It had been only two days since they sent off that peculiar queen when snow began to drift from the sky. The weather had already turned quite cold, but Baron Camola, who was stationed in the royal city of Windbury, proved extremely capable in his handling of military logistics. Large quantities of supplies and equipment were transported to the front lines, and every soldier in the four allied families' forces of Northland had been outfitted with thick, fur-lined cold-weather clothing, ensuring their combat effectiveness to the greatest extent.
The only thing causing
Just as Lorist had gathered Bodfanger, Malek, and the other knights in the main tent to figure out how to raid and capture Bibiriji Mountain, Schwart burst in, shouting excitedly, "Your Highness, Big Brother Er and Senior Brother Reidi are back..."
"Oh?" Lorist looked up, a smile spreading across his face. He was quite relieved—no longer did he need to worry about the two of them. He had been planning to set out in a few more days to search for them. Tagel and old Man Mobinhan were already heading toward the front camp with that golden eagle and were expected to arrive in five or six days. He hadn't expected these two to simply wander back on their own. "Where did you run off to? Why did it take so long?"
Er and Reidi entered the main tent, both draped in filthy furs, their faces mottled red and blue from prolonged exposure to the cold wind while riding. They looked thoroughly frozen.
"Y-Your Highness, we've returned..." Er said, rubbing his hands together.
"Where on earth did you two go? Do you have any idea how worried we were? Was capturing two prisoners really that hard? The perimeter of Bibiriji Mountain is tightly sealed by the enemy—wouldn't it have been quick enough to grab two patrol soldiers?" Lorist fired off a string of questions, pretending to be angry.
"N-no, Your Highness, we didn't go after the patrols—that would have risked alerting them. We went into the mountains," Er said.
"What? Into the mountains? How did you get in...?" Lorist, Bodfanger, Malek, and the others were all stunned. Had Er and the others found a shortcut into the mountain that bypassed the guards?
"No, Your Highness, we simply took a very wide detour and entered Bibiriji Mountain from the East Waste Province side," Er replied.
With Er doing most of the talking and Reidi filling in the details, the two quickly laid out how they had penetrated Bibiriji Mountain. After Lorist had ordered them to capture two prisoners to gather intelligence on the mountain's situation, they had both felt that snatching a couple of low-ranking patrol soldiers wouldn't give them a clear enough picture of conditions up there. So they swung around to East Waste Province, where they happened upon two Fisablen family knights escorting forty or fifty soldiers guarding two wagons loaded with medical supplies headed for Bibiriji Mountain. Er and Reidi then led ten guards in a night raid on the escort party. After extracting intelligence, they killed everyone, buried the bodies, and posed as the medical supply escort to infiltrate the mountain.
"You two have some nerve. Didn't you think about what might happen if someone recognized you? Stop laughing, Reidi—I'm talking about you. Er practices the family's dark-attribute
(Er protested: "My wife says I'm the most handsome! What do you mean not striking?")
"...so it's easy for people to overlook him, and it's natural that no one would recognize him. But you won first place in swordsmanship at the grand tournament hosted by Grand Duke Fisablen. Plenty of people know your face. If the Grand Duke had left a few of his personal guards on the mountain, you wouldn't have gotten through so easily." Lorist criticized.
"That's not it, Your Highness. We asked those two escorting knights. They said the only unit garrisoned on the mountain is the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps. Grand Duke Fisablen disbanded the Fifth Border Patrol Cavalry Corps, merging its personnel into the Third to bring it up to full strength. The Third had followed Grand Duke Fisablen on his campaign against the former Merlin Duchy two years ago and had been stationed in Southern Province ever since. The Fifth was newly formed in East Waste Province, so I'm confident there shouldn't be anyone who would recognize me. Besides, I added two more strips of fake beard to my face—hard for anyone to recognize me now."
Reidi explained while pulling a false mustache from his pocket and sticking it to his face. It aged him considerably, and someone unfamiliar with him would have had difficulty recognizing him.
Er added from the side, "Your Highness, those two knights had also been garrisoned at Tiger Turret Castle in East Waste Province. They were originally from the Merlin Duchy and were relocated to East Waste Province. They were only recently promoted to Fisablen family knights because of their good performance. They didn't know anyone from the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps either. Grand Duke Fisablen had simply picked them at random after returning to Tiger Turret Castle, ordering them to deliver the medical supplies to Bibiriji Mountain first. It was almost tailor-made for our plan, which is what gave us the resolve to impersonate them and infiltrate the mountain."
"Your Highness, look—this is the map we drew of the mountain interior." Reidi pulled a beast-hide map from inside his clothes. Schwart took it, unfolded it, and spread it across Lorist's table.
Bibiriji Mountain was vast. Seen from above, it resembled a shattered eggshell, except that in reality those shell fragments were sheer cliffs, while the interior was a sprawling expanse of mountain wilderness, forests, lakes, and streams—large enough to constitute a complete viscounty.
The two flanking paths would lead to a dead end—the deeper you went, the closer you'd get to total destruction. The enemy had also laid numerous traps and mechanisms along the central path. Like this latter section of the mountain road, with deep ravines on either side—once they detected an advance to this point, the enemy only had to push from above, and the countless boulders piled along the cliffs would come rolling down. No one would escape. It was an exceedingly vicious mechanism.
Currently, the only unit garrisoning Bibiriji Mountain was the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps with forty-six thousand men. Grand Duke Fisablen had already departed with his personal guards and the Grass Barbarian cavalry back to Tiger Turret Castle in East Waste Province. The corps commander of the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps was Galini Belloput, a Gold Three-Star family knight. He was said to have been Grand Duke Fisablen's childhood playmate, deeply trusted by the Grand Duke, with a steady and resolute character—so the Grand Duke had entrusted him with the defense of Bibiriji Mountain in full confidence...
