Chapter 112: Great Victory
The Oran knights ambushing within Dolrcocha numbered not a hundred thousand, not a million, not even ten million – merely nine hundred.
Initially, Charlotte worried that a night raid by nine hundred knights wouldn't be enough to decisively defeat the North Soqya Frontline reinforcements. So, after having Old Jack lead the main force to retreat some distance, she led two griffin knight squads away from the main force and hid them in the mountains east of Dolrcocha.
If the battle in the city turned unfavorable, Charlotte would light a beacon fire. Upon receiving the signal, the griffin squads only needed one charge to reach Dolrcocha's walls, support the ambush force, or cover their retreat.
However, the speed at which the Badan army collapsed during the first night raid exceeded Charlotte's estimation.
Those fleeing Badan citizen-soldiers made Charlotte realize a fact – even if some soldiers possessed superhuman strength, the armies of this era were still just ancient armies. They possessed all the shortcomings expected of ancient armies: slow command systems, fragile organization, and almost nonexistent initiative...
Thus, incidents like camp routs happened as a matter of course.
Nine hundred soldiers from the Lanwan Viscountcy chased and cut down over six thousand Badan troops. The Badan army routed completely, unable to mount any semblance of a counterattack. Before dawn, the battle concluded.
After the battle, Rayne Nazares reported capturing several prisoners. From them, Charlotte learned of the impending arrival of the Camela army.
In the original battle plan, Charlotte had intended only one night raid. But the poor performance of the Badan army and the North Soqya Frontline's tactic of feeding troops in piecemeal gave Charlotte another idea: she decided to repeat the trick.
An old saying goes, "Do not set repeated ambushes in the same place." This world had similar military common sense, but common sense often creates blind spots. The more the enemy believed something wouldn't happen, the greater the chance of success by doing the opposite.
Giving Charlotte the courage to defy convention was another piece of information provided by the prisoners – due to insufficient ships, Camela's force this time numbered only slightly over two thousand.
Charlotte wasn't worried that these two thousand-plus Camela citizen-soldiers could defeat her nine hundred men. Rather, she felt that two thousand-plus Camela soldiers likely couldn't control three to four thousand Badan citizen-soldiers who were already spooked like birds startled by the twang of a bowstring.
Charlotte used a reverse empty fort strategy, making the North Soqya Frontline allied forces once again mistakenly believe she had withdrawn. Then, at dawn, when people are most drowsy, she launched another night raid.
As Charlotte had predicted, the demoralized Badan citizen-soldiers broke at the first touch. The fleeing soldiers quickly overwhelmed the smaller Camela force.
This time, because the west and south gates were blocked with stones, which the Badan and Camela allies hadn't had time to clear, the routed soldiers could only flee by detouring through the west and east city gates, significantly lengthening their escape route.
A longer escape route meant much heavier casualties.
Splash, splash...
Dressed in simple cloth, Charlotte stepped through the filthy muddy water, walking along Dolrcocha's streets. Everywhere she looked, she saw corpses strewn haphazardly, or the severely wounded in their final moments. The mud in the roadside ditches had been stained red over and over these past few days, now appearing almost black.
The Oran knights leaned against walls, slumped on steps, or simply lay in the rain, breathing heavily. Days of tense hiding and high-intensity combat had nearly exhausted the knights' spirits and stamina. As soon as the battle ended, many collapsed from exhaustion.
"Your Excellency." Herman Green came to Charlotte's side, saluting respectfully.
"What are our casualties?" Charlotte asked.
"Excluding the Gray Cloak Knights, our army suffered sixteen killed, twenty-two seriously wounded, and three hundred fourteen lightly wounded," Herman Green reported.
Charlotte nodded slightly, then asked, "And our gains?"
"A rough count indicates enemy casualties of approximately three thousand five hundred," Herman Green said.
Charlotte couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. In the first night raid, the Oran knights had eliminated only about thirteen hundred enemies, with the rest mostly scattering. These scattered enemies would eventually return to Badan, allowing the Badan citizen-soldiers to gradually recover their strength. The second ambush was the true great victory.
Although many casualties in the second night raid were caused by Badan and Camela citizen-soldiers fighting each other in the dark, for Charlotte, it didn't matter who killed whom.
