Falkeri Empire, in the office of Crown Prince Julian...

"Lynn, has Sir Sullen taken care of my fourth brother's matter?"

Julian sat relaxedly on his office chair and asked Lynn, who was half-kneeling in front of his desk.

"Reporting to His Highness the Crown Prince, Sir Sullen has already "dealt with" His Highness the Fourth Prince. From now on, His Highness the Fourth Prince won't be causing trouble to you again my lord, for good. "

Lynn reported with a calm expression.

"Good, Besarius has diverted too much of my precious time. The situation in the world is changing now, and the empire cannot tolerate internal strife. Although it is a pity, we still have to silence him permanently."

A hint of calculating coldness flashed across Julian's face, and then he continued to ask:

"Did you bring what I asked you to prepare?"

"Yes, Your Highness, although it has not yet spread in our country's sanctioned markets, it can already be purchased in large quantities on the black market."

Lynn answered, picking up a basket from his side, and then placed the basket respectfully on Julian's desk. Julian gently opened the cloth covering the contents of the basket, revealing several clean and delicious-looking potatoes. Seeing the contents of the basket, Julian picked up one of them and looked at it, with a sinister smile on his face.

"Is this what the Golden Dynasty called potatoes?"

"Yes, Your Highness, I heard that this crop is rich in nutrients and easy to cultivate. It will be very practical if it is used as rations for our military."

Lynn pushed his glasses and answered.

"Humph. Very good, very good. As expected, Marika, you always bring me unexpected surprises."

Julian chuckled to himself.

"Your Highness, I have one more important thing to report to you."

"Speak."

"The Kingdom of Inrud has sent us a messenger. The messenger said that he hopes that your highness can read this letter in person."

After finishing speaking, Lynn took out a letter from his sleeve. The sealing wax on it was the emblem of the Inrudian royal family.

After taking the envelope, Julian opened it and read it, but he only glanced at it briefly, then sneered and threw the envelope aside, as if it was just a piece of waste paper.

"Hahaha, Nicholas finally lost his calm! He actually thought of finding an alliance with us to deal with Marika?! As I expected, that usurper is destined to be unable to accomplish anything great. He doesn't even know how much he is worth!"

"Your Highness, should we not consider his offer? The Golden Dynasty is now rising to its peak. If they are not stopped quickly, they will soon grow enough to threaten our country!"

Lynn said worriedly. After hearing what Lynn said, Julian just shook his head and said with a smile:

"Lynn, my friend. You have failed to see the bigger picture here. The Golden Dynasty may indeed become the empire's enemy in the future, but this depends on our next move, and it is not now."

"Your Highness, I don't understand."

"Lynn, as you said, the Golden Dynasty is now at its peak. If we fight with them now, we will only be the ones who suffer. It is better to let them pull out the teeths of Nicholas and the Pope for us and make them nothing but toothless lions. After they have paved the "way" for us to seize the world, then it will be time for us to enter the field and reap the harvest. "

"I see, so His Highness plans to wait until the Golden Dynasty and the Kingdom of Inrud to become exhausted before taking over both countries in one fell swoop?"

Lynn said with a look of realization.

"Wrong! At the end of this war, the Golden Dynasty will only become stronger than it is now. The kingdom's two defeats are the best example. The Golden Dynasty will only get stronger as it fights. If we want to reap the fruits of this war, we must harvest it together with the Golden dynasty, as allies. But after the war, as time went by, when they completely let down their guard against us, the rulers of this world are no longer necessarily the "ostensibly" winners like them. "

After hearing Julian's plan, Lynn praised with admiration:

"As expected of His Highness the Crown Prince! Only you can create such an ingenious plan!"

"There is no need for unnecessary compliments. Now go ahead and reject Inrud's messenger! Oh! Also, don't forget to continue to monitor the merchants and adventurers coming in and out of the Erdtree kingdom."

"Yes! I will take care of it, my lord. In that case, pardon my leave."

Lynn lowered his head and bowed on one knee, then left to deal with his new tasks.

Seeing Lynn leave, Julian continued to smile to the potato and said to himself:

"Marika! Marika! How many surprises can you bring me? I really can't wait? Without my annoying stupid brother, I have plenty of time to observe you and know you that much better…"

After saying that, Julian took an aggressive bite on the potato.

Returning to the Eastern Territory, Marika's army had been marching for a week. After easily defeating the 7,000 men strong Inrudian army waiting there at the river mouth near fort Height, Marika advanced all the way to the small city closest to the river mouth, the city of Tris, and marched unhurriedly.

This time Marika led an army of 100,000 men. In this era, this is a number that can only appear in large-scale wars. When leading such a large army, in order to maintain discipline and march orderly, they must advance at a relatively slow speed. That's the best tactic with an army of this size. Last time Marika played the strategy of blitzkrieg, this time it was her turn to use the crowd tactics. And when an army reaches this size, it is the best intimidation in itself.

