Hearts Before the Capital
Revnil stood face to face with the Northern Grand Duke in the office. The Grand Duke had risen from his seat of authority himself and seen him all the way there. If Revnil failed to persuade him now, the last cup would be his to drink.
"You think I ought to lead the Northern Army and march all the way to the Imperial Capital, don't you? What is it, exactly, that you want me to do?"
"First, we must wring supplies out of the imperial household."
"You don't mean to march south at once?"
"Your Grace commands formidable strength, and the Northern Army under you has reached a considerable standard through the fighting it has weathered on the frontier. But if we go to war with our food already spent, how long do you imagine we could last?"
Revnil was pressing on the root of the matter. What did the Northern Army need if a rebellion was to succeed? Unless that answer was settled beyond doubt, the army would be annihilated in the end.
"...You mean occupying the Imperial Capital will take time."
"Reaching the capital from here will take five days at the least, and that assumes a furious march without a single day of rest. To launch a siege the moment we arrive, under those conditions, is to fight without a chance of victory."
"You're assuming a string of wins, I take it."
"Yes. On the way south the imperial army will stand in our path, or fall on us from ambush. Once that is taken into account, seizing the Imperial Capital within a week is all but impossible."
"And that is why you say we need supplies."
"Yes. If the war drags on, the Northern Army is at an unconditional disadvantage. We must secure as much in the way of supplies as we can before we commit to battle."
Chereha knew the argument was entirely sound. No one wages war without rations in hand. And if they were to fight the Emperor himself, the Northern Army's discipline would slacken in more ways than one.
"How do you mean to wring those supplies out of them?"
"We must deliberately collapse the northern front. Only then will danger loom over the Empire, and even the imperial household will have no choice but to send supplies in haste."
"...You want me to lose on purpose, even when battle comes."
"Of course, Your Grace may earn a name for incompetence because of it. But it would be a misstep in service of a greater cause, and you will need to accept that, to a point."
"They already treat me as an arrogant, contemptible commander. A reputation like that changes nothing."
Chereha let a faint measure of his suspicion toward Revnil fall away. For a man dismissed as some fallen noble, he was setting out a rather useful strategy. If he truly meant to come over, they would have to press further into the details.
"So what do you intend once we have the supplies?"
"We must not march straight on the Imperial Capital. Even if it costs us time, we have to pass through the strongpoints and the supply bases."
"You said a long war would put the Northern Army at a disadvantage. Why are you saying the opposite now?"
"If the supply bases are ours, we can endure even if the fighting drags on. With strongpoints in hand, we can fall back and regroup. However valiant the Northern Army may be, it cannot win every battle."
"If you're willing to go that far, I assume you've already worked out the best route."
"Yes. We occupy a portion of the eastern territory, and only then march on the Imperial Capital."
"The eastern territory? Even if we cross out of the borderlands of the Northern Region, there won't be any strongpoints or supply bases nearby."
"There is a fortress, is there not? Make that your forward base, and win the hearts of the people in the country around it."
For a moment Chereha had no answer. A breath ago the man had told him to seize strongpoints and supply bases, and now he was prattling about the people's hearts. How far ahead was this fallen noble looking?
"Why should I be winning hearts when I ought to be marching on the Imperial Capital at once?"
"Because only then can we undermine the Emperor's legitimacy. However ugly the public mood may grow, the people cannot refuse to obey him. Your Grace must win their hearts in person, and raise the cause of saving this rotten Empire."
"...By your account, even if I take the Imperial Capital, I could be driven out again before long."
"That is correct. Fail to win the people, and Your Grace will be denounced as a seditious rebel. But if they follow you, then no matter how the imperial household condemns you, many will praise you as the hero who brings this age of chaos to an end."
"Even if that's true, we still can't avoid a long war. And you would have me win their hearts regardless."
"From that point on, we will not be at a disadvantage. Your Grace's name will spread through every corner of the Empire. Common people will come seeking your protection, and the Northern Army's strength will grow sound with them. Your Grace will be able to check the imperial household simply by remaining where you are."
"So you told me to win their hearts because you had already seen that far."
"The Empire has no choice now but to split apart. If Your Grace merely widens that crack, matters can proceed smoothly. But once we have advanced and a foundation is laid, it would be best to abandon the Northern Region."
"You're picturing the Northern Army destroyed by an invasion of demonic beasts."
"...You have seen it exactly."
Revnil had nothing further worth saying. The Northern Grand Duke's pride was exceedingly straight, but his judgment had not gone cloudy. It was only that, back then, ill conditions had piled upon one another until the Northern Army was wiped out outright.
"I'll let you live. But... you are not to leave my side."
"You mean to keep watching me?"
"I can't trust you completely. I'll have to see whether things go as planned."
Only then did Chereha lift the teacup. His trust in Revnil was slight, but the strategy itself deserved a high regard. He would have to keep the man bound at his side, so he could work no tricks.
Rather bold of him. For the time being, I can try him as my vassal. If things go awry, then...
Shut away in the Northern Grand Duke's office, Revnil was working through a map of the Empire entire, together with the Northern Army's supply ledgers and its rolls of men. The Grand Duke still doubted him, and would not let him act alone. But having decided the man was worth using as a vassal, he had handed over every last piece of the army's confidential information.
