Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters
Chapter 1242 - 41: Wolf Cub (1)

Chapter 1242: Chapter 41: Wolf Cub (1)

[Green Valley]

[Felter’s unit stationed at Green Valley on the second day]

In the morning, when the first deserter with bad news appeared outside Green Valley town, Major Alder Felter did not pay much attention.

Even though the deserter tearfully pleaded and swore that they weren’t lying, Major Felter merely ordered them to be detained separately, leaving the matter for later resolution.

In Major Felter’s view, deserters were not to be trusted—they could concoct any exaggerated and bizarre story to escape military punishment; their oaths were meaningless, as they were already deserters, could they be expected to have a sense of honor?

More importantly, compared to the bad news from the deserter, Major Felter had more pressing issues at hand.

Due to the "kindness" of the rebels in releasing all prisoners, Felter’s forces suddenly restored to six companies, nearly three thousand men.

Among them, the released prisoners had not only lost their weapons, clothes, and shoes but also their will and dignity. To restore their combat effectiveness, they needed to be filled not only with food but also with pride.

However, the actual situation was that the major couldn’t even feed them.

No matter whether a soldier could still fight or not, they all needed to eat, drink, and have a place to stay.

Suddenly, Green Valley town had nearly three thousand soldiers who needed to eat, drink, and be housed, making it impossible for the small town to bear the burden.

Furthermore, when the rebels withdrew from Green Valley, they looted the townspeople’s food stocks and the public reserves. Thus, the Felter unit, having lost all its supply wagons, immediately faced a food shortage upon entering Green Valley.

Hungry soldiers barged into residents’ homes, rudely searching and seizing food, while the officers turned a blind eye. But even allowing soldiers to turn Green Valley upside down and search out all privately hidden grain couldn’t fulfill the needs of three thousand men.

Before the troop morale was completely worn down, Felter organized over ten small-scale patrol squads that day and dispatched them to nearby farms to scavenge for supplies.

As a result, every soldier who stepped out of Green Valley town disappeared without a trace.

Meanwhile, the residents of Green Valley began fleeing en masse.

Initially, only a few families gathered their belongings, leaving the town amidst the chaos to seek refuge with relatives. However, as panic quickly spread, many townspeople didn’t want anything but to escape from Green Valley as quickly as possible.

No one dared to stay an extra second in this "besieged city" filled with thousands of hungry, desperate, and anxious soldiers.

Felter, on one hand, tacitly approved of the townspeople’s escape because civilians also needed food and water, and one less civilian meant one less mouth to feed.

On the other hand, the unattended properties immediately sparked looting and fighting among the soldiers, which even the military police couldn’t stop.

Just as Felter was overwhelmed, a deserter shouting "Our army has been defeated" appeared outside Green Valley town, making Felter full of suspicion.

Various signs indicated that rebels were still active around Green Valley. The disappearance of the patrol squads was one piece of evidence, and the couriers sent to Maplestone City having no news was another.

How could a deserter pass through the rebel blockade?

Major Felter vaguely sensed deceit, but he didn’t disclose it to his subordinates—after all, "a plot to annihilate our army entirely" was far more frightening than "a deserter full of lies."

Without concrete evidence, Felter didn’t want to spread more panic within the army.

...

In the afternoon, when the second deserter appeared outside Green Valley town, Major Felter was organizing the second batch of grain collecting patrol squads.

After hearing the second deserter’s account, Major Felter’s attitude shifted from dismissive to somewhat believing.

Unlike the first deserter who spoke incoherently, the second deserter clearly stated their unit, rank, and position, and also described the battle’s location and process, which didn’t seem to be made up off the cuff.

When he had the two deserters question each other, apart from some minor details, most of the information corroborated each other.

However, no matter how detailed the account of the second deserter was, Alder Felter could not believe that the main forces commanded by Colonel Nagy and Colonel Sanel would be defeated.

Because nowhere in the Republic of Palatu could anyone know better than Felter what stakes Speaker Grof Magnus had placed this time.

The reinforcements provided by Kingsfort to Colonel Sanel were not just a legion on paper—that was a number for the rebel party on the opposite side to see, but actually twenty companies, a full two legions.

This included ten companies from the Sixth Legion, four main companies from the Fifth Legion, and six companies of reserve reinforcements.

The Fifth Legion currently left at Kingsfort had essentially become an empty shell. To conceal this as much as possible, the four companies of the Fifth Legion boarded ships under the flags and numbers of the Sixth Legion.

With astonishing resolve, Grof Magnus dispatched all field troops to the Newly Reclaimed Lands Province. The purpose was singular and clear: to decisively crush the New Reclaimed Land Rebel Army and completely eliminate the internal threats within the New Republic.

"How could we lose?" Major Felter couldn’t figure out: "How could it possibly be lost?"

Felter soon developed a reasonable hypothesis: the battles described by the two deserters who fled to Green Valley were likely just preliminary skirmishes before the main forces clashed.

In any case, Felter firmly believed that even if Colonel Nagy and Colonel Sanel were indeed beaten, they had enough strength to retreat, regroup, and seize the opportunity for a second decisive battle.