Chương 129: Water Flows Downhill, Man Strives Upward

Reinforcements continued to stream in from alternate sectors, and within a matter of breaths, the physical volume of defensive assets packed tightly across the shattered breach swelled to over three thousand men. This was especially true for the musket corps, whose active numbers had risen to seven hundred; they perched along the high walls, pouring an uninterrupted cascade of concentrated lead down upon the valley, leaving a massive, continuous carpet of human corpses carpeting the dirt below.

Ultimately, the human regular forces reached their absolute psychological breaking point, shattering into a total, chaotic rout. Li Qinwu led his immediate tactical details to methodically neutralize the residual human combatants trapped within the interior perimeter, barking sharp orders to the surrounding troops:"Double-time it! Seal this structural breach immediately!

I need exactly one hundred musket units to decouple from the line—Kexi, Keqi, rally your security personnel and coordinate with me to hunt down and liquidate the enemy elements that managed to slip into the residential quadrants." Roughly one thousand human regulars had successfully surged into the interior quadrants during the chaotic melee.

These elements had to be ruthlessly systematically eliminated as rapidly as possible; otherwise, they would pose a severe, unpredictable threat to the city's internal security. Locating these shattered remnants proved to be a perfectly straightforward task. Initially, the human breakthrough echelons had sprinted en masse toward the East Gate, intent on throwing open the massive entryways from the interior.

However, they ran headfirst into the East Gate garrison details, who were actively executing a rapid tactical march southward to reinforce the breach. The two forces violently collided in a chaotic street brawl. The reinforcing column happened to include two hundred musket-armed militia units; after a mere two rounds of synchronized salvo fire, the one thousand human regulars were completely shattered into disorganized, fleeing clusters.

Driven by desperation, they fanned deeper into the residential blocks, attempting to disrupt the logistical continuity of the Demon Army by deploying a savage scorched-earth counter—they began spontaneously igniting civilian structures! Fortunately, ever since Li Qinwu completed his initial military occupation of Poloia, he had enforced a regime of absolute, martial regulation across the interior quadrants, forcefully consolidating all highly flammable materials into centralized, state-controlled warehouses.

Furthermore, because these human infiltration details lacked specialized military fire-oils or incendiary accelerators, their chaotic efforts to spread the conflagration were exceptionally low in operational efficiency. Nevertheless, thick pillars of dark smoke managed to rise from several blocks. Utilizing the smoke trails as a natural visual guide, Li Qinwu led his operational details to pursue and liquidate the arsonists.

At this crossroad, the human remnants resembled birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. Stranded deep within the urban core of an occupied enemy municipality, their psychological states were consumed by acute panic; the moment Li Qinwu's details engaged them with lethal force, they scattered into even smaller, isolated pockets. After tracking down and completely vaporizing several of the larger aggregated残兵 nodes, Li Qinwu halted the pursuit.

He summoned Kexi and Keqi to his side, issuing a direct operational mandate:"The primary mass of the human infiltration force has been completely broken and scattered; only minuscule, isolated details remain active within the interior. The two of you are to immediately mobilize and consolidate the remaining cohorts of the Civil Security Army, leading them to execute a comprehensive, block-by-block sweep of the entire municipality to systematically hunt down and execute every single hidden enemy combatant."

There was an undeniable undertone of cold resentment filtering through Li Qinwu's verbal delivery. From the absolute onset of the wall's demolition to the final securing of the breach, the only human security assets that had actively materialised on the field of honor were the two companies led by Kexi and Keqi.

The residual personnel of the Civil Security Army had acted as though they were sound asleep in their barracks; even after the active fighting had entirely concluded, they failed to show their faces on the field. The sole exception was Knight Leo, who had successfully arrived at ground zero at the head of his four companies. Yet, Knight Leo's designated defensive sector was situated along the absolute northern battlements—the furthest possible coordinate from the blast site.

