Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 422: Chapter 56: The Shadow Commander_2

On the bench, there was a plate filled with some mush.@@novelbin@@

When Winters entered the tent, General Sekler was pinching a pickled cucumber with his left hand while dipping bread into the mush with his right hand.

Just by looking at him, he didn’t at all resemble a general commanding large forces, but rather a farmer who had just returned home after working in the fields.

Paratu officers generally valued pomp and luxury: gold-embroidered waistbands, silk horse cloaks, glittering swords, and complete sets of ceramic tableware…

Especially the Cavalry officers, who were always impeccably dressed, even to a somewhat flamboyant extent.

Critical critics from Vineta summarized this tendency as follows, “Paratu people always live in scarcity, so for a Paratu person who rarely possesses ‘enough’, ‘enough’ means having more than anyone else.”

In just a second, Winters had an emotional judgment of Sekler: If this man was not a Saint, then he was a fraud; certainly not an ordinary person.

The General was quite easy-going, “Gentlemen, find a place to sit for yourselves.”

Though he said to find a place to sit, there wasn’t even an extra bench in the tent.

Colonel Jeska had no qualms about sitting on the General’s bed. The Lieutenant stood awkwardly, neither sitting nor standing, before finally standing straight.

“I brought the man,” Jeska said with a nod, “He is Winters Montagne. He led the digging of those trenches.”

Winters had thought that the Colonel was cold only to his subordinates, but it turned out he spoke to the General in the same tone.

Sekler took a bite of bread and looked at Winters, “Lieutenant Montagne?”

“Yes,” Winters’s heels clicked together.

“I know you have been wronged, and you can’t return home, it’s our fault,” General Sekler said earnestly: “I promise you, as soon as this battle is over, I will arrange for your return to Vineta.”

Winters had a bad premonition, “Thank you, General.”

“What do you think about this siege?”

“Our army will prevail!”

“How long do you think it will take to take down the Herder’s city?”

Winters found it odd. He really wanted to reason with the General that war was never certain.

But since the other party asked, he had to answer simply: “Don’t know!”

Sekler exchanged a glance with Colonel Jeska, a wry smile appearing, “Speak boldly, even if it’s just a guess.”

“It could be as short as two or three days, but if it’s longer, it’s hard to say, depending on the reserves of the Herders.”

“Two or three days?”

“Perhaps the city could be scaled by tomorrow.”

“But our army had a terrible defeat today.”

“An attack on a city isn’t about a single day’s victory or defeat,” Winters couldn’t help saying: “Today proved that the strategy of tunneling and Blasting is feasible. The Herders’ cannon fire has been getting less frequent over the past few days, they must be running out of gunpowder. Without the cannons, the Herders have no way to deal with shield carts.”

After speaking, Winters paused, adding: “Of course, the Blasting method still needs improvement.”

“How to improve it?”

“Strengthen the sealing. It would be best to use tunnel Blasting, aren’t they still digging tunnels?”

“They haven’t reached under the city walls yet.”

“The key is still to break the Herders’ morale. If the morale of the Herders isn’t broken, even if the outer wall is breached, there is still an inner wall. After the inner wall is taken, there’s still the fight for the houses.”

Sekler smiled and shook his head, “Do you know who is defending the city? They’re Barbarian Chief Yasin’s own tribesmen, his relatives, direct descendants, guards. As long as Yasin lives, those Herders in the city won’t give up resisting.”

Winters suddenly realized that given the enmity between the Paratu people and the Herders, it was probably difficult to demoralize the enemy with ordinary methods.

Sekler continued to ask, “You must have encountered those Herd Raiders who crossed The Styx, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know who those Herders are?”

“Don’t know.” To someone unfamiliar with the wilderness, Herders were just Herders, and that was Winters’s perspective.

“Those are a mix of several dozen tribes called Naiman, but not a single person from the Red River Tribe,” Sekler said with a sigh: “Don’t underestimate this Barbarian! He hooked us with his own tribesmen but sent other tribes to raid Paratu, to feast on the fat. He gnaws bones and lets others have the meat. Just based on this resolve, if we don’t crush him to death in this earthen city today, the Paratu border will not be at peace for the next twenty years.”

Winters listened, absorbed. At first, this battle was just “Paratu people fighting the Herders” to him.

But the more he got involved, the more he realized the deep logic of the war was far more complex than the simple notion of “border people clashing with barbarians.”

This was an “extermination.”

While Winters was lost in thought, General Sekler spoke contemplatively: “Lieutenant Montagne.”

“Yes.”

The General said something startling: “If you were in charge of coordinating everything, how soon could you take down Bianli?”

Winters didn’t react for a moment.

General Sekler repeated his question.

“Next year,” Winters replied.

Winters began to notice something odd: the General was getting a bit desperate.

In this siege, Winters had effectively commanded auxiliary troops and civilian workers numbering close to twelve hundred.

This was the first time he had been responsible for so many people, and it was already causing him some stress.

Moreover, Winters knew very well that he could command more than a thousand people because the auxiliary troops’ commander was a fellow Vinetan from his entering class. The Lieutenants from Vineta shared a camaraderie and were not adverse to listening to him.

COMMENT
0 comment

Vote
3 left

SEND GIFT