dragon man-portable anti-aircraft missile,
those helicopter gunships did not dare fly unchecked in the Nancy Empire's skies.
The Southern Alliance.
Several photographs lay on the table.
These photographs were all of the new weapons the Nancy Empire had brought onto the battlefield.
"These weapons are the new weapons the Nancy Empire is using on the battlefield. They've posed an enormous threat to our helicopter gunships and tanks. And according to the word we've received, these weapons are suspected to have been supplied by the Fierce Dragon Kingdom!" a man said gravely.
"The Fierce Dragon Kingdom?" someone repeated the name.
"Isn't the Fierce Dragon Kingdom being targeted by the Doyle Empire right now? They can still free a hand to support the Nancy Empire?" someone said incredulously.
"I reckon the Fierce Dragon Kingdom doesn't want to see us unify the Southern Continent. Once we control the whole Southern Continent, we're bound to support the Doyle Empire. That's a situation the Fierce Dragon Kingdom doesn't want to see!"
"Then what do we do now? These weapons the Fierce Dragon Kingdom has supplied really are stronger than ours right now; their fighting power is above ours!"
One of the officers said decisively, "We must attack decisively. Right now the Fierce Dragon Kingdom has only supplied the Nancy Empire with part of its military equipment, and their fighting power on the battlefield has risen so much. If the Fierce Dragon Kingdom then supplies still more weapons and equipment, the situation will only get worse for us! So what I propose next is this. We launch a second wave of attacks and attack the Nancy Empire at any cost. Otherwise, the longer this drags on, the more dangerous it is for us!"
When this man finished speaking, no one around spoke, and the atmosphere fell into a kind of silence.
What everyone was worried about, in fact everyone knew perfectly well.
If they attacked now, it was bound to cause great losses.
At this critical juncture, no one wanted their own forces worn down too much.
It could be said that each was nursing his own private interests.
"At a time like this, you're still nursing your own private interests. Fine. Since I can't persuade you, then let someone who can persuade you speak to you." The officer stood up and walked toward the door behind him.
Just as the people present were puzzled,
that door was pushed open.
A Doyle appeared in the doorway.
On seeing this Doyle, everyone present stood up.
"My lord!"
"It's Lord Biller!"
"What brings Lord Biller here?"
This Doyle before them came from the Doyle Empire and was one of the Three Kings of the Doyle Empire.
Though the Doyle Empire and the other kingdoms all used an imperial system, one thing was different: it had three kings sitting at the peak of power.
So they were also called the Three Kings of the Doyle Empire.
This Lord Biller before them was one of the Three Kings.
King Biller walked into the hall, and as he passed these men, the officers each bowed their heads, as respectful as guard dogs.
King Biller casually pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Why has everyone stopped talking? Weren't you just discussing something? Go on discussing."
His words carried not the least ripple of feeling.
But still no one dared say a word.
"What did I tell you before? Within half a year, I want you to unify the whole Southern Continent. Back then every one of you beat your chests and told me you'd take the Nancy Empire first within three months. Now a month has already gone by; there are five months left. And of the three months you spoke of, two months are left. But now, because of the advanced weapons the Nancy Empire has brought out, you're afraid here, are you?" King Biller's gaze swept over every person present.
No one dared meet King Biller's eyes, as though meeting them would end in death.
"I have no wish to waste words on you. From now on, each of your armies will go all out and attack the Nancy Empire at any cost. If I learn that anyone's army has failed to attack all out for fear of casualties, our Doyle Empire will end all support for him," King Biller said in a flat tone.
But everyone felt as if a gun were pointed at their backs.
They knew very well what would become of them once they lost the Doyle Empire's support.
The weapons and ammunition they were using now all came from the Doyle Empire.
If the Doyle Empire stopped its support, before long they would be knocked back to what they had been.
There would be no need for the Doyle Empire to deal with them; these fellows beside them, calling each other brother a moment before, would march their armies into their countries at the first chance and swallow their lands whole.
After all, without the Doyle Empire's support, their military strength would all drop sharply.
"We're willing to carry out King Biller's orders unconditionally. Tomorrow! No! In a moment I'll order my front-line army to attack all out at any cost! Within two months we'll surely take the Nancy Empire!"
"We're the same; before, we only didn't know how to fight it, but since King Biller has given the order, naturally we'll do it at any cost."
These officers who a moment ago had still been weighing gains and losses in their hearts and thinking of casualties now each stepped forward, looking ready to face death as if going home.
King Biller looked at these men's clownish airs and sneered inwardly.
But he knew very well that to settle the Southern Continent and make it their base of resource supply, they had to rely on these men.
If on this planet there had been no Fierce Dragon Kingdom as a rival,
they might still have waited a while and taken a hand themselves.
But once they learned of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's existence, and that the Fierce Dragon Kingdom was developing at no slow pace,
they had changed their original plan:
setting aside later technological development for now, striving to destroy the Fierce Dragon Kingdom in the shortest time.
