“I can’t believe this mercenary was allowed to participate in this meeting. This is an outrage! Why is he even here!?”
He’s right. I have no reason to be here under any normal circumstance… I’ve hidden just how strong I am so this smart ass thinks I have bullied my way in here without anything valid to add. Months of planning would be wasted if I can’t influence the strategy they’re going to use. I look at Lance and Wayne to vouch for me… Neither speak up… I could be kicked out of here for that outburst that I caused. I needed to get my point across that I would not be bullied but I didn't think of the consequences for what would happen afterwords.
I see a few more of the generals faces show signs of agreement at what he just said. It was a tactical destruction of the portal when I thought that my portals were valuable enough to get me off the hook. Shit… Wait a second, this is a shot in the dark but I just remembered something.
“My grandfather told me to speak his name if anyone questioned me being here. His name was Gray.”
I hear a few gasps from the older generals while some of their faces don’t change. People start whispering to each other. I can only catch a few words.
“Army killer...” “Gray the crimson...” “Killed 1000 men in a single day...”
A shiver runs down my spine at how this room of toughened war heroes and advisors become little mouses when I bring up my grandfather. I didn’t know he was so important. After another few whispers one of the older generals speaks.
“You will be allowed to stay but if you have another outburst, your relationship to Gray the crimson wont matter... Unless you can prove that he is your grandfather.”
He gulps and wipes some sweat off his face... I’ll have to ask Wayne about my grandfather later. I listen to their war meeting. They all seem to be talking about valid points but… Most of what they are saying is very basic war strategy… It sort of makes me feel like I could guide this war in the direction I’d want from behind the scenes and I didn’t have to participate in this war meeting. The only one who’s throwing out some actual strategy I might have not thought of is Lance. Trice might be guiding this war meeting through him…
They talk mostly of formations and which general will be leading which troops for over an hour. Wayne is sleeping through this part and Leo looks as if he would be sleeping if he wasn’t in front of all these important people. I find myself in the same situation of boredom. Often losing track of what is being spoken of as I get lost in my own thoughts. The king hasn’t said anything either. I catch him nodding off a few times but he doesn’t ever completely fall asleep.
Surprisingly the king did nothing over my outburst, I half expected him to at least speak up… I only caught him in the corner of my eye while I was yelling at the general but.. He looked absolutely terrified of me… The first time I addressed the king I thought him to be a good and decent man but as time has gone on... His constant need to express superiority by having his seat be higher than everyone else. I have come to see him as a weak, cowardly man of average intelligence.
There is an extremely good chance that after this war he will be assassinated and replaced with the most important general in the army. That gets me thinking… That I only dislike one general in this room. He is the most likely to try and usurp the king as well… I’ll kill him before that happens. Him being put in charge of a country would end even worse than the inept king.
They finish it up and one of the generals close to Wayne shakes him awake. We are finally going to discuss the war strategy of the entire army now and planning on when to first initiate the war. I wait for certain things to happen, but they don’t. Where are the maps and figures to show the troops? Making people imagine anything would result in confusion once the fighting actually starts… It’s a good thing I came prepared.
“Mind if I put some things on the table?”
I don’t wait for anyone to answer. I just pull out maps upon maps and place them scattered on the table. One is a world map, another a map of our country, another the map of their country, the remaining are zoomed in maps of potential battlefields. I pull out several painted blocks of varying sizes. I explain.
“These blocks will represent different sizes of troops. The biggest is 10,000, the medium is 5,000 and the small ones are for 1,000. We’ll use the blue painted pieces for our troops and the red ones for them.”
I start putting them into place, most of our troops near the capital. Some of my troops are in different locations so I place 2 of the smaller blocks where they are. I place the enemy pieces into place and pull a huge red block out to symbolize the encroaching threat of the second part of the army. Anyone will quickly realize how much our early size advantage will be compared to this unknown amount of enemies quickly approaching the other army.
