Decision-Makers Who Were Done Pretending (6K)

Katharine immediately patted the "spoils of war" she had brought back, "Prepare a torture chamber for me, along with knives, axes, saws, and whatever else you have. Your motorcycle repair tools will also do."

The bound prisoner's face grew even uglier. He struggled anxiously, trying to say something, but his mouth was tightly gagged.

Su Ming tore off the gag. The prisoner gagged a few times, then hurriedly said, "No, no, no, I'll tell you everything!"

The prisoner spoke with great eagerness, revealing everything from where he was born to how he had succumbed to the lure of a high salary a few months ago and joined the Lords' Joint Army Mage Corps.

This time, they were dispatched to assist the White Graupel Cavalry. The captured mage himself wasn't particularly strong, but most of his colleagues, who were excellent at Flight Spell, perished in yesterday's battle.

Because they were all in the lead.

The prisoners spoke at length, but the useful information was scarce. They roughly determined the size and composition of the enemy, which was consistent with their previous deductions. In addition to General Price, the commander of the White Graupel Cavalry, Emilio, the commander of the city defense forces of Bubing City, also personally went to the front line to oversee the hunt.

"Both of the military's top leaders have arrived; the Cold Mountain Royal Family must have mobilized all its forces in the Northern Lands." Su Ming looked at Katharine, "There's no chance of getting away with it now, is there?"

Katharine picked the prisoner up from the ground. "Don't rush to confirm, let me have a proper talk with him."

The prisoner hurriedly begged for mercy. Katharine ignored him completely, dragging him towards an empty carriage. The sound faded into the distance, until it turned into a desperate lament.

"Let the professionals handle these things," Zijin said to Su Ming.

"I understand," Su Ming replied, "He who kills will be killed in return."

"Your world has quite a few of these interesting pieces of advice."

****

Afterwards, everyone focused on their own tasks, during which Katharine even called on the unicorn to help.

An hour later, Katharine walked into the workshop, wiping her hands.

"What's going on?" Su Ming asked.

"This man didn't lie," Katharine said. "I questioned him repeatedly, and his statements match up."

"You're so heartless." The unicorn followed her in, its tone quite displeased. "That person kept begging, and you still went all out. After torturing him until he was delirious, you forcibly read his mind—wouldn't it have been much more straightforward to just kill him?"

"We need to rule out the possibility that he's a suicide spy," Katharine replied.

Su Ming said nothing. War inherently erodes humanity. Showing leniency to the enemy wouldn't make one's death more comfortable after defeat. In a deadly situation, the only way to survive is to adapt.

"Are there any traces of mental magic?" Zijin asked Qiluo.

Qiluo shook her head, "My memories haven't been altered, and I haven't been affected by mental magic."

Unicorns are a race with a natural talent for this, and Moon Prayer Masters are also professionals in this field; Qiluo's judgment can be considered definitive.

"That means the prisoner's testimony is credible." Su Ming nodded. "Price of the White Graupel Cavalry is quite a renowned general."

Price had an extremely tough fighting style. He was the one who built the White Graupel Cavalry, and under his leadership, they earned a formidable reputation.

"It doesn't matter," Katharine said to Su Ming. "Anyway, your tactical system renders conventional military concepts ineffective, so it doesn't matter what general you replace him with."

"Oh?" Su Ming was somewhat surprised. "You guessed the characteristics of the new weapon I'm preparing?"

Katharine shook her head. "No, I was just making that judgment based on your style of doing things."

"Thank you for your kind consideration."

"What we need to be wary of are strategists," Katharine, a look of disgust on her face. "That Cunning Fox Jimite, that scoundrel who excels at intrigue and scheming, is the one we need to deal with with all our might."

"Jimite is the chairman of the Lords' Alliance," Zijin said. "Will the royal army be under his command?"

The relationship between the Northern Lands Lords' Alliance and the Cold Mountain Royal Family is not harmonious. As the leader of the nobles, Jimite has long been instigating disputes and standoffs within the Cold Mountain Kingdom, and the grudges between the two sides are far from minor.

