The Advance on Fort Razvan
Revnil watched the Northern Army assemble. The Grand Duke of the North had deliberately isolated a number of fortresses along the front. The castles themselves had not fallen, yet the incursions of the demonic beasts had thrown the frontier into disarray all the same.
They must be catching on by now. Skimp on supplies merely because you've held the line until now, and the war turns against you.
From the rough reports that had reached him, the imperial court was scrambling to procure supplies. There would be nothing left in reserve. Officials and nobles had been quietly siphoning the stores away all this time, so the court would have to haul what it needed out of the Southern Region, or levy it in haste.
And the traitors are being cut away, one by one...
The Grand Duke of the North, it seemed, had already taken the measure of those subordinates who were in league with the court. He could not have purged them so swiftly otherwise. Now Revnil had only to send his letter, and the imperial court would be wholly deceived.
To think things could shift this much, merely because I joined them.
This was still no stage at which he could relax. Changing the line of advance did not mean the imperial armies would neglect their defenses, and even if they reached the borderlands quickly, a siege, at the least, could not be avoided.
Entering without a fight would be best... but waiting around until they surrender is a waste of time.
Securing a forward base, if nothing else, had to be done swiftly. The court might dispatch troops of its own, or the Eastern Army might turn about and counterattack. If they could at least fight from behind walls, they would not be driven off so easily.
The Northern Army's full strength comes to roughly sixty thousand. The troops we can actually commit—forty thousand, if we're fortunate...
Set beside the others, it was no small figure. The Eastern Army held a force of roughly the same size, while the Imperial Capital Army, by the most generous reckoning, amounted to no more than twenty thousand. The Western Army and the Southern Army, under no particular need to prepare for war, were each estimated at fewer than twenty thousand active regulars.
Call up the standing reservists as well, and the numbers climb a little higher—but beside the Northern Army, they have precious little experience of battle.
Standing reservists ran older than the active regulars, and most of them spent their days farming or at menial labor. In practice they were good for little more than filling out the ranks, which meant that forty thousand troops would have to stand against both the Imperial Capital Army and the Eastern Army.
If things grow truly desperate, we could bring the twenty thousand still holding the front... but they aren't elite. I doubt they'd help as much as all that.
The Northern Army making the march south was, as a matter of course, composed of specially chosen soldiers. War had never been won merely by fielding the larger host. Depending on when, where, and how one brought strategy to bear, even a lesser force could win a decisive victory.
With forty thousand we build a forward base quickly, and then we secure supply depots, cities, and farmland.
Somehow they had to find rations enough to keep forty thousand men fed. Military discipline rested on three things—meals, equipment, and the commander's ability—and if even one of them was lost, fighting strength would wither in the end.
Take even a quarter of the Eastern Region, and neither the Imperial Capital Army nor the Eastern Army will be able to sit easy.
Achieve that goal alone, and the Northern Army would hold an enormous advantage: a base where it could garrison in stability, a steady flow of rations, and, through the vacuum left behind in the Northern Region, a means of putting provisional pressure on the imperial court. They might not win public support overnight, but strategically they would be able to keep their enemies in check.
And if the barbarians and the Revolutionary Army come driving up in the middle of that, the court won't be able to do a thing.
In the end, the four-way war had to be brought to completion. Only when each side was watching the others, locked in place, would none of them dare to attack at will. Pressure on the Imperial Capital Army and the Eastern Army alone would give the Northern Army room enough to regroup at its leisure.
Becoming Tactical Advisor is well enough... but the other retainers and commanders won't accept it.
A lord's close confidant ought, by rights, to have the skill and the years to match the place. He, however, was nothing more than an informant who had turned on the imperial court, and all he had offered was a plan for the march on the capital. That threw the balance of merit out of joint, and someone was bound to resent it.
It hardly matters. I only have to prove what I can do.
He was not, to be sure, a man of outstanding gifts as a schemer. He had merely grasped, in careful detail, what the Grand Duke of the North had to do, and the character of their enemies.
This may be better than becoming the Demon King. At least I won't be the enemy of the entire Empire.
