Chapter 440 - 188: The Tiger Race’s Unusual Movement
Chapter 440: Chapter 188: The Tiger Race’s Unusual Movement
A Griffin landed in the human military camp outside the Centaur King City.
The Griffin Knight was covered in bloody gashes, and even the Griffin was in bad shape.
Before long, someone recognized the newcomer. It was the commander of the Fengman Clan’s Griffin Knight Order, Knight Deman.
Knight Deman held a Magic Envelope. After seeing it taken by Robson’s Personal Guard, he finally collapsed and was carried away to the Priest Corps.
When Valentino heard what had happened, she immediately went to Robson’s Central Army Camp.
She found Robson on the main dais, frowning at a bloodstained letter.
"Robson, what happened?"
Valentino wasn’t the least bit bothered that her own Griffin Knight had reported to Robson instead of to her.
Everyone knew of their relationship by now. Valentino, admitting she had no talent for military affairs, had already informed the Knights of her clan of this arrangement.
Robson looked up, and upon seeing Valentino, he handed her the letter.
"The situation isn’t good," Robson said. "An army from the Tiger Race is advancing on our position."
"Moreover, their strength should not be underestimated. It appears to be the Tiger Race’s Royal Court Guard, along with nearly ten thousand of their warriors."
"They’ve been inactive for so long. Why have they suddenly started making frequent moves these past few days?" Valentino frowned.
This was definitely not good news for them.
Within the Beastman Empire, the Tiger Race was a major race on par with the Centaurs and Gray Dwarves. In fact, due to their more advantageous geographical position, the Tiger Race was ranked even higher than the Centaur Clan.
Robson currently had only about twenty thousand men under his command. It was already a struggle to deal with the Centaur King City, and now an army from the Tiger Race was advancing on them from afar...
And yet, Robson had no choice but to engage these Tigermen, unless he was willing to give up his attack on the Centaur King City.
Valentino’s expression turned grim.
"Do you think this Tigerman army will attack with its full strength?" Valentino asked.
"I mean, are they here just to distract us, or are they..."
Robson immediately understood what Valentino was implying.
Valentino might not have understood military affairs, but she understood politics very well.
Over the past while, Valentino had come to understand the internal situation of the Beastman Empire.
In the current situation, the Tiger Race could barely protect themselves, so why would they dispatch an army to help the Centaur Royal Family?
It made no sense at all.
Robson nodded.
"That’s certainly a possibility, but..."
"From a military perspective, it’s too risky to make such assumptions about the enemy."
"I understand. It was just a guess. The final decision on what to do is yours," Valentino said.
Valentino was no Prince Noah. With his immense family backing, even after a disastrous defeat like the one on the Western Front, countless people would still scramble to clean up his messes.
But if she, Valentino, made just one mistake, the Fengman Clan would suffer a devastating blow.
Putting other things aside, while the Fengman Clan had pledged its allegiance, many of the Viscounts and Barons in their home province were allies in name only.
These were all factors that had to be guarded against.
"So, do you have any good ideas?" Valentino asked.
"A plan?"
Robson paced back and forth inside the command tent.
"Ultimately, it all comes down to us having too few men...
Twenty thousand men are nowhere near enough to take the Centaur Royal Court, let alone march deeper into the Beastman Empire..."
"Well... the Fengman Clan’s Standing Army was transferred to the central front by my maternal grandfather..." Valentino said, her expression pained.
Marquis Oscillate hadn’t even discussed the matter with her. By the time Valentino found out, the troops were already gone.
There was nothing to be done about it. Since Valentino had relied on Marquis Oscillate to rise to power and stabilize her position, she was inevitably subject to his control. Many of the Fengman Clan’s household retainers now had ties to the Edward family; even Valentino’s closest confidante, Lady Julian, was born into the Edward family.
Faced with an old fox like Marquis Oscillate, Valentino couldn’t think of any way to resist.
This was simply how things were. Families with close ties to the Edward family all had these kinds of problems, to one degree or another.
Some had tried to resist in the past, but they all met miserable ends. Besides, Marquis Oscillate was a master of political maneuvering. He rarely resorted to leveraging his connections in such a way, but when he did, it was always for a major affair of clan and country, just like the current situation with the Fengman Clan. No one could find fault with his actions.
Therefore, everyone tacitly went along with it, opting for the only other surefire method to defeat Oscillate: wait for him to die.
Currently, Oscillate showed no intention of grooming an heir from the Edward family. Instead, he had been consistently supporting Marquis William of the Guterres Family.
As soon as Oscillate died, they could all breathe a sigh of relief and begin cleaning house within their own clans.
Hearing this, Robson rubbed his brow.
"I have thought of one possible solution..."
"I’m just not sure if we can use it. Militarily, it’s a brilliant stroke. Politically... it’s hard to say if it’s feasible," Robson said.
"What’s the idea?"
"What we lack most right now is manpower. But in another sense, what we lack the least is also manpower..."
Valentino was confused.
"What do you mean?"
"I’m saying, since we don’t have enough human Soldiers, could we try using... others?" Robson asked.
The color drained from Valentino’s face.
"You mean... like you did with the Mountain Rock Bear Race?"
"But... if we do that, people will definitely use it against us in the future.
There are already whispers of disapproval regarding the Mountain Rock Bear Race. People only tolerate it because that race left the Beastman Empire many years ago and harbors an overwhelming hatred for it."
"Robson, I think this is still too risky," Valentino said.
Seeing Valentino’s reaction, Robson realized he had probably underestimated the Frank Kingdom’s hatred for the Beastman Empire.
It was a hatred that was indiscriminate, crossing all classes and age groups.
’It must be the memories from my past life,’ he thought, ’diluting the original owner’s emotions.’
"What if we could get the Kingdom’s approval?" Robson asked.
"The Kingdom..." Valentino frowned.
"If the Kingdom were to agree, there might be a chance."
"But it’s still an extremely risky move. If we could get an order directly from His Majesty the King, that would be best, of course," Valentino said.
"But would we have enough time?" Valentino asked.
"Enough time? Probably not," Robson frowned.
"We can act first. If the King agrees, we continue with the plan.
If he disagrees, we’ll claim it was all a ruse, kill all the non-humans we’ve gathered, withdraw from the Beastman Grassland, and formulate a new long-term strategy," Robson said.
Hearing this, Valentino’s eyes lit up.
’Brilliant!’