“Rarely does life offer a clean and easy solution to everything.” - Old folk saying.

“I dare you to repeat your craven words again, senior commander!” challenged Sub-general Alven Levnos, the commanding officer in charge of the Podovniy Army’s Third Division of the Second Corps. Despite the vehemence of the vitriol he spat out, however, the senior commander in question – the one in charge of the Fourth Regiment of the First Brigade, whose people had been tasked with scouting and patrolling – had not flinched.

“And, I will say it again, sir, that to send out more people out there, into forests we have no familiarity with whatsoever, when they are so poorly trained for the task, would just be feeding our troops piecemeal to the enemy’s jaws and I refuse to consign my troops to damnation just to satisfy your Tohrmut-damned overinflated ego!” replied Astrid Ingedatter, the senior commander in question, with just as much vehemence in her voice.

She no longer gave a damn that she had just cursed out the superior of her own direct superior by that time. One hundred fifty dead men – she held little hope for the ones who were merely “missing” – from amongst her troops had long withered her patience and tolerance for the Sub-General’s foolish idea of sending out ill-suited troops on a job they were untrained for.

Not that the Third Division really had much in terms of options, unfortunately.

The Third Division of the Second Corps of the Podovniy army was a rather typical Clangeddin formation, one composed primarily of flexible light infantrymen. Unfortunately, unlike the elite First Corps, whose members were all elites, well-trained, and well-equipped, the Second Corps had a far more… varied quality of troops.

Each Regiment – or in some cases, Battalion – of the Second Corps were formed from soldiers gathered from the regions that the Podovniy March had conquered and subjugated under their heels after the civil war started, with the leadership at the Brigade and Division level left to officers of noble birth who were loyal to the Marquis himself.

Needless to say, that arrangement often created not a small amount of friction between the officer corps and their direct superiors, and regional loyalties often reared its ugly face during such conflicts. Astrid herself was the youngest daughter of the former Earl – the current one was a turncoat who betrayed her family, but they were popular enough to keep alive in order to pacify the populace – of Hevia, and was placed by the current Earl in charge of their state’s contribution to the army.

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Most likely as a way to get rid of her without staining his hands, she reckoned.

Fortunately for her, while there were a lot of conflicts between the regional commanders and their superiors, Astrid had a rather good relationship with Tribune Ealendil Bergstrom, the half-elven commander of the First Brigade her troops were grouped under. The half-elven woman had served the March for centuries, but was well known for being by far the most reasonable superior in the Second Corps.

Even while the Sub-General was yelling at Astrid with his emotions out of control, spewing all sorts of insults and demanding for Astrid to be whipped for cowardice and the like, the Tribune had quietly started a conversation with her other fellow Tribunes to discuss a countermeasure for the trouble they faced, namely that the enemy had a presence outside the city they were besieging, and that presence had no qualms to assault – and thoroughly slaughter – search parties of up to a hundred men strong.

Once the Sub-General’s tirade ended, the Tribunes stepped in and pointed out that Astrid’s point of view was not wrong, rather forcefully, at that. It was almost as if Astrid was looking at a trio of elders – which was partly because all three Tribunes were much older than the Sub-General – who were glaring at a disappointing progeny of theirs.

Even the usually arrogant Sub-General wilted beneath the glares of the three veteran Tribunes and rescinded his demand to have the “cowards” hanged as an example.

It was a foolish practice to have placed the noble brat of a Sub-General in command of the Division instead of promoting one of the veteran Tribunes, Astrid felt, but unfortunately, the March doesn’t work that way, and none of the three veteran Tribunes had a drop of noble blood in them. It was probably one reason why the Marquis had decreed that if all three Tribunes of a Division were to disapprove of what their Sub-General was doing, they could overrule him.

At least the Marquis had an inkling of the problem faced by his military.

After a longer – and less heated – discussion, eventually the Tribunes coerced the Sub-General to a different plan, one where they would minimize the forays into the nearby forests, and keep the night patrols all within close vicinity of the encampment itself. During the day, a few regiments of the troops would methodically search the forests for their elusive opponents, traveling together so that the enemy could no longer isolate and slaughter individual search parties.

It was not the ideal solution. The search clearly prioritized safety over speed, as their enemies had already proven their willingness to extract a price in blood whenever the Podovniy army showed weakness. It was something Astrid felt better about rather than the Sub-General’s previous suggestion to simply increase each search party’s size to a hundred and fifty men though.

Their enemies were clearly skilled enough to slaughter a hundred men without allowing any survivors or escapees within a short period of time. Just adding half again to that number was more likely to be akin to feeding their troops piecemeal to the enemy.

At least with the Tribunes’ proposed solution, there would be a measure of safety in numbers for the search party, and while they risk some escapees from the city itself since they reduced their patrols at night, she thought it was an acceptable cost compared to getting her people slaughtered out there. She just hoped that things would go more smoothly from then onwards.