The Demon King would call down chaos upon this world and seek to ruin everything in it. He would have to collide with the Empire, and he would set the demonic beasts at the fore. As the Grand Duke of the North's strategist, by contrast, Revnil could be bound to a rebellion that pursued a greater cause—a force that might even be seen as the salvation of a dying Empire.
Who becomes the Demon King now, I couldn't say... I'll think about that later. Right now, swallowing the Empire matters more.
The Northern Army's vanguard, ten thousand strong, reached the borderlands first and raised a camp. The main force of twenty thousand marched under the Grand Duke of the North's own command, with Revnil and the other staff officers attending at his side. The rear force of ten thousand guarded against sudden enemy strikes, even as it gave every care to moving supplies and drawing up additional troops.
"The vanguard stands facing Fort Razvan and awaits orders. The garrison has been confirmed at roughly three thousand."
"... Tactical Advisor. What would you advise?"
Having heard the vanguard messenger's report, Chereha put the question lightly, almost in passing.
Revnil seemed to weigh it for a moment, then answered with a calm that did not waver.
"We should call on them to surrender. If they do not accept at once, we open a siege."
"You are accounting for the Eastern Army's relief force?"
"A forward base must be taken as quickly as possible. Lose time in a place like this, and it may not be the Eastern Army alone. The Imperial Capital Army could join them as well."
"If anyone has another opinion, speak."
Chereha's gaze passed over the staff, and he raised the matter as if it were only natural. If they could not refute the Tactical Advisor's view, the plan would have to proceed as it stood. As had been said before, fail to secure a base, and they would be surrounded in the end.
"... I cannot see why we must go by way of this place at all. The Northern Army's might is overwhelming. March on as we are, and we could bring the Imperial Capital down in a single stroke."
"The Northern Army's might does not mean we will win every battle. Even supposing we did win, taking the Imperial Capital would be no simple matter. And if, by some extraordinary fortune, we occupied the capital—what then? Could we manage, one by one, a frightened people and the nobles who still cling to the Emperor? How would we deal with the Eastern Army, the Western Army, and the Southern Army, attacking from beyond the capital?"
"..."
Revnil had turned on the Logistics Advisor and answered without a moment's hesitation. It was an argument that had been raised time and again, even before the march south, and to the staff a strategy of this sort must have seemed thoroughly outlandish.
"I will say it as often as I must. We lose more by occupying the Imperial Capital than we gain. Let the defenses of the Northern Region grow thin, and the capital itself comes under direct threat, while the Western Army will be forced to post still more troops along the nearby frontier. If the Northern Army seizes even a part of the Eastern Region, we can hold a stalemate against the Imperial Capital Army and the Eastern Army alike."
"But if this drags into a long war, the Northern Army will be at a disadvantage, will it not?"
"It need not turn so much against us as that. The Emperor is losing the people's hearts, and in every region officials with no integrity in them are wringing the common folk dry. If the Northern Army cuts those men down and looks after the people, His Grace the Grand Duke's standing will only rise."
"And if the Western Army and the Southern Army march north, what will you do then?"
"They will not. The Western Army cannot cross the country at its pleasure, if only for the Northern Army still holding the front. The Southern Army will find it hard to move its troops at all, with the Revolutionary Army active in every quarter. The Northern Army need face only the Imperial Capital Army and the Eastern Army."
"Ahem..."
The other staff officers shut their mouths, looking thoroughly displeased. They had disliked him from the first on account of his origins, but the grounds of his strategy were far too clear. Above all, the Grand Duke of the North was standing behind the Tactical Advisor, and there was nothing further they could do.
"Your Grace. If the enemy will not surrender, give the order to attack at once. The place is poorly suited to a defense, and their numbers are few. However it goes, we can take it within a day."
"... I issue orders to the entire army. If they do not surrender at once, the vanguard will charge Fort Razvan. The main force will advance in the vanguard's wake. The rear force will stand by until a separate order is given."
"We obey!"
The staff bowed their heads and withdrew from the command tent at once.
Revnil walked on at an unhurried pace, looking out at the fortress. Its walls seemed almost low.
So this is where it begins. It had better unfold as I planned...