A long, long wait, we are finally starting the proper siege of Jinqiang. It's been nearly a month overdue due to the incompetent leadership, lack of coordination and refusal of needed supplies.
These are all caused by one man and everyone hates him for it.
The other generals don't believe they are on the same level, the officers don't recognize him as a figure of authority and the soldiers are already leaning towards the heroes in terms of leaders.
By heroes, I mean Anna, Hana and I. Us three are the most proactive heroes and our constant interactions with the common soldiers improved their morale and their view of us went through the roof.
We were now their shadow leader.
They did listen to Dunham's suicide missions but they valued what we said. A LOT.
For Anna, her following is willing to stage a coup d'état to promote her, a woman, to the general positions it's Hana as her advisor. This number is about 4,000-5,000 men.
Even more are teetering on the edge of following Anna; this is where I come up.
I approach these teetering groups and give the little push they need in the form of a little roll of special moss that a former Phoenix used to smoke.
Through this grey-area method, I managed to gain a following of around 700 or more men that are literally willing to die for me. Well, not willing.
They are now my equipment in contract, meaning that they follow whatever I say. I can ask them to suck their best mate off and they better do it.
Right now, all 5 of the generals and their closest officers are standing up on a wooden platform that was erected only 3 hours ago. They are about to give their motivation speeches to increase moral in soldiers.
"My men! You are all here because of not me, but because of your own merit! We killed countless sinners and won't stop until those sinners are gone!!! My men are no men waiting for death, right?"
""HOOOHOOO!!!""
'Ahhh, what a talented general. With just a few words, he can improve the moral and get his soldier's blood boiling for war'
The man talking just now was General Jeeves and is famous for his unorthodox tactics in war; from using himself as bait to faking a surrender, he has done all the dirty tricks in the book.
As the other Generals follow Jeeves, the cheers get slightly quieter and then louder when General Fulcrum started speaking. Now, it's Dunham's turn.
I wonder what he's going to say...
"My loyal men! My loyal soldiers! We are going into war right now and I don't plan on losing you, got it?!?! All my men! We will fight, and we will succeed!"
'Ohhhh, a shitty one, eh? I bet he didn't even prepare'
The sucky-ness of that speech was emulated in the reaction of Dunham's nearly 30,000 men; or in this case, lack thereof. It was nearly silence set aside a few outliers who still support Dunham.
Probably ass-kissers.
There used to be 75,000 men but most of them went back to Restinasia as there wasn't a point on having so much people only eating up the resources. Another stupid "quantity over quality" move by Dunham.
He can't even command 10,000 men properly, what did he expect with 75,000? A walk in park isn't waiting for him.
As the soldiers start advancing in armored troop carriers, flying machines, ballistas, torsion siege weapons and more, the generals are all in the back, giving their orders. Well, save it for one.
Dunham is just there, parroting General Jeeves and trying to sound like it was his own ideas that he is passing off. It's very sad now.
As the demon soldiers see the flying machines coming at them, they start readying their crossbows and ballistas; too bad it won't work. The flying machines have literally no armor expect for the front and the bottom, making them impenetrable from their angle.
As they continue to mercilessly shoot at the machines, they start realizing that it won't amount to anything so, they start readying their buckets filled with fuel and mana crystals.
When the soldiers start rappelling down from the extended ropes, the ropes and the first set of soldiers are doused with a deadly mixture of fuel and mana crystals.
One demon throws a burning piece of wood into the mix and it just...
*KA-BOOOMM*
A loud rattling racks the land, the walls are shaking and it's as if an earthquake just happened. The shock from the exploding fuel even did collateral damage onto the demon army, burning some alive.
While that flying machine is already done for, many more are combing their way, courtesy to the other generals who brought them over.
Right now, since I'm a fyr mage and they suspected that we would be attacked with fuel, I wasn't put on a flying machine like Anna or Hana but I was instead left with the long distance mages which, to be honest, isn't too bad.
