Chapter 1912 Benefits And Price
"How else can he be saved?"
Gu Shaoyu gave up on himself and said, "Even the Ice Barbarians have surrendered to the Holy Light faction. What other way can we stop the army's decline?"
"What?!"
Meng Chao was stunned.
The Ice Barbarians lived in the northernmost part of the Other World and often lived in the polar night state where the temperature was in the negative. In the previous future and the one before that, they had always been the Dragon City civilization's most loyal ally and an indispensable solid combat force for the Chaos faction.
The blade-like cold wind and the harsh living environment of the permafrost had honed the Ice Barbarians' indomitable spirit and their loyalty.
In battles that could not be described with pen and ink, even when the Abyssfolk, who were known as Undead Liches, and the skeleton warriors retreated, the Ice Barbarians would remain unfazed. They would wave their weapons that were taller than ordinary humans and unleash their giant swords of death. They methodically harvested their enemy's life and souls—such scenes of classic battle were everywhere.
To a certain extent, as the commander, Meng Chao trusted the Ice Barbarians more than the Turan orcs, who were the first to form an alliance with the Dragon City civilization.
On one hand, the Ice Barbarians' territory was too far away from Dragon City's range of radiation. There was no conflict of interest between them.
On the other, the Ice Barbarians were slow, violent, and somewhat arrogant, which made them unaccustomed and disdainful of any schemes.
Compared with the Doomsday Wolf, Kanus, who had the same personality as Meng Chao, these barbarians were more trustworthy since they did not even know how to lie.
The Meng Chao from the previous future had even spent a lot to hire a personal guard team made up of Ice Barbarians.
After his friends and family betrayed him, it was these Ice Barbarian guards and the puppets he personally controlled who helped him hold up the fort.
Even though the Ice Barbarians had announced that they would leave the Chaos faction and no longer respond to Meng Chao's orders, the mercenaries remained loyal and fought until the very last moment.
Hence, Meng Chao did not believe that the Ice Barbarians would surrender to the Holy Light faction.
However, when more memory fragments appeared in his mind, it made him "remember" what he had done in this future. He had to admit with shame and a clear conscious that the Ice Barbarians' surrender was a matter of course.
The general outline of the Other World was an inverted triangle. Its geographical layout was divided into the north and south.
The southern continent was located under the inverted triangle. The coastline had been shrinking continuously as it was sandwiched between the relatively barren Picturesque Orchid Lake in the middle and the "Monster Basin" surrounded by mountains.
In the northern continent, which was rich in natural resources and fertile land, the Holy Light humans occupied the fertile land at the center of the continent. The elves and dwarfs remained on the wings and protected the elite areas of the Holy Light faction. Further away were the various Chaos races who lived in the remote villages.
Apart from the southern battlefield, the Holy Light humans had to face the Turan orcs' vanguard every time.
On the northern battlefront, Chaos races such as the Ice Barbarians came into daily contact with the elven and dwarven troops.
The two sides had formed a blood feud in the past ten thousand years of war, and they were more than willing to treat each other as primary targets.
In the previous future, Meng Chao had formulated the strategy of "getting rid of the wings first before attacking the heart of the army." He used the air superiority of the Dragon City civilization's armored airships and the increasingly mature short-distance jump system on the planet's surface, which was also known as the transmigration portal, to send large amounts of military arms, manufactured goods, and even military officers to the territories of the undead, ogres, Abyssfolk, and Ice Barbarians. He wanted to help these barbarians who were still in the pre-industrial era and were still eating raw meat and blood. Build a rough yet effective military system, arm the teeth, and finally defeat the enemy of ten thousand years.
This strategy not only effectively weakened the Holy Light faction's strength.
It also made the Ice Barbarians, a race of Chaos, feel extremely grateful to the Dragon City civilization and Meng Chao. They believed that he was a hero sent by the Master of Chaos to reverse the world and save the people.
If Meng Chao had not gone too far by going against the flow and suffered the backstabbing of the remnants of the nine great families, which made him too busy to care about the situation in the north, the many Chaos races might not have responded to Doomsday Wolf Kanus' call and escaped Meng Chao's notice.
However, the price of this strategy was that, compared to the elves and dwarfs who were on the verge of death by the Chaos faction, although the Holy Light humans were also partially weakened, their right to speak and command in the entire Holy Light faction had risen to an unprecedented level, and the entire camp had become more united.
This kind of unity not only gave the Holy Light faction greater tactical resilience.
It also gave the Holy Light Temple more room for strategic detours, allowing them to sacrifice the interests of their allies if they had no choice.
For example, in the later stages of the war, the elves and dwarves, who were originally allies, were ceded to many Chaos races in exchange for precious breathing space.
As such, the future Meng Chao adopted the strategy of "ridding the two wings and attacking the heart" right from the start.
He felt that as long as he could think of ways to weaken the comprehensive strength of the Holy Light humans and reduce their strength to less than 150% of the elf race and the dwarf race, he could then threaten and bribe the elf race and the dwarf race to split up and cooperate.
Within the Holy Light faction, there would definitely be infighting and infighting, and there would be many situations where people would come out. At that time, there would be even more fatal opportunities, and there would even be opportunities to subdue people without fighting.
In all fairness, Meng Chao's way of thinking was not theoretically wrong.
However, on the practical level, Dragon City, which only occupied a corner of the continent, and the Turan orcs who were in a state of famine, had limited resources that could be invested in a long-term war.
When Meng Chao decided to target the south, it meant that he could not use armored airships and teleportation portals to send too many weapons, industrial products, and military officers to the north and the other races of chaos.
In this future, armored airships and teleportation portals were the most important war resources. They were directly sent to the cruel southern battlefield.
Of course, the carpet bombing brought by the armored airship group and the elusive death squads brought by the teleportation gate caused an efficient and heavy blow to the Holy Light Human Tribe.
The Holy Light humans, who claimed to be standing at the top of their civilization, never thought that there would be such an incredible thing in the world that could integrate the sea, land, and sky, completely blurring the war mode at the front line.
However, the price of the successive victories on the southern front was that the Chaos races in the north had yet to receive a fundamental modern upgrade. The battles that were fought using the old methods were still very difficult.
The chiefs, headmen, and ordinary warriors did not have a full and direct understanding of the benefits of establishing the Chaos faction.