Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The people in the city still didn't know how the "Rebels" found those farmers who ran faster than rabbits and made them serve their cause.

They only knew that with the help of the "little gray men," less than two days later, the "little blue men" had dug a trench parallel to the city walls, connecting the small fortresses, stretching from the banks of the Ashen Stream River to the River Shijian dike.

Moreover, they used the earth excavated from the trench to build a steep earthen wall behind the trench.

The prophecy of the "palisade stakes" came true.

From the riverbank to the riverbank, the "Rebels" used an artificial geographical barrier to completely isolate Kingsfort from its prosperous western neighbor.

Realizing this, the morale of the defending troops inevitably grew despondent, and the air within the city became even more oppressive.

The more intensely the Rebels worked outside the city, the more anxious and uneasy the defending troops became inside.

After all, being under siege and being literally "encircled" are two entirely different things.

Old memories were awakened, and a new wave of food hoarding frenzy immediately broke out in Kingsfort.

Now, no one knew when this siege would end, even those who had prepared themselves psychologically for a difficult and prolonged siege began to doubt whether their initial thoughts were too optimistic.

The expectations of all Kingsfort's people for the future were descending toward the worst possible outcome.

Thanks to the flour transported by the Southern Front Army, the price of grain in Kingsfort didn't soar to the heavens;

And also thanks to the porridge shelters set up by the Southern Front Army, no one in Kingsfort died of starvation.

However, Jansen Cornelius was no saint—of course, he never claimed to be one.

Thus, seizing the opportunity of the collective panic among Kingsfort's citizens, Cornelius instructed the Military Police Team of the headquarters to publicly search the major grain stores and the residences of grain merchants in the city, arresting all major grain merchants on charges of "hoarding and driving up grain prices" and consequently confiscating all their stockpiled goods from their warehouses.

Through this operation, Jansen Cornelius eradicated the local grain merchants who had been paying lip service, placed the flour supply of Kingsfort entirely under the management of the Southern Front Army, lifted the spirits of the city's militia, and won the unanimous praise of Kingsfort's middle and lower-class citizens.

After temporarily resolving the food rationing issue, Jansen Cornelius started to transfer some of the defense zones to local militia.

Thus, he personally led a group of commissioned officers to "inspect" New Town early in the morning.

...

Upon hearing Misha's question, the commissioned officers present instinctively hunched their shoulders.

Although Brigadier General Jansen Cornelius was usually polite to the commissioned officers, they realized from his thunderous crackdown on the local grain merchants that the commander of the Southern Front Army was actually not easy to deal with, especially the older officers.

The commissioned officers had thought that the commander, having been slighted, would fly into a rage or at least walk off in a huff.

To their surprise, upon hearing little Misha's question, Jansen Cornelius's face broke into an unprecedentedly sincere smile, starting with a smile, then a smirk, and finally a loud laugh.

"Indeed, the Rebels are also biding their time," Cornelius said, with a pleased look after laughing enough, "so they did learn some real skills at the Land Academy, don't you all agree?"

However, neither Cornelius nor the commissioned officers present knew that, at the same time, just outside the city opposite their position,

Richard Mason was also conducting a lesson for the "Second School" students.