Chương 177: Occupying the Troll Stronghold

Aboard the airship, Li Qinwu looked down at the utter chaos sweeping through the troll settlement below. Thousands of trolls were fleeing in the direction opposite the attacking forces, plunging into the forest as if they had no intention of ever looking back. He knew right then that the battle was effectively over. Over the next two hours, guided by the 1st Guard Regiment, nearly ten thousand Water Drakes successfully took full control of the troll stronghold, securing key intersections and high ground.

Li Qinwu prepared to disembark to oversee the surrender and intake process. Rather than landing the airship completely, he had it hover roughly five meters above the ground, leading his soldiers as they leaped out onto the dirt below. He did this deliberately to conserve the high-density mana crystals required for takeoff. By keeping the airship suspended, the dense wind-element magic sealed within the gasbag wouldn't dissipate, allowing the vessel to take to the skies again with minimal mana expenditure.

This sparked an idea in Li Qinwu's mind. If he wanted to use airships for logistical transport, there was no need to land at supply drop points at all. They could simply drop crates from high altitude—all they needed was to manufacture parachutes in advance. Speaking of parachutes, his line of thought expanded even further: Could I build a unit of paratroopers?

Imagine hovering an airship high on the mana tides thousands of meters up, dropping troops directly into the heart of enemy territory to strike behind their lines! That has incredible potential! The lift provided by this fantasy world's airships was terrifyingly high. The vessel currently beneath his feet—which he had dubbed Air-1 —could carry 500 fully equipped soldiers during normal operations and up to 800 at maximum capacity. That meant dropping half a battalion into the enemy's rear in a single run!

What a terrifying strike force that would be! The sheer chaos an airborne raiding party could cause behind enemy lines was almost beyond imagination. With a series of heavy thuds, Li Qinwu and his soldiers dropped to the earth. With their enhanced physical attributes, a five-meter drop was effortless. The moment the last soldier hit the ground, the unloaded airship ascended back into the sky. Standing on the dirt, Li Qinwu immediately began surveying his surroundings.

The trolls had already stepped into an early-agrarian era, having mastered basic farming, livestock raising, and iron smelting. This meant that, per square mile of land, they could sustain a far larger population than hunter-gatherer tribes, creating natural conditions for dense population hubs. A settlement of this scale housed at least fifteen thousand trolls. Surrounding the perimeter were vast tracts of cleared farmland; as long as production could be restored, the land would yield crops almost immediately!

Li Qinwu grinned so wide his jaw hurt. He had assumed that developing the region after wiping out the troll leadership would require immense capital and labor. Looking at it now, the trolls had basically laid out a ready-made foundation for him! All he needed to do was optimize the layout, introduce draft beasts for deep plowing, and these fields would start producing substantial yields in no time.

Li Qinwu led his guard down a rough, troll-style street, occasionally popping into various buildings to inspect their construction. Troll architecture was primitive to the extreme—mostly sharpened wooden stakes driven into the dirt to form basic windbreaks. The interiors lacked natural light, the ground was unpaved mud, and the low ceilings reflected their backward building techniques.

Inside were a few crude household items: animal hides and straw piled high for beds, irregular ceramic bowls and pots, and utility knives carved from animal bones. Li Qinwu eyed the bone knives closely. He had clearly seen troll warriors wielding iron weapons on the front line, yet stone and bone tools still held a significant niche in their daily lives. This proved their iron-smelting techniques were extremely primitive—the production output of iron was far too low to phase out prehistoric tools entirely.

Intrigued by how troll society functioned, Li Qinwu was about to explore further when a signal flare suddenly detonated in the sky above. He snapped his head up toward the sound—the flare had been fired from the northwestern sector of the settlement. Lacking a modern chemical industry, Li Qinwu couldn't manufacture multi-colored flares yet. Unless a specific color code had been agreed upon beforehand, a flare simply meant one thing: emergency.

A flare under these circumstances could only mean one of his units had encountered an urgent situation requiring immediate backup. Without hesitation, he rallied his system-generated squad and sprinted toward the light. Moving at full speed, they arrived at the scene within minutes. A massive throng of Water Drakes was jammed into one of the narrow troll streets, jostling wildly against each other as if trying to force their way inside.

With several thousand Drakes swarming the area, Li Qinwu couldn't see what was happening at the center. He scrambled onto the roof of a nearby troll hut, finally getting a clear view of the bottleneck. Blocking the entrance to the street was a single company of over a hundred Guard Regiment soldiers. Holding their muskets high, they formed a rigid bayonet wall, physically preventing the Water Drakes from surging forward.

Both sides were roaring and cursing at each other, but without a shared language, communication was impossible, and the standoff was rapidly spiraling out of control. Leaping down from the roof, Li Qinwu landed behind Gob-Mad.

