Delayed Intelligence

"Commander, the road through the Andorra Peninsula won't be easy!"

"The empire has sent troops into the peninsula three times, and the Golden Horde Khanate has campaigned there twice. Yet that region is still ogre territory."

Jasper couldn't help warning him.

Battle reports could be embellished, but the front lines didn't lie.

According to the empire's official propaganda, every campaign on the Andorra Peninsula had achieved astonishing results.

Yet judging by the outcome, ogre tribes still occupied that land.

If the Andorra Peninsula were easy to conquer, the two nations would have swallowed that morsel on their doorstep long ago.

"Mm!"

"Captain Jasper is right. We certainly can't afford to be careless.

But this time, the army is only passing through, not sweeping the Andorra Peninsula clean. We can press straight ahead without worrying about a retreat route.

We don't need to touch any fortified cities or strongholds along the way, and the enemy won't have any opportunity to cut off our supplies."

Victor answered with a calm expression.

Whether the ogres had fortified cities and strongholds was unknown, but it was true that the army didn't need to fight its way through passes and fortresses.

Compared with wiping the enemy out, simply passing through was clearly much easier.

"Commander, our forces are limited.

If we fight our way across the Andorra Peninsula, I'm afraid we'll suffer heavy losses.

I propose assembling a cannon-fodder force to lead the charge and reduce the army's losses!"

Clyde, the head of internal affairs, offered the suggestion.

Things were different now.

When the Third Supplementary Army first entered the grasslands, it had been an obscure remnant force that anyone had dared to kick around.

A string of battlefield victories had made them outright "gods" in the eyes of the Tuwu People.

The glorious name "Devil Legion" had spread far and wide across the grasslands.

Their reputation had spread even faster than they marched.

As soon as the Tuwu tribes along their route heard they were coming, they all chose to give them a wide berth.

Whenever the soldiers occasionally wanted some meat, they only had to send a cavalry unit over to pay a visit, and someone would offer up cattle and sheep.

Of course, they picked their targets carefully, bullying only the smaller tribes.

They left the tough nuts alone.

Competition on the grasslands was brutal, and the Devil Legion was only passing through, not competing with them for the grasslands.

Even if a tribe won, it would gain nothing but a burst of fame and greater suspicion from the royal court.

If it lost, death and the destruction of the tribe were close at hand.

The earlier bloody slaughter of the Goshawk Tribe and the Cors Tribe had greatly intimidated the Tuwu tribes.

Everyone could do the sums, and no one wanted to gamble the lives and fortunes of their entire tribe for the khanate's pride.

With their fearsome reputation, all the conditions were in place to pick a few unlucky tribes as targets and assemble a cannon-fodder force.

"It's easy to seize able-bodied men, but the hatred between us and the Tuwu People runs deep. I'm afraid they won't obey orders on the battlefield.

We've been able to complete this long march quickly because the army itself is sufficiently unified, with everyone pulling together.

These cannon-fodder troops won't be of one mind with us.

Besides slowing our march, they might even turn on us if anything unexpected happens on the battlefield!"

Jasper immediately objected.

As soldiers, they all wanted more troops under their command.

But ideals had to give way to reality.

Leaving aside how much fighting strength a forcibly conscripted force would have, the key issue was that its loyalty couldn't be guaranteed.

If they took those men to the front, their first concern would be getting stabbed in the back by their cannon fodder.

"There's an easy answer if you're worried about them turning on us: bring their families to the battlefield with them, or force them to offer a pledge of loyalty.

On the grasslands, we're the infamous Devil Legion. It's only natural for us to do a few devilish things!"

Clyde responded without a change of expression.

When the Tuwu People had first called them the "Devil Legion," he had been furious, believing that the enemy was tarnishing their reputation.

As time passed, he gradually discovered the benefits of having a fearsome reputation.

When they encountered a Tuwu tribe, they didn't even need to fight before the other side backed down.

Subduing the enemy without a fight was what really felt good.

"No!"

"If we bring their families, we'll march at a snail's pace.

Besides, doing that would cause too much of a stir.

If the fighting ahead goes badly and the Tuwu People attack us from behind, we'll be caught between two enemies!"

Jasper hurriedly objected.

A cannon-fodder force was already hard enough to manage. Bringing their families along would put them straight into hell mode.

Once they began a grueling march, there would inevitably be heavy noncombat casualties.

If too many family members died, the forcibly conscripted Tuwu People would rebel as well.

They might not dare rise up openly, but they would secretly hold the army back.

With so much energy consumed by infighting, the army would be able to bring out at most fifty or sixty percent of its fighting strength.

"All right, I understand both your concerns."

"We must assemble a cannon-fodder force, but we can't push the Tuwu People too hard either.