"It's hard to say, after all, the royal family and the Lords' Alliance are both working together against me," Katharine said, then asked Zijin with some curiosity, "Ailisha, why are you paying attention to Jimite's intelligence?"

"Because of Master Newman's murder," Zijin explained. "There are rumors that this cunning fox was involved, and besides Price of the White Graupel Cavalry, he's the person I most want to 'ask' about the details with."

Zijin's so-called "interrogation" was naturally far from gentle; kidnapping and torture were standard practice. Therefore, it was only natural that she would gather relevant information about the target.

Upon hearing this, Qiluo looked surprised. "Little Newman is dead?"

Newman, a scholar of the Barn Swallow, is skilled in necromancy and modeling. He has widely applied necromancy models to construction techniques and is a renowned engineering master.

"Yes, it happened here about six months ago." Zijin briefly recounted the details.

Qiluo looked regretful. "I quite liked that little guy; he was a wonderful travel companion. I thought we could rescue him from the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison this time."

Su Ming glanced at Qiluo, "Master Newman is over fifty years old. You call him 'little guy'—how old are you, anyway?"

The unicorn remained calm, gesturing with its hand, "Newman is a halfling, so small, of course I call him 'little guy'."

****

Su Ming didn't delve into the details and returned to the main topic, "Let's continue discussing our countermeasures."

Katharine sighed. The evidence she had repeatedly obtained had dispelled her doubts about the involvement of the Cold Mountain Royal Family in this incident. "It's come to this now." She walked back to the sand table. "It's almost certain that we are surrounded. We must break through one of the directions to escape."

"Hansite, Ailisha, what's the progress of loading the rocket propellant?" Su Ming asked.

"The gunpowder ratio has been finalized, and we can load about one hundred rounds a day," Hansite replied.

"I'm rewriting the zombie's soul core; my work efficiency will be even higher later," Zijin said.

Su Ming calculated the progress on his side. Miao Xin reported that everything was going smoothly, and including teleportation, the projectile would take two days to complete. "That means in about three days, we will be able to fight against organized armies," he concluded.

Katharine's eyes lit up. "The weapons you prepared are that powerful?"

"It needs to be paired with appropriate tactics," Su Ming replied.

"That's true of any weapon," Katharine said, reconsidering the battle situation.

There were several sheets of paper on the table. Su Ming picked them up and found that they were Jimite's information.

Judging from the contents of the paper, Jimite was highly experienced and had an impressive resume. Although the noble army was relatively weak in combat, it still achieved many outstanding results under Jimite's strategies.

In particular, to compensate for the gap in combat strength, Jimite frequently resorted to various tricks. He played a crucial role in establishing a balance between the Cold Mountain Royal Family and the Lords' Alliance.

"Are you sure our opponent is him?" Su Ming felt a headache coming on. This guy was using underhanded methods, and tactical advantages alone might not be enough to gain an advantage against Jimite.

"It's almost certainly him," Katharine said, then sighed, "He was fighting you to the death one minute, and now he's up against the Arctic Cunning Fox. He just wants to bully weaklings!"

"Yes," Su Ming agreed.

Over there, the skeleton servants had prepared lunch.

"Let's eat first, we have a lot to do this afternoon." Katharine put down her pen and notebook filled with tactics.

Su Ming got up to get a plate for mashed potatoes. "Would you like to send some food to the mage you captured?"

"No need," Katharine replied. "He's practically dead already. I'll talk to him again in a few hours, then I can throw him away."

Su Ming paused for a moment, then sat down with the plate full of food and began to eat.

Zijin sat down next to him and activated their Mind Synchronization.

"[Su Ming, your life is as worthless as grass.]" the scholar comforted him, "[That's how war is; don't take it too seriously.]"

Su Ming shook his head. [Don't misunderstand, I'm just surprised I adapted so quickly.]

Zijin kicked him in anger.

