Eleven, Old Map

  "What the hell are these Israelis doing?" Sophia looked on in bewilderment from a hovercraft further back, "If they wanted to set up an ambush, did they have to make it so obvious?!"

  The surrounding officers remained silent, only looking at their superiors with fearful eyes, occasionally glancing at the battlefield in front of them with the corner of their eyes. The floating airships that were charging more than a mile away also slowed down, seemingly hesitant to move forward.

  Under the counterattack of the headquarters, Sofia's former subordinates have long since retired or died in battle. Now, those around her are a group of unlucky people who have offended their superiors and been sent to their deaths. They basically belong to the category of having no skills or abilities, and they don't dare to speak out of turn or make any sudden movements in front of Sofia. As for expressing one's own opinions about Sofia... do you think your life is too long? Haven't you heard that this superior loves to discipline subordinates who are too talkative?

  For centuries, the name Sophia-Liard has been associated with words like "massacre", "madness" and "brutality" that would never evoke any positive thoughts, and as the propaganda of demonization of political enemies became more and more exaggerated, even the Lord of the Abyss was compared to her and seemed like a pure elementary school student.

  These second-class citizens, who were basically forced to grow up listening to horror stories about "Ghost Rose" and "Rose Reborn", are now terrified of their current superior. This means that Sofia will not have any opposing opinions when giving orders or making decisions - opponents tend to explain things through action, directly starting a rebellion - and her staff's actual function is close to zero. Now everything from strategic planning, tactical deployment to logistics and personnel configuration has to be arranged by her personally, which makes the old marshal feel that this is "a one-man war" while his already poor health takes another two steps down. It seems that having too much prestige as a leader isn't a good thing either.

  No one responded, Sophia also felt a bit disheartened. She had completely given up on these subordinates who were like wooden puppets, as long as they could correctly copy and transmit orders, she didn't have the spirit to drag these trash to feed the sharks for now. She casually waved her hand, a personal guard assigned by the Xiefula Church immediately set up the launcher, firing a red signal flare into the air, urging the officers and soldiers who were also hesitant due to the strange scene in front of them to continue charging.

  "After all, they're just a bunch of useless people the headquarters has handed over to me. It's fine even if I use them as cannon fodder to test the waters." The superior officer's muttering made the surrounding officers feel a chill run down their spines, and they hastily lowered their heads to study the grain of the wooden floorboards, actively drawing closer to a certain bird called an ostrich.

  Sophia and her subordinates still haven't figured it out, the opponent was scared off by the smoke bomb she used to disturb their vision.

  Sophia-Liard, although a renowned general of her generation, had been severely weakened by long-term house arrest and chronic illness, which had significantly impaired her leadership and judgment. In the face of the bizarre phenomenon before her, she simply continued her usual style, using soldiers' lives to probe the way.

  Fortunately, after decades of bad luck, she finally made the right bet this time. The Elf Army chased the defenders' butts into a chaotic city and quickly raised the green leaf flag on the lighthouse in the harbor. The only regret is that the soldiers of the Giant Bear Legion were too skilled at long-distance running, and the assault team that entered the city didn't even catch up with the last remnants of the defeated army.

  In any case, the landing operation at Emon Harbour was a success. However, good luck for the Elves usually meant bad luck for the other side.

  "Where is this place? I think I've been here for the second time. Ah, why didn't I think of going out with Laini to have a picnic or something, now we're lost." Fili stood under a familiar-looking dead tree, muttering to himself with a vacant expression.

  "Wait for me, sir!" Bam dragged his short legs, rolling and crawling to follow behind. Phil originally didn't want to bother with him, but considering this was the last subordinate and potential meat shield by his side, he stopped in his tracks.

  "Are you really a dwarf? How come your hands and feet are so clumsy? And with such little strength, you can't even walk on a mountain road without getting like this! What have you been doing in the mine all this time?! Bam's clothes were already torn to shreds by branches in just a few hours, his face was covered in flowers, and he was panting heavily, blowing his beard upwards. Phil couldn't help but wonder how he managed to explore mines and forge iron normally."

  "This... I'm also considered an intellectual, usually just sitting in the office and working." Bam rubbed his hair which had become a bird's nest and smiled awkwardly.

  "How did you say you knew the way at first? Where are we now? You muddlehead!"

