Herald of Steel

Achillas's voice betrayed great annoyance at Lord Bernard's carelessness for here they were discussing such important matters but the man did not even seem to bother.

Along with that, there was also the fact that the general did not like Lord Bernard, both because he saw him as incompetent and because he was a bit jealous of the man's status.

Thus in an attempt to catch the man with his pants down so to speak, Achillas reiterated,

"We have already stopped food supplies from going into the mansion. But this will likely not be enough to make the enemy capitulate anytime soon. Our sources say they have very large stocks of grains and it is reasonable to believe them. It is winter after all. People stock up the entire year just to prepare for this season."

"So it is very possible, they will able to last the entire three months. This is not acceptable." The man announced the last sentence with great force while shaking his head, emphasizing its importance.

And after the slight pause, turned to dictate to Lord Bernard,

"So we need to find a faster way to defeat Alexander. My lord cannot let the lady and young master be held hostage by the enemy for so long. God forbid if anything happens to them while in your territory!"

And here Achillas did not just oh so subtly threaten only Lord Bernard, but the entire Margraves family, indicating that if something were to happen to the two, there would be hell to pay for the entire dynasty.

And Lord Parker too agreed with his general on this one, as curtly nodding his head, he turned to say to Lord Bernard,

"Right! You are the local here…. You must know some hidden secret passageway into the mansion. If you cannot find a way to break the lines, then at least find a way to get my wife and son out of there. We are at a great disadvantage as long as Alexander has them."

"....." While the man in question, Lord Bernard felt like he was suddenly zapped by a cattle prod at being offered such a mental task.

'There are tens of you, no tens of thousands of you! If you cannot do it how can I?' The man exclaimed at the back of his mind, rolling his eyes in shock.

And then quickly understood that he was not being really asked to answer such a difficult question but to fail!

He was being plotted against here

How else would you explain the fact that he was being asked to magically find a solution to a complex problem that so many others could not solve?

And on the spot at that?

Just because he was a local?

Bullshit!

There were 10,000 'locals' right here in the camps, and if that was not enough, even more than that, there were 100,000 locals in the city.

'Why don't you go capture them if he thought they held the key to all the secrets? Lord Bernard thus venemously cursed Lord Parker inside his mind.

And then began to suspect that this was simply the other side's way of trying to dismiss him, to try and swallow the 10,000 men under him all for themselves.

The man was surprisingly sharp when it came to such things.

However, despite being pitted against like this, Lord Bernard knew he could not flip out.

The other side was too powerful.

So he chose to be diplomatic.

And luckily, Lord Bernard here had a bit of an advantage as he chosen to be the Margraves family representative to Lord Parker on the field not due to his skills of generalship, but more due to his eloquence.

The man was the son of one of the powerful elders of the family and largely managed to get the job through his tongue, and not his arms.

So thinking quickly on his feet, he first opined,

"The various secret passages to the mansion will likely not be accessible to the lady and young son. Lady Miranda too knows about these access points and surely has posted soldiers to guard against any intrusion from us."

"And also, if I recall correctly according to that messenger in the morning, Her Ladyship has been placed under house arrest. So it is unlikely she is able to freely roam around the house."

Lord Bernard used this point to rebuke Lord Parker's want for a secret entrance leading into the mansion, claiming it was unfeasible.

And then before the man could dismiss him, quickly pointed out,

"So perhaps we could use the ships from the Great Harbor? I heard that we managed to find a lot of them intact. And the enemy probably thinks he has destroyed them all."

"So we can surely use them to sail around the defensive lines at night and land on the other side in a sneak attack. This will surely catch them off guard!"

Lord Bernard felt quite confident about his chances in this plan.

"No! The enemy has already strengthened his defenses. It will not work," Lord Parker however was very quick to dismiss the idea, curtly waving his hand and then greatly exaggerating,

"Also most of the ships are damaged. It will take many weeks to fix them. We don't have so much time on our hands. Find another way!"

If any outsider were to see this interaction from outside, it would have surely appeared to him as Lord Parker being too whimsical here.

The idea was honestly not bad here.

If Lord Parker really did try to use a night attack using these ships which Alexander had no knowledge of, then under the cloak of darkness there was truly a nonzero chance of them succeeding.

And even if they failed, their losses would unlikely be too great, since it would be only around a few hundred troops at best landing to take the harbor in the first wave.

So Lord Bernard was unable to see the reason for such an acrid reaction.

But Lord Parker did not seem to approve, finding the concept of doing something that the enemy already about foolish.,

Thus for the next few moments, the whole room turned silent, as Lord Bernard sweated to think of what other way was possible, while all the others looked on with hidden curiosity, eager to see what great proposal the handsome could produce.

And after tracing his chins for a while, Lord Bernard thought he had managed to finally unearth a completely looked over trick.

So he shouted,

"What about fire? We have many spies within the family, we can certainly use them to set fire to the granaries. Yes! Without the food, Alexander will have no choice but to sue for peace! It is a great idea!"

So impressed as he with his own plan, Lord Bernard began to toot his own horn, validating his own plan was 'great'.

And credit where credit is due, using fire was a long and time test method.

Even Sun Tzu wrote about it- to use fire to destroy the enemy.

So even if it was the oldest trick in the book, it was still a viable one.

"No!" However the veto from Lord Parker was an instant one. And it was not even his usual deep pitched veto.

But the man practically shouted the thing off the top of his lungs, as he went to lambast Lord Bernard in the most inventive way possible,

"You blithering idiot! Wasn't yesterday's fire enough for you? It nearly burnt the entire city down! And now you want us to try and do the same? Right next to the house where my wife and son are! Are you trying to save them or kill them?"

It seemed that Alexander's fire had left a deep shadow on the man's heart, and Lord Parker was not even willing to consider such an option.

While standing right next to him, General Achillas was of course there to oil his boss's ass, taunting the other side with a victorious smirk,

"That's right, Lord Bernard! Have you forgotten it is winter? The entire place is like dry kindling. How can even suggest this?" as the short man then went to further poke the man by saying,

"Not to mention it would not even work. The Margraves family has multiple grannies just to prevent such an accident. And I have not even talked about the guards. So how are your spies get even close to them?"

"And then there is the fact that Alexander's soldiers have an altogether separate grain stock, stored safely all the way in their ships.How do you suggest we get to that hmmm?"

Achillas was trying to kick Lord Bernard down both fronts, portraying him as both incompetent and reckless for suggesting such a dangerous plan.

'By using the intact ships to launch a night attack.' While Lord Bernard mumbled the answer to General Achillas's last query under his breath.

But he kept that to himself because he could see the top boss was not interested in this plan.

Achillas had indeed made quite a few good points.

And so with even this good plan thrown on the bins, the dejected man began to try to think of his next idea.

When suddenly his eyes landed on a cup of wine.