I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 168 Considerations and Discord

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the Cocobia rainforest, in the brightly lit camp of the Allied Fifth Army, a series of footsteps were heard, and then the tarpaulin of the command tent was pulled open.

Major Dillion, dressed in a grey-black army uniform, stood before the sand table. Meeting the gazes of the officers in the tent, he took a deep breath, then saluted Roxie, who was calmly scrutinizing him from the head seat, and began respectfully:

"Reporting to General Roxie, ten minutes ago, our army completely crushed the enemy's defenses and occupied the entire Cocobia rainforest. In addition, the defeated enemy troops are withdrawing along the foothills of Mount Ambition in the north, just as you predicted!"

“Very good, Major Dillion. Go and inform Colonel Will, who is on standby, to have the 1st Independent Battalion prepare to carry out the blocking mission against the enemy as originally planned, in conjunction with the 113th Division.”

"Yes, General!"

"Tap, tap!"

Inside the tent, watching Dillion leave on his mission, Roxie, who knew of their victory, did not smile.

At this moment, he recalled the intelligence he had received that afternoon regarding the annihilation of the Seventh Army on the northern front of Faoken, the suspected death of its commander Frank, and the news that Leon Lee had vomited blood and fallen into a coma.

Even now, Roxie still feels somewhat puzzled and has even begun to doubt the authenticity of this information.

After all, she knew Frank's command abilities all too well, and she understood how difficult it would be for her to defeat the enemy with fewer than four times their strength.

However, this intelligence revealed that the enemy not only turned the tide of the battle but also annihilated the main force of the Seventh Army Corps.

This is clearly illogical.

Compared to this intelligence, whose authenticity is questionable, the name of the enemy commander in the intelligence sent by the Shadow Forces of the Saga Kingdom is what interests Roxie more.

"John Maslow... I never expected to run into you here. It's quite a surprise!"

Roxie murmured to himself, his icy blue eyes beginning to show a complex expression.

In fact, this rising star of the Empire, who almost by chance thwarted his own attempt to lure and kill the Black Hawk Down special forces during the Battle of Walden and subsequently easily thwarted his teacher's assassination plan, is a prime example of this.

After his defeat last time, Roxie never showed any outward signs, but in reality, he had already secretly sent people to investigate all information related to the other party.

She had thoroughly investigated the other person's life, their enrollment in the Imperial First Military Academy, and all the decisions they made after arriving in Walden.

But the more Roxie investigated, the more puzzled and incredulous he became.

The reason is simply that John Maslow's abilities in the Battle of Walden differed considerably from those of his opponent.

In terms of military command, it can be barely explained by the fact that the other party has this talent.

After all, when she first entered the battlefield, although she did not perform as brilliantly as her opponent, her achievement of leading her company to complete a flanking maneuver, capturing the enemy commander, and ending the battle was still quite remarkable.

But how could the other party, who had never learned any interrogation skills from intelligence reports, so easily get the Hardman family's direct descendants to surrender and hand over their wealth?

Furthermore, how could someone who has never demonstrated any governance or political skills in their resume manage to persuade the entire Longyan Territory to surrender to the Empire in less than seven days?

They even managed to have the entire Longyan Territory spontaneously begin building a statue in his honor and sincerely sing his praises after he left.
Even among the most outstanding government officials in the Kingdom of Victoria, Roxie had never heard of anyone who could achieve such a feat.

But John Maslow achieved it.

Furthermore, unprecedentedly, he tried a true nobleman as a commoner!

This kind of courage and methods, which are completely unlike those of a commander who is new to the battlefield, and this uniqueness that seems to be full of mystery, made Roxie unable to help but feel curious and admiring.

To be honest, judging from John Maslow's governance policies for Dragon Eye Territory, if they weren't from different factions, Roxie thinks she would have been very willing to get to know him and discuss her views on governing the country.

Unfortunately, due to the opposing positions, she had to abandon her sentiment of cherishing talent and instead became more serious than ever before.

It was precisely for this reason that, upon receiving the news of the annihilation of the Seventh Legion in the afternoon, she immediately ordered the Fifth Legion, together with the 112th and 113th Divisions, to attack the Empire's defensive line located on the outskirts of the Cocobia Rainforest.

He personally commanded and used large-scale guerrilla tactics, infiltration tactics, and encirclement tactics to completely break down the enemy's defenses.

In this battle involving 90,000 participants, she captured the entire front line in southern Faoken in less than three hours.