  "Sir, actually I have a map with me, but it seems to be somewhat inconsistent with this side." Bam hesitated for a moment before pulling out a scroll from his bosom.

  Fili snatched the scroll from Bamu's hand, activated his dim vision and began to examine it carefully. The map itself was quite exquisite, made of expensive sheepskin paper, with various icons painted in a very three-dimensional way, almost like a work of art. However, its drawing level was a big problem. Except for a few towns, most areas were filled with all sorts of monsters, and the coastline was severely distorted, with many place names not matching what he knew. Fili flipped it over and over for half a day, but couldn't get any useful information from it. It wasn't until he noticed the signature in the bottom right corner that he suddenly realized something.

  "Drawn by Imperial Temporary Surveyor Grimme-Copperbeard in October 1790."

  "My god, it's an antique from 200 years ago! Do you think this is a US military plane bombing the Chinese embassy? Phil rolled up the map and threw it at Bam's head, 'Who gave you this old stuff, it's completely misleading!'"

  "This is what I brought from home." Bamm scratched his long beard, "It was even personally surveyed by my old dad himself, he insisted that it would absolutely be no mistake, I think he wouldn't harm me either. Now it seems, perhaps when he measured it, the beer had been drunk a bit too much..."

  Fili was speechless, dwarves' lifespan is generally around 400 years... The time concept of long-lived races is just different from humans.

  "Since the map is useless, we should at least be able to tell directions." Fili pointed to the clouds dispersing in the sky, "Bam, didn't you used to be a sailor on a ship? Now that the moon and stars are out, can you check if our direction is correct?"

  "But Captain," Bam said with a very surprised expression, "I'm just a cook on the ship, can't you navigate by looking at the stars?"

  "What kind of subordinates have I gotten myself into!" Phil's hands clasped his head, feeling a wave of dizziness, "They're completely useless!"

  The terrain around Emon Harbour is essentially a small canyon with three sides surrounded by mountains, the mouth of which faces out to sea, and Emon was built in this location. If one follows the main road along the bottom of the canyon inland, it will eventually reach the surface entrance to New Mysoreblyad City, which was also the pre-war retreat route for the Great Bear Army.

  However, due to the remote location of the defense zone, before Phil could come and go back, the port and city were "peacefully handed over" to the hands of the Elf Army in a very coordinated manner. If you don't want to cross the city occupied by the enemy and force your way through the blocked highway, then you can only think of a way to detour from the surrounding mountains to New Misoruburei City.

  Unfortunately, this era is not popular with outdoor tourism. Feili has lived in the city for a long time, but he has never been to the suburbs to play. Fortunately, he pulled out Bam from a wine cellar who wanted to make a fortune before leaving. Under the guidance of this dwarf who claimed to be familiar with the terrain, the two set out on their journey to New Morsubrai City in the pitch-black night.

  In the dark of night, wandering through unfamiliar mountains and forests usually comes with a high probability of getting lost. If you add to that a so-called guide carrying an old map, it's really hard not to get lost. This was the conclusion Firiel came to after wandering around in the unfamiliar wilderness for a whole night. He had even used his spring boots several times, and the road he ran should have been no less than ten or twenty miles, yet he hadn't encountered anything like a man-made structure. The soldiers who escaped from the front line did encounter several groups, mostly people from his own independent battalion, but this was of no help in solving his current predicament, because these guys were also outsiders or local route fools, equally trapped in the predicament of getting lost. Fortunately, since most wild beasts hibernate in winter, he hadn't encountered any danger.

  It wasn't until the second half of the night that the number of people under Fili's command had increased from one to around a hundred, but there was still no sign of anyone leaving the desolate mountains. However, he did discover a river, and following it usually led to finding villages where people lived, which is what several soldiers who had been on expeditions said, and Fili thought it made sense too. But the entire river was frozen solid, making it impossible to tell which direction was upstream or downstream, which might lead to the coast where enemy forces might be present.

  Fili thought for half a day and decided to take a walk first, if it didn't work out, he would change direction. After all, this was relatively safe home turf. He had a soldier who was said to have the best luck in gambling pick up a tree branch from the ground, toss it into the air, and then move forward one step at a time along the icy riverbank, while reciting "Lucky Goddess bless me", according to the direction of where the branch landed.

  However, his bad luck seems to be enough to offset everyone else's good luck.