Chapter 239 Battle Of Wits - Part 3
"With my powers, I will now build walls at certain points of the mountainous route towards the second part of the town as the demons are resting for the night." Qiu Yue said as she continued to observed the map.
Stone, mud and other makeshift materials arose from the mountainous route, blocking the way to the second part of the town. Miniature riflemen were shuffled around until it was visible that they were stationed at the different wall checkpoints for guard duty.
Moloch continued his command of asking the demons to rest for the night before resuming their march to slaughter the riflemen in the morning. Seeing as the humans were sitting ducks and there was sufficient food for the rest of the army the morale of the demons would be at an all time high in the morning. Yet, Moloch still could not shake the feeling, that something was definitely not right.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd were criticising how incompetent Qiu Yue seemed to be. "Why did she abandon the town without any resistance? She could have made the citizens fight for their land." A customer said, and many held a similar opinion like his.
"Hahaha, she does not know anything about tactics at all." Another customer ridiculed when Qiu Yue made such an unpopular move. "Not fit to be a Queen at all! Why won't that monster let Boss Jin play? I am sure he would overturn the situation with just 200 men!" Another customer said out of spite seeing how this battle might make Boss Jin lose against the random arena battle.
"Maybe, she needed more time to erect the walls for protection? Besides, the mountainous route will narrow down the path of assault from the demon army. I think she is doing that to control the battlefield?" Bin Yong tried to reason as he returned to the crowded auditorium with an onigiri in his hand.
"We will see…" Mr Know-It-All thought to himself and smirked as Moloch commanded his troops to rest and feast for the night.
"My turn?" Qiu Yue's blood was pumping crazily as she continued to keep a straight face even though her plan was sailing smoothly. Moloch had ended his turn since he wanted his army to be in their best condition for their attack on the following day. He guessed that even a preemptive ambush in the middle of the night would not deal that much damage to him.
"The second part of the town is at a suitable angle from the mountain to bombard the first part of the town. We will commence bombardment by daybreak. Based on the town size, I assume we have been able to create 15 cannons?" Qiu Yue tried her luck as she gave her command. She knew that cannons in a desolate town were an expensive military commodity and she had already prepared a backup plan in case the magical map would not allow her to have such items on hand.
However, to her delight, the command went through.
A few of the miniature riflemen transformed into artillery members, capable of operating the cannons. The artillery teams with the help of civilians slogged throughout the night to move those large cannons into their respective positions. The miniature civilians even helped to carry the cannon balls as the artillerymen made calculations on where to attack.
"I see, that's a rather good strategy. My turn then. Since I am not supposed to be wary of the developments, I shall continue with my previous command by making the demons march upon daybreak." Moloch smiled at Qiu Yue as he ended his turn.
"Fire the cannons." Qiu Yue's command was simple as well, but the effect was devastating. What sounded like a cork popping out of a wine bottle, the cannons 'roared' in unison and laid fire on the town at the base of the mountain. The Demons did not know what was coming and many were caught in the bombardment fire.
"Oh my god, did she plan that? I guess that's better than what I had predicted…" A customer voiced his opinion while the rest who were against her tried to come up with better excuses. "15 cannons will not do much damage to a demon army of 4000. Even if she could command precise strikes and wither down the number by half, she still has to face the surviving 2000 demons." A disgruntled customer argued back.
Moloch expected that to happen and commanded his troops to rally by running towards the edge of the town that was closest to the mountainous route towards the second town level. However, he had noticed that not all cannons were being fully utilised. Moloch did not care too much and continued his command. What he did not expect were the following commands which Qiu Yue gave.
"Two cannons have not been fired precisely for this moment. Near the edge of the town lies the town's warehouses and they have been filled with flammable materials such as oil and wood. The two cannons that I have saved from bombarding the town will now proceed to attack the warehouses." Qiu Yue said, and the artillery team that manned those cannons immediately fired into the direction of the warehouses.
The whole place was immediately ignited by the cannon fire, causing more damage and casualties to the demon army. The demon army's morale went down, especially considering they were retreating from an artillery bombardment early in the morning after rest.
As if that was not enough, the fire that started at the edge of the town began to spread throughout the rest of it. Moloch quickly commanded all his troops to break out of the fire and rush through the mountainous route.
That was when Qiu Yue smiled as if it was all part of her plan. "The town has prepared oil barrels at strategic points and the civilians have been ordered to throw whatever flammable items they possessed all around their house before they evacuated. The fire at the edge of the town will eventually engulf the entire place. Your demons will not have much of a chance."
"You do realise, that I can say that you would not know much about my demons and they could have resistance against fire?" Moloch started to be slightly irritated at the losses he was incurring. A big chunk of his army was gone and he had yet to kill a single human.
"That does not matter. Your demons still need to breathe, and they are not undead. The immense smoke from engulfing the entire town will reduce your air supply, and my bombardment will continue." Qiu Yue stared fiercely at Moloch.
"Does not matter... My demons, I order you to run. Run until you see the first human and I command you to annihilate them." Moloch shouted, now leaned forward to give the command as compared to previously where he just slouched lazily.
Even Jin was slightly afraid of Qiu Yue when she got serious. She might simply be an average diligent cultivator, but her brilliant mind for tactics was not shown to many. That was also a big reason why the Ministry of National Development recruited her for her wits.
"Does not matter? Well, let me intervene and show you why it SHOULD matter to you." Qiu Yue banged her two hands on the map before she gave her command. "The food and water that your demons had been enjoying had been lined with slow inducing poison which I asked the militia to insert as the civilians have evacuated from the first tier of the town. Even if your demons have resistance to fire? Surely they can't also possess a resistance to poison at the same time, right? That would be rather unfair for an army."
Upon the command of intervention, the demons that were running up the mountainous route started to slow down significantly and were now showing signs of vomiting. Eventually, they lied on the ground gasping for air.
"…" Moloch did not give any further command after that as he was forced to watch many of his demons die under artillery fire, suffocation or food poisoning. Even the crowd, who was previously against Qiu Yue began to keep quiet as they did not know how to react after this reversal of events.
Mr Know-It-All, who was grinning all the way picked up his phone to check something. "So…I was right, this girl is…Hahaha!! Boss Jin, you are even more interesting than I thought!" Mr Know-It-All contemplated, as he turned off the screen on his phone and continued to watch the random arena battle with a renewed interest for Qiu Yue.