The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 65 – Part 1
The Tunkai army began to ascend the mountainous terrain at high speed.
If they deploy follow-up troops along the path they’ve opened, this battle will end.
While Grandis was calmly observing the situation based on this judgment, Klaus was not.
He was shaking with a terrible sense of unease.
“Something’s wrong. There’s something. Something else…”
This was his instinct as a thief.
He felt it.
That they had already fallen into the enemy’s trap.
“Lord Grandis. How about withdrawing our troops? We have nothing to lose by retreating and regrouping.”
“What nonsense are you talking about, Klaus? Lexit is about to bite the enemy’s neck. If we deal with the prey caught in Lexit’s teeth, the battle will be over. Don’t you know that?”
“I know! I know, but…! Damn it, something’s not right!”
“What exactly is wrong? Calm down and explain.”
“It’s…!”
He couldn’t explain it rationally.
It was just his thief’s instinct urging him to flee quickly.
At that moment, the Tunkai unit’s movements became strange.
Rumble! Lexit’s unit, which had been advancing straight towards the high ground, suddenly turned left.
Klaus and Grandis, positioned far away, could vaguely grasp what was happening by seeing the trees shaking and dust rising.
“What’s going on? Why did they change their direction of advance…”
Finally, Grandis also seemed to sense something off and narrowed his eyes.
The Tunkai army’s attack route began to become peculiar.
Meanwhile, the troops started to split into two or three groups, and some units stopped in place to engage in combat.
Just as the army’s cohesion was disrupted, boom! Eonia and Gaspar’s Calliper guerrilla forces cut through the waist, blocking the entry route.
If the army split like this, it could lead to big trouble.
If the army stayed together, they could hold out at least until the follow-up troops arrived, but if they dispersed like this, they could be defeated piecemeal before the reinforcements even arrived.
Seeing the advance troops scatter wildly, Grandis was so shocked that his eyes widened. “What on earth is happening over there!”
“Damn it, that’s why I said we should pull out!” Klaus shouted, losing his composure.
At this point, they couldn’t even retreat.
Klaus, along with Grandis, hurriedly led the organized follow-up troops towards the battlefield.
There, they witnessed it.
Eonia’s guerrilla unit, which had cut through the waist and was blocking the entry route with wooden stakes.
“Quickly set up fences to block the path! The enemy’s follow-up troops will arrive here soon!”
Thud! Thud! Wooden stakes and fences planted in the ground, blocking the terrain.
Along with the standing trees, they were set up throughout the formation, hindering the unit’s advance.
A fortification strategy.
Ars not only infiltrated the enemy formation but also used the time Anton bought to instantly fortify the main camp, turning it into a maze.
“I-Impossible…!” Grandis couldn’t believe it.
To infiltrate the enemy formation and build such a high-level fortress in this short time!
“Could it be!?”
The eccentric act of cutting down trees in their own formation.
It wasn’t for fire attacks.
It was just to obtain the wood needed for fortress construction.
Then why did they deliberately set fires for a fire attack?
That’s simple too.
To hide the army’s infiltration route through the smoke and secure the high ground, and to conceal the carts transporting the wood.
“General! The advance route is blocked by wooden stakes! We need to detour to join the advance troops!”
“Stop talking nonsense! Instead of saying such things, destroy the stakes!”
However, while they spent time destroying the stakes, Eonia’s guerrilla unit blocked the path behind, and Gaspar’s guerrilla unit flanked them, buying time, making it meaningless to destroy and pass through.
“Ah…!” Klaus was in a panic.
Calliper’s intention in using guerrilla forces to separate the advance and follow-up troops was obvious.
They aimed to tie down the follow-up troops as much as possible while annihilating the infiltrated advance troops.
With 20,000 troops in the advance force, if this force is wiped out, the Tunkai army will suffer an irreparable blow.
Moreover, since the enemy has attacked, they’ll have to give up this entire split mountain range.
In other words, they’re facing an unavoidable, perfect defeat.
“W-We’re retreating. We’ll abandon the advanced troops and withdraw!” Klaus made a cold judgment.
