Chapter 404 — Sweeping and Reorganization

In the Cecil domain, at the Military Intelligence Bureau, intelligence from the legion front was quickly delivered into Gao Yang's hands.

Seeing Byron's report on building a temporary prisoner-of-war camp on the spot and requisitioning farm granaries nearby from the Horsman domain to sustain the captives, Gao Yang wore a satisfied expression. "Byron is a talent... to actually come up with the idea of making those prisoners build a camp and lock themselves inside. Five thousand axes solved the problem."

Amber, standing beside him, rolled her eyes without pause. "The moment I heard it I knew that line of thinking had to be yours... I really don't know how ideas like that sprout from brains like yours..."

"The battlefield changes by the second, and only those whose thinking is equally nimble can seize the initiative," Gao Yang said with a serious face.

"Yes, yes, yes, you're the expert," Amber brushed him off with the utmost perfunctoriness, then wore a rather wistful expression. "But come to think of it, this really has been a long chase... At Gravel Ridge, Philip routed the noble coalition in under two hours, but afterward we spent over ten days playing cat and mouse with those fleeing enemies... I thought two or three days would have been the most it took."

Gao Yang shook his head. "It was I who deliberately ordered Philip to drag out the pursuit as long as possible—not to press the enemy too hard, not to chase too closely, always threatening from the very edge of the Persuader railgun's range, and every so often using light infantry to harass them. All of it was to sustain this chase of over ten days."

Amber looked thoroughly bewildered. "Why?"

"Without that, how could three thousand men swallow thirty or forty thousand enemies?" Gao Yang looked into Amber's eyes. "The noble coalition did collapse at the first blow, but that was only a gap in frontal fighting strength. In numbers, they still had thirty or forty thousand survivors, and those thirty or forty thousand were full of stamina and clear of mind. Among them, the extraordinary-class fighters holding the rear might even have retained some will to resist, because those at the middle and rear of the formation very likely never saw the artillery bombardment at all. Under those circumstances, the combat legion Philip led could defeat them head-on, but could not annihilate them all, could not stop them from fleeing, and could not capture them while guaranteeing its own safety."

Only then did Amber catch on. "So that's why you had Philip chase those routed soldiers for over ten days with artillery shells?"

"Before winter sets in, the mountain folk of the north hunt red mountain wolves. They use whistling 'sound arrows' and gongs and drums to drive the red mountain wolves from an entire mountain—driving them day and night without pause, rotating in and out of the mountains in shifts, resting in turns—until the wolves, more numerous than people in the northern mountains, are pushed to the end of their rope, leaping off the cliffs in whole swathes. And those noble coalition troops... their will is no match for the red mountain wolves. A dozen days or so of driving should be about enough," Gao Yang shook his head. "Only by grinding their will down to its limit, draining their stamina, slowing their thinking and stripping them of the most basic judgment, could Philip's three thousand safely take thirty or forty thousand prisoners. Otherwise, why do you think Byron gave those prisoners five thousand axes and they obediently went off to cut trees and build a prisoner camp to lock themselves inside?"

Amber looked Gao Yang up and down with an expression of admiration, unable to resist sighing. "As expected of a seven-hundred-year-old zongzi, truly seasoned..."

Then, before Gao Yang could fish something out from beside him and slap her against the wall, she hastily changed the subject. "But come to think of it... this ten-day pursuit—forget those noble soldiers, I doubt anyone in all of Ansou has ever witnessed such a thing... After all, you are the first in history to refuse a truce in a noble war."

"I accept truces—once they are completely annihilated, or every last one surrenders, the war will naturally end," Gao Yang said. "And I believe that day is not far off."

"So what do you plan to do next?" Amber looked at Gao Yang curiously. "The noble coalition is finished, their lords are sitting in the prisoner camp at the edge of the Horsman earldom, and in the southern region dozens of noble domains, great and small, are waiting for you to take them over. On the other hand, according to the intelligence I've received, one-third to one-quarter of the noble coalition escaped Philip's pursuit in the plains. Those people probably won't dare return to their domains, and if they roam about, they might well turn into one hell of a problem."

Though in daily life she was a careless and unreliable sort, Amber had, after all, served at Gao Yang's side as a guard for a year, and was now the leader of the Military Intelligence Bureau; she had accumulated some experience in serious work, and her analysis at this moment was fairly well-reasoned.

"Of course I will take over the lands of the southern region..." Gao Yang said as he rose and walked to the great map of the southern region hanging in the office. "But the specific plan for taking them over still needs careful thought. As for those who fled... it is within expectations. Philip's manpower was limited, after all; that he let only so few slip away already exceeded my expectations. Don't worry about those nobles who have already run, or their beaten remnants—they will be dealt with, cleanly and methodically."

As he spoke, Gao Yang's gaze traveled upward along the map, finally coming to rest at its very top.

Fortress Stonehold, the northern gate of the southern region, settled at the center of his vision.

After staring at the fortress for a while, Gao Yang withdrew his gaze and swept it across the noble domains, great and small, carved up in enfeoffment across the southern region.

"Send messengers to the Horsman prisoner camp. Have Philip and Byron first escort all the noble lords and extraordinaries in the camp back to the domain; the camp will be taken over by Knight Wald Perich. In addition, notify Heidi and all the officials of the Internal Affairs Department to assemble at the government hall—I have matters to discuss with them. The southern region is not yet pacified, but it is time to take over a portion of the land."

The war was not yet over; some of the nobles' remnants were still on the run, and even among the captured nobles, quite a few still clung to the naive notion of a "noble war game," waiting for Gao Yang to negotiate with them, waiting for their domains to pay ransom and redeem them so they could go on being lords. But on Gao Yang's side, from the very beginning he had never considered "negotiating" with the noble order of the southern region.

The situation he demanded had to be realized. Now that the forces that could obstruct him had been struck down, he would proceed with the next stage of his plan.

Shortly afterward, in the government hall at the center of the domain, Gao Yang appeared before the assembled crowd.

The officials of the government hall rose as one and then bowed in salute to their lord with reverence.