Chapter 1001: Battle for the Gao Ta (36)

Just as Alfred had predicted, Belial soon received news of the incident at the mine, but Batman's actions were faster than his. He decided to strike first.

Although the mine had extremely rich mineral resources, it still couldn't compare to a fortress or a city. The complete production chain Batman envisioned had to have a city to be realized. Thus, Batman set his sights on Sandbar City, which was closest to the mine.

It was called Sandbar City, but it was actually a slightly larger small town. However, it had a complete industrial chain, with smelters, foundries, and most of the materials for the portals Batman needed.

There were garrison troops here, but because General Fuxin's identity was special, the demon soldiers under him were all elites, and Sandbar City hadn't received any news of defense. The defense was relatively lax. Batman didn't spend much effort to take down this city.

With the first city, he could naturally begin to build an industrial chain. In addition to smelting ore and forging armor, he also had to vigorously develop the magic industry, research new potions, and build new potion production lines.

In addition, there was a rift valley behind Sandbar City, where flying beasts could be caught and tamed. Although flying beasts were not as powerful as flying types of demons, they could be considered an air force. Soon, Batman organized a bombing battalion group and put it into the subsequent siege battle.

The location of the mine was close to the desert. There were not many cities in the desert, but on the edge of the desert, there were several large cities, which were basically large industrial cities based on mining ore or oil for smelting, casting, and other industries.

These cities were guarded by heavy troops, but at this time, Batman was not weak either. After gathering several towns in the desert, he also built more than a dozen battalion groups with good combat capabilities, and the logistics were flourishing under Alfred's construction.

Most importantly, Batman planned a perfect railway route for allocating resources and transferring manpower among these cities.

With the cooperation of magic and the demons' ability to work miracles, the transportation network soon developed. After the scale increased slightly, local planned production was successfully launched. With the production lines fully open, they were in a state of logistics waiting for people.

The subsequent siege and land-grabbing did not have much difficulty, mainly because Belial was busy with the front-line warriors and didn't notice the fire in the rear, so his reaction was a bit slow, which not only gave Batman a chance to breathe but also gave him a chance to develop the rear.

Batman's wisdom was not specialized in one aspect. His tactical mind was strong, but he was not weak at infrastructure construction either. He could even calculate a perfect traffic route map with his brain. Planning production lines for several cities was not a problem.

The larger the scale, the easier it was for him to operate. The larger the operating space, the greater the ability he could exert. Batman hadn't even exerted his full strength, and the desert and several cities around the desert had all been taken by him.

Continuing to snowball, Batman chose to advance toward the south, but next, he encountered heavy obstacles because Belial finally reacted.

Standing on the city wall, looking at the menacing army, Batman discovered that the equipment on their bodies and the weapons in their hands were also different from other demon armies. At the same time, Batman discovered that the opposite side seemed to have improved the demon army system, and the thinking was almost exactly the same as his.

Batman knew that this must be the other self that Shiler had mentioned. That Shiler who mainly served as a conspiracy theorist now probably had completely gained Belial's trust and could even decide on the reform of the army.

There was no suspense in the battle between the two sides. Batman and his army could not beat Belial's elite army on the frontal battlefield, but if they huddled into the city to defend, the opposite side had no good way either.

Batman could see that the Shiler on the opposite side and he had basically started developing at the same time. It was just that because Shiler had more resources in his hands, he had an advantage in soldiers and equipment, but Batman had an advantage in tactical mind, so in local wars, the two were evenly matched.

After the long siege battle began, Batman did not intend to stop there. He did not concentrate all his troops for defense, but boldly sent out a portion of his troops to continue advancing eastward.

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Belial also had to send troops to defend eastward again. The two sides constantly engaged in low-intensity tug-of-war, and every time Batman took down a city, he would consolidate the defense along with the transportation network and improve the speed of support.

Continuing to advance steadily in this way, soon, Batman had a territory centered on the Seven Mountains Mine, radiating outward to more than 20 medium-sized cities and more than 10 large cities.

Because it was an internal flowering, the defensive pressure Batman faced was very great. But at the same time, Belial not only had to face internal pressure but also had to face external pressure, and external pressure was the most fatal.

Batman chose a very good time. Belial had just chosen to go to war with surrounding countries under Shiler's instigation. This led to the fact that behind Belial's army, it should have been his own territory, but as they fought, the back became Batman's territory.

This group of front-line soldiers could neither go forward nor retreat, and in the end, they could only choose to either defect or join Batman.

By gathering quite a few troops in this way, Batman's power was even more powerful. And at this time, he chose to contact Lady Das, wanting to cooperate with her.

The so-called enemy of an enemy is a friend. Batman also knew that his main opponent now was the conspiracy Shiler who was Belial's staff officer. And in order to regain Belial's trust, Lady Das's opponent was also Shiler, so they could naturally unite.

Lady Das was even more anxious than Batman had imagined. Upon hearing that this rebel who had contained Shiler was willing to cooperate, Lady Das sent several letters in a row, and the two sides soon colluded.

