I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree-Chapter 12 - Man-made Disaster (2/3)

Meanwhile, the leaders of the other beastmen tribes had also gathered together. They were discussing a plan to oppose Balu.

“If you ask me, we can’t defeat the humans now. We might as well retreat and be done with it,” Tak, the chieftain of the Graybone Clan, spoke.

“It’s all Balu’s fault for insisting that this was the perfect time to attack humans. As a result, we didn’t even get to touch a few human cities,” Ony, the chieftain of the Helm Clan, also complained at this moment.

“I say, could it be that Balu actually wanted to weaken our strength through this war, and then eliminate us one by one after we return?” At this moment, another chieftain spoke.

“Yes, that’s very possible!” Tak was immediately alerted upon hearing this. “I wondered why he always wanted to keep us out of the central army. So that was to increase our losses, letting the humans attack us.”

“Good heavens, as expected, he colluded with the humans. He only colluded with them to target us!” Ony also spoke at this moment.

“What do you say? Should we make a move early?”

“Yes, we should strike first. Anyway, the limited resources we plundered in this war should all be with Balu now.”

“Exactly, exactly. While he hasn’t returned yet, let’s take down his tribe first. We’ll divide the resources inside evenly!”

“Alright, it’s decided!”

Several beastman chieftains had already plotted to backstab the United Chieftain Balu. They immediately ordered their soldiers to march overnight.

Although they fled earlier than Balu, whether out of concern for their own safety or desire for the spoils, they wanted to act faster.

During the rout, the front, middle, and rear armies were completely scattered. Whoever ran slower became the rear guard.

...

“What?! Why are the losses so heavy?” Orson sat in the military tent, looking at the battle report submitted by the scout, his brows furrowed.

He had already arrived at Tralava City with the central army, but the city was severely damaged by the war, and the buildings were in ruins. Orson simply set up a military tent outside the city.

Earlier, Balu had ordered the beastmen on the periphery to attack the troops on the front line who were not directly under the Duke’s command. This attack completely caught the human soldiers who had been in a stalemate off guard.

The armies reinforced by other Dukes held their ground firmly, but the counts under the Duke of Antica were not so lucky at this moment.

It was well known that the Antica Duchy was formed after the last beastmen invasion and was a new duchy. These counts, especially the counts on the border, were mostly newly appointed nobles.

There were also differences in the ability of different nobles to govern their territories. Most of the nobles under the Duke of Antica could only be described as barely competent. Expecting them to do well was completely impossible.

Therefore, in this beastmen invasion, although several counts deployed armies of several thousand, only about a thousand of these were standing army. The rest were farmers who were temporarily conscripted.

Even the so-called standing army, in most cases, exaggerated their numbers to save money. A count’s actual standing army was usually around five hundred.

Most ridiculously, some border counts, despite having financial support from the Duke specifically for maintaining a border defense force, falsely claimed to have a thousand border defense soldiers, when in reality having a hundred was already a blessing.

In this war, when they were asked to assemble troops, those counts couldn’t suddenly gather so many well-trained soldiers. In desperation, they could only use farmers to fill the ranks, falsely calling a group of untrained militiamen “standing army.”

Even the second-rate beastman troops still held the advantage when facing the militia groups hastily assembled by those counts, not to mention the existence of units with inflated rosters.

Not only were several border cities captured, but one border count even lost his own capital.

This caused the losses in the war to be much heavier than Orson had planned. You should know that in those count territories, most of the common people had not evacuated. They believed their lords could guarantee their safety.

But one wonders what they thought when the beastmen suddenly appeared before them?

One can only say that there was a reason why humans suffered such heavy losses when facing beastman attacks before.

“This... I will investigate the reason right away,” the scout said, a few beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. He knelt on one knee and apologized.

“Mm,” Orson nodded upon hearing this.

If things developed unexpectedly, it meant that Orson’s intelligence assessment here was certainly flawed, which required a re-evaluation.

Fortunately, the war on the front line was over. The direct troops could immediately go to support other fronts and drive the beastmen troops back.

After the scout left, Orson rubbed his temples.

“Why did this sort of problem arise...”

...

Carlsberg County, capital Carls City.

At this moment, inside the count’s mansion, a group of beastmen was carrying valuable items out of the count’s residence one after another. The count’s own wife and children were all huddled in a room inside.

And Count Carls himself was kneeling subserviently before a tall beastman.

“My esteemed beastman lord, you have taken all the valuable things from my home. I beg you, please spare my wife and daughters.”

Count Carls’ heart was filled with regret at this moment.

The Carlsberg County he ruled was a border territory. It had its own unique defense line. On this defense line, the number of border defense troops provided by Lucius was two thousand, and funds were allocated annually to support these two thousand. However, in reality, the Carlsberg County only stationed two hundred people on this battle line as a standing army. After the war broke out this time, although he had gathered five thousand people to defend his territory, which seemed like a large number, most of them were farmers from the countryside who had not even received war training.

Therefore, when facing an attack by the same number of beastmen, Count Carls’ troops quickly collapsed. These beastmen burned, killed, and plundered within the Carlsberg County, and quickly reached Carls City.

And by the time Count Carls knew that the beastmen had broken through the outer defense line, the beastmen were already at the city walls.

The vast Carls City had only about five hundred regular troops defending it, while the beastmen outside the city numbered four to five thousand. Defense was impossible.

After the soldiers on the city wall briefly resisted, they gave up the city wall.

Anyway, they usually received wages far lower than other troops. Firing three arrows at the enemy from the city wall was considered doing their duty to the count. After abandoning the city wall, the soldiers simply fled.

Carls City was considered an immigrant city. Most of the residents here were immigrants from outside. The soldiers had no sense of belonging to this place, let alone fighting to the death for this city.

Thus, the current scene unfolded.

If he had known that this situation would arise, Count Carls would definitely not have embezzled the funds this year.

Now, the money he had earned through corruption, which was used to renovate his large house and improve his living standards, was all for nothing after the beastmen arrived.

“Oh? You also have a wife and daughters?” The beastman said this, pointing at Count Carls. “Bring them out for me to see.”