I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree-Chapter 4 - Early Signs of a War Criminal (3/3)

The village girl behind the old man also seemed to realize the atmosphere was a bit off. She quickly pulled the old man’s sleeve.

“Alright, Grandpa, don’t talk about this anymore. We just narrowly escaped death. Let’s think about evacuating now.”

“Sigh.” The old man also nodded upon hearing this.

If he had known that the Imperial Army would lose so many cities on the front line at the beginning and not release any information at all, he would have left long ago.

“By the way, about the evacuation, I can help you...”

...

Balu was currently sitting in the military tent in the field camp. His mood was not good.

In the past two days, small units sent to scour other villages for supplies had continuously gone missing. Balu’s preliminary estimate was that they had encountered human ambush forces.

In just these two days, the number of warriors Balu had lost had reached five thousand. Half of them were completely wiped out when they were ambushed by humans while operating independently from the main force. The other half were annihilated when they were ambushed by humans while searching for the missing units.

Five thousand people were not a small number. This was equivalent to five percent of his army’s strength.

His originally joyful mood due to the rapid advance was ruined by these events.

“Chieftain Balu.” At the entrance, a tall beastman walked in. He looked very angry, and his tone showed no respect for him at all.

“Our Iron Spear tribe’s warriors sent to search for the missing units were ambushed by a small human force and suffered heavy losses.”

Judging by his appearance, there was no doubt he had come to demand accountability.

“Apologies. It’s my problem. The scouts failed to thoroughly reconnoiter the terrain near the battlefield.”

Actually, it wasn’t entirely the scouts’ fault.

There were many mountains and dense forests nearby. The terrain was very suitable for hiding, and there were also many hidden paths that the beastmen didn’t know about.

Although this land was once the land of the beastmen a long time ago, the beastmen had been away for too long. During the last invasion, the beastmen hadn’t left behind maps of this terrain for future generations. As a result, this time, they were essentially retracing their steps through this area.

“I don’t need to hear apologies!” The chieftain of the Iron Spear tribe said angrily. “As the United Chieftain, you should come up with a plan now. We followed you, not to have our precious warriors die in these mountains!”

“I understand. I will try my best to come up with a plan...” Balu nodded.

“If you don’t come up with a plan in the next few days, don’t blame me for burning this place down,” the chieftain of the Iron Spear tribe said this, preparing to leave.

“Wait, what did you just say?”

“I said, I will burn this place down!”

“Yes!” Balu said, slapping his hand. “I’ve got it!”

...

“So, on the battlefield, timing, terrain, and manpower are crucial,” Orson said, sitting in the command post in Phenix City, instructing Litte.

However, their posture was a little ambiguous.

Litte sat on Orson’s lap, watching Orson draw and write on paper.

Her hair brushed against Orson’s chin, occasionally making Orson feel a little distracted.

This was Litte’s request. Orson couldn’t refuse Litte and could only agree to doing this only when no one else was around.

“As for timing, it’s difficult for us to control, and the same goes for the enemy.”

“As for terrain, it’s in our hands now.” Orson pointed to the sand table not far away.

He had ordered his subordinate officers to create this overnight.

At first, the officers didn’t understand the use of this terrain map made of sand and dirt. But when the troop deployments of both sides were accurately reflected on the sand table, the officers realized that what they could previously only imagine in their minds suddenly became tangible. This made it much easier for the officers to formulate combat strategies based on the battlefield terrain.

Of course, to create the sand table, it was necessary to ensure the accuracy of the terrain modeling. For this, Orson had gathered hunters from the villages around the battlefield, asking them to help create and correct the terrain in various areas, thus accurately replicating the battlefield’s topography.

“Orson, do you mean we can use the terrain to maneuver against the enemy, and even rely on advantageous terrain to inflict heavy casualties?”

“Yes.” Orson nodded. “Do you know why I specifically sent mercenaries to execute the guerrilla tactic before?”

“Why?”

“Although guerrilla warfare is large-scale combat in terms of strategy, it’s actually broken down into countless small-scale engagements. Therefore, it requires strict requirements for the soldiers’ military quality,” Orson explained.

“The current human army formations have a minimum size of one hundred, and are generally five hundred to one thousand.”

“Soldiers who receive regular military training, in order to compensate for individual strength differences, can often only unleash their full strength by fighting in formation as a collective. But mercenaries are different.”

“Most mercenary groups are relatively small. The largest mercenary group is only a few thousand people. Below that, mercenaries generally fight as scattered individuals, except for forming formations in necessary large-scale situations.”

“In terms of small team coordination, regular soldiers are far inferior to mercenaries.”

Of course, Orson wouldn’t say that by having the mercenaries die more, their own side would suffer fewer losses in the future.

He had spent so much money hiring them. He couldn’t just send them in to look good, could he?

Although Orson indeed thought this, if he said it out loud, his noble image in front of Litte might be damaged.