Although Batman had occupied quite a few cities, he still lacked some rare materials. Certain local specialties could only be bought in the royal capital, and Batman also lacked some rare talent, such as magicians who could set up large magic arrays and engineers who could manufacture special items like bombs. Lady Das could provide these for him.

With Lady Das and Batman working from the inside and outside, they really fought to a stalemate with Shiler and Belial. Under the dual pressure from inside and outside, Belial was in a dilemma and indecisive, and soon he was cut off of one-third of his territory by Batman.

Everything was proceeding according to Batman's plan, but unexpectedly, within a single day, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

Belial issued an announcement to all demon lords: he didn't want the territory Batman occupied anymore; Batman had taken his territory and become independent.

Batman couldn't figure out why Belial would make such a move. No matter what, he wouldn't abandon one-third of his territory and set him free, right?

But soon, he discovered Belial's sinister intentions, because in Belial's announcement, he specifically emphasized that the person who took his territory was named Batman.

Don't forget, now under the command of other demon lords, there were Shiler's figures. They started a war to compete for that high tower, and at this time, they were gearing up, wanting to take down the other selves.

And at this time, they heard that Batman had taken one-third of Belial's territory and become independent. What did this mean?

All personalities knew Batman, but more importantly, they knew that the one who dealt with Batman the most was the arrogant Shiler.

After all, he had always been responsible for activities in the DC world. In other words, now, the staff officer of Batman, who was a demon lord, was very likely the arrogant Shiler.

These personalities competed for the high tower just to win and be able to exchange for floating authority. But if the arrogant Shiler assisted Batman in achieving victory, the Superego would definitely not change the competition result. At that time, it would definitely be the arrogant Shiler floating up to control the body again.

Moreover, it was originally the arrogant Shiler who threw all of them into hell, and now he still wanted to regain the power to float up? No way!

All Shilers had a fire burning in their hearts, hating themselves. Shiler is a professional.

In this way, Batman became the target of public criticism. The Shilers under all demon lords stopped building infrastructure, stopped training troops, and didn't care about any strategic arrangements or tactical strategies. They just grabbed the arrogant Shiler and beat him up.

All of a sudden, there were enemies on all sides, fires everywhere. All demon lords whose territories bordered Batman's current territory declared war on Batman one after another.

And, they transported troops frantically in an extremely manic posture. Within a few days, all of Batman's borders were under heavy military pressure.

The situation changed too suddenly. Batman had no precautions, which led to his current state, which could not be called relaxed and happy, but could only be called overwhelmed.

Batman's original plan was to advance steadily, nibbling away at Belial's territory bit by bit, building high walls, storing grain widely, and delaying becoming king. If he could unite with Lady Das and Belial's son Etrigan to take down Belial, that would be best. If he couldn't take him down, he could also think of ways to expel him, and at the same time, he could also expel the conspiracy Shiler.

The front part proceeded very smoothly. It was foreseeable that if Belial couldn't come up with a good way to respond, then only chronic death awaited him.

However, the conspiracy Shiler was worthy of the trait of playing conspiracies. With one move of retreating to advance and pulling the firewood from under the cauldron, he directly reversed the situation.

Although Belial lost a part of his land, in hell, land actually wasn't very valuable. Once this news was announced, the eyes of all demon lords were placed on Batman, including those countries that were at war with Belial, which greatly reduced Belial's external pressure.

At the same time, the conspiracy Shiler knew very well that once other Shilers learned of the whereabouts of the arrogant Shiler, they would inevitably attack in groups. Batman's pressure increased dozens or hundreds of times in a short period of time.

If Batman couldn't hold on, then the conspiracy Shiler, who was closest to Batman's territory, could directly receive the territory he had taken away. And on Batman's territory, infrastructure construction had also been carried out, completely saving the conspiracy Shiler the time for transformation.

All Shilers started the transformation at the same time, but if the conspiracy Shiler could take back Batman's territory, it would be equivalent to him carrying out double the transformation in the same time, and the progress would lead by double.

Connecting the traffic network built by Batman with the traffic network transformed by the conspiracy Shiler, after the entire country's traffic network was connected, the war potential would be completely stimulated. Combined with Belial's powerful personal strength, victory would be within reach.

Batman even suspected that his smooth situation of siege and land-grabbing at the beginning was entirely because the conspiracy Shiler was cooperating with him, with the purpose of letting Batman build first. After he had built enough, the conspiracy Shiler would show his cards for Batman, let him be besieged by everyone, and then logically receive his territory and the facilities that had been built, so as to lead others in progress.

Batman originally thought that he had overestimated Shiler as much as possible, but he didn't expect that every trait of Shiler almost had a level on par with his professor. Caught off guard, Batman also took a tumble.

But Batman didn't intend to give up. Thus, Batman ushered in the most stressful, most exhausting, and darkest period of time in his life so far.

Before, Batman had no evidence for the fact that Shiler's private feud didn't contain a bit of teaching, but now, he had it.

Because he had been beaten by Shilers from all directions for a whole month. ===== CHAPTER 1002 =====