The Strategist Knows Everything - Volume 3 Chapter 2
Part III: The Imperial State Edition
Chapter 2: Defensive Battle (4)
Translated by: Hiro02
Edited by: SevenTails
“Thank you! You’ve given me more than enough time!”
“Tell that to all four of them. Although, they’re still going to have more to work.”
While I was thinking about this, I arrived at the headquarters in the rear where Fio was. Staff members and liaison officers were hurriedly working around Fio.
The command center was functioning well. At this rate, even if the enemy had more than twice as many troops and overwhelmingly superior firepower, we would be able to withstand them, but we’re not here to defend this fort. We came here to force the enemy to retreat at the very least. It wasn’t enough to just endure the enemy’s attack.
“What do we need to do to force the enemy to retreat?” Fio turned to me and asked.
The nearby staff officer looks a little displeased with me.
Of course, if Fio were to ask me, then the staff chiefs wouldn’t know what they are there for, but still.
We didn’t have the luxury of worrying about our personal feelings right now. We’ve gained the advantage, and we were pushing, but we were still outnumbered and outgunned. The moment we lose our momentum, we will be back to being outmatched.
It was a race against time.
We needed to think fast and act fast.
“Damage. You must inflict heavy damage, or make it look like you have, to make the commander believe that his forces are outnumbered.”
“That Dick or whatever his name is in command, right? With the difference in numbers, I’m sure he’ll be willing to take some damage, right?”
“Yeah. His job is to take down this fort, and he’s willing to make sacrifices to do so, but they have more battles to come. The fact that they divided their forces to capture the three forts meant that they had to meet up somewhere. However, it would be difficult to do so with a heavily damaged army. Somewhere, they have to draw a line between their losses.”
“If we can find it, we can force them to retreat.”
When it comes to Earth’s military, an army is considered annihilated when it loses about 30% to 40% of its forces. I don’t know if that also applied to this world’s armies, but it can still serve as a standard.
Why those numbers, you ask? Simple. It’s because when an army loses 30% to 40% of its members, it cannot function as an army anymore.
If a human were to lose between 30% and 40% of their body, it’ll be difficult for them to walk.1 It is similar when it comes to the army.
In this respect, one of the criteria for making the enemy retreat is achieving enough damage to prevent them from completing their objective.
Thus, it becomes necessary to think like the enemy. It is an important thing, but quite a difficult task.
“Fio. What is the enemy’s ultimate goal?”
“I think it’s the conquest of the Empire.”
“What is the intermediate goal then?”
“Hmm, to capture Ferrenor, perhaps?”
“If that’s the case, they’ll retreat if we cause them enough damage to make it impossible for them to capture Ferrenor.”
It was easy to say, but not easy to do. For the Albion army, 30,000 troops would probably be enough to capture Ferrenor. Even if Fio’s uncle was attached to his position as the Grand Protector, Ferrenor was not a fortress. It was a city. If it were to be surrounded by 30,000 troops, it would inevitably fall.
At present, the number of Albion troops attacking the fort was about 30,000, with 40,000 in the rear. The 40,000 troops were probably going to move to capture the remaining two forts, but even if they didn’t, they were still 40,000 troops standing in the rear.
Even if they lost their entire 30,000 troops, as long as they took down the fort, they would have an army of 40,000 to invade Ferrenor.
But.
“If they don’t capture the three forts at the same time, they will have an army behind them waiting while trying to capture Ferrenor. I think they want to avoid that. If we think about it, we can predict that they will attack all three forts without fail…”
“Yeah. If that’s the premise, then the army attacking Fort Raire needs an overwhelming victory. If they attack Fort Hauser, they will have to expend at least the same number of men, so if they attack with 40,000, they will probably lose between 15,000 to 20,000 troops. That leaves them with about 20,000, and even those 20,000 will not be in perfect condition. So I think that the army attacking Fort Raire should have at least 30,000 troops… Don’t you think?” Fio asked, thinking as if she were the enemy’s commander.
There were probably still troops left in Albion. With that in mind, what the 70,000-strong invasion force needed to do this time was to capture Ferrenor. Once they captured it, they would begin to reorganize their forces.