Lorist interrupted Er's account. "Grand Duke Fisablen didn't simply return to Tiger Turret Castle. He gathered over a hundred thousand Grass Barbarian cavalry and ambushed the Hunting Cavalry Corps in Pasture Province, dealing them heavy losses, then went on to attack Pidro City. However, the 23rd Battalion of the Imperial Guard garrisoning Pidro held them off until reinforcements arrived. Over ten days ago, seeing that taking Pidro City was hopeless, he withdrew. All of this happened after you left on your mission."
"The Hunting... the Hunting Cavalry Corps took heavy losses?" Er asked, shocked.
"That's right. Joe and
Er nodded, indicating he understood, and pointed at the map. "The Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps' positions inside the mountain are divided into four areas. A regiment is deployed on the left side and another on the right, responsible for patrolling and guarding those two blocked-off side paths. From their mountain-base positions to the clifftop takes a maximum of fifteen minutes. They've established sentries on every peak, changing shifts eight times a day—roughly every three hours—supplemented by patrols. The defense is very tight. It would be extremely difficult to scale the mountain from either side. Because of the cold weather, when we left, they were constructing sentry shelters on the cliff tops to protect the guards from wind and cold."
"The center is where the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps' main camp is located, with two regiments garrisoned there. Because the central path is open, security on this side is the strictest. Looking up from the foot of the mountain at the main camp, you might think their sentry numbers have been reduced, but they've actually long since carved out windbreak caves on the cliff face. Most of the surveillance squads shelter inside. If there's an alarm, they can reach their defensive positions in under ten minutes. That's why I believe a frontal assault would be extremely difficult."
"The Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps' logistics camp is positioned here," Er pointed to the rear portion of Bibiriji Mountain. "Right here—half a day's march from the forward main camp. This location serves not only as the supply depot but also as the central defensive point for the rear half of the mountain facing East Waste Province. Just like the three paths up front, the Fisablen family forces have sealed off the two flanking paths on this side, leaving only the central one open as a supply corridor. But I noticed that the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps' security on the rear section is extremely lax. They only send a single patrol squad along the cliff path once every half day—they don't even post sentries up there. Perhaps they believe that side faces their own family territory and therefore doesn't require defense."
"I suggest we take a wide detour and launch a surprise attack from the East Waste Province side. I believe there's a very high chance of success," Reidi continued after Er, then remembered something. "Oh, right, Your Highness. When we were leaving, that plump logistics camp manager complained to us that with the weather getting colder, their winter reserves were still woefully short. He hoped we'd urge the Grand Duke to deliver all the winter supplies as soon as possible. The only things they have in abundance right now are food and firewood. If they don't get large quantities of fur to make winter clothing, once the snow falls, every soldier will be stuck inside their barracks huddling around fires for warmth—forget about going out on patrol."
Lorist nodded. "You two did excellent work. If we take Bibiriji Mountain, the lion's share of the credit goes to you. Everyone has heard Er's report. Any thoughts?"
Bodfanger laughed. "Your Highness, Er and Reidi truly rendered a great service. Just as they said, we can take a wide detour and, as long as we avoid detection by Fisablen scouts, launch a forceful assault on the rear half of Bibiriji Mountain. The interior of the mountain is so vast, and the logistics camp is so far from the forward camp—half a day's march apart. Even if the enemy detects us, we can storm and capture the logistics camp before the forward camp's reinforcements arrive. Once the logistics camp falls into our hands, the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps will be ants in a bowl—there'll be no escape."
Malek considered for a moment. "Your Highness, Bodfanger's assault plan is quite suitable, but I think it would be better to implement it after a bit more time has passed."
"Why?" Lorist asked.
"Because if we attack now, marching on foot around the long way would be too slow, and riding horses or driving wagons would make too much noise—both would easily be detected by Fisablen scouts. I suggest we wait patiently a while longer. After several heavy snowfalls, when the grasslands are blanketed in snow, we can use skis and sledges to march. In such weather, the scouts won't want to venture out either, and the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps will become even more complacent and careless in their defenses," Malek explained.
It was a sound strategy. But there was one more thing. "We first need to employ a feint."
"A feint?" Bodfanger asked curiously. "What's that?"
Lorist nearly choked on Bodfanger's question and shot him an irritated glare. "Think about it. Right now, our camp is facing Bibiriji Mountain directly—anything we do here is visible from the mountaintop at a glance. We can't just sit in camp until the heavy snow falls and then casually strap on skis to circle around toward East Waste Province. If the enemy on the mountain saw that, even though they wouldn't know where we were going, they'd certainly grow alert and might even reinforce security on the rear of the mountain. Since the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps' commander, that Galini Belloput, is a cautious and steady man, our movements must not arouse his suspicion.
So starting tomorrow, we'll redeploy the
"But, Your Highness," Er stood up, "there's an entire corps on Bibiriji Mountain. The Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps is no weak force. We're only bringing in a single regiment from the Kemmes family—isn't that overconfident? If the Third sees how few defenders there are below, they might suddenly descend the mountain for a raid. We'd be at a serious disadvantage."
"They won't. I'll have Count
Lorist stood. "It's decided. Schwart, take a squad of guards to Tiger Ross's position. Have Sulaymos bring his heavy armor regiment over. While you're at it, tell Ross to expand his camp—we'll be rotating regiments there one by one in the coming days. Make sure he's prepared to receive us."
"Yes, Your Highness," Schwart said.