Warhammer Fantasy: I Have Total War System

Upon hearing this, Li Lin realized almost instantly that he had to attend this meeting to reward meritorious service, and not only had to attend, but he had to act quickly.

"I understand, senior brother. Go do what you need to do."

"This..." Shen Du hesitated.

His purpose in coming here was simply to ride on Li Lin's coattails and go to the central command tent with him.

His habit as a strategist made him instinctively scan around Li Lin, trying to find someone who could persuade him.

But in the end, he only found three pairs of cold, unfriendly, iron-blooded eyes.

"Then I'll go ahead and wait at the scene," Shen Du said, bowing in farewell. "Junior brother, take care of yourself. If you're really feeling unwell, it's fine to go later."

Should we go later?

Li Lin found it amusing.

If I go later, I might become a war criminal!

One advantage of studying law is that you also need to study some history.

After World War I, French General Nivel almost lost his entire army group in the Battle of the Somme, but he maintained his great reputation for a considerable period of time thanks to his eloquent tongue and a few carefully worded battle reports.

During the Pacific War of World War II, MacArthur abandoned tens of thousands of soldiers when he retreated from the Philippines, but cleverly packaged the escape as a strategic retreat afterward, and was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor by Congress.

After a victorious battle, the first to move are never the heroes, but the deserters and traitors who hid in the rear and did not contribute anything throughout the battle.

They would gather immediately, agree on a story, endorse each other, and divide the credit cleanly like a cake. When it came time to officially reward those who had actually shed blood, they would quickly label those who had actually shed blood as war criminals!

Li Lin had spent enough time with these Aurora officers to know their true nature.

Insects are always remarkably similar, no matter the world they live in.

His current situation is even worse, because those who want to harm him are feudal nobles with whom he has a strong vested interest.

These people have close clan ties and sect connections. They know who to talk to and how to orchestrate events and distort the truth.

Li Lin, the young master of this stray dog ​​who has lost his home, has nothing.

He now only has the troops listed in the column, with more than a hundred soldiers who are physically and mentally disabled.

"Yi Ge..." He forced himself to stay awake, squeezing out every last bit of strength from his very bones, trying to summon Yi Ge.

"Hmm? Not dead?" Yi Ge's voice came from within the magic runes. He was also on the verge of death, his voice hoarse as if it had been sanded.

It seems she's not in good condition either.

"Take down the door and the gilded dragon throne from that room that was previously locked by an array, and weld them together to make a sedan chair, the more imposing the better."

Yi Ge: "?"

Are you sure?

"I'm certain. It's extremely urgent. I need to convene a military council. Please try your best again."

"......"

"If I suffer serious injuries or die on this trip, this carriage and the Dragon Palace will both be yours."

"It's a deal, give me some time." This time she answered very quickly, and her voice wasn't hoarse at all. Li Lin suspected that she was faking her injury.

A quarter of an hour later, Li Wei ordered Xing Ganqi to lead men to move the sedan chair outside Yi Ge's workshop.

It was an incredibly heavy sedan chair, with a metal door panel carved with exquisite cloud and dragon scale patterns as its main body, and a gilded dragon chair made of Phoebe zhennan wood welded on it. The chair was decorated with coiled dragon patterns and had sharp edges.

It was less a sedan chair and more a mobile altar.

It's somewhat like an intermediate product, a mix of the Chaos faction's shrines and altars and the High King's palanquin.

Li Lin nodded in satisfaction.

Very good. To be able to cosplay the Supreme King in front of everyone, even if he dies, it's worth it.

He had his bodyguards chain him to a chair.

Li Lin sat upright in the sedan chair, his back straight and his expression solemn, like a statue of a war god just brought down from the battlefield.

He must be imposing, ferocious, and possess enough charisma to deter petty villains.

Even if he looks flamboyant, ridiculous, and laughable now, it's still better than people thinking he's dying and weak and easy to bully!

Six imperial guards, a military officer, and five peasant soldiers.

The twelve men silently lifted the sedan chair, their faces flushed, and headed towards the central command tent.

Wherever they went, the families of soldiers, women, children, the elderly, and the clerks and cooks of the supply corps who had taken them in all bowed and knelt down, their eyes filled with tears, watching Li Lin leave the camp with an attitude of facing death without fear.