"Gob-Mad! Clear a path for me!" Gob-Mad stood tall like a mini-giant. Ever since his recruitment, Li Qinwu had kept him close as a personal bodyguard. Equipped with a custom-built set of full steel plate armor and wielding a massive two-handed warhammer, he was a walking iron fortress.

"ROAARGH!!" Receiving the order, Gob-Mad charged into the dense pack of Water Drakes. Pushing with his staggering 45 points of Vitality, his monstrous physical strength pried open a passage through the lizard crowd like a snowplow. Li Qinwu followed closely behind Gob-Mad, his system soldiers fanning out to keep the Drakes separated.

"Hold your ground! What the hell is going on here?!" Reaching the front line of the standoff, Li Qinwu barked at his troops, "Report! Why are you pointing weapons at our allies?!" Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. A company commander stepped forward from the line, coming to a crisp salute.

"Boss! Here's the situation: when my company pushed down this street, we found a large group of female trolls and young cubs gathered here. They had no weapons and threw themselves flat on the ground the moment they saw us.

"I judged that their actions matched the 'submission posture' defined in our military regulations. Since we had already secured the area, I accepted their surrender.

"However, the Water Drakes insisted on surging in to slaughter every single surrendered troll. I refused to let them pass, and the standoff escalated from there!" Li Qinwu glanced past the bayonet line. The street was packed with trolls—some kneeling, some lying flat—along with a large number of young cubs. The military code he had established clearly outlined surrender standards. The "submission posture" included discarding weapons, raising hands, lying flat to expose the stomach, or kneeling on the dirt.

Li Qinwu's goal for this campaign was to dismantle the troll leadership and military structure, not to commit total genocide. Trolls possessed incredible physical endurance, making them ideal for heavy labor, whether for clearing wilderness or building infrastructure. They were far too valuable as a labor force to throw away. To integrate the trolls into the Alliance as productive assets, he could not allow the Water Drakes to go on an unchecked slaughter.

Having grasped the situation, Li Qinwu turned to face the agitated crowd of Water Drakes. Activating his translation magic, he shouted, "All Water Drakes, step back! This zone is fully secured! Move out and secure other sectors!" However, the Water Drakes were blinded by generations of blood feuds. Having tasted victory, many had lost all rationality in the frenzy of battle. A burly Drake warrior stepped forward, bellowing angrily, "There are trolls in there!! ALL trolls deserve to die!! Move aside!

Let us kill them!!" Li Qinwu's voice turned icy.

"They are prisoners of war under the protection of my army! Fall back immediately, or face the consequences!!" The troll hierarchy had been dismantled, reducing their threat level to near zero. In contrast, the Water Drake forces remained fully organized; right now, an unrestrained Drake mob posed a far greater threat to order than the defeated trolls.

"Get out of our way!!" the lead Drake roared, his eyes bloodshot with rage.

"What right do you have to step between us and our vengeance?! Get out of the way!" Li Qinwu's eyes narrowed into slits as a cold calculation crossed his mind. Should I use a bloody confrontation to show the Water Drakes the absolute authority of the Alliance? The timing and justification are right here. The moment the thought took root, it began to grow. Li Qinwu stared quietly at the roaring lizardmen in front of him, slowly raising his hand into the air! CLICK!

The instant they saw Li Qinwu raise his hand, every soldier of the Guard Regiment raised their muskets in unison, their muzzles locking squarely onto the chests of the front-line Drakes. The Water Drakes froze. A sudden, instinctual dread welled up from the depths of their hearts. The atmosphere around the goblins had shifted instantly—one second they were shouting, and the next, they were dead silent, staring at them with cold, unblinking eyes like a volcano on the verge of erupting.

The silence proved far more terrifying than any roar. The front-row Drakes facing the steel muzzles began to swallow hard, their bravado evaporating as they subconsciously shuffled backward. Li Qinwu hesitated for a fraction of a second, pondering whether to bring his hand down. Mercy without discipline is seen as weakness... but opening fire here might drive a permanent wedge into the integration of the Water Drakes.

Yet, seeing the underlying hatred lingering in the eyes of the Drakes before him, he leaned toward giving the order. If they dare look at me like that today, who knows what they'll try tomorrow? Li Qinwu's hand began to drop—when a booming shout shattered the tension from the back of the crowd.

"STOP!! EVERYONE, FALL BACK!!" Recognizing the authoritative roar, the Water Drakes parted immediately. A powerful Drake pushed through the crowd and rushed to the front—it was Meng Li, the chief of the Water Drakes. Seeing the goblins' muskets leveled at his kin, Meng Li nearly wet himself. He had witnessed firsthand what those iron tubes could do. Seeing Li Qinwu's raised hand hanging in the air like an executioner's blade, he knew his tribe was one second away from disaster!