"Damn it! What had the scouts been doing?! Their intelligence clearly states that those tree huggers only have ten thousand men at most! This is clearly one hundred thousand men! Damn it all! Does this mean the defense line at the river mouth has been broken?"

The lord of Tris City was absolutely frightened when he saw the huge army of 100,000 soldiers from a distance. He only has a pitiful thousand men in his hands! The Inrud Kingdom completely underestimated the speed of the Golden Dynasty's troop increase. Thanks to the Golden Dynasty's airtight intelligence blockade, the Inrudian Army believed that the Erdtree Kingdom could send only 10,000 troops at most. After all, the Golden Dynasty can't just pop an army out of nowhere, right?

Looking back to the poor city lord of Tris City, seeing the predicament of such a disparity in strength, he decisively chose to open the city gate and obediently raised the white flag to surrender. Marika did not make things difficult for him. After confirming that he was not a slave owner, committed no crime, or had any objections to her rule, Marika allowed him to continue to reign as the city's lord. Of course, Marika also summoned a total of 500 Godrick soldiers and a couple dozen Godrick knights there to serve as a garrison just in case.

At this point, the Erdtree Army gained its first foothold in the Eastern Territory.

Having obtained a foothold, Marika's next step is to gain a deeper understanding of the local conditions.

The currently known information is that the terrain of the Eastern Territory is similar to that of Liurnia, with more water than land. But the difference is that the Eastern Territory is more affected by the sea, causing many lands to be immersed in water deeper than the knee-deep waters of Liurnia for many centuries. Because of this unique ecological environment, the development status of local cities is not as good as that of the southern territories. People often travel by boat and are good at fishing and navigation, which makes this place known also as the land of water. However, this phenomenon has not always been like this. In fact, this place used to be developed for a long time based on fishing and water commerce. However, after the two generations of kings Nicholas III and IV squandering their countries treasury on wars, the originally wealthy Eastern Territory has now become poor due to the heavy taxes imposed by the court. By this point, many villages and towns had been abandoned, making the area more closely resemble the post-apocalyptic ruin of Liurnia.

As for further details, it would have to be left to Jin of the Intelligence Department to discover.

After another half month, although the army in the Eastern Territory was very good at water warfare, in the face of overwhelming force and manpower, the Inrudian troops were retreating steadily, and even lost three consecutive battles and forts in this half month. Wherever the Unicorn standard went, the Inrudian troops fell like dominoes. In the eyes of the soldiers of the Inrudian kingdom, everyone in the Erdtree Army is a super soldier. They fight like no tomorrow, march for weeks without tiring and are stronger than the average man. In front of such a terrifying army, they were like powerless babies.

Along the way, Marika summoned troops every time she visited a city and ordered them to help defend the captured city and protect the people in the city and surrounding villages. Naturally, she planted sights of grace whenever she could. So if anyone wants to cause trouble, the Erdtree will notify Morgott to send his night cavalry to immediately teleport over and chop them into pieces. Marika's army showed no mercy to those dog nobles who oppressed the people. Those who remain after the purge are honest nobles who are obedient and willing to put in the work.

And now, after completely subjugating three cities, Marika is listening to Jin's report in her tent.

"In the three towns of Bubulit, Iliad, and Fermu, I found that the local people and local officials were dissatisfied with the heavy taxes of the Inrudian government. By this logic, if we incite local residents to oppose the kingdom's local garrisons, then assassinate their commanding officers at the same time, then there will be a greater chance that the local force will surrender to our army in the future!"

Jin pointed to the three town marks on the map and reported while Marika and the other generals listened to his report carefully. At the same time, Malika looked at the system map in her mind and was thinking about her next step.

Marika thinks it is foolish for the kingdom to adopt a heavy tax of 90%. That's a full 90%! It would be strange if they did not lose the support of the people!

As for why Nicholas would adopt such a crazy policy, Marika speculated that there are two possibilities. The first possibility is that the treasury of the Kingdom of Inrud is seriously depleted for some reason. The second is that the imperial court was corrupt and made huge profits from heavy taxes, but the officials had leverage over the king therefore he did not dare to punish those corrupt officials.

What Marika didn't know was that she was actually right about both. When Nicholas IV rebelled, after overthrowing his father, he spent ten years suppressing the lords who still supported his father. This civil war depleted the treasury's inventory, and Marika's situation happened to appear in the second year after the rebellion was finally put down. The kingdom was suffering from internal and external troubles, and its vitality had long been severely damaged. The reason it could survive until now was purely due to the reputation of their army. Plus, the officials in Nicholas' court who supported him happened to be useless corrupt officials, and Nicholas was afraid that they would rebel again and did not dare to do anything to them.

