Free Web NovelChapter 145: Chapter 137: General Dor’s Plan
Initially, Valentino had planned to have an aide take Robson, but then she figured he might see some other things he wanted. It would be a hassle to have him run back to ask, so Valentino took him to the warehouse herself.
Led by Valentino, Robson finally found the batch of Magic Crossbows she had mentioned.
There were a full two hundred of them. According to Valentino, the Kingdom had placed a large number of orders for Magic Crossbows to support the workshop that made them.
The Marquis produced a great many of them, but because they were of such poor quality, Louis III rejected the order. You could say it was Louis III’s way of slightly swindling the Marquis. It was best not to look too closely at these internal grievances; they were just part of everyday life in the Kingdom.
Later, when the war began, they needed to procure weapons. At this point, Valentino stopped talking.
Robson guessed the Marquis had used his position to do a "trivial" little thing. After "carefully selecting" on behalf of the Kingdom, he must have decided that supporting domestic production was of the utmost importance. And so, the Marquis ultimately chose the "quality" Magic Crossbows from under the name of the Kingdom’s noble, Oscillate.
Of course, it was also possible that officials within the Kingdom Government, trying to curry favor with the Marquis, had "voluntarily" purchased the Oscillate-brand Magic Crossbows.
Regardless, this batch of crossbows was purchased and promptly left to gather dust. To this day, no one had used them.
After all, the whole point of using a Magic Crossbow was its convenience and speed. But this thing could give a common soldier internal injuries from the recoil alone. Who would dare use it?
Of course, they could be given to an Extraordinary to use, but if you have an Extraordinary, why would you need this piece of junk? Wouldn’t that be a waste of talent?
Valentino had expected Robson to refuse the weapons after testing them, but to her surprise, he actually wanted them.
Of course, Valentino would have no way of knowing that there was a world of difference between soldiers. Just because other people’s men couldn’t withstand the recoil didn’t mean Robson’s couldn’t.
After all, the soldiers the other nobles brought were Tier Three or Tier Four at best. Robson had never heard of a mortal who could trade blows with an Extraordinary.
But Robson’s men were different. He made sure they ate and drank well, and every one of them was in far better physical condition than an ordinary soldier. freēwebnovel.com
Based on Robson’s tests, this military equipment was perfectly suitable for his Tier Five Soldiers. A Tier Five Frankish Elite Shooter couldn’t compare to an Extraordinary, of course. In close combat, they couldn’t even exchange four or five blows with one like a Tier Five Infantryman could.
But for an Archer, the most important thing is arm strength. A Frankish Elite Shooter might be lacking in other areas, but in terms of sheer arm strength, they were completely dominant.
’Perfect. I can use these weapons to equip my Tier Five Archers.’
Of course, even so, Robson put on a "we’ll-see-how-it-goes" act to try and get more out of the deal.
His act was clearly effective. Robson managed to get dozens of extra sets of heavy infantry armor and some common infantry weapons from Valentino. It wasn’t full plate, but the various pieces could be mixed and matched to serve as heavy infantry gear.
After bringing the equipment back to his camp, Robson began to organize his army and prepare to depart.
To pull the five Magic Crystal Cannons, Robson had gone out of his way to procure some strong and durable Celtic Horses. He even used his connection with Valentino to borrow three magical beasts to pull the gun carriages.
This made things considerably easier for Robson.
The next morning, Robson’s army assembled early at the city gates, where he had the family banner given to him by Fioro raised.
Viscount Diao had already departed with his Extraordinary Cavalry. He hadn’t deigned to give the Mortal Soldiers a second glance, casually assigning one of his household servants to organize them.
Valentino also came to the city gates to see him off. After they wished each other a safe journey, the army slowly departed.
.....
Meanwhile, General Dor climbed a high peak near the Somme River. He gazed at the calm surface of the river and the bustling Beastman Army before the mountain, letting out a steamy breath.
After receiving repeated assurances from his kinsmen, General Dor and his officers finalized their next military objective.
Beast Emperor Kemel had reinforced Prince Kase with a large contingent of troops, and General Dor had also received considerable support—mainly a Gray Dwarf Heavy Infantry Legion led by his younger brother, Aurora.
Although the Gray Dwarves had been driven out of the Eastern Mountain Range long ago, they had held onto their traditional Dwarven craft: forging legions of heavy infantry from Refined Iron.