Two night raids, nearly five thousand enemies eliminated in total. Two major city-states almost directly crippled.
Oh, and Dolrcocha had to be added to the list.
Whoosh, Thump...
A gust of wind blew the fine rain.
A majestic griffin landed in the city, and Jack Moore descended from its back.
"Viscountess, our two griffin squads sank six enemy ships. The rest all escaped," Old Jack reported to Charlotte with some regret.
Because the battle in the city had gone too smoothly, Charlotte had dispatched the griffin squads, which had come to support after receiving the beacon signal, to intercept the Badan fleet preparing to leave port.
In terms of attack power alone, a griffin's attack exceeded what was needed against Badan warships; almost a single dive could severely damage a ship. However, the problem was that griffins couldn't swim. If one dove headfirst into the water, it was tantamount to suicide.
Therefore, in naval battles, the griffins' advantage was not obvious, especially since Old Jack only had two griffins.
Charlotte wasn't too concerned, shaking her head and saying, "Let them escape. Those few dozen ships won't affect the overall situation."
"In this battle, we defeated three city-states at once. The North Soqya Frontline is practically finished," Charlotte analyzed. "Gentlemen, you fought beautifully in this battle. Next, we will likely face the vigilance of all the city-states on the entire Soqya Peninsula. The naval gap between us and these city-states cannot be closed by just a few dozen ships. In the future, our main battlefield should still be on land."
The Soqya Peninsula had a developed shipbuilding industry. The Ivy Alliance and the Delmore Alliance had engaged in major naval battles involving over five hundred ships more than once in recent years.
This didn't mean Charlotte could contend with both sides simultaneously just by building five hundred warships. A powerful navy required not only sufficient ships but also commanders skilled in naval warfare, proficient sailors, deep naval traditions, and so on. These were all shortcomings of the land-focused Oran Empire.
Therefore, in the upcoming conquest to unify the Soqya Peninsula, Charlotte still needed to rely primarily on her army, supplemented by her navy.
"But that's all for later," Charlotte smiled again. "Right now, the most urgent thing is to lead everyone home and then heavily reward my brave warriors!"
"Let's go, withdraw the troops!" Charlotte raised her seemingly unimposing fist, waved it, and shouted.
"Awooo..."
Despite their exhaustion, the knights responded to Charlotte with a fervent cheer.
After a brief rest, the dust-covered Oran knights finally began their journey home.
Before leaving this repeatedly ravaged battlefield, Herman Green couldn't help but look back one last time. He saw a dilapidated city, completely broken order, devastated buildings, and numb, fearful, grieving, weeping refugees.
"What's wrong? Are you injured somewhere?" Robin Mancini, passing by, noticed Herman Green had suddenly stopped and asked curiously.
Robin and Herman were both part of Charlotte's old guard, having followed her for nearly ten years. They were very familiar with each other. Herman shook his head and answered honestly, "No, I just feel that continuous see-saw battles in a city cause too much harm to the people here."
"Heh..." Robin sighed with a smile, dismissing it. "Knight Herman, you're overthinking again. If we don't finish the fight in the enemy's city, we'll have to fight on the Viscountess's territory. Can't you understand such simple reasoning?"
"You have a point..." Herman nodded slightly.
Although it made sense, Herman's tightly knit brow did not relax.
Robin shrugged. He knew Herman wasn't fully convinced by his reasoning, but he couldn't be bothered to say more. Herman was meticulous by nature, while Robin was a roguish knight. Initially, when Robin served under Herman Green, he was often reprimanded by Herman. The two never saw eye-to-eye anyway.
Meanwhile, Badan City-State.
Cleon, the elder of Fidi, returned to Badan, brimming with confidence.
Months ago, after visiting the Lanwan Viscountcy, he had visited these northern Soqyan city-states one by one, explaining the threat posed by the Lanwan Viscountcy, emphasizing the importance of the Soqyan city-states uniting against the southward advance of the Oran people, and organizing the formation of the North Soqya Frontline.
And what was the result?
