Fantasy Starting from the Stone Age - Chapter 70



Only Noblemtl

Episode 70. The Second Shuzor Invasion 2

“Ha! Those Patchar guys are crazy! King Giri. Are you ready?”

“Of course. We have a million soldiers trained for such a situation, and we can more than subdue them.”

“Get down! And show that our Datang is the strongest nation in the world!”

This is Ol Chaun’s reaction when he first received the report. You’ve already seen it before, right?

And after three months, Olchaun got up and kicked the table.

“What the hell is this nonsense?!”

At first it was reported as a minor rebellion. Then it was called a major rebellion. Then it was said to be a diversionary operation.

All five legions were tied up, and soon news came that the entire south had revolted, and now I don’t even hear any reports.

“The Shujor Alliance has about 2 million soldiers? How can there be 200,000 garrisoned troops in such an instant······.”

In fact, it was a feat achieved with only 20,000 soldiers, which was only 1/100 of that number. Compared to the best elite soldiers trained while fighting Seiwamuyu, the quality of Daton’s troops, who only trained their physical strength through sports games, was far different.

This is especially true when you look at the chain of command and the general’s abilities.

“What are you doing while the enemies are rampaging in the south?”

“If the enemies keep blocking us, we won’t be able to fight properly.”

“Of course! They wouldn’t want to deal with King Giri, a genius in war!”

The next Chaun did not know about Liwaduwan. He did not know about Seiwamuyu’s subjugation and the unification of the South. After all, it only happened in the South, and the Iyakans did not go to Datang to denounce it.

However, Castel Laurent has one question about this report.

“All right. Doesn’t something seem strange?”

“what?”

“How could you know that Darida was coming and run away?”

“Well, that’s important information. The fact that Mainiran is moving is important information.”

“No. That’s ridiculous. Unless we have a traitor on our side or some idiot who’s been hiding his whereabouts, how could the Shujor Alliance know about Darida’s movements?”

“······.”

“There are no ostriches in the Shujor Alliance. Since they couldn’t fight in Darida, it seems like they couldn’t even scout or engage in combat with the ostriches… If they only led the elephant corps, it would be different. How can they convey information and avoid the speed of the Meng Ox chariots and ostrich cavalry?”

“That, that. Um······?”

And there can be no spies, because the unit that makes up a nation is a ‘tribe’.

All of the Patchar-Datun hybrids have joined Datang, and the Shujor Alliance consists solely of Patchar, Borin, Rulmo, Nono, and Iyakan, so there’s no way they’d allow spies.

“It is impossible for a spy to exist, but even if there is a spy, it is nonsense. How can a spy send a message faster than an ostrich, and the target escape faster than the ostrich? It is impossible unless you move through space or something.”

At those words, silence fell over the entire Mainirun. All of the Mainirun who had gathered to prepare for the situation, as well as everyone else who had been arguing, were silent.

Come to think of it, that’s true. How on earth do enemies figure out Darida’s movements and avoid them? It’s impossible with any device.

“What the… It must have been a spell or something. Either way, they succeeded at it.”

“I think we need to come up with a countermeasure.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what that is though.”

As expected, even with only fragmentary information, Datang realizes the abnormal intelligence power of the Shujor Alliance.

However, no countermeasures are found. Unable to respond to this abnormal maneuver and communication speed, the southern region is helplessly trampled.

“Call in more troops!”

In the end, this was the only solution that Datang could come up with.

Pushing with force. The only thing that gives the Shujor Alliance an overwhelming advantage.

National power. Numerous troops, spirit beasts, spirit masters, metal masters, plant masters.

Building an already garrisoned fortress higher, more rugged, and stronger, and making it impossible to invade.

But, you know, it’s a very common-sense story······.

Even in the modern era, we cannot build a fortress defense line across the continent, even across mountains and rivers. It would be nonsense to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

But the area that the Shuzor Alliance has now invaded is the ‘jungle’ and ‘forest’ above the Shuzor River. There is also a ‘grassland’ and ‘swamp’ where there is nothing.

How on earth do you build a fortress that can block everything here? It would be impossible even if you worked for ten thousand years.

Of course, Datang wasn’t stupid. He had a clear calculation.

“Why did Daton, who originally wandered the grasslands, bother to build a village and live there? They only build villages where food is produced. Unless the Shujor Alliance is not eating, they have no choice but to attack the village.”

“Well, not attacking the village means sleeping in the middle of nowhere, right? Of course, it’s not impossible. That’s how Daton lived in the old days.”

“But it’s ridiculous to station troops like that. The population that can be fed with the food scattered across the vast grasslands is at most 100 people… In a rich area, it might be 300 people. But the number of troops needed to occupy a village would be at least ten to twenty times that number, no matter how small.”

“War is fought through supplies. If those guys want to eat and survive, they’ll eventually have to stop by the village.”

And a month has passed. The Shujor Alliance is scattered and attacking the supply route to Datang’s village, ‘without taking over the village.’

“It’s a temporary phenomenon. It’s impossible to move Shuzor’s food north. It’s probably just the hungry ones going crazy.”

Even after three months, it doesn’t stop. Each village in the south barely receives supplies and survives on the food they produce in the village.

“King Giri······. The dry season is coming soon!”

Since taming the scaled hippopotamus, we have been able to camp in the swamps during both the rainy and dry seasons.

However, there is less food during the dry season. The reason the primitive Datons gathered in the swamps during the dry season was because they would dry out and die if they were on the grasslands at that time.

That doesn’t mean that swamps have a lot of food in the dry season. Of course, there is more food in swamps in the rainy season. But now that the dry season has come, the swamps will dry up, the forests will dry up, and eventually the plants and animals will starve.

