"Elara, I have cleared out the 80,000 Puppet Soldiers around Yuetang City in the central part of the Plumera Kingdom. We had captured 1,000 of them, but because their behavior and speech were too strange, and they showed no fear of death or injury, constantly trying to fight back, I had no choice but to kill 900 more. Only 100 remain."
Elara, who had been frowning while calculating where the 50,000 reinforcements had gone, suddenly relaxed her tightly knitted brows.
Elara's walking slowed slightly, and her voice became less tense, "Very good. You all find a place to lie low for now. These Puppet Soldiers are advancing much faster than expected. Do not let them discover you again."
"I have already sent 50,000 elite troops to support you. The medical officers from the medical division are also bringing medicine and supplies. Guard those 100 prisoners carefully. Once the 50,000 arrive, assign a team to escort the 100 Puppet Soldier prisoners back. I will have Oswyn personally receive them in Marigold City."
Ten thousand troops against eighty thousand, and the enemy's defense and alertness had increased, possibly with other unknown powers. Yet Francis still won, and he even captured 1,000 of them in just three hours.
No wonder he is known in Plumera Kingdom as the youngest national guardian general with the title of War God. Whether it's personal strength or his ability to lead an army, Francis is truly beyond imagination.
After receiving news from the advance team, the city of Marigold, which had fully armed itself to prepare for the enemy, never even saw a trace of the Puppet Soldiers.
Francis used ten thousand troops to counterattack and destroy eighty thousand Puppet Soldiers in the central region of Plumera Kingdom. When Elara's fifty thousand elite reinforcements arrived, he immediately reorganized his forces. He sent a small unit to escort the captured Puppet Soldiers back, then continued southward the next day.
The imperial capital of Plumera Kingdom was already located in the southern part of the country. After Francis set out from the central region with sixty thousand elite soldiers, the first city in the south was the imperial capital of Plumera Kingdom.
The central region had already been taken over by the eighty thousand Puppet Soldiers, and the capital had fallen early on. Most civilians were either dead or missing, and the palace was filled with the bodies of royal consorts, making it look like a massacre.
No wonder the Carnation Envoy collapsed in tears upon hearing that the Puppet Soldiers had reached the center of their country. The emperor and royal family had all been slaughtered, making Plumera Kingdom practically a fallen nation.
As they moved south, the number of Puppet Soldiers increased, but Francis also had the support of the fifty thousand reinforcements.
Even though the Puppet Soldiers had strong defense and sharp senses, their intelligence seemed to have declined. Though they held cities, they didn't know how to defend them and simply roamed around searching for living people to kill.
Under these conditions, Francis used smart tactics with his sixty thousand elites and quickly stormed into the capital of Plumera Kingdom, taking the high ground and launching a sweep to eliminate all Puppet Soldiers inside the city.
By the time Elara sent the second wave of fifty thousand elite reinforcements, Francis had already led his troops to wipe out all the Puppet Soldiers in the imperial capital of Plumera Kingdom.
Since the emperor, the royal family, and all the high-ranking officials in the capital were dead, there was no one left in the remaining lands of Plumera Kingdom to lead. After reclaiming the imperial capital, Francis asked for instructions from Elara and then raised the flag of Plumera Kingdom over the city walls.
From that point on, all the cities recaptured from the Puppet Soldiers would officially become new territories of the Plumera Kingdom.
After the second wave of reinforcements arrived, Francis now commanded a total army of one hundred ten thousand.
He ordered his troops to investigate the areas inside and outside the city, gather information on the Puppet Soldiers, and study their weaknesses, while also letting the army rest and treat the wounded.
The next day, after a full night's rest in the capital, the main army left some soldiers to guard the city and continued marching south.
In the following two months, as the Plumera Kingdom grew stronger, with economic and military power surpassing that of a second-tier medium kingdom, it moved steadily toward becoming a large second-tier nation.
The Ministry of Works spent their days discussing and studying with Octavian. They successfully learned many secret mechanisms from the Tiangong Pavilion and, combined with blueprints from Elara, created a variety of powerful defensive and offensive mechanical weapons to arm the cities and fortresses of Plumera.
During those two months, Elara also kept a close eye on the progress of Francis's army in the southern region.
After combining Tiangong Pavilion's technology with their own, the Ministry of Works developed lighter, portable combat machines and more refined steel weapons. Elara quickly sent troops to deliver them to the southern front.
With endless supplies and reinforcements, Francis's campaign to sweep away the Puppet Soldiers in the south became more aggressive and unstoppable.
After observing them for half a month, Francis concluded that the Puppet Soldiers only had two advantages, tough bodies and animal-like sharp senses. The rest of their abilities were no different from regular soldiers, and their intelligence had significantly deteriorated. Most couldn't think like humans, let alone use strategy.
The steel weapons of Plumera happened to be effective against the Puppet Soldiers' strange defenses. With surprise tactics and excellent command, Francis led his troops southward and crushed the enemy with unstoppable momentum.
In just a month and a half, he not only reclaimed all the cities in Plumera Kingdom that had been occupied by Puppet Soldiers but also raised the Plumera flag over them.
He then conquered Yusa, Gan, and Wei Clan nations, one after another, and brought them under Plumera's control.
The Puppet Soldier threat was pushed further south. This not only eliminated the threat outside Plumera's southern borders but also expanded Plumera's territory even more.
However, since the Puppet Soldier war started in the southernmost third-tier nation of Gujinhai, after resting and reorganizing, Francis waited for another ten thousand elite troops to arrive. Once they did, he led a total force of two hundred thousand soldiers to continue the southern offensive.
This was a decision made after Elara and the council of nine ministries discussed it together.
Even though Puppet Soldiers only seemed to have strong defense and senses, their other bizarre traits were still under study. Oswyn and the high-ranking officials of the medical department were researching the reason for their appearance. Until it was clear, leaving them alone would be like burying a landmine under the southern border.