The Most Absurd War

  The Most Absurd War

  Dark clouds loomed, and the river's water surged violently in the rainy season. The turbulent flow swept away broken tree branches, roaring loudly through the treacherous canyon. A massive warship rode the waves, rising and falling like a puppet tossed into the air and slammed back down, unable to resist the awe-inspiring power of nature. Several small boats were smashed against the rocks by the huge waves, instantly shattered into pieces that scattered across the riverbank.

  In the mist-shrouded town, surrounded by marshes, forests, rapids, muddy roads and continuous mountain ranges, tens of thousands of elf troops spent their days in the torrential rain. The surrounding forests were full of dangerous enemies everywhere. Countless hunters who had lost their homes and families hid outside the town with red eyes, tightly grasping their rifles, ready to snipe every lone enemy at any time. Even though the elves were children of the forest, they didn't have much advantage in this strange environment, and there were always unlucky guys being shot in the head every day. Idriel had organized several clean-ups, but with little effect, and afterwards could only let it be, as long as they didn't rush into the town, the elves wouldn't care about them.

  However, for the large-scale Elf Army, the greatest threat is not the guerrilla forces outside the town with simple equipment, but the unpredictable disease beside them.

  In the humble field hospital in Fog Town, soldiers with dull eyes like dead fish lay everywhere, many of their lower bodies festering and emitting a foul odor. They had hardly received any treatment and were just lying there waiting to die. When they saw the commander arrive, the patients seemed to suddenly regain their spirits, crying out one by one:

  "Save me!"

  "It hurts so much! I'm going to die..."

  "Sir, can you think of a solution?"

  "Please, I need immediate treatment, everything down there is rotten!"

  Although his heart was heavy, Idriel could only harden his heart and ignore the patient's plea. He called a military chaplain, "What is the situation now? Is there any way to treat it?"

  "There's no way, this is a forbidden magic zone, all arcane and divine spells are unusable." The elf priestess in light green military uniform spread her hands, her tone filled with despair. "The number of dead has exceeded two thousand, those still alive are just waiting for death. We have no solution, even if we priests fall ill, there's only one outcome - death."

  "Damn it, my soldiers weren't defeated by the Nazg?l, are they to be destroyed by syphilis instead?" Idriel grasped his hair in agony, "How can such an absurd thing happen!"

  "Sir! Sir! It's terrible!" A soldier rushed into the field hospital, "Captain Amm says he doesn't want to wait here to die and has taken the HMS Crown away! He's also taken more than 300 sick brothers with him!"

  "What!" Idriel sprang up instantly, rushing out of the door violently, and then he saw a scene that would be etched in his memory forever.

  The huge flagship "Crown" of the Spirit Fleet was spinning around in the turbulent rapids of the Reindeer River, occasionally brushing against the riverbank crowded with ships, knocking over a large number of small boats and even sinking some on the spot. The "Crown" itself was already battered and bruised. Although the sailors on board tried their best to maneuver the ship, the power of nature seemed impossible to resist. With a loud clap of thunder, a massive wave crashed down on the warship, and the "Crown" immediately disappeared beneath the waves. When the foam receded, only the hull of the "Crown" was left on the surface, resembling an upside-down dead fish, continuing to spin around and drift downstream until it completely vanished from sight.

  "Oh no!" Idriel seemed to have been drained of all his energy in an instant, and he fell softly onto the floor filled with stagnant water.

  ****

  In war, the treatment of enemy women by soldiers has always been a major problem for military and political leaders, even among those who claim to be "benevolent" and "refined", with some even going so far as to exacerbate it. According to the teachings of the elven god X'zeth, this is also a way to avenge themselves against "humans who have occupied the living space of elves", which is worthy of promotion. Now, half-elves are rampant all over the world, most of whom are the byproducts left behind by these soldiers' "sowing seeds all over the world".

  After the Battle of Fog Town, the Elf Army captured a large number of female spoils of war. Due to the continuous heavy rain in recent days, the soldiers had nothing to do, and these female spoils of war became the only entertainment project for the soldiers. The officers also turned a blind eye to this, so that the soldiers who were once on the verge of collapse could have an outlet.

  In such a long time, high-intensity rape activities, it is unknown who started it, and the soldiers were infected with sexually transmitted diseases. In the behavior, they also transmitted sexually transmitted diseases to other soldiers. The number of people infected with sexually transmitted diseases grew like a snowball, and when someone got sick and needed treatment, everyone realized that they had made a big mistake!

  Originally, contracting a sexually transmitted disease wasn't a big deal for them. Elves had far stronger resistance than humans, and many incurable diseases in humans were just minor ailments that would heal on their own for elves. Even if they did get sick, elven priests were renowned for their exceptional divine magic skills, and one healing spell could cure any sexually transmitted disease. The elven priest who followed the army was an elite talent selected from a theological academy, so this little problem wasn't even worth mentioning.

  But Fog Town is located in a fairly large forbidden magic zone, where all arcane and divine spells are unusable. As a result, all the clerics became useless, and the elves who were overly dependent on divine spells didn't have any medicine reserves, so even ordinary venereal diseases became incurable. The elven army was trapped by the torrential rain and harsh terrain in this forbidden magic zone and couldn't leave, patients could only wait for death. As a result, morale plummeted, military hearts wavered, and every day someone would desert. If it weren't still basically isolated from the outside world, this army might have disbanded on its own.

