20 – Crown Prince vs Northern Grand Duke – 4
The scout officer and Charles dismounted. Charles approached the villagers and asked.
“What happened? Have you heard of thieves?”
The eldest man came out with a cane.
“Not a thief. Something like that.”
“Unless you are a thief… ”
“The Cronor family army has arrived.”
Carl von Kronor. He was the grand duke of the Grand Duchy of Kronor, and a man in charge of protecting the north. And he was also the crown prince’s opponent in this northern conquest.
“That is strange. This must be the territory of the Cronor family, so why the hell did Grand Duke Cronor plunder his own territory?”
The reconnaissance officer asked, and Charles immediately answered.
“Clean field tactics.”
“Blue night tactics?”
“Gabriel, the north is vast.”
“Yes.”
“On the other hand, productivity is less compared to the central region.”
“you’re right.”
“Since the land is large, the supply lines will naturally stretch, so how do we solve it?”
“Local supply… Should I?”
Even if it was local supply, it was just a roundabout way of saying looting. Looting was commonplace for the armies of this era.
“But now, local supplies are no longer available.”
Because the enemy robbed it first.
“ah!”
Gabriel clapped as if he had just realized it.
Yes. In the Northern Hemisphere, productivity is low due to the cold climate. The size of the land is large, but the production capacity is low, so the supply line naturally stretches.
But what if the defenders had already plundered the food the invaders were about to loot? The aggressor had lost his morale from starvation and either deserted or was unable to fight properly.
In the history of the Earth, it was a tactic that was used a lot by Russia, and Napoleon and Hitler also suffered from this tactic, so it goes without saying how certain it is.
“Chief, then shouldn’t we report to the superior right now? Report to General Balboa and wait for the next order… ”
“for a moment.”
I raised my hand to stop scout officer Gabriel.
“Why is that?”
“What if I go back and report it? What do you think is the next step?”
“I do not know… Wouldn’t you like to come up with a solution?”
“We will send out scouts again to find out which villages have been looted and which have not yet been looted. Only then will we send soldiers to villages that have not been plundered.”
“As expected, there is something different about being a bookseller. So what should we do?”
“Anyway, if it’s what the next scouts have to do, we’re going to do it.”
“However… Wouldn’t it be dangerous? Our number is only 20. If you encounter enemies plundering towns with this number, you’ll be chased down in no time. Scouts are originally servants who risk their lives, so would it be okay for you, Master?”
“What… You can die then.”
Of course, I have no intention of dying. In a dangerous situation, he just trusted what Glacia would do and went.
“ha ha ha! This is a masterpiece.”
Gabriel laughed out loud.
“The bookkeeper is completely different from the full-time bookkeeper. A lot braver or a lot stupider. It must be one of the two.”
maybe it’s both With that thought in mind, we immediately looked at the map and headed for the next town.
—–
We spent that night in the village of Valen. It was under the calculation that since he had already robbed it once, he would never come again. The predictions were right. The enemies did not come back to the village once they had already turned.
And the next day, they went through the villages around Vallen to check if they were looted or not. As a result, there were many villages that were plundered in the north of Vallen and many villages that were not plundered in the south.
When I asked the looted villages when the enemy disappeared, they said it was usually a day or two ago. In other words, there is a high possibility that the enemy has already left this place. The probability of encountering the enemy was not zero, but relatively small.
“It looks like you’ve already returned to the main base after plundering the north of Valen Village.”
“Yes. It seems that only the northern part of the border was plundered.”
Gabriel agreed with me.
“Then the next town, Philippa… It’s south of Valen Village, so it’s highly likely that it hasn’t been looted.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“I think you can spend the night at Philippa.”
“Yes. I’m getting tired of military rations, but I wish I could eat warm soup.”
That was completely agreed upon. After joining the reconnaissance team, he felt that food was very scarce. Sometimes soldiers hunt rabbits, but that’s literally special. If you hunt rabbits every day, you can neglect your reconnaissance mission, so I ate beef jerky or black bread that I had brought in advance. Many people think of black bread as real bread, but this was a kind of porridge. It was a food that was eaten by soaking stone-hard bread in hot water. By the way, the taste was terrible.
However, the food eaten in the village was better. Most of them were beans or vegetable soup, and if you’re very lucky, you can also eat chicken. We headed to the next village, praying that it would not be plundered. and…
-Fury!
