NOVEL WEB Chapter 40: Tactics of the Guerrilla
Chapter 40: Tactics of the Guerrilla
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“Never fight in unfavourable terrain. Never fight while not knowing the full extent of the enemy’s prowess. Never fight while being undersupplied. Never fight on straits without having naval superiority. Never fight with technology that is worse than the enemies. Never fight without knowing every small detail of the battlefield. These are the forbidden rules of warfare that should never be broken, in order for an army to achieve victory.”
General Salah Ad-Din, The Great Kebabini
Year 463
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--POV: Khaled Derver—
--Place: Rawpower training fields, Command Center/ Time: 08:31—
“What is the general outlined strategy Sir has in mind when we commence our invasion of Adion?”
Sir Lance Lightbringer. The customer who has hired over 30,000 troops.
12,000 infantry.
6,000 cavalry.
9,000 artillery.
3,000 mages.
An absolute monstrosity of an army.
It is rumoured that Adion as a whole has an estimate of 70,000 troops, yet Chamberlayne is planning on having around half that amount on their own?
A noble family having half the army of a WHOLE nation?
How deep are their pockets…… No one else would be able to field and feed such a huge army before going bankrupt.
While I have asked Lance how we are to commence this strategy. It is most likely that the strategy is “overwhelm the enemy with greater numbers”, or at least something of the like.
“We are dividing the troops into three separate divisions” Lance just blows my expectations of how the strategy is to be made out the window.
Why would you throw your huge advantage of “superiority in numbers” out the window like that?
“Sir….but why?”
It isn’t possible that Chamberlayne has made a greenhorn the Commander of their army, have they?
“How else are we supposed to defend against 2 fronts?” Sir Lightbringer answers like this is the most obvious thing in the world.
“2 fronts?” What? Are the Hansa attacking with their completely mercenary army? Or is it Alexus?
“Adion and Baharuth, of course.”
BAHARUTH?????!!!!
Baharuth and Adion? Fighting together against us? What the fuck?!
“Sir, there is no way!” Are you fucking kidding me? Baharuth has the most troops in the northern area of the continent! Speculations of the military advisors of the Avalon royal court estimate about 90,000 troops at a minimum in Baharuth.
Some generous estimations say its over 100,000!
100,000 Baharuth troops and 70,000 Adion troops? We may as well surrender now without fighting.
This isn’t a one-on-one war, this is a fucking coalition! A gangbang!
“Calm down. It’s easy.”
EASY?!
Sir Lightbringer calmly sits his tea as he stares at the map of continent, without a care in the world.
“The 3 divisions will all have equal regiments. Every division will have 4,000 infantry that make up the bulk of the body of the division. 2,000 calvary, with a thousand on each side of the infantry regiment. Each division will also have 3,000 artillery at the very back of the regiment. To be used in long distance warfare and sieges. The 1,000 mages that each division has would be at the back of the division, but on front of the artillery as most magic spells don’t have a firing range as big as artillery. Plus, healing spells are needed, so the mages need to be near the infantry and the cavalry.”
(Author’s note: Each of the three divisions would be in this type of formation)
“However, we are not going to allow the divisions to fight boldly. We need to fight strategically. We need to fight……guerrilla warfare style.”
Lance nods his head, satisfied with his explanation.
“So we are going to avoid battle?”
So then why do we have an army if we are going to avoid battle? Are we a distraction so the rest of the Avalon army can fight with an advantage?
“No. We are going to avoid unfavourable battles.” Sir Lance raises his finger as he explains. “However, before we actually get into conflict. We need to let Adion siege the closest city to the Avalon-Adion border, namely, the city of Telmesen.”
(Author’s note: The map below is a hypothetical scenario)
(Key: Green units are Chamberlayne armies. Blue units are friendly armies. Red units are enemy armies. Colour dotted line shows the supply chain of the unit. Grey dotted line shows the border between Avalon and Adion.)
Let them take a city.......for free? Wouldn’t other Avalon armies react to this?
“We will co-ordinate with other noble families and the royals, and convince them to let us defend Telmesen. After we have convinced them. We will “mess up” and let them take the city without a fight, or a siege. The only actual resistance the Adion army will have when sieging the city of Telmesen would be the local guard of Telmesen, which they should easily deal with.”
“Sir…..why?”
There is absolutely no logical reason I can come up with for why we should allow the enemy to take control of an unoccupied city, that they can then use as a center for military supplies, and a strategic location to invade Avalon.
“To create fear in Avalon, of course.”
“Why would we want to create fear in our own country, Sir?” This would negatively affect morale of our army, if such a siege of a city were to happen so fast and easily. It would make the enemy armies seem invincible if they could siege a huge city like Telmesen in just a few days…..
“So we can buy a lot of assets for relatively nothing. Nothing can drive people to sell their expensive properties and assets for peanuts like the fear of losing a war.”
What….
Trick rich guys into thinking Avalon is losing a war so they can sell their expensive houses and businesses to Chamberlayne, so Chamberlayne makes a huge profit off of this.
