Fantasy Starting from the Stone Age - Chapter 71



Only Noblemtl

Episode 71. The Second Shuzor Invasion 3

It may be an exaggeration to say this, but Datang really can’t fight.

As I mentioned before, Datang has no strategy other than sending troops and if that doesn’t work, sending more and stronger troops.

It was the same for All Chaun, and for other Datuns who inherited All Chaun’s teachings, and even Darida, the greatest strategist, could not escape it.

Darida proved her ability as a director and general who can win by deploying strong soldiers in the right places, but on the other hand, her achievement was the development of martial arts that strengthened the human physical ability itself.

Darida also felt it unconsciously. In the end, everything is powerless in the face of overwhelming power. In the end, fighting is only possible if you have strength.

That’s also because their era was prehistoric. The firepower of spirit magic is only threatening in ultra-high magic zones, and it’s difficult to properly stop a single person even in normal magic zones.

Even if you go down to the low magic zone and use ‘Reka Seral’, the Tocha tribe can just get hit and come closer to grind Daton. (Even if we put aside the question of how Daton exists in the low magic zone)

So to speak, the mystery did not become a gun.

Guns are great weapons. They make everyone equal. And even the greatest marksman can’t survive being shot by a gun just because he’s a good shooter.

However, while the shamans were not as good at killing enemies as those with guns, they were very good at defense. Fights between shamans took much longer than fights with swords and fists.

This is true not only of spirit magic, but of sorcery, animal spirits, and magic.

If science and weapons engineering on Earth developed offensive power faster than defensive power, then in this world, defensive power developed faster than offensive power.

So power is absolute. If you and I both get hit once, you might be able to defeat many enemies if you attack them a little bit by surprise, but if you need to get hit three times to die and I need to get hit once to die, then it’s a little different.

In that respect, Liwaduwan fought against Datang’s ‘power’ with two weapons.

First, a perfect guerrilla warfare with advanced communications and elite officers. This cuts off the food supply, which is the basis for maintaining the power of Datang.

The second is asymmetrical power. It is particularly effective against the powerful spirit beasts of Datang, which are truly formidable, and it is a means for one person to subdue one spirit beast.

Due to the crazy supply line attacks, it now takes five times as many troops to move just to resupply.

However, it is safe to say that the amount carried was actually reduced, because the escort troops had to eat separate food, so in the end, it ended up being reduced.

And Daton, who is leading the way in transporting such a supply unit, feels something strange.

“Huh? Why is it like this?”

The giraffe he was riding stumbled. This was a great threat to the spirit master, as the giraffe had unusually long legs.

“Huh huh?”

And before the giraffe falls, it barely stops on its knees. Something is off.

He looks up at the giraffe’s head without thinking and is startled to see two horns growing out of it.

“Hanjutamaaaa …

At those words, the entire evacuation party panicked. They all retreated to the back of the line and took refuge from the giraffe and the spirit master.

The woman thought that her life was over. She couldn’t have any more children and if she didn’t take medicine and become a eunuch within the next three or four days, she would just stop breathing.

But something is different. The three horns on top of the giraffe’s head are purple and have a slightly different shape.

“huh?”

And then, the giraffes start to fall down one by one. And the ostriches. The only ones that are okay are the cows. The spirit beasts start to fall down one by one.

“What is this disease?”

A secret technique created while studying the interaction between Hanjutamal and sorcery. It is called Judok (呪毒). It does not cause any harm to Patchar, Daton and apes similar to Patchar, but it has a similar effect on spirits as Hanjutamal.

Of course, the degree is weak, only to the extent of extremely weakening it, and it is said that it can be driven away if you have the magic of the moon······. That is not the strength of this secret art.

This is contagious. Daton’s escort, who was leading the procession with the spirit beast, was completely annihilated except for the regular horned oxen and rhinoceros that were not spirit beasts.

“······.”

“······.”

“So who’s going to carry this stuff now?”

“Yayhoo!”

And the rushing Patchar soldiers. The supply unit that lost the spirit water is annihilated again.

No matter how many troops you reinforce, it’s meaningless. If you sneak up on them or start spreading poison from the traps you’ve set up, all the spirits will be wiped out in no time!

