Chapter 1161 - Never Make, but Always Mar
Chapter 1161: Never Make, but Always Mar
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the rebel rat army finally found the Great Horn Army’s main forces after all the trouble they had gone through…
They could not help but burst into laughter, having survived the calamity. They ridiculed the stupidity of the clan warriors.
“How can there be such fools in the world? Do they really believe that we would be willing to become slaves again and attack our brothers and sisters just for a few mandrake fruits?”
“Moreover, they trust us unconditionally even before they send out the supervising army. They’re going to launch a suicide attack on the Great Horn Army’s well-defended position? How is that possible?!”
“The commander of those wolf rangers must be a fool, the most naïve fool in all of Orchid Lake.
“If the commander of the Wolf clan is so simple-minded, no wonder they were beaten to a pulp by the Great Horn Army time and time again!”
The troops in the Rat People’s Liberation Army uttered the same thing one after another.
Everyone laughed until they cried.
Soon enough, however, they could not laugh anymore.
They realized that the days after meeting up with the Great Horn Army’s main forces were completely different from what they had imagined.
They were still unable to escape the torture of hunger.
The Great Horn Army did not have any grain left either.
They did not seem to welcome these rebel soldiers who were filled with unrealistic dreams and empty bellies.
The food provided by the Wolf Clan’s commander was calculated accurately. It was only enough for them to consume along the way. No matter how careful they were, there was not a single drop of food left.
After starving for a few days and nights, dissatisfaction and panic spread among the rebel rat army.
Some people began to complain that the Great Horn Army was like the clan warriors. They divided people into different classes and looked down on those in the rebel army who had risked their lives to get all the way there.
They were willing to go through fire and water for the Great Horn Army. They were willing to sacrifice their lives for the Great Horn Army. However, the Great Horn Army could not even guarantee that they could have two meals a day.
They gone through all kinds of obstacles and broken through all kinds of defense lines. Could it have been all down to luck that they did not die at the clan warriors’ hands?
It was not easy to find a large army, but they had to starve to death before the Great Horn Army’s gaze?
Was that not too ridiculous?
Some people licked their dry lips and recalled the meager rations provided by the wolf cavalry. They thought that although the wolf commander was stupid, he was generous to his subordinates. The treatment of the Wolf Clan’s canon fodder was much better than that of the Great Horn Army’s fighters.
Now that they thought about it, they did not know who was truly stupid, the kind-hearted wolf commander, or the smart-alecky wolf commander who had surrendered and rebelled but needed to starve to death.
Some people even began to question the Rat God’s existence.
“When we were out of ammunition and food, at our most desperate moment, everyone knelt on the ground and prayed to the Rat God with the most pious attitude, praying that the Rat God would give us a chance to survive.
“In the end, the Rat God didn’t respond to us. Instead, it was the Wolf Clan’s rangers who saved our lives. They accepted our surrender and gave us enough food to live on.
“The Wolf Clan didn’t punish any of us, but we betrayed the Wolf Clan again and defected to the Great Horn Army.
“We’ve seen everyone in the Great Horn Army praying to the Rat God again and again, begging him to give them food to fill their stomachs. However, the Rat God has not responded to them either!
“In that case, does the Rat God really exist? If he really does exist, and if he really does have legendary omnipotent divine power, why can’t he even do such a simple and basic thing like fill the rat people’s stomachs?
“Is it possible that the generous, merciful, powerful, and invincible Big-horned Rat God is not even as good as the wolf rangers?”
No one knew that such a heinous idea had come from the head of a deranged rat person in the beginning.
However, once the idea appeared, it spread among the rat population insanely fast like the plague.
The rat people who had just come from all directions to seek refuge in Picturesque Orchid Lake were not the only shaken ones.
The veterans had joined the Great Horn Army for a few months and built up a firm belief in the Big-horned Rat God in a series of bloody battles. Even they could not help but rub their deeply sunken bellies when they were hungry. It got to the point that their chests were pressed against their backs. They bared their teeth and questioned their fellow comrades who were also hungry.
The result was that aside from than the first-line troops, who could barely guarantee their rations, the rest of the Great Horn Army’s soldiers were also hungry.
The morale of the Great Horn Army’s second and third-line troops, which were deployed at the flanks and rear, had plummeted. They were on the verge of collapsing.
From the Ancient Dream Saintess’ memory fragments, Meng Chao had read that the Great Horn Army’s priests had led military judges into the second and third-line troops. They had secretly investigated and uncovered many people who had misled the public and shaken the army’s moral.
These people were considered to be extremely disloyal to the Big-horned Rat God. They were spies sent by the five great clans to the Great Horn Army, and they received the harshest punishment.
However, even if they killed their way through, it would not be able to stop the rumors from spreading like wildfire throughout the Great Horn Army. It looked like they were about to spread to Hundred Blade City, to the first-tier elite troops in the White Bone Battalion.
