The situation in Southsea was very bad, but it didn't come out of Tibest's worst fear. When Damar was about to kill, Tibbest's sudden burst of powerful aura obviously affected the orc overseer, and then Matthew also appeared in time, realizing that things were likely to change, Damar immediately retreated without hesitation with the orc warriors of the Blood Cave Clan who had already attacked the city wall, leaving behind those werewolves as outcasts, and even did not dare to go back to the camp, and directly went straight to Dunhold Castle with the last remaining less than three thousand orcs.

Although Raphael had the intention to pursue, the heavy losses of the expeditionary force forced her to extinguish this thought. This six-hour tragic offensive and defensive battle almost fought the expeditionary force to the point of running out of oil, ordinary soldiers aside, the officer death rate alone exceeded sixty percent, and in the high-level combat power, His Royal Highness Horbes was seriously injured, Prince Mordir was killed, Princess Lana was injured and unconscious, and as for Pyrin Girardin, Catherine, Mona and others were more or less injured. Even Rasfil, the prince who was closely protected by the royal guards of the Arnas Empire, was slashed in the stomach by those murderous orcs, almost causing serious consequences, in order to protect their masters, almost all of those royal guards of the Arnas Empire were killed, and only two people survived, one of whom also lost a leg and a pair of eyes.

In the nearly week-long offensive and defensive battle of Nanhai Town, the expeditionary force invested more than 30,000 soldiers, of which more than 13,000 were killed and 6,000 were seriously injured. With such a state of affairs, coupled with the almost depleted reserves of supplies, it is no wonder that Matthew did not agree with Raphael to launch a pursuit.

Tibest and Tadrar, who returned to Nanhai Town, saw the tragic situation in front of them, and the joy of defeating the wolf king Nandus before was completely dissipated, although Nanhai Town broke the encirclement of the coalition led by werewolves, but at the same time lost the strength to advance further, and there was hardly any intact expeditionary force, in this case, Tibest had to consider how to build the fortress of Nanhai Town, rather than impatiently marching to the Silver Pine Forest.

"Of the 2,200 members of the Banster Royal Warband, seventy-one survived, including three officers, and the commanders at all levels headed by Prince Mordir have all been killed, and only half of the bodies have been found, and the remaining half may have been mixed with others and cannot be distinguished."

"There are 3,200 Radiant Praetorian Guards directly under the Bright Sect, and one hundred and forty-nine survived, including two officers, both of whom were seriously injured!"

"There are 2,500 Euphorbia soldiers in the Arnas Empire, twenty-two survived, and none of the officers survived!"

"There are 1,500 archers in the Saddarin Empire, and 580 survived, Princess Lana is still unconscious, and the officers are eleven alive!"

"There are fifty heavily armed guards sent by Ironforge Fort, eight of them survived, the captain of the guard was killed in battle, and the corpses have been collected!"

"There are four hundred and fifty magicians, and three hundred and two survived!"

Tibest interrupted Raphael's report with a wave of his hand: "Okay, no more about it next!" The treatment of the wounded soldiers, the collection of corpses, these things are left to you, Tadelar will bring the chaplaincy to assist you, those corpses that are still intact can be resurrected as much as possible, do not worry about how much it costs for this, they are all warriors, and they deserve such treatment. ”

"Yes, Lord Tibest! However, Prince Mordir had consumed a lot of soul power before he died, and Lord Tadral thought that he could not be resurrected. ”

Tibest put his hand on his forehead: "I know, I will personally inform His Majesty Larry Banner, King of the Kingdom of Banster, about this matter, don't worry, it's not your fault, Raphael!" ”

"So, about the ...... of honoring military merits"

"I'll leave it to you, Raphael, don't worry about anything, your performance in this war is enough to convince everyone, I'll be back to the Tirisfal Glade soon, Tadelar needs to preside over the resurrection ceremony next, and you must take care of the affairs of Southsea Town!"

