135 – Battle of Waine Plains (8)

It is taken for granted to use single combat and shoot arrows at mercenaries who run away without any fighting.

However, as a rule of thumb, it is considered a war crime even in this era to send single-handed troops and shoot arrows at mercenaries who suffered near-annihilation damage.

Therefore, that mercenary group has the right and justification to cancel the contract tomorrow and claim alimony…

The problem is, even if the duke’s actions were out of line, leaving the battlefield or surrendering at will becomes a stigma that could threaten the continuation of the mercenary group.

So, in the end, they must have no choice but to give up their lives and come this way for tomorrow’s bread.

Even if he understood the background, the sight of the mercenaries who had suffered near-annihilation and charged with the blood of their allies was like ghosts.

Our soldiers were horrified at the sight and said,

“Hey, isn’t this dangerous? Spearmen don’t know, but we only have one one-handed sword… ”

“Lieutenant Mark, everyone will die at this rate. Shouldn’t we ask the lieutenant colonel to retreat?”

“The lieutenant colonel is a wise man. The order to retreat will surely be issued soon.”

As if to answer that expectation, after a while, Frost gave an exact order with a calm expression.

“Raise the blue flag to fire the first shot, raise the white flag to fire the second shot. Troops who have finished firing should quickly pass through the spearmen’s square and retreat backwards. The retreating soldiers should retrieve the rifles of the dead soldiers as much as possible!”

When the order was given, our soldiers fired their matchlocks at the enemy mercenaries.

After the two shots were over, the speed of the mercenaries, who were ready to die, slowed down.

It must have been because the people who died after being shot in the middle of the ranks, those who died after being shot and having holes in their arms, legs, or faces came out one after another.

Taking advantage of that opportunity, the Matchlock Regiment began to retreat, retrieving as many matchlocks as possible, and Frost and I led our men to retreat last.

Frost and I were still wearing our armor just in case, so even going a few hundred meters felt like death.

After joining the spearmen’s square with all my strength, I gave orders to Lieutenant Colonel Frost and Balt, who was in charge of the infantry.

“Baron Balt leads his men to engage the enemy soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Frost, you place your men on the far left of this square. Then, at the signal, line up properly and fire in unison.”

“Yes, Your Excellency! Leave the infantry warfare to us! I will slit the head of Baron Ajaeng, who commands the enemy infantry, and bring it to you!”

Unlike Balt, who responded enthusiastically, Frost put on a puzzled expression.

It must have been confusing due to the shooting method he hadn’t trained on before.

However, without using the matchlock regiment led by that guy, no matter what other units do, they cannot defeat the knights led by the duke.

And the way to do the most damage to that duke…

To pursue us, who had been defeated in the first clash and retreated, formed a wedge and drove lead bullets into the flanks of the chasing knights.

When that happens, the knights riding on the horses lose their senses from the shock that the armor they are wearing has been pierced by only lead beads.

Also, as was the case when fighting Maxburg, the untrained horses go into a state of extreme frenzy at the sound of gunpowder and the smoke of gunpowder.

If that happens, even elite knights will fall off their horses and be injured or completely helpless.

So I grabbed Lieutenant Colonel Frost, who was making a puzzled expression, by the shoulders and shook him to come to his senses.

“It will take about 30 minutes for me and the knights to lead the enemy knights down. In the meantime, build formations to outwit the enemy. At the same time, the commanders and noncommissioned officers at each level must be notified, and when the signal comes up, they must open a volley.”

“All right.”

Frost, who had returned to his usual state, said with confidence, tapping his shoulder.

“The victory or defeat of the war depends on this salvo. So make sure you succeed.”

After saying that, I left Frost and Balt, got on the horse Balt was riding, and quickly headed to the place where the knights were waiting.

Not long after that, I heard the sound of our spearmen fighting against the enemy spearmen.

“die!!”

“That crazy guy looks like a rat soaked in the blood of his allies!!”

“Damn it, you motherless bastard!”

Apparently, this melee will last quite a while, but we must be the ones who laugh at the end of this war.

**

After riding Balt’s horse and running for about 5 minutes, I saw the knights from afar ready to sortie.

It’s about to break like an egg flying to a rock, but they showed a majestic appearance as if they didn’t care about that at all.

After a while, a knight came up to me holding the reins of my horse and said,

“Your Excellency, please get on the horse.”

“Thank you.”

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Mounted, I went to the front of their ranks, took the lance with my banner on it, held it high, and said:

“In the distance, enemy infantry and our infantry are fighting for their lives. And in a little while, Duke Architel, who has been seriously injured by our matchlock regiment, will come to the waist of our infantrymen. then… All of our foot soldiers will die.”

I exaggerated a bit, but square formation is a formation used to block enemies from attacking from one direction.

Therefore, when attacked from both sides, no matter how well-trained soldiers are, they cannot respond properly except from the front.

But what if the one approaching next to him was a knight, not an infantryman?

Then a one-sided massacre will unfold.

“I, Ciel von Kreuttel, as their lord and honorable knight, cannot allow my soldiers to be killed by the knights of Duke Akitel. So, today, I am determined to die and fight against the knights of Architel, one hundred per cent, to repay their devotion.”

After saying that, I paused for a while.

“Of course, to the duke who defeated 3,000 Romanian knights with just 1,000 knights… . It is not easy to fight with twice as many enemies in numbers. However, if we survive just one crash… Enemies will crawl directly into the traps I have set. Then we will surely win. So, you must fight with the determination to die like me. Also, this time, I will be in the vanguard, so look at my back and follow me.”

When I heard that I was in the vanguard, the knights whispered.

“If His Excellency had been in the vanguard and passed away… ”

“Don’t even say such ominous things! In the first place, being in the vanguard is a scary and dangerous position, but even in that vanguard, less than two people perish!”

“Lord Baden is right, but… I am anxious.”

Any of the great generals in the Three Kingdoms was like that, and many other great generals died a lot while holding on to the vanguard.

And because of the death of a commander in the forefront, there are countless cases in which wars that were already won were ruined.

So historians even asserted that it was madness for a monarch to take the lead after the Three Kingdoms era.

However, in the West, where plate armor was mainly worn, it was very rare for a commander to die in the vanguard until guns were invented.

So I’m not going to die anytime soon, and I have to be in the front if I’m going to drag that damned Duke Architel to where the Matchlock Regiment is.

With that thought in mind, I cleared my head, quietly rode my horse in front of the knights, laid the lance I was holding up high, and started running.

Then, countless knights formed a date formation based on me.

All of us, with a little bit of exaggeration, kept the distance between the knees of the knights on the left and right, barely enough for an egg to fit, and ran out.

After 5 or 10 minutes of running, I began to see enemy knights from over there.

They were running at a bit faster speed than our allies in a wedge-shaped formation, as if they had the confidence to tear us apart with this charge.

According to the formula of speed * mass = impact, in a collision between knights with similar weight…

A situation where we, who are a little slower, are at an overwhelming disadvantage.

Even in that situation, I spoke to the knights, trying hard to suppress the approaching fear.

“They’re only big and fast, those guys don’t have the brain to think! Don’t be afraid, just endure this shock!”

So I reflected on those words to myself and focused all my attention on the guy in front of me.

Soon, the fiercest clash of this battle will take place.