General McHale wanted to know the answer to that question more than anyone.
A month earlier, when the Empire Military Department had discussed how to punish the arrogant Rulson Kingdom for daring to provoke the great Candel Empire, everyone had agreed that such a small country deserved no serious attention and could be crushed by a handful of troops. Yet he had insisted on sending these three corps to invade the Rulson Kingdom.
The reason was that one of those corps was his former unit, staffed by his old subordinates. He had also arranged for his wife's younger brother to serve there as the commander of a cavalry battalion. He had hoped to use this opportunity to win military merit for his old subordinates and brother-in-law, paving the way for their future promotions.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that an attack on an insignificant little country like the Rulson Kingdom would go so badly wrong, ending with the empire's army returning in utter defeat.
What angered him even more was that, to secure the greatest share of credit for his brother-in-law, he had deliberately placed his cavalry battalion in the vanguard. In the very first battle, that battalion had been wiped out by the Rulson Kingdom's army. His brother-in-law had died along with them.
Although he had never liked his glib-tongued brother-in-law, the man was still his wife's own younger brother. Now that he had died in battle because of McHale's deliberate arrangements, it was easy to imagine how devastated and furious his wife would be when she heard the news.
Knowing this all too well, General McHale mercilessly vented his fury on General Cook, who had commanded the operation.
"Useless! You commanded fifty thousand elite soldiers, yet you couldn't even beat the Rulson Kingdom's measly twenty