Raphael bowed: "Yes, Lord Tibbest! ”

"Now for your next steps! I'm about to get out of here, and before I do that, I'd like to get some good ideas from you. "Tibest was very satisfied with Raphael, the future messenger of Light, whether it was the strength and talent shown by this girl, or the decisive decisions she made during the war and her attitude of taking responsibility at all costs, all of which made him believe more and more that this was a treasure given by God to the Holy See of Light.

Raphael sorted out his thoughts: "With all due respect, the price we paid in Nanhai Town is too great, in addition to the loss of personnel, the consumption of materials is also a big problem, in fact, in this offensive and defensive battle, if there are enough reserve materials, the loss of soldiers can be reduced by at least thirty percent." During the last two hours of the battle, many of the soldiers who rotated up had to fight in torn armor, as there were no more equipment in the warehouse to replace them. As for the archers, they also had to reduce the number of shots, because the arrows were also depleted. Therefore, I think that in addition to transporting those seriously wounded soldiers, the most important task is to find a way to establish a material production base in Nanhai Town that is sufficient to support military operations. Arrows, shields, armor, potions, bandages of all kinds, and food processing must be produced locally as soon as possible. ”

"I will send a request for reinforcements to the Kingdom of Ashwood, and in addition to this, the Kingdom of Raphinha will send two convoys and fifteen warships to join our maritime system and clear the Naga and Fishmen from the route."

"The replenishment of personnel must also be completed as soon as possible, if it is only to defend Nanhai Town, an army of 30,000 people can already complete this task, but if you want to advance the battle line to the Silver Pine Forest, I think you need at least twice or even three times this number! Among them, the ratio of priests and middle- and high-ranking soldiers cannot be lower than the level at the beginning of the expeditionary force! ”

"His Holiness the Pope is already communicating with the kingdoms to summon the second expeditionary force to rush here, but the capacity of the sea transport limits the speed of our replenishment, which may take some time, but fortunately, we will not be able to launch an active attack in a short time."

"In addition to this, I personally believe that Lord Tibest should continue to retreat the defensive line placed in the Tirisfal Glade, preferably near the border of the Ashwood Kingdom."

Raphael's proposal apparently surprised Tibest: "Tell me your reasons!" There are still hundreds of thousands of civilians in the Tirisfal Woodlands who have not been evacuated, and if we leave like this, they will become food for those werewolves! As a believer in the light, I can't sit back and watch this happen! ”

"There are two reasons for this. First, the cavalry you are leading is not suitable for combat in the forests of the Tirisfard glades, and it would be a great waste to confine them there, but retreating to the borders of the Kingdom of Ashwood, relying on the logistical and intelligence support of the Kingdom's border garrisons, will allow your soldiers to play a greater role. Second, relinquishing the Tirisfal Woodland will induce the werewolves to increase the manpower input there, reducing the pressure on Nanhai Town in disguise! As for the civilian casualties you are concerned about, I do not deny that some of them are reluctant to leave their hard-earned farmlands and estates because they are unable to leave their homeland, but I am afraid that many more civilians have taken refuge in our enemies, and the reason why they are reluctant to leave there is precisely to drag you in the Tirisfara Woodland, which is almost three times as expensive as the sea in order to maintain supplies there. ”

"It's just your guess!" Of course, Tibest knew that there must be many human traitors among those civilians, but as he said, as a great knight of the Holy See of Light, he could not do anything to abandon the civilians and sit back and watch them die, which was contrary to his belief in protecting the good and fighting for the weak.

Raphael took out a copy of the information in his hand and handed it to Tibest: "This is the information I received two days ago, and I will tell you the truth, after Lord Tadelar agreed to increase the exchange rate of military merit, I asked some civilians to go to the Tirisfal Glade to find a way to contact those fellow human beings who stayed there, and the situation I was talking about is not one or two, not even a hundred or two hundred!" ”

The civilians that Raphael said are naturally players, with military merits as a reward, some people are willing to inquire for Raphael, the dense forests and complex terrain of the Tirisfal woodland restrict Tibest's cavalry, but it can't limit those pervasive players, as for the evidence of collusion between civilians and enemies, it is not a problem for a player at all. Breaking into an empty door is as normal as entering someone else's room to open a treasure chest in the player's opinion. As for whether the original owner of the room will have any opinions, sorry, players do not accept complaints!