Contrary to our expectations, the village had already been plundered. No, to be precise, they were being looted in real time. A series of soldiers circled the house to steal food, and the people resisted not to be deprived of food, but were cut to death by the soldiers’ swords.
And Gabriel, who was watching the scene from afar, asked me.
“Sir, order. What should I do?”
“How many enemies?”
“It seems to be at least three times ours. The level of armament is much worse than ours, so it won’t actually be three times as strong, but this difference in numbers is hard to overcome.”
“… ”
“It takes courage to step back when things go wrong. This is a retreat.”
Gabriel’s opinion was reasonable. Any sane tactician would say that. But I wasn’t a normal tactician.
“There is a way.”
“How?”
“It’s a way to inflict huge damage without losing to the enemy.”
Gabriel looked at me as if he was talking about something.
“The problem is that the enemy is plundering food.”
“Yes. Yes. It seems like they plunder valuables as a bonus.”
Looted valuables will not go up and will remain in the hands of the soldiers. It’s a crime, but it happens in the military.
“If we ambush the enemy while looting, we will lose.”
“Absolutely. The enemy is three times ours.”
“But what if after looting?”
At that, Gabriel put on a puzzled expression.
“Think of it as a looter, not as a soldier. I am poor So I enlisted in the army to earn money, and I took care of food and valuables. If you were being chased by the enemy in this situation, what would be your first thought?”
“uh… Should I kill the enemy?”
“no. [I want to get out of this situation]. If we fight now, before the enemy gets what he wants, we will lose. But if you get everything you want and then attack the retreating back of the head, you have a chance.”
Gabriel put on a suspicious expression. His expression asked if he was really sure.
“Gabriel, I’m young and I’m a parachute. I know you don’t trust me, but I’m risking my life in this battle. Trust me.”
“… But if you lose, you die. This is not a game on a chessboard. Life is precious… ”
“Getting credit in this fight could lead to a promotion. Whether you want honor or discharge, it’s to get ahead.”
At those words, Gabriel groaned and said in pain.
“To be honest, from the moment I applied for the most dangerous scouting party, I gave up my life. Let’s try it.”
And Gabriel whispered to the soldiers listening to the story behind him.
“Is there anyone who disagrees? If you value your life, you may desert here. However, you will not be able to return to the military camp of His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“… ”
“If you want to get ahead, fight, if you don’t want to die, quit. The opportunity is now.”
“I’ll do it.”
“I’ll do it.”
Word has been heard from all over the place. After all, it was a reconnaissance response that knew the most dangerous position and applied for it.
“Then, let’s try it.”
So we started hiding in the grass and waiting until the enemies finished plundering.
Looting took some time. After taking all the grain and valuables from the village over several hours, the Grand Duke of the North’s army smiled contentedly and began to run on horseback.
And our brisk horses, loaded with nothing but emergency rations and silver coins, began to catch up on the rear end, which had been slowed down by the heavy load on the horse.
“Sir, f*ck! What is that!”
The soldiers of Archduke Cronor shouted.
“Enemies! It’s an enemy!”
“How few are the numbers? fight! Fight back!”
But no one was willing to fight back. Think about it. There are 50 million won worth of valuables in a bundle loaded on a horse, so who is there to fight with their lives? They will only think of moving their valuables to their own hiding place.
Even when the officer told them to fight, the soldiers only ran away, and the allies began to kill one or two after chasing after the soldiers of Archduke Cronor who fled.
“Oh sh*t!!!”
Occasionally, there were those who rushed valiantly, but there were not many of them, so they were easily subdued.
Those who ran away with plunder on horses were easily caught. It was because the horse was so heavy that it couldn’t run properly because it was loaded with too much loot.
After a series of battles like that.
Killed or captured nearly half of the enemies.
On the other hand, the damage of allies was only three wounded.
It was a one-sided fight.
Gabriel asked.
“I really didn’t expect to win this easily. How did you know how to win?”
“Thieves are nervous when they enter, but when they leave, they are blinded by greed and only think about running away.”
It was a strategy conceived from an incident in which a historical figure watched the thieves robbing his house and then stabbed them in the back when they ran away.
“power!”
I cried.
“Congratulations on setting the ball.”
At that, the soldiers of the reconnaissance party cheered.
When they return, they will be treated as heroes.
Kekekekeke