Chapter 550 Muffled Harp Strings (2/2)
Lize clenched her fists tightly.
No matter what, I must do my best this time!
Lize encouraged herself inwardly and looked at everyone before her. ”I think everyone must be clear by now that the Southern army will be arriving here soon. Before that happens, we must come up with a strategy. I don't have the talents that Mr. Rhode has, so I hope to listen to your opinions…”
Lize unrolled the map on the table and everyone crowded around it with knitted brows.
What's this? Graffiti?
Lize disregarded their confused expressions. In fact, she was also aware of her own bad habits. Lize lacked the confidence to summon her courage when everyone was doubting her. She was worried that she would doubt herself when she was explaining halfway when she witnessed their uncertain faces. Therefore, to prevent this situation from happening, Lize had decided to not lift her head when she went through the strategy and focus solely on the map before her.
”According to Joey and Randolf's intelligence report, Miss Gillian and I have analyzed and thought that the Southern Legion have no intentions of attacking the Cloud Summit Fortress because the Fortress has no true military value for them. I think that they will use minimal soldiers to pin down the Fortress while the remaining forces will penetrate the Paphield Plain from the sides. This way, the Fortress will no longer serve any purpose. They could even cut off our retreat from the rear and encircle the Fortress instead. Mr. Rhode informed me that the Reformist Party was aware that their strength wasn't enough against the King's Party and they would be pinning their hopes on the Country of Light. According to Mr. Rhode, the Country of Light's Parliament may possibly go through diplomatic channels to protest and oppose the King's Party after conquering Paphield and eventually turn the territory into their own.”
”What?!”
Joey shrieked in horror and the others exchanged worried looks. After all, the mercenaries rarely planned ahead and gaining victory in the battle before them was the most important, wasn't it? But now…
”Miss Lize, what you meant was that if those bastards avoided us and conquer the territory behind us, we will be considered to be standing in the 'enemy's' territory if the Light Parliament acknowledged it?”
”That sounds about right.” Lize fixed her gaze at the map before her and nodded with might.
”In order to prevent this from happening, we have to stop their attacks first and foremost. I have studied the terrains of Paphield and discovered a few possible routes that they could take…” Lize pointed to the map. ”After studying the map and consulting Commander Garcia, I learned that even though Paphield has a plain terrain, the defensive line by the Fortress isn't a flat vast of land. There are two long stretches of forests behind the Fortress defense and rear and the enemies will surely choose to penetrate the flat land between them. I think we can set a trap here to stop them.”
”Did you mean to ambush them?” Marfa asked.
”Yes, Mr. Marfa. We don't have the advantage in manpower, but we have plenty of Thieves and Rangers who can guarantee our dominance in an ambush. Besides, I have investigated in detail. My team of Clerics is confident in casting spells to shroud the entire region to slow the enemies' movements. I think we can take down the enemies with Mr. Randolf's Ranger team, Mr. Marfa's Swordsman team, and Miss Gillian's cover.”
”How many of them are we going to face exactly? Will they all be Cavalrymen?”
”In order to contain the forces of the Fortress, the enemies should be sending around 3,000 soldiers to deal with Commander Garcia. The total number of enemies is close to 8,500. For the sake of security, they will not focus all their forces to break through a specific area. This way, we're looking at facing 2000 to 3000 enemies.”
”This is only your guess, Miss Lize?” Randolf knitted his brows. ”We have less than 200 people and we will have a hard time against them. If the enemy doesn't divide their forces to surround the Fortress and attacks the Fortress altogether instead, we will be in huge trouble. Have you considered this? Also, what if they gather their forces for the breakthrough? 5,000 of them… If Mr. Rhode were here, I wouldn't be this hesitant. But…”
Randolf didn't complete his sentence, but everyone knew what he meant. Lize continued to stare at the map before her.
”They probably wouldn't do that. I've heard from Commander Garcia that the General Dade of the Southern legion leading the command is a cautious person and he will definitely not place all his eggs in a single basket. If I were him, I would rather choose to divide my troops into different attacking teams to break through the defensive line and regather thereafter. Besides, a team of 5,000 is too huge and difficult to conceal and it will be much easier for us to guess their movements and goals.” Lize paused nervously as this was the first time she had spoken so much before them. She sucked in a deep breath of air. ”I think they should be mainly Cavalrymen while the Infantry will be containing the Fortress. After all, the speed of Infantries will be much slower than Cavalrymen and since they're rushing for time, the Infantry wouldn't be suitable.”
”So you've decided to do this? This sounds like a good idea…” Marfa nodded and swept a gaze at Lize.
He was astonished that this always obedient young lady had actually understood the big picture. But this plan didn't seem perfect enough in his eyes…
”Lize, I remember that the Clerics' spell range is limited, right? Aren't they supposed to stand outside the forest in order to cast a spell over the entire region? If that's the case, the enemies will surely attack the Clerics first. Are you sure that will be fine?”
”Please don't worry, Mr. Marfa. We're Clerics, and we have ways to protect ourselves. Besides… Anne is around too.”
”I see…”
Marfa nodded in agreement. After all, he was a Swordsman and he didn't have the qualifications to bicker with Lize over spell-casting. At this moment, Joey leaned forward and scanned the map before him. He called out strangely and turned to Lize.
”Wait, Miss Lize. What's the purpose of us if the Southern General divides his forces? Even if we can block off the shortfall, isn't it the same if the other areas were broken through? Besides, if the enemies are alerted and attack us from the front and rear… Aren't we all dead too?”
”Don't worry about that, Joey. Miss Gillian said that there's a trustworthy person to handle this problem…”
The door opened and Gillian stood there with her usual cheeky smile. ”Ah, seems like Little Lize happens to be talking about me now. I hope I haven't missed anything?”
”Miss Gillian!”
Lize lifted her head and gazed at the fox-eared young lady with trembling hands. Got to say, the problem that Joey raised had been worrying Lize for a long time. Although she did have a backup plan for emergencies, it wasn't exactly ideal. Lize could only put her mind at ease after hearing from Gillian that someone would be around to resolve the problem. But now…
”Miss Gillian, regarding this matter…”
”Ah, about that,” Gillian rolled her widened eyes and kept her at suspense. Then, she winked playfully. ”Don't worry, everything will be fine. It's settled!”