The Lord is Empire

“If we charge out, they’ll definitely send the Undead at us to reduce our strength and then use their elite troops to wipe us out. We’ll definitely lose,” the elderly Ratfolk who had spoken first rebutted.

“What do you think we should do then?” asked the one who had wanted to fight.

Suddenly, one of the elderly Ratfolk who had not spoken yet finally said, “In the beginning, didn’t we dig three tunnels to use as contingencies? Right now, we have two options: use those tunnels to slip away…”

“No!”

Before he could finish speaking, he was cut off by the others. One of them said, “If we have to escape, we have to take the City Creation Stone with us. However, choosing to relocate will cause too great of a change, and that human will definitely notice. We also can’t leave the City Creation Stone behind. Although we’ve guarded this historical remnant for so long, we’ve only unlocked a small part of it. Do you really want to give all of it away?”

“Ai!” the Ratfolk who had suggested escaping through the tunnels sighed as he said, “Looks like we’ll have to use the tunnels at night and use our special forces to deal a heavy blow to the Human army.”

All of the other Ratfolk nodded. Right now, there was nothing else that they could do.

The sun gradually dipped below the horizon, and a red sunset glow covered the land. Soon, the stars started to shine in the sky.

As night completely fell, sparkling stars appeared in the sky, but there was no moon. However, because of the stars, it did not seem too dark.

Zhao Fu’s soldiers started to light torches and cook dinner. There didn’t seem to be any wariness within the army, and it was if they didn’t take the Ratfolk seriously at all. In fact, some soldiers even took out wine and started to drink.

This caused the Ratfolk sentries on the walls to become quite furious, and they thought to themselves, “ _We’ll show these Humans our might soon!_ ”

The night deepened, and soon, it was 12 AM. On the face of things, it looked that there were only a few teams patrolling around Zhao Fu’s camp, while everyone else had gone into their tents to sleep.

The Ratfolk felt that their opportunity had arrived, and they started to execute their plan.

A team of rats passed through the three tunnels and arrived outside the village, with Zhao Fu’s army between them and the village. There were roughly 2,000 Ratfolk in this team, while the Ratfolk on the walls silently lowered ropes.

Following this, the Ratfolk on the walls descended from the ropes and positioned themselves on the other side of Zhao Fu’s army. This pincer attack was perfect, and there were no flaws with the plan. If Zhao Fu’s forces were attacked on two sides, they would fall into great danger and would most likely be sent running.

The 2,000 Ratfolk behind Zhao Fu’s forces crept out of the tunnels and rushed towards Zhao Fu’s camp, when suddenly…

Swish, swish, swish…

The sound of the air being torn sounded out, causing the Ratfolk to yell, “Ambush!!”

The Ratfolk immediately scattered, but most of them were still covered by the rain of arrows. A countless number of Ratfolk was shot to death by the chaotically falling arrows.

Zhang Dahu came out of hiding and laughed, “His Majesty was indeed right; the Ratfolk are just like rats and like to dig holes. Luckily, Little Grey’s nose is better than a dog’s, and it discovered these three secret tunnels.”

“Awoo!!!”

Little Grey happily howled at Zhang Dahu and bared its teeth, looking as if it was going to bite him. Zhang Dahu looked quite awkward and quickly said, “Alright, alright, I won’t compare your nose to a dog’s nose anymore!”

“Awoo!!!” Little Grey continued to howl with displeasure.

Zhang Dahu thought about it and realized something, and he said helplessly, “I won’t call you Little Grey either; I’ll call you Grey Wolf King.”

To Little Grey, the name ‘Little Grey’ could only be used by Zhao Fu, and everyone else could only call it Grey Wolf King.

Only then did Little Grey lie on the ground with a satisfied look on its face, and Zhang Dahu turned his gaze back to the battlefield. He saw tens of abnormally agile figures dodge past the dense rain of arrows and escape. Their attire was quite strange, and it looked like they were wearing hoods.

Since most of the Ratfolk had been killed, he didn’t order his subordinates to continue shooting arrows. Instead, he took some soldiers to chase after those 10 Ratfolk who had escaped.

One hour later, the Ratfolk in front of the walls were still anxiously waiting, wondering what was going on. It was already an hour past the planned time, and it seemed like the group of 2,000 Ratfolk had not made even a single move.

Within the Ratfolk Village, the Ratfolk elders paced about anxiously within the Village Hall, wondering what had happened to the team of Ratfolk soldiers. Within their hearts, they felt a trace of uneasiness.

……………………….

“What?” Zhao Fu’s expression darkened as he looked at Zhang Dahu’s kneeling figure and Little Grey, who looked quite innocent, lying down next to him.

After a while, Zhao Fu let out a breath and asked, “Speak! With 1,500 men, how did you fail to catch some Ratfolk, with even 50 people being injured?”

Zhang Dahu breathed out before reporting, “Your Majesty, I carried out the ambush as you ordered, and everything went quite smoothly. However, there were tens of Ratfolk who were abnormally agile, and they were able to dodge all of the arrows. They escaped, and of course, I gave the order to chase them down. However, after running into the forest, they were like fish that had returned to the sea, and they disappeared without a trace.

“However, relying on the Grey Wolf King’s nose, we were able to follow them. However, we didn’t expect them to set an ambush. Of course, we used Your Majesty’s tactics, but unexpectedly, 50 of our brothers were still injured. Despite this, we were able to kill 20 or so of the Ratfolk, but we were unable to find any of the other ones. I’ve already ordered people to hide near the tunnels; as soon as they appear, we’ll kill them immediately.”

“Oh? The Ratfolk are that strong?” Zhao Fu said in surprise. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Zhang Dahu, but he simply didn’t expect a few tens of Ratfolk to be so powerful.

“Your Majesty, I brought back a few corpses, and you can take a look yourself,” Zhang Dahu said.

Zhao Fu nodded, and a few soldiers brought in a few Ratfolk corpses.

Zhao Fu had a look and found that they were indeed different compared to normal Ratfolk. They wore black cloaks with hoods, which were large enough to cover their appearances. Underneath the cloaks were tight-fitting clothes that did not restrict their movements, and there was a short sword tied to each of their hands. There were also mechanisms on their arms that could extend and retract the short swords.

Zhao Fu used the Corpse Examination skill to look at the corpses, but he found that their grades were all quite average. However, he could not tell what profession they had.