I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree-Chapter 3 - Preparations Before War (/3)

While Celineina was discussing how to make money on this side, on the other side, in the Napoli Duchy, Duke Giovanni’s mood was surprisingly bad.

In the past two months, the tax revenue of his territory had decreased by one-fifth compared to before.

He investigated the reason and found that it was due to the collapse of the textile industry, which led to a large number of unemployed people in the market.

These unemployed people not only failed to provide tax revenue but also consumed social resources.

Similarly, in the vast market system, the collapse of the textile industry chain caused several other industries to also gradually collapse.

The handicraft industry, which the Napoli Duchy had always been proud of, which had previously generated significant tax revenue and wealth, forming unique small citizen groups, suffered a severe blow.

Finally, Giovanni investigated the reason and discovered that it was actually the neighboring Aragon Duchy, where a large-scale, organized textile industry had developed. By flooding the market with goods and lowering prices to seize market share, they had quickly crippled the economy of the Napoli Duchy.

Because of this, he met with Duke Leon of Aragon privately to discuss the relevant issues. However, Leon claimed ignorance and was even puzzled as to why the tax revenue of the Aragon Duchy had increased significantly recently.

Seeing he couldn’t get any useful information from Leon, Giovanni was helpless and could only try to uncover the reason behind it through other means.

Finally, he learned that the investor behind the Aragon textile workshops was an organization called the Lison Group. After further investigation, he discovered that the person in charge of this Lison Group was his potential daughter-in-law, Celineina Bonaventura.

This feeling of being backstabbed by a relative made Giovanni extremely angry. He immediately went to see Louis, the leader of the Silver Moon Trading Company. This time, their conversation was not as amicable as usual, filled with tension.

Louis was also unaware of this matter, but upon learning that his daughter had actually started her own business, he was utterly astonished.

The last time he sent Paul to relieve Celineina of her position, the representative of the Antica branch had voted against the dismissal proposal, forcing Celineina to remain. After that, the Antica branch essentially became independent from the Silver Moon Trading Company and developed on its own.

Saying it developed independently, but in reality, the Antica branch had basically allied with the Ali Trading Company.

Just when he thought the matter had ended there, Giovanni told him that Celineina had actually started her own Lison Trading Company.

“I treated you, Louis, as family, and you backstabbed me?” Giovanni said this, making Louis feel ashamed.

“Your Grace, please rest assured. I will definitely make sure that girl Celineina doesn’t get off easy when I get back,” Louis’s tone was full of guilt.

Giovanni was very satisfied with Louis.

Compared to his father, who was as cunning as a fox, Louis himself was actually a mediocre businessman, or perhaps even worse than mediocre.

If the market were truly unchanging, Louis could maintain the stability of the Silver Moon Trading Company, but unfortunately, the market was constantly changing.

Besides that, Louis was far inferior to his father in terms of character.

At least, his father wouldn’t show deference in front of a Duke.

After all, the Silver Moon Trading Company, as the largest trading company in the Empire, with business operations nationwide, could be said to be a vital artery of the Imperial economy. Its contribution to the Empire was no less than that of these Dukes. But Louis simply felt inherently that merchants were inferior to nobles, thus, when talking with Giovanni, he would sometimes subtly show deference.

Giovanni liked Louis like this very much, because only by controlling Louis could he then control the entire Silver Moon Trading Company, and subsequently control the Empire’s economy.

But he hadn’t expected that before he could control the Empire’s economy, his own territory’s economy would run into problems.

He had originally planned to use this as an excuse to complain about Lucius to the Emperor in the Imperial Capital, but Lucius just happened to have been attacked, which greatly frustrated him.

...

Night fell. Inside the front-line command post, Orson sat at what was originally Carlisle’s desk, reviewing the battle reports sent from the front lines.

Litte stood behind him, fulfilling her duties as deputy.

“Litte, how far have you gotten in your military theory class?” Orson was flipping through the battle reports, somewhat bored, so he started chatting with Litte.

“Uh... We’ve only covered about half of the first year’s material. It’s mostly theoretical content. There’s hardly any explanation of practical combat.”

“Is that so...” Orson nodded.

Compared to himself, Litte truly had no experience at all.

And in the original book, Litte also had no experience leading troops in battle.

Although magic existed in this world, the number of mages was limited after all, and what was called magic wasn’t actually that powerful on the battlefield.

It was true that some mages could summon a meteor to crash down and change the course of a battle, but that only existed in legends. In reality, mages on the battlefield could only cast offensive spells like fireballs and lightning javelins. Some spells couldn’t even penetrate armor.

And even high-tier mages only expanded the range of their spells’ damage, capable of fighting one hundred or one thousand enemies at once. This was based on the enemies being low-tier cannon fodder.

Just like physical stamina, magical energy was also easily depleted.

Therefore, in war, the number of soldiers often accurately reflected the ratio of combat power between two sides.

“In that case, Litte, you can study by my side for a while,” Orson said, handing all the battle reports he had just reviewed to Litte.

“These are all the ones I’ve looked through. Take a look and see what you can analyze from them.”

“Alright.” Litte nodded, took the battle reports, and began reading them.

Then, her brows furrowed tightly.

Some of these battle reports weren’t written by the stationed troops, but were instead feedback from the rear forces who couldn’t contact the front-line forces.

In other words, the front-line forces had been systematically wiped out by the beastmen, not a single living person had returned.

Orson turned his head and looked at Litte’s expression, feeling relatively satisfied with Litte’s reaction.

“Looks like you figured it out, Litte?”

“Yes...” Litte nodded. “Several cities have completely lost contact. When the rear scouts reported back, they could already see the beastmen’s vanguard. So, several cities on the front line have already fallen?”

“Yes.” Orson was satisfied with Litte’s ability to organize information. “It seems you understand too, Litte.”

Next, Orson took the map.

“According to intelligence, the cities lost are these few, and the estimated number of beastmen on the front line is around one hundred thousand.”

“In this situation, Litte, how do you think we can retake these five cities?”

“...” Litte fell silent upon hearing this.

Overall, the beastmen’s combat power was indeed stronger than humans’. With comparable numbers, and on the offensive, it could be said that it was incredibly difficult for humans to defeat the beastmen.

“I... don’t know.” Litte shook her head.

“It’s alright.” Orson smiled. “There’s a lot of intelligence you don’t know yet, so this is quite normal.”

Saying this, Orson pointed to a location on the map.

“To retake the cities, we need to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy’s fighting force, making them feel the losses are too great and forcing them to retreat. That’s the best method.”

“It’s not about whether we have to counterattack, whether we have to capture the cities. That approach is actually the most irrational.”

“But... how can we inflict casualties on the enemy?”

“That’s what I’m going to tell you next...”