Younier put the little Tuanzi in the crib, and the little guy immediately started crying and fussing.

"Let's feed him some mashed potatoes!" Zijin suggested.

"Go play with your own baby from now on!" Katharine protested.

****

In the carriage requisitioned as a makeshift torture chamber, the mage, bound to a frame, twitched occasionally. He was completely naked and covered in wounds. Out of caution, Katharine stripped him of his equipment and threw him out of the carriage.

Fortunately, the carriage was heated, so he didn't freeze.

The prisoner suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, even more intense than the wounds on his body. He convulsed and let out a weak groan.

The mage sensed that some kind of alchemical tool had been activated, drawing upon his dwindling life force and using that energy to send out subtle Magic Power pulses.

Why would he have something like that inside his body?

The monk suddenly remembered the military rations the captain had given him that morning. It turned out, it was all part of the plan! He was merely a pawn, and that was his purpose!

But the prisoner was no longer able to resist; his remaining life force was gradually drained, and his breathing slowly ceased. The alchemical tool had completed its work and disintegrated.

The carriage returned to normal, and all was quiet.

Thousands of kilometers away, at the Black Territory Lords' Alliance Army's base on the second tier of the Ice Plains, a magic tower received these Magic Power signals.

They were quickly analyzed, the path of the Youth Civilization. 1 was depicted, and projected onto the topographic map.

The people controlling the magic circle were ecstatic. The intelligence officer's eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night, but he couldn't hide the joy on his face. He excitedly ran to Jimite, "Reporting to the Chairman, we've tracked down the White Bone Train!"

Jimite nodded to indicate he understood. He calmly waved his hand, "Analyze it immediately, dissect the specific performance characteristics of this train!"

"Yes, sir!" The intelligence officer accepted the order and left happily.

The other nobles in the council hall breathed a sigh of relief. "The chairman is truly amazing!" they all agreed.

Although it sounded like flattery, Jimite deserved it.

Yesterday afternoon, the operation to capture the unicorn encountered a serious mishap. The mysterious Scholar Li suddenly appeared, rescued the target, and left in a huge vehicle.

The devastating news stunned everyone; the hard work and preparations of the past few days were completely ruined. The thought of the severe consequences of the entire operation's failure plunged the nobles into panic, with some even collapsing on the spot due to their fragile mental states.

Jimite, however, remained calm and composed. He quickly deployed a reconnaissance team and used a sacrificial mage as bait. After more than ten hours, he regained control of the situation!

Catching the trail of the "White Bone Train" means an interception can be deployed. Hope for salvaging the situation has reappeared, even if the opponent is the mysterious Liya team!

If we can kill all of these people, there's still a chance for things to turn around, or even a complete solution!

Bone King and Chestnut's power ironically made them the perfect targets for framing. Their sudden appearance in the Northern Lands, coupled with their public conflict with Queen Katharine, made them the perfect scapegoats!

What others saw was a crisis, but Jimite saw it as a golden opportunity amidst the crisis and risk!

****

The data analysis was quickly completed, and the intelligence officer reported back to everyone.

"The possessing worm recorded data for three hours, during which time the White Bone Train traveled fifty kilometers." He marked the route of the Abandoned Mage from being captured on the Youth Civilization until his death on the topographic map. "The speed of this giant train is greatly affected by the terrain; the steeper the gradient, the slower the speed."

Jimite looked at the detailed speed-terrain curves. The fact that the White Bone Train was limited by the terrain had been discovered when analyzing the ruts, but the real-time speed could not be obtained from the ruts.

Now this part is finally complete.

This clearly shows that the route the White Bone Train could choose was much more limited than expected. Furthermore, its absolute speed was not as fast as previously thought! Especially after leaving the frozen river surface, its speed suddenly dropped by half.

He gestured for the intelligence officer to stop pawing, then focused his attention on the topographical map, his mind racing.

There are only a few routes that Liya and Bone King can take. They dare not go to Bubing City, so Jimite pointed to "Red Fruit Slope" and "Returning Bird Bay." "How long will it take them to get here?"

