Conquest - Chapter 64

Three days had already passed since they came back from their last scouting mission. In those three days, the 13th Cavalry Army corps improved their war preparations. Large quantities of materials and equipment were transported to the camp. According to the battle plan, a legion of cavalrymen left the barracks in advance in order to conduct a reconnaissance operation in the north last night.

The big headquarters tent was also bustling about during these three days, as one legion commander after another kept going in and out of the tent. The operational conferences were strictly carried out, and all duties were distributed. Additionally, the security was also raised to the highest level.

However these temporarily things were irrelevant to Shaar as he lied on the bed while still repeating today’s experiences that he gained during the practice. Simultaneously he was making the best use of this time to rest. In a short hour of rest, he had to fully restore his physical strength.

Although, he had yet to taste a true battlefield, but the short confrontation with the Icefield hunters in the forest let Shaar experience the especially brutal side of war.

He was getting used to staying in this place. Shaar liked his new friends a lot – whether it was Kevin, Kato, or that tall and strong chap Sarbar, all of them were to his liking. These guys were straightforward and very direct people. Once someone had been accepted by them they would treat each other sincerely – this kind of atmosphere was absolutely impossible in Primal Wildfire Town.

In the 18 short years of Shaar’s life, except for the short adventure in Primal Wildfire, he never had any friends and therefore he was cherishing this feeling very much.

However, he also knew very clearly that this was the army! An army must go to war! And a war was brutal!

Therefore he had to practice in order to enhance his skills.

He desperately practiced his martial arts during the day and applied to go on patrol during the evenings in order to grasp the opportunity to practice his horse-riding. Moreover each time Shaar went on a patrol he would also use this time to consult with the other cavalrymen whom went on patrol together with him about combat and killing techniques.

He knew very clearly, perhaps the simplest technique will become his life insurance which he will have to depend on during the battlefield in the future – this wasn’t because of his intelligence but from the vigilance he gained when he was growing up in the mountains, practicing and fighting and the beasts since childhood.

One hour of rest quickly passed and when the pitiful Tatara finally managed to raise enough water, Shaar didn’t even had any time to take a bath. He quickly jumped up and wore the armor which the magician just cleaned and ran out of the tent ……The magician maliciously spat behind him and threw the brush on the ground before lying down on Shaar’s bed.

Ah gods bless this hillbilly and make him fall down from the horse during the patrol……

The magician recited this prayer in his heart.

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He joined the patrol leader after receiving the order and followed the team to leave the camp front gate. He suddenly saw a horse caravan which was slowly coming closer from the distance and the vanguard cavalrymen were carrying the banner of the imperial army in a strict formation.

“Who are those people?” Shaar asked his companion beside him.

“Those are the guys are from the Sixth Army……I heard that they were going to come over in next two days. Hehe ……Rookie, your luck is quite good since you came in at just the right moment to catch a major battle!” A veteran cavalryman next to him laughed.

The incoming horse caravan quickly changed formation and held up the banner of allied force from a far. The patrol leader immediately made a way for this horse caravan to pass the main road. Shaar and the cavalrymen of the patrol watched from the side as these troops passed them on the road as they noticed that this horse caravan were not big in numbers, probably not more than 100 riders. A team of cavalrymen were wearing a fine armor and they were guarding a fellow who was looking like a general as he ride a red horse in the middle – the general was tall and sturdy. Although he was wearing a full set of golden armor, it actually didn’t make him look lean but extremely bloated instead.

“That’s Ruhr, the general of the Sixth Army.” A nearby patrol cavalryman told Shaar.

A General? Shaar immediately compared this guy with General Adrick and immediately gave birth of scorn in his heart. This fellow looked more like a cook……

“He was original a cook.” Another cavalryman whispered with a smile: “General Ruhr comes from the Minas Family and he was formerly a chef of Duke Minas. Later, I don’t know how but he was recognized by Duke Minas and promoted. Ah ……Duke Minas was also a renowned commander of the empire and only made a mistake with this guy in his lifetime.”

It was very obvious that the cavalrymen of 13th Cavalry Army despised this General Ruhr with a passion.

In fact ……They had a good reason to despise General Ruhr.

The tradition of 13th Cavalry Army was “Advance upon death!” In the war history of all the armies this iron army never withdrew once.

However, this General Ruhr general actually had a special record in Byzantine Empire: The army that he was commanding was always the one with the least death and the best preserved each time a war ended!

