Chapter 36 Plan 36D

Chapter 36 Plan 36.D
While Murphy was returning to Cadman City with the loot and survivors, the subsequent ripples from that successful interdiction were subtly changing a lot of things.

In the pioneering fortress in the East Prussia region adjacent to Transylvania, a commander dressed in the uniform of a major of the Kingdom of Goldfinch walked briskly to the frontline commander’s office, holding a document in his hand and reaching out again to straighten up his comportment.

After confirming that everything was in order, he reached out and knocked on the closed door.

It wasn’t just a matter of good education and personal grooming habits, but also because the Major was meeting with General Loren, a commander who was strict in all matters.

From the post-war summary of every military operation, to the routes of the military police patrols in the fortress, and even to the seating arrangement of the generals and colonels at the occasional dinners, it was a small matter.

If the commanders of the Pioneer Legion, big and small, and even the big soldiers, don’t want to be reprimanded or punished by the strict general, then doing the best in everything they are responsible for is undoubtedly the right attitude to work with.

General Loren’s famous saying, “Death favors those who do their duty,” provides a glimpse of the general’s character.

“Come in!”

A low voice rang out from the office.

The Major pushed the door in and dryly saluted the General in front of him, who was sitting behind the desk and was looking down at the map, and reported loudly:
“Report General! The frontline special service report has arrived, and one of the encrypted messages requires your immediate attention!”

After saying that, the Major lowered his voice again and said:

“The content is about that ‘cargo’.”

“Hmm?”

The general who was checking the military map tilted his head at the words, revealing a face that was in its prime and clearly defined.

He wasn’t handsome, but his features were as sharp as a knife and axe, and his classic country face, as well as his well-groomed beard gave him a tough, old-fashioned, and sternly heavy look.

He dropped the paintbrush in his hand, stroked his best beard, and jumped out of his own chair, then straightened his general’s lapel pin and strutted over to the major.

At last the general tilted his head and looked at him.

Uh, everyone had rumored that General Loren Frederick had courage and strength that didn’t match his height, and that wasn’t exactly a mealy-mouthed boast or compliment.

It was actually a statement.

General Loren, the Grand Admiral of the Tinsel Kingdom, King Louis’ most trusted commander, a rising star of war from the old Praetorian Guard, the absolute pride of the Grimni Legion, the man who single-handedly built the skeleton of the Pathfinder Legion from scratch during the Ten Years’ War and trained and integrated it into the Kingdom’s number one legion, is a half-dwarf!
He is half Silver Dwarf.

As a result, even though the general’s height was among the tallest among the dwarves, he was still a dwarf in front of the major who was 5’9″.
But no one would underestimate General Loren because of this!
Just as no one dared to underestimate the deadly battle axe that dwarves wielded on the battlefield.

Those who dare to speak ill of him on the subject of height will probably not live to see the next day’s sun, and there is an unwritten rule in the Pioneer Corps that the word “short” is to be avoided in both official and private conversations throughout the Corps.

Please note that this is not a request!
Though the General declared in front of all the soldiers on the first day of the army that he didn’t care for them to discuss his height, the Dwarven half of General Loren’s blood has always been quietly and stubbornly in effect.

And as we all know, the image of dwarves on the continent is famous for their careful eyes.

In the third month of the army’s existence, after a certain brave alternate captain of the first was thrown into the front line for drunkenly mouthing off about the enemy’s lack of courage like dwarf rats, everyone understood where the general’s bottom line was.

Although that alternate captain was lucky enough to survive four bitter battles and rise all the way to colonel, it had to be said that it was still a sad story.

Right now in his office, General Loren had his hands behind his back, staring up at the major in front of him who was particularly tall and irritated him, but who was super good at his job and had a super hard background, the latter maintaining his military posture and staring straight ahead, without any rudeness that could be picked on by him.

So General Loren asked in a hushed voice:
“What’s wrong with my shipment? According to the timetable, it should have reached the Andromeda Hills area by now.”

“The transport was ambushed, Your Excellency General.”

The Major walked quickly to the military map of the Transylvanian region on the wall and picked up a red peg pinned precisely next to the filthy swamp.

He pointed there and addressed the frowning General:

“It happened last night, around 21 o’clock, sixty elite Blood Vulture Midnight Hunters and their armed Blood Servants launched an attack on a transport convoy that had just left the Filth Swamp, the psychic in charge of the convoy did a resolute resistance and asked the warriors of the Wolfsbane Clan to escort the cargo to leave first.

But the cunning vampires set up an early interception at the end of the smuggler’s woodland, and our brave soldiers ultimately failed, and the cargo has been confirmed lost.”

“And how did this news get back?”