Several technical officers quickly completed the calculations. "Reporting to the Chairman, the White Bone Train will arrive at Red Fruit Slope in three days and reach Returning Bird Bay in five and a half days."

It is currently December 19th, which means the White Bone Train will arrive at Red Fruit Slope on the 22nd and at Returning Bird Bay on the night of the 24th.

Some officers breathed a sigh of relief. Their own troops had ample time to complete the march and launch the interception.

Jimite's eyes flashed coldly. "Order the troops to Returning Bird Bay immediately! Battalion 22 must arrive to set up positions and lay mines; Artillery and heavy infantry units, number 23, take your positions!"

This arrangement came as a complete surprise to everyone.

The officers remained silent, but one of the lords spoke up, "Isn't there a need to rush? The enemy won't arrive until the 24th. A rapid march will cause them to fall behind, and the wilderness will result in a large number of non-combat casualties. How about we extend the deadline by one day?"

The other lords echoed this sentiment. Treating the wounded required manpower and resources, and soldiers who were crippled needed to be recruited again, all of which meant considerable expenses.

Jimite scoffed, "Do you think this is child's play?" He slammed his hand on the table fiercely, "Can you afford the consequences of failure?!"

He was genuinely furious. Although he maintained a calm demeanor, it was largely to maintain morale.

The enemies are Bone King and Lijuan, mysterious and powerful, who have never been defeated in battles against multiple naval forces at sea. Especially that White Bone Train; such a massive creation being brought to the ice field must have come at a high price, and its abilities are certainly not insignificant.

And then there's Katharine, who, instead of being a proper mistress of the emperor, carved out her own niche in the military.

Do you really think it's easy for him against such a group of opponents?

If the unicorn escapes and the plot is exposed, the Northern Lands Lords' Alliance will face the wrath of both the Cold Mountain Royal Family and the Star Empire, two powerful forces.

Therefore, the interception time can only be moved forward, regardless of the cost and without allowing any oversight!

"Execute the order immediately! Also, send the information to the Shadow Corps and order them to pursue steadily and block the White Bone Train's retreat!" Jimite ordered angrily.

"Yes!"

The officers responded in unison.

After issuing the orders, Jimite rubbed his temples. He missed Steward Bulenleifu dearly; this powerful puppeteer was not only a reliable pillar of strength in combat but also an excellent partner in planning and execution. Together, they had supported the Lords' Alliance, a feat that these current incompetents could never match.

Unfortunately, Bulenleifu died before achieving his goal.

Why aren't these useless bastards on the enemy's side? He lamented inwardly.

****

After lunch, Katharine realized that the prisoners were already cold, which was far from her expectations.

"Have I gotten rusty?" Katharine looked at her hands and quickly concluded that this commander was as disgusting as ever!

She used her Mage Hand to throw the prisoner's body out of the carriage.

Everyone went about their own work. In the afternoon, Katharine finished the tactical simulation.

"The defenses of Bubing City are at a disadvantage for us," she concluded. "Even if we manage to defeat the city's garrison, the enemy can always retreat from the city, regroup, and organize a second and third echelon to continue engaging us."

The battle line was too close to the enemy's main city, which was an inevitable result. Moreover, Bubing City was a major city in the core of the ice plains, with strong defenses and depth.

"Then there's the Noble Army," she said, pointing to the yellow flag at Returning Bird Bay. "This place is a famous migratory bird habitat, with open V-shaped slopes, perfect for their large forces to deploy and attack us from above."

"If we can rout them head-on," Katharine drew a line forward on the map, "the White Bone Train can only advance along the terrain, while the enemy's routs can easily escape to the flanks to regroup."

Su Ming understood what Katharine meant, "We won, which means we inflicted some casualties on the enemy in a direct confrontation. The enemy's main force and organization..."

Everything, including radiation and supplies, is there.

