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Chapter 453 – The Dilemma
Elena’s personality was like that of a cat, even though she likes her master’s intimacy, she would never say it out loud. At most they would walk around in front of you, liking their paws and giving hints and hoping their dumb master realizes.
But ShenDai Ying was different… she who has a dog-like personality wouldn’t easily let their master escape, if her master dares leave her behind, she would surely bark and cling to her master’s clothes and wouldn’t let go.
So Elena was definitely compelled by ShenDai Ying to come to monitor him!
As for Claire… she had complicated feelings.
On one hand, Claire felt annoyed for some reason, her alone time with Lin Xiao was forcibly interrupted. But on the other hand, Claire was unexpectedly a little happy sensing their hostilities towards her, like she finally stepped on a certain battlefield and can have a go at the big boss.
Of course, the two big bosses Elena and ShenDai Ying aren’t easily defeated.
No matter what, their job finally began. Since there was too much information, Lin Xiao decided to sort them first and screen them in order of importance.
He was happy that Elena and ShenDai Ying didn’t come just to mess around but to help too.
ShenDai Ying was attentive and experienced so she helped Lin Xiao a lot with the screening, and Elena didn’t know much about human documents, but she did her job as a maid.
Snacks and drinks… and with her helping, their work efficiency improved a lot. Out of confidentiality considerations, Claire didn’t have any other servants’ help, so Elena was responsible for carrying the documents.
An obedient Elena was the best maid in the entire world! If he had to find fault…
Her swaying body was just too distracting! How can he work with a maid like that by his side?
“Insufficient logistical supplies… new recruitment on hold… isn’t this terrible!”
After a while, Lin Xiao finally organized a small pile of relevant documents and was shocked just after reading a few pages.
He knew that Gotham Kingdom was in a tough situation, but never thought that it would be this bad… the plague ravaged their country’s economy, there was no money and no people.
If it wasn’t for Claire using various methods to suppress panic from the plague and for Caesar finding the black core and revealing the truth, based on their situation, there would have been an insurrection and they would have collapsed even without the rebels.
“These are all confidential information, I didn’t dare tell anyone this…. the frontlines have been asking me for money and people, and I can only use various reasons to get by.”
“If they knew how bad it was, they would have already surrendered, why would they even bother having a strategy meeting.” Lin Xiao shook his head, “Though it may be bad, there’s still a way.”
“What did you find?” Claire nervously asked.
“The information doesn’t match up… this should be our biggest advantage.”
According to the frontline battle reports, the rebels never used their full strength in any of their attacks, it was mostly just feints, and then the main attack someplace prepared for retreat. Because the army’s defensive lines are stretched very long, the rebels come out on top each time. But the strange thing was, the rebels never continued to attack, every time the reinforcements for the army arrived, their main attacking force would retreat, so that’s how the illusion of the army winning each time came about.
“There are three reasons they’re doing this.”
Lin Xiao stuck up three fingers and carefully explained to Claire.
“First, disparity of information…. they’re afraid of us! They still haven’t grasped our true strength, in the end, they’re just an alliance of tens of city-states, so if they tried to come hard at us and failed, then they wouldn’t have another chance, that’s why they’re conservatively probing us.”
Claire essentially was using an empty fort strategy. The leopard queen was sitting tight at the deep and dark city with numerous responding to her, that’s what scared the rebels to not make any rash movements.
“Secondly, strategic considerations… they’re delaying. The rebel army knows how powerful the plague is, so they aren’t in a rush to attack, they think they can easily win as long as they continue to drag it out.”
That was a reasonable strategy, but Lin Xiao had his doubts… If the rebels really let in drag on and waited until the plague completely destroyed the kingdom, how would they pick up the pieces?
The rebels didn’t want to exterminate them, they just wanted to seize power, so no matter which side won, the plague was something difficult the new king had to deal with, did they not understand that?
If Gotham Kingdom became a dead country littered with corpses, what meaning did their rebellion have?
Or did they have something to do with the plague!? Their original plan was to rely on the plague to devastate the country’s army and then used the cure to save the people, wouldn’t they then be the saviors?
“But unfortunately Caesar and Snow already found the black core and should be able to research a cure soon, so there’s no way to know if they were involved…”
Lin Xiao shook his head and explained the third important reason.
“Third, strong soldiers and capable generals.”
“Are you referring to the frontline’s highest ranking commander, Grand Marshall Barrett?”
“That’s right.”
Even having never met him, Lin Xiao was sure he was an outstanding general, and the army was only able to survive until now thanks to him.
“But I don’t understand, isn’t it very obvious what we have to do next? Why are those generals fighting?”
“Lin Xiao… no matter how much I try to hide the information, the officials still have an idea, so a lot of people know we can’t win and are advocating for peace talks, with General Hardy leading the peace faction.”
The other faction, the war faction strongly disagrees with peace and wants to concentrate our efforts to have one final decisive battle with the rebels!
“They believe that the more we drag it on, the more disadvantages it is for us, so they want to gather all our manpower to reinforce the frontline and counterattack at once!”
“Oh? It seems like a good idea, but it’s too risky, it’s akin to suicide if it fails… what do you think?”
“I don’t think it’s good, just like you said… disparity of information.” Claire learned as she went and responded.
The rebels aren’t clear of their bottom line, but neither do they know about the rebels.
“More importantly… Grand Marshal Barrett is leading the war faction, the highest ranking commander you praised earlier.”
“Oh, then if it’s him it should be trustworthy, right? Since he’s outstanding at commanding.”
“I don’t deny that, but he… might now be trustworthy.” Claire sighed and looked at Lin Xiao.
“So you’re saying… using the troops himself?”
Lin Xiao guessed most of it even without Claire saying anything.
According to the information, over fifty percent of the country’s manpower was at the frontlines, in other words, he alone controlled the majority of the army! This wasn’t a safe signal.
“To be honest, there’s been something happening on the frontlines, the war faction is loud and suppressing the peace faction, they don’t even completely listen to my orders and my dispatch. If we concentrated the manpower and handed the army over, I’m afraid…”
Claire didn’t want to continue any further and got a headache just thinking about having to deal with the two of them tomorrow.
“Lin Xiao, what should I do?”
Because of her trust in him, Claire tried getting an answer, but he shook his head and didn’t directly respond.
“Claire, don’t be rushed to make a decision yet… let me teach you a trick first, guaranteed to help you subdue them tomorrow.”
“Trick? What kind of trick?”