Darida, who noticed this, eventually gave the following instructions.

“Take the Laphis with you! Make sure to bring the Moon Spirit with you!”

And this time, they’re going to take out a poison that’s effective against the moon spirits with celestial powers. The Patchar tribe has spent the last 200 years researching only ways to screw over Daton.

The Datons stationed in the south withdraw their troops and airlift food from outside. The grasslands are vast and mostly uncultivated. The Datons know what they can and cannot eat.

“The Shujor Alliance has appeared!”

“Oh please!”

And every time that happens, sporadic skirmishes occur. The spirits are inevitably reduced by poison or spirit water stealing spells. And the Datons are trampled by physical strength because there are no spirits.

Those who have mastered martial arts are able to fight against the Patchar tribe, but the Patchar shamans are not idle. They effectively deal with those called ‘Datuns with excellent physical abilities’ and gradually pressure the enemy.

And finally, the limit has come.

“hungry······.”

“It’s a bridge. Will the supplies arrive······?”

Darida could not answer. He had no idea where the Shujor Alliance forces were or where they could be observed.

The only remaining intact communication device. I tried to use it to reverse interpret enemy signals, but······. It was impossible.

First of all, we needed a sorcerer. Let’s say that this was done somehow because there were some Daton-Patchar mixed-bloods who learned sorcery.

Secondly, the signalmen rarely opened their mouths. They showed incredible loyalty despite the harsh torture. Even when they did open their mouths, most of it was lies.

Thirdly, even if you did get the information properly, this prehistoric-shamanic communication method itself was incredibly difficult, so unless you were a Borin tribe member, you couldn’t memorize it overnight and it took three months to master it.

Fourth, this is actually the biggest problem.

“Even if you know, you can’t use it······.”

“what?”

“Spells, huh? Since they are powers based on emotions, you can tell who is using them just by looking at the way they are being used······. Spells used by Daton, not Patchar, and spells used by others, not the designated signalman, are set to be ignored······. You can’t spy on them······.”

“!!!”

The magical communication was ahead of its time. It was a technology close to wireless telegraphy, and perhaps even more so.

However, due to the many characteristics of the mystery, there were many limitations. It was not a universal and common technique, but a technique that only extremely trained craftsmen could master. The only thing Datang could do was ‘radiate moonlight to interfere with magical communications’. In other words, he fired a jamming signal.

In the end, Datang was starving. When an army is starving, its strength is reduced by half. Darida, unable to choose between this and that, finally makes his choice.

“We must retreat. There is no other way······.”

In a normal army, they might have held out by even having to hunt and eat military animals.

But the spirit beast is not like that. It is another soldier who sympathizes and interacts with people.

Ordering the soldiers to drink the spirit water was tantamount to ordering them to eat each other, so with their supplies completely cut off, they had no choice but to retreat together.

And when retreating, fierce attacks are made. Attacks that are blocked by Darida going ahead, surprise attacks. And units that retreat while informing other areas.

In one year, the Shuzor Alliance has doubled the amount of territory they have recaptured. The Patchar tribes are rebuilding their ruined fortresses and garrisoning more troops.

Out of a million soldiers, 300,000 were killed without even being able to fight a proper battle.

Now, Datang couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Gather the army and attack the mainland of the Shujor Alliance! The troops attacking the mainland will be limited to only the spirit beasts, ordinary cows, iron cows that are immune to alcohol poison, and the Quako tribe, Paldin Koa! Gigagar tribe! No matter how good the Shujor Alliance is at guerrilla warfare, they won’t be able to stop the main base from being raided!”

“This is the greatest crisis in Datang, incomparable to the invasions of the past days! I promise abundant rations until death to anyone who prevents this crisis! Come!”

Darida declares and gathers all his troops. He raises production to the max to produce food, except for a 200,000-strong garrison in case of an emergency, and heads south with an army of 500,000 men led by Paldin Koa.

They take all the supplies and food with them. This is also something that the Shuzor Alliance cannot use scorched earth tactics, so they just confront it. They absolutely cannot cross the Shuzor River in the south.

“Oh my god!”

“Who will fight us!”