As for the so-called secret investigation, well, to paraphrase a certain master assassin who took Kai Musou as his creed, as long as there are no witnesses, it is a covert operation!

The idea, of course, came from Bin, who knew too well the minds of those civilians. Even the theoretically immortal undead will have a variety of organizations and groups with strange beliefs, not to mention life races with stronger desires. Don't you see that the psychic academy is full of apprentices from all races? The vast majority of them come from neutral areas such as the Tirisfarda Glades or the Hillsbrad Hills, where civilians do not have a strong state institution to protect them, nor do they have a large religious community like the Holy See of Light to support their faith, and they have to use their own means to obtain the strength to survive, and many of these methods involve evil and chaos.

Tibest took the information and looked at it carefully, and the more he looked at it, the tighter his brows wrinkled, "These are all true?" ”

"You can confirm for yourself that several of these villages are not far from your camp, and I believe that with the power of Lord Tibest, it will not be difficult to find out the authenticity of this information."

There was no need to investigate, judging from what was described on this piece of information, Tibest knew that what Raphael said was the truth. The human civilians who refused to leave after being warned had undoubtedly become minions of the evil forces, and the thought of his subordinates and soldiers who had given their lives to protect such scum made Tibest feel a strong anger welling up from the bottom of his heart!

"I see, I'll consider your proposal!"

"Well, then, I'll take my leave! In the next few days, I will repair the city wall first, while waiting for the arrival of the next batch of supplies, and I hope that Lord Tibest will communicate with the Ashwood Kingdom as soon as possible, there are not enough priests and doctors here in Nanhai Town. ”

After Raphael said goodbye and left, Archmage Matthew, who was hiding in another room, walked in: "How is it, I'll just say it!" You're just too soft-hearted! I don't believe you can't think of this possibility, if you change me, how good it would be to burn the silver pine forest directly with a fire, so as to save you worry! ”

"No kidding, burn down the Silver Pine Forest, I'm afraid that king of the kingdom of Ashwood is going to smash the gates of the Holy See! The idea of beating the Silver Pine Forest and the Hillsbrad Hills is not a day or two! ”

"So you and Tadelar just sit back and watch those Ashwood nobles loot the manor title deeds of Nanhai Town? It seems that the Holy See of Light has also fallen! ”

Tibest sighed helplessly: "It's different now than before, Matthew!" After the appearance of the Griffin Dynasty, the imperial power was already enough to suppress the divine power, and among them, you Dalaran also made a lot of contributions, didn't you? ”

"Hey, hey!" After all, it also involved himself, and Matthew had to shut up. In fact, he knew very well that behind every nobleman, there would be one or several archmages involved, and mages needed a lot of investment to conduct magic research, and most of the magic research was difficult to bring any practical value, which meant that the previous investment was completely wasted. So where do these costs come from? Is it enough to make a few scrolls in the free time of the archmages?

It is precisely because of the financial and material support of countless nobles, whether overt or covert, that Dalaran has been able to continuously cultivate archmages in this extravagant way for tens of thousands of years, which has become an unbreakable chain of interests, and no one dares to touch it, not even Antonidas.

"But I have to say that this little girl is really crooked this time, with this information as evidence, not only can you justifiably withdraw to the border with the army, but even those nobles can openly divide up the farmland manors in the Tirisfal Woodland, which are all cooked land that has been developed for hundreds or even thousands of years, as long as the werewolves are driven away and a group of displaced people are relocated, it is a stable source of funds and materials."

"Yes! There is no doubt that the Light is sheltering this little one! Tibest couldn't help but sigh.

But is this really given by the Light? With Yu Bin's cunning and cunning, don't you know what the impact of this will be?