The customs of the foreign tribes were wilder than the empire's, but those who could reach a high position would not be fools. At this time, the middle-aged man standing in front of the main tent with his arms crossed had an extremely ugly expression. When he learned from the messenger that the 'logistics base' in the rear had been buried by an avalanche, his first reaction was that it was impossible!
According to the elders of the tribe, that 'sacred tree' itself had extremely terrifying defensive capabilities. Although there was no evidence, the fact that it could grow fruit in one day had been confirmed, so the other thing could not be fake either.
But now it didn't matter. The thing had already happened, and he only had two choices.
First—break through the northern fortress. According to the news from the elders of the tribe, there were already problems in the southern part of the empire. As long as they could break through the northern fortress, they were very likely to completely occupy this place!
Second—drastically reduce the number of tribesmen.
He of course hoped to complete the first task, but looking at the northern fortress that was constantly being attacked but still standing firm, he suddenly began to feel a bit of despair. Could this place really be broken through?
"..."
But at this moment, the sound of noisy footsteps came from behind.
"What's going on?"
"Chief! Our army's rear is under attack!"
"...How many people."
At this time, he was still quite calm, because dividing forces to harass was one of the conventional tactics, but what his subordinate said next made his eyes widen.
"One person..."
"What?!"
"Just one person! It's that executioner from the empire!"
"It was him?!"
He had been curious about the person who was heavily emphasized in the data before. He originally thought that the other party was not used to the snow in the north, so he was in the city at this time, but he didn't expect him to dare to come out! And to charge the formation alone?
"Haha!! He actually dared to come alone! But since he's here, don't leave! Send the reserve team to surround him!"
"Yes!!"
But just as he gave the order, it seemed that there was also a problem in the front. The siege force also seemed to be in chaos?
———
When Lancer picked up the enemy with his spear, the siege battle was also completely declared over, but the real trouble also occurred.
"I object! We have already won! Killing these people is meaningless!"
"Meaningless? No! It's very meaningful! Why do you think the western fortress was not attacked this time?"
Najenda was very good, both in strength and personal charisma, which could be seen from her prestige in the army, but she was even more 'naive' than Lancer. No, rather than naive, she was more idealistic.
"Why can't we 'educate' these people? Aren't there also tribes who have migrated to the empire's territory? Haven't they integrated into the empire well now?"
"Why? Because we don't have enough time!"
No one knew the strength of that fat man Honest better than Lancer. As long as he wasn't eliminated for one day, Lancer couldn't rest assured for one day. You know, before this, his identity was just a 'guard', but the other party had almost caused him to lose his life. Lancer even wondered what would happen if the other party really used the south as a base to attack? Would the empire really be able to hold on?
In Lancer opinion, the best way was to act directly while the other party had not yet established a firm foothold!
It was best to crush that guy into a pulp in one fell swoop without giving the other party any chance to make a comeback!
And Najenda, who heard Lancer explanation, didn't know what to say.
If Lancer had said something like 'the foreign tribes are cruel by nature', she could have found many reasons to persuade the other party, but this 'not enough time' made her not know how to speak for a while.
In the conference room, there were several generals and more than a dozen middle-level commanders, but everyone chose to shut up, because in the face of the two people who could almost be said to be 'opposites', the others didn't even have the right to interject.
In the end, Najenda took the initiative to admit defeat. She sat directly on the chair as if she had been drained of all her strength.
It was true that Najenda was more idealistic, but she was not stupid. Her power came from the emperor's appointment, and besides that, she was just an ordinary new general, and she didn't even have her own team, so she had no other choice but to retreat at this time.
As Lancer walked out of the conference room, he gave the same order as he did at the western fortress!
'Give them a choice! To die! Or to become a slave!'
Educate?
Didn't Lancer want to?
But he couldn't do it. At this time, Honest was eyeing him in the south, and if he didn't solve the other party, he couldn't eat or sleep peacefully!
———
This time, unlike in the past, there was enough time for Lancer to establish his authority, so he chose a more extreme method.
Wooden spears were stuck all over the ground in front of the northern fortress, and the bodies of the dead were hung on these spears.
It was conservatively estimated that there were at least ten thousand young and strong foreign tribesmen in this operation. Among them, less than one-third of the people escaped, and nearly half of them died in battle. Among the remaining two thousand-plus people who were captured, more than half of them 'preferred death to submission', and their end was to be hung there as a 'show of force'.
During this period, it was not that no one from the foreign tribes wanted to reclaim the bodies, but unfortunately, the two small-scale operations they organized both ended in failure. The only effect was to add a few more wooden spears to the road that was originally covered with them outside the fortress gate.
Although the official imperial propaganda heavily publicized the elite team's raid on the northern foreign tribes' logistics headquarters, unfortunately, this 'normal news' was overshadowed by another event.
Thousands of captured foreign tribe warriors were massacred and their bodies were hung in the wilderness. It was said that the terrifying scent of blood and murderous aura even made scavengers dare not approach.
Although Lancer really wanted to say that what he did could at least ensure that the foreign tribes would not dare to attack the eastern border for a short time, and that place could be guaranteed peace for at least a few years, or even more than ten years, in the end, he gave up, because he felt it was meaningless.
He still remembered the expressions on Najenda and the soldiers in the northern fortress when he led the Imperial Guard to leave. Those eyes seemed to see not a human, but a 'monster'.
What was the point of killing people for Lancer? Was it for those insignificant points?
Moreover, gossip was a terrible thing. He was sure that someone was fanning the flames of his 'reputation'. It was meaningless to defend himself alone. At this time, he just wanted to go back as soon as possible, to go back to the place where no matter what he did, they would gently say 'welcome back'...
But when he led the Imperial Guard on a forced march back to the imperial capital, he found that the imperial capital was under martial law.
Suddenly, a bad premonition appeared in his heart!
Especially when he found that the Imperial Guard and the city's security team were looking at him with strange eyes, he became more and more uneasy...
What on earth happened?!