Ch.624Memories of Army Truck

The advantage of high ground is the overwhelmingly wide field of vision. Just by looking down, one can grasp the enemy’s movements at a glance.

“They’ve pulled back their main cavalry?”

“Yes. About twenty-five thousand troops have left the main camp and disappeared.”

The news that nearly half of Aishan’s forces marching toward the wall had vanished reached Ludwig’s ears just hours after Orhan had moved his troops.

Aishan’s cavalry had moved carefully under cover of darkness to delay detection by the imperial army, but this only bought them a short time until daybreak.

As the morning sun rose in the eastern sky, the bright sunlight illuminated Aishan’s camp, clearly revealing that nearly half the tents had disappeared.

“Are they retreating? Perhaps there’s a problem in their rear…”

“No, I don’t think so. It’s too early for that.”

Ludwig, seated at the head of the military conference room, rejected his aide’s speculation.

“If the situation in the Great Plains were unstable enough to shake their rear, they wouldn’t have marched here in the first place.”

It might be different if they had been fighting for three months, but the proper siege had only begun a few days ago. It was far too early to hope for chaos in the enemy’s rear.

It seemed unlikely that the warrior nation of the steppes, ruled by Orhan, would be so disorderly that rebellion would break out just seven weeks after he began his campaign.

“…Then they must be planning to strike elsewhere, beyond our sight. Are they trying to bypass the wall through the Dane border like nine years ago?”

Unlike nine years ago, if the Ka’har now targeted the Empire through Dane territory, the Empire would struggle to counter them.

Back then, the Empire was peaceful, and the imperial army was intact, allowing them to mobilize four legions to stop Orhan’s forces, but…

‘That’s impossible now. We can’t empty the western border, and the remaining two legions are already at their limit just dealing with the monster problem.’

If by chance Orhan’s forces passed through Dane and reached imperial territory, Ludwig would have no choice but to withdraw troops defending the wall to stop them—engaging in a battle with less than a thirty percent chance of victory.

‘If they reach us, that is.’

However, the likelihood of that happening was low.

“I doubt Orhan would attempt a strategy that failed once before. And Dane’s strength is vastly different from before, so they won’t be easily breached.”

Thanks to Heinrich’s operation, the Danes in the border region had all been killed or enslaved, and upon hearing this news, Dane’s main forces had halted their war with Panam and rushed toward the eastern border.

Vowing to burn all the Ka’har to death.

Even for the Ka’har, breaking through Dane’s main forces with over a thousand mages would require considerable time and massive sacrifices.

Besides, unless Orhan had planted spies in the imperial military, how would he know that the current Empire lacked the capacity to mobilize four legions?

From Orhan’s perspective, bypassing the wall would mean defeating Dane’s main forces after great hardship, only to face four imperial legions. Unless he had gone senile, he wouldn’t choose such a route.

Therefore, Ludwig wasn’t overly concerned about the Dane front.

The Dane front, that is.

“Then…”

The aide, finally reaching the same conclusion as Ludwig, looked at him with cold sweat.

Ludwig nodded, confirming the aide’s suspicion while exhaling smoke mixed with a sigh. If they weren’t retreating and weren’t targeting Dane, there was only one answer.

“They plan to divide their forces and target poorly defended sections.”

This was the worst development for Ludwig.

If he distributed troops evenly along the wall, each soldier would have to defend an area of several meters, and if he only defended strategic points, the enemy would attack the unguarded sections.

To stop the Ka’har’s dispersed siege, Ludwig would need to place a similar number of troops precisely at the points they attacked.

An impossible task.

‘Infantry can’t catch up with them, and cavalry can’t defend walls. Imperial cavalry aren’t trained for siege defense. How could troops who don’t even know how to handle bows defend walls?’

Perhaps this is what they mean by knowing you’ll be defeated but being unable to prevent it. It was a strategy that sharply exploited the wall’s only weakness—that it was “too long.”

