Chapter 53: The Hammer & Anvil (6)
Seeing my soldiers run forward after abandoning their spears, both the enemy commander and his soldiers were astonished.
“Are they insane? How can they discard their spears, their lifelines?”
“Damn, are we screwed?”
“Should we also discard our spears and draw our daggers?”
Even inexperienced soldiers knew that ‘spears’ were not much help in melee situations, but soldiers, whose lives were as fragile as a fly’s, tended to cling to their main weapon, the spear.
Therefore, usually, when ordered to prepare for a melee, it would take them longer than expected to discard the spears they habitually carried.
But seeing soldiers who, in the blink of an eye, discarded them and charged, holding secondary weapons as if it were the most natural thing, left them with an unfamiliar feeling.
What if our soldiers, whom they had to fight against, showed a morale that pierced the sky, unlike them?
“Damn! We couldn’t capture any prisoners because of you!”
“Bastards, if we had captured just one more prisoner, our discharge would have been two months earlier!”
“We don’t need an apology. Just give us your heads.”
The enemy’s morale inevitably dropped, having to face men who all seemed to have gone insane.
Just then, several magic spells and arrows flew, killing the enemies. I decided that if a melee was inevitable, the most effective method for the entire troop, including the battalion commander, was for us to pretend to have gone insane and fight them.
Just like in children’s fights, the one who manages to land even one more hit, despite taking several, wins.
Thus, I steeled my resolve and shouted at the Chekovia soldiers.
“Give me your heads! Or surrender and kneel! The Yaeger Battalion is prepared for a melee!”
I then swung my spear and charged, and the soldiers started following me at the fastest speed possible.
Seeing this, a high-ranking enemy shouted in a panicked voice.
“We must stop that insane battalion commander! Whoever kills him will be awarded 10 gold!”
Seeing his promise to reward whoever would kill me with as much as 10 gold, it seemed the commander blocking our path was a high-ranking one.
The emergence of high-ranking individuals was proof that we were getting closer to the headquarters, where the commander was.
Could we capture the headquarters and kill the enemy commander if we pushed them a bit more?
“10 gold is mine…”
As the enemy soldier, accelerating with the centrifugal force of his swing, tried to finish his sentence, he died without completing it.
Following this, I glanced back and spoke loudly enough for all the soldiers of the Yaeger Battalion to hear.
“If anyone can’t follow after me in the melee, they can stand guard when we return! Fight as if you are ready to die! I am in front of you.”
Seeing me, the battalion commander, slaughter the enemies with my spear at the very front must have been inspiring, for the soldiers followed me, shouting.
“Long live the Battalion Commander!”
“Kill the Chekovia bastards!”
To the soldiers fighting against us, the sight must seem like hell, but to my soldiers, it felt like a relatively safe step towards their promotion and early discharge by taking the enemies’ heads.
So, I was confident.
If we maintain our strength like this and the hammer and anvil tactic succeeds, even if not as much as during the Raintlant front, our battalion could achieve unparalleled merit at the battalion level.
“Those who don’t have war hammers and one-handed glaives, draw your swords! Follow the Battalion Commander and annihilate the enemies!”
“Form groups of five and protect each other! Follow Lieutenant Chek!”
“That’s only possible for the Battalion Commander. Don’t recklessly try to be a hero!”
I relied on my plate armor and swung my spear to exhaust the enemies’ morale, but my soldiers, who only had arms, breastplates, and helmets, couldn’t act like me, or they’d be surrounded and killed by the enemy.
However, I couldn’t command restraint when I myself had charged like a rampant bull… It was a really good command.
What a splendid sight. The officers were calming down the soldiers, trying to follow their rampaging battalion commander, who was rampaging out of necessity.
Matching their pace, I slowed down a bit. The soldiers formed groups of five around me and began to protect me.
“That guy blocked the sword, Max!”
“Got it, damn! Die Chekovia bastard.”
“Watch the back carefully. Or we’ll be penetrated.”
Soldiers, even in a melee, blocked an attack, while the other soldiers stabbed or killed from the side or back.
They continuously cooperated, shielding their comrades who were at risk of being killed from unexpected attacks and slowly wearing down the enemies.
Seeing this, one might wish they could fight in such a protective manner, with the spear soldiers holding their weapons, but it was only possible in melee combats where spears were completely irrelevant. In normal situations, they were far from each other, making it difficult.
Meanwhile, the officers of the unit who were fighting a fierce battle against us seemed to feel they were at their limits as they started to plead with the man who had placed a 10-gold bounty on me.
“Commander, we will all die at this rate! Order a retreat!”
“Haven’t we done enough?”
When I heard that, I could clearly see their future.
Foolish men.
What if, in a different situation, the soldiers who were protecting their headquarters, where the supreme commander resided, decided to retreat because their soldiers were dying?
Certainly, to maintain morale, heads would roll, and the commander in front of us would say,
‘The Supreme Commander himself is behind us. The Kingdom’s army will never lose until the end. Cowards will be slain by my hand, so hold on until the end!’
If not, the attacking forces, scraping together all their troops available, with or without the supreme commander, might face unconditional defeat by our Reich Imperial Army, either with their supreme commander being killed or captured, before they could even behead our Crown Prince.
But unexpectedly, those two soldiers’ heads didn’t fly.
Instead, it seemed like the commander grabbed those two by the collar and scolded them, and no news came of those two cowards being beheaded even after quite some time had passed.
Then, an ominous feeling crossed my mind.
“Damn, those fools! The Supreme Commander is trying to escape!”
When I said so, the officers around me looked back at me and signaled for an explanation, but I had no time for that.
No matter how strategic the victory we could secure here was, reducing more than half of the enemy soldiers, almost annihilating them, if the enemy’s supreme commander’s head stayed intact, just like how the Francois army did at the Raintlant Front, they would enter a stronghold city and start a defensive battle.
If so, the Varshaw people, who were eager to take over the Reich Empire or even the Kingdom of Austria, would lead large armies and send them reinforcements.
The battle would sink into a quagmire again.
If things go wrong, the Reich Empire might be encircled by multiple states like Prussia during the Seven Years’ War.
Of course, the possibility of things escalating to that point was as low as the Koreans living only on bread instead of rice, but we had to prevent it before such a situation occurred.
“Prepare four battalion messengers per battalion, forming two teams to convey to the Crown Prince and to the Division Commander we belong to! The Supreme Commander has fled! Release the cavalry to follow him!”
Usually, I would explain the situation, but I had no time for that now.
“Damn it. But if we withdraw our battalion here, they’ll realize we’ve noticed the Supreme Commander’s plan. We will continue to invade the enemy headquarters! We have to break through those bastards even a second faster by any means!”
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel