Chapter 258 - 28: Beast Emperor’s Urgent Edict
Chapter 258: Chapter 28: Beast Emperor’s Urgent Edict
The humans were frantically making preparations, but the Beastmen were at a standstill.
After Prince Odoruo ordered Castro to the south of Ehrlichland, there had been no further news.
Watching the Thunderhawk soaring in the sky, Prince Odoruo knew without even looking that it was another letter from the Beast Emperor, urging him to attack at once.
It wasn’t that Prince Odoruo didn’t want to attack. The problem was that the enemy was entirely within the pass. How was he supposed to fight them?
At this point, Prince Odoruo was starting to suspect the Beast Emperor had gone mad with impatience, sending orders every single day.
After their victory on the eastern front, the Beast Emperor had withdrawn many of the forces from that same front.
Even at full strength, Prince Odoruo couldn’t possibly have breached Feiying Pass, let alone in his current, half-crippled state.
What he had been contemplating all this time wasn’t how to achieve victory, but how to make a graceful exit.
Prince Odoruo sighed. Though utterly frustrated, he finally headed to the Thunderhawk’s landing site to see what new trick his father, the Emperor, had cooked up today.
Arriving at the Thunderhawk grounds, he found a Gray Dwarf already waiting for him at the entrance.
This Gray Dwarf was named Tec, one of Prince Odoruo’s subordinates.
That’s right. Although relations between the Gray Dwarves and the Purple-blooded Beastmen had always been tense, many smaller tribes still swore fealty to the Purple-blooded Beastmen. After all, the Gray Dwarves were not a monolith.
"His Highness Prince." Tec bowed to Prince Odoruo, his eyes filled with a hint of admiration.
Although Prince Odoruo himself was not favored by the Beast Emperor and faced all sorts of opposition within the Empire, he had a stellar reputation within his own small circle.
For Prince Odoruo to have been able to spread his own wings while caught between a rock and a hard place proved he had some real ability.
Seeing Tec, Prince Odoruo smiled and helped him up.
Prince Odoruo had always been very pleased with Tec, this Dwarf commander. He was brave and fought fiercely. In the last victory on the eastern front, it was thanks to Tec’s Heavy Infantry Corps holding back the Knight Orders of two great families that Prince Odoruo had ultimately won the decisive battle.
"What are you doing here?" Prince Odoruo asked, looking at Tec.
"I just saw the Thunderhawk in the sky and knew Your Highness would surely come.
I have an urgent matter to report to Your Highness," Tec said, pulling a document from behind his back.
Prince Odoruo nodded and took the document from Tec’s hand. Three feathers were attached to it.
’What could be so urgent?’
"The humans have come out of the pass. It’s different from what we expected. A main human force—a conservative estimate of at least forty thousand—is heading straight for General Castro.
General Castro is currently continuing his reconnaissance," Tec explained.
"Reconnaissance?"
Prince Odoruo listened to Tec’s explanation as he opened the envelope and began to read.
"How is it this detailed?" Prince Odoruo frowned, looking at the information in the letter.
’Don’t tell me that fellow Castro’s old habits are acting up again?’
What Prince Odoruo meant by "detailed" was the specific information about the humans.
As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
Normally, there was certainly no harm in learning more about the enemy.
But the problem with this letter was that the information on the enemy was too detailed, and too absurd.
The letter listed more than twenty different families, named by their family crests, and even specified which troops each family had and their exact locations.
’Are the enemy’s commanders idiots? Is their counter-reconnaissance this terrible?’
After hearing this, Tec scratched his head. He hadn’t seen Castro’s letter yet, so he didn’t know its specific contents.
He had only heard about the approaching human army from the soldier who delivered the message.
"Bring out the map. A detailed one," Prince Odoruo commanded, still looking at the letter.
Hearing Prince Odoruo’s command, a guard at his side immediately took off his heavy pack. Inside were all sorts of maps and information Prince Odoruo had collected from various sources over the past few days.
To manage a state, a government, an army—such information was more important than anything.
The guard pulled a large map from the heavy pack. The map was already yellowed, clearly showing its age.
Prince Odoruo opened the map and began to check it against the information in the letter, one detail at a time.
Looking at the several small paths on the map, Prince Odoruo was completely baffled.
"If the enemy force is as large as forty or fifty thousand, why would they choose to take Wisley Path instead of the wider main road?" Prince Odoruo wondered aloud.
Tec came closer, also scratching his head.
"Your Highness, I think... I might have an idea," Tec said.
Prince Odoruo looked at Tec in surprise.
If Castro’s information was correct, then the enemy’s main force was using Wisley Path to reach the basin in southern Ehrlichland, while the smaller forces were the ones taking the Ancient Trade Route.
This was an arrangement that Prince Odoruo admitted he couldn’t comprehend.
"You understand?" Prince Odoruo’s voice held a note of doubt.
It wasn’t that Odoruo looked down on people, but Tec was a stubborn, single-minded person. Aside from charging on the battlefield, it was rare to see him display talent in any other area.
Tec scratched his head, took two steps forward, and traced a route on the map for Prince Odoruo.
"Look, Castro is here, and Bai Ma Ferry is up here.
If they could launch a surprise attack on Castro’s rear from here and block Bai Ma Ferry, they could cut off Castro’s supply line..."
"Not only could they cut off the supply line, they could also cut off Castro’s retreat and trap all of us north of Ehrlichland, right?"
"Right, right! That’s what I was trying to say! They could also avoid the troops stationed on the ancient route..."
"Right? What right? Is that your reason for sending tens of thousands of troops through mountain paths? To cut supply lines? If you don’t know the way, you’ll just end up wandering in the mountains," Prince Odoruo said irritably.
"Well... I was just making a suggestion..."
Prince Odoruo narrowed his eyes, studying the path marked on the map.
In truth, what Tec had just said wasn’t impossible.
If the enemy could truly launch a surprise attack with elite troops, taking Bai Ma Ferry via Wisley Path while Castro was unaware, they might actually be able to force Castro into a hasty retreat.
But for an army of tens of thousands to just swagger into the mountains like that... even without a forced march, the soldiers would probably be exhausted by the time they came out.
Most importantly, wouldn’t an army of tens of thousands be a bit conspicuous?
This was the reason for Prince Odoruo’s confusion.
The art of war dictates victory through a combination of conventional and unconventional tactics. Even if you planned to attack the enemy’s rear from the flank, you first had to leave sufficient forces for a frontal engagement!
Just as Prince Odoruo was pondering this, he was startled by the sound of footsteps behind him and turned to look.
It was someone from the Imperial Court.
"Your Highness, a letter from His Majesty."
The Emperor of the Beastman Empire in this world did not command the same level of reverence as in Robson’s previous life. At least, one didn’t have to kneel on the ground to receive a letter.
Seeing Prince Odoruo take the letter, the Thunder Eagle Knight left.
As a member of the Empire’s elite Flying Legion, delivering letters was just a side job for him.
"Your Highness, what is it? What are we going to do now?" Tec looked at Prince Odoruo and asked curiously.
Prince Odoruo read the letter again. Its contents were basically identical to the previous one; even the phrasing was exactly the same.
"Prepare yourselves. We’re marching... here," Prince Odoruo said, pointing at the map.
The spot Prince Odoruo’s finger was pointing to was on the opposite bank of Bai Ma Ferry.
"Relay the message to Castro. I trust he’ll be prepared."
PS: One more Chapter to come.