At the time, these city-states paid lip service, saying "yes, yes," and "good, good," but when it came to actual action, they dragged their feet, made excuses, and ultimately, the North Soqya Frontline never truly materialized, leaving Cleon fuming.
Now, these dawdling city-states finally understood his wisdom back then and proactively invited him back!
Looking at the elders from Badan, Little Sassinian, Sudaman, and Koloro who were already waiting at the dock to welcome him, Cleon suddenly found a peculiar pleasure in making those who initially disagreed with him submit willingly.
"Elder Cleon," As soon as Cleon disembarked, Elder Lester of Badan greeted him warmly with a smile, "Welcome after your long journey. Badan has prepared a delicious banquet to welcome you."
"Let's talk about the banquet later," Cleon put on a stern face, waved his hand, and said seriously, "I didn't come here for vacation or food this time; I came to eliminate the Oran people. First, tell me about the situation and the forces you have prepared."
The current situation was vastly different from when they had voted to invite Cleon to command the North Soqya Frontline. Lester and the other elders had originally planned to discuss matters over the banquet, but this Elder Cleon seemed quite impatient. Lester had no choice but to give Cleon a brief summary right there on the dock.
"The Oran people attacked Dolrcocha."
Lester's opening words startled Cleon.
"What? The war has already begun?" Cleon said in surprise.
"Yes," Lester nodded. "To save Dolrcocha from the Oran people, Badan and Camela have already dispatched citizen-soldiers to the Dolrcocha battlefield."
"The Viscount of Lanwan is truly despicable and shameless!"
Thinking of Charlotte made Cleon's anger flare.
Cleon came from humble origins, so he was always sensitive and hated being looked down upon. To make people respect him, Cleon had climbed unscrupulously since his youth. To reach the pinnacle of power in Fidi, he was even willing to send his own father-in-law, who had treated him like a son, to his death.
Originally, Cleon thought that after becoming an elder of Fidi, no one would dare look down on him anymore. However, his contact with Charlotte shattered that belief.
Although Charlotte always maintained the proper etiquette of a noble in Cleon's presence, Cleon could keenly sense that the noble young lady didn't take him seriously at all.
The final experience of being scared by the griffin and wetting his pants was taken by Cleon as a personal humiliation orchestrated by Charlotte.
Thus, after returning from the Lanwan Viscountcy, Cleon immediately decided on the strategy of forming the North Soqya Frontline. He absolutely had to teach that little bitch a lesson.
"How many citizen-soldiers did you dispatch?" Cleon asked again.
"Badan sent six thousand men, Camela sent over two thousand, for a total of about eight thousand plus citizen-soldiers," Lester replied.
Hearing this number, Cleon finally smiled. "Excellent! Under my command, eight thousand citizen-soldiers are enough to drive the Viscount of Lanwan out of the Soqya Peninsula!"
Just then, a fast boat flying the Badan city-state flag rushed into the harbor. Docking hastily, it collided with Cleon's flagship with a loud "Bang!".
Cleon couldn't help but frown.
Lester was about to reprimand them when he saw a blood-stained Giovanni Draghi stumbling off the fast boat.
"General Giovanni?" Lester's heart skipped a beat. He quickly shouted, "How did you end up like this?"
Cleon saw the wretched state of Giovanni and the few Badan citizen-soldiers accompanying him off the boat, and a sense of foreboding arose in his heart.
Indeed, upon seeing Lester, Giovanni, this renowned general of Badan, actually burst into tears, clinging to Lester and sobbing, "Defeated, defeated, we were defeated! Elder, Elder, the Oran people are simply too terrifying..."
"Who was defeated? How were you defeated? Explain clearly!" Cleon grabbed Giovanni and demanded sternly.
Giovanni recounted the battle situation between sobs: "Everyone was defeated! Our Badan citizen-soldiers were defeated, the Camela citizen-soldiers were also defeated, Elder Alvaro is missing! The Oran people tricked us into a trap and ambushed us, ambushed us twice, twice..."
"Then how many of your citizen-soldiers are left?" Cleon asked again.
Giovanni looked blankly back at the few stragglers who had disembarked with him, then answered, "Including me, there are... eight left."
Eight thousand reduced to eight!
Cleon felt like vomiting blood at that moment.
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