Chapter 111: Battle Of Hattin Forest (3)
“Viva Francois! May Deus bless the Francois Republic!”
“Slaughter the Reich Empire’s pigs who dare impersonate the will of God!”
“Now it’s our turn to counterattack! Honorable citizens of the Republic, muster your strength!”
Usually, when officers encourage soldiers who have been unilaterally dominated by the enemy until recently, it often doesn’t work well.
Was it because of the anger boiling over after being helplessly targeted by the Reich Empire’s archer cavalry, who had ridden in, shot arrows from a distance, and then disappeared?
The soldiers of the Republic responded with a fervor that exceeded the officers’ expectations.
“Let’s kill all those cowardly bastards who’ve sided with the barbarians!”
“Long live the Republic! Long live the Republic!!”
“Let’s go kill the cowardly Major General Yaeger!”
Division Commander Pompadour inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that the soldiers’ morale was higher than he had anticipated.
He himself dismounted, grabbed a spear, raised his right hand, and shouted,
“Viva the Francois Republic! The army of the nation of freedom and revolution will always be victorious! Let’s go. Let’s fight! Let’s crush the oppressors threatening the peace of the Republic!”
Hearing this, the officers, as nobles and chosen citizens of the Republic who had driven out tyrants, felt a renewed sense of respect and pride for their ancestors.
The soldiers were more moved by the fact that a Division Commander, as high as a star in the sky, was holding a spear and fighting shoulder to shoulder with them, rather than words about oppressors, revolution, or freedom.
“Long live Division Commander Pompadour!”
“Long live the Republic!”
Thus, as the Division Commander intended, the morale of the Republic’s army rose collectively, and their shouts of encouragement could be heard even by the imperial army 1km away.
“Good! Now, we’ll change the formation of the troops! Crossbowmen, archers, and wizard units will stand at the front to respond to the enemy’s long-range attacks with gunfire. The infantry will follow and march behind them! Do not fear death. Our excommunication is nothing but their vile scheme to blind His Holiness, the Pope! Even if you die here, your souls will go to heaven and be embraced by Him!”
After this proclamation, the Francois Republic’s army began to prepare for an advance, positioning their soldiers, who were capable of long-range attacks, at the forefront of the troops.
Seeing that no further offensive followed the retreat of the knights led by Colonel Charles of the Francois Republic, Major General Yaeger said,
“It seems these damned bastards are prepared for heavy losses and are just going to charge blindly.”
He thought this because, despite the complete failure of the Republic’s knight charge, it had affected their right wing, causing the formation to become slightly disordered.
In this situation, it was a standard tactic for the numerically superior Francois Republic army to concentrate some forces on the enemy right wing and attempt a breakthrough, depending on the commander’s discretion.
This situation, as if giving the imperial army time to reorganize, was openly revealing that the entire army was preparing for a simultaneous charge.
Having accurately assessed the situation without sending scouts, Major General Yaeger, clutching the emperor’s ornamental sword, gritted his teeth and said,
“I’ve created a situation where we can win comfortably by applying tactics similar to those used in the Hundred Years’ War… but the enemy commander still has nearly 600 knights left. I’ll have to discard the original plan and establish a new one.”
Of course, this meant that the heavily armed elite troops, the knights, would not be leading the infantry.
This made it much easier for the infantry led by Major General Yaeger to fend off the enemy’s attack, which wasn’t a bad situation at all.
Indeed, considering the common sense that it was more difficult to fend off an attack by a larger enemy infantry unit, especially with knights in the vanguard, it turned out to be a more advantageous situation for him.
If he planned to use a strategy involving archer cavalry and knights to annihilate the enemy’s long-range units, like crossbowmen, during a total enemy attack, it was true that the knights of the Francois Republic would come out to protect his crossbowmen.
“There’s a saying that in battle, a plan lasts only five minutes before it’s thrown into the trash. It’s really happening.”
For a pessimistic statement, Major General Yaeger’s face bore no signs of despair or futility, but rather a confidence towards victory.
He then ordered the brigade messengers around him,
“Notify all officers of company commander level and above on the left wing, right-wing, and center. A total attack from the Francois Republic is imminent, so be thoroughly prepared. Also, since we might use up all our crossbow arrows, quickly transfer one-third of the remaining arrows from both left and right wings to the center.”
