Chapter 819 - Give and Take (2/2)

After close to two hours of bitter fighting, we had finally killed all the Gravedigger Demons in the ground and the Plunderers in the sky were quickly diminishing. The Plunderers’ ambush was truly fearsome, but the moment they fell to the ground, they were like bullseyes for the archers and were quickly killed. Like this, the skirmish finally ended.

I addressed [Zhan Long]’s men and asked, “How are our losses?”

Wan Er smiled and said, “We’ve pretty much preserved most of our forces. Looks like [Zhan Long] lost less than 5,000 men. Don’t worry, even after we die, we can revive. You should pay a little more attention to your Royal Army. Those are your real cards, piggy!”

I smiled and gave my incredible girlfriend a hug, “Then I’ll leave [Zhan Long] to you, Li Mu, and Qing Qian. I’ll focus more on the Royal Army side. I can’t let my hard work building up to 50,000 men go to waste so easily.”

“Yup yup!”

I turned around and walked straight towards the center of the Royal Army. I could see Han Yuan and Xiao Lie in the middle of doing a headcount. When they saw me walking over, Han Yuan became excited and smiled at me, “General, we’ve killed close to 70,000 Hybrid Demons in this one battle, it's absolutely amazing!”

I asked, “How many did we lose?”

Xiao Lie reported back, “Less than four thousand.”

I felt a twang of pain in my heart and said, “We aren’t even close to the Revered One’s City and we’ve already lost this many people… isn’t that a bit much? Once we launch a siege on the city, who knows how many won’t be able to return to the homeland from our Royal Army.”

Long Xing comforted me, “Lord General, do not let this bring you down. We are all men of the military. The moment we joined the army, we already decided to set matters of life and death aside. Besides, our brothers died on the battlefield. That is the most perfect ending for them as they return to the arms of our heavenly mother, is it not?”

I smiled, “Perhaps it is. You four, follow me. We’re going to see His Highness. After all, he is the marshall of this expedition. We shouldn’t make any decisions without consulting him first.”

“Yes sir!”

……

I led the four generals towards the Flame Dragon position. On the way there we passed by hundreds of corpses scattered on the ground. Just from the scenery before us, we could tell that the Flame Dragon Army had taken heavy losses. Standing at the center, Theodore’s face was pale. I could see the Marshall Sword in his hand trembling. A large group of lieutenants and majors were solemnly standing beside him.

“General Li, you’ve arrived?” Theodore addressed me calmly, and I could see his eyes soften with dislike towards me. Looks like this last battle has shaken his conviction quite a bit, but it’s also decreased his wariness towards me.

I nodded, “Your Highness, I came to ask what our next steps are. There’s a large ditch just before us that the Gravedigger Demons have dug out. Our soldiers might be able to climb across it, but none of our rations will make it over. All the normal cannons and the Dragon Crystal Cannons are absolutely necessary in a siege, so we have to bring them across.”

“All we need to do is fill it in…” Theodore calmly replied.

Han Yuan was stunned, “Your Highness, you want us to dig up some dirt to fill in the ditch? Keep in mind, we didn’t bring any shoveling tools for this. We didn’t even bring any laborers with us.”

Theodore looked at the masses of corpses and said, “That’s simple, we’ll throw the corpses into the ditch. As such, it’ll naturally fill up.”

“What?!”

The Flame Dragon officers were stunned, “Your Highness, those are our brothers. If we use their noble bodies to fill in a ditch, when we die one day, how will we face them in Heaven?”

Theodore replied calmly, “If even their bodies can be used to assist the kingdom, then I don’t think our brothers would be opposed to the idea, isn’t that right? General Li Xiao Yao, what do you think?”

……

Han Yuan and Long Xing all stared at me intently, anxiously waiting for my reply. I hesitated for a moment and finally said, “Everything is as His Highness commands..”

I could see a flash of dismay in Long Xing’s eyes. I locked my eyes with his and patted his shoulder. I quietly said, “This is what the circumstances are, there’s no choice but to accept it!”

I could see a flash of hope in Long Xing’s eyes and he lowered his voice, “I understand. Commander, do not worry. I understand how you feel. After all, I have been forced into many situations similar to this!”

“Okay.”