This was why General Dor had made no move recently. Although he had his own Extraordinary Corps, he was saving it for the fight to seize Thermopylae.
Furthermore, because some unscrupulous bastard had burned down the forest, many of the lesser races now depended on supplies shipped from the rear for food.
Once they crossed the river, the logistical costs would increase dramatically.
Of course, the most significant reason was that unscrupulous Beast Emperor, who had brazenly bypassed Dor’s authority to reassign troops.
Some unknown Commander-in-Chief had arrived from the Beastman heartland and pulled the neutral factions, who had originally stood with Dor, under Prince Kase’s command.
This act had greatly damaged General Dor’s prestige. Now, tens of thousands of soldiers were being held in place by the Beast Emperor’s decree, ready to reinforce Prince Kase at any moment.
It was a blatant attempt to undermine him, yet there was nothing General Dor could do about it.
After all, he had delayed and missed a crucial opportunity before, and those troops had gained nothing by following him.
The only forces Dor could now mobilize quickly were his own Gray Dwarves, the Wolf-men, and the Grassland Wanderers, which only amounted to a few tens of thousands of men in total.
"General, we have word from the Mage Corps. Our bridge should be ready for use by tomorrow night."
"Furthermore, according to our forward scouts, the humans began deploying troops last night. Their main force moved out this morning. Their army is advancing very quickly; we estimate they’ll arrive by tomorrow morning."
"The enemy’s Extraordinary Cavalry has already reached the battlefield. It will be very difficult for us to interfere," Eric reported, bowing slightly as he stood behind General Dor.
"Brother! Hey! Dor!"
General Dor was listening to Eric’s report when another Gray Dwarf’s voice boomed from behind him. It was followed by the appearance of a Gray Dwarf armed to the teeth, a massive hammer strapped to his back.
"Dor, why haven’t we attacked yet!" Aurora looked none too pleased. He had arrived at the front lines yesterday and had been itching for a fight ever since.
Dor didn’t look at Aurora. ’All my little brother ever thinks about is killing enemies on the battlefield,’ he thought. ’He was like this during the Beastman Empire’s civil war, and he’s still the same now.’
Perhaps this was why the elders of the Gray Dwarf Race had appointed Dor to command the Western Front, and not Aurora.
"Aurora, a frontal assault requires preparation time. Do you understand? Since Prince Kase has secured a favorable situation for us, time is temporarily on our side."
"Besides, it’s not as if we’ve had no victories. Didn’t we just breach a human fortress yesterday?" General Dor said.
"Breached? Those broken-down places were completely abandoned by the humans! If you wanted, I could take eight or ten of them right now!" Aurora said furiously.
"Bullshit!" General Dor suddenly grew stern, his eyes fixing on Aurora with a fierce glint.
Though Aurora had seemed imposing a moment ago, most of that was bravado fueled by his men. Now, faced with General Dor’s stern gaze, he couldn’t help but shrink back.
"Our soldiers took those fortresses with iron and blood! It was in response to the call of His Majesty the Beast Emperor! Are you questioning our loyalty to His Majesty?!" General Dor roared.
"Then why aren’t we attacking the other fortresses right now?" Aurora demanded, sticking his neck out stubbornly.
"Hmph! You assume those fortresses are empty. What if there’s an ambush waiting inside? Are you saying you want to use our soldiers’ lives to test for enemy traps?" General Dor said irritably.
’Isn’t that how we always do it?’ Aurora didn’t quite understand, but his brother seemed genuinely angry, so he said no more.
Seeing that Aurora had backed down, General Dor didn’t press the lecture further.
’Of course the Beastman Empire had always used the lives of the lesser races to probe the humans,’ Dor thought. ’But every situation had to be analyzed on its own merits.’
The Beast Emperor was pressing him hard, obviously wanting General Dor to deploy his troops quickly to relieve the pressure on Prince Kase.
Naturally, General Dor couldn’t do that. His official orders from the Beast Emperor were to relieve the pressure on Prince Kase. But if he actually drew the pressure onto himself and Prince Kase had a sudden burst of success and captured Devil City, then the glory for taking Thermopylae would have nothing to do with him.
On the other hand, if he didn’t relieve the pressure, he would have a hard time answering to the Beast Emperor.
Fortunately, the humans had proactively abandoned those fortresses. Now, General Dor could maintain a steady pace of "conquering" one fortress every two days—just enough to go through the motions and appease the Beast Emperor.
