Chapter 148
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It has been almost a month since Ben and his troops began the military campaign across the northern kingdoms. Ben wanted to get it over with so that he would only need to focus on instructing the regents and improving these new kingdoms which were now or would be under his control.
He had placed the former Aithereal king in the city prisons, installed a garrison of his troops in the city, and elected a person from the capital city to govern as a regent under his rule.
The city was secure enough finally for him to make the final push into the Lunia Kingdom.
Seeing that the Lunia Kingdom had not expended their military might invading the Rodara region, Ben thought it would be safer to take their time and march across the Lunia Kingdom.
He worried if he had his troops use a teleport formation to suddenly pop up in the middle of the kingdom that they might end up in between enemy forces. The last thing he wanted was to have another enemy army attack them from behind ad they attacked the capital city.
The Aithereal capital was around five hundred miles from the Lunia capital so it would take them approximately seven days to march there and that wasn't including time allowed for sleep.
There was no getting around it they would be on the roads for a few weeks and there was a good chance the enemy would receive word of their presence before reaching the capital.
Ben led his troops around the towns and cut across the wilderness a few times to avoid going out of their way on the roads which went from one town to the next. As they progressed forward they had an unobstructed journey without any signs of the enemy's military.
When they passed the halfway point across the Lunia Kingdom something peculiar caught Ben's attention. As they marched forward he had seen a large column of smoke on a distant hill.
At first, he didn't think much of it. It could be foresters or hunters. He ignored the smoke and moved on to then discover every ten or so miles another column of smoke would rise up into the air.
Ben now suspicious opened his map to see six gray dots running away from where the last smoke column was seen. He decided to halt the troop's march and took one hundred mounted knights to chase after the fleeing people who lit the fire.
They rode hard until they surrounded and captured the men who appeared to be simple commoners.
Ben climbed down and to talk to the men who were frightened with eyes darting around at the men and horses surrounding them in armor.
It did not take much to get them to tell Ben what they were up to. At first, they tried to deny they were up to anything. With a little coaxing from Ben's Aura Assault, their resolve instantly crumbled.
They said Lunia military men working for their king came to their village nearby and forced them to camp on the mountain they were on. They were told to look out for a large army wearing black armor.
They would know the enemy wearing black armor was approaching when they saw a smoke signal to the west of them. When they saw the army they were to light a large fire with lots of green leaves to make a large smoke column to warn the other men like them to the east.
Ben understood now what was happening they were using a smoke signal to track the progress of his army. They could watch these smoke signal from the east and get a rough idea of how fast his troops were moving and the direction of travel they were marching!
This was a technique which had been used by various ancient people back on Earth. He could remember his history teacher talking about how the Native Americans could send signals with smoke hundreds of miles in a short amount of time.
What the Lunia military was doing wasn't as advanced, but it was an effective technique to use on a primitive battlefield without any long distance communication devices.
Ben let the captured men return to their village. There was no sense in keeping or harming them. They were simple men who were forced into doing this and really wanted nothing more than to live their lives in peace.
They returned to the waiting troops and continued to march east toward the capitol. Ben continued to see columns of smoke tracking their progress and ignored them.
When he and his men were just over fifty miles west of the Lunia Capital city, he changed direction to travel southeast into a forest. Inside the forest he had his men make camp for the remainder of the day.
Eight hours later when the sun had set they packed up camp and began marching eastward through the forest. For the next two days, Ben only moved during the night and kept his men hidden in the forest.
With their black armor, they could march through the night unseen by the lookouts monitoring their progress. The smoke signal was no longer seen, and they were able to vanish until they reached their destination.
When they were a few miles west of the Lunia Capital, Ben sent out a few of the Infiltration troops to scout ahead. They returned to report a large army was camped outside the city walls. There is also a decent amount of troops patrolling the capital city walls.
It seemed the Lunia King had enough time to raise an army. The city was blocked and the walls were manned. Ben had the advantage of knowing where the enemy was and how many there might be waiting before he had shown himself.
He was sure the enemy had tracked his progress and knew when they would arrive. Ben was sure they did not know where he had hidden his army. This gave them another advantage to strike at the enemy without them having a chance to retaliate.