It was already difficult to save the advance troops who had fallen into the enemy’s trap, losing their command structure and becoming confused.
Recklessly trying to rescue them could potentially endanger the reinforcements sent in as well.
“Don’t talk nonsense, Klaus!”
It was the first time Grandis, who always maintained a sly attitude, showed anger.
Abandoning the advance troops meant essentially abandoning commander Lexit.
‘One of the Three Great Generals dying in a place like this? Impossible!’
Grandis shouted urgently. “Klaus, from now on, I’ll command the soldiers!”
“Don’t spout bullshit! I’m the army’s commander-in-chief!”
“Ugh…! You bastard, aren’t you afraid of the West’s anger? You should know that as a traitor, it wouldn’t be strange for us to kill you at any time. This time, follow my orders. If you do, I promise on my honor that I’ll persuade the leaders to show you leniency.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake…! Fine! I get it, so use that brilliant mind of yours and do something!”
Klaus made a tearful face.
If he was going to be threatened with death by the Western people even if he ran away, it was better to hope that Grandis could turn this battle situation around.
* * *
Tunkai’s rear forces try to break through the fence and join the advance forces.
Ars tilted his head in surprise.
“Was Klaus Forkner this stupid? He must know there’s no way out beyond this.”
The battle was essentially over the moment the advance forces entered the Calliper camp.
The fortress strategy.
This was called a fortress strategy, but it was a gamble that would end immediately if read.
If the opponent who read this strategy didn’t engage the Calliper army and instead bypassed the forces to cut off supplies, it would be over in reverse.
They had contacted Alvard in advance with that case in mind, but now there was no need to activate Plan B.
“General! We’ve blocked the path as planned!”
“Good. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th mobile units, move as planned and annihilate the enemy! The 2nd and 3rd special operations units will follow the path of the mobile units and set up fences to block!”
“Yes sir!”
Unified command. Duke Hellian, who was nearby, felt chills.
‘What an amazing strategy!’
It was a strategy that defied convention. This wasn’t because Klaus was a thief unfamiliar with military tactics.
Even if the enemy commander had been one of the Ten Heroes, this strategy would have been difficult to read.
‘To use smoke as a decoy pretending to start a fire, and actually use that smoke!’
If the Tunkai side hadn’t initially thought of using fire, this strategy wouldn’t have succeeded. If a real fire had broken out, building a fortress would have been impossible.
‘This guy knew how the opponent would act.’
He used that to his advantage in his strategy, so the opponent had no choice but to fall for it.
“General! The enemy’s rear forces are approaching rapidly!”
“Right now, our priority is to annihilate the enemy troops that have entered our camp. We’ll leave the rear forces to the guerrilla units for now.”
“Yes sir!”
Eonia and Gaspar’s guerrilla units were moving intelligently.
Eonia, who had received detailed tactical orders from Ars, was effectively buying time by cutting off the enemy scouts reconnoitering the fortress using bows, while Gaspar was moving autonomously, causing confusion in the formation by striking the flanks of the rear forces.
The part Ars highly evaluated was Gaspar’s guerrilla unit.
“Hmph, as expected, he’s quite good.”
Gaspar had tactical insight comparable to a top-tier commander when it came to small-scale guerrilla warfare or surprise attacks.
He knew where to strike to hurt the enemy and moved accordingly.
He was the best commander in situations where the enemy’s movements needed to be restricted like this.
“Even so… Time has become a bit tight due to the rear forces coming up.”
Ars went to the front lines himself, directly commanding the officers and eating away at the enemy forces.
The enemy’s advance forces that had entered were getting lost in the maze created by the mountains and fortress, and their numbers were rapidly decreasing.
“…Young master.” Yumir, who had been assigned to watch Lexit, appeared and whispered to Ars. “That person is getting close to the trap.”
“Looks like Anton is doing well. Yumir, you… No, I should go too. Shall we go then?”
“Yes, young master.”
Lexit, the monster-like powerful member of the Three Great Generals.
Ars had no intention whatsoever of letting him escape alive.
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