Chapter 140 Chips
"The elves refuse to admit they are supporting the resistance."

Moralichi received the messenger's report, and he is now staying in the elf town, waiting for Moralichi's further orders.

"Is the whole negotiation stuck at the beginning? Keep them on standby."

It seems that the Skitarii outside the forest did not really put pressure on the elves. They are still in no hurry to have a real negotiation with Moralich.

"Get ready, let's get started."

Moralichi had already assembled his troops and was actually ready to lay siege to the several strongholds of Lisabel, but if possible, he did not want to start a war in his territory.

The Grand Duchy of Windwhisper is now in a state of disrepair and what it needs is peaceful development rather than one battle after another.

Moralichi cast his eyes on the map hanging on the wall. With just one order from him, his troops could cut off all external supply channels of the Lisabel stronghold. Each of the marginal villages supporting Lisabel was assigned a force of hundreds of people.

These villages that support Lisabel will be forced by the army to break up the families and move to other villages and towns in the Duchy of Windwhisper.

The entire area around the Lisabel stronghold will be cleared and become a no-man's land. Without the support of the villagers who believe in the gods of nature, it will be difficult for the resistance fighters in Lisabel to conduct guerrilla warfare and they can only stay in their forests.

Even though they have extremely strong combat capabilities in the forest, their maneuvering space is severely restricted. As long as we are patient and advance step by step to further compress their range of activities, it is only a matter of time to completely eliminate these resistance members.

But what Morari lacked was time. Such a long-term military operation would occupy a large number of adult men, who were valuable labor resources.

"I envy Lania so much."

At this time, Morarichi thought of the goblins. Those goblins were a good labor resource. It was precisely because of the support of those goblins that Lannia could carry out large-scale conscription without scruples and conduct military operations again and again.

Most of the old nobles who opposed him were crushed in this way. Many times, there was not even a real conflict. Lannia simply placed her troops on the border and confronted those old nobles. It would not be long before those old nobles would be unable to maintain the normal operation of their armies. Most of those temporarily recruited troops were local strong laborers. It would not be long before these soldiers, who were worried about their own fields and crops, would begin to riot.

Afterwards, before Lannia actually launches the attack, the troops of the old nobles will collapse on their own. Then, Lannia only needs to surround the castle or manor where the old nobles themselves are, and then wait for the envoys of the old nobles to come and surrender.

"Next time, try to talk to the goblins and see if we can sign a long-term labor contract."

There is still a large amount of undeveloped land in the Grand Duchy of Windwhisper. Due to insufficient population and labor, he can only watch these places become abandoned.

The messenger has left, delivering orders to each unit to prepare for action.

"My lord, new news from the messenger."

A guard came in and handed a sealed letter to Moralichi.

"The elves wish to engage in a negotiation."

It seemed that something happened in the forest, causing the elves to suddenly change their attitude.

"Their most basic demand is that we stop supporting the Skitarii and that they release the elves they have captured."

It seems that something has happened. The crusaders seem to have successfully broken into the forest and captured some elves.

It might not be easy to get the Skitarii to release the people. The Sun God Cult is known for not listening to advice and doing what they want, especially now that these believers are already very wrong. Even the church leaders don't seem to want to order them to move. Not to mention the demands of secular forces like Morarichi, they probably won't pay any attention. But it's always good to be able to negotiate, and these conditions can be discussed.

"We'll talk as much as possible. If necessary, we can even send troops to help the elves snatch people from the Skitarii."

Morari was not worried that this behavior would anger the church. Based on his observation of Archbishop Laming's performance, the church's top leaders hoped that these crusaders would die quickly.

"Do we need to revoke the previous order to attack the resistance base?"

Moralich shook his head.

"When negotiating, you can't stop doing what you need to do. The bargaining chips on the negotiating table don't appear out of thin air."

Moralich looked at the map. A huge forest occupied most of the map. It was difficult for the Windwhispering Principality to ignore the influence of these elves.

But Morarichi doesn't have many bargaining chips against these elves. The elves do not rely on the human kingdom. They have their own complete system. Moreover, as long as the magic forest is still there, there are not many things that can really threaten the survival of the elves.

In the case that these elves cannot be eliminated, Moralich must consider the relationship with these elves. For this reason, the relationship with the Sun God Cult can be abandoned to a certain extent, not to mention the crusaders outside the forest who have been abandoned by the church.

After all, the headquarters of the Cult of the Sun is some distance away from the Kingdom of Wind, and the influence they can actually project cannot have any real impact on Morarichi.

"withdraw."

Lysabel's stronghold is located on the edge of the principality's territory, hidden in the mountains and forests. Although this forest does not have the various strange powers like the magical forest of the elves, the believers of the god of nature can still exert special advantages in these forests, and the small forces of local nobles have no way to deal with them.

The only bad thing is that the output of these forests cannot support too large a number of resistance forces, but relying on the surrounding villages that believe in the god of nature, they live a pretty good life.

However, now, troops have appeared outside these villages, and there are only a dozen or so resistance fighters left in the villages. They may be able to deal with a team of 100 people in the forest, but in the village, once a battle begins, they will most likely find it difficult to even retreat.

The commanders of these resistance fighters immediately decided to retreat to the forest.

"But these villagers..."

A young resister is somewhat worried about the villagers who support them.

"It doesn't matter. The nobles won't do anything to them. They still rely on them to pay taxes."

These border nobles are all poor people. Taxes from these villages are an important source of income for them, but they are reluctant to kill these egg-laying chickens.

As long as the situation drags on for a period of time, the nobles will naturally not be able to maintain their troops. Once these troops disband and return, the resisters will be able to return to the villages.

Almost all the resisters thought so, so Molaric's troops took over the villages without any resistance.

Afterwards, the troops began to forcibly relocate the villagers. They set fire to the granaries and crops in the fields in the villages, and then stood in front of the burning granaries and issued notices to the villagers.

"You have two choices. Take your belongings and migrate to other villages in the territory, or starve to death here."

(End of this chapter)