Back here, I can take a break and maybe even deepen my relationships with the other generals.
I look behind me and see Dunham watching the show unfold with Hailee on his lap and Sasha servician his feet with a scrubber.
'Good luck with this, Dunham...'
As I watch the flying machines unloaded their men and overfill the demon city's walls, the ballistas doing absolutely every5ing they can on that metal door, the other archers and mages picking off stray demon soldiers, it looks like we are about to win with minimal casualties.
No generals dead. Yet.
I need to wait for the correct time. Too early and chaos will erupt, disrupting the course of the battle. Too late and many other soldiers will be questioning the coup d'état.
And the perfect time is just about to come up. Right when Anna and Hana drop onto the walls, that's the perfect time when I can order my equipment to do their mad dash to murder Dunham.
The other soldiers are busy reloading the ballistas, playing poker, warming up or even if they are guarding Dunham, they hate him too much to even care what happens to them.
After all, even if a coup d'état happens, the heroes Anna, Hana and Min-chul already said they'd protect the lowly soldiers. What's there to worry about when you have a strong backing?
I already coordinated this with Hana without them knowing by placing a very bright mana crystal wrapped in a reflective cloth on their sacks attached to their butts.
Come on....come on....
As I anxiously wait for the signal, I see it. Two bright lights are falling from the sky gracefully, not even using the rope to go down. The little comets soon reach the walls where, once they do, little bits and bobs of screaming could be herd from that general direction.
Despite them being so far away, the screams are so horrifying that they are echoing throughout these plains.
Well, screaming shouldn't be the only thing on my mind.
I bring out the one major contract that binds all of their contracts to me and I can use this to command their every action, their every movement and even how they fuck.
I start telling all of them to get closer to Dunham and well...I guess it went better than expected? I knew that there would be some of my equipment on the wall but there were quite fewer people than I thought.
About 50 soldiers on the walls started throwing themselves into the ground at near maximum velocity. The fall is so intense that their intestines are probably in their knees and their brain is now a mushy mess of blood and brain matter.
The other lucky 650 or so soldier start their slow trot back to Dunham's location where, he is still preoccupied with Sasha.
Sasha sees what the soldiers are doing and looks at me with puppy eyes, ones that say "thank you so much". Like when you feed your dog a treat or something like that.
As the soldiered inch closer, some of the other officers of the other generals start questioning what the hell is happening but the generals tell them that it's none of their business.
These officers have been through their fair share of rebellions with lower ranked officers but have never seen this many people go against the highest rank in the military, a general.
These guys are myths in and of themselves, usually being the strongest, smartest and most cunning out of their peers. Dunham was cunning alright, but he was cunning at politics. Maybe as a head of a department he would have done better.
I finally give th order to execute Dunham's no anyone who stands in their way and by God was it pure chaos.
Like zombies, they were climbing on top of their fellow soldiers just to get to Dunham. Some of the officers more loyal to Dunham were pulling their swords out of their scabbards only to be trampled and killed by my men.
The other officers and Anna and Hana's men all watch with glee in their eyes and a blissful expression; finally, the asshole gets what he deserves.
Dunham hears the ruckus right in front of him and takes of the warm cloth from his eyes only to find his soldiers scrambling to get to him. He already knows deep down how hated he is but he had confidence in the "General" title.
Apparently, even that would save him as the soldiers killed him quickly with a sword to the neck.
No cheering and no celebration, just silence. We aren't mourning, don't get me wrong but we are instead reflecting on our actions. We just killed a leader; a man of authority.
The law will definitely be after us...well, not me, that's for sure. Hana and Anna? Not at all; as long as I'm alive they won't be on any trial.
I can at least give them that...
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(A.N) yo! Thanks for the support and I hope you enjoyed this book! Please do consider supporting with reviews, comments, adding to library and voting with powerstones! Thank you so much and peace ✌️!