A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1158 Two Generals - Part 3
1158: Two Generals – Part 3
1158: Two Generals – Part 3
“The ranks of our armies are constructed based on good, solid reasoning.
Their hierarchical nature ensures that discipline that keeps our forces functioning.
So too does the length of time needed to achieve such high standing ranks reflect the experience of the man that is meant to sit such a role,” General Karstly said.
He flashed a smile.
The smallest of smiles.
It seemed to Oliver to be a glimpse of his true emotions.
Something beneath the mask.
He wasn’t nearly as meek as he was making himself seem.
He almost seemed delighted.
“However – the counter to great numbers, as we have already mentioned, are great minds.
Or great sets of individualism.
Men capable of overcoming the enemy in front of them, no matter who they might be.
To fight Blackwell and myself at once – it will be no easy task for Khan.
Not when even General Broadstone will be involving himself.
Yesterday, we saw a demonstration of such individualism, to the point of insubordinance… And we have seen the demonstration of that individualism in the battles before now…”
The young Captain of the Patrick forces was quite sure that he didn’t imagine the glances that were being shot his way.
When Karstly spoke of such things, the men could not help but be reminded of the Captain, who, from the very start of the campaign, seemed to be intent on doing things his own way.
Not a single man knew what Karstly’s ramblings were leading towards though.
Oliver especially was beginning to feel a cold flash of dread.
Only Lombard had paid him enough mind to scold him after yesterday’s battle.
Neither Karstly, nor any of his retainers, had sought him out to give him any such discipline.
He wondered if that was the purpose of this all now – to drag him out, and point at him in front of the army, to ensure that there would be no such instances of unpredictability.
“Those with eyes, I am sure, can see that the state of this battlefield has been simplified.
We have gone from three seemingly separate battles, down to two.
In mine and Blackwell’s planning on joining our strategic minds together, we will lose access to the mobile force that all two thousand of us have been defending, and with it, we would lose the pressure that we had built up merely by existing in our readiness,” General Karstly continued.
“To remedy that – this army will be split in two.
One thousand men shall remain to perform the duty of the two thousand.”
“And who shall lead these thousand men?” Came the question from a Blackthorn Colonel by the name of Yoran, his chest puffed out, and his chin pointed, as if preparing to receive the great honour.
General Karstly nodded to himself, accepting the man’s confidence, and almost seeming to agree to it.
“Ah, indeed… That is the question.
Well, you seem to know it as well as I.
Captain Patrick shall lead it.”
He as such, and he failed, quite splendidly, in hiding the smile that followed.
Now it was revealed for all to see.
A wolf’s grin.
Doing exactly what he knew would cause the most amount of chaos.
At times it seemed as if Karstly’s strategy wasn’t just reserved for his enemy – that he delighted in using it to its fullest so that he might toy with his men as well.
They were silent.
Silent enough that they could hear the screams of dying men carried from the battlefields a few miles to either side of them.
They made for a poor backdrop to the announcement.
They almost seemed like bad omens.
“Hm?” General Karstly said, when no response was forthcoming.
“I’d expected more complaint than that, gentlemen.
You all seemed to be quite enamoured with the ways of old.
I would have thought, arranging the army according to my whims, rather the well-established systems of order that we usually follow would—”
“General!” Colonel Yoran cried.
“Ah, there it is,” Karstly murmured.
“You’ve surely made a mistake, General,” Colonel Yoran said. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
“You’ve named a man with no experience commanding the thousands.
A man that isn’t even of the rank to.
If you’ve the mind to name a Captain for such a role – despite the folly of it – why would you not name Captain Lombard?”
There were murmurs of agreement from amongst the men.
A mood of dark anger was beginning to spread, quick as a flash, like a cauldron coming to the boil.
Men stewed in that anger, and the heat of it reached as far as Oliver, as if they were blaming him for the General’s unfathomable decision.
Karstly kept his smile, though, despite the flames that were sent his way as well.
Even in the stormiest of weather, with lightning striking down right in front of him, he seemed the type never to falter.
Oliver made a mental note of that.
If he ever caught Karstly displaying any sort of weakness as he had earlier, then he should meet that sight with as much scepticism as he could muster.
“You yourself, General, have pointed out the wrongs of his earlier insubordiance,” Yoran continued, buoyed by the support of the other Captains, and the other Colonels who were not quite so ready to see a man as young as Oliver given such a great honour.
“If all of us did as he did, you wouldn’t have an army to command at all.
You would be left with a sea of dead men.”
“…And yet, he lives,” Karstly said.
“Have I ever spared any of his little individual excursions the might of my army?
I do not think I have.
I have rarely made allowances for them.
If he wished to pick his own path, I have always been of the mind that he should be allowed to.
Yesterday was much the same.”
“He had Captain Lombard’s assistance yesterday,” Yoran went on.
“This is a foolishness.
In all that he has supposedly achieved, it has been Captain Lombard who has been there to help him through the fire.”
“I must admit that I am in agreement with Colonel Yoran, General,” Lombard said, his voice lacking the slightest amount of emotion.
“Might I enquire, however, if this was a plan that General Blackwell approved of?”
