Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire
Chapter 416: Feeding cheese to cornered rats

Chapter 416: Feeding cheese to cornered rats

40 ships, each carrying from several hundred to several thousand people. The soldiers were sometimes packed like sardines.

The ships approached the harbor and opened fire on it from cannons. They wanted to land their troops on the shore, but the harbor’s cannons opened the fire back.

The Bee Empire’s dragons that might have still stayed anywhere near the Vardish ships retreated even farther away, fleeing from the loud cannon shots and the flying projectiles.

For a while, the fate of the harbor was undetermined. Everything depended on the humans at this moment... And to my joy, they didn’t let me down.

(When I read up to this part of the report, I almost jumped off my seat in relief and excitement; reading reports like these made me wish badly that I was there to watch the battle with my own eyes instead of giving orders and imagining the events that happened.)

Although the Vardish ships had plenty of weapons and experienced cannoneers—more experienced than Naregan ones, definitely—the people in the harbor worked with desperate zeal.

Meanwhile, the Vardish people and their ships alike were worn down by storms and the attacks of my brave (perhaps too brave!) girls.

The cannonballs from the harbor sank five more ships before the rest retreated entirely. Two more sank to the bottom of the harbor during this retreat.

It was a victory! A bloody victory that cost several hundred human lives and many more lives of my daughters.

But the enemy didn’t give up yet. After all, there were many other shores in the Eastern Expanse Reach.

The Oracles could predict the most probable moves of the Vardish people. The dragon riders kept check of their fleet’s movements.

But the Naregan army just couldn’t travel over Eastern Expanse Reach’s marshes faster than the Vardish fleet could travel to a decent disembarking point.

They have found an undefended beach for the troops to disembark on. By the time the Naregan forces, strengthened by thirty thousand bees pulled from nearby garrisons, reached this place to kick the Vardish people out, they had time to establish themselves on the land.

From that point on, it was a slow tug of war out there. The Vardish ships stopped near that beach for repairs, while the Vardish troops and the Naregan soldiers played a trench war.

Even with all the losses, there were still enough of the Vardish soldiers to push the Naregan army back unless there were more bee reinforcements. But their landing point placed the Vardish army into a chokepoint where smaller forces of the Naregan army could hold them in place for at least some time.

But they needed reinforcements, too.

Eventually, the Vardish ships were going to repair themselves and start harassing the shore forts and harbors with their cannons. Not to mention our trade ships and so on.

Because of this, the new leader of the dragon riders’ group, Beemarine Vicious, asked the leader of the local bee garrisons for more people. The requests were evaluated and approved on the local level within hours—way faster than if they were sent to Hive Supremo for approval.

Nobody asked for my approval—there was no time for it.

Beemarine Vicious and Chief Steela decided together that 2000 of Steela’s soldiers will fly on the backs of Vicious’ dragons and burn the rest of the Vardish ships.

This time, they attacked at night, when the humans weren’t ready. This time, there were almost no losses on the bees’ side, but all the remaining ships were set on fire.

The blaze, I was told, was so bright that everybody could see it from the shore—even the Vardish troops in their camp. f.(r)eew ebnov\ll.com

After this, realizing that they had no retreat, and no help left, the Vardish soldiers began fighting like cornered rats! The Naregan army could barely keep them from getting too deep into the Eastern Expanse Reach.

This point was when I finally got all the reports and could evaluate the situation and give my own orders about it. I realized immediately that in this situation, the more we will push the stranded Vardish soldiers, the harder they will fight back.

And more than enough lives were lost already, on both sides. (But especially on mine, considering the comparable value of a Vardish life and of my progeny’s life...)

I gave an order to keep the blockade of the Vardish troops up and send Agent Bees in there to spread propaganda. Not only directly with their telepathy, but also by more subtle means of the local populace.

By now, although most of the natives of Eastern Expanse Reach still thought that Naregan people were conquerors and tyrants, there were many people who became loyal to the High King Farini.

Some were loyal because they witnessed miraculous healing of the Blood Brotherhood, some because they believed the propaganda spread by missionaries, because their crops weren’t eaten by weevils under bees’ protection, or because they were simply paid.

All these people could be used. The Vardish soldiers were much more likely to believe someone with blue chitin.

These loyal humans (carrying some Agents with them, of course) came to Vardish soldiers under the guise of traders and subtly spread rumors about how nice High King Farini was, and how good it was to be under his rule. And of course, that the gods of this land were so much kinder than their old religion.

Some of them got in trouble because of that, but there were results, too. I had a good feeling that after a month or so of this trench war, the remaining Vardish troops might just surrender in my hands and even switch sides!

But this was going to happen in another month.

Right *now* I was down almost two hundred active dragons and their riders, because after the last battles, the dragons were so stressed out that they refused to do almost anything. That’s not even counting the dead ones.

And the war, even a slow one, required other forces and resources there. Soldiers, provision, weapons...

None of which I could sacrifice to protect other kingdoms instead.

They would have to push through with what they had already!