Chapter 44: The Great Battle Of Branov Plains (1)
The Yaeger Battalion I led was positioned at the forefront of the Reich Empire army.
Thus, we could directly face the army of the Chekovia Kingdom, but the mighty enemy army was too large to grasp in its entirety. For one division consisting of eight thousand men, when marching in four rows, it extended up to four kilometers, and it was at least five hundred meters when they were closely packed. And it was impossible to fit that huge number of troops into my field of vision.
Was that why military doctrines often say,
‘When you become a commander in charge of a battalion or a larger unit, you’ll manage wars like chess, based not on what you see but on fragmented information delivered by the messengers!’
Certainly, even before the war would begin, I couldn’t see the whole view of the army, even from the highest vantage point. And if combat narrows my field of view even further, managing a regimental unit visually becomes hard.
However, I could clearly see the fatigue on the faces of the Chekovian soldiers, who were still about two hundred meters away. Some soldiers, presumably new recruits, seemed to struggle with the weight of their spears.
Before the battle horn sounded, I issued additional orders to the captains beside me,
“When we face the battalion facing us, our mages and crossbowmen should target the veteran soldiers first, not the shaky recruits. And don’t forget the essence of infantry combat we learned in the first year at the academy.”
I used the phrase ‘essence of infantry combat’ to sound grandiose, but in a nutshell, what I was saying was that it was a no-brainer that in infantry combat, the first one to fall was always the one who loses.
And the way to put that lesson into practice was to punch a tiny hole in the first row of a huge enemy infantry battalion and then inflict more damage on it before the other soldiers could fix it.
“Yes, understood!”
Having confirmed the responses of other captains, I directed my gaze toward the knights on horseback.
“Additionally, the knight battalion will follow me from behind the unit until I give an order. Avoid combat as much as possible until my command.”
It was important to remember that the nature of knights was to deal lethal damage with their lances.
Since they moved with the infantry and were limited to only 12 units, they would attack with their lances, but they weren’t capable of wiping out a battalion or a larger unit.
So they were going to be used to delay the enemy’s infantry reinforcements while we were fighting the infantry battalion in front of us.
When I had completed my instructions to each unit, a low, heavy trumpet began to sound from the camps of both armies.
Then, as the commander of the Reich Empire, I ordered,
“Battalion, charge! If you fight as well as you have shown in the training, we will surely win!”
With that, I dismounted from my horse, gave it to the soldier at my side, and began to march with my men.
Then the soldiers of the Reich Empire began to hurl harsh words to forget their fear as the battle approached.
“We’ll send you back to your deceased parents!”
“You look tired. I’ll make sure you get a good night’s sleep under the ground.”
At the same time, the Chekovian soldiers responded with insults as they approached.
“We’ll rub salt on your wounds like we salt cabbage!”
“What you have eaten today is your last supper!”
“You’re dead, you sons of bitches!”
As both sides came closer, thousands of arrows and spells started to pour down. The soldiers either panicked, trying to block the arrows with their arms, or moved forward, trusting their helmets and armor.
However, both experienced and new soldiers died equally in front of magic spells burning or freezing them.
Watching this, I thought of the necessity of guns.
The matchlock gun, though slow, was much more convenient than a bow and required less training, and it also held a power comparable to magic.
In this age, even a common soldier could overpower a knight with a matchlock gun.
However, being the only one lamenting the absence of guns, our unit was moving forward, receiving almost one-sided ranged attacks from the enemy because we allocated our mages and archers to break the enemy’s infantry formation.
The soldiers of Chekovia, nearly defenseless, jeered as they saw our advancing forces taking the hits.
“Looks like those crossbows and mages are all for show, huh? Perhaps Deus blessed us for our hungry and cold nights of guard duty?”
“Even if they’re morons, taking one head means a promotion, right? Yay! Every promotion fast-tracks discharge by half a year!”
“Let’s just take five and get discharged cleanly. What do you think?”
No matter how uneducated they were, they were needlessly boasting their foolishness.
Common sense would tell you that no one would take a broken crossbow and an unusable mage to the front lines.
If they sensed something strange from their enemies positioned on the very front line, they should’ve thought,
‘Are those damned bastards preparing to kill us all at once?’
But if they can’t even think at that level, their intelligence should really be questioned. So, what should we do?
A fiery death by arrows and magic should teach them a lesson before sending them to their peaceful rest.
Finally, the distance between the enemy and our battalion was reduced to less than 50 meters, and the protection from the distance we had earlier for both the Chekovia army and the Reich Empire army ended.
It was at this moment, like the time on the Raintlant front, that the infantry with only spears as their weapons tried to break the enemy’s formation.
However, it was different from before this time.
“The two front mages and crossbow squad, attack the enemy battalion’s front! Their complaint about our broken arrows and powerless mages is bullshit! Let’s educate them properly!”
Dozens of crossbowmen and over six mages were preparing to attack at the optimal moment, delivering a crossfire of death.
Hearing my command, the mages and crossbowmen began to prepare their attack at a distance where the enemy’s spears wouldn’t reach.
And the enemy spearmen, learning what we were about to do right before getting hit, shivered with fear as they advanced. Their faces were filled with terror, looking like they could flee any moment, but desertion was impossible in this situation.
It was because their reinforcement troops and reserves were behind them, and if they stopped, they could be trampled to death.
“….Damn it!! Save me!”
“Bastards! We should have advanced while taking in the arrows and magic spells!”
“Janice!”
They might have been begging for their lives or calling out their lover’s name, but that was none of my concern.
Now, I only need to end the painful lives of those who were foolishly pointing their spears at me.
“Yaeger Battalion, halt! Mages, crossbowmen, fire at will! If you can’t kill four per person while they’re walking stupidly, I’ll have you stand guard all night!”
With my command, the mages and crossbowmen aimed their staffs and crossbows at the enemies.
Fire, ice, and arrows began to fly toward the terrified, screaming enemy soldiers mercilessly.
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