That’s why, at any cost, the 40,000 that were going to attack Ferrnor should be left behind. I’m not sure how much damage the army currently attacking Fort Rair was allowed to take, though.
“Ten thousand at most?”
“I believe so. The less, the better. I think that the number of forces they would consider losing before retreating is between 6,000 and 7,000. It’s probably what they are thinking of too.
“Oh. Yeah, that’s something we can manage.”
We’ll cut off 6,000 to 7,000 of the 30,000, and if their numbers remain the same, we would still have 8,000 soldiers in the fort. If we took the time to go on the defensive, it wouldn’t be easy to go on the offensive and cut down that many soldiers. In any case, we were overwhelmingly inferior in frontal firepower.
There was no way to win in a head-on battle of renketsu magic. In fact, we couldn’t even shoot at each other. We were too busy defending ourselves. While Fio and I were talking, the Imperial Army was already turning on the defensive.
In order to defend against renketsu magic, we need collective defensive magic.2 It’s like a sword and shield. When one takes the one role, the other cannot take that same role.
If magic weren’t an option, then it would be a deadly battle between infantry. If we managed to destroy the vanguard attacking us, we could probably take down about 6,000 targets, but in exchange, we would also take significant damage and wouldn’t be able to defend the fort anymore.
Realistically speaking, it would be difficult to inflict 6,000 to 7,000 casualties with this force, but we don’t need to kill 6,000 soldiers. All we needed to do is to neutralize those 6,000.
“Fio. Lend me your sorcerers.”
“We can’t leave our defences too thin, so we can’t send too many people out there, okay?”
“It’s all right. We’ll just take out the enemy commander.”
The enemy commander was Dick. Although I didn’t think that we could take him out, there were still many assistants around him. Attacking Dick meant attacking the enemy’s core.
An army is a living thing, and the best way to crush it quickly is to go after the head.
To kill as many enemy generals and troop commanders as it takes to neutralize 6,000 people. That was what I was simply going to do.
And there’s one person in my crew who’s the best at that kind of work.
“Captain Ars. I’m going to take care of the enemy generals, so can you get rid of the frontline commanders?”
He was not surprised by my words but simply responded with his usual grin and belligerent smile.
■■■
Clearing out the commanders on the front lines did not mean that we were going to hit the enemy forces. The only one who could do that was Kaguya-sama.
Captain Ars was going to take care of the Albion soldiers who had come up to the fort and were giving orders.
“Mikana and Roy will assist Captain Ars. Erica and I will launch an attack on the enemy’s center.”
With that simple instruction, I stepped forward with Erica and the sorcerers Fio had sent me.
“Shouldn’t we have Roy as an escort?”
“With just Mikana and Captain Ars, what if something goes wrong?”
“Do you realize that you’re the last person we want to have to worry about?”
“Yes, I do, and that’s why you’re here, aren’t you, Erica? I’m counting on you, Guren no Majo-san.3 ” I told Erica, who was next to me.
She gave me a serious and bewildered look.
It’s weird. What did I say that was so strange?
“Is it that weird?”
“No. It’s not. I’m just surprised that you trust me so much.”
“Trust? You didn’t actually think I didn’t trust you until now?”
“I thought the only person you really trusted in Nox was Mikana.”
That wasn’t true. No, well, if you asked me who I trust the most, I would definitely name Mikana, but that didn’t mean I don’t trust everyone else.
“We’ve been through so much together.”
“I’m royalty of a country that was destroyed by Velis, a woman whose life has been ruined by a man. Don’t you think I’d betray you?”
“Is that what you were thinking?”
It was Erica’s words that surprised me. I thought she had made a clean break with the past and was now living a new life.
“Did you think I was a woman who doesn’t think?”
“Of course not. You’re like everyone’s big sister. I mean, why are you telling me this now?”
“It’s not often that I get to be alone with you. Mikana is basically always around you.”
That being said, it’s true that Erica and I didn’t have many opportunities to talk alone. In fact, I rarely got the chance to talk to any other unit commanders, except Mikana, alone.
