He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 68

In the Three Kingdoms period, as well as in modern military science, the principle of divide and conquer is fundamental to strategy and tactics.

And these Greenskins, obsessed with pillaging, were perfect prey for divide and conquer.

Shu shushuk! Shushuk!

Chwaak! Seokeok!

“Surround the left flank! Cover Shadow with flanking fire!”

“Don’t allow close combat! Rangers, focus on hit-and-run tactics!”

“Kuaaaak! Cowardly humans……!”

Another Greenskin tribe was easily dealt with.

It was almost too easy, with their defenses so weak and their numbers not that great.

They’re vulnerable to surprise attacks while looting, and these tribal warrior societies only travel with their own kind. This is to prevent being robbed by rival tribes.

“They’ve retreated. Shall we pursue?”

“Leave them be. Selling the loot takes priority.”

“Understood. What shall we do with the loot? Burn it again?”

To Herman’s question, I paused for a moment before answering.

“Hmm…… no, now that I think about it, there might be a better way than burning it.”

When the Ranger Headquarters planned this operation, they didn’t think deeply about the loot.

This time, the main goal wasn’t to replenish supplies but to reduce and harass the enemy through divide and conquer.

So, we vaguely thought we’d take what we could carry and burn the rest…….

“On second thought, it would be better to distribute it all to nearby villages.”

“The people would be pleased, but I’m not sure we have the tactical leeway for that right now.”

Herman’s lieutenant suggested that it would be better to raid another group of Greenskins in that time.

“No, even so, it’s worth doing.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it doesn’t end with just defeating the Greenskins.”

“Ah…… could it be? To keep the lords in check……?”

I nodded at Herman’s question.

Of course, worrying about the lords when we have Greenskins right in front of us is greedy.

But if we put in a little effort now, it will be much easier to subdue the lords later.

“That’s right. If we distribute the food, we can win the people’s hearts. And we can arm them with the weapons.”

Of course, we’re not going to conscript them as soldiers.

It’s just to gain ‘potential collaborators’.

“If we defeat the Greenskins, the lords who collaborated with them will naturally become isolated. What if even the people turn against them in that state?”

The lords who take everything without giving a penny.

Compared to us, who are distributing food and weapons.

It’s obvious who their hearts will lean towards.

“They’ll naturally wither away. The food they’ve hastily stockpiled won’t last long either.”

“That’s right. It won’t be easy for them to come out and requisition again, will it?”

By then, the people, turned hostile, will be heavily armed.

Of course, if they mobilize knights, they can easily deal with the militia, but that means valuable knightly forces are diverted from the battlefield.

In the meantime, the main force will have their heads smashed by the commander of the Imperial Guard.

It’s killing two birds with one stone, winning the hearts of the people and disrupting the enemy’s forces.

“Alright, let’s move quickly!”

With one more goal added, we raced back and forth in all directions without giving our horses a break.

* * *

Even though the army that besieged the Ranger Headquarters was broken through by cavalry overnight, the Greenskins didn’t take it too seriously at first.

The casualties from that one raid weren’t that significant, and they figured a small detachment breaking out wouldn’t be a big deal.

“The Bear Claw Tribe has been attacked! All their loot has been stolen!”

“The Fury Root Tribe, which was looting, has been annihilated!”

“Those besieging the Ranger Fortress were ambushed again! How long do we have to keep besieging!”

But the cavalry that broke out was quickly accumulating damage beyond expectations.

Tribes that were looting happily without any defenses were being ambushed in succession, either retreating or, in severe cases, being annihilated.

But it would have been fortunate if it had simply ended with local defeats.

“A pursuit party is coming. But there’s no need to engage them. Everyone, run away!”

They sent wolf riders as pursuit, but they fled without looking back if they were outnumbered.

There was no way they could catch up with the Rangers, who were familiar with the terrain and determined to escape.

“Now’s the time, fire!”

“Greenskins don’t deserve to live!”

If they recklessly pursued and showed an opening, they would be ambushed or caught in a pre-arranged trap, resulting in even greater damage.

And again, the Rangers targeted tribes that were looting, or they would return to the headquarters and raid the siege lines again.

“The tribes’ losses are becoming more significant than expected. Though it’s only natural.”

Chieftain Golrak had already recognized the situation.

And Golrak, unlike the others, knew what the problem was.

“A problem that could be solved by stopping the looting and sticking together. Krulk.”

The essence of the problem wasn’t that the enemy was superior, but that the Greenskins were too scattered.

They only thought about their tribe’s interests and neglected military objectives.

So, in the end, this was also a limitation of the tribal system.

Of course, the chieftains knew that too. They just didn’t have the will to do anything about it.

Then he, the Great Chieftain, could have given orders, but-

“Why should I?”

At first, he thought about convening a league conference to preserve the army’s strength.

But on second thought, that would only be solving a problem caused by the chieftains’ incompetence by expending his own authority.

