Chapter 41: Before The War: Inner Reflection (5)
Upon hearing that report, I shouted in excitement and said,
“Great! Then, from now on, we will prepare the final prank to drain those guys’ spirits! Is everyone ready?”
Then all members of the special task force responded loudly to my words,
“Yes, we are ready!”
“Just give the order! We will burn everything to the ground!”
“We will only follow and trust the Battalion Commander.”
The faces of those speaking were already filled with the expectation of one-sidedly toying with the enemy.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.
As their leader, I opened my mouth to meet that expectation.
“Then I will explain our strategy. This time, we will not undertake any complicated tactical actions. We will just spill some oil in the forest near the place where they are expected to arrive and ambush them with oil drums. When the enemy vanguard approaches, we will roll the oil drums and fire explosion magic and flaming arrows to give the enemy a taste of fire, then immediately retreat and join the advance scout Yaeger Battalion.”
It was a much simpler operation than the mock battles we had gone through.
The operation was simply to ‘spill oil in the forest near the anticipated enemy route, ambush them, and when they appear, roll the oil drums, cause an explosion, set them on fire, and flee’.
It might make sense for them to complain if a reason wasn’t properly explained since our special task force, comprised of advanced military personnel, suggested such a simple operation against a numerically superior enemy.
Thinking I needed to explain the proper reason to them, Laura, who always had many questions and curiosities, asked on behalf of everyone.
“I have a question, Battalion Commander.”
“Alright, permission granted.”
“If the enemy vanguard doesn’t notice us, wouldn’t it be better to use this opportunity to attack them using some chemicals and surprise attacks?”
If we would take risks, we could launch a surprise attack on them, as Laura said.
If successful, we could be renowned for showing bravery by attacking the enemy’s vanguard with just 20 people.
A commander who doesn’t shy away from daring operations prepared for sacrifices could try, but...
“It’s a good suggestion, but our special task force has already succeeded in stealing the food the enemy would conscript, making them unusable. Thus, the ration distribution of the Empire’s army, which largely depends on conscription, will significantly decrease, and their soldiers will go hungry. It would inevitably lower their morale and combat power. In other words, we have already succeeded in weakening the enemy’s combat power.”
“As the Battalion Commander says.”
“Moreover, we also have valuable information like the size, morale, and distribution status of the enemy army that other scout teams didn’t secure. If we get greedy and attack the enemy directly and get killed, wouldn’t we waste this precious information?”
Typically, subordinates misjudge situations when they think this way, but given the current circumstances, his thoughts were reasonably correct.
“Damn it. Because I had to play the role of an advanced scout, I had to wake up 3 hours earlier than others. What the hell is this?”
As he yawned and looked around, he heard the sound of something heavy rolling.
“A rockslide? Damn it! Each squad leader, move as far away as possible from the sound! If we get caught under the rocks, we’re dead!”
Upon hearing this, the chick squad leaders, with the help of NCOs, managed to move the soldiers back to minimize casualties.
But what rolled down to crush them was not a rock but a large barrel filled with oil.
And everyone there quickly realized that this was done by the enemy.
However, it was already too late by the time they noticed the surprise attack.
Before they could even shout to alert about the ambush, fire arrows and explosion magic from the forest hit the oil barrels. Then the resulting explosion sent burning fragments flying, setting the surroundings ablaze.
“Save me!!”
“Damn, damn! It hurts!! Water! Water!!”
Some soldiers were already on fire, burning alive from the flaming fragments.
Alex, having served in the army for several years, heard the sound of a squad-sized enemy fleeing on horses, so he decided there would be no additional attacks.
“Shoot water balls to put out the people on fire, and we need to return to the main unit as quickly as possible to report the possibility of enemy ambushes! Get ready to withdraw the troops immediately!”
It was the wisest decision he could make in this situation, but Alex and the soldiers, terrified by the unexpected attack, could barely even move.
Especially the rookies who were vomiting at the horrendous sight and smell of burning flesh and clothes.
The inexperienced squad leaders didn’t know how to control the situation and were hardly any help.
Some veteran soldiers even deserted in the midst of this chaos.
However, fitting his rank as a lieutenant, Alex managed to safely recover about 90 out of 100 soldiers with the experience he had gained over several years in military service and shouted,
“Damn, bastards! How do you like fighting this shitty war?”
Meanwhile, the Chekovia Kingdom’s leaders, upon receiving the news from the vanguard, issued new instructions to all units because they couldn’t predict when such an event might repeat, despite the minimal damage from the ambush.
“Double the number of people standing guard at night for each company, and increase the number and time of the reconnaissance units.”
