Chapter 90: Northern Conquest War (7)
The sound of horse hooves clattering, the sensation of the horse’s strength through my hips as it hits the dirt floor, and the feeling of the distance to the enemy gradually closing in.
It was a situation repeated hundreds of times since I became a lieutenant and started riding horses.
Maybe it was because I’d never led hundreds of knights in real combat, standing at the front with a lance?
I felt like I had become the protagonist in a movie.
The impending battle brought a heart-pounding tension, a confidence that no one could stop me, a sense of liberation from the wind rushing at me, yet anxiety that I might die in this state, and a burden knowing that the lives of many knights depended on my command—all these emotions tumultuously stirred within me.
“If I hesitate now, everything will be in vain! Knights, follow me!”
Rather than falling into useless thoughts, what I need to do now is use my momentum to pierce the waist of the barbarian in front of me with my spear.
After piercing the barbarians’ flanks with my spear, as a commander, I also had the duty to direct where the knight unit should go next.
“Let’s make a sure wind hole in the sides of those barbarians, worse than dogs, with our spears!”
“Deus, please allow me to carry out much righteous slaughter today.”
“We must kill them all! They are the enemies of our Battalion Commander!”
Hearing these shouts, I kicked the stirrup next to my horse to increase speed for about a minute before colliding with the enemy.
After aiming the spear at the enemy’s torso, I lowered the face cover of my helmet with my hand holding the reins.
“Brace for impact, tense your thighs, and hold on!”
Only after I shouted this did the barbarians finally notice our approach and start screaming loudly.
“Khan, Khan! Oh, Khan, help us!”
“Fool! Do you think Khan has the capacity to help the likes of us right now?”
“If we change direction here, we all die! Just hope for good luck and hold on!”
Meanwhile, the spear in my hand smoothly penetrated the enemy’s torso in front, as if skewering a chicken.
In my hand, the heaviness and weight, as if thrusting a stick into mud, were transmitted… Maybe due to the acceleration of the horse?
A burden incomparable to killing an enemy with a sword or spear was conveyed.
The thought crossed my mind that if I let even a little bit of strength out of my body, I might not be able to withstand the weight transmitted to the spear, causing me to be thrown off.
As this happened, the horse I was riding collided with the barbarian’s horse in front.
The nomadic horse and my horse, which was more than twice its size and clad in iron armor, caused the barbarian’s horse to be sent flying upon impact.
Stunned by the astonishing sight, I found myself momentarily gazing blankly at the hellish scene unfolding before my eyes.
“Is that also a horse? Why is it so huge? It’s a monster!”
“Damn, save me! You bastards!!”
“Get off the horse! Get down from the horse!”
So shocked by the tremendous impact, some of them completely lost their minds and began to run wild.
“Everyone, dismount! Fight on foot! If there’s a spear nearby, pick it up, or else take a sword or similar weapon! We must kill at least one more while the enemy is in disarray!”
Upon my command, the knights who followed me dismounted one after another, grabbed weapons, and began to indiscriminately kill the surrounding barbarians.
They slashed with swords, stabbed, broke skulls with maces, and used their hands and feet to smash the faces of those clad in armor.
“Long live Deus! Long live the Reich Empire!!”
“Let’s kill the barbarians and feed them to the flies and crows!”
“Don’t leave a single one alive!”
They started to frolic wildly, like children who had just received new toys.
Already under attack from nearly 300 knights, the archer cavalry fell into great confusion.
They collapsed en masse, like new recruits undergoing their first military training.
No matter how elite, it takes time for soldiers to adapt to unexpected ambushes, the enemy’s heavy attacks, and the disintegration of units that enable group combat.
Taking advantage of this moment to kill even more would make it easier for the collapsing imperial infantry nearby to reorganize temporarily and join the attack.
“Kill them now! Don’t hesitate! They are heathens, rapists, and scoundrels who sold our people as slaves to foreign countries!”
After giving such an order to maximize the enemy casualties, I withdrew for a moment and lost myself in thought.
Where could Ludwig, who must be eliminated in this battle, be?
If he was a coward like Nikolai of the Grand Duchy of Chekovia, he wouldn’t have charged into enemy lines, so I should think based on his whereabouts.
There was no need for that.
Then, assuming he was a general whose name could be left in history, it would be best to analyze his political situation.
