Dragonbone Mountains

After learning how the army at the front had suffered such a crushing defeat, Victor's face darkened.

Although he had been mentally prepared, he had never imagined that the Northern Frontier Corps had lost so disastrously.

There had been no brilliant maneuvers at any point. The enemy had simply dug a pit and waited for a fool to step into it.

A hundred thousand elite soldiers of the Northern Frontier had been wiped out in a single stroke, leaving the entire region in danger.

By the time the empire reacted and sent reinforcements, the enemy would probably have already ravaged the northern provinces. There was no telling how many families would be torn apart as a result.

"Captain Felix, did you encounter any nomadic tribes of the Tuwu People on your way here?"

After calming himself, Victor continued his questioning.

One should not concern oneself with the affairs of an office one did not hold.

The important figures back home would deal with the northern provinces' problems. As a mere knight, he needed to look after himself first.

The seven thousand soldiers under his command were counting on him to lead them home.

"Yes. We came across herders twice on the way."

"We avoided them once and dealt with them the other time."

"The Tuwu People don't graze their herds far from their tribes.

"We were too busy fleeing for our lives at the time and didn't dare investigate their exact location.

"The place where we killed them is southwest of here, a little over a hundred li away. I'd guess their tribe is somewhere nearby."

Captain Felix answered calmly.

The two countries' hatred ran deep, and slaughter and plunder between them had long been the norm.

Naturally, killing a few herders weighed little on his conscience.

"I understand."

"Captain Felix, under the empire's wartime laws, I am now formally conscripting you.

"If you have no objections, you will be assigned to fight with the Third Supplementary Army until the army returns home."

Having established the basic facts, Victor immediately issued the summons.

It would be difficult to keep the Third Supplementary Army's situation secret, so he had to establish his authority over Captain Felix before Felix found out.

Otherwise, things would become difficult once Felix learned that he, the acting army commander, was only a captain himself.

"Sir, it is an honor to serve you."

Captain Felix answered expressionlessly.

Clearly, although he had accepted the conscription, he felt no awe toward Victor, the young army commander.

Unlike the frontier troops who had fought their way through battle, the logistics forces were full of officers padding their records.

When a war was won, they shared in the credit.

When a battle was lost, they ran like the wind.

That alone would have been bad enough, but what made them even more infuriating was that these well-connected officers were also terrible at their jobs. Problems frequently arose in the transportation of supplies.

In the eyes of the officers and soldiers at the front, the bureaucrats in the logistics system were a bunch of incompetent parasites.

"All right, Captain Felix, your assignment is over for now."

"Take your men to the logistics office and collect some supplies.

"Then go wash up, get a good night's sleep, and get yourselves back in shape.

"Tomorrow I'll assign each of you a post according to your strengths."

Victor nodded as he spoke.

It didn't matter whether Felix was convinced in his heart. As long as their chain of command was established and orders were carried out to the letter, that was enough.

They had fought their way out of an enemy encirclement. Even if they were routed troops, they were brave and battle-hardened.

Apart from their low morale, everything else about them was an advantage.

Adding them to the army would allow the veterans to guide the newcomers and improve the army's fighting strength.

Of course, that depended on having a cheat to ensure that orders were carried out to the letter.

Without it, doing this would only make the force collapse faster.

Perhaps his luck had turned. After taking Captain Felix's group into his ranks, he encountered several more groups of routed soldiers along the way.

Without exception, Victor coaxed and tricked them all into joining his force.

By the time the army reached the outskirts of the Dragonbone Mountains, its strength had swelled from just over seven thousand at the start to more than seventy-five hundred.

The cost was a sharp rise in pressure on logistics.

"Captain Felix, are you sure the Goshawk Tribe is the only tribe around here?"

Victor asked with concern.

Living off the enemy was easier said than done; in practice, pitfalls lay everywhere.

That was especially true on the grasslands, where, with bad luck, they might not encounter a single soul for ten days or half a month.

In terms of military strength, the Holy Glory Empire could easily crush the Tuwu People.

Yet over the past century, the empire had launched more than a dozen expeditions and still failed to eliminate the danger in the north.

The main reason was that the nomads had no fixed homes, leaving the army with no fixed targets to attack.

Every expedition could only sweep away the unlucky tribes that happened to cross its path.

When luck was poor, returning empty-handed was nothing unusual.

After it happened enough times, the empire grew accustomed to it.

Duke Alvin's crushing defeat had largely resulted from underestimating the Tuwu People.

Had he been a little more cautious, he would not have lost so badly.

With that cautionary example before him, Victor had to be careful.

"I'm not sure!"

"But so far, we've only found traces of the Goshawk Tribe.

"To confirm anything further, we'd need to capture prisoners and interrogate them.

"Our men didn't dare act for fear of revealing the army's presence."

Felix shook his head as he spoke.

Nomadic herding demanded vast amounts of pasture and water. Even the most fertile pasture required ten mu of land to support a single sheep.

For cattle or horses, it would take an estimated fifty mu to support one.

That was under ideal conditions. If the pasture was poor, the figure would rise severalfold.

A nomadic tribe of more than ten thousand people needed to occupy at least two to three thousand square kilometers of pasture to meet its grazing needs.

Practical necessity dictated that larger nomadic tribes had to keep sufficient distance from one another.

"If you can't figure out the situation, how are we supposed to fight?"

"Felix, aren't you always boasting about how capable you are? How can you fail to handle a simple scouting mission?"

Howard couldn't resist mocking him.

Whether they were naturally incompatible or not, the two had been at odds ever since they met.

Felix was more than willing to oblige, frequently trading barbs with Howard.

The two had even arranged a private duel. No one knew who had won, since both of them kept their mouths shut about it.

When Victor stepped in to mediate, the two even covered for each other, leaving their commander at a loss for words.

"Shut up, Howard, you brute!"

"If we reveal our army's presence and bring an enemy attack down on us, can you take responsibility?"

Felix shot back, his face full of disdain.

"Let the enemy attack!"

"Their cavalry can run wild on the grasslands, but once they're in the Dragonbone Mountains, we're all infantry. Who's afraid of whom?"

Howard replied calmly.

The Tuwu People's main force was at the front. Even if troops had been left behind with the tribes in the rear, they couldn't possibly be elites.

Encountering the enemy on the grasslands would still be troublesome, but in the mountains, there was nothing to fear.

"Lure the enemy in deep!"

As soon as the idea was raised, the assembled officers' eyes lit up.

They didn't know how strong the Goshawk Tribe was, so hastily sending troops to raid it would be very risky. If they could lure the enemy into the Dragonbone Mountains, it would be much safer.