Following his command, the messengers rode quickly to relay the message, and just then, a messenger from Lieutenant Colonel Laura, sensing the unusual flow of the battlefield, also reported to Major General Yaeger,
“The enemy knights are not moving, so we need to change our plan to attack the enemy’s rear using knights and archer cavalry. Therefore, deploy knights to strike the rear and use archer cavalry to contain the enemy knights.”
While Major General Yaeger was internally praising Lieutenant Colonel Laura’s insight, another messenger arrived.
This was a messenger from Lieutenant Anastasia of the archer cavalry, requesting permission for them to engage the infantry.
“I can’t authorize deployment. Tell Lieutenant Colonel Werner and Lieutenant Anastasia that the situation is turning slightly in our favor, but we are changing our original tactical plan. Bring them both here.”
“Understood, Major General!”
As he spoke, one of the archer cavalry quickly left, and Major General Yaeger could also hear the enemy’s shouting growing louder.
“Long live the Francois Republic! The goddess of victory is blowing kisses at us!”
“Can you see it? I can! Nike herself is waiting with open arms to embrace us!”
“We are 10,000. They are only 4,000!! It’s as if we have already won!”
As their shouts approached, Major General Yaeger in the center, Lieutenant Colonel Laura on the left, and Lieutenant Colonel Marco on the right commanded the soldiers, who had been resting for a moment,
“The rest is over! Crossbowmen, load your crossbows and set up the pavises in front!”
“Infantry, keep your spears ready and cover your faces with your left hand! Covering just the face halves your chance of dying! Also, set up makeshift shields made of planks in front of the palisades!”
“If we trust and follow the General, we can win in any situation!”
Upon hearing this, commanders, such as battalion and company commanders, down to the non-commissioned officers under their command, shouted and encouraged their soldiers.
The Reich Empire’s army began preparing for a frontal confrontation with the 10,000-strong force.
In that situation, Lieutenant Colonel Werner and Lieutenant Anastasia arrived, and Major General Yaeger patted their shoulders even amidst the urgency, saying,
“If it weren’t for you two, our brigade might have already been annihilated or pushed to the brink of defeat.”
Both of them looked very moved by these words, but…
“I would like to praise your achievements from now until night, but we don’t have that luxury at the moment. I’ll immediately hand down a new operation.”
Saying this, Major General Yaeger began explaining the new operation as quickly and accurately as possible, predicting that a full-scale, long-range attack battle would begin in a few minutes.
“First, we’ll abandon the original plan of the two of you working together to annihilate the enemy’s mages or crossbowmen. Instead, the 300 knights under Lieutenant Colonel Werner will split into two groups and repeatedly attack the enemy’s long-range attackers and the infantry in front of them on both the left and right flanks.”
Lieutenant Colonel Werner nodded as if he understood and agreed with the plan.
Then, Major General Yaeger placed his hands on both shoulders of Lieutenant Anastasia and, with an intense gaze as if she were the only one he could trust, said,
“Lieutenant Anastasia, I want you to use your 200 archer cavalry to tie down those 600 knights somehow as much as possible. I’ve heard that once Ludwig’s archer cavalry successfully lures the knights, even if they are outnumbered, they can handle them with ease.”
It might sound absurd, but according to the testimonies of slaves who fought under Ludwig, there was a record of a conflict with Swedia where their archer cavalry successfully lured the knights and completely immobilized more than four times their number of knights with long-range arrow fire.
“Honestly, a knight’s charge is meaningless if it doesn’t make direct contact, and the horses of Lieutenant Anastasia’s archer cavalry are among the fastest and most enduring in the world. It’s not impossible.”
“So, I hope you can somehow tie them down. If so, the archer cavalry will be the primary contributors to our victory in this battle.”
Hearing this, Lieutenant Anastasia, whose father was stronger and had personally slain the enemy of her tribe, nodded in agreement to the extremely challenging order issued by the general and said,
“I will certainly dedicate victory to you, General.”
After the operational briefing was finished for the two, the sound of a horn, signaling the crossbowmen to aim their arrows, echoed throughout the Reich Empire’s army.
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