Book 9: Chapter 525: Unavoidable Civil War and Battle at Marcus River Basin

Nearby the capital of the Gabriel Empire, Gabriels City, a fight had erupted on the Marz Plain downstream of the Claudine River. This is due to the unrest caused by the abdication edict issued by former emperor Alfred the Third between the Northern Alliance which supported the original heir, Crown Prince Daniel, as well as the Southern Alliance which supported the guardians of the throne, Princess Regnant Bellina and Princess Kriss.

The Northern Alliance was a military alliance headed by Prince Angus, Prince Brad, and Prince Frauer. The two of the three great families of the empire, namely the Johnstons and the Ignaz families, supported the Northern Alliance as well. In total, they had a total of more than five million troops. The Renald family which heads the three great families have already been secretly destroyed by Demon King Bella when they tried to usurp the throne alone, and the remaining army they had placed in the capital were taken over by the Southern Alliance.

The Southern Alliance is led by the Sarnia Duchy which is under Bella’s rule, and the alliance also includes the troops secretly sent over by the Manasvir Empire and the expeditionary support team sent by the Beastman Continent’s “New Beastman Sovereign”. In total, the Southern Alliance was about six million strong, which is numerically superior to the Northern Alliance. What’s more, they had tens of millions of spare demon stroops from the Darkness Sacred Region. The Northern Alliance had been at a disadvantage since the beginning of this war.

This war between north and south of the Gabriel Empire’s capital, Gabriels City, had a headcount of over ten million troops, and it was known as the “North-South War”, the largest human civil war to ever break out on the human continent. Both sides had legitimate reasons for going to war. The Northern ALliance demanded the immediate succession of Crown Prince Daniel while the Southern Alliance stated that they wished to defend the dignity of Princess Regnant Bellina and Princess Kriss who were the guardians of the throne. Therefore, there were no right or wrong parties in this “North-South War”.

Since there were a total of four princes in this war including Princess Regnant Bella, the battle that took place near Gabriels City was known as the “Battle of the Four Kings”. The main forces of this war are the princes. As heir to the throne, Crown Prince Daniel and the two other younger princes, Prince Glenard and Prince Burdis, have no actual military power in hand.

At the Southern Alliance’s side, Princess Kriss remained in the city in order to guard the throne and did not come out to participate in the war. She only hung onto the nominal title of supreme commander despite being unable to leave the palace. The actual control of the Southern Alliance Army is in Bella’s hands, and she was personally commanding the troops on the field.

The princes of the Northern Alliance had more or less some kinship with Kriss so Bella was worried that Kriss would be soft when faced with these people who were once her relatives and hesitate. Even if they won later, a burden would still exist in her heart. So, she had her stay in the city to pacify the hearts of the people instead.

Bella did not have any burdens in her heart. She had been an outsider from the start, so faced with the high-ranking members of the Northern Alliance, Bella offered no hesitations. It was for this reason that Former Emperor Alfred the Third allowed Bella to preside over the big picture. Even as a father-in-law, he still can’t be completely ruthless when faced with these princes.

Kriss was not the only one who did not participate, the other princesses were also helping Kriss to maintain order in the imperial city and did not come out of the palace, including the twin young mistresses of the Hilikas family as well. Bella did not allow any of them to participate in the “North-South War”

The parties on both sides, one is their family’s patriarch, their father, and the other their “mistress”. Bella did not wish to trouble the twins with the difficulty of choosing as well as facing the embarrassment of being forced to take a side. Bad things were better left for Demon Kings like Bella to do. The Hilikas family which was originally in charge of mediating things is now nothing more than a name. The Sword God-level experts, other than Sword Goddess Claudine which was captured by Bella, the eight male Sword Gods have already been defeated by Lost Demon King Hailey Layman and the demon captains.

After losing the leadership of the strong Sword Gods, the Hilikas family’s Sword Saint-level experts have now gone to support Crown Prince Daniel and lost their right to mediate. This war is no longer under the supervision of the Imperial Union. And, Dragon Knight General Olya who was supposed to be an envoy of the Imperial Union was also hiding in the Southern Alliance’s base camp for tea in order to avoid suspicion and was tacitly considered a supporter of the Southern Alliance.

A large-scale war broke out between both sides on Marz Plain which is downstream of the Claudine River. The Southern Alliance, which had already seized control of the empire, was on the defensive, while the northern alliance, which wanted to regain control of the empire’s capital, was on the offensive. Under the command of the three princes, the Northern Army was divided into three directions. One advanced north, another northwest, and the last northeast, marching towards the defense line of the SOuthern Alliance.

The three major forces of the Northern Alliance were also known as the left, center, and right forces and were each led by one of the three princes. The three princes did not fully trust each other and did not feel comfortable entrusting their backs to each other in the war. So, they divided into separate armies to fight their own wars, which was a more suitable strategy for them.