According to Roxie's original plan, after completely crushing the southern defenses of the empire, she intended to lead her army directly north and seize Mad Fang City.

This would force the opposing commander, John Maslow, who had caused her defeat last time and who had led the Imperial forces to a counterattack against the Seventh Legion with near-miraculous abilities, into a true clash between the two commanders.

With his command skills and techniques, he will completely defeat them, thus washing away the shame of his previous defeat!

Of course, if conditions permit, she will try her best to capture John Maslow alive. After capturing him, she will talk to him to find out what kind of person this mysterious rising star of the Empire really is.

This leads to a decision on how to deal with the other party in the future.

However, compared to thinking about these inevitable future events, I probably need to resolve some minor issues within the military before officially launching the campaign.

Otherwise, once he confronts John Maslow, these murmurs from within the military might be noticed by him and exploited through special means, similar to how Maslow incited the Hardman family to defect during the Battle of Walden.

This turned what should have been an easy victory into a troublesome purge.

This completely unfavorable development of the campaign was not what she had hoped for.

Thinking of this, Roxie immediately suppressed his emotions and turned to look at the Saga Kingdom's junior general on the left side of the conference table. The general was enormous, standing two meters tall even when seated, with thick body hair and a resolute face.

She first tapped the table lightly with her finger, and after seeing everyone's eyes turn to her, Roxie slowly began to speak:

"Major General Gary Mad Fang, regarding the incident in the Cocoyab rainforest campaign where a regimental unit of the 112th Division ignored my orders to lie in wait and chose to launch a rash attack, which allowed the enemy to prepare in advance before our army launched its formal offensive and successfully broke through in the subsequent encirclement and suppression, forcing us to adopt a backup blocking plan."

"I think you should give me an explanation for this, shouldn't you?"

"Reporting to Lieutenant General Roxie, the enemy's reconnaissance forces were about to locate the 3rd Regiment. If we continued to lie in ambush, it would only lead to the annihilation of our brave soldiers. Therefore, based on the report from the 3rd Regiment, I do not believe there was a problem with the temporary decision made by my subordinates!"

Hearing Roxie's question, even though he knew it was his own fault for not managing his subordinates properly, Gary still responded to Roxie with a blank expression.

As the commander of the last division of the Mad Fang Clan and the clan chief, he was concerned with both the prestige of the tribe and the right to govern after the counterattack.

All of this determined that he could not admit that his subordinates' raid was a mistake, nor could he bow down to this filthy human who was nominally an ally but actually only agreed to send troops to support him on the condition of having 50% of the mining rights to the Golden Lion Territory's subsequent minerals.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that only one of the three main divisions of the First Legion of the Imperial Rhine Military District was left, making it impossible for the Mad Fang Clan to complete the subsequent counterattack on its own, then he would never have accepted the support request from these greedy humans.

In Gary's view, these so-called allies were no different from the Imperial bastards who attacked them. They were all just villains trying to plunder and enslave the brave orcs!

"This is not a reason for the 112th Division to disobey orders. I remember that before the attack officially began, I said that every unit must act completely according to my orders and must not act on its own. But what did you do? Hmm?"

Meeting Gary's chilling gaze, Roxie remained unfazed. Though a slight smile played on his lips, the murderous intent in his next words caused all the high-ranking officers in the room to pause in shock:
"In my opinion, let alone the fact that the regimental unit of the 112th Division is only about to be discovered, even if they are actually discovered by the enemy, they must obediently stay where they are before I give the order. Even if they are all killed by the enemy, they cannot leave the battlefield even a fraction of an inch before I give them a new order!"

"In this battle that I command, I don't need a second voice."

"If Major General Gary doesn't understand this principle, then I wouldn't mind kicking the 112th Division out of this battle to retake Faoken Bay."

"Compared to the assistance you provide, your undisciplined and disrespectful behavior will only cause more trouble for our army in subsequent battles! You are a pure burden!"

"And the last thing I need is a burden!"

"Oh!"

Upon hearing such blatant humiliation and contempt, Gary immediately stood up abruptly. His massive, four-meter-tall body, resembling a small hill, cast a large shadow under the light, covering Roxie.

His face, which had become uncontrollably beast-like due to intense emotional turmoil, looked particularly ferocious at this moment.

