Chapter 472: The Mystery of the Spy!

"Haha! Human Grand Commander, I told you long ago — surrender obediently, yet you betrayed my goodwill!"

"How about it now? Do you regret it? How does the taste of hunger and despair feel?"

At the foot of the mountain behind Winterfell City lies the only entrance into Winterfell Castle itself.

The Beast King arrived, surrounded by a host of chieftains.

Gazing up at the Grand Commander and the great nobles atop the city gate, he smiled brilliantly.

Although two-thirds of the human army had so far fled into Winterfell Castle, the castle's area was far too small; even with the surrounding mountain terrain, once seventy or eighty thousand people were inside, the entire mountain was already packed to the brim.

On top of that, there was no food or water source on the mountain, so within three or four days at most, this bunch would be dead for certain.

Either starving and dying of thirst atop Winterfell Castle.

Or being forced down the mountain, only to be harvested and slain by his orc warriors.

And either way, the Beast King was delighted to see it.

"Beast King, don't be smug — even if there is only the last sliver of hope left, our human army will not give up!"

"Moreover, I have already received word that our human army's reinforcements will arrive in three days, so once our support arrives, we shall be perfectly safe!"

Facing the Beast King's mockery, the Legion Grand Commander remained unruffled, and instead responded with an even louder voice.

As he spoke, every word from the Legion Grand Commander rang with conviction and confidence, instantly sparking a glimmer of hope in the soldiers who had fallen into despair and were trembling with anxiety.

And this was precisely the effect the Legion Grand Commander wanted.

So, to make it more convincing, the Legion Grand Commander continued, "Beast King, if you are clever enough, withdraw from our Griffin Kingdom at once; otherwise, what awaits your orc army will surely be a grievous blow at the hands of our human army!"

"Haha! Human Grand Commander, at a time like this, what use is it for you to maintain a day or two of stability with these lies? In a few days, you'll be starved to death, and then the lies will collapse on their own — I won't even need to lift a finger!"

The Beast King naturally saw through the Legion Grand Commander's scheme, yet he cared not at all, feeling only contempt.

Because in the Beast King's eyes, the Legion Grand Commander's ploy was simply too childish.

Even if he stalled for a few days, it would not change the facts!

When the time came, without him needing to do anything, the Legion Grand Commander's lies would collapse of their own accord.

"Beast King, since you don't believe it, then wait and see! Victory will surely belong to our Kingdom's army!"

With that, the Legion Grand Commander left the city wall directly.

He also knew that talking too much invited mistakes, so at this moment he absolutely could not have too much exchange with the Beast King — only this way could he keep the lesser nobles and soldiers in a state of half-belief.

……

"My two lords, although my scheme can temporarily stabilize the situation, I believe the current circumstances need no further explanation from me!"

"In three or four days at most, we shall likely collapse entirely; there is no time to lose — I think we must make a decision at once!"

In the council hall, the Legion Grand Commander shed his confident, composed demeanor, replaced by a face full of worry and unease.

"Grand Commander, I still stand by my earlier proposal — the entire Kingdom army, except for three thousand Kingdom cavalry serving as the vanguard for the breakout, must leave their warhorses behind!"

"And all other warhorses, including those of myself and the Duke Lieshi family, must be slaughtered to serve as meat!"

"Because only by doing so does the army still hold a slim hope of breaking out successfully; otherwise, if the soldiers eat too little, even if we truly attempt a breakout, I'm afraid few will survive!" Duke Hernand spoke up immediately upon hearing this.

"No, Hernand — you may be willing to slaughter your thousand-odd warhorses to feed those lesser nobles' serfs, but I am not. So, if you wish to slaughter the warhorses of your own and other families, I won't interfere."

"But not a single warhorse of my Duke Lieshi family is to be touched!"

Duke Lieshi immediately retorted against Duke Hernand upon hearing this.

The reason the three still needed to deliberate was precisely because a disagreement had arisen over how many warhorses to slaughter for stewing into meat.

The preciousness of warhorses was beyond question.

Yet to enable the army's breakout to succeed, Duke Hernand's idea was that, aside from the three thousand cavalry directly under the Kingdom, all warhorses of the other families must be slaughtered.

This would not only allow the elite soldiers of each great noble family to eat their fill, but also let the lesser nobles' serfs have some meat soup to regain their strength.

Although the lesser nobles' serf soldiers were not strong in combat, and giving them meat seemed a losing proposition.

Without these serf soldiers mixed in, the great nobles' elite soldiers would likely suffer grievous losses as well.

Therefore, Duke Hernand was willing to sacrifice those warhorses.

Yet Duke Lieshi, however, felt that sharing food with those lesser nobles' serf soldiers was simply a waste.

Of course, he was more likely unable to bear parting with his thousand-odd warhorses!

Hernand furrowed his brow — the situation was urgent, and there was little time left to argue with Duke Lieshi.

"Duke Lieshi, since you are unwilling to have your family's warhorses slaughtered, then your family will need to figure out how to prepare food on its own at that time — you have no objection to this, do you?"

"Hmph! Naturally I have no objection — when the time comes, I need only slaughter every packhorse my family owns, and that will be more than enough to feed my own men!" Duke Lieshi snorted coldly; of course, he had no objection.

"Since that's settled, then it's agreed! Once dawn breaks, we shall immediately begin slaughtering the warhorses to restore the soldiers' strength!"

At this point, the three leaders of the army finally reached a consensus.

And the slaughtering of horses would also begin today, continuing in succession.

This was because the conversion of food into strength also required a process!

"Oh, Grand Commander, there is one matter we feel must begin to be taken seriously!" Once the matter of slaughtering horses was concluded, Duke Hernand suddenly spoke again.

The Grand Commander had a premonition — "Duke Hernand, you mean the orc spies?"

"Exactly. Originally, orc spies within the Kingdom were nothing new — it's just that previous orc spies were generally of very low status, at most passing along some intelligence!"

"But in this campaign, from the earlier arson that burned the grain supplies, to the sudden infiltration of five hundred orcs into the city, this indicates that among our army there must be a spy of relatively high status!"

The Grand Commander nodded, clearly agreeing with Duke Hernand's words.

"This spy's status is indeed very high — otherwise it would have been impossible to infiltrate Winterfell Castle to set the fire, nor to let five hundred orcs enter silently!"

"If such a presence is not rooted out, not to mention our Kingdom army, even the Kingdom's future security may be affected."

"However, all our energy during this period has been spent dealing with the orcs outside the city, leaving us with no way to focus on uncovering the spy's identity!" the Grand Commander said helplessly.

"Grand Commander, regarding the investigation into the spy's identity, I do have an idea — start by looking into exactly how those orcs managed to infiltrate the city tonight."

"During this period, because the lesser nobles' soldiers have been short on food and their combat ability has plummeted, the night watch has been arranged by us great nobles."

"And investigating the high nobles' soldiers is clearly easier than the small nobles!"

"Now, we only need to check whether any unusual situation occurred among the high nobles on duty tonight, and we can determine whether this spy is hiding among the high nobles on duty tonight!"

The Grand Commander instantly understood Duke Hernand's meaning.

If the guards on the city walls tonight had no problems, then it meant that among the several high nobles on duty tonight, there must be one who was a beastman spy.

If something happened to the guards on duty, then the spy most likely was not among those high nobles on duty tonight.