The center army has a strength of more than two million and was commanded by Crown Prince Daniel and his supporter, Prince Angus. Of the three forces, the center has the strongest combat power. The Hilikas family which was originally the protector of the empire have concentrated many of their Sword Saint-level experts at the center. Their main target is a key strategic location at the center of Marz Plain, the Marcus River Basin defense line. The Southern Alliance had set up a large number of artillery positions along the river in an attempt to block Prince Angus and his men from crossing the river and attacking the imperial capital.

The left army had a strength of just over a million and a half and they were commanded by Prince Glenard and his supporter, Prince Frauer, as well as the Ignaz family of one of the empire’s three great families. Their main target is the area where the Southern Alliance’s airships are concentrated, Theodore Heights. That place is where the Southern Alliance’s airships land and resupply. If they can break through that, they will effectively be able to suppress the aerial dynamics of this war.

The remaining one and a half million were in the right army, which was under the command of Prince Burdis and his supporter, Prince Brad, bringing along the Johnston family of the three great families to attack the village of Hansen. That is the pivotal area of the Southern Alliance’s transportation in Marz Plain. Once it is lost, the ability of the Southern Alliance to mobilize their troops will be greatly constrained.

Faced with the north’s attack, the Southern Alliance did not panic. Bella mobilized her Southern Alliance army which was divided into groups of more than two million people and used all sorts of offensive techniques to stop the three major armies of the Northern Alliance from advancing. As for command, Commander Bella was personally commanding the center defense troops, facing the strongest center army controlled by Crown Prince Daniel and Prince Angus in the Marcus River Basin Defense Line.

The right defense army is mainly supported by the one and a half million strong beastman army and more than half a million expeditionary troops from the Manasvir Empire. Their commanders are Sky Demon King Doris and Underworld Demon King Cornice in disguise. The left defense army is mainly made up of two million troops  from the supporting duchies. Their commander is Blood Demon King Eleanor who does not need to disguise herself and is more familiar with human warfare.

Bella’s more than two million strong center forces are mostly made up of the soldiers from the Sarnia Duchy and is the exclusive guard of their lord, Grand Duchess Bellina, so it would be easier for Bella to command them. Lost Demon King Hailey Layman and Moon Demon King Gonias who were here to join in on the fun also appeared after putting on some makeup. Including herself, Bella’s side had a total of six Demon Kings in command, so the difference in combat power between both sides is obvious.

A Demon King commanding a human army isn’t very difficult. As long as they put on a disguise, then most humans will not be able to tell that their commander is actually a Demon King. Bella, dressed in black armor, was standing in a defensive position on the south bank of Marcus River, observing the enemy on the other side. THe war had broken out so abruptly that not only was the Northern Alliance not ready, the Southern Alliance was also not prepared in many aspects before they came out to meet them in war.

Due to the lack of time, the Southern Alliance did not get to set up fortifications on the north bank of Marcus River before the Northern Alliance’s troops arrived nearby. As a last resort, the Southern Alliance was forced to abandon their plans on building a defensive line on the north bank and instead went all out with their defenses on the south bank, finally building some simple trenches before the Northern Alliance arrived.

“This river is simply not big enough. It’s just slightly larger than a ditch.”

“Bella, can’t you just summon some demons to deal with it? Commanding these humans, their new firearm weapons may be powerful, but they’re very ineffective still in killing non-human units.”

“Heiley Layman, I want the world to know that Kriss relies on the support of humans to ascend the throne. If we use demons in the war, then it will not be good for Kriss’s prestige.”

The loli Demon King Hailey Layman standing behind Bella was expressing her opinions while chewing on a snack. Further away, Moon Demon King Gonias was sitting elegantly and looking over the map in front of her a little distractedly. She had not experienced something like a civil war where a Demon King commanded a human army to fight other humans in more than ten thousand years, so for a while she had no idea what she should do.

The Gods of Creation sisters who were cleaning up the Dark Realm, Mary Rose and Mary Lola did not encounter the escaped Demon King on their way back after settling things. Since Gods of Creation can not directly interfere with the world and kill off that infected Demon King, they still marked the coordinates of that Demon King and sealed his infection abilities so he had no way of infecting others.

Bella did not blame them either. The principles of a God of Creation can not just be changed all of a sudden. The Demon King has already been marked. Even if he escapes north of the continent, Bella and the girls will still be able to find him. Their priority task right now was how they were going to win the “North-South War” with human troops and the matter of dealing with that Demon King was put at the back of the agenda for now until Bella heads north.

