A Sudden Plague
"If the enemy won't come out, then let them stay in there."
"Once their provisions run out, they'll collapse without a fight. Time is on our side, and the enemy should be the ones panicking now!"
"Send men to watch the nearby tribes. If they make any unusual moves, report back immediately!"
Victor smiled faintly.
The proper way to use a fire ox formation was to scatter the enemy, then have the army attack at the right moment and secure victory in one stroke.
But the circumstances were unusual this time. The enemy was camped in a relatively enclosed canyon, so even if their soldiers panicked, they would only run around inside the valley.
Under those circumstances, leading the army in could easily result in the cornered enemy fighting to the death and taking them down with them.
To be safe, he had adjusted his tactics.
He scaled back the objective from defeating the enemy to sowing chaos in their ranks, undermining their morale, and burning their supplies and equipment.
He would disrupt the enemy commanders' plans and force them to speed up the decisive battle.
War tested one's composure above all else. Once the enemy commanders panicked, the chances of them making mistakes would multiply.
Then he would draw the enemy's main force into the mountains and forests, use the terrain to wear down their momentum, and slowly look for a way to defeat them.
But events moved faster than his plans.
No one had expected the fire ox formation to strike at the enemy's lifeline, sending the cattle, sheep, and horses in the valley into a frenzy as well.
He did not know the exact extent of the enemy's losses, but judging by their reaction after the battle, they had certainly suffered a crippling blow.
Realizing things had deviated from the plan, Victor immediately changed his strategy from mountain guerrilla warfare to blocking the valley entrance.
The canyon's entrance was only so wide; an army could not deploy there at all.
The Third Supplementary Army would have trouble fighting its way in, but it would be just as difficult for the enemy to fight its way out.
Each side held its own ground, and they traded insults at the entrance to the valley.
"Commander, the enemy has made a serious strategic misjudgment of our army's strength.
According to the prisoners we captured, they've taken us for the empire's main force, the Third Army, all along.
Given their heavy losses, the enemy probably won't try to break out head-on through the entrance. Instead, they'll look for a way out elsewhere in the canyon.
With the terrain inside the valley, the enemy can still make a detour through the mountains and forests if they're willing to abandon their wounded."
Howard immediately offered his analysis.
As the only general in the army who had fought a mountain guerrilla war, he was very familiar with the surrounding terrain.
Once the enemy reached the mountaintop, they would be as free as fish in the sea or birds in the sky.
"It doesn't matter. We want them to run!"
"To make sure the enemy doesn't lose its way, we can even send our people ahead to leave traces of travelers passing through.
Once the grassland coalition enters the mountains, it won't take long for its command structure to collapse on its own.
With so many Tuwu People, there are bound to be a few fools. Do our best to lead them toward the nearby magical beast territories.
Big Black went out to look for wild wolves and should be back soon.
Then we'll have the wolf pack follow the enemy, attack soldiers who fall behind, and keep them in a state of panic.
After all that along the way, it would be a miracle if even half of them made it out of the mountains!"
Victor thought for a moment before speaking.
Compared with the enemy taking a detour to retreat, he was more worried about the Tuwu People forcing a breakout.
The Third Supplementary Army was not, after all, the main force of the Third Army.
Even after winning a few battles and being tempered by war, its officers and soldiers were still a long way from being a truly elite force.
The difference was not obvious from their military bearing alone, but if they faced a tough battle, it would become clear.
Even if the enemy failed to break out, they could still inflict considerable losses on the army.
The army had no source of replacements on the grassland. Every soldier who died was one fewer in its ranks, and he could not afford those losses.
Heavenly Wolf Canyon.
"Priest Alistair, have you found out why the soldiers have fallen ill?"
Commander of ten thousand Jeremiah asked with a concerned expression.
By the evening of the second day after the fire ox attack, large numbers of soldiers in the army had fallen ill.
It had first appeared among the wounded, and no one had paid it much attention, but it had quickly spread throughout the army.
As a result, they had been forced to cancel the counterattack they had originally planned.
"Commander, judging by the sick soldiers' symptoms, a plague has probably broken out."
The moment Alistair finished speaking, everyone's expression changed.
It was common military knowledge that a great epidemic followed a great battle, but this plague had come far too quickly.
"How is that possible?"
"As soon as the battle ended, I ordered the bodies burned.
Even with the summer heat making it easy for a plague to develop, it couldn't have happened this quickly!"
Commander Jeremiah immediately rejected the claim.
To prevent a plague from developing, he had braved internal pressure and ordered all the fallen to be cremated.
Now he was suddenly being told that it had all been for nothing. Any normal person would have found that hard to accept.
"Commander, it's true you ordered the bodies burned, but that only took care of the ones on land.
Quite a few bodies were left in the pool in the valley. They floated into the middle of the water and weren't retrieved in time.
Those bodies may have caused the plague, or the enemy may have tampered with the water supply."
Priest Alistair shook his head.
"Can they be treated?"
Commander Jeremiah asked at once.
It had already happened, so there was little point in investigating how the plague had started.
Whatever the cause, the grassland coalition was in serious trouble.
If they could not resolve it quickly, it would not be long before they lacked even the strength to lift a blade.
"We've tried using divine arts, but the results weren't promising.
Only divine arts of intermediate level or higher have any effect.
Once a wounded man catches the plague, he's almost certain to die.
Even saving an ordinary soldier consumes a great deal of vitality.
He'll need at least three or four months of rest before he can take up a weapon and return to the battlefield.
The army has a limited number of priests, and too many soldiers have caught the plague. We simply can't treat them all."
Alistair shook his head.
Divine arts were not all-powerful. The more difficult an illness was to treat, the greater the price.
Against such a highly contagious plague, the best treatment was to isolate the source of infection and prevent more people from catching it.
"Alas!"
"If that's the case, we're in serious trouble!"
Commander Jeremiah sighed.
With plague raging in the valley, the army's provisions nearly exhausted, and its only water source contaminated, the coalition had been driven into a desperate situation.
The question now was no longer how to defeat the enemy, but how to preserve the army.
"Commander, give the order to break out!"
"We've all drunk from the pool. The plague might already be lying dormant inside us. If we stay in the valley, we'll just be sitting here waiting to die.
While we still have the strength, we can fight a bloody path out for the whole army!"
Knightley proposed somewhat apprehensively.
Calling it fighting a bloody path out for the army sounded noble, but in reality, it meant abandoning all the wounded and sick and running away.
Most of them carried the disease, so leaving them behind could also spread the plague to the enemy.
They would hurt each other. Both sides losing was better than letting the enemy win alone.