When the most geographically isolated reinforcing column successfully executes its deployment to ground zero, while elements stationed within a mere 30-minute march choose to remain entirely static, the underlying psychological calculations driving their inertia require zero elaboration. Naturally, Li Qinwu had never positioned the Civil Security Army as a primary, frontline combat echelon in his strategic calculus.

However, with the flawless, proactive example executed by Kexi and Keqi positioned directly before his eyes, the residual officers who acted like stagnant weeds appeared exceptionally substandard.

"Understood, Your Majesty!" Kexi and Keqi barked their compliance in unison, immediately sprinting toward the slums where the alternate security companies were quartered, commanding the assembled personnel to initiate a full-scale municipal sweep for the residual human assets. The remaining company commanders of the Civil Security Army comprised established, senior elders possessing immense personal prestige within the slums.

Hearing the sharp, authoritative tone deployed by the two young siblings, their expressions soured with immediate, intense friction. One senior commander barked with immense indignation: "Kexi! Keqi! What is the meaning of this insolent tone toward your elders?! Have you entirely forgotten the basic boundaries of structural protocol?!" A look of deep, mocking derision painted the faces of the two brothers.

They had personally registered the King's profound dissatisfaction regarding the alternate companies' failure to reinforce the breach; consequently, they felt zero inclination to preserve the social face of these senior figures. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Without uttering a single warning syllable, Kexi lunged forward and delivered a savage kick squarely against the senior commander's chest, instantly flooring the elderly man.

The surrounding security personnel gasped in absolute shock— Are the two brothers plotting an open mutiny? Dozens of blades were instantly unsheathed as they prepared to hack the pair into mincemeat. Facing several hundred leveled weapons, Kexi and Keqi did not exhibit a single shred of psychological panic. Instead, they raised their arms, pointing firmly toward the gleaming steel surfaces of the plate armor wrapping their physical frames.

"Open your wretched eyes and look closely! This is the high-tier plate armor personally awarded to our persons by the hand of His Majesty himself! We executed immense merit by reinforcing the breach, and we have been formally elevated to the rank of Battalion Commanders."

"Do you wretched lots even possess the intellectual capacity to comprehend the operational parameters of a Battalion Commander? A single Battalion Commander outranks ten of your miserable Company Commissions combined! Come on then—both of us Battalion Commanders are standing right here, exposing our necks for your blades. Go ahead and strike! Do you have the goddamned courage?!" The two brothers yanked off their steel helms, actively thrusting their bare necks toward the leveled blades.

Hearing the formal proclamation of their aristocratic promotions, the assembled security personnel felt their resolve dissolve instantly; there was zero room to doubt the reality of the claim, given that the pair were fully outfitted in heavy, solid steel plate armor that was traditionally the exclusive domain of high human lords, while they themselves wore only threadbare arming doublets.

An administrative detail of this scale could be verified with a single query to the high command; nobody would dare fabricate a lie of this magnitude. The crowd looked upon the two brothers with a volatile mixture of intense resentment and profound envy.

Sensing that the psychological parameters of the room had been thoroughly dominated, Kexi spat a thick glob of phlegm violently onto the earth, unleashing a furious tirade:"Lord Leo was stationed at the absolute furthest coordinate along the North Wall, yet he successfully forced his echelons to execute a rapid march to support the breach! You wretches were quartered directly inside the slums—a mere twenty minutes' march from the blast site—yet you chose to remain frozen in your tracks like cowards!

What kind of treacherous thoughts were circulating through your miserable minds? Do you genuinely believe His Majesty remains blind to your intentions?!" The assembled commanders paled in unison, intense tendrils of fear creeping into their chests. The two brothers pointed their fingers directly against the noses of the senior elders, continuing their relentless verbal lashing:"You short-sighted, narrow-minded fools!

Do you genuinely believe that if those whoring, noble-born aristocrats managed to shatter the walls and reclaim this city, our kind would survive? Open your goddamned eyes and look at the history of this realm—the high lords have never viewed commoners as living human beings! Once a theater of war closes, they treat us worse than common chattel!" Kexi and Keqi thrust their hands toward the rising plumes of black smoke drifting from the upper residential blocks.

