Dennison Henry was anxious too.
He didn't know much about military matters, but he understood the simplest comparison of numbers. Perbov's troops could fight, but they couldn't replace the role of a hundred thousand people.
Here at the artillery positions, he was gathering the fleeing soldiers, and the effect was actually not bad.
Mainly, the twelve large cannons lined up in a row were extremely intimidating. When the fleeing soldiers retreated here and saw these cannons, they couldn't help but slow down.
Then, Henry would step forward, offering a carrot and stick, and keep people around.
The so-called carrot was money.
Henry had money, but not as much as it seemed. He had only become wealthy in the past two months and had made quite a bit, but he lacked accumulation.
But the key was that he was now willing to spend money, even spending all his money and going into debt if necessary.
After all, as long as they "won" and held their ground, and Rubbish Town was ultimately incorporated by the governor into the new alliance's system of governance, "money" wouldn't matter much anymore.
This information was unknown to the ordinary adventurers. Therefore, his willingness to spend generously still had an effect.
Another big stick was the policy on deserters implemented by Rubbish Town. For the adventurers who kept fleeing, Rubbish Town certainly had to come up with a measure. In fact, during this period, quite a few adventurers who had left the front line had already been executed as deserters.
This pressure had somehow reached the front lines.
During the great collapse, everyone was running, and with no officers enforcing military discipline, no one took this matter seriously.
But now, with mention of heavy artillery here and the offer of double pay, the adventurers naturally had to seriously consider their choices.
Of course, another key factor that could not be overlooked was that after the adventurers were reorganized, they were not sent to the front lines immediately.
Having just been routed by the Green Skin Orcs, sending them straight to the front line would likely have no effect. But just reforming the organizational structure and regrouping on the spot, staying beside the artillery positions without having to fight directly, was much more palatable.
And by using these adventurers, they could continue to gather more adventurers, which could have an expanding effect.
In a few hours, Henry had gathered around four to five thousand adventurers.
With these people, Henry began to think about sending them to the front line to fight.
However, after contacting Perbov, the answer he received was that no more people were needed; they were managing fine on their end.
Mainly because the Beast Slaughter Group had been reorganized.
Colonel Li Kexi, whom Henry knew, had led half the Beast Slaughter Group. Behind the defensive line formed by the First Composite Battalion, they finally had time to properly regroup and boost their morale. They were reorganized and then deployed to the front lines, significantly reinforcing the various firepower points and relieving the manpower shortage of the First Composite Battalion's infantry.
With that, the defense line of about six kilometers in the Fifth District could be considered impregnable.
The difficulty lay in the rest of the battlefront, which was about fifty kilometers long.
The Green Skins had quieted down in the face of the first battalion, but they could strike at other positions at any time.
In fact, this situation was likely already occurring.
But what was worse was that neither Henry nor Perbov had a good grasp of the overall situation.
The army, composed of Freelance Adventurers' Bands, even chose which defensive line they were responsible for by themselves, self-selecting their tasks. They didn't even have a unified command structure. Despite their great numbers, many thought more about adventuring, scavenging, and making money rather than fighting the Green Skins.
Teams without contracts weren't even considering confronting the enemy head-on, consequently, their enormous numbers couldn't exert their full strength.
But at least, Swan should have an understanding of the overall situation.
He reached out again to the Rubbish Town magnate, partly to find out the current state of the battle and if any areas needed support. The three to five thousand men he had gathered could temporarily hold the line—though their combat effectiveness shouldn't be overestimated.
On the other hand, he was more eager to know whether the issue of numerous adventurers' bands, either choosing for themselves or being hired away by other vacillating merchants and agents to protect those fleeing bugs, had been contained or not?
"I am about to address this problem."
After ending the communication with Henry, Swan wore a solemn expression as he pushed open the door of the meeting room in front of him.
Inside, quite a few people were already seated.
His influence was evident at this time.
Without him, no one could have gathered so many agents and important merchants together during such chaos, with many considering abandoning everything to flee.
But that was as far as it went.
The meeting hall was noisy, and many faces showed clear signs of impatience.
Their arguments were routine, having been debated many times in the past.
There were those who advocated for holding out, and others for giving up;
Even among those who wanted to hold out, opinions varied—some were calling for the establishment of a unified Rubbish Town army to end the disarray; some suggested stricter supervision of the adventurer groups and more rational task distribution with increased rewards...