General Loren didn’t dwell on the fact that he had spent a great deal of money on purchasing something that had been taken from him per se, but instead asked rhetorically:
“So the caravan wasn’t completely wiped out? If any of them survived, why did they only provide me with such a poor debriefing? Who was the enemy commander in charge of the interception operation? And who was the last vampire to have access to the cargo?

And most importantly what about the course of the battle?
Did you just muddle through with the words ‘resolute resistance’?
That convoy reached 240 people in escorts alone!
All of them were veterans who had fought in more than three great wars, and I also sent the outstanding witch hunters from the White Oak Warband to assist in the defense, and the high-ranking psychics from the Tower of the Ring as the spell power.

Such a force can fight against 1,000 armed blood servants on the battlefield! But it couldn’t even stop 60 vampires?
Something must have gone wrong with the command!
The convoy’s commander better really be dead in battle, or I’ll be sure to have him court-martialed!”

“About that matter.”

The major, who was already used to the general’s strictness in these details, glanced at the document in his hand and reported:
“Only three psychics survived the convoy, the rest of the warriors were all killed in battle, but they wiped out all the invading vampires and blood servants, which was confirmed by His Excellency Fenok, the White Oak Battle Leader who went to support them at the last minute.

All members of the enemy party were killed except for the commander, and it can also be confirmed that it was the Midnight Hunter Rangers, the most elite of the Blood Vulture Clan, who sneaked up on us.”

“Wiped out 60 Midnight Hunters at once? That’s the same as taking out Salokdar’s entire two elite Night Charge squads in one battle? Good!”

The general raised an eyebrow and nodded:
“Not bad for my soldiers! Well done!
Write down the names of these soldiers, report them to the military ministry with military honors, apply for ‘warrior’ pensions for their families, send their children to the Chungshi Academy if they want to join the army, and subsidize their families with an additional death allowance of three months of military pay in the name of the Pathfinder Legion.

I’ll pay 90%, and all commanders of the direct troops will pay 10%.

You’ll take care of this personally.

Also, why is old Finok in the Filthy Swamp? Shouldn’t he be commanding his witch hunters to conduct a tactical cover along the line from Andromeda Hills to Cadman City?”

“It’s because of the rescue of the captives, General. During a previous encounter in the village of Moorland, several witch-hunter veterans were captured by vampires, and Lord Finok was there to rescue them.”

The Major immediately explained:
“According to the intelligence sent back by His Excellency Finok, the vampires’ ambush could be detected by the caravan ahead of time precisely because the several captives broke free with a mind that faced death head on and risked their lives to set the vampire’s rear encampment ablaze, and it was the light of the fires that provided the caravan with a signal of warning averting the result of their being attacked from the shadows.

The psychic who survived emphasized in his debriefing that the attack was due to a leak of information, and that the vampires were able to pinpoint the time and route of the transport.

This proved that the Pathfinder Legion had their eyes inside.

After the staff’s assessment, we believe that this hidden danger does exist, Your Excellency the General.”

“We’re fighting a war in vampire territory, and isn’t it normal for the Blood Wyvern Clan, which has been entrenched in the Transylvania region for over 400 years, to raise some human traitors?”

General Loren waved his hand unconcernedly and said:
“Sniffing out and executing traitors is not something we frontline fighters need to think about, the Military Justice Department will take over what comes next, did they mention the final whereabouts of the cargo in their debriefing?”

“No, General, Lord Finok is escorting the seven wounded back to the East Prussia area at this time, and tactical masking and reconnaissance by the White Oak Warband has been completed.”

The Major replied:
“The witch hunters have suffered some heavy losses, but I’m sure they’re still willing to risk another pursuit if you must recover the cargo. It’s a three-day journey from the Filthy Swamp to Cadman City, and with the speed at which the witch hunters are moving, they can make it in time…” “No, give up.”

General Loren thought about it and shook his head decisively:

“If it was in the past, I definitely wouldn’t take this loss, but the situation has changed now. Fraser, if I remember correctly, you’ve been at the frontline for three years now, homesick?
Miss your fiancée that you’ve never met?”

The general’s sudden switch of questions made the major freeze.

He had rarely seen a general talk about his personal life in the barracks, and after a second’s thought answered:

“It is my mission to serve for the victory of King Louis and the glory of the Golden Sparrow, General, and my family supports me, so”

“Don’t say platitudes!”

The general glared at him, then shook his head:
“Write a letter to your family, in half a month at the most, you will be able to return home to them.”

“Huh?”

The Major was truly surprised this time, but he reacted quickly and exclaimed:
“This general, you mean that the war is ending? But. But we haven’t attacked Transylvania yet! Our intelligence gathering on the Blood Vulture has only just been completed!
There is only a month left in the training of our new recruits, and as long as everything is ready, we can launch a determined and devastating attack at any time, and the corrupt and superstitious Transians will not be able to hold back our forces!
It took us ten years to get here, General!

