Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters
Chapter 1193 - 23 The Great Alliance Moves Forward (8)_5

Chapter 1193: Chapter 23 The Great Alliance Moves Forward (8)_5

"What?" Major Felter could hardly believe his ears: "What did you say?"

Idaar repeated: "The prisoners of the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Battalions are now in Green Valley. The rebels didn’t take a single one with them."

The elation on Major Felter’s face disappeared, and he sternly asked the lieutenant, "Are you sure?"

"I’m sure." Idaar nodded.

Major Felter said nothing and directly ordered Namet to take control of Idaar, then dispatched another group of scouts to Green Valley.

...

[Three Hours Later]

[Green Valley Town]

"Now you see, everything I said is true," Lieutenant Idaar said expressionlessly, pointing casually. "I neither lied nor was I bribed by the rebels."

"This... this..." Major Felter was also puzzled by the rebels’ strange actions: "What on earth is this about?"

In front of the two men, on the town square, over a thousand prisoners were being guarded by the sheriff and town militia, waiting to be "received."

Seeing the officer’s uniform on Major Felter, the sheriff was so moved he was in tears.

Including the sheriff, there were only about a dozen law enforcers in Green Valley. How could they possibly suppress over a thousand prisoners?

To avoid the tragedy of "rampaging soldiers looting Green Valley," the sheriff had gathered all the men in the town. They stayed up all night guarding the prisoners, finally welcoming "dawn" after the first light appeared.

"His Excellency Montaigne... no! Rebel Montaigne said," the sheriff cried with a runny nose, "to hand these prisoners over to you; you’ll know what to do with them."

"Hand them over to me?" Major Felter was astounded: "Did he really say that?"

"I don’t know either; it was the mayor who passed it on to me."

"Where is the mayor?"

"Ran away." The sheriff pointed out of the town: "Afraid of being held accountable by you, he took his valuables and ran off with the rebels."

Major Felter squinted his eyes: "Where did the rebels go?"

The sheriff was at a loss: "I don’t know."

Major Felter’s face turned fierce, and he grasped the sword hilt, shouting angrily: "Don’t know?! Are you covering for the rebels? Do you have a death wish?"

The sheriff was taken aback, and he clutched Major Felter’s boots, crying loudly: "I really don’t know! The rebels never even entered the town; we didn’t dare go into town to see, we only know they left. Where they went, I really don’t know, sir!"

Major Felter helplessly glanced at the sheriff: "Gather the townspeople; I need to interrogate them. Get those farmers living outside of town as well; the rebels couldn’t have vanished into thin air! They must have left some traces."

The sheriff hurriedly rushed to ring the bell to gather the townspeople.

"Have all the sergeants and officers among the prisoners come to me," Major Felter turned and ordered Lieutenant Idaar: "Quickly reestablish the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Battalion formations."

To prevent any rebel trickery, Felter had only brought a few aides with him into Green Valley, with his main force still stationed at the granary on the farm outside the valley. He was even reluctant to give up that sturdy building, so he improvised, planning to use the prisoners to control Green Valley.

Lieutenant Idaar shook his head: "Major, the rebels took all the sergeants and officers--I asked when I first entered the town. All that’s left here are soldiers."

"What exactly are the rebels trying to do?" Major Felter felt his head was about to explode: "Do they want to use the prisoners of these three battalions to hold us down? Could they have really withdrawn?"

"Who knows?" Lieutenant Idaar whistled: "Maybe the battle up north has been decided, and the rebels are planning to escape."

"Wouldn’t it be safer for them to finish us off before escaping?"

"Who knows what Senior Montaigne is thinking?" having been suspected once, Lieutenant Idaar’s attitude towards the major had turned somewhat cynical: "Maybe he thought that granary was too hard to take, or maybe he was in a hurry."

"If he really wanted to escape," Major Felter’s head was now a tangled mess, and he pointed to the Green Valley bridge spanning the Niuxi River: "Shouldn’t he destroy this bridge? Leaving it intact makes it easy for us to cross the river, doesn’t it?"

Lieutenant Idaar said nothing.

Major Felter suddenly looked around nervously, asking warily: "Is that guy trying to lure us out of our stronghold to wipe us out?"

Lieutenant Idaar shrugged, expressing no opinion no matter what Major Felter said.

"No, we can’t abandon the outpost outside the valley!" Major Felter, feeling overwhelmed by headache, decided to take decisive action: "I’m assigning you these three battalions, and I’ll send officers and non-commissioned officers to you. You will command them! First, thoroughly search Green Valley, ensuring the city defenses are secure."

Lieutenant Idaar saluted.

"Right," Major Felter’s stomach growled, and he gritted his teeth while giving orders: "Don’t forget to ask that sheriff for two loads of food and water; send them to the outpost outside the valley as soon as possible!"

With that said, Major Felter was about to ride away from this place, which he deemed full of hidden dangers.

"Major," Lieutenant Idaar called out lightly from behind Felter, "Didn’t you know? The rebels have already stripped Green Valley of all its provisions."

...

After numerous interrogations, inspections, and even personally checking the wheel and hoof prints on the roads, Major Felter finally confirmed that the rebels indeed withdrew from Green Valley Town.

However, whether they withdrew from "Green Valley," he couldn’t say for sure. His officers unanimously believed that the rebels must have another plan since they abandoned a fortified town so easily.

But whether this "plan" was to lure out Felter’s remaining forces to annihilate them or to create a diversion for their retreat, the officers had differing opinions.

There were simply too many suspicious points, and Major Felter couldn’t make sense of it all.

Ultimately, he decided to choose the most cautious approach—since his orders were to occupy the "Green Valley—Yunque Pass" line and cut off the rebels’ retreat, he just needed to firmly hold Green Valley Town.

After all, he had even more urgent problems to solve—how to feed the remnants of his six battalions.

Thus, on the south slope of Yunque Mountain, in this war-torn river valley, the two commanders of this not yet officially named southern theater of a major battle made entirely opposite decisions.

Meanwhile, on the north slope of Yunque Mountain,

Colonel Bod received the worst reconnaissance report:

The enemy he was facing was neither the "less than ten battalions" estimated before the war nor the "twelve to fourteen battalions" after receiving reinforcements from Kingsfort, but a full seventeen infantry battalions! Along with over a thousand light and heavy cavalry!

Sanel Angman was a madman, and Chloe Toriel was even crazier. Apart from the two battalions left to guard the infirm, all the soldiers of the reorganized New Reclamation Legion and the New Reclamation Expeditionary Army were brought to Mirror Lake County.

At this moment, they stood before Colonel Bod and his three-county coalition army.

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