Chapter 704 — Tuition
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
"At the outset, the Cecilians truly had no advantage to speak of. The Long Wind Line at that time was, against the Winter Wolf Legion, scarcely worth a single blow. Yet by relying on a deception tactic they dragged things out for a full half month, turning disadvantage into advantage—and this deception was not so simple as putting on a show on the battlefield. Over that half month they carried out false military movements, built false defensive works, even fabricated false merchant caravans and leaked false supply intelligence. But what they did went far beyond even that.
"On the road here, I learned more from my grandfather. The Cecilians even manufactured a false postwar atmosphere throughout the entire Eastern March, and used shifts in commercial orders to lull our royal advisors. Your Majesty, that is the most terrifying part.
"With us, war is on the battlefield. But in the Cecilians' eyes, the front line is only one link in the chain of war.
"Their markets, their propaganda, their soldiers at the front and their merchants on the flanks, even the common folk at the very bottom—all their actions are part of the war, all turning toward the same objective. It is terrifying, Your Majesty."
An Luo finished laying out her thoughts. Across from her, Roan Augustus fell into a brief silence. A dozen or so seconds passed before the Empire's ruler spoke in a low voice, brow furrowed: "War is not only on the battlefield... You are right, An Luo.
"We were deceived once by the Cecilians. Even now, some of the noble councillors still hold that those Cecilian schemes were nothing but a despicable 'trick.' But the truth is more than that. The Cecilians did not merely manufacture a lie—they manufactured an all-encompassing illusion. From the border-trade orders to their own domestic propaganda to the military movements at the front, they built a curtain with no gaps at all, wrapping us up completely inside it. Whatever they performed, that was all we could see. Even though the spies we planted in the Eastern March risked their lives to send out so much intelligence, the intelligence they sent was all false. It is truly terrifying, An Luo. Truly terrifying.
"What is more terrifying still is that our current system of regional governors cannot do the same."
Roan finished quietly. Beside him, Duke Pei Yi glanced at An Luo; in the old Duke's eyes there was, beyond surprise, a trace of gratification.
People always err, and the Wendell family is no exception; but An Luo had at least not let those errant emotions affect her judgment as Wolf General. Or, viewed from another angle, it was precisely because she held some fixation on the old Kingdom of Ansil that she was so acutely sensitive to the Cecilians' actions, that she could connect those behaviors seemingly scattered across different fields, analyze them all from a hostile standpoint, and arrive at conclusions no ordinary person would have thought of.
Of course, beyond this cause, her long station on the border and her long dealings with the Long Wind Fortress were also among the important factors enabling her to draw these conclusions.
After this, Roan learned a great deal more from An Luo—not only of the shifting situation in the borderlands, but also of the inner workings of the several legions along the border and the progress of border trade. In the course of it he invited the two generations of Wolf Generals of the Wendell family to lunch in his reception hall, and only when the giant sun drew gradually near the horizon did this long conversation come to an end.
An Luo had only returned from the border today. Though a high-rank transcendent's constitution shrugs off such fatigue, Roan still had her go home first to rest and gather her strength for tomorrow's noble assembly, while Duke Pei Yi was kept behind for further discussion.