We'll offer courtesy before force. As long as they're willing to send young, able-bodied men to help us fight, we can pay them.

If any Tuwu tribe refuses, use the weapons in your hands to teach them to cooperate.

Before making a move, take a few prisoners and find out what's happening in the surrounding area.

As far as possible, choose an area where no major tribes are based, so we don't set off another major war."

Victor made the decision on the spot.

He had long considered assembling a cannon-fodder force.

During the earlier counter-encirclement campaign, he had even been prepared to forcibly conscript Tuwu People.

But the enemy had come too quickly. The Third Supplementary Army had only finished reorganizing internally a few days before the enemy attacked.

After they defeated the grassland coalition, there were few able-bodied young men left in the nearby Tuwu tribes. Even if they had wanted to seize conscripts, there had been no one to seize.

As the army continued west, the Tuwu tribes along the way had been so compliant that he couldn't find a reason to make a move against them.

After all, the circumstances had been unusual at the time.

The Tuwu People needed to believe that the "Third Army" was only passing through and that, as long as everyone cooperated, their interests would not be harmed.

Now the situation had changed again. They had finished passing through.

After one last operation, the army would cross the Andorra Peninsula and depart. The Tuwu People's feelings no longer mattered.

The Northern Expedition Army's main camp.

"Word has come back from the intelligence department. The Golden Horde Khanate has suffered a curse attack, and the death toll has already exceeded two hundred thousand.

The Third Army is suspected of being responsible. His Majesty wants us to find out as soon as possible which unit did it."

Marshal Sebastian frowned as he spoke, looking at the document in his hand.

They all knew that one of their own units was operating on the grasslands, but even after checking every unit designation, they still hadn't identified it.

Apart from the three unfortunate armies that had been wiped out, the empire's main combat armies were either with the Northern Expedition Army or on duty in the rear.

The garrison forces below them had also been checked, and none were missing.

He had ignored the supplementary armies further down the hierarchy altogether.

If those cannon-fodder forces had that kind of fighting strength, the empire could have steamrolled ten Golden Horde Khanates.

"Marshal, the intelligence department's information is far too late!"

"It's one thing that they haven't helped us find the unit deep behind enemy lines, but the Tuwu People never kept the curse disaster a secret.

We could have learned that something had happened on the grasslands just by grabbing any prisoner and questioning him."

General Aston spoke with undisguised disdain.

War required intelligence support. To ensure that intelligence arrived in time, the army on the front lines should have been informed as soon as it was received.

Instead, those bureaucrats in the intelligence department, driven by their desire for control, had actually required intelligence agents to send the news back to them first.

Only after reviewing it would they decide whether to inform the front-line troops.

The empire's intelligence organization had already been quite mediocre, and their meddling had reduced it to a complete ornament.

No matter how important the intelligence was, by the time it reached the front-line generals, it would have lost its value because it was too late.

"The intelligence department's problems aren't ours to interfere in.

His Majesty's meaning is clear. Find that mysterious unit as soon as possible and determine how they unleashed the curse!"

Marshal Sebastian spoke in a grave tone.

There were countless kinds of curses on the Pannosia Continent. Even if there weren't a hundred thousand, there were seventy or eighty thousand.

Most of them had gradually vanished into the long course of history because the conditions for casting them were so stringent.

Most of the curses that had survived were directed at individuals.

A curse could only take effect once certain conditions were met.

A curse like this, which could be unleashed once and then continue killing the enemy, belonged in legend.

Usually, gods or demons unleashed such curses, causing an entire nation or race to disappear.

For a curse controlled by humans to cause mass casualties, it needed to be spread through a medium.

For example, a mysterious object could curse anyone who touched it.

Or an area could be marked out, and anyone who entered it would be cursed.

A curse that could spread on its own without a medium was a power possessed only by gods and demons.

If humans could control it, the balance of power across the entire continent would change as a result.

"Marshal, the rumors of a curse may not be true.

If it were really as terrifying as people say, the Tuwu People would have withdrawn their troops and gone back to clean up their mess long ago.

Perhaps it was an unknown disease or a plague that those ignorant bumpkins mistook for a curse.

Or perhaps the Tuwu People's encirclement campaign failed and they lost a great many people, so they forced the blame onto a curse to save face!"

Duke Alvin immediately dismissed the idea.

The unit deep behind enemy lines had not been found, but he had certainly led it out there.

With his subordinates fighting so well on the grasslands, he could share in some of the military credit.

Rather than hearing that a curse had killed two hundred thousand, he wanted to hear that the troops under his command had slain two hundred thousand Tuwu People on the grasslands.

At that rate, if they did it a few more times, their military achievements could offset most of his responsibility for the defeat on the northern frontier.

When the emperor eventually punished him, perhaps his merits and faults would be considered to cancel each other out.