The Rise of the Black Plain

After almost a month since its creation, the Brown family's Counter-Revolutionary Army had almost entirely reached the Black Plain!

Such an army was subdivided into four main points, where most of the forces were already stationed. But, on the other hand, numerous small camps around the borders of this territory were already in operation.

The four posts already had about 40,000 soldiers together, the main one in the Maritime City, where more than 15,000 individuals from that group were expected to be accommodated there.

But the army assembled by the Brown Kingdom forces also had a considerable force spread out in many small groups across the borders of the Black Plain, about 10,000 individuals in temporary camps. Such places would be used more in the future for faster actions with smaller numbers of combatants.

With that, it was only a matter of days before the flames of war spread across this region of the Black Plain.

The time had come for the period of confrontation between the forces of Minos and Thomas Brown to start!

...

While the tens of thousands of invaders were getting used to the climate in this area, Minos was at the headquarters of his army, working with the administrative soldiers on his organization's plans of action.

He was now in one of the headquarters' meetings rooms. This place was not large enough to hold many dozens of people but had enough space to hold the 20 or 30 individuals who were there at the moment.

In such a place, most of the space was occupied by a large table that went from one end of the room to the other, which most of the people there were sitting around.

But some individuals were standing in that place, some behind the chairs where the strongest ones were, while others simply were where they felt best, as in the case of Pyke.

That man was leaning his back against one of the room's sidewalls, next to one of the many pictures with drawings of the Black Plain's landscapes, something normal to find in local government buildings.

And in this place full of people, now and then administrative soldiers presented their plans, while other warrior soldiers gave their opinions about the viability of the plans of these other individuals.

But on this occasion, they also talked about army acts that were already in development or would happen very soon.

"Young master, the Maritime City group will act against the enemies in that city any moment now. From the latest information we have received, the number of enemies in that place has already passed 15,000. And by the plans agreed with the soldiers in that post, we will not wait for more enemies to get there to act."

"As planned by the soldiers commanded by Lieutenant Eduard, we will not wait for the enemy leader to arrive in that place and hinder our actions." Joey commented on that matter while looking sideways at one end of that table, where Minos was sitting next to his two girlfriends.

"So, we can expect news from that place at any moment from now on."

"I see..." Minos commented in a low voice while his elbows propped up on that table and his two hands crossed at the height of his nose. "How are our naval forces doing? And the migration of the citizens of that city?"

Joey then replied. "Lieutenant Angela is already with a fleet of 17 ships in the vicinity of the Maritime City. So, as soon as the secret base of that place gives the signal, she and her fleet will start the combat in that place."

Celeste had already returned to the naval base this past week. Since she had just gone through a great battle, Angela had headed towards Maritime City, leading that fleet.

Previously something like this was not planned to happen, as the army soldiers had no way of knowing how long Celeste would stay on Stone Island. Therefore, the naval attack would initially not be led by an army Spiritual King but rather a lower-ranking soldier.

After all, someone had to stay at that naval base to mark the territory, to protect such an army post from possible powerful enemies.

But having a naval attack without a high-ranking leader was not necessarily a big problem. That was because, in this region of the Central Continent, that kind of battle depended much more on how the warships' weapons were used than on the level of the person leading such a fleet.

Without being capable of flying, it would be difficult for soldiers of any level to fight on the high seas.

There were even possibilities for cultivators to fight by launching their offensive techniques at long range or using their defenses to protect the ships. But fighting in this way was very inefficient and highly costly to the crews of these warships.

Hence, having a high-level leader would not make much difference in local naval warfares. So, the army had not scheduled any Spiritual King to accompany that group.

But since Celeste had returned from Stone Island early enough to stay on that base in Angela's place, this other woman had joined the group. After all, as much as it wasn't indispensable that she join this group, that didn't mean that she couldn't do anything!

At the very least, she could separate from the troops on those ships and quickly join the battle that would take place in the Maritime City, where her strength would undoubtedly be helpful. 

On the other hand, as the warships of the Black Plain Army would be the ones to begin the attacks, there would be more spaces for her to help in the battle...

The attack on the Maritime City needed to start from the sea. That was because once something strange happened in the city, the fleets of the Brown Kingdom's royal guard would very quickly notice such a thing.

When this happened, they could attack that city with all their might and kill thousands of citizens and soldiers before Angela's fleet had a chance to do anything.

On the other hand, if the attack started from the sea, the troops on land could do nothing to help their naval forces. On the contrary, they might even be a little vulnerable at such a moment, thinking that they would be attacked from the sea.

But even if they didn't consider this, the traps around that city could be activated very quickly. So, even if Minos' enemies realized they had fallen into a trap, it would already be too late. 

And that was the best action plan for the confrontation in the Maritime City. The reason the confrontation had to start from the sea.

And Angela's chances would be even better in that circumstance!

"As for the citizens of that city, there are about 200,000 people there right now, of which more than 70% have accepted the proposals of the war effort program, thought up by the soldiers of that secret base."

"They are in an area further away from the places where our traps are and the places where the fighting is likely to take place. So, we hope that most of them can survive the conflict in that city."

"As for the rest, we can only hope that they don't die and have a chance to migrate to our city in the future," Joey said as he finished talking about the situation in that city.

"Well, those numbers aren't bad..." Minos commented, not caring about the possible casualties in that place.

He wanted as many people as possible to survive since the greatest probability is that such individuals would join his city after the conflict in that place. 

And that would be very good for him.

But Minos believed in individual liberties. So, if some people wanted to die in the middle of the crossfire, then what could he do?

He certainly wouldn't stop acting just for the sake of those people.

He did not wish the death of strangers or innocents. Still, he would not fail to select the best course of action for his forces just because there would be casualties among the locals.

As for how many innocent people would die by this action, well, the number of people saved would be more significant.

The people in that city were already at risk because the royal family of the Brown Kingdom had chosen such a place as a base for their forces. But, on the other hand, not acting in Maritime City for the sake of that population would cause the people of Dry City to be at greater risk in the future!

And with Dry City already having a larger population than that other city, the number of people saved by this action would be far greater than the casualties.

Therefore, Minos was reassured about the dangers faced by those who chose to stay in the middle of the crossfire.

With luck, they would survive.

Minos then looked at Dillian, who was sitting very close to him and said. "Well, let's get the General Hospital staff ready to receive the soldiers who will be injured during this battle...."