Even if he solved it for them, would they be grateful? They would probably blame Golrak, the Great Chieftain.

“It could be an opportunity instead. To tame those who don’t listen…….”

He rather saw it as an opportunity to tame the defiant, hostile faction tribes.

What he really wanted wasn’t the success of the conquest, but to increase his authority.

Then the task was obvious.

“From now on, our tribe and friendly tribes are prohibited from individual looting.”

First, he controlled those who obeyed his authority so that they wouldn’t be attacked by the human detachment.

Golrak wanted them to harass the hostile tribes even more.

“Great Chieftain, if you prohibit looting, the warriors will be dissatisfied.”

“Krulk, I’m not prohibiting looting altogether. It just means there’s no need to rob the humans.”

“Grrr? Then who are we going to rob?”

“The tribes.”

“……!”

When his subordinates were surprised at the idea of attacking their own kind, Golrak smiled.

“What are you surprised about? We’ve been doing that all along, haven’t we?”

“Th, that’s true.”

As he said, the Greenskin League was just a shell created by endless fighting and regrouping.

It wasn’t created out of a genuine sense of kinship.

Of course, they shared the identity of being called ‘Greenskins’.

But were they friendly to each other just because they were the same kind? Even races with civilization didn’t do that.

“So, we’re doing what we’ve always done. Of course, we’ll make it look like it was done by those humans, not us, on the surface.”

They were already scattered like fools, not knowing who was being swept away.

So, even if some of them were annihilated by Greenskins, not Rangers, no one would know who did it.

Of course, no matter how low the Greenskins’ intelligence was, they wouldn’t be blind to who did it.

But Golrak was aiming for that.

“It’s setting an example. That’s what happens if you defy me.”

Of course, they would resist.

But so what? Would they publicly criticize him? Then do they have evidence? Of course, he had no intention of leaving solid evidence.

Moreover, they would lose warriors and, above all, food as they were killed by the Rangers.

Their power would decrease, and they would starve, so the chieftains’ authority would decrease.

Conversely, if he adjusted it properly, the Great Chieftain’s authority would increase.

There would be challengers, but he could just crush them.

Golrak felt limited not because he was weaker than them, but because of the limitations of the Greenskin society.

“I might have to thank the humans for this. Krrr…….”

It was truly an ironic feeling to feel for those who were the target of looting.

* * *

“Is it about time they came to their senses?”

Almost three months had passed since we started the guerrilla warfare.

During that time, I and the Ranger cavalry harassed the Greenskins to a level that showed the endless malice of humans.

We basically targeted only the weak spots and hit them as much as we could, and if they sent a large-scale pursuit party, we would run away, making them waste their time, and then raid another place and run away.

Even if the enraged guys tried to siege the headquarters, we would attack their positions while they were sieging.

The fortress, which had already been prepared for the siege, held up well under Commander Van Horn’s command, and the Greenskins only ended up burning the food they had stored in their positions.

That alone meant they now had to worry about starving to death.

“I think so. They seem to be gradually reducing their range of activity and refraining from looting.”

“That means only one thing.”

They have now decided to attack the headquarters fortress.

They are a tribal group, but there must be a center of gravity.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to gather in such a large force in the first place.

They must be feeling the pressure, so they are now trying to control individual movements.

“The guerrilla warfare is over here. Now only the final battle remains.”

“……In the end, we have to face a large army. Can we win?”

“We have to win.”

We have already laid a lot of groundwork to win.

But no matter how successful we have been so far, everything will be over if we lose this time.

So now is the time to really all-in everything we have.

Of course, that goes for the Greenskins too.

Having suffered a lot of food losses, they will now have difficulty supporting their large size, so they must destroy the Ranger Headquarters by any means.

“So, we just have to hold out. We just have to…….”

But I kept feeling like I was missing something.

Rather than me overlooking something, it just felt like there was a variable that was out of my hands.

“Don’t worry too much. We’ve done well so far, and we’ve done everything we can, haven’t we?”

“Well, that’s true. Now we just have to fight to the death.”

There was something different from a sense of foreboding, an uncertainty like a fog, but I decided not to worry about it, as Herman said.

We immediately turned our horses towards the Ranger Headquarters in preparation for the final battle.

And soon I realized what the nature of that unease was.

“A Greenskin detachment attacked the separatist lords?”

It was that I had judged the Greenskins’ way of thinking too much based on human standards.

These guys were willing to choose looting as long as it was followed by sufficient compensation, even if it meant sacrificing more than half of their forces.

The fact that half of those forces was at least 50,000 was no problem for them.

What did they care if they weren’t their own tribes?

“Haha…… I’ve been had. I’ve been using that point all along, but I didn’t think of this.”

I felt like I’d been had, but I wasn’t that upset.

After all, it was the separatist lords who were screwed.

If those guys are dragged off as slaves, it’s their own fault, so what can I do?