“To have a clear view of everything that happened and led to the situation on the battlefield is a blessing few could enjoy. With such knowledge, the task of strategizing becomes far easier to do, as one would gain a far greater understanding of the enemy as well as themselves.” - Liang Shi-Zu, famed tactician from the Huan Confederacy.
“Rather risky, but considering that we’re talking about an Emperor who had to fight his way to the throne, not an unexpected course to take, I guess,” said Duke Orsla Banitu in agreement with Nestor’s words. “Especially considering that he clearly has more than half a million soldiers to spare for this. I highly doubt such a man would leave his home undefended. Tell me if I’m correct, girl?”
“Milord is correct. The force you are facing is merely the first wave of the invasion force that our Emperor has amassed,” replied Hua-Li politely.
“And how many such… waves are there? We can understand if you’re not too familiar with this, but surely as a member of the army you would have some general knowledge about it, yes?” asked Griselda with interest as she leaned closer to the girl.
“Oh, this is no secret. The Emperor himself made a great speech about how it is our destiny to conquer the world and whatnot. I’m sure Milords and Milady are familiar with what I mean,” said Hua-Li with a shake of her head. “He also proclaimed that our first wave will be followed by a second as soon as possible, and if needed, a third wave of invasion, each as powerful as the force Milords and Milady now face.”
“Three waves of invasion forces?” asked Nestor with a bit of surprise. A sharp intake of breath could also be heard from old Duke Banitu, who was clearly just as surprised by the news. “So a million and a half soldiers? No, more than that since there would be a force left behind to guard at home as well. Two million soldiers? That is a rather large number…”
“To be fair, Your Grace, when we served in Levain the city could muster nearly half a million soldiers if everyone who could handle a weapon was to take up arms, and since the succession war she mentioned seems to be of the sort that would make that likely happen, I guess it’s quite plausible for them to gather than many,” said Reinhardt after a moment of silence. “Their population density must be far greater than Posuin’s for that, though.”
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“I cannot vouch for that with certainty, but so far we have found your land to be very sparsely populated compared to our islands,” said Hua-Li honestly. “Our villages tend to be situated far closer together, to the point that they often fought one another over the borders of their land, or who gets to use the river, and other things like that.”
“I guess that means we might be looking at another half a million enemies if they are sending their second wave of soldiers anytime soon,” said the old Duke Banitu in a more grave tone, though he switched to the Posuin tongue for the conversation, not wanting to spill information unnecessarily in the presence of a captive. “Not good odds for us, even if we withdraw to your vaunted wall, I feel.”
“We will have to hope that they’re a bit slow on reinforcing their first wave, though I imagine moving half a million soldiers and the supplies needed would take them a while, even if they already prepared it beforehand,” replied Nestor as he nodded to the old Duke’s words. “Knallzog has replied in the positive about sending reinforcements, but we can’t really hope for more help from other nations otherwise. It will have to suffice.”
“Also she mentioned a point that I can’t help but feel might be important,” Griselda interjected. “She said that the fighting for the throne was a recent one. Do you think there’s any chance that there might be people who aren’t very satisfied with the current Emperor amongst the enemy army? Actually, now that I asked that question, I feel that it’s very likely that there would be some amongst the enemies we faced so far.”
“Because you’d send them out to die as cannon fodder while placing your own loyalists on the leadership positions,” said Nestor as he caught on to what his wife implied with her words. “That sounds very likely. It’s unlikely that all two million soldiers this Emperor has are all his loyalists. Many of them must have been taken from his enemies during the succession war they had. He can’t afford to kill them all since that’d likely spark another revolt, so he has to use them up this way instead.”
“So you’re thinking that there might be some who this Emperor could not remove out of political or other considerations amongst the enemy’s command staff?” the old Duke Banitu chimed in, as he too caught on to what Griselda implied. “That is actually a likely possibility, especially if this Emperor made alliances to gain his throne, which might have turned less than convenient in the present…”
“It’s something we will need communication to be able to exploit, either way, so I propose we treat this girl really well for the time being. She’s the first breakthrough we had so far when it comes to language,” said Nestor with a nod. “We will need her help to be able to convey messages to any such people.”
“Do you trust her, though? While I can see how she might be willing to speak of things that are common knowledge, if she is to write a letter in their language, we won’t be able to tell if what she wrote was truly what we told her to write,” asked the old Duke with a slight frown.
“We’ll have to postpone those ideas until we have more people we can communicate with. Keep them apart and make each of them write the same letter. We would be able to tell if any of them tries to play us that way.”