  "Sir, what's wrong?" Gilbert arrived at the field hospital and found Idriel sitting in the mud, so he helped him up. "Are you all right?"

  Idriel finally came back to himself, "Is that all? Have those women who caused this disaster been taken care of?"

  Gilbert recalled the venomous gaze of those women and couldn't help but shiver, "It's all taken care of, sir. Guaranteed not to leave a single trace."

  "Get ready, once the water calms down a bit we'll leave." Idriel patted his military cap and stood up, "We can't stay here any longer, it's better to die in the belly of a fish than to drag on like this without living or dying."

  ****

  "We are fighting on our own land, how can we be short of food? How many grains did New Elysium export every year in the past!" Ludwig's angry voice echoed in the small conference room, but what responded to him was a silence. Several members of parliament looked up at him and quickly lowered their heads again, not making a sound.

  Outside the conference room, the brick houses and shops of Glorious City were blackened by smoke and ash, which even the heavy rain could not wash clean. More than half of the city's houses had been destroyed in the elves' great fire, and in the remaining districts, some chimneys had already started to rise again with smoke, but more were still eerily silent, because their owners would never come back.

  At present, although the entire territory of New Enoo has been recovered, several major cities are in ruins, and the nomads on the grasslands have also suffered heavy losses in the war. Refugees need relief, cities need to be rebuilt, and troops need supplies. However, all reserves in New Enoo have been depleted and can no longer support them.

  Ludwig, who has just been elected as the new Speaker of the Enno State Council, sent out a distress signal to all parts of the South, hoping to get some material and financial assistance. At the same time, he also submitted a report and application to the Central Government through the ultra-long-distance communication tower in New Shamas State. However, neither side had any good news.

  The delegates sent to the South returned almost empty-handed under the smooth talk of various councils. The state legislatures congratulated the recovery of New Enooak State with enthusiasm, but as soon as money was mentioned, they dodged and weaved, always needing to hold meetings for further study, always saying wait and see.

  Governors' offices in various places are even more reluctant to provide funding, some politely saying that they need a document from the central government before they can allocate funds, and then give a symbolic amount. Some are like driving away beggars, not even giving them a chance to meet, directly throwing them out of the door.

  The central government did not respond, and Ludwig had only a meager amount of personal donations. A few churches also collected some supplies to distribute to the refugees, but it was still far from enough. The neighboring state of New Masovia had already spent a huge military expense to aid its own war effort and still had 3,000 troops stationed on the Great Plains, so Ludwig felt embarrassed to ask them for help.

  Today, the official in charge of the granary reported to him that the grain warehouse was almost empty and Glory City would run out of food in at most three days. He held an emergency meeting, but except for shouting loudly and venting their grievances, no one had any solution.

  "Is there any statement from the church?" Ludwig asked a member of parliament who had just gone to negotiate with the church, holding onto his last hope.

  "All the churches have tried." The senator shook his head, "The Temple of Wogin, Goddess of Trade and Wealth, is willing to provide a loan, but they require sufficient collateral."

  "Besides land, what else can we mortgage!" Ludwig slammed his fist on the table, "This is to make New Enoch State an autonomous territory of Wogin Temple!" Seeing that no one spoke up again, Ludwig slumped down in his chair dejectedly.

  With the sparse population of New Enoch, the cost of relief and reconstruction would be a drop in the bucket for the wealthy southern states. The reason they wouldn't lift a finger was not economic but political considerations, just like sending troops to New Masovia.

  From the defeat at North Pole Port to now, all wars have basically been fought by the Northern States, New Enoo State and New Mosobray State, with the other ten states doing almost nothing. As the Elf Army is gradually weakening, the Southern States naturally do not want all the honors of victory to be taken away by these three states, and the governors of various places regard Nom Governor, who seeks the position of war zone commander, as the greatest threat to their own power. They dare not do anything openly, but it is inevitable that they will secretly make some small moves to drag their feet.

  On the one hand, they tried every means to delay the convening of the Continental Congress, and it would be best if the fairy army was eliminated before the meeting. In this way, there is no need to elect a war zone commander to ride on their heads.

  On the other hand, as for the various demands put forward by the front line, they will be delayed as much as possible. It would be best if the front line suffered a few defeats, so that the censure and impact on the non-participating states in the Continental Congress would be greatly reduced, and the possibility of Governor Norn becoming the commander-in-chief of the war zone would also be reduced.

  Although young, as a politician, Ludwig naturally understood this principle too, but he always thought that the southern states would not do things so absolutely, at least they would not watch tens of thousands of refugees in New Enoch starve to death. But the fact proved that he still underestimated the degree of ruthlessness of politicians from various states.

  "There's no other way, we'll have to use the military rations for now." Ludwig made a reluctant decision. "Have the troops at the mouth of the Tamerlane River retreat into the territory of New Masovia and let Governor Nohm and Speaker Zena figure out how to supply them for a while. I'll go beg Governor Nohm again, see if we can scrounge up something. Alas, fighting on our own fertile soil, and yet we're running out of food! Politics is truly absurd!"