All the nobles are busy fighting overtly and covertly for interests, or they are simply incompetent, which has created the embarrassing situation where the Kingdom of Inrud is now trampled in humiliation by the Erdree Kingdom, which is twice as small as compared to its own territory. Regarding such a favorable situation for the Golden Dynasty, Marika couldn't help but be grateful that her appearance was too timely.

As the saying goes, "Take advantage of his illness to kill him." Marika had no intention of showing mercy. Since the Kingdom of Inrud is in a bad state, as a member of the kings fighting for hegemony, Marika naturally wants to find a way to tear off as much land as possible from Inrud before other countries react. Her plan is to completely surround the Inrudian capital, so that nothing can even fly out of her grasp.

But coming back to the current battle situation, Marika intends to adopt Jin's plan. So after discussing it with the other generals, everyone agreed to Jin's plan. However, after the generals ended their meeting, Jin was asked to stay behind by Marika.

"Lord Sakai, I am a little worried that you may not have enough manpower for this operation. After all, you are the only one who came out of the leaders of the Intelligence Department."

Marika said to Jin.

This time Ladybug was left in the country to handle the intelligence network there and train new personnel. As for the subordinates Jin brought out this time, not counting the ordinary militiamen and regular troops, there were only fifty militiamen who had been trained and could barely be considered qualified shinobis to accompany him in carrying out this covert operation. These mere fifty people are not enough for the Eastern Territory, which is wider than the Southern Territory, with hundreds of villages and towns waiting for them to infiltrate!

"Indeed, if my lord could allocate more militiamen to train as shinobis, I would be very grateful."

Jin was also aware of this problem, so he didn't act tough and accepted Marika's kindness.

"Well, I will allocate another hundred people to you. But still, I am afraid it is not enough. It just so happens that I have some new talents that I can call over to assist you."

Marika touched her chin, opened the system interface and said.

"Thank you very much, my lord."

"Of course, Lord Sakai. Master also hopes that this mission will go smoothly."

Bedivere, who was accompanying her, replied.

Upon hearing that more companions would join them, Jin was also relieved, but at the same time, he was also curious about what kind of people Marika would recruit.

Marika clicked on the system panel, and two character panels appeared in front of her. Marika has already seen his panel introduction to the shinobi of Ashina, Sekiro, so she will skip it for now. But Marika had to read the other person's panel carefully.

Character Name: Ahab "Big Boss/Venom Snake"

Race: human

Sex: Male

Character rating: D

Skills: Unarmed combat (C), melee weapon use (C), firearm use (C), CQC tactical skills (B), riding (C), charisma (B), Presence Concealment (C), Reconnaissance (C) ), intelligence gathering (C)

Special items: Wu silenced tranquilizer pistol (E), Browning silenced pistol (E), AM-MRS-4 silenced assault rifle (E), grenade (E), tactical knife (E), INT tactical telescope (E), iDroid communicator (C), balloon recovery system (C), camouflage carton (B)

Biography:

Appearing in the action game "Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain". His real name is Ahab, surname unknown. Ahab was originally a medic in Big Boss's mercenary organization MSF Soldiers Without Borders. During a rescue operation with Big Boss, they were ambushed by the hostile organization XOF. Their organization was destroyed, and the helicopter he was riding with Big Boss was involved in an explosion. In order to protect Big Boss, Ahab was seriously injured and fell into a coma that lasted nine years. During this period, his face was surgically turned into Big Boss by "Zero" and "Ocelot" and brainwashed into thinking that he was the real Big Boss. In truth, he is a stand-in to ensure the safety of the true Big Boss. After waking up, he used the codename "Venom", then alongside his partners Kaz and "Ocelot" began to strengthen their new organization, "Diamond Dogs", in order to seek revenge against the culprit of the destruction of MSF, "Skull Face". After his revenge was successful, Ahab realized his true identity, but ultimately chose to continue cooperating with the real Big Boss. Although he is not the real Big Boss, Ahab is on par with the real Big Boss in terms of strength, leadership, and belief. Both of them are Big Boss in a sense.

Venom and Sekiro, one is the strongest ninja in the Warring States Period, the other is a stealth master and legendary mercenary leader. As long as they are used properly, these two people can bring huge improvements to the Intelligence Department. After reading the panel introduction, it's time to meet new friends.

There was a flash of golden light, and two men with very different styles, but who happened to both carry the aura of vicissitudes of life, appeared in the war tent.

A Japanese man who was obviously from the Warring States Period, wearing an orange trench coat, with a katana on his waist, and a tachi that exuded the aura of death on his back. But what is more eye-catching is the gray hair on the right side of his face that looks like an old man's, and his prosthetic left hand that looks like it is made up of human bones and various machine parts.

