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After all, so long as there were battles, there would be war. Therefore, the people who believed in the war gods would always be involved.

Be it the regular army or mercenaries, the number of people who believed in the war gods was definitely not in the minority. The war gods had promised them that after they fought courageously in battles, their souls would be able to go to rest in peace in a God Kingdom. Those with good qualifications might even be transformed into Oracles with immortality and continue their unfinished journey in life. To the soldiers, this was practically regarded as one of the best destinations for them to go.

So when the aristocratic party wanted to form a rapid-mobility troop, the War God System received the news soon enough and had verified in detail. It had since been consistently following up.

“They’re probably going to form a rapid-mobility troop with a total of 200 people,” Augmentin said. “Of which, one-third would be at the level of mid-ranked, which is a very shocking number.”

One-third of the 200 people at the mid-ranked level would mean that there were about 60 to 70 people in total. This was indeed quite a surprising number—if placed within an ordinary army, this number would already be more than enough to support an army with a force of ten thousand soldiers.

Considering the fact that the remaining ones consisted of those at the junior level, as well as the spellcasters needed by this troop, the cost of setting up this team of merely 200 people would be even more than the cost of setting up an ordinary army of ten thousand people.

In other words, in forming this army, the hope was that they would achieve military successes that were as good as or even far better than that of an ordinary army. In the same way, if they were defeated, or even wiped out, the losses that the aristocratic party would incur would not be as great as, or even exceed that of an ordinary army.

On the Dominant Continent, defeating or even wiping out an army was absolutely deemed as an extraordinary battle. Generally speaking, in the wars of relatively low intensity such as the internal war in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, such a great battle was enough to determine the result of war. It was basically impossible for an army to make a comeback after losing such a battle.

Reality was nothing like playing a game. When an army was lost, it would not be as simple as re-recruiting soldiers from a few nearby cities, finding them a general and shipping everyone over. A long period of training and a great number of materials would be required to support an army.

Since ancient times, able men who could make a comeback after losing an entire army were very rare. Liu Bang had, on two occasions, relied on the help of Lü Ze and Han Xin to salvage such losing battles. Thereafter, he became known to the later generations as the typical example of “one who knew how to face failure positively would never die.”

Liu Bei spent half his life in exile after being displaced. Many times, he was forced to abandon his wife and flee for his life, but the elite guard unit under his command, “White Feathers,” had never really been defeated to the point of collapsing. This was the source of his confidence in overrunning the world as he pleased. The weak and frail scholar-turned-general, Chen Qingzhi, led his White-Robed Army as they swept through the North. With merely a few thousand horses and men, he conquered Luoyang. But the moment he lost his White-Robed Army to bitter fighting and a flash flood, he had no choice but to disguise himself as a monk and escape back to the South in a sorry state.

The aristocratic party was a massive force, and naturally, it did not lack great generals. But still, there was no way an ordinary farmer could be transformed into an elite soldier instantly, no matter how great the general could be.

It was for this reason that at the Council of Great Aristocrats, Earl Hauss proposed the formation of a rapid-mobility troop and the plan to use an army of pure elites to attack the rear of the merchant party. This would subject the merchant party to continuous bloodletting and then force them to surrender.

At first, even the aristocrats of the local party opposed his plan. This plan was simple... Transfer a few hundred low-level and mid-level good men to form an excellent team where all would be equipped with a heterogenous kind of horse that had appalling endurance. They would bypass the borderline of confrontation between the North and South, enter the vast north and cause devastation everywhere. The aim was to target and kill civilians, as well as to cause damage to production and life in the North.

This was not only very dangerous; it was vicious.

“This is unbefitting of the aristocratic spirit!” said an earl of the central party. Very angrily, he said, “We aristocrats fight for honor. Our honor is our life! There’s no honor to speak of in such a way of fighting!”

“We are all followers of Our God, the Royal Crown (the Goddess of Wealth). Why must we use such cruel means!” said an earl of the local party. He sighed and said, “My dear, Good Horse, just let go of it.”

However, Earl Hauss, who was nicknamed “Good Horse,” had no intention of “letting go of it” at all. He repeatedly stressed the importance of this war and placed special emphasis on the fact that through this war, they had to instill fear in the merchant party. This was the only way they could ensure their safety and stability in the decades to come.

“If we want to scare them, we must make them feel the fear personally. Rather than annihilate one or two armies on the battlefield, why not get a rapid-mobility troop to bypass their central region, kill their civilians, burn down their villages and farmlands, destroy their caravans and production bases... so long as we do this frequently enough, even if the big merchants could hold up, the small and medium merchants will definitely be scared to death. At least for a generation or two, no one would dare to give mention of war!”

Looking at the magic projection of the young earl who was voicing his mind so indiscreetly and asserting himself so eloquently, the other great aristocrats were quite frustrated.

Of course, they had to admit that Earl Hauss made a good point, but no matter how reasonable he was, they still could not get around the two stages of honor and risk.

It was needless to say anything about honor. Something like attacking the civilians would naturally be acceptable if this were to happen once in a while, but taking it on as a career would certainly pose a great hindrance to one’s family reputation. In the future, at the mention of so-and-so family, everyone would just think of, “Oh, that’s the executioner who massacred civilians...” That was simply dreadful. The greatest fear of these aristocrats should be that even their own posterity would stomp their feet and hurl insults in public at the mere mention of at their own ancestors.

The danger was even more direct. Naturally, there was no need to talk much about the risk of going deep into enemy grounds alone without support. Even if they could win every single battle, would the act of slaughtering civilians anger the Goddess of Wealth? Would they be punished if the Goddess of Wealth was angry?

That was for sure! Even if the Goddess of Wealth disdained laying hands on the soldiers, the officers leading the army would surely be in great trouble!

However, Earl Hauss expressed his willingness to lead the troop himself.

At this point in time, everyone choked at his words.

This person here was accepting the greatest danger, shouldering the heaviest responsibility, taking the rap for them all to be the one with the worst reputation. How could they still have the nerve to come up with all sorts of excuses to decline his proposal?

Anyway, they were only providing manpower and money, that was all. Thirteen earls and two marquises—if every one of them were to contribute a little to make up 200 people, it was really nothing difficult at all.

Of course, when such a mission was suspected of carrying a high possibility of death, they would not be sending their loyal men. Instead, they would immediately throw in hefty amounts to hire mercenaries. Those who did not manage to recruit any mercenary because they were a tad slower would send the marginalized people of their families. These were the people whose lives they could sacrifice without feeling any distress.

As for how they should mesh and combine this group of people as one whole entity, and how to lead this group put together to form a “rapid-mobility troop” to go deep into enemy grounds and fight behind enemy lines, that was the job of the young earl. This young earl had taken over the earl’s scepter from his late father just three years ago.

Before him, everyone showed Earl Hauss that they had high hopes for him. But behind his back, not a single great aristocrat was optimistic about his crazy plan.

One of the leaders of the central aristocratic party, the Marquis of Gemstones, Sachs Yug, had once complained to his father, who was living in semi-reclusion because of old age, that this teammate of his was honestly very unreliable. With such a pigheaded teammate hindering them from advancing, he felt that he should seriously consider the matter of whether he should change his profession and join the merchant party instead...