First of all, to gather barbarian tribes and maintain a nation, one needed tremendous charisma and a reign of terror.
Therefore, he’d always show a bold and dignified demeanor, unafraid of death, and unlike the empire, if he even once lost in battle, his subordinates, who lost faith in him, would target Ludwig’s neck for survival, possibly supporting another leader or surrendering to the empire…
“To think a barbarian’s actions remind me of Admiral Yi Sun-sin. What a filthy rapist and murderer.”
Rather than facing a horrible death at the hands of his subordinates, if he had any sense, he would consider it his last chance and bravely charge with his cavalry.
Like the saying goes, ‘to risk life is to live; to flee to live is to die,’ he would fight with the readiness to die, and those who would flee to live were the ones who die.
If a general from another functional nation had shown such conduct, I would have personally shown respect and reverence.
But thinking that a barbarian had done it felt like an insult to the many great commanders in history, which disgusted me.
“Knights, pay attention! The enemy commander, Ludwig, is at the forefront of their cavalry! Leave the rest to the infantry around us. Don’t bother with the barbarians! Our only target is Ludwig’s head!”
Upon hearing this, the knights following me stopped the one-sided slaughter and gathered around me.
I moved slightly inward from the front of them and commanded.
“Everyone, penetrate through to the inside of the cavalry!”
The knights responded by raising their right hands and holding weapons like swords, maces, and axes.
“Let’s kill Ludwig!”
“Let’s go! For honor and rewards!”
Then, we charged towards the enemy cavalry, who were just about to recover from the chaos, like an arrow shot from a bow.
In the process, some were hit by the swords of the barbarians, but thanks to our armor, injuries were rare.
The barbarians, wearing only one or two layers of chain armor, were easily wounded by our swords and spears.
Perhaps it was because the knights I led were cutting through the waists of the barbarian cavalry, buying time for the imperial army to regroup.
“Slaughter the barbarians! Don’t let a single one escape. Kill them all!”
“1st Battalion! Stab with your spears! Stab them to death!”
“Let’s avenge our Battalion Commander!”
The nearby infantry also joined in, starting to kill the barbarian archer cavalry one by one.
As they began to be pushed back, the wicked Ludwig’s men desperately tried to survive, even using their beloved horses as meat shields.
They were already in a situation where failing to disengage before the enemy recovered from the charge meant certain death, a rule among cavalrymen.
Resisting in such a manner would only delay their death; the fact that these evil beings would die here remained unchanged.
Because of this, my surroundings were already filled with knights, soldiers, and officers trying to find and kill Ludwig to change their fate, making it difficult even to step forward.
Perhaps due to my continuous charge at the enemy’s front, while killing the barbarians, I finally saw someone who looked like Ludwig, whom I had been searching for.
Perhaps that damned man thought it was a bigger issue that the barbarian cavalry would be annihilated and the war would end in his defeat, rather than the risk of being identified and killed by us.
“Would the great me, Basilov Ludwig Khan, die so vainly here?! Come at me, you evil swine of the empire!”
Shouting so, Ludwig stood at the forefront of his personal guard, grinding down the empire’s soldiers with his sword.
True to a person who rose to the rank of Khan among nomads by sheer force, he had a muscular and agile body, fitting of a towering general who endlessly trained for battle.
His entire body was already drenched in the blood of the empire’s army; his eyes were shooting beams like lasers, and he was swinging his sword relentlessly.
It was frightening even for me to witness, but I was also well-prepared for such a situation, and I was determined to finish off Ludwig and put an end to this war.
During my academy days, I honed the basics of various martial arts.
My extensive combat experience, leading the vanguard on numerous fronts, dramatically increased my combat ability. I often sparred with my subordinate knights using spears and swords, identifying and addressing my weaknesses with their help.
While serving as a Staff College professor, I achieved enough to earn the title of semi-master from a sword master in the Brotherhood of Swords.
Therefore, in handling a spear or sword, I am now unbeatable, as in my academy days…
“That damned Ludwig is mine, 24th Regiment Commander Peter Yaeger!”
Saying that, as if challenging a duel, I aimed my sword at him and ran forward, swinging the sword straight at his head.
Ludwig saw me, smirked, and swung his sword in the same trajectory, and the sound of our swords clashing echoed across the battlefield.
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