Is Adion really the enemy of Avalon…..or is it Chamberlayne that is the enemy here…
I really don’t know anymore.
“We’ll also let Adion siege the city of Porto, which is a bit further from the border than the city of Telmesen. This will cause Adion to send supplies to the army sieging Porto from Telmesen.”
Lightbringer explains as he points at the map. “We will allow Adion to siege the city of Porto, after putting up minimal resistance.”
“We will also use our propaganda machine, The Avalon Times, to make it seem like we lost the city of porto in a crushing defeat, in an attempt to bolden Adion to send more troops to the city of Porto.” Lance points at the map as he takes a deep breath. “Why do you think we should allow them to take the city of Porto?”
“Umm……why?” Porto? We could also encircle them with Vonel. Why Porto specifically?
“Because, Porto is quite unique in a certain aspect.” Sir Lance puts his hand on his chin and nods. “Porto has water defense. The city of porto is basically an island in the middle of a tiny, tiny lake, with a drawbridge connecting the city to the mainland. Its basically surrounded by water with a width of 10 meters.”
“So our goal is to destroy the drawbridge so the sieging army can’t get out?”
“Exactly! Now tell me, what is the closest city to Porto?”
“Umm…..wouldn’t that be the city of Veran, in Count Veran’s territory?”
“Yes, the city where The Avalon Times is located. Do you know what will happen when Count Veran sees that his city is the closest city to the invading army of Adion?”
Well it’s obvious what the count will do…..
“The count will immediately lose any trust in Chamberlayne’s army after seeing Chamberlayne lose two cities to Adion sieges…..and the count will recall any army that he has sent out, so he can defend his home territory….”
“Correct. So what will the Adion Command do when they realize how heavily garrisoned the city of Veran is?”
“They will bring more men to the city of Porto, and more supplies will be needed for those men.”
“Correct, Adion’s huge army in Porto, would enter the city, restock and feed the army and bring it back to good shape, and then they will wait for new arrivals to come from Telmesen, which will give them the bigger military capability they need if they want to capture the heavily fortified city of Veran that will have Count Veran whole army sitting on it, right?”
Lance continues. “And that’s where our 1st division comes in. We will use our 1st division that will be stationed at city of Vonel, to go around the fortified Porto that is the base for the massive Adion army, and put it under siege. We will destroy the drawbridge so the huge army can’t get any supplies and can’t get out. Their Paladins and holy knights would be at a disadvantage compared to our artillery and mages. Our cavalry will gallop around the area to eliminate, destroy and seize any supply that is heading towards Porto to supply the massive Adion army sitting there.”
After coming to this realization, I couldn’t help but continue his speech for him. “The trapped army will start starving as they are under siege with no supply, and unable to be able to get the thousands of men out……the huge army will starve…..and suffer to attrition.”
So many Adion men would die, and we wouldn’t even have to fight them.
“Correct.” Lance points at the territory of Dexon, a territory that is to the northwest of the city of Porto, and North to the city of Telmesen. “The invading Adion armies that will most likely be heading to Seppuku, will have to reroute southward, to the city of Porto. Because the Adion command will immediately realize how many Adion men will be lost if the Adion army in Porto would be stuck there for any longer.”
“So the other Adion divisions would move southward to the city of Porto, to fight our 1st division and get rid of the siege, and save the trapped men in the city of Porto.”
*FLICK*
Lance flicks his finger in delight “And that’s where the 2nd division, lead by Lady Clarissa, comes in.”
*SIP*
After taking a sip of tea, Sir Lance continues his explanation. “The 2nd division’s job is to distract the rerouted Adion armies until the siege is complete and the city of Porto has been recaptured, along with the fall of one of the core armies that constitute the Adion military.”
“The 3rd division will be lead by me, and it will be on the Baharuth front. So, you don’t worry about that.”
“Any questions?” Lance asks after his decade-long speech finally comes to end.
While this battle plan does need a lot of conditions and requirements to work, it is possible…….the only thing I’m not sure about is…..
“Sir……what happens to the citizens of Porto and Telmesen?”
“Well……they may or may not make it during the sieges and battles.” Lightbringer waves his hand, in a fashion of disregarding whatever was said. “But don’t worry about the lives of the citizens. There will be unfortunate collateral damage during this war.” Emphasising on the word “unfortunate”. Huh?
Suddenly, the carefree happy-go-lucky attitude of Lance Lightbringer disappeared, with a pressuring silence.
“I am serious.” Sir looks at me with an emotionless face. “During this military campaign. Do not consider worrying, or even thinking about the citizens’ safety. The only things that matters in this war, is that we strike fear through the entirety of Avalon about Avalon’s potential collapse in the war, and that the final conclusion of the war is that we end up winning while surprising the nation.”
“We win this war, got it?” Lance raises an eyebrow as he looks at me.
“Y-yes, sir.” Early retirement, my ass. Let’s hope I live to see that retirement ever come.