Li Lin felt a little embarrassed by their crying.

Actually, he had a resurrection item...

"Commander Li."

They had barely stepped out of the camp when trouble came knocking.

Three familiar-looking military officers, speaking with a Nangao accent, blocked Li Lin's sedan chair.

Li Lin recognized one of them at a glance as "Commander Lu," the very same beast who had previously made things difficult for the army, forged gold bars, and mixed sand into their rations to pass them off as superior.

"Congratulations on your victory." Commander Lu stepped forward, speaking politely, but his expression was a forced smile.

Li Lin responded coldly.

"Commander Li is truly young and impetuous," Commander Lu said, annoyed by his stubborn attitude. He gave a dry laugh. "As a fellow lord serving the Biaolong, I, as an experienced senior, cannot bear to see you make mistakes, so I have come to give you some advice."

"Winning battles is nothing special; what's important is knowing how to blend in with the world."

"The Allied Forces are full of scions of famous wealthy families and renowned young heroes."

"The rebels will eventually be quelled, and you will one day return to Nanli."

"I advise you to make more friends and fewer enemies."

An officer next to him chimed in, his words even more impolite: "The credit will be shared equally, no one will take more than their share, and everyone will remember your kindness in the future. As for the misunderstandings on the battlefield today, there's no need to bring them up in front of the commanders."

The "misunderstanding" he was referring to was naturally the fact that everyone abandoned the frontline troops and fled on their own.

The third person didn't speak, but looked at Li Lin's dragon palanquin with an absurd gaze, pointing his finger directly at Li Lin's head, clearly wanting to say something sarcastic, but in the end he held back, though he still couldn't help but let out a muffled sneer.

Li Lin looked down at them for a moment, then tapped the handrail, signaling his guards to continue.

Commander Lu's face darkened, and he gave a wink to the guards behind him.

Six fully armed guards, each wielding a giant sword, stepped forward and blocked the sedan chair's path.

Without Li Lin's command, Xing Ganqi and the two Yu Yong guards temporarily freed themselves, and without any warning, drew their bows and arrows, and unsheathed their sharp blades.

After a few short, muffled thuds, more than half of the three officers' personal guards were killed or wounded. The remaining men were all filled with fear, never expecting that these men would actually dare to kill people in public! And so swiftly and decisively!

Even more incredibly, these guards, despite being better equipped and in better condition, were killed by Li Lin's elite guards in just a few moves.

There is ultimately a fundamental difference between those who return victorious from the battlefield and deserters.

The former can overwhelm the latter simply by making eye contact.

Of course, there's also the boost from Li Lin's [Tactical Expert] stat.

The sedan chair was lifted again. Commander Lu and two others stood in place, their faces ashen, watching helplessly as Li Lin's personal guards steadily trampled over the corpses of their men.

In the camp outside the central command tent, almost all the commanders, staff officers, and generals of the three army groups were present.

The crowd was densely packed around the open space in the center of the camp. Some were standing, some were sitting, and all their eyes were turned in the same direction—the judge's seat in the center of the camp.

Several officers were kneeling on the mat, their heads bowed low by shackles.

Commander Yu sat in the main seat, and the seating arrangements for the other military commissioners and General Haotian were the same as when Li Lin first arrived at the fortress.

This time, however, there were several Grand Masters of Astronomy dressed in azure cloud-patterned robes on either side of the main seat.

Among these celestial high priests, there was a young man with a pale face, holding a jade fan, and with a delicate, feminine appearance, who stood out the most.

Commander Yu placed this person directly to his left rear, showing him great favor.

When Li Lin arrived, the military officer was reading out the charges against him.

"...You deserted your post, causing the defensive line to collapse and resulting in heavy casualties for friendly forces—"

An officer kneeling on the ground suddenly raised his head, his voice shrill: "My father is a third-rank cavalry general under General Nan Gao Haotian, and my grandfather once accompanied the Dragon Emperor on a personal expedition to the northern frontier. Who among you dares to—"

Commander Yu raised his hand.

The Heavenly Guards stationed on either side of the judge's bench raised their swords and brought the officer's voice to an abrupt halt. His head rolled to the ground and was then placed into a wooden tub by an expressionless servant.