“What we’re looking at right now is everything my men have scouted so far. The exact amounts might be slightly off. Most of our forces are here while a huge portion of their forces are split into two groups. This giant block is the group we don’t know much about yet. I have some men headed in that direction and they will rush back before the groups meet up.”
I push the troops forward to the best position to ambush them. It’s at the entrance of a swamp that they will have to pass through on our side.
“This position would give us the biggest advantage to any attack against them. Not only would it slow their retreat but it would make targeting their mana cannons much easier since they would be too difficult to use and aim properly. I’d suggest we try to target those cannons over the enemies if possible.”
The smart ass speaks up.
“And why is that? Wouldn’t pushing into them be the most advantageous?”
“No, we could fall into an ambush of our own if we push too hard into them. Minimizing their mana cannons now will help us defend choke points and fortifications later on in the war much easier. Removing their sieging components before they have the proper numbers to defend them will save many castles, cities and lives in the long run. The longer we can drag out the war the more likely we will win even with a smaller number.”
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Lance speaks up now.
“How would stalling help us defeat a bigger opponent? Normally they could just siege and as long as they had a supply line back they could wait indefinitely until we give up. They could also dig under any structure with sappers and collapse our walls eventually.”
This is a side of Lance I had never seen before. Not only did he follow what I was saying but have a valid counterpoint to my strategy. I don’t think Trice has told him what to say… I think Trice has taught him war strategy… He could very well be on the same level I was before I learned tactician.
“That would be the case normally but I have 2 forces right now waiting for their armies to pass. They will raid city after city, destroying their food and stealing their valuables while leaving their citizens alive.”
Now I’m cut off by another general. Just from the way Lance looks at him I can tell he looks up to him, most likely anything he will say will make a lot of sense.
“I don’t want to sound rude but… Wouldn’t killing everyone in the cities be a better idea?”
In normal warfare that would be the best strategy once again. Killing your enemy means that they will not be able to fight against you in the future. The strategy I am about to tell them is one I had thought of over months that reduces the casualties on both sides and gives us a much higher chance then turning this into an all out war.
“That would normally be the best strategy but in terms of ending the war… Leaving them alive makes more sense. Not only will they not have the food to send to the front lines to feed them but they will take food for themselves. With enough towns and cities being hit, the population will grow to resent the war. Over time they will grow to question their sultan, this will pressure their leader to make mistakes and it will severely weaken their ability to push into our territory.”
No one speaks up now, I see many confused looks and looks of shock at what I just said. Maybe some of them want to go to war, maybe some don’t. I can tell right now that none of them thought of ending the war how I have. Not only do I plan on doing what I've said, I have several other plans in the midst they don't need to know about.
Months of planning, probably since before we finished the war against the pirates have I been thinking about this war. Knowing the enemy, learning from my mistakes. This time, I will not falter before an enemy willing to do anything to win. Many plans have been put into place to make sure this war is won by my side.
“After the first attack, we will launch aerial attacks against their back line and try to target their equipment and supplies. An army of men without weapons or food will be far easier to defeat. They will most likely fall back at that point, we cannot let up at all. They will most likely try to setup camp on the other side of the swamp and use it to their advantage. We will use the teleportation circles I have in place there to launch sneak attacks from both flanks.”
I wait to see if anyone has anything to add to the conversation for a few seconds, then continue.
“Once we land several sneak attacks from the sides and force them back again the entire bulk of the army will most likely fall back. We should launch one more full scale attack at this point to crush their fighting spirits. As we fall back we will lay traps through the swamp to make passing through it more dangerous. As we retreat, we will pass through a mountain right here on the map. I’ve sent my elementalists forward to make the walls impossible to scale. The only way through here would be to go through this castle I’m having built.”
Lance speaks up again.
“Couldn’t they just climb over the mountain or go around it? They could possibly even go through the central continent to get around this blockade.”
“You’re correct. If they pass over the mountain they will be extremely fatigued and easily taken out by the men waiting for them on the other side though. They also wouldn’t be able to travel through the mountains with any of their remaining cannons. The way around is over 100 miles to the west, they could possibly go around but we will have men stationed nearby to hold that area too if they decide that. Finally, if they head through the central continent their army would be put into extreme danger. A huge army is likely to be targeted by the bigger monsters in the central continent and could be wiped out in an instant… No general would be willing to take that risk.”