The reason was, General Ruhr seemed to have an extremely special talent: He could always predict or sense an imminent danger then ……quickly leading his army to evacuate before the danger arrived!

Noting that, each withdrawal was not running away! On the grounds that this fellow never violated the military order of abstaining from combat. If that was the case, he would be punished by the military law. General Ruhr’s unique element was he can always find a way out of the most dangerous situation and led his men to safety by withdrawing.

Once during a war, General Ruhr was also only a centurion of a legion and commanded the army’s vanguard. With the enemy’s sudden advance detour, they circled the rear and directly led a surprise attack on the main force and defeated it. This caused Ruhr’s troop to be stuck in the enemy-occupied territory without any reinforcements.

As a result, Lord Ruhr displayed a type of ability that made all Byzantine generals gasp in admiration: He led his 2000 subordinates and found a slit to escape through an area which was blocked by 40,000 enemies. He used the complex terrain to trick the enemy who were pursuing and blocking him!

Except for some soldiers who had a sprained ankle during the escape, his soldiers unexpectedly didn’t take any damage!!

If it wasn’t a miracle such command could still be considered a masterpiece of art!

During General Ruhr’s 30 years of service he never fought a tough battle. However his forces always managed to provide an assistance or hit enemy’s rear and so on. His army’s advance was rapid but its withdrawing speed was too scary!

Furthermore, he even set a record among all military officers in Byzantine Empire which made people gasp in admiration: His army won a head-to-head confrontation with the continent’s most valiant general, the Odin empire army’s God of War Hasting!

Hasting was this continent’s recognized most valiant General and also Odin imperial army’s proudest God of War! All Byzantine Empire’s armies and Odin Empire’s armies had pretty even victories and losses during all the battles. However, when they faced against Hasting’s army, they always had more defeats than victories. Even the iron army, the 13th Cavalry Army corps received some big losses.

However, it was actually different for General Ruhr……

About six years ago a war between both countries erupted when Ruhr was just promoted to a general and he was commanding the military strength of a full army. What was very unfortunate was that his army encountered Hasting’s army on the battlefield.

The military order which Ruhr received was that he must at least stall Hasting’s army for two days!

General Ruhr suddenly decided to send boldly a letter of challenge to Hastings, in which he asked for a decisive battle on the battlefield! His letter of challenge was written full of integrity and also explained that although he knew that he wasn’t Hasting’s match, however……

“I will defend the dignity of a warrior and guard the glory of the Imperial Army. In every echelon of my army, I promise a battle to the death and use the blood of my men to show a Byzantine’s soldier’s integrity!”

“If I can fight with your Excellency, I can die with no regrets!”

– The above were the word written in the letter of challenge!!

Seeing an opponent with such a cavalier ideal, Hasting burst out with happiness in his heart. He accepted such a request with the mentality of heroes and also sent back a reply to the letter of challenge written in extremely respectful words.

As a result, when Hasting prepared to fight a decisive battle two days later and led his troops towards the big camp of Ruhr, he actually discovered that it was completely empty with not one human soul left!

It turned out that after General Ruhr received Hasting’s reply he dropped all military baggage and equipments as well as the ordnance logistics at night and ran away with his troops at the same night.

When Hasting angrily ordered his men to chase them down, Ruhr’s troop was already 200 miles away……

Although, he discarded all ordnance supplies and military baggage since Ruhr successfully delayed Hastings for two days he didn’t receive any punishment from the military headquarters.

Hasting gave this despicable opponent an evaluation: Among all the generals in Byzantine, this Ruhr was the most despicable and cunning; he was simply a fox ……No! Even a fox was more courageous than him, he was simply a rabbit! A quickly running rabbit!

Henceforth, General Ruhr obtained the nickname – “Running Rabbit”!

There was another interesting matter……After Hasting discovered that he was cheated, he became so angry that he ripped The letter full of brave words which Ruhr initially wrote to Hasting to pieces. However, when this Odin’s valiant general calmed down he stuck this letter of challenge back together and kept on him in order to remind himself in the future that he should not be blinded by his pride when dealing with his enemy.

After this event was spread it gave General Ruhr’ side another boost of fame.
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After watching Ruhr’s troop pass, Shaar heard the magnificent past events of this Running Rabbit general from the mouth of a cavalryman. However, he had a different opinion compared to the cavalrymen. Watching as the distant caravan moved out of sight, he didn’t have a slightest disdain towards them but instead he thought deeply for a moment in admiration.

(That fat person was absolutely not a simple coward……)