A pair of golden, beastly eyes were wide open, fixed on the arrogant-looking female human below, his tone filled with rage:
“Roxie Sancaster, you are insulting me, insulting the honor of the Mad Fang Clan, how could you…”

However, before the outwardly strong but inwardly weak Gary could continue to express his anger, Roxie's cold voice slowly rang out from inside the tent:
"I have never shown any respect to the defeated weak."

"The weak should have the attitude that the weak should have, remain humble to the strong, and show awe to their superiors."

“But Major General Gary, I see neither the former nor the latter in you.”

"All I saw was a fool who, for the sake of saving face, refused to admit his own mistakes and always tried to question his superior with a narrow-minded perspective!"

"I have absolutely no patience for idiots, and I have no interest in working with them!"

"So if you dare to keep yelling here and trying to maintain your last shred of self-respect in your pathetic way, then I don't mind showing you the real hell."

"Major General Gary Mad Fang!"

"Wow!"

Almost the instant Roxie finished speaking, the Allied officers who were sitting in their chairs stood up and released their auras, which were no less than those of high-ranking mages.

He stared at Gary, who was filled with rage, with murderous intent in his eyes.

In an instant, the entire camp became tense and ready to fight.

"!"

It seemed unexpected that this group of usually weak humans would not only show no fear in the face of her roar, but would also reveal murderous intent towards her under the orders of this seemingly powerless female commander.

At the same time, he felt the undisguised killing intent surrounding him, and there were even three auras that made him feel suffocated, which were at least at the level of a super-ranked mage.

At this moment, Gary realized that his pretentious act seemed to have run into a brick wall, and he suddenly felt that he was in a difficult situation.

His facial expressions also became somewhat unpredictable.

Just as he was contemplating whether to back down, a fawning voice slowly drifted from inside the tent:
"Oh dear, oh dear, what's going on here? We're all allies, why make things so ugly!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, everyone immediately realized that the speaker was none other than Major General Demis Darkmoon, the commander of the 113th Division of the Darkmoon Clan, who was sitting next to Gary.

The other person was short, only about 1.4 meters tall, and was sitting on a metal chair that could automatically rise and fall. His skin was generally dark brown.

His head was enormous, and he wore a hood over his forehead. He held a cigar thicker than the other man's forearm between his fingers, and was now looking at Roxie, seated at the head of the table, with a fawning expression, speaking respectfully:
“Lieutenant General Roxie, I know Major General Gary’s personality well. He just said those words because he was in a hurry, and he didn’t mean anything else.”

"After all, Mad Fang City has now been occupied by the enemy. As the last heir of the Mad Fang Clan, Major General Gary is naturally eager to take it back."

"And his subordinates all shared the same idea, which is why they impulsively ruined your plans."

"Therefore, Major General Gary meant you no harm. He simply lost control of his emotions and said those impulsive words in a moment of carelessness. Please forgive him and do not take offense."

Before Roxie could speak, Demis quickly tugged at Gary's skirt, gave her a wink, and then said:

"Major General Gary, you too! Lieutenant General Roxie is our ally. No matter how anxious you are, you can't take your anger out on our ally! Quickly, apologize to Ms. Roxie and don't ruin the harmony between us!"

"...I'm sorry, General Roxie. It was my poor management. I'm willing to accept whatever punishment you impose."

Seeing that Demis had given him a way out, Gary didn't insist any further. Instead, he endured the humiliation and lowered his proud head towards the human female in his field of vision to show his loyalty.

"..."

Roxie remained silent, merely staring coldly at Gary. After ignoring him for three minutes, she glanced at Major General Demis, who was rubbing his hands together and looking at her with a fawning expression, before speaking again:

"I reluctantly accept your apology, but Major General Gary, I don't want a similar situation to happen again. Otherwise, I will transfer the 113th Division to the rear. Don't blame me for not warning you in advance!"

"I am the commander of this battle, and my orders are paramount!"

"I hope that everyone here will keep this in mind!"

His gaze swept coldly over everyone before Roxie slowly raised his hand, signaling his subordinates to cease their fighting stance. He then rose and moved the chess pieces representing his side on the sand table towards Mad Fang City, calmly issuing the order:
"Now that the internal problems have been resolved, gentlemen, it's time for us to adjust our subsequent direction of advance."

"After annihilating the remnants of the enemy forces on the Kokobia front, I intend to reorganize my army and march north to capture Mad Fang City."

"This time, my demand is that no prisoners be taken."

"Slay every Imperial soldier you see, leave no one alive!"

"So, everyone, you can now begin preparing for the war to come!"

……

(End of this chapter)