This is the last step in the annexation of the Bosnian Confederacy for His Majesty the King. How can we give up here!

This must be a traitor beside the King and in the Grand Council!”

The young major shouted with righteous indignation:

“How can those fellows, who are at peace in the rear, end the war at this time when we are on the verge of victory? No, those fatuous fools betrayed and sold us out!”

“Shut up!”

Hearing the school officer under his command getting more and more out of line, General Loren scolded fiercely, taking out a dwarven pipe and playing with it in his hand, he glanced at his subordinate and said in a long drawn out voice:

“Yearning for war is the nature of the young, mastering war is the duty of the commander, and enjoying war is the privilege of the veteran, but recklessly expecting war tsk, that’s unadulterated stupidity.

The whole country has been maintained in a state of war for ten years, and His Majesty’s reform of the fledgling nation has been delayed too long.

It’s just the right time for this lousy war to end.

As for the reason, it’s not what you think, Fraser.”

General Loren sighed, lit his tobacco, and handed the Major the half-drawn military map on his desk in the midst of the smoke.

The latter took it in both hands and scanned it before his eyes widened.

He lost his voice and said:

“This! The Kingdom of Nordtorf has sent troops?”

“Well, on the eastern front of the Bosian Confederacy, as you and I were talking, the finest legions of Winter Wolves under that young but fierce ‘Wolf Woman’ sire have crossed the military buffer zone along the line from Ice Bay to Transylvania.

They are going to pummel the rotten giant hard from behind the Confederacy of Portia, a kingly pact between King Louis and the Wolf Woman that took place just after the Third Battle of Saxe two months ago.”

The general enjoyed his tobacco and explained slowly:
“There’s no need for the Pathfinder Legion to even advance any further, all we need to do is station ourselves on the ground to maintain the Kingdom’s occupation of the East Prussia, Sachse, and Cato regions, and leave the rest to those savage and warlike Yankees.

They’ll help us take out the last vestiges of resistance from the Bohemian Confederacy, and of course, as meat to throw to the hungry wolves, the Ice Bay region and the Great Plains of Kafhoka are theirs for the taking after the war.

The entire Portia Confederacy will be history after this battle.

As for Transylvania.”

The short general craned his head to look at the map hanging on the wall.

The Transylvania region on the map was long and narrow, bordered by the Ice Bay in the north and the Dark Mountains in the south, and it was located in the center of the continent like a “natural barrier”, separating the new territories that the Kingdom of Canary Blossom had just hunted for and the two powerful human countries of the Kingdom of Nordoff on both sides.

General Loren rubbed his beard and sneered:

“The territories of two lions can’t directly border each other, that would only trigger a more violent confrontation, but right now neither side is ready to enter the next war.

As a result, the Transylvania region will be carved out as an autonomous territory, or possibly a principality, who knows?

The next war will take place at the negotiating table of politicians, where their tongues and the pens in their hands will decide.

But, Fraser, the war that belongs to us soldiers is over.”

The major listened in silence to the general’s explanation.

He knew that General Loren was trying to use his mouth to deliver this information to the middle ranks of the Pathfinder Corps, in order to pacify in advance the commanders who were belligerent and eager for military honors.

In his own heart, he was actually quite satisfied with the result.

After fighting for so many years, he was honestly tired of fighting.

When the war started he was still a student in Port Chardonnay, but now he was old enough to get married and have children, and the worst part was that the fiancée the family chose for him was said to be great in every way, but the problem was that he wasn’t questioned about the whole thing almost the whole time.

There was simply no involvement at all!
Still, on the surface, the Major said indignantly:
“But just let them off the hook? General, those damned vampires just robbed you and stomped the entire Pathfinder Corps in the face, and ending it like that won’t sit well with the soldiers.

As you taught us, the honor of a warrior is above all else!
We can lose our heads, but not our knees!”

“Of course they won’t be let off so easily, I only said that the two kings would dismember the Porcian Confederacy, I didn’t say that I would let those vampires continue to rule this closed land with glee.”

General Loren revealed a cold smile and picked up a pen from the table and played with it for a moment, then with a flick of his wrist, with a thud, the pen lodged on the map like a flying knife.

It was nailed right on the location of Cadman City.

He said:

“Major Fraser, help me contact the resident psychic of the Tower of the Ring and the patriarch of the Wolfsbane Clan, I’m going to activate Program D!

We may not be able to step into Cadman City as victors, but I’ll show those lawless vampires that the time belonging to them is over.

It will be ended by my legions themselves!”

(End of chapter)