Chapter 891, The Barbarian’s Trap!

P5092 thought to himself that he didn’t have any personal feelings when he spoke with the other party, and he wasn’t interested in that so-called supreme commander position either.

As a result, just like he said, where there are people, there are politics, and the other party, a small P4 adjutant, even dared to sneer at himself, thinking that he was envious because of the Sixth Division’s monopoly on credit.

Encountering such a stupid fellow officer, even a calm person like P5092 was a bit angry.

Ren Xiaosu asked from the side, “Did they confirm that the one they captured was the Supreme Officer of the Forward Force?”

“Yes, they confirmed,” P5092 explained, “Said it was from interrogation.”

“Interrogation?” Ren Xiaosu was puzzled, “Is it so easy to interrogate a barbarian’s senior general, it shouldn’t have been long since they captured the other party, and this is an honest explanation?”

“I suspect there is a problem,” P5092 said, “I suspect that this captured person is not a forward troop officer at all, but a trap. Those barbarians routed to the north were clearly trying to draw the Firebrands to the north.”

“Then you told them not to go,” Ren Xiaosu said rightfully, “Isn’t it good to play it steady, shouldn’t all of you P5s be rational, how could you be overwhelmed by victory?”

P5092 gave Ren Xiaosu a helpless look, “It can’t be stopped anymore, do you think we are all toolmen carved out of the same mold? It’s not like that, all P5s also have their own family environments, upbringings, and are just deemed suitable by the company to become commanders.”

“O, so that’s how it is,” Ren Xiaosu nodded, “Then you’re much better than them, at least you can think seriously now.”

Just as P5092 had guessed, because the position of Supreme Commander was hanging high and undecided, the various P5 ranked senior generals began to recklessly harvest their merits as they saw that the barbarians had been routed.

Even in the process of pursuing the northern barbarians, the 7th division and the 1st division had a situation where they grabbed the merit badges.

With P5092’s so-called temporary supreme command title alone, there was no way to restrain these people.

A temporary command without a documented appointment was too lacking in prestige, and many of the men already regarded P5092 as potentially their strongest competitor, and were eager to go against P5092 at this time.

P5092 said, “I can’t dissuade them anymore now, because of my own identity, dissuading them might even backfire and provoke their competitive spirit.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

P5092 turned to his adjutant and said, “Notify the rear artillery units to immediately leave the city to join us, and all of the infantry brigade, dig and build trenches on the spot, we’re going to quickly build a defense line out here!”

P5092 was decisive enough, he decided in just a split second that he was going to construct a temporary defense line here.

P5092 explained to Ren Xiaosu, “If there are no barbarian traps in the north, then there’s no excuse for us to construct a defense line here, after all, what we’re facing now is only the vanguard forces, there are still battles to be fought in the future, so sooner or later, we’ll have to push our defense line northward.”

“If there is indeed a trap for the barbarians in the north, then we are here, we can pick up the routed Firebrand troops, and then organize a living force to re-defend the Great Wall,” P5092 said, “Half of the Firebrand’s force was attacked this time, and even though it looks like half of it is still left inside the Great Wall, with a very strong look, but only we know from within ourselves that the soldiers of the remaining six units are all new recruits, some of whom have never even been in battle, so I must do my best to keep some veterans coming for Fireseed.”

What P5092 was doing now was to keep some ‘kindling’ for Firestarter as much as possible.

At this time, the rest of the fire kindling troops had already quickly chased towards the north, P5092 quickly spread a map on the ground, he took out a red pen and drew on the map, “I’ve figured it out now, it’s late at night now, at the beginning, we encountered barbarians without any old men, and then after nightfall old men started to show up amongst the barbarians’ troops, just in smaller proportions. Because they were afraid that we would discover the end in advance.”

“And then, the proportion of old men became higher and higher, until the moment that ‘Valentin’ was about to be captured, the barbarian troop had all been replaced by old men, these people didn’t come to kill the enemy, but to send them to their deaths!”

“Only if enough barbarians die can other generals believe that the barbarians are really routed, our Fire Seed’s estimate of the number of barbarian expeditionary corps is 150,000, now according to the rough calculation of the battle briefing, we killed more than 50,000 people in this forest, the Wang’s troop side is surely still holding a number of them, and it’s said that they’re also fighting a fierce battle, so many P5 generals will believe that that the barbarians’ troops are about to be exhausted, so that’s why they dared to chase them out recklessly.”

“However, out of the more than 50,000 people we killed, more than 30,000 of them were killed before and after Valentine’s arrest, so I suspect that the Fire Seed troops massacred the old men amongst the more than 30,000 barbarians.”

“These barbarians are so ruthless,” P5092 lamented, “The northern communities moved south with their clans, the old people can’t fight, have no production capacity, and can hardly endure this long journey and conquest, and staying in the ranks will also consume a large amount of food, so they simply sent the old people in their clans to battlefield as bait, in exchange for a final victory. But the most frightening thing is that these old men even seem to be willing!”

As Ren Xiaosu heard P5092 say so much, he looked northward with an open mind, “If the barbarians are using the lives of tens of thousands of old people from their clans just to exchange for a victory in a battle, then their ambush in the north must be fully assured, I suggest that the Third Division retreat back to the south of the Great Wall right now, as no one will escape from the barbarians’ encirclement. ”

Since the other party paid such a big price, how could they still put the fire back?

But P5092 shook his head, “No, even if only one division can escape back, I still have to be here to receive it, if all six of these main units are wiped out, then Fireseed will really be finished.”

“What if only one brigade escapes back? Or what if none of them can escape back?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“It won’t happen,” P5092 said, “Although I don’t know the barbarians as well as you do, I understand war. Now that the five main forces are chasing out, even though some people are radicalizing, there will still be troops watching for a while. If someone rushes in front, naturally someone will stay behind, even if the barbarians have more people, they won’t want to be wiped out, I’ve just looked at the terrain in the north, there’s no place that can wipe out more than 40,000 people, so the barbarians’ idea should be to chase and kill them all the way back to this forest. On the way, slowly nibble away at all the troops that escaped the encirclement, so that the losses of the barbarian’s main force would also be minimized.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded, “Since you’re so confident, I’ll help you scout the north.”

“Please,” P5092 gave a very solemn military salute, “The success or failure of the Fire Seed lies in this battle, a battle that may affect the future of humanity in the Central Plains.”