The Gods of Creation have their own domains where they work and they can’t be constantly away from it. After receiving Bella’s permission, White Creation God Mary Lola took Dark Creation God Mary Rose’s hand and brought her to the world which she was in charge of to assist her in maintaining the daily operation of the dimensional world. With one more helping hand, things would go much easier. When they left, they handed Bella a creator’s key. With this key, Bella is able to open the special office area of the previous Dimensional Creator at any time to flirt with the two beautiful Gods of Creation under her.

“Mary Lola, this Creator Key is very new, you didn’t just make it, did you?”

“Mistress Bella, the Office Domain is new. The original key to the Creator’s Office Domain is missing but it still seems to be running. I went over secretly to check on it and it felt like someone was moving around in there.”

Bella had only casually asked the question but inadvertently got a bit of terrifying information from White Creation God Mary Lola. The Office Domain of the previous Creator has been running the whole time and the God of Creation felt that someone was moving inside. The previous Creator should have been dead. Whether it was the soul of the previous generation Creator or some other terrifying existence in that domain, Bella did not want to think about it for now.

Bella’s thoughts quickly returned to the war. Taking advantage of the time when the Southern Alliance army’s trenches were not set up, the Northern Alliance took the lead in launching an offensive. Both sides were facing different choices. The Northern Alliance was no match for the Southern alliance in terms of food and supplies so if the war drags on, then they will have little hope of winning.

On the contrary, as long as the Southern Alliance can hold their position, they can hold on for a long period of time. Once the Northern Alliance runs out of supplies, they can only retreat in defeat. The Northern Alliance’s center army which was under the command of Prince Angus was marching fiercely towards Marcus River, which was less than a meter deep and no more than three meters wide, so it was more accurate to call it a stream rather than a river.

This shallow water depth and width of a river was not that dangerous to defend. Far back of the Marcus River is one of the side gates of Gabriels City. The fortifications here were destroyed in passing when Bella led a large number of demon captains to raid the palace last time. The Southern Alliance which took over has yet to set up their cannons again. Once the Marcus River defenses are broken through, then the Northern Alliance’s troops will be able to head straight into the capital.

The Southern Alliance soldiers stationed in the trenches quickly set up their muskets to fire while those who had not had the time to set up their firearms picked up their swords and prepared for melee combat, preparing the trenches to their deaths. Crisp sounds of gunfire rang through the Marcus River Basin. The bullets were all shooting towards the Northern Alliance’s troops, and then came another special clang of metal colliding with the musket rounds.

The Gabriel Empire’s main professions are swordsmen, warriors, and other fighters with practically no mages or knightly professions. They only had a handful of long-ranged units like archers as well. Most of the time, it was infantry unit against infantry unit. Many of the Northern Alliance’s soldiers were wearing black armor and holding shields as they advanced. Even though the scene was not as impactful as charging knights, it was enough to deter the enemy.

In the past, firearms have always been the “gold standard”, so it was the loss of the Northern Alliance this time. The Northern Alliance’s center army forces were equipped by Prince Angus himself and the armor was specifically developed against the firearms of the Southern Alliance. Before the start of the “North-South War”, it was not known what special channels Prince Angus took to get some of the firearms used by the Southern Alliance.

After Prince Angus tested the maximum power of the firearms, he asked dwarven craftsmen to cast armors which were designed to deal with the general firearms of the Southern Alliance. Of course, they could only defend against firearms like muskets and the like. They would still have to kneel before the power of cannons.

Only the top-grade armor of this Other World that is inlaid with gems that provide magical resistance are able to resist the attacks of cannons. The cost of this type of equipment per set is sky-high. Even with Bella’s own financial resources, it may still be impossible, so there was no need to mention Prince Angus achieving it.

“Your Highness, please take refuge in the rear. The enemy will reach the other side of the river soon.”

After discovering that their firearms were not working as well as they thought, several generals of the Southern Alliance Army quickly ran over to persuade Bella to retreat. It was fine if they failed the battle, but as the leader of the Southern Alliance, the civil war will come to an early end if she was captured or beheaded here.

“What are you panicking about? I have a solution, just keep firing. It doesn’t matter if you hit them or not, just fire at will, gunpowder is no issue.”

“For those who have not prepared their ammunition, toss the guns away and scatter to the back. Make it look like they’re deserting the army. Let the Northern Army think that we’re rookies with nothing but firearms.”

Bella’s face did not change. Under her orders, many “deserters” who were “tossing away their equipment” quickly appeared at the defense line of the Southern Alliance. When the firearms proved ineffective against the enemy, the “Southern Alliance army lost all will to fight and fled to the rear”.

In order to make the act realistic, Bella had deliberately found several boxes filled with sand to act as treasure chests. Bella had commanded a few soldiers to move them, and their miserable appearance looked just like defeated soldiers packing up their belongings and escaping.

The Northern Alliance army looked across the river at the chaos on the Southern Alliance defense line and really fell for it. Thinking that their enemy was no longer fighting, they quickly launched a river-crossing operation.

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