A suffocating silence fell over the camp.

The remaining kneeling people lowered their heads even further.

The soldier continued reading, his voice steady, as if reciting an insignificant account: "Remove his rank, confiscate his servants' private property, relegate him to the supply battalion, and banish him from commanding troops forever..."

Just then, Li Lin and his Thunder Sedan Chair stormed straight into the venue.

The dragon-patterned sedan chair gleamed with a cold, harsh luster under the scorching afternoon sun in the desert.

Li Lin glanced indifferently at the headless corpse of the officer who had died tragically, then frowned slightly and looked down at everyone present.

"Heh, not a single officer died," he thought to himself with a sneer.

A buzzing murmur suddenly filled the camp.

"What the hell is this thing?"

"What audacity! To attend a military council sitting on the dragon throne reserved for dragon descendants! This is blatant disrespect for military authority!"

"Guards! Throw this disrespectful and disruptive fellow out of here!"

The noise grew louder and louder, and several people stood up and angrily rebuked Li Lin.

The tone contained both genuine anger and a certain dark pleasure.

"Silence!" Commander Yu shouted, his voice booming. Then, his gaze fell on Li Lin. "Commander Li, come to your seat."

Li Lin tapped the armrest, instructing his guards to place the sedan chair directly onto the mat.

All the bloodstains and filth were covered by the majestic sedan chair, leaving only the cold luster of the metal.

"Get out of the sedan chair!" someone shouted.

"Get out of the sedan chair! Or be executed immediately!" More people shouted in response, their voices filled with hatred and madness.

They were trying to incite more uninformed people to attack Li Lin.

"This is my coffin," Li Lin said calmly to the commanders, in a very pretentious manner.

"There's no reason to let a dead person climb out of their own coffin."

Many people were shouting, but many more fell silent as they looked at Li Lin, who was bound in iron chains and looked ready to die.

Li Lin's gaze swept over the commanders present, most of whom were also injured.

Bandages, splints, and armor stained with blood...

The military commanders stationed in the rear sustained relatively minor injuries, but were mainly exhausted.

Although the six Haotian Generals sat upright and their imposing presence remained undiminished, they resembled iron pillars burning on the verge of breaking, exuding an aura of waning vitality that the smell of medicine could not conceal.

Especially General Zhao, who directly confronted the cannibalistic tyrant lord.

He had lost both eyes, and his face was covered with a blood-soaked white cloth, revealing only a charred and hideous mouth.

Li Lin sighed silently to himself.

China may have insects, but the indomitable spirit that supports this nation remains strong.

It's a pity that if these iron bones break, what will replace them with—another iron bone or the swarm of insects behind him?

Without giving him much time to reflect, Commander Yu nodded to the military advisor, who then unfolded another scroll of documents and cleared his throat.

"Li Lin, son of the Southern Li Military Commissioner, your troops massacred the Southern Li brothers' soldiers before the battle, forcibly expelled the Dragon Descendant Wu Tamei, and slaughtered all her personal maids."

Several brigade commanders immediately stepped out from the crowd; they were the same group of stragglers he had disarmed earlier.

They were all indignant, speaking with absolute certainty, and constantly swearing oaths with their lives on the line.

"Secondly, they deliberately used firearms and crossbows to kill friendly troops on the battlefield, resulting in more than a hundred casualties among our soldiers."

This time, even more people stepped forward—seven or eight officers. Some pointed at Li Lin and cursed him, while others spoke passionately. Their voices grew louder and louder, as if the defeat of the thousands of soldiers in the rearguard group was entirely due to Li Lin alone.

Thirdly—

Before he could finish speaking about enlisting, more than ten officers squeezed out of the crowd.

They knelt before their commanders, pleading for their lives in a high-pitched and tragic voice that echoed throughout the camp.

"This child is using a dimensional stone artifact, is colluding with other races, and is highly suspected of being corrupted by the Supreme Heaven. I urge all commanders to investigate thoroughly!"

Li Lin remained calm.

There's nothing else I can do.

"Three men can make a tiger," and there are so many people involved. How can he possibly defend himself?

Good, good, good! A bunch of bastards, you dare to play this game?

Just you wait, I'll avenge this wrong! Since you've slandered me as a traitor, then I'm really going to join the traitor!