Ben set up camp deep in the forest just southeast of the capital and had his men rest for a few days. This would allow his men to recover from the long march here and make the enemy worry.
The Lunia troops knew there was an enemy army of around sixteen thousand highly trained troops, but they did not nowhere. They would have to remain on their toes to avoid any surprise attacks until they were found.
On the third night of hiding in the forest and monitoring the Lunia military camp, Ben led a group of men out of the forest on foot.
Just outside the treeline, Ben brought out his ten prototype tanks and had the men who had trained to operate them climb into them.
The sun would soon rise, so they prepared the steam-powered tanks in the dark. Inside they used lanterns to illuminate the interior. There was a little more involved in starting these once steam cars than a modern car. There was a long series of things which needed to be done.
It took the tank crews about fifteen minutes to ignite the burners and build up pressure in the boilers before they began to slowly move toward the sleeping Lunia military camp.
Unlike a noisy internal combustion engine, these steam engines are very quiet. The ten tanks could move through the wilderness without drawing any attention.
They kept their headlights off and drove up to a half mile from the enemy camp. Ben gave a short quick honk of the horn and the gunmen began loading explosive shells into the cannons and adjusting them to shoot at the distance camp.
Everyone then out on their ear protection and listened for the signal. Ben gave another quick honk and ten cannons light up the field around the ten prototype tanks for an instant as opened fire on the enemy.
As his the tanks crews fired at will Ben began to shake his head at the destruction down range. They were just under eight hundred yards from the camp, but they could still see the shells as they exploded and sent yards of dirt showering into the air.
The smoke from the shells crept across the camp adding to the panic of the men who were running around trying to figure out what god they had offended. The deafening, flashing, explosions, and destruction made them think an angry god was dropping bolts of lightning on them from the heavens.
Ben allowed his tanks to lay into the camp for a good fifteen minutes, and they eventually ran out of explosive shells. There were plenty of canister grape-shot shells remaining, but Ben did not want to 'introduce' his tanks to the enemy yet.
They turned around and returned to the camp and the enemy still had no idea what it was that had attacked them.
When the sun rose the surviving Lunia soldiers found large craters around the camp and strewn body parts by those who were caught in the attack. Most of these men were civilian soldiers they had seen people die before, but nothing like this.
A section of the camp looked like a butcher shop. Everywhere they looked was blood, limbs, and destroyed gear. Those with weaker stomach were glad they had not eaten breakfast yet when their stomachs attempted to empty out their contents.
It was too much to take for a few men, and they decided to quietly try and slip away during the chaos around them. They would rather hide in the wilderness until this was all was settled than to stick around and lay in their tent wondering if they would be next to die without even leaving a corpse behind.
Back at the forest camp Ben returned to his tent and sat at his desk estimating how many enemy troops remained at what horrors he would unleash on them next to break their spirits.
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It has been almost a month since Ben and his troops began the military campaign across the northern kingdoms. Ben wanted to get it over with so that he would only need to focus on instructing the regents and improving these new kingdoms which were now or would be under his control.
He had placed the former Aithereal king in the city prisons, installed a garrison of his troops in the city, and elected a person from the capital city to govern as a regent under his rule.
The city was secure enough finally for him to make the final push into the Lunia Kingdom.
Seeing that the Lunia Kingdom had not expended their military might invading the Rodara region, Ben thought it would be safer to take their time and march across the Lunia Kingdom.
He worried if he had his troops use a teleport formation to suddenly pop up in the middle of the kingdom that they might end up in between enemy forces. The last thing he wanted was to have another enemy army attack them from behind ad they attacked the capital city.
The Aithereal capital was around five hundred miles from the Lunia capital so it would take them approximately seven days to march there and that wasn't including time allowed for sleep.
There was no getting around it they would be on the roads for a few weeks and there was a good chance the enemy would receive word of their presence before reaching the capital.
Ben led his troops around the towns and cut across the wilderness a few times to avoid going out of their way on the roads which went from one town to the next. As they progressed forward they had an unobstructed journey without any signs of the enemy's military.
When they passed the halfway point across the Lunia Kingdom something peculiar caught Ben's attention. As they marched forward he had seen a large column of smoke on a distant hill.
