Imperial palace Emperor's throne room
Emperor Molt was listening to the report from the emperor's advisors, "The allied kingdoms forces have all been defeated, and are returning home leaderless." the advisor said.
"Good now we can't expect a revolt anytime soon. Although this is only a short term solution, it will buy us enough time to rebuild the imperial army." He said.
"Right my lord, and about the barbarians that are currently occupying Alnus Hill, how will we combat them?" The advisor asked.
"How will scorched earth tactics affect the rebuilding of the imperial army?" Emperor Molt asked.
"It will not only affect our revenue by magnitude, it will also slow down the rebuilding process of the imperial army. Not only that, our economy cannot handle such large scale scorched earth tactics so it will lead to the collapse of the empire, my lord. so I advised to not use scorched earth tactics." The advisor thoughtfully said.
The emperor was in paradox, use scorched earth tactics to slow the enemy down, but it will also slow down the rebuilding the Imperial army, but also might even cause the collapse of the empire, or not use scorched earth tactics and allow the enemy to use, our rivers, land, and other things that armies need to keep on going, but keep the imperial army rebuilding at a brisk pace.
"Get me a map of the regions surrounding alnus hill, I need some time to decide where to use scorched tactics. That's if I come up with an idea, and call the generals to help, their insight will be of use. I will be waiting in my study." The emperor ordered.
"At your will my lord!" He bowed then left the throne room to give out his orders.
After around a few hours the advisors came back with the best generals of the empire to decide whether or not to use scorched earth tactics.
"I'm surprised you need our insight, emperor Molt, it was about the usage of scorched earth tactics, is that correct?" One of the generals said.
"Yes that is correct, general Remios." The emperor said.
"I see." The general now known as Remios said.
All the generals called all sat down, at a table in the study after about few hours of heated debate, about the pros or cons of using scorched earth tactics, they came to the conclusion that it will not be beneficial for the long term, despite the general seeming to be eggheads and are portrayed as honourable warriors who order those of men to charge into the enemy fortress, in reality they were actually smart men, who are helpful, and try to think in the long term when need be, despite the empire never facing a foe like this. They knew this would be a very difficult war after the fall of the imperial army, so they had to think of the long term, and not make the same mistakes that his son did during the bunny warrior conquests.
"I will make an announcement in the morning tomorrow that the decision on how to deal with the enemy has been made, and we will not be using scorched earth tactics, but we will be fortifying the major towns." The emperor stated gloomly. As much as he hated to not use scorched earth tactics, all the generals and even he came to the conclusion that scorched earth tactics will only collapse the empire faster, if they somehow have magic that can move a carriage faster than a horse it was itching at him, he felt a sense of deja vu, he felt like this has happened before once.
Although the decision that he made, was in fact the smart one, despite eldia being way behind the world technologically wise. They began to play catch up even faster because of this war, and with help from Hizuru, they have the knowledge and manpower to play catch up even faster.
This chapter is shorter than others because I didn't knew how to execute it so yeah.