Jin was naturally happy to see his fellow countryman, and judging from the way he was dressed, he might be one of his colleagues. However, the sword on Sekiro's back gave him an extremely uncomfortable feeling, even to the point of some physical discomfort. But Jin decided to not ask about the origin of the sword out of politeness, but still he silently noted the unusualness of the sword.

As for the other man, Jin didn't know him, but Marika knew his identity very well. The eye patch and the rock fragments pierced on his right forehead made him look as ferocious as a wounded man like Bedivere also has a prosthetic hand, but his missing hand was on the left and its replacement was much more high-tech. The man also has several guns and a military uniform upon him. This person is none other than the legendary figure in the Metal Gear world, Big Boss's stand-in, Venom Snake.

When the two were summoned, they were given grace by the Erdree through the sights of grace nearby. Before the two of them understood the situation, a golden light flashed in their eyes. A large amount of information about the current situation was poured into their minds, which made them feel dizzy for a while. Bedivere kindly stepped forward and helped the two of them sit down.

After the two of them calmed down, they understood the current situation. After the wolf lowered his head and thought for a few seconds, he stood up, knelt on one knee in front of Marika and said:

"I am Wolf. Although I am the shinobi of the Divine Heir of Ashina, but since the Divine Heir is no longer in this life, I am grateful to you my lord for taking me in."

"Good, settle down, Wolf. Welcome on board."

Marika said while keeping a friendly expression.

Although there was no emotion in Sekiro's voice, Marika also knew the unbreakable bond between Sekiro and Kuro. Having just traveled through to a new world, Sekiro must have some discomforts, and his cold attitude is normal. But since she can get along well with Bedivere, the ultimate fanboy of Artoria, it is only a matter of time before the wolf becomes friendly.

As for the other one…

Venom snake seemed a little irritated and took out his cigar and lighter, lit the cigarette and took a deep breath. Then, he looked at Marika seriously, staring straight into her eyes, as if he wanted to see through her soul to see what kind of person Marika was and whether she was worth his service.

Marika did not dare to show weakness and met him with her clearest and most sincere eyes. The air became anxious for a while, and Jin and Bedivere could only watch nervously. Meanwhile, Sekiro eyed the one eyed man curiously. The two extraordinary leaders were obviously testing each other, so the three did not choose to intervene in the tense confrontation between the two leaders.

The two of them stared at each other for a while, until Venom finally said:

"What's the job?"

There were no unnecessary words, just a short sentence that showed his attitude. The Snake recognized the king in front of him and was willing to provide his "services" as a hired employee. As long as Marika tells her the mission and the location, Venom will complete it, which is the true worth of the World's Strongest Soldier.

"Since Sir Ahab and Sir Wolf are ready, then Lord Sakai, please explain your plan to them!"

Bedivere said.

"This is the first time we meet. I am Jin Sakai, my lord's retainer, and my position is the co-leader of the intelligence department. I look forward to working with you."

Jin briefly introduced himself and then discussed his plans with the two. After understanding Jin's plan, the three of them exchanged their abilities to facilitate the distribution of work. During the exchange, the three of them also learned a little more about their future colleagues.

After the discussion, the three people of the intelligence Department bowed and left. The three of them are all men of action, who would rather use their hands than talk. But it was such capable subordinates that made Marika feel at ease with them.

So another month passed, and with the help of the three members of the Intelligence Department and one hundred and fifty ninjas. Marika's army successfully made friends with the people and received help from their funded resources and intelligence.

Among them, Venom took on his old profession as a mercenary to help the people and exchanged valuable information with them by executing their commission. As long as the information about senior officers or important material bases is confirmed, Sekiro will go out to carry out assassination operations or lead a team of ninjas to use the explosives made by Marika to wreak havoc. Then, Jin or other generals under Marika will lead part of the army to take over the towns. Under this tactic, Marika would receive the heads of enemy generals brought by Jin almost every two or three days. If Marika hadn't respected the dead and buried them, the number of heads would have piled up into a small mountain.

So with these advantages, the Erdtree Army marched forward with great momentum. In addition to the light-speed surrender of the Inrudian warriors, who had no intention of fighting, many cities also opened their doors and surrendered obediently without their leaders.

The only slight pity is the modern weapons of Venom. Marika knew that it was impossible to replicate modern industrial mass-produced weapons based on the current technological level of the Erdtree Kingdom. Therefore, she did not ask Venom to hand over his weapons. Moreover, in this medieval century, Venom could not replenish ammunition for his weapons, so in order to cherish these precious ammunition, Venom could only hold his nose and go out on missions with a crossbow and dagger that matched the background of the era.

So without wasting too many soldiers, Marika's 100,000-strong army finally reached the capital city of the Eastern Territory, Wiltord City.