(Hana POV)
Day 15 of Min-chul gone...
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It's been a few more days of Anna persuading the troops and I helping her along the way with little bits of advice and some preaching myself.
It wasn't long before we had about 2,000 soldiers under us and ready to revel at any time. Obviously, we are working to get a bigger number but 1/5th of the Dunham army is a very good number for a few days of constant persuading and preaching.
When it came to the day of the siege of Jinqiang, today, Dunham gave his usual speech. But this time, the reception was much more to my favor...
"MEN! We are about to fight the horrible demons and for this, I need your strength! I need your power and most importantly, I need you! Men! We fight for ourselves, our families and our nation! Grahhhhhh!!!"
""Grahhh...""
Much different from the previous warcries, the soldiers were still yelling the warcry but now, you can tell that it's thinned out in volume and thickness of bass.
That means that more and more men are getting discouraged to follow Dunham's orders. This is amazing. The only thing left to do is make sure Anna announces the incompetence of Dunham at our weakest.
There is a problem with this and it relies on Dunham being a total idiot and while he isn't General material, he isn't dumb enough to sacrifice men for nothing.
So, fabrication is the second best thing.
Hana gives Anna the plan and Anna follows along. While the soldiers are preparing the ladders for climbing the walls, Anna and Hana start mildly loosening the bonds and making little air bubbles.
"General Dunham! I don't think we should use the ladders to scale the wall! It isn't safe!"
"Nonsense, hero Anna! Just trust in me and you will be...ehehe, 'REWARDED' handsomely..."
'Good...'
Seeing to it that Anna lets the troops hear about this commotion, they all look towards the ladders and some of the followers of Anna vow not to use the ladders for scaling.
Again, Hana and Anna start tightening the ropes of the battering rams so it puts more tension and stress, making the big log more likely to detach and break.
Just like before, Anna gives the reason that the walls are too strong for the battering ram and that we shouldn't use them. I told her to specifically keep on requesting until he snaps and boy, did he snap!
"Listen, woman! Just trust the men to this matter, okay? I know what I'm doing"
Despite Anna being more powerful than any man here, he has the stupidity to claim that the men can only handle these matters. You hypocrite, it's beautiful. Keep being an asshole.
Some of the men have the same sentiments about us but they much prefer a hero woman leader to an incompetent leader. After all, to their imagination, the women are more submissive to pressure and give into emotions meaning that she will value her soldiers more.
Even if that may be true for some other weak-willed women, that isn't the case with Anna; a confirmed nut. Nuttier than a walnut, she's batshit crazy.
I've seen her past using my dad's job as a department head in immigration and...jolly joy. She allegedly committed familicide and with the money, she moved to Korea for whatever reason.
Throughout my stay with Min-chul from 8th grade to now, she was always there, watching us. Again, nuttier than a macadamia.
The reason I made sure everyone hear Anna was because I needed to publicly challenge his authority as a male leader.
To be successful in his job, he needs pride and face. With Anna publicly opposing him decisions, it's a massive slap to the face and it basically means "I'm a better leader than you".
As a general, he can't just accept it and he talked back not because he wanted to, though he probably did but he needed to. This is the perfect predicament.
It's like playing a game of blackjack with a dirty dealer or roulette with a weighted ball.
It isn't bad though since Anna and I are playing the part of the dealer. Min-chul being the casino; the big mastermind behind everything. I have no idea why he wants this but I know he does, meaning he'll get it at any cost.
As we started doing the final push to reach the 500 meter mark of the walls, we see a massive 3 meter deep moat that wasn't there when we sent scouts there 3 days ago.
They are damn quick, eh?
The moat is immediately enough to throw off the ladder and siege machine attacks so as the soldiers who pushed the machines and carried ladders look on, they lo9 towards Anna and feel they have been cheated by Dunham.
'What the hell? Why didn't we listen to that chick over there. Now, I'm so tired I can't even carry my sword to battle'
'What a joke. The general isn't even prepared for this? Tsk tsk tsk...'
'What kind of previous life did we live to have this man as our leader? Were we demons or something? This is insanity'
The soldiers start thinking curses for Dunham and praises for Anna. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this either but this is much, much better than have failing siege machines and equipment.
Dunham could have chalked the failed machines to the creators but a moat he didn't account for? That's all on him. It's because while he could have been monitoring the enemy's movements and their defensive tactics, he was playing with the demon equipment and indulging in debauchery.
We barely need to do anything here to increase the resentment of the soldier's to their soon to be dead boss. If not dead most likely he'll be kept prisoner and used for ransom.
"Huh...this is unexpected. We will need to slowly fill the moat with dirt!"
Giving out another order, he commands that every night, the soldiers will sneak over to the wall and slowly fill it up with dirt and other hard substances.
We can't make a wooden bridge since that's flammable and stone bridges need mortar and time to dry. This is honestly the best decision he could have made but I won't let that happen along with Anna's help.
Obviously, Anna makes sure to challenge his authority again, saying that it's unsafe to send the men out at night when they have no idea if there could be a trap.
Again, he talks back to Anna, planting the seed in the hearts of the men that if the scouts do die, then it's Dunham's fault. They will be too caught up with Anna's challenge of authority that they won't realize that Dunham's actions were the most logical.
On the first night, we make sure we had some grass and hay tucked into our sleeping bags so it looks like we are still sleeping while we sneaked out of the camp. Riding on Anna's back, we got to the foot of the wall in no time at all.
Waiting for the first group of soldiers we hear some light whispers and the tapping of shoes.
"Ughhh~ why do we have to do this?"
"Ehhhh, it's the boss' orders"
"Why the hell can't the boss do it if it's his idea? Damn lazy..."
Their random chatter is interrupted with a swift arrow to the top of the head, quickly followed by more arrows into the other 3. With all four dead from arrow wounds, we won't have problems showing the stupidity of Dunham.
They send another group to check on the first one and when they discover the bodies, 5 more arrows are lodged into the second group of unfortunate soldiers. Anna and I make sure to fire some arrows into the group to make it seem like it was a hard thing to do since the demons are on top of a 10 meter high wall.
Anna and I knew how to use our fair share of weapons and while the sword was my hero ability, the bow was secondary weapon that I've been using for more than a year in Calko now; same with Anna.
The bow is one of the most versatile weapons and som learning it was crucial in survival against the various monsters and demons we encountered along our journey.
We decide that 2 groups weren't enough about seeing the 10 soldier group and we quickly dispatch of them as well.
'This is enough...'
"Oy, Anna. This is alright"
"B-b-but...one more?"
'...God, she really is a nut'
"No. Too many and we would bring too much casualties caused by the demons"
"Uuuuu...Alrighty then..."
We wrap our bows around our back and I get on Anna. When we arrive back, we see the chaos that we caused. Multiple soldiers rushing around, Dunham panicking and pacing back and forth and some officers yelling at each other.
We sneak into our tents and pretend to be awoken by the ruckus.
"H-huh? Hey! What's going on?!"
Anna grabs a passing soldier and seeing Anna, he gets reminded of the things Anna said about saying it's too dangerous.
"Oh, hero Anna! The groups sent to the wall were shoot down by the treacherous demons! You were right; it was too dangerous!"
'Ahahahahaha! Dunham! Your empire comes crumbling starting today'
I'll get it at any cost for him...Min-chul, your ambitions are my ambitions and I will achieve them will you, no matter the cost.
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(A.N) yo! Another chapter for you readers! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please do support with powerstones, reviews, comments and adding to library! Peace ✌️!