novelraw Chapter 266 - 24: The Traitorous Military God, Baludopa
Chapter 266 - 24: The Traitorous Military God, Baludopa
The more Qin Feng pondered it, the more he felt that Flame Emperor Galukasa was one of Khorne’s Chosen, possessing a special Talent that allowed him to grow stronger through slaughter and battle.
If not, there was simply no other rational explanation for his actions, which were purely harmful to others and offered him no benefit.
"Your Majesty?"
"How do you plan to attack?"
The voice of Kuge beside him pulled Qin Feng, who was riding on the back of a Winged Dragon Beast, from his deep thoughts back to reality. He slowly turned his head, glanced at Kuge, and began to speak.
"First, we’ll try to persuade them to surrender."
"If that fails, we’ll send the Dragon Cavalry Team to launch a Strong Attack."
"Eagle Fortress has no No-Fly Magic Array."
"And the top of the fortress walls is just like the Great Wall of the Northern Territory—a completely open firing platform. It can’t possibly stop the diving attacks of the Dragon Cavalry."
"After that, the Extraordinary Dragon Cavalry will completely suppress the platform atop the walls and drive off all the ranged soldier types stationed there."
"Then, we’ll have Arthas lead the Undead Army in a frontal charge."
"This will keep our army’s casualty ratio to a minimum."
...
In the last few wars, the casualty rate for his Undead Soldiers had been a bit high. Although he could replenish them with the Book of the Dead and Nagash’s Gaze skills, the rate of replenishment was far slower than the speed at which they fell in a charge.
So, Qin Feng had to be a little more conservative. He had to calculate as carefully as possible, keeping the loss rate of this skeleton cannon fodder within a range he could sustain.
Otherwise, with his current army size and the heaven-defying Land of Corruption skill, he could have easily launched a Strong Attack on the severely undermanned Eagle Fortress, as long as he didn’t care about casualty rates.
During the advance, he would only need to focus his fire to slay the powerful members of the Last Generation Five Dragon Generals and wouldn’t have to worry about much else.
However, things took a turn Qin Feng hadn’t expected.
The members of the Imperial Military Academy, who should have been fiercely loyal to Flame Emperor Galukasa, had collectively chosen to surrender.
Their Loyalty seemed even lower than that of the ordinary soldiers in the empire’s Northern Territory.
’Could it be?’
’Is this the enemy’s feigned surrender tactic?’
’Are they trying to lure me deep into their camp, then gather their elites and heroes to execute a Beheading strike against me?’
At this thought, Qin Feng silently glanced at the town information displayed in the Village Management panel and immediately dismissed his suspicion.
[Current Town————Eagle Fortress]
[Town Level: Level 3 Town (Determined by overall assessment)]
[Loyalty: 62 (Max 100. Below 50 enters a state of rebellion. The lower the Loyalty, the more severe the rebellion.)]
[Total Town Population: 52,301]
[Town Population Growth Rate (Average Annual): 30 human infants]
[Town’s Armed Forces: 10,000+ regular soldiers, 30 regular heroes, 400+ Extraordinary Level experts, 10 Extraordinary Heroes]
[Weekly Recruitable Soldiers of Same Culture (Zero-star): Imperial Gunmen, Imperial Swordsmen, Imperial Archers, Imperial Cavalry...]
[Note: Under the influence of the Power of Rules, you cannot plunder or attack your own villages and towns, unless they enter a "rebellious" state.]
A Loyalty of 62 wasn’t particularly high, but it wasn’t low enough to breed rebellion.
Therefore, the disloyal turncoats within Eagle Fortress were nothing more than small-time characters who had the will to betray but lacked the courage.
Plus, with no rebel leader to stir up trouble and no one to coordinate their plans, these minor players couldn’t cause any real chaos even if they wanted to.
He recalled the Golden Deer Tribe. Their village’s Loyalty had been below 50, and they had that Ratman leader named Yu Le to take the lead, meaning a mutiny could have broken out at any moment.
That was what gave Qin Feng the opportunity to strike, wiping out all the treacherous, rebellious Ratmen in the village with a single volley of Arrow Rain.
With Eagle Fortress now, he couldn’t use such a simple and brutal method of purging.
However, although he couldn’t directly attack Eagle Fortress, Qin Feng could use his Village Management Talent to slowly convert or eliminate the turncoats inside.
The Riding and Cutting system’s built-in sorting function was especially useful, as it could display a unified list of all the treacherous individuals, saving Qin Feng the trouble of searching for them among fifty thousand people like a needle in a haystack.
’Huh?’
’What’s this?’
’What’s going on?’
’The ones with rebellious intentions are all Imperial civilians responsible for the fortress’s daily operations?’
’But the elite cadets from the Imperial Military Academy, the Imperial soldiers garrisoned here, and even the members of the Last Generation Five Dragon Generals who teach combat skills—none of them have any intention of causing trouble for me?’
At that moment, staring at the list of civilian turncoats displayed by the Riding and Cutting system, Qin Feng was utterly dumbfounded.
How could the supposedly loyal members of the Imperial Military Academy be so faithless?
While he was puzzling over this, Kuge, who had gone to Eagle Fortress to negotiate their surrender, returned. What surprised him even more was that Kuge had brought back a very special person—one of the empire’s current Five Dragon Generals, Baludopa, known as the "Military God."
Then, as Baludopa explained, Qin Feng began to get a clear picture of the whole situation.
As the only member of the Last Generation Five Dragon Generals still serving in the Imperial Army, Baludopa had been appointed by Flame Emperor Galukasa’s father as the administrator of the military academy at Eagle Fortress.
This position was equivalent to a school principal in modern society.
And his duty was to teach these promising Imperial elites in times of peace, and when war broke out, to don his armor and fight to the death for the old Flame Emperor’s son, Galukasa, protecting the Gulad Empire with all his might.