No. Meng Chao, who had memories of his previous life, knew very well that it was not a rumor.
It was a fact that was about to happen.
Regardless of whether they could take down Hundred Blade City or not, the Great Horn Army would not be able to solve the problem of food shortage.
In the end, they would lose their fighting strength due to hunger.
If they were still able to move, they would form a system to surrender to the clan warriors, mainly the Wolf Clan that surrounded them.
Who had talked about the reputation of the Wolf Clan commander, who had released a large number of the Liberation Army troops, calling him “stupid and generous”? Had it spread throughout the entire Great Horn Army with the arrival of the rat people’s Liberation Army?
“This guy’s calculations… are really good!”
Meng Chao smelled a conspiracy.
The Wolf Clan commander who had released a large number of the rat people’s Liberation Army without any screening, without sending any military supervision, was definitely not “the most naïve fool in all of Picturesque Orchid.”
He was probably “the most dangerous schemer in all of Picturesque Orchid.”
On the surface, his “generosity and kindness” did not seem to be of any benefit. Not only had he allowed a large number of enemies to go, but he had also attached a lot of military rations to them. He even gave himself the reputation of being “extremely stupid.” He was even suspected of “aiding, supporting, and collaborating with the enemy.”
However, thinking about it carefully, the Great Horn Army was facing the same exact problem as the five clans.
Everyone had an abundance of soldiers. They were in dire need of rations, weapons, high-level warriors, and a space that could accommodate thousands of soldiers as well as horses!
In any war of any era, the more abundant the soldiers, the better.
In other words, they had to undergo rigorous training and be allocated with sufficient strategic resources. It was so that they could turn lumps of burden that had combat strength equal to zero or even negative numbers into a “force” that could withstand battle.
Since ancient times, those who were qualified to say “the more the merrier” were rare existences.
Unfortunately, such a famous general did not exist in the Great Horn Army.
Instead, in just a few months, the Great Horn Army, which had expanded tens or even hundreds of times in size, had become overly bloated, and it was panting due to its own weight. There was really no need for more confused rebel armies that had come to “lend a hand.”
The “thousand-mile assistance” from the rat people’s rebel army did not manage to increase the Great Horn Army’s overall combat strength. Instead, it presented a new test to the already weak logistical supplies. It might even become the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Furthermore, the Great Horn Army was fighting deep into the heart of the Gold Clan.
Facing the wolves, tigers, and leopards, the most important thing was to obtain enough space for them to move around. Only then would they be able to fully display their advantage in choosing a battlefield.
However, as more and more of the rebel rat troops arrived, the Great Horn Army’s space gradually became congested and even sealed.
The rat people’s rebel army that was filled with passion and resistance, had been let through by the clan warriors on their own accord along the way and chased into the Gold Clan’s territory.
They had never fought a real tough battle before.
When they were in a desperate situation, their fighting strength and will were quite suspicious.
They were completely different from the elite soldiers of the White Bone Battalion.
If such a ragtag group surrounded the White Bone Battalion, only two kinds of situations would occur once things got critical.
For one, the Gold Clan’s heavy armored battle group would suddenly launch a destructive attack on these ragtag groups from the periphery in a crushing manner.
The motley crew would definitely collapse in an instant, forming a panic-stricken, wailing, and howling tide. They would continuously flee toward the Great Horn Army’s main forces, which they thought was safest. It was where the White Bone Battalion was located too.
At that time, the Gold Clan’s heavily armored battle group would not even need to make a move, and the White Bone battalion would be crushed by the collapsing deserters.
If not that, the White Bone Battalion would smell danger and want to break out of the encirclement ahead of time.
Despite that, they would be surrounded by a motley crew that formed an iron wall. There would be nowhere for them to run. Even if they managed to escape, there would be obvious traces left behind.
Throughout the history of war, many elite troops had gone through hundreds of battles. They would be put together at the last minute, and although they seemed to have the advantage in numbers, their combat strength was actually a mess.
Hence, there was a reason why soldiers were more important than men.
The Ancient Dream Saintess and the Great Horn Army’s generals might understand that.
However, the flag that they raised was to save the rat people of Picturesque Orchid Lake. How could they reject the rebel army that had come from thousands of miles away?
If they rejected a rebel army today, the entire Great Horn Army would collapse before the sun rose tomorrow.
“This Wolf Clan commander is scheming something,” Meng Chao thought to himself.
“He’s aware that the Great Horn Army cannot reject any of the rat people from the rebel army. Even if the situation on the battlefield right now shows that the rebel army has become a burden that can’t accomplish anything, the Ancient Dream Saintess can only brace herself to accept them and solve their food problem.
“Therefore, the commander of the Wolf Clan has given the Great Horn Army great burden so that it would be crushed by its own crazy weight.”