I realized it was a poor practice. It is very important to talk face to face. It is even more essential when it was among people in an organization.
It is a very important consideration to give people a place and opportunity to say things that they would not normally say. I am everyone’s superior officer and the highest-ranking person in charge of the Imperial Kingdom expedition. I should have paid more attention to my subordinates.
“I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to talk to everyone as much as I can after this battle is over.”
“It would be great if you could do that. I have my own problems too. Still, how can you afford that much time?”
I’m not sure if it was because of my apparent light-hearted attitude, but Erica let out an exasperated sigh and quickly changed the subject.
I wonder if I looked that relaxed. I’m not sure if I’m the same as when I’m on the battlefield.
“Do I look relaxed?”
“Yes. Your expression is usually a little more stern.”
“Hmm, I think it’s probably because Fio is in charge of the Imperial Army. I don’t have to worry about the Imperial Army all the time, so I can concentrate on what I have to do now.”
“So you’re saying you’re less burdened, and you can afford to be more relaxed?”
“Yes, yes.”
That wasn’t the only reason, though.
To be honest, the Albion army’s movements and responses were full of gaps from what I could see. I wasn’t sure if I could exploit all those gaps I could see, but it was much easier to deal with than an army without any.
Perhaps it was because it had been a while since I had fought in a fort.
I haven’t been to a fort or castle ever since I fought Kaguya-sama. At that time, even though we outnumbered them in quantity, they were far superior in quality. I still remember how the battle started and how they kept pushing us all the way until the end.
That’s why I can’t help but compare Kaguya-sama’s army with the current Albion army.
At that time, Lady Kaguya’s offensive was fierce and relentless. In addition, I was surprised to learn that she was manipulated into fighting an unwilling battle.
If I were to compare them, the enemy in front of me would not seem like much of an opponent.
“Does that mean I’ve gained some experience?”
“Yes, it does. Experience is the best weapon of all. It’s no different with magic.”
I’m sure Erica is referring to renketsu magic.
It is hard to perform renketsu magic with the battlefield’s tense atmosphere, but Erica’s Second Unit did it almost every time. Hence, Erica was probably the most skilled in Veris when it came to casting it.
In any case, since the beginning of this war, we, Nox, have undoubtedly fought the most.
“I don’t know much about magic, but I do know that Erica’s skills are excellent.”
Renketsu magic acquires a synergistic effect by casting the same magic as the central magician. The more skilled all the magicians are, the more powerful it becomes.
However, apart from power, the hit rate depends almost entirely on the central sorcerer. This is because it is the central magician who controls the magic.
The magician with the highest hit rate that I know of is also Erica.
“We’ll attack around the enemy general, Dick. If an explosion occurs around him, it will cause damage to the officers, and he himself will think he is being pushed back.”
“Is that why you had such a long conversation with the enemy general in your first speech?”
“Not exactly. I thought it would be useful to know where he was, but I didn’t anticipate this to happen.”
That said, I was actually half expecting it.
If the goal is to force the enemy to retreat, the quickest way to do so is to have the enemy commander issue the order to retreat. The enemy general will find himself at a disadvantage when the enemy extends its attack to his surroundings.
If that’s the case, then we could attack around the enemy general by using ranged attacks. That much I had thought.
I didn’t want to tell Erica that because I didn’t want her to think that I could read the future. No, it might be because I didn’t tell her things like that that she thought I didn’t trust her.
“Correction. I rather expected it.”
“You’re being honest today, aren’t you?”
“Huh? Did you think I lied to you?”
“I’ve worked for you long enough to know if you’re lying or not. So I want you to tell me the truth as much as you can.”
“Oh, my. I feel like I’m getting another Mikana.”
While making such light-hearted remarks, I squinted my eyes and got a clear view of where Dick, the enemy general, was.
[1] EN: I’m sure more than just ‘not being able to walk.’
[2] TN: 集団での防御魔術 or ‘Shūdan de no bōgyo majutsu’ is known as Collective Defensive Magic or Mass Defensive Magic.
[3] TN: Red Lotus Witch or the Crimson Witch.