Such things are often inevitable, as long as these people continue working it doesn't matter to her.

Many times, such people will work harder than usual to maintain their position or climb higher, if used well they are undoubtedly a group of high-quality Palu.

What Perfikot truly cares about is who is orchestrating all of this from behind the scenes, and what their purpose really is.

"So that's why you said we should use thermobaric bombs to destroy the entire slum if necessary?" Eldest Princess Annie also realized that the issue of governance can be addressed after the event, the pressing matter right now is the slum itself.

Perfikot nodded, pressing her hand on the tea table to activate alchemy.

"This is roughly the current topography of the slum, located in the northern part of Langton City near the river area, where approximately 200,000 to 400,000 people live." Perfikot used alchemy to simulate the shape of the slum on the tea table and explained to Eldest Princess Annie: "Currently, the river has not frozen yet, a significant portion of Langton City's domestic water comes from it, any upstream issues would be disastrous.

Moreover, it is adjacent to the lower city, which is an area heavily industrialized in Langton; the old city defenses and walls have been dismantled.

Aunt Annie, you should understand what this implies, shouldn't you?"

As Perfikot spoke, she looked towards Eldest Princess Annie, knowing that the princess born of military background would certainly be concerned about such matters.

As expected, Eldest Princess Annie stepped to the tea table, covering the slum and lower city with her hand, tone heavy as she said: "If I incite unrest in the slum and let it spread to the lower city, even if the City Guard reacted in time, even if they are just mobs, they could not hold back an offensive of at least tens of thousands.

This area has no natural defenses, and the advantages of military weapons and personnel quality would be leveled by urban guerrilla warfare, should anything truly happen, it would be a difficult and bitter battle."

"Deploying the steam knights may be able to fight, but once the enemy numbers exceed a certain limit, throwing thermobaric bombs is the simplest, most direct, and efficient solution." Perfikot's face was similarly troubled, but not as daunted as Eldest Princess Annie.

For her, if conventional methods couldn't resolve it, then employ strategic weapons.

But Eldest Princess Annie shook her head, rejecting Perfikot's idea: "This is Langton's important industrial zone and water source, using thermobaric bombs here would have too great of a collateral impact.

Most of the slum houses are wooden, and lower city is not much different, if thermobaric bombs cause a fire...

Perfikot, do you have a way to extinguish a fire spreading across half a city, while simultaneously handling residual enemy forces?"

In Eldest Princess Annie's view, although thermobaric bombs could effectively solve the issue, the subsequent collateral impact remains significant, it could risk overthrowing Langton City if mishandled.

Perfikot confidently nodded: "Minor issue, putting out the fire could involve throwing another thermobaric bomb, burning all the air in the area within a short time, then the fire wouldn't start.

As for residual enemy forces, borrow a few steam knight orders from the Military Department, don't tell me they don't have any good reserves."

Perfikot's arrangements rendered Eldest Princess Annie speechless.

It wasn't that her ability was lower than Perfikot's, but things like steam knights and thermobaric bombs have only been around for a year or two, whether it's the Military Department or commanders like Eldest Princess Annie, are still exploring how to use them and maximize their battlefield impacts.

The old folks in the Military Department are better off, at least they study these things constantly, somewhat figuring out some paths.

But for someone like Eldest Princess Annie who's basically left the command position and frontline combat units, it's harder to immediately learn how to handle them.

How severe is this lag? Previously Prince Edward's knight order had already begun large-scale equip steam knight armors, while Eldest Princess's knight order only had minimal replacements.

Replacement limited to a few big knights within the order, and its use strategy and combat methods still retained traditional knight charge mode.

Simply treating steam knights as stronger heavy cavalry, rather than using them as a new type of unit and weapon.

It's certainly not a major issue, the emergence of new weapons forming manageable tactical thoughts within three to five years is difficult enough, let alone steam knights having been around for less than three years.

Progress and development of tactical thought require genius military strategists and war's own catalyst, otherwise, who knows if the path taken is wrong.

Just like in the original world, during WWII Germans thoroughly taught the world a lesson on armor force utilization, while English and French stuck to WWI tactical thought and got hammered.

Tanks are ultimately a UK invention, but English and French viewed them as defensive weapons, while at that time Germany saw tanks as offensive weapons, leading to blitzkrieg tactics shining in WWII.

So war itself is the best catalyst and test for weapon equipment upgrades and actual usage.

Originally steam knights too would have such opportunities, but Perfikot directly used thermobaric bombs to end the Seventeen-Day War, causing the intended major battle testing steam knight quality to dissipate into the air.

"Specifically how to handle this can be discussed later, the urgent matter now is to figure out what's happening and come up with a temporary countermeasure." Perfikot did not delve into tactical issues further, but suggested to Eldest Princess Annie: "I recommend deploying a steam knight order to garrison in the lower city, while redirecting part of the City Guard to this area, publicly stating it's to protect the lower city's factories, those factory owners will not oppose, instead they might sponsor a military budget."

"Mobilizing the City Guard and knight orders is trivial, the key lies in how to deal with these people in the slum, you can't really slaughter them all, can you?" Eldest Princess Annie looked at Perfikot, but saw a 'that's exactly what I'm thinking' gleam in Perfikot's eyes, causing Eldest Princess Annie to become awkward: "You're not really thinking that way, are you?"

"No, I indeed plan to once and for all, kill them all to resolve the issue." Perfikot did not deny this, instead emphasized it: "This is currently the most efficient solution capable of thoroughly resolving the issue.

Not only can it effectively remove the potential hidden dangers from the slum, but it also saves the Empire tremendous grain and eliminates related social issues.

After all, the population quality in the slum isn't high, many things even if I really want them to do, they wouldn't be able to.

Under such circumstances, wanting a once and for all resolution means only employing cruel measures, unless Aunt Annie you have a better plan."

Having said that, Perfikot paused, looked at Eldest Princess Annie's frozen expression, and shook her head helplessly: "But considering other issues and negative impacts a massacre might bring, this is just the final measure.

Although I prefer efficient once and for all resolutions, it doesn't mean I solve every problem through killing.

If this matter doesn't worsen, it's feasible to handle it with relatively conciliatory methods.

But currently, the urgent matter is first figuring out exactly what's happening in the slum, otherwise if something happens to these tens of thousands, half of Langton would be dragged in."

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