I think I’ve taken everything into account. The only thing that could possibly ruin this plan would be if a spy managed to drop the castle gate or if they managed to hit the walls with enough cannon fire to eventually wear it down. If all goes perfectly… The sultan will be forced to end this war within 3 months of the first attack… That is if everything goes perfectly…
“If we start heading there now… Depending on how slow everyone is… If they were trained in marching like my men… It should only take a week to get to the castle which can hold over 20,000 men. Everyone else will have to form camps outside while we prepare to set-out to march to the swamp. That should take another 1 week which will put us ahead of their army by over 2 weeks.”
Lance speaks up again.
“Many of the trained men don’t have the fatigue to march for more than a few hours a day, double your estimates in time for the entire army, we have my troops who can make it their with yours but they only number 5000.”
This is not good. If I double the time it will take to make it there… We will be cutting it close, the men will have no days of rest between marching… We could go there and stall with a force of around 7000 troops but that wont be enough to land the perfect surprise attack I had planned.
We can get about 6000 people through the 2 teleport circles each day… But I’d rather not put that kind of stress on them right away. We could get all of the trained soldiers their but the 80,000 untrained would be left behind. If their army realized we didn’t outnumber them they might push through the swamp which would result on much heavier casualties on our side.
This complicates things to put us on a much tighter time schedule than I would have liked but losing the initial strike would be devastating to our chances of winning. Gears start to turn in my head as I think of what would be the best method for getting everyone to the wars location. One of the other generals who has remained silent until now speaks up.
“We only really need 30,000 to 40,000 troops to fight to be effective at stopping them from pushing through. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the size of our army if it was any bigger than that anyways. That would cut down on the usage of the portals to not overuse them. The 30,000 that go through can stall until the rest of the army makes it there within the same week of the initial attack, then we can proceed with the remaining sneak attacks… That only leaves which 30,000 goes through the portals.”
That averages out to about 500 people going through each portal every day. My men can take portal scrolls to get there far easier and faster. I still think keeping secrets from everyone I can’t trust with my life makes the most sense right now. It does slightly complicate things in the beginning but having trump cards that no one else knows about later could come in very handy. The bickering starts with each general throwing in their lot to have their men be the ones that go through the portal. Each general is trying to make a name for themselves.
It takes about an hour and it is settled when the main leader of the army speaks up and gives Wayne’s men the right. It’s hard to tell weather that is a good thing or not at this moment… I still have a few more things to add to this meeting.
“Before we go, I’d like to offer my mercenaries old equipment to whoever is willing to buy it.”
Lance speaks up immediately.
“I’ll buy everything you are selling and I’d like to commission sets be made for the rest of my troops.”
The big general beside Lance speaks up.
“So he’s the one?”
Lance answers.
“Yea, he’s the one who made my original set of gear. I would also like to see anything else you have to offer… Knowing you, you probably have something crazy for this war don’t you?”
I can only smile. He knows me too well. I pull out several of my inventions that I was planning on showing everyone. I go through them all explaining what they do. I show them my firearms and revolvers and everything else. He left before I could really show him everything I had been working on. He knows from other weapons I made what the firearm is on sight. I explain what the revolver is and only half of the people really see how valuable it is. Anyone could potentially become a mage or healer with a revolver.
I show off everything and Lance looks slightly disappointing at it all. Like he was expecting… Something better than what I’ve shown him. I can’t help but smile at this…
“You haven’t seen my trump card yet. You should remember me working on something since before you left. Well, I finished it.”
“Great. When I get a free moment I’d like to see it. Before then, you should eat diner at my house! It’ll give us a chance to catch up.”
The meeting starts to wind down. The remaining parts are more bickering over little things. I remember something and shout out.
“Oh that’s right, I almost forgot! At some point could I get like 5,000 of the untrained troops to prepare for the war?”