But the strongest of Datang’s mineniruns were strong. With each swing of his arm, the fortress crumbled, and with each raise of his hand, lightning struck and metal danced.

They rush south like crazy, jumping up with a spear in their hands and, despite being a general, going into the middle of the enemy lines and single-handedly defeating them all by more than 1:100.

It seems that even the most valiant of warlords could not defeat this. The Shuzor Alliance’s defense line was breached, and Datang’s remaining army slowly pressed forward to attack the Shuzor Alliance’s main base, preventing reinforcements from reaching them.

And the Shuzor River. They completely crossed the so-called ‘Hanjutamal Line’ and attacked the cities of the Shuzor Alliance, which were once Datang.

“For the Tang!”

After a year of mad advances, we have finally managed to establish a foothold in the south. Now we just need to open a supply route back up north and establish a foothold here.

The news that Darida heard while she was thinking like that.

“My leg is broken!”

The only route to the north was cut off, but it wasn’t the end.

And to the isolated and surrounded soldiers, thousands and tens of thousands of eyes flash in the jungle.

A young, confident man from the Pachhar tribe steps out, clapping his hands loudly.

I knew instinctively. The author was the hero of the Patchar tribe. The mastermind behind this great invasion of Shuzor. The one with the strongest military in history. A military god.

“Great mine-nillons. You have come down to this miserable South.”

“Who are you······?”

“I’ll kill you four years later.”

“You’re the one behind all this!”

“I see. Let me tell you one more thing. Two chairs are missing from Mainilun today.”

In fact, both Paldin Koado and Darida, as well as the soldiers under them, fought incredibly well.

Although it is not recorded accurately, Liwaduwan did mention that it was ‘the only battle that was truly a battle of Datang’. He was not one to lie, so it was probably true.

In fact, even in the Shujor Alliance, there are no more advantages if an all-out war breaks out.

It is said that Paldin Koa fought with the Quako tribe, throwing and crushing the Patchar tribe like Borin, and Darida single-handedly defeated a hundred, or even a thousand, with overwhelming martial arts prowess.

But eventually, the large Paldin Koa fell after being hit by hundreds of poison arrows.

Liwaduwan wanted to capture the spirit of Paldin Koa and use it for his own purposes, but it seems impossible. Several months later, Paldin Koa inhabits the body of a Kwako tribesman who was carrying luggage in the south.

And according to Liwaduwan, Darida was ‘absolutely impossible to capture with ordinary soldiers’, so Liwaduwan personally stepped forward and fought him.

Darida mentioned that he was left alone to make the retreat a success, and it is true that several of the Dardans actually managed to escape.

Although Liwaduwan was clearly a powerful sorcerer, it is unclear exactly how he defeated Darida, as he himself does not proudly mention it.

But what is certain is that he caught her with poison. He poisoned her with poison, and then cut her neck with a sharp stone knife while she cursed with her eyes wide open.

It is said that Darida glared at Liwaduwan with his eyes wide open. Liwaduwan is said to have responded by saying, “A person cannot defeat God.”

The end of the struggle period. The population of Datang is not clear, but it is estimated to be over 100 million. Some scholars estimate it to be 300 million, while others estimate it to be 200 million, but it is over 100 million.

And out of that 100 million, 1%. Excluding the troops that existed as reserves, 800,000 of the 1 million elite soldiers were cut down in just 2 years. The number of prisoners taken in the final battle was a whopping 200,000. That’s enough to build several cities.

The exact number of casualties suffered by the Pachar tribe in the invasion is unknown, but it is estimated to be around 53,000. And even out of those 53,000, 40,000 were lost in the final battle, so with only 13,000, they had lost almost 700,000 troops.

“If you don’t want to kill prisoners, stop the war.”

“what?!”

“From now on, we will release some of the prisoners as the seasons change. Stop the war until all the prisoners are released.”

“These kids······!”

“If you don’t like it, we can kill all 200,000 prisoners.”

“······!”

Eventually, a ceasefire of about 10 years began due to the unwillingness to abandon even one family member. A certain number of prisoners were released, but since the prisoners were also expected to have children, it dragged on for about 12 years.

It was a golden time for the Shujor Alliance to solidify its internal affairs.