Eight days after Jebe arrived in Teripol City, that is, thirty-five days after the desert crossing.
　Stephan called Nia and Jebe.

　"Yes, sir?　General Stefan.

　Nia asked, and Stefan unfolded a map.

　Here is the location of the reinforcements now being led by Lord Masinissa, Chief of the Shuien Clan, and here is the location of the enemy forces from ...... Chelda City.

　Stephan pointed a pin to indicate the position.
　With that, they both understood what Stefan meant.

　"So, ......, if we don't do something, the enemy will reach Teripol City before our reinforcements do, so we're supposed to hold them back, is that correct?
　"Excellent. That is correct, General Jebe.

　Stephan nodded significantly.

　That's why I need you two, General Nia and General Jebe, to lead an independent raiding party and somehow delay the enemy's advance for two days.

　"Understood.

　The two men nodded.





　"I'll basically leave the planning to you.
　"Well, that's surprising.

　Jebe's eyes widened at Nia's words.
　Jebe's eyes widened at Nia's words. He had expected the assertive Nia to insist that she was superior to him.

　"Excuse me, ......, but you know more about the enemy than I do, don't you?　You know more about the enemy than I do, so it should be easier for you to plan a strategy against them. It's my own rational decision.

　Jebe nodded at Nia's words, "I see.

　(I heard that you had a secret marriage with the Emperor, is that why your personality has become a little rounder?

　(I heard that he had a secret marriage with the Emperor.
　Jebe thought to himself.

　Your opinion is well taken. But I'd personally like to ask you to plan the ...... operation.
　"May I ask why ......?
　Because the enemy knows me better than I know myself.
　Yes, that's true, too.

　It stands to reason that the enemy understands Jebe as well as Jebe understands the enemy.
　This means that they may be able to outsmart you.

　So here's what we're going to do. Basically, I'll make the plan. You advise me.
　"Yes, sir.

　Jebe nodded.



　That day, the liberation forces of the city of Terpol, led by Carmine, were pushing through the forest.

　"Spearhead unit reporting, sir. They say there's an obstacle ahead.
　"Obstacle?

　Carmine frowned.

　'What kind of obstacle?　Is there any way around it?　
　"Yes. The obstacle is .......

　According to the report, it's a fence that blocks the entire road.
　Beyond that is a large rock.
　Beyond that, there's a three-meter ditch that's filled with water from last night's rain.
　And the road between the ditch and the road, about 50 meters away, has been dug up and filled with holes.

　He said.

　"And that ......
　Is it still there?
　No, there's a sign and a hair on the wall like this: ......

　Carmine forcibly picked up the paper.

　The paper had a picture of a pretty girl on it.
　It was a girl with pink hair, holding a pickaxe and wearing a hat that read "Safety First".
　A cute, heart-shaped tail was sticking out from her buttocks.

　The girl bows her head, closes one eye, and sticks out her tongue.
　Next to the girl's face is a small piece of paper with the word "Tehepero" written on it in the Chelda language.

　And at the bottom of the paper was written in Chelda.

　We are under construction. We apologize for the inconvenience. By the Lemurian Imperial Army.

　Carmine smiled.

　"Hahaha!　I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

　Carmine was furious and slammed the paper on the ground.
　He then crushed it with his shoe.

　You have no choice but to ...... remove the obstacles and make the road passable!　...... How long will it take?
　The spearhead unit said they could do it in about four hours. ......
　"Three hours to fix it!

　And Carmine clicks his tongue.

　It's a real pain in the ass. ......

　An obstacle in the road is enough to halt the advance.
　And ...... once an army stops, it takes a long time to get going.

　After all, it is a procession made up of many people.

　Of course, 500,000 people do not march ...... in a line, but they are divided to some extent .......
　Even so, once they stop, it becomes a bit troublesome.



　(But it shouldn't be easy to create obstacles or destroy roads. ......)

　If it were easy to stall the enemy, everyone would use the same tactic.
　The reason why so few people do it is because it takes about the same amount of time to destroy and to repair.

　Repairing does not mean rebuilding the road.
　Fences can be broken down and removed, and holes can be plugged.
　There is no need to repave a road whose pavement has been torn off, it is enough to simply resolidify the soil.

　(Is this really all there is?)

　Carmine thought to himself. ......

　"General!　We're under attack!　The tail section and the wagon train in the middle have been attacked by the enemy!
　What!









　Well, that went well.
　Well, we didn't kill most of them.
　It's a stopgap, that's all.

　Nia and Jebe, who had carried out a surprise attack on the enemy, were fleeing through the forest.
　As expected, horses were not allowed in the forest, so they were on foot.

　A horse was available at the end of the forest, and they planned to ride it before leaving.

　We've got three hours, plus two hours of stalling.

　Nia smiled.
　The goal of Nia and Jebe is to stop the enemy, not to defeat them by surprise.

　They shot arrows at random and immediately ran away before the enemy could counterattack, resulting in zero damage to their unit.
　However, only a dozen or so enemy soldiers were killed.

　There are three more obstacles along the way. Each obstacle will alert the enemy to the ambushers. It will slow our progress.
　"How dare you think that up? But ...... will hold them off for a day.

　Place obstacles on the road to obstruct the enemy's advance.
　Surprise attack on the enemy to confuse them and obstruct their advance.

　These two are essentially completely different acts of sabotage. ......　
　By doing them simultaneously, you force the enemy to connect the two.

　From now on, the enemy will have to be on the lookout for surprise attacks when they see obstacles.

　　If we can hold them off for a day, that should be enough. I've sent a messenger to Masinissa to hurry up. ...... At worst, we can manage without her.
　It's also true. I don't think it's worth the effort to hold you up.