At first, he didn't think much of it. It could be foresters or hunters. He ignored the smoke and moved on to then discover every ten or so miles another column of smoke would rise up into the air.
Ben now suspicious opened his map to see six gray dots running away from where the last smoke column was seen. He decided to halt the troop's march and took one hundred mounted knights to chase after the fleeing people who lit the fire.
They rode hard until they surrounded and captured the men who appeared to be simple commoners.
Ben climbed down and to talk to the men who were frightened with eyes darting around at the men and horses surrounding them in armor.
It did not take much to get them to tell Ben what they were up to. At first, they tried to deny they were up to anything. With a little coaxing from Ben's Aura Assault, their resolve instantly crumbled.
They said Lunia military men working for their king came to their village nearby and forced them to camp on the mountain they were on. They were told to look out for a large army wearing black armor.
They would know the enemy wearing black armor was approaching when they saw a smoke signal to the west of them. When they saw the army they were to light a large fire with lots of green leaves to make a large smoke column to warn the other men like them to the east.
Ben understood now what was happening they were using a smoke signal to track the progress of his army. They could watch these smoke signal from the east and get a rough idea of how fast his troops were moving and the direction of travel they were marching!
This was a technique which had been used by various ancient people back on Earth. He could remember his history teacher talking about how the Native Americans could send signals with smoke hundreds of miles in a short amount of time.
What the Lunia military was doing wasn't as advanced, but it was an effective technique to use on a primitive battlefield without any long distance communication devices.
Ben let the captured men return to their village. There was no sense in keeping or harming them. They were simple men who were forced into doing this and really wanted nothing more than to live their lives in peace.
They returned to the waiting troops and continued to march east toward the capitol. Ben continued to see columns of smoke tracking their progress and ignored them.
When he and his men were just over fifty miles west of the Lunia Capital city, he changed direction to travel southeast into a forest. Inside the forest he had his men make camp for the remainder of the day.
Eight hours later when the sun had set they packed up camp and began marching eastward through the forest. For the next two days, Ben only moved during the night and kept his men hidden in the forest.
With their black armor, they could march through the night unseen by the lookouts monitoring their progress. The smoke signal was no longer seen, and they were able to vanish until they reached their destination.
When they were a few miles west of the Lunia Capital, Ben sent out a few of the Infiltration troops to scout ahead. They returned to report a large army was camped outside the city walls. There is also a decent amount of troops patrolling the capital city walls.
It seemed the Lunia King had enough time to raise an army. The city was blocked and the walls were manned. Ben had the advantage of knowing where the enemy was and how many there might be waiting before he had shown himself.
He was sure the enemy had tracked his progress and knew when they would arrive. Ben was sure they did not know where he had hidden his army. This gave them another advantage to strike at the enemy without them having a chance to retaliate.
Ben set up camp deep in the forest just southeast of the capital and had his men rest for a few days. This would allow his men to recover from the long march here and make the enemy worry.
The Lunia troops knew there was an enemy army of around sixteen thousand highly trained troops, but they did not nowhere. They would have to remain on their toes to avoid any surprise attacks until they were found.
On the third night of hiding in the forest and monitoring the Lunia military camp, Ben led a group of men out of the forest on foot.
Just outside the treeline, Ben brought out his ten prototype tanks and had the men who had trained to operate them climb into them.
The sun would soon rise, so they prepared the steam-powered tanks in the dark. Inside they used lanterns to illuminate the interior. There was a little more involved in starting these once steam cars than a modern car. There was a long series of things which needed to be done.
It took the tank crews about fifteen minutes to ignite the burners and build up pressure in the boilers before they began to slowly move toward the sleeping Lunia military camp.
Unlike a noisy internal combustion engine, these steam engines are very quiet. The ten tanks could move through the wilderness without drawing any attention.
They kept their headlights off and drove up to a half mile from the enemy camp. Ben gave a short quick honk of the horn and the gunmen began loading explosive shells into the cannons and adjusting them to shoot at the distance camp.
Everyone then out on their ear protection and listened for the signal. Ben gave another quick honk and ten cannons light up the field around the ten prototype tanks for an instant as opened fire on the enemy.