The Empire in its prime could have handled this by deploying another legion as a reserve force to defend contested areas. However, the current Empire was already at its mobilization limit with just two legions.

In other words—

‘…There’s no way to stop them.’

That was Ludwig’s conclusion.

‘Not with orthodox methods.’

It was also the moment his strategic plan would be put to the test.

======[ Haschal ]======

Orhan had come up with the bizarre strategy of dispersed mobile siege warfare. To counter this, Ludwig had summoned the key figures of the defense force to the command post for a military council. Including me.

“If the difference in mobility is the problem, couldn’t I step in?”

I asked, fidgeting with the cigarette I was smoking.

I understood Ludwig’s explanation. If the Ka’har scattered their forces and probed different parts of the wall, the imperial army wouldn’t be able to keep up with their movements and would be breached.

However, if I intervened directly, it would be different. I could move faster than Ka’har cavalry and easily slaughter about a thousand on my own.

If I rode Cascador or flew along the wall to pick off scattered enemies one by one, we could probably handle it without much difficulty.

But…

“That won’t do,” Ludwig shook his head.

“Orhan won’t ignore the opportunity when you’re away. He’ll likely attempt a full-scale offensive with his war chiefs.”

“…That’s true.”

It was an undeniable point. Just as I could sense Orhan’s momentum, he too would immediately notice my absence.

If that flying bastard targeted our main camp while I was gone, the forces here would struggle to hold him off. Even if they succeeded, they would suffer tremendous casualties.

“This is troubling. Even if we tried to conduct a siege defense with cavalry like them, we only have seven thousand cavalry. And they’re only trained for mounted combat…”

The commander of the Empire’s 3rd Legion, Frederick, muttered while clicking his tongue. As he said, the situation was extremely difficult.

Defending the wall required infantry and archers, but they were too slow. The cavalry, who could move quickly, were too few in number and not suitable for siege defense.

To counter Orhan’s ploy, we needed an infantry group with mobility comparable to cavalry, but such a unit couldn’t possibly exist…

Ah.

Come to think of it, it might not be impossible.

“Lord Frederick. About the imperial cavalry—are the horses in good condition? I mean the mounts, not the riders.”

“Of course. Since we’re facing the Ka’har, I can proudly say we’ve selected only the finest warhorses the Empire possesses. Speed, strength, endurance—they’re top-quality military horses lacking nothing.”

“That’s good.”

Frederick tilted his head, seemingly not understanding the intent of my question, but he gave me the best answer I could have hoped for.

“But why do you ask…?”

All eyes in the room focused on me. Questioning gazes, as if wondering if I had a good strategy. They seemed to be thinking, “We don’t expect much, but if you’ve thought of something, let’s hear it.”

“The problem is that cavalry can’t fight properly, and infantry is too slow, right? Then, why not disband the cavalry altogether and use those horses to transport infantry? If we load infantry onto wooden carts, we could move a significant number of troops much faster than on foot.”

I wasn’t sure if it was a realistic idea. In the world I came from, transporting soldiers in military trucks was completely normal, but trucks and horse-drawn carts were vastly different means of transportation.

But then again, the horses here were quite different from Earth’s horses. Perhaps because the environment itself was different, the creatures here—whether horses or people—were generally more robust than on Earth.

Even a fruit vendor from the marketplace could probably take down four or five Earth humans of the same age in a fight.

“Transport infantry… by cart…”

“Like chariots? Chariot units are already obsolete. I’m not sure if this would be effective.”

“That’s different. If we aim only for transportation rather than combat, we could minimize the weight of the carts.”

The commanders gathered at the headquarters debated among themselves, discussing the feasibility of my proposal.

It was hardly an ingenious plan, but from their discussion, it seemed it wasn’t completely impractical either.

“Even with weight reduction, it would be difficult to match cavalry speed… but it’s worth considering.”

If even Ludwig said this much, it must have some merit.