Warhammer: Return of the Dragon.

"As for the personnel issue... I need to return to the royal court to discuss with the ministers before making a decision. However, I will definitely not hire someone who is just a small-time person to fill in the gaps."

Imrik hadn't decided yet who to send to the Old World to support the expedition, because Catherine had never told him about it.

Mazov gave Catherine a good idea. Supporting Kislev was a common practice in the empire, and Karl could not veto it. He also needed political achievements to maintain the stability of his rule.

Needless to say, the elves provide such a large amount of financial aid to the National Defense Army every year, simply because they hope that the north of the Old World will become a steel wall.

The focus of the Dwarves has now shifted from the Badlands to the North and the East, and they are eager to settle their feud with Chaos.

The most critical issue is actually the political situation in Kislev.

If support were expressed in a proportional chart, explaining the expedition at the summit would cause the Patriotic Army's support for Katerin to leapfrog that of the Orthodox Church.

The reason is simple. From any perspective, the Patriotic Army will be the absolute main force of the expedition. General Petrov is thinking day and night about how to expand the defense line outward, so he naturally would not refuse such a good thing.

Constantine could also be happy, as this was in compliance with the arrangement of the gods. Although it sounded a bit unpleasant to help the Patriotic Army, it was for Kislev.

Katerina was even happier, because the iron rule of the Patriotic Army was that the alternation regulations were not allowed to be used unless the Tsar showed obvious signs of turning to the forces of chaos.

In other words, even if the Ice Queen stayed in Ulthuan and could not return to the court in the short term, the impact on her would be minimized.

As for the lack of control over the army... Katerina had fully understood from Mazov's account that no tsar had achieved outstanding achievements in the past two hundred years, and the most important reason was one thing.

Without a change of mindset, they would all regard the Patriots as pawns planted by the elves in Kislev. They would obey or resist, but rarely would they have close cooperation.

Perhaps I can think about it and let Petrov really secure his position as general...

With support from many parties, only Bretonnia had not made a statement, and King Laun's response was not unexpected.

He first stared at Imrick, and finally looked at Katerin: "Bretonnia will organize knights to support this righteous expedition."

The appearance of a knight can be considered support, but the truly important thing is who is sent as a representative to show how seriously the expedition is taken.

If Bretonnia wanted to prove the strength of the Kingdom of Knights in the expedition, it would have to send at least one duke. But now the dukes have once again fallen into a crisis of faith, which is far more fatal than the lack of manpower, financial resources and supplies.

Carl, who was at home, was happy about the positive response from all parties and made a decision: "Ludwig, as the empire's best warrior, he will naturally lead the sons of the empire to support Kislev. Just like Emperor Magnus, we will always lend a helping hand when our northern brothers are in trouble."

Since we are talking about Magnus, it is not appropriate for Boris the White Wolf to dwell on him too much. His conflicts with Karl mostly stem from politics and religion, and the Pious is the only emperor who unified the north and the south.

Carl's implication was that this joint expedition would be like a great holy war, with the Empire as the real leader... If Middenshire now showed an intention to disobey the Emperor's orders, it would only show outsiders that the situation in the Empire was not stable.

Personal grudges should not be elevated to the national level. This is the idea of ​​the Grand Duke of Midden.

"Then make your position known first." Imrik rubbed the red-gold phoenix chess piece on the table and said calmly: "This time the Phoenix Royal Court will provide 50,000 soldiers for the expedition... including 80 dragon princes and an Ark flagship." 50,000?

The first person to be shocked was not Karl, but Thorgrim. He was very familiar with Kaler... the style of the Phoenix Court. Those who could leave Ulthuan to fight were not militiamen like fill-in-the-line babies, but highly professional regular soldiers.

Although 50,000 people is not a big problem considering the size of the elves, this is just a joint expedition, so is it worth exaggerating...

Fifty thousand men... must be the reserve forces that can be mobilized at any time. So how many standing troops does Pointed Ears have now?

Thorgrin was in a dilemma for a moment. He didn't have the confidence to mobilize 50,000 people, which was equivalent to the population of some small mountain fortresses. Didn't Belegar dare to expedition to the Eight Peaks Mountain with only 2,000 people?

It’s not that he doesn’t want more, but the Angrand clan only has so many people.

Regardless of his status, the High King asked, "Not a militiaman?"

"What are you thinking, my High King, would I allow the militia to participate in a high-intensity expedition?"

Imrik did not lie, they were indeed all professional soldiers, but the composition was a bit complicated, with Asur, Druzil and Asrai all included. Overall, the Phoenix King wanted to unify the three spirits not just for political reasons.

The three spirits each have their own characteristics. Asur is well-organized and obeys orders in battle. His martial arts have been refined through long-term training.

Druzil is cold-blooded and bloodthirsty. It has to be said that the Witch King spent five thousand years to cultivate a race that was born only for war. With a little training and guidance, these white-skinned and black-haired elves can tear open the enemy's lines like a gust of wind.

Asrai is more flexible and straightforward... or rather, brutal. He can launch harassing attacks from a distance and crush his opponent into pieces at close range. His only shortcoming is that he is a bit fragile.

There is always a problem with the Starlight Furnace presided over by Lord Dais. No matter how powerful the magic is or how superb the skills of the incarnation of Vaal are, there is always a lack of iron.

The production of arrowheads has put Athel Loren's iron ore reserves under a strain. As for high-consumption items like protective gear, they can just make do with tree bark.

Moreover, conventional iron protective gear would seriously affect the efficiency of some of Asrai's combat units... So the special version of Caledo's close-fitting Ithramar silver scale armor came into being. It is only a thin layer, but it can provide defense that is not inferior to conventional iron armor without affecting the wearer's speed.

These 50,000 men were a scientific experiment. Imrik needed a high-intensity war to test the upper limit of the soldiers he had spent years and effort to draw from Nagarythe, Caledor, and Athel Loren.

Fifty thousand people... this number might be too much to handle.

This is Carl's judgment. From Imrik's proposal in his speech just now, the Phoenix Court, the Mountain Kingdom, and the Sigma Empire must complement each other in terms of manpower, finance, and resources.

Now that Imrick has proposed 50,000 people, it means that the empire can only start with finance and resources, but Karl has proposed a railway plan.

This is a huge project that will not be completed in the short term, which means that… if the emperor’s palace finances can match the gold or resources of 50,000 people, they will have to rely on borrowing for a long time to pay for it. (End of this chapter)