As his the tanks crews fired at will Ben began to shake his head at the destruction down range. They were just under eight hundred yards from the camp, but they could still see the shells as they exploded and sent yards of dirt showering into the air.
The smoke from the shells crept across the camp adding to the panic of the men who were running around trying to figure out what god they had offended. The deafening, flashing, explosions, and destruction made them think an angry god was dropping bolts of lightning on them from the heavens.
Ben allowed his tanks to lay into the camp for a good fifteen minutes, and they eventually ran out of explosive shells. There were plenty of canister grape-shot shells remaining, but Ben did not want to 'introduce' his tanks to the enemy yet.
They turned around and returned to the camp and the enemy still had no idea what it was that had attacked them.
When the sun rose the surviving Lunia soldiers found large craters around the camp and strewn body parts by those who were caught in the attack. Most of these men were civilian soldiers they had seen people die before, but nothing like this.
A section of the camp looked like a butcher shop. Everywhere they looked was blood, limbs, and destroyed gear. Those with weaker stomach were glad they had not eaten breakfast yet when their stomachs attempted to empty out their contents.
It was too much to take for a few men, and they decided to quietly try and slip away during the chaos around them. They would rather hide in the wilderness until this was all was settled than to stick around and lay in their tent wondering if they would be next to die without even leaving a corpse behind.
Back at the forest camp Ben returned to his tent and sat at his desk estimating how many enemy troops remained at what horrors he would unleash on them next to break their spirits.
It has been almost a month since Ben and his troops began the military campaign across the northern kingdoms. Ben wanted to get it over with so that he would only need to focus on instructing the regents and improving these new kingdoms which were now or would be under his control.He had placed the former Aithereal king in the city prisons, installed a garrison of his troops in the city, and elected a person from the capital city to govern as a regent under his rule.The city was secure enough finally for him to make the final push into the Lunia Kingdom.Seeing that the Lunia Kingdom had not expended their military might invading the Rodara region, Ben thought it would be safer to take their time and march across the Lunia Kingdom.He worried if he had his troops use a teleport formation to suddenly pop up in the middle of the kingdom that they might end up in between enemy forces. The last thing he wanted was to have another enemy army attack them from behind ad they attacked the capital city.The Aithereal capital was around five hundred miles from the Lunia capital so it would take them approximately seven days to march there and that wasn't including time allowed for sleep.There was no getting around it they would be on the roads for a few weeks and there was a good chance the enemy would receive word of their presence before reaching the capital.Ben led his troops around the towns and cut across the wilderness a few times to avoid going out of their way on the roads which went from one town to the next. As they progressed forward they had an unobstructed journey without any signs of the enemy's military.When they passed the halfway point across the Lunia Kingdom something peculiar caught Ben's attention. As they marched forward he had seen a large column of smoke on a distant hill.At first, he didn't think much of it. It could be foresters or hunters. He ignored the smoke and moved on to then discover every ten or so miles another column of smoke would rise up into the air.Ben now suspicious opened his map to see six gray dots running away from where the last smoke column was seen. He decided to halt the troop's march and took one hundred mounted knights to chase after the fleeing people who lit the fire.They rode hard until they surrounded and captured the men who appeared to be simple commoners.Ben climbed down and to talk to the men who were frightened with eyes darting around at the men and horses surrounding them in armor.It did not take much to get them to tell Ben what they were up to. At first, they tried to deny they were up to anything. With a little coaxing from Ben's Aura Assault, their resolve instantly crumbled.They said Lunia military men working for their king came to their village nearby and forced them to camp on the mountain they were on. They were told to look out for a large army wearing black armor.They would know the enemy wearing black armor was approaching when they saw a smoke signal to the west of them. When they saw the army they were to light a large fire with lots of green leaves to make a large smoke column to warn the other men like them to the east.Ben understood now what was happening they were using a smoke signal to track the progress of his army. They could watch these smoke signal from the east and get a rough idea of how fast his troops were moving and the direction of travel they were marching!This was a technique which had been used by various ancient people back on Earth. He could remember his history teacher talking about how the Native Americans could send signals with smoke hundreds of miles in a short