Mage Veigar

Chapter 603: Sad soldiers will win

The army that mourns will win.

This idiom comes from an article in the Tao Te Ching titled 'The One Who Miserably Wins'.

The word "sorrow" here does not mean despair. It is simply a fantasy for soldiers in despair to win the war. Therefore, the phrase "the army in sorrow will win" means that the army that suffers all kinds of bullying and fights for justice with indignation will surely win.

Sense of shame and then courage.

It is precisely because they are constantly despised, bullied and insulted that they are able to unleash all their previous fighting power and defeat enemies that are several times or even dozens of times stronger than themselves.

Hasn’t the Imperial Army suffered enough defeats?

I have lost so many times that I can’t even count on my hands.

Hasn't the Imperial Army been bullied enough?
The scene of the Holy Dragon Kingdom slaughtering comrades, relatives and friends is still vivid in my mind.

Hasn't the Empire been insulted enough?
From being favored by other countries to being looked down upon, their repeated failures have made them extremely eager for victory.

Therefore, in Vega's opinion, this war can be won with just one eye closed, and there is no need to think about how to achieve a surprise victory.

If it is really as simple as Vega said, then why can't the empire get rid of the curse of repeated defeats, still stuck in the quagmire of war failures, and unable to do anything about the Holy Dragon Kingdom's army?
This is probably because Eskar did not find the key to victory.

What is the key to victory in this war?
That’s right, it’s morale!

If more than one and a half million soldiers had not lost their morale, and would rather die than retreat a single step in the head-on confrontation with the Flying Dragon Legion of the Holy Dragon Kingdom, and had been able to fight to the death to stop the enemy when they were about to leave, this war would have ended long ago.

But what about reality?
As soon as the Holy Dragon Kingdom attacked, tens of thousands of people on the Empire's side died. The soldiers began to get scared and regarded the Holy Dragon Kingdom's army as an invincible monster, and then a large-scale rout occurred.

Failure again and again.

A shadow has been cast in the soldiers' hearts.

Every soldier believes that he still has room to retreat, so no matter how many troops are added, those who are destined to flee will still flee. The retreat of one soldier will cause a domino effect.

Just like in an avalanche, no snowflake considers itself responsible.

What Vega has to do now is to make every soldier realize that they have no way out.

Fight or die.

Since relying on violence, military regulations, and officers is no longer enough to restrain the army, it is better to do the opposite and let the soldiers actively request war. When every soldier realizes his situation and fights for himself, will they still run away?

Definitely not.

Just like a father who would defend his family to the death even in the face of the collapse of the sky and the cracks of the earth, the soldiers of the empire now need Vega to awaken the belief in their hearts to fight to the death. As long as this belief is awakened, the mere 500,000 soldiers of the Holy Dragon Kingdom will be no problem.

"May I ask your Highness, how should we do this?"

Eskar asked with a puzzled look. Although Vega's analysis helped him find the core of the solution to the problem, he was confused about the specific implementation steps.

Let the soldiers volunteer to fight?
Is this really possible?

The other officers didn’t know, but for Vega, the answer was yes.

He instructed Eskar, "Please make a large number of copies of this leaflet, and then have the war airship drop these leaflets to every corner of the city at three o'clock in the morning. When the sun rises tomorrow, I want every soldier and civilian to have a leaflet in their hands."

With a puzzled look, Eskar took the flyer.

Originally, Eskar thought that Vega wanted to use the flyer to publicize something, but what Eskar didn't expect was that the flyer was signed by the Holy Dragon Kingdom Dragon Corps Headquarters. What was written on the flyer?
To sum up, there are only two points.

The first was to inform the whole city that they would start a war again within five days. This time they were determined to capture Oasis City. After capturing Oasis City, they would launch the Lamb Plan.

What is the Lamb Plan?

The flyer said that recently the sub-dragon species discovered that eating raw children was particularly delicious, so they wanted to turn the Oasis City into a sheepfold to provide the Holy Dragon Kingdom's army with a steady supply of "children" as food.

The second point is a supplement to the first point.

The Holy Dragon Kingdom told everyone in the city that they had destroyed all the routes for Oasis City to retreat to the central area. Everyone here must be killed, no matter if you are a soldier or a civilian. No one can escape.

"This, this, this...is this true?"

Eskar's face flushed red, he was extremely angry: "Great, great, great Holy Dragon Nation! Even if I have to sacrifice my life in this battle, I will destroy these sub-dragon species!"

"calm down."

Veigar coughed and said, "I made all this up. The Holy Dragon Nation may massacre a city, but I have never heard of eating humans alive."

Eskar was stunned.

"May I ask, Your Highness, why do you want to spread such rumors?"

Eskar seemed to be somewhat frightened: "If these rumors were known by the army and civilians, wouldn't it make the already low morale even more desperate?"

"Quite the opposite."

Vega smiled and said, "Sir, have you forgotten your reaction when you saw this news just now?"

Eskar paused, and he understood Vega's plan.

He took the flyer and said, "I'll have someone do it right away. Seeing this flyer, even an officer like me who was a staff officer was so angry that I lost my mind, let alone those civilians and soldiers? Your Highness is indeed a person who was once called a devil who plays with people's hearts by the kingdom. With this trick, there is no need to worry that the soldiers will not fight to the death. As long as the soldiers can fight to the death and hold out for six hours, it will be the death of the Holy Dragon Kingdom's Flying Dragon Corps!"

"Your Excellency is so complimentary."

Vega smiled and said, "You and I have a combined army of two million. We only need to use a few tricks to deal with the Holy Dragon Nation. I think we don't even need the Dynasty Army to take action in this war. We can rely on your army to defeat the Flying Dragon Legion head-on."

"I hope so."

Eskar left the meeting room, and Vega stopped smiling.

This battle was not difficult for Vega. With such a strong military force as the Empire, as long as the soldiers did not flee out of fear, the Holy Dragon Kingdom could be defeated by sheer numbers. Vega had no idea why Eskar could not defeat the Holy Dragon Kingdom.

In fact, Vega has more than one method.

If he fought seriously, he could even wipe out the Flying Dragon Legion at the lowest cost. Unfortunately, he felt that there was no need to consider the Imperial Army which was bound to become the enemy. He just used the simplest method to deceive the civilians and the army and let them hurt each other with the Holy Dragon Kingdom.

His own 500,000-strong army?

Vega brought his army here just to be on the safe side and to make some money from the empire's military expenditures.

As the plan was implemented, the peaceful night passed quietly.

When the dawn of the next day came again, the Oasis City, where almost everyone had a leaflet, was in an uproar.

(End of this chapter)