What a pity that the Fierce Dragon Kingdom faced them across the sea; to topple the Fierce Dragon Kingdom completely would take resources of fighting power enough!
——————
The battlefield of the Southern Continent.
At a certain moment, as the Nancy Empire gained the advantage on the battlefield and the Southern Alliance suddenly slowed its offensive,
the Southern Alliance's armies on every road seemed to have been shot full of chicken blood, and launched attacks at any cost.
Even paying several times the casualties in the attack, they kept up the attack relentlessly.
This made the Nancy Empire's front lines shrink further.
Almost every day some line was broken.
"It's bad! We've lost another city. Over a million enemy troops are about to besiege our second-largest city!" a subordinate knelt before the Nancy Empress, reporting the intelligence.
The Nancy Empress looked at the map before her.
In a mere few days, the Southern Alliance's attitude had changed enormously.
There had to be some reason behind it.
The tempers and characters of the Southern Alliance's few heads of state were clear to the Nancy Empress.
All of them were crafty as ghosts; they would never be willing to make a bargain like this.
But now they were doing exactly that.
They would even take tens of thousands of casualties to take a not very important garrison town.
That was not their style of fighting at all.
But they did it all the same.
Where something is strange, there is mischief behind it!
The likeliest thing behind this was that the Doyle Empire had stepped in directly.
To make these fellows, so careful of their own feathers, fight at any cost,
there was only this possibility.
"The Doyle Empire? It seems those weapons the Fierce Dragon Kingdom supplied have given them a sense of crisis. That's why they've stepped in directly and set those fellows on destroying our Nancy Empire at any cost," the Nancy Empress murmured to herself.
She could feel it: the enemy was afraid.
They did not fear the Nancy Empire, but they feared the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
The Nancy Empress did not know the reason, nor why two kingdoms across half the planet from each other should be at daggers drawn like this, as if with a blood feud as deep as the sea.
But she knew
the Doyle Empire was her enemy; whatever the enemy feared, she would embrace.
"The next batch of goods from the Fierce Dragon Kingdom is still some time away. Pass on my orders. Every line of defense must complete its assigned task of holding fast; hold, and there's a reward; fail to hold, and it's court-martial. And have all the corps at rest muster at the docks. Once the new weapons arrive, they must finish breaking them in in the shortest time and then go to the battlefield!" the Nancy Empress ordered her subordinates.
"Yes!"
The days passed one by one.
The Nancy Empire's territory was nibbled away bit by bit.
Above all the Nancy Empire's second city; nearly everything around the city had fallen under enemy control.
This city had already entered the stage of street fighting.
But because in this city there were many elite units equipped with close-combat gear supplied by the Fierce Dragon Kingdom,
they held on to the enemy like grim death in the street fighting,
keeping the enemy from taking full control of this city.
But this city truly was being dragged into hell little by little.
And just at this time,
outside the ports of the Nancy Empire's west coast, a huge fleet appeared.
"The fleet's here! It's the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's fleet!"
One of the Nancy Empress's subordinates rushed hurriedly before the Nancy Empress and reported this news.
"How big is the fleet!" The Nancy Empress stopped the work in her hands and at once had people take her to the docks, asking as she went.
"At least twice as many ships as when the first batch came!" the subordinate reported.
The Nancy Empress's steps faltered.
Twice as many?
Even counting the merchant ships and cargo ships the Nancy Empire had brought earlier to carry raw materials, there could not be twice as many.
That meant the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's side had arranged more merchant ships for them again.
That Fierce Dragon King truly was supporting them with everything he had.
She truly could not quite understand how this King she had never met could be so bold as to stake his wager on her.
Before long,
the Nancy Empress reached the Nancy Empire's largest port.
To receive these merchant ships, the Nancy Empress had long since had every pier in the port cleared and the stevedores arranged.
Even the troops responsible for receiving the weapons were stationed not far away,
all so that they could receive these weapons and equipment in the shortest time, and let her army, equipped with these weapons and equipment, return to the battlefield
and turn the situation around!
"We meet again, Your Majesty the Empress of Nancy." The Flame Elf Queen Salaman was still the representative of this merchant fleet.
"You're two days later than agreed." The Nancy Empress frowned; she had noticed that several of the merchant ships bore plain marks of having been attacked.
"On the way here, our fleet was attacked by the Southern Alliance's navy. But I reckon most of their navy has been moved to the Middle-Sea Archipelago battlefield and the battlefields over in the Northwest. So the numbers that came to attack us weren't very large. The losses were small; it only cost us a little time. We're not too late, are we?" the Flame Elf Queen Salaman said with a faint smile.
"Not too late, as it happens. The Doyle Empire has already guessed at our cooperation. Those lackeys of theirs would like nothing better now than to tear my Nancy Empire to pieces!"