The stockpiled food isn't much. At this rate we couldn't even last a year.
He had expected as much even before he met the Grand Duke. The Northern Army had begun to starve not long after it marched south in the first place. Its aim had been to seize the Imperial Capital quickly, and it had made no preparation for anything that came after.
Still, the numbers are fairly substantial. The front line would account for that.
Even so, they could not take the whole of the Northern Army south. The Northern Region was its home ground, and a minimum force had to be left in garrison. Account as well for an invasion of demonic beasts and a counterstroke by the imperial army, and at the very least a third of the whole would have to stay behind.
The problem here is the barbarians. They break the eastern front and seize the major regions.
The barbarians fed themselves by hunting and gathering alone, and they were warlike by nature. They fought one another at every turn, and they killed demonic beasts and wild animals to eat. Their lives were paved with battle, which was why even the Eastern Army had failed to check their momentum.
As expected, the most dangerous of them is the Revolutionary Army.
The Revolutionary Army raised the banner of saving the common people and reforming the governance of the state. Once they caught a rising tide, countless commoners threw in with them. The imperial household was corrupt, and the barbarians were merely savage. The Revolutionary Army would have to be treated as the true enemy.
Even accounting for the Demon King's appearance...
"How goes the planning?"
Chereha stepped into the office, armed only lightly. Revnil took up the map and went to him.
"I have roughly drawn a route of advance."
"Hm... That takes us rather far out of the way."
"Food is difficult to secure in the Northern Region, and there is scarcely a point one could call a stronghold. Even the rear supply bases lie far from the front."
"At this rate, aren't we simply founding a new base in the borderlands?"
"Only by doing so can we prepare for a long war and still hold the advantage in the struggle for real power."
"You want the people moved into the eastern territory as well?"
"Would that not be better than huddling over fires on barren ground?"
"..."
Chereha shot him a sidelong look, then sat reluctantly before the desk. Approached in practical terms, Revnil's view was the right one. Better to set them farming somewhere in the east than leave them shivering in the cold of the Northern Region.
"Follow your plan, and we won't be finished even in a matter of years. Are you telling me to idle about in the borderlands?"
"Taking the Imperial Capital will not end the war. The capital is not even advantageous to defend, and I do not believe we should go out of our way to shoulder those losses."
"...You want me to build a new Imperial Capital."
"Yes. Expand your territory, win the people's hearts, and then proclaim a new state. Do that, and Your Grace can claim a new legitimacy."
Chereha set the map down as though he could not credit what he was hearing. Every time they spoke, the man poured out nothing but outlandish notions. He could not shake the sense that this one meant to turn the existing Empire upside down.
"You want me to proclaim a state on the strength of a single fortress? Everything has been given to the Imperial Capital, and you're telling me to give that up?"
"The Imperial Capital is where the Empire's foundations were laid. It stands for the Emperor, and it is bound to the legitimacy of the founding. To take it is to become a criminal who has defied the imperial household."
"...You mean I must not even take up the Empire's traces."
"If Your Grace were of the imperial blood, you could do so and still claim a cause. But you are not, and so you must deny everything tied to the Empire. The people draw a line between the Emperor and all else, and in the end they crave only their own peace."
"I take your meaning. Handle it wrong, and I'm the one in danger."
Chereha understood afresh that a successful rebellion was no simple thing. He would have to push the old order aside and still win over those who had lived by it. Otherwise he and the Northern Army would only sink, little by little, into isolation.
"If you mean to follow my view, you must give more of your attention to occupying the eastern territory than to the Imperial Capital."
"If it's as you say, that would be the proper course. We'll need to swell our soldiers and our people, and bring in supplies besides."
"You must keep engagements with the barbarians and the imperial army in mind. Even if the campaign goes well, half the eastern territory will be the limit."
"Abandon the Northern Region and aim for the east... If the barbarians come at us, the Northern Army will have to take the offensive as well, won't it?"
"Take the offensive, but the loss of life must be kept down. As I said before, you must win the people's hearts. A ruler who fails to win them falls before long."
"Casualties are inevitable in battle. Even if they aren't enemy soldiers, street fighting and raids will sweep the common people up with the rest."
"Which is all the more reason you must hold back. Accomplish what no one else can, and would you not truly deserve to be called a great man?"
Chereha was not readily inclined to agree, yet he could find no answer to Revnil's case. He had meant, at the start, to take the Imperial Capital by force and raise up his house and the Northern Army. Turned over carefully, though, the strategy Revnil had set before him was coming to seem all too right.
"Hm... It can't be helped. I'll make you my Tactical Advisor and follow your strategy. We'll collapse the front on purpose, then take supplies from the imperial household. And while they're off their guard, we'll seize the fortress in the borderlands."
"...It is a fitting decision. But there is a matter that must be settled before that."
"You want the ones who conspired with the imperial household rooted out? If that's it, the work is already drawing to a close."
Revnil went rigid and sank into silence. As he had thought, the Northern Grand Duke had already seen through the situation within his own ranks. He had only pursued a course meant to end things quickly, and so had met the crisis without ever intending to.
A little high-handed, perhaps. But he did take my meaning. Maybe my choice wasn't wrong.