　Nia and Jebe took no risks and quickly retreated to the city of Teripol.





　Reinforcements led by Masinissa arrived in Teripol City on the thirty-eighth day after the desert crossing.
　Masinissa and her soldiers received a great welcome from the Lemurian army.

　"It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Masinissa. I'm Stephan, the general in charge of the Lemurian army's defense of the city of Tëripol. It's a pleasure to meet you.

　Stephan extended his hand toward Masinissa.
　Masinissa also shook Stefan's hand, and the two shook hands firmly.

　"Although our languages and cultures are different, we are members of the same Messianic faith, the Orthodox faith. Let us work together to fight the heretics. By the way, ......, do we have control of the seas?

　Of course. If the worst happens and the city falls, you can escape to sea. At that time, I promise to give priority to ...... the soldiers of the Barbary tribe. In return, ......

　"All right. Then I'll follow your instructions.

　If the city of Teripol should fall, I will give top priority to the Barbarians and spare their lives.
　On that condition, Masinissa promised to follow Stefan's instructions.

　Thus, the siege troops of Teripol City temporarily unified their command structure.




　On the other hand, the Teripol Liberation Army led by Carmine from the Cerda Defenders arrived in Teripol City the next day, on the 39th day, and the Teripol Liberation Army from the Teripoltanian Defenders arrived in Teripol City on the 40th day.

　The former was originally 500,000, and the latter 300,000.
　The total was supposed to be 800.

　In reality, however, the number of troops swelled further.

　For example, the Teripol garrison was originally scheduled to mobilize up to 700 troops, but by the time they were mobilized, they had engaged the Lemurian army, and at that time their strength was 500,000......, which meant that there was a mobilization gap of 200,000 troops.

　Similarly, the Terriportanian defensive forces were only able to mobilize 500 troops when they should have been 700.

　The two armies had mobilized such undemobilized troops, as well as new troops such as the fugitives from the battle of Teripol and the Red Wolves along the way.

　Therefore, the former, the Teripol Liberation Army from Cerda City, had a total of 860,000 soldiers in addition to the original 500,000 soldiers, including 300,000 Red Wolves, 130,000 fugitives from the battle of Teripol, and 200,000 soldiers not mobilized by the Teripol defenders.

　The latter, the Teripol Liberation Army from Teripoltania, has 500,000, which is the original 300,000 troops plus the 200,000 that were not mobilized.

　A total of 136,000.

　In addition, 1,400 troops were mobilized along the way, bringing the total number of troops to 1,500.





　"I was told that I should be prepared for 10,000, so I was. ...... Is that about 10,000?
　I'm not sure what to do, but I'm going to do it. Yeah, I'm sorry.

　Stefan bowed his head in regards to the fact that there were more enemies than he had expected.
　Nia shook her head.

　No, ......, I'm not blaming you. Well, 100,000 or 150,000 won't make much difference. It's just that twice as many troops are now three times as many.

　Nia's expression was not optimistic.
　Twice and three times the number of troops may not be much different in words, but in numbers, it's a huge difference.

　There is one thing that bothers me. Does the ...... enemy have any food on hand?

　Jebe said with a scowl.


　There is an image that the latter side is more troubled by food shortages than the former because of the existence of the blame game.

　However, the reality is the opposite. In reality, the siege side often runs out of food first.

　There are two reasons for this.

　First of all, the latter side has more troops than the former side, so it is the latter side that runs out of food first.

　Secondly, when the siege side decides to siege, it prepares for the siege by thoroughly gathering food from the towns and villages around the castle. ......
　The siege side will be forced to fight a prolonged battle in a land where there is not even a single wheat left, because the siege side has already gathered all the food.


　More ......
　This depends on the number of non-combatants, or residents, in the city or castle and the logistics capabilities of both sides.

　In other words, if the logistics capacity of the siege side is much better, then a siege is possible.


　And in this case, that is, between the Lemurian army in siege and the Cerda army in siege, ......
　In this case, that is, between the Lemurian army in a siege and the Cheludian army in a siege, the former has by far more food to spare.

　The Lemurian army has already gathered food from the surrounding villages before the enemy arrives, and since Lemuria previously held the control of the sea, it can transport as much food as it wants by sea.

　On the other hand, in the case of Cerda's army, the Lemurian army has already taken all the food around Teripol City, so they need to bring it in from far away by land.

　"Well, ...... the Teriportania region is the granary of the Kingdom of Cerda, so it should be possible to get by, don't you think?
　"Mm ......, well, sure.

　This siege or siege warfare is a little different from the usual one.
　Usually, the siege side is in its own territory, while the attacker is invading the enemy's territory.

　This time, however, the structure is the exact opposite: the siege side is invading the enemy's territory, and the siege side is in its own territory.

　Normally, the logistics capacity of the siege side, which is supposed to be inside the enemy territory, is significantly reduced. ......
　In this case, the siege side is in its own territory.

　It's a good idea to have some idea of what you're doing. ...... If you are planning to fight a long term battle, that is, if you have enough food, you will not gather such a large army.

　They did not gather such a large army because they had enough food.
　Stefan guessed that it was the other way around, that is, they gathered such a large army because they could not afford it.

　In other words, the Cerda army, thinking that they would be at a disadvantage if the battle dragged on, would dare to gather a large army and fight a short battle in order to lose the city of Teripol before they ran out of food.

　This is a theory.

　Oscar, Nia, Jebe, and Masinissa, who had been listening in silence, nodded, as if they found this persuasive.






　Thus, ......
　The second siege of Teripol, which would determine the victory or defeat of the Lemurian-Cherda War, was about to begin.