"That's right," Katharine said. "The main wounds in war don't occur during direct confrontation." She explained to Su Ming, "The pursuit after breaking through the enemy's battle lines is the stage where large-scale annihilation of their manpower is achieved. If we attack like this, we'll only defeat the enemy without inflicting serious damage."

Su Ming updated his understanding. The Dan Realm of the game is simple and straightforward, without concern for the aftereffects of battles; a victory of 99:1 and 51:49 is the same.

Reality is far more complex.

"Our risks aren't low either. The enemy has a mage squad and ambushes like landmines. A hard-fought frontal battle might only result in the loss of some lowly soldiers," Katharine continued. "If we succeed, we won't achieve our goal in one battle; if we fail, we'll lose everything."

Renjin said with some regret, "I was hoping to get a word in with Jimite."

"In short, both of these directions carry significant tactical risks and may not achieve the strategic goal of breaking through," Katharine concluded.

"Then we have no choice but to turn around?" Su Ming shifted his gaze to the small white flag representing the White Graupel Cavalry on the sand table.

"That's how it is." Katharine turned the Youth Civilization's course indicators towards the rear. "Our choice is to turn around and engage the pursuers. This enemy force numbers less than a thousand. Their mage team was severely damaged, and they've been chasing us for a long time, suffering heavy losses. There's no easier target than them!"

"This is a huge waste of fuel," Su Ming said. "It will affect our journey to the Divine Bird Prison."

The Youth Civilization is consuming coal faster than expected. Updated data shows that the train faces a fuel shortage of 200 tons to reach the Sacred Mountain. If it travels back and forth, the shortage will be even greater.

Katharine was puzzled. "Mr. Su, things have come to this point, and you still haven't given up on the prison break plan?"

"Why give up?" Su Ming asked. "There's still a chance."

Su Ming's initial plan for this trip to the icy plains was to remain in hiding until a surprise attack on the Divine Bird Prison Divine Bird Prison was launched. Although rumors of mysterious monsters appearing would inevitably circulate along the way, local authorities would report these rumors layer by layer, and higher authorities would send people to verify them. Given the sparse population of the Northern Lands and the extreme cold of winter, these processes would consume a significant amount of time, achieving the goal of delaying the attack.

Unexpectedly, at a time when even dogs are reluctant to go out, someone would orchestrate such a massive ambush against the Empress of the Stars. Whether they rescue Katharine or not, this incident will not end well; the vast and desolate Northern Lands will see a surge in human activity, and people will become more alert and sensitive to any unusual phenomena.

It was like a dark room suddenly having its lights switched on. This mysterious train, already harboring ulterior motives, was destined to become another eye-catching spectacle on the snowy plains, leaving a long trail of tracks behind it!

Therefore, ever since the assassination incident, Su Ming has been devising how to continue in this situation.

"If our attempt to approach the Sacred Mountain is discovered, the Divine Bird Prison will become alert and strengthen its defenses," Katharine analyzed. "We can no longer remain hidden!"

"So we need to take down one," Su Ming pointed to the yellow flag of Gui Ni Bay, "And then lure one away." He pointed to the blue flag of Bubing City, "And then we can go back to stealth."

Katharine almost laughed in exasperation, "You make it sound so easy!"

"I'll handle the last two steps." Su Ming looked at Katharine, his expression serious. "So, for the first step, can you wipe out the Jimite Lords' Alliance Army?"

"Ask me?" Katharine asked in surprise.

"Of course I'll ask you; you're the one who knows the most about warfare here."

Katharine turned to Renjin, "Do you also think the group should continue advancing instead of breaking through and leaving?"

"Is this the first time you've met me?" Renjin asked, her eyes crinkling with a smile. "And don't be so formal, do you think this is the first time I've met you?"

"Fine!" Katharine was truly exasperated, tossing the stack of breakout tactical plans aside. "I'm so angry this guy's made me want to cry." She gritted her teeth and cracked her knuckles. "Su Ming, give me a proper demonstration of your new weapon's performance!"