And the Shujor Alliance is still constantly attacking. All supplies coming down from the center are cut off, and the villages in the south are drying up.

Darida couldn’t understand it now.

“What the heck? How on earth is this possible? No, I get half of it. They’re stealing our supplies!”

“But how can we sustain that army with just our supplies? Right now, all the supply lines in all the villages are under attack, so there must be at least 500,000 enemies! And how can 500,000 people eat and live with those meager supplies?”

“More than that, how on earth do they know the supply route? How do they know the supply period? How do they move at the right time? That’s ridiculous! I don’t even know when the supplies will arrive! And how can they…!? They can attack our supply base?!”

Datang is vast. 800,000 troops gathered in the south. And even more spirits are starving to death now.

We tried to invade the south, but their base was nowhere to be found. Every time we went, they all evacuated.

One thing we could learn from the surprise attack was that Darida.

“What is this turtle?”

We have discovered a communication device utilizing witchcraft and demons. It is a communication device and location-finding device that enables the abnormal scattered movements of the Patchar tribe.

“I see······. These crazy guys······! They weren’t 500,000 strong. At most, 20,000? With that number of troops, they were spread out across the grasslands, ‘at most, 100 people’, and they ate and lived like the Datons of the Paradise Era. That’s how productive the entire grasslands were. And whenever they discovered a supply route, the scattered troops would gather and raid it. Damn it! They knew that if we built a fortress and held out, we wouldn’t be able to get out, so they did this kind of thing!”

After Darida realized that, he fell into despair.

“······How on earth do you do that? What kind of ability does a general have to perfectly control and attack so many scattered troops?”

A military talent that is impossible to fathom. Even King Giri, who was called a genius in war, had a military strategy that was incomprehensible and reached the level of a god.

“That, and so how do you know the supply route and the supply time? You can’t send spies, right? If you want to disperse the soldiers and then regroup, you have to know that there will be a supply route there! But how on earth do you know???”

Darida falls into confusion. And struggles. Trying to figure out the enemy’s tactics somehow.

And they take prisoners and start interrogating them. Now the interrogation is closer to torture than polite persuasion and persuasion.

“Tell me the truth! How on earth do you know where the supply route is?”

As unimaginably brutal torture continues in the datang, those who could not overcome the torture begin to speak out one by one.

“Livaduwan created a spell that can foresee the future. With that foresight, he can figure out the supply route.”

“Livaduwan has developed a new sorcery. It is a sorcery that controls the minds of people. The spy is one of you, but he himself does not know it.”

“Lee Wa Du Wan has mastered the art of shape-shifting. He transforms into small spiders and birds to sneak in and spy.”

“Lord Liwaduwan developed a magic spell to become transparent······.”

All different words. But they seem sincere.

This is what real soldiers know. Or else they develop a loyalty so strong that even torture cannot believe it.

“What is it? What kind of sorcery is it? Is it one of these? Or is it some new sorcery that I can’t even fathom······.”

Darida was once called crazy. It wasn’t like that then, but now it really felt like I was going crazy.

As the dry season grows longer and the number of starving soldiers increases, more than half of the army is eventually sent back north. As soon as the troops are empty, the Shujor Alliance soldiers invade. And the strong defenses are occupied and built.

The jungles of the southern region have already been occupied, and the areas that Seiwamuyu occupied have also been occupied. One third of the grasslands have also been occupied.

It’s just a little while before the Shujor Alliance’s army invades the Holy Land.

Still, I can’t figure it out. I just can’t figure out how they know us so well······.

But what exactly is that method?

Let’s check it out for yourself now.

Darida thought it was a new mystery. In fact, many of the soldiers of the Shujor Alliance also believed it to be a mystery.

Well, that would be impossible otherwise. You can’t send spies, and the ostrich can’t be faster than an ostrich. Then how on earth are you going to figure out the enemy’s movements?

But actually, it wasn’t a mystery.

“1st Engineering Division. Congratulations on your return. 1st Engineering Division has returned, so 4th Engineering Division should depart. 5th Engineering Division should finish preparations before 2nd Engineering Division arrives.”

“Yes! Liwaduwan!”

What was prepared was a leather sack woven strongly with spider thread, a sturdy basket woven with light but strong vines, and a ball of white animal fur gathered to create a smokescreen underneath.

And a ‘heating device’ made of flame spirit stones, and a ‘wind direction changing device’ made of wind spirit stones. In addition, a sail for utilizing natural wind.

Yes, that’s right. It’s a hot air balloon. It couldn’t have come out in Earth’s prehistoric era. But Datang had spirit stones that contained enormous energy, and the Shujor Alliance had unusually strong and light materials.

We head to Datang with one Patchar, some demons that are used as communicators, and some dried food to last a long time.

Once you head to Datang, you will find yourself in an ultra-high magic zone. Magic will automatically refill, so you will have infinite fuel. If you happen to have an accident and are about to fall, you will use the full power of the spirit stone to burn yourself up and fall.

And just like that, the eyesight is enhanced through the senses heightened by magic, which is the racial ability of the Patchar tribe. They use that to see the supply route.

Of course, you won’t see a single ostrich, but you will see the ox cart and its huge supplies very clearly, even from a distance in this open grassland.

Even if there is a Daton who looks at the sky, it seems like it is just a cloud passing by. In fact, even if there is a Daton who looks at the sky, it is not easy to think that the clouds floating in the sky are man-made objects. It is even harder to think that people are riding them.

And the transmitter works. It can’t possibly not be transmitted, even though it’s several kilometers horizontally, and only a kilometer or two above ground in the open air without any obstructions.

It was only natural that Datang could not win the information war.