Those were the coordinates where the scattered human infiltration details were actively setting fires; those remnants remained entirely oblivious to the reality that Count Fischer's primary final offensive had already culminated in absolute ruin, and were still desperately attempting to maximize domestic chaos. A wave of intense, localized fury rippled through the ranks of the security commoners. Son of a bitch... fires again! Fire, fire, and more goddamned fire!!

Are these noble-born regulars completely suffering from some manner of psychological illness?! Kexi roared across the crowd: "In our formal capacities as Battalion Commanders of the Civil Security Army, my brother and I hereby command: Every single unit is to assemble their personnel immediately! Surge into the residential blocks to liquidate the remaining human arsonists and rapidly suppress the fires."

"You have already forced His Majesty to experience profound disappointment twice. No matter how enlightened or magnanimous a monarch may be, he will fundamentally never tolerate continuous, calculated insubordination! I shouldn't need to instruct you on the exact consequences of your choices!" The assembled company commanders traded a series of frantic, apprehensive glances before bowing their heads in absolute submission.

Over two thousand personnel of the Civil Security Army flooded out into the thoroughfares, initiating a systematic campaign to hunt down the infiltration details and suppress the fires. The human remnants remaining inside the city were already minuscule in number and completely decoupled from any centralized command structure; they possessed zero functional capacity to withstand the coordinated sweep.

Isolated groups of ten to fifteen human regulars were continuously hunted down and executed by security details numbering over a hundred men. Over the intervening days, upwards of ninety percent of the infiltration force was ruthlessly liquidated. The remaining ten percent managed to conceal themselves exceptionally well within the structural recesses of the city, evading immediate capture, yet they had been completely stripped of their operational capacity to generate any meaningful disruption.

Leveraging the momentum of this absolute triumph, Kexi and Keqi firmly established their unchallenged hegemony over the security forces. Operating with maximum administrative velocity, they successfully expanded their personnel by an additional two thousand men, formally submitting a report of their successful structural reorganization to Li Qinwu. Li Qinwu authorized the immediate allocation of five hundred complete suits of solid plate armor, alongside a substantial volume of high-quality leather armor pieces.

He then integrated the four companies commanded by Knight Leo, the single company commanded by Miss Hana (given her absolute lack of military command aptitude, a single company functioned as her absolute psychological ceiling), and the twenty companies overseen by Kexi and Keqi, forming a cohesive administrative block of twenty-five security companies. Following this initial setup, Li Qinwu executed a comprehensive structural overhaul of the entire domestic security apparatus.

He commanded Knight Leo to expand his personal detail by an additional ten companies. Operating in tandem with the twenty companies commanded by Kexi and Keqi, these units were consolidated into a massive, thirty-company Civil Security Regiment. Knight Leo was formally invested as the Regimental Commander, while a Level 5 Goblin Veteran was assigned to serve as the Regimental Vice-Commander to maintain direct systemic oversight.

As for Miss Hana, due to her demonstrated, complete inability to navigate the baseline mechanics of military leadership, Li Qinwu formally stripped her of all active military command authority. Instead, he directed her to round up every single hedge-doctor, apothecary, and individual possessing a baseline degree of medical experience within the city walls, consolidating them into a newly designated Medical Company.

As for the fourteen residual Civil Security companies that had willfully failed to reinforce the breach during the crisis, Li Qinwu issued a draconian administrative decree: every single weapon, shield, and armor piece in their possession was forcefully confiscated, and their entire organizational structure was forcibly dissolved and reorganized into the Municipal Fire Brigade. Subsequently, the operational salaries of the Fire Brigade were forcefully slashed by exactly fifty percent.

A short duration later, their active administrative personnel cap was reduced by half. Ultimately, Li Qinwu completely rescinded the organizational charter of the Fire Brigade, permanently discharging every single individual from service with zero financial compensation.