amount of time.What the Lunia military was doing wasn't as advanced, but it was an effective technique to use on a primitive battlefield without any long distance communication devices.Ben let the captured men return to their village. There was no sense in keeping or harming them. They were simple men who were forced into doing this and really wanted nothing more than to live their lives in peace.They returned to the waiting troops and continued to march east toward the capitol. Ben continued to see columns of smoke tracking their progress and ignored them.When he and his men were just over fifty miles west of the Lunia Capital city, he changed direction to travel southeast into a forest. Inside the forest he had his men make camp for the remainder of the day.Eight hours later when the sun had set they packed up camp and began marching eastward through the forest. For the next two days, Ben only moved during the night and kept his men hidden in the forest.With their black armor, they could march through the night unseen by the lookouts monitoring their progress. The smoke signal was no longer seen, and they were able to vanish until they reached their destination.When they were a few miles west of the Lunia Capital, Ben sent out a few of the Infiltration troops to scout ahead. They returned to report a large army was camped outside the city walls. There is also a decent amount of troops patrolling the capital city walls.It seemed the Lunia King had enough time to raise an army. The city was blocked and the walls were manned. Ben had the advantage of knowing where the enemy was and how many there might be waiting before he had shown himself.He was sure the enemy had tracked his progress and knew when they would arrive. Ben was sure they did not know where he had hidden his army. This gave them another advantage to strike at the enemy without them having a chance to retaliate.Ben set up camp deep in the forest just southeast of the capital and had his men rest for a few days. This would allow his men to recover from the long march here and make the enemy worry.The Lunia troops knew there was an enemy army of around sixteen thousand highly trained troops, but they did not nowhere. They would have to remain on their toes to avoid any surprise attacks until they were found.On the third night of hiding in the forest and monitoring the Lunia military camp, Ben led a group of men out of the forest on foot.Just outside the treeline, Ben brought out his ten prototype tanks and had the men who had trained to operate them climb into them.The sun would soon rise, so they prepared the steam-powered tanks in the dark. Inside they used lanterns to illuminate the interior. There was a little more involved in starting these once steam cars than a modern car. There was a long series of things which needed to be done.It took the tank crews about fifteen minutes to ignite the burners and build up pressure in the boilers before they began to slowly move toward the sleeping Lunia military camp.Unlike a noisy internal combustion engine, these steam engines are very quiet. The ten tanks could move through the wilderness without drawing any attention.They kept their headlights off and drove up to a half mile from the enemy camp. Ben gave a short quick honk of the horn and the gunmen began loading explosive shells into the cannons and adjusting them to shoot at the distance camp.Everyone then out on their ear protection and listened for the signal. Ben gave another quick honk and ten cannons light up the field around the ten prototype tanks for an instant as opened fire on the enemy.As his the tanks crews fired at will Ben began to shake his head at the destruction down range. They were just under eight hundred yards from the camp, but they could still see the shells as they exploded and sent yards of dirt showering into the air.The smoke from the shells crept across the camp adding to the panic of the men who were running around trying to figure out what god they had offended. The deafening, flashing, explosions, and destruction made them think an angry god was dropping bolts of lightning on them from the heavens.Ben allowed his tanks to lay into the camp for a good fifteen minutes, and they eventually ran out of explosive shells. There were plenty of canister grape-shot shells remaining, but Ben did not want to 'introduce' his tanks to the enemy yet.They turned around and returned to the camp and the enemy still had no idea what it was that had attacked them.When the sun rose the surviving Lunia soldiers found large craters around the camp and strewn body parts by those who were caught in the attack. Most of these men were civilian soldiers they had seen people die before, but nothing like this.A section of the camp looked like a butcher shop. Everywhere they looked was blood, limbs, and destroyed gear. Those with weaker stomach were glad they had not eaten breakfast yet when their stomachs attempted to empty out their contents.It was too much to take for a few men, and they decided to quietly try and slip away during the chaos around them. They would rather hide in the wilderness until this was all was settled than to stick around and lay in their tent wondering if they would be next to die without even leaving a corpse behind.Back at the forest camp Ben returned to his tent and sat at his desk estimating how many enemy troops remained at what horrors he would unleash on them next to break their spirits.