Without a second thought, he sprinted forward and dropped hard onto both knees right in front of Li Qinwu.

"Your Majesty! We are on the same side, Your Majesty!!" The surrounding Water Drakes stared in utter shock. Wait... we were just about to fight to the death! Why did the Chief just kneel?! Li Qinwu slowly lowered his hand, observing Meng Li with a flick of amusement. This guy sure knows how to read the room. Meng Li spun around, roaring at the stunned Drakes behind him, "Kneel, all of you! From this day forth, the Water Drake tribe pledges total allegiance to the Alliance!

The ruler standing before you is our supreme King! HIS WILL IS LAW!" The Drakes exchanged bewildered glances before dropping to their knees one after another, chanting with hesitant reverence:"LONG LIVE THE KING!" Li Qinwu let out a short laugh. He realized something interesting: the high leadership of the Water Drake tribe—whether it was the old Elder or this chief, Meng Li—possessed a surprisingly sharp grasp of political reality. Both were actively pushing for total integration with the Alliance.

Perhaps their endless, brutal wars against the trolls had forced them to develop a strategic eye, recognizing that joining the Alliance offered the only path to survival and prosperity for their people. Since the Water Drakes possessed such strong internal motivation to integrate, there was no need to resort to bloodletting just yet. Li Qinwu walked forward and patted Meng Li on the shoulder.

"You did well, Meng Li. Now, restrain your warriors and end the killing. Have them round up the surviving trolls and bring them here. I need strong labor to build my territory—do you understand?" Meng Li nodded frantically.

"I understand, Your Majesty! I will restrain them immediately. Everything here belongs to you—including the trolls!" Turning around, Meng Li bellowed commands, ordering his commanders to spread out across the settlement and force all Water Drakes to stand down. As the crowd dispersed, the dangerous standoff dissolved into thin air. Li Qinwu turned back to the company commander. Remembering how clearly and logically the goblin had spoken earlier, he asked, "What's your name?"

The commander stood straight and gave a respectful salute.

"Boss, everyone calls me Gob-Literate."

"Gob-Literate? How'd you get a name like that?" Goblin names were usually derived from physical traits or combat habits. A name implying literacy was a rare commodity in these ranks. Gob-Literate explained promptly, "Boss, I memorized our entire military code word for word, and I can write all the official Alliance characters. That's why the boys call me Gob-Literate." Li Qinwu's eyes lit up. Holy crap, a self-taught administrative talent!

Looking at Gob-Literate as if he were a rare treasure, Li Qinwu patted his shoulder warmly.

"Very good, Gob-Literate. You handled yourself exceptionally well today—I'll remember you.

"Now, keep your company posted right here. Take charge of the troll prisoners, and do not allow any Water Drakes near this sector." Gob-Literate's heart soared with excitement. This is it! The Boss remembers my name! I'm moving up in the world!! And he wasn't wrong. Moments later, Li Qinwu tracked down Gob-Spear and asked, "You have a company commander named Gob-Literate under you, right?" Gob-Spear nodded immediately.

"Yeah, Commander of 3rd Company, 1st Battalion. Great kid, sharp mind. Memorized the military handbook back to front, writes clearly, and always carries a little notebook to log details. The boys all call him Gob-Literate." Li Qinwu pondered for a moment before issuing his orders: "Promote him. When we expand the regiment next time, put him in charge of a battalion. In the meantime, hand over all regimental logistics to him and see how he handles it."

Leaving Gob-Spear to execute the command, Li Qinwu turned to organize the post-battle administration. Gob-Spear's eyes sparkled with pride. Fantastic! Another talent coming out of my ranks! First Gob-Run made regimental commander after coming up under me, then Kanda got picked for field management... and now Gob-Literate is making his move! Without missing a beat, Gob-Spear sprinted off to find Gob-Literate, eager to mentor his newly rising protege. As time ticked by, the chaos of battle gradually subsided.

A steady stream of troll corpses was hauled back toward the airship camp, where Gob-Die would convert the remains into controllable undead units within a newly designated necropolis field. Li Qinwu set up a temporary command post inside one of the cleaner troll huts, where reports from various squads trickled in throughout the evening. The troll settlement's population had been estimated at roughly 15, 000. Around 2, 000 had been killed in the assault—mostly by goblin firepower.

Despite their aggressive posturing, the Water Drakes had struggled against the three-meter-tall trolls in direct melee, losing over 500 warriors of their own in the process. While a large portion of the population had scattered into the wilderness, over 3, 000 trolls had been captured—mostly pregnant females and young cubs who lacked the mobility to flee. To Li Qinwu's pleasant surprise, his soldiers had even pulled the newly ascended King of Gluttony out from a bone-adorned hut, capturing the troll ruler alive.