The King thought for a moment and said, “At least... it will be on the scale of millions.”
“A million?!” Zhang Ye's eyes widened, and he turned to look at Leona.
Leona said, “A million-strong beast tide will have at least thirty Saint-tier magical beasts... With a beast tide of this scale, even if we wanted to help, we would be powerless.”
Hearing this, the King nodded. “I know, but it is already too late to ask the great empires for help. Fortunately, we still have our neighboring nations.”
“I have already sent emissaries to the four surrounding countries. With the beast tide approaching, they cannot stand idly by either. So when the time comes, we will unite to form a coalition army.”
“This coalition will consist of at least five hundred thousand troops and twenty Saint-tiers!”
“If you all can stay and help us, our chances of victory will be even greater!”
“So, I sincerely beg the All Souls Magic Academy to help us!”
As he spoke, the King actually bent his waist and lowered his head. For the king of a nation, such a posture was more than enough.
Seeing this, everyone looked at one another.
Zhang Ye and Leona exchanged a glance.
Zhang Ye stroked his chin and said, “If there really is a coalition, our chances of winning will indeed be higher. However, we are currently unsure of the beast tide's true numbers and strength...”
“Your Majesty, please allow us to discuss this.”
“Go ahead.” The King stood up straight and made a gesturing motion.
Zhang Ye immediately began discussing with the others, and before long, the discussion concluded.
“Your Majesty, we can support your country in this battle,” Zhang Ye said.
Logically, as the strongest person present, Leona should have stepped forward to speak on their behalf. However, Leona disliked such occasions, and since she felt Zhang Ye was more eloquent than she was, the task fell to him.
Hearing this, the King and the ministers behind him immediately showed expressions of delight.
“However... we have two conditions,” Zhang Ye said with a smile.
The King showed an expression that said “as expected” and nodded. “Please, speak.”
To think a king would use such a respectful tone with a young student was enough to show how low he had lowered his posture.
It also proved that he truly wanted to protect his country.
Zhang Ye nodded and said, “First, if we encounter an opponent we cannot defeat, or if we deem the situation to be beyond saving, we will retreat immediately.”
The underlying meaning of this sentence was: if we are winning, we fight; if we are losing, we run.
This was very realistic. After all, their relationship was not yet deep enough for them to risk their lives for each other.
“That is acceptable.” The King understood this logic and nodded.
“Second, if we successfully stop the beast tide, sixty percent of the slain magical beasts must be given to us as our compensation. Furthermore, your country and all the allied nations must establish an All Souls base in your respective royal cities.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the ministers behind the King erupted into a flurry of whispers, clearly finding this condition somewhat excessive.
The King, however, remained silent, lost in thought.
Zhang Ye simply looked at him with a smile. He knew that no matter what the ministers discussed, the decision ultimately rested with the King.
“Very well!” Finally, the King said, “The Eros Kingdom unilaterally agrees to this condition. However, we cannot guarantee whether the other nations will agree to it.”
“That is fine. We will discuss it in detail once the representatives of those nations arrive,” Zhang Ye said with a smile.
In truth, with the All Souls Magic Academy's exploration team fully assembled, even if all the Saint-tier combatants of those countries combined, they would still be no match for them. Thus, there was no need to worry at all.
They held all the initiative!
“Next, let us formulate a strategy first,” Zhang Ye said. “We must first confirm if the beast tide will indeed arrive, as well as the intentions of the neighboring countries.”
“The formation of the beast tide has already been confirmed. Mentor Fridli went to investigate ahead of time last night and discovered that the magical beasts in the southern Valerian Forest have already begun to gather. As of this morning, the beast tide has already assembled several hundred thousand beasts.”
“And our kingdom is directly in the path the beast tide must take.”
Zhang Ye nodded and said, “Then we must act quickly.”
“We must secure confirmation from the neighboring nations as soon as possible... By the way, have you decided on a battlefield?”
The King nodded. A man clad in armor behind him brought forward a map, clearly a general or someone of a similar role.
He laid the map out on the dining table and pointed to a river. “We plan to use this river as our battlefield.”
“This is because the water-attribute mages of our kingdom and the neighboring nations are our strongest force. Furthermore, this river is a glacial river flowing down from the Audran Snow Mountains. There are very few magical beasts in it, and it contains the power of freezing cold, which can effectively slow down the advance of the beast tide.”
“As long as we deploy our army on this side of the river and launch our attack while the beast tide is crossing, the beast tide will suffer heavy casualties!”
Seeing this, Zhang Ye could not help but nod.
This was indeed a very good strategic plan.
However, Zhang Ye quickly spotted a problem.
“While this plan is indeed decent, what if the magical beasts successfully cross the river?”
“You must realize that this river is less than a hundred meters wide. Although it can effectively slow down the advance of the magical beasts, a hundred-meter-wide river is nothing to a million-strong beast tide.”
“If nothing else, if the enemy's flying magical beasts fly directly over to the rear of your army and launch a pincer attack, how will you handle it?”
“Even if you can hold your ground, doing so will reduce the pressure on the front line of the beast tide. Once the beast tide crosses the river, the consequences will be unimaginable.”
“Behind the river is a massive plain!”
“For a human army to fight powerful magical beasts on a plain is simply seeking death!”
“So while this plan is good, it absolutely cannot be used as the definitive plan!”
When Zhang Ye said this, the ministers fell silent.
The general also sighed and said, “We naturally know what you said, but there is nothing we can do now. Behind the plain is our kingdom. The only place we can construct a defensive line is this glacial river.”
“If the beast tide wades through the glacial river, we can only block them with our bodies, with our own flesh and blood!”
“Other than that, we have no better way...”
The helplessness in his voice was palpable.
Plains and forests were the best battlefields for magical beasts; this was a well-known fact.
Zhang Ye nodded, then suddenly smiled. “How could there be no way?”
Hearing this, the general suddenly raised his head and looked at Zhang Ye. Seeing the smile on his face, he could not help but ask, “Then... what way is there?”
“Broaden your horizons.” Zhang Ye gently tapped his finger on the map, tracing along the river, going up, up, and further up.
Finally, it landed on a mountaintop lake three li away.
“According to the map, the terrain here is very high, more than two thousand meters higher than the plains, correct?” Zhang Ye asked, pointing to the mountain range on the map.
“Yes, the river water flows from the snow mountains into that lake, and then flows down from there,” a minister said, having clearly researched the matter.
Zhang Ye nodded. “Then, have you ever thought about building a temporary dam at this lake?”
...
...
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