chsdbacks Page 270
Page 270
Which way to turn? Naturally, they headed west, their forces aimed directly at the Kingdom of Fass army, nominally led by Crown Prince Lucien II, which was located in Belgium. Together with the Dutch army, they would encircle the Kingdom of Fass, forcing Ambrina's main force to march quickly to catch up with the Empire's main force.
The Emperor believed that Ambrina would definitely pursue them, not only because of her son, but also because the situation in Belgium had just been decided. If she didn't pursue them, not only would her son have to flee in disgrace, but the situation in Belgium would also worsen, and all previous investments would be wasted.
Once Ambrina's main force gets moving, the Imperial army, whose direct combat strength is inferior to that of the enemy, can seek opportunities in mobile warfare.
"Can it work?" Emperor Antolo asked the crowd.
If the army makes a mistake in its deployment and becomes disjointed, it is as if it has cut itself into pieces and handed them over to the enemy to eat.
“Yes,” Chief of Staff Schneider replied. “Ten years ago, we couldn’t do it, but now we can, we definitely can. Although our army is not of pure composition and our soldiers’ fighting spirit is not as strong as the enemy’s, they are all veterans. With the help of our air force to relay orders, we can definitely mobilize them and fight a mobile war.”
That's the logic, but Schneider wasn't entirely sure. At this point, however, he could only, and had to, use words like "certain" or "absolute."
"Specifically," the emperor instructed his chief of staff to be more specific.
Chief of Staff Schneider said, "Let the lords lead their troops to surround the prince, let our new lords disperse and occupy defensive positions, and let our own forces concentrate and wait for an opportunity."
"This, splitting up the troops?" The emperor frowned, a look of doubt on his face.
This time is different from the last time. Last time they had a numerical advantage, but this time they don't. Moreover, they are now advancing, turning the vanguard into the rear guard, which will inevitably lead to their defeat and put them at a disadvantage in terms of total troop strength.
Why divide your forces when you are outnumbered?
"Your Majesty, it is impossible for us to annihilate the army of the Kingdom of Phos, but they want to annihilate us. All we can do is take advantage of this mentality and let them surround us. Dividing our forces is to lure them into widening the encirclement and weakening it. Then our main force will move quickly, looking for an opportunity to defeat their main force. We will then break out with what we have plundered and return. After returning, we will stabilize our rear, and then we will deal with the Protestant and Catholic lords together, strengthen ourselves, and start anew."
The chief of staff offered an explanation.
"Very well, execute!" the emperor declared.
Soon, different orders were relayed to all levels, and the imperial army quickly sprang into action.
Two days later.
In the temporary command center of the Kingdom of Fas, Ambrina held a military report and looked at everyone with a puzzled expression.
The crowd hesitated to speak, for they had already guessed what was going on, but this situation was caused by their previous advice.
Finally, Count Alain stepped forward and said, "They must be after Prince Lucien."
Everyone felt a chill run down their spines; this was truly a disaster. Their combined strategic advice had now put the Crown Prince in a crisis.
"Hmm." Ambrina simply hummed in response, without getting angry.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Ambrina stroked her chin and asked, "How is their retreat progressing?"
“Very orderly,” Earl Alan replied.
It must be admitted that the high-ranking and mid-level commanders on the other side are really strong, and the soldiers are really veterans. They were able to complete the retreat and withdrawal so decisively and in an orderly manner.
Ambrina pinched the bridge of her nose, meaning that a rapid pursuit wouldn't yield much benefit.
“Ignore the enemy’s scattered forwards, and kill all those who surrender. By the way, do it in the name of killing the innocent, robbing private property, and blaspheming God. We are not seeking revenge or venting our anger; we are a righteous army, and every shot is aimed at evil.” Ambrina made her decision. “Then, pursue them, but don’t rush.”
Count Alan, along with his advisors and generals, looked at Ambrina with genuine admiration for the first time. With her son in danger and her side consistently holding the advantage but unable to catch up with the enemy's main force, Ambrina's composure remained intact. She was able to speak so calmly, vaguely reminiscent of the demeanor of King Lawrence from over a hundred years ago.
"Yes, Your Majesty," the crowd replied in unison.
Two weeks later, in mid-October.
The empire successfully achieved its strategic and tactical objectives. Prince Lucien's army and the Belgian army held on desperately. The army of the Kingdom of Fass arrived and expanded the encirclement, determined to annihilate them. However, under their maneuvering, the main force of the Kingdom of Fass was forced to run back and forth twice and is now in a state of disarray.
The opportunity has finally arrived.
Meanwhile, Ambrina's troops were marching through Belgium when she asked one of her staff officers, "What's ahead?"
The staff officer glanced at the map and replied, "A small town called Waterloo."
At that moment, a piece of intelligence was delivered. Ambrina glanced at it and then handed it to the commander-in-chief, Count Alan.
The intelligence was simple: the Empire's core forces were coming.
The Empire has about 30,000 people, while Ambrina currently only has about 20,000 under her command.
“Your Majesty, you can ask for help, but I do not recommend it,” Earl Alan said. Running away would lead to a rout, and more importantly, it would disrupt the encirclement.
The encirclement is now complete, and we have advantages everywhere. If we hold on here, we will wipe them all out in a while.
If reinforcements are requested, troops will be drawn from both above and below to come to the rescue, and the encirclement may be breached, causing a chain reaction, the advantage will be lost, and defeat may even result.
Count Alan then offered a suggestion: “Let’s hold. They are both guest troops, and they must have come on a forced march and are very tired. It’s practically impossible for 30,000 exhausted men to defeat our 20,000 elite troops. Let’s hold them off for a while. You stay here, and our brave soldiers will be fearless in the face of sacrifice. Once the enemy is defeated elsewhere and reinforcements come back, we can completely surround them.”
"A lot of people will have to be sacrificed?" Ambrina asked.
“Perhaps several thousand, possibly ten thousand,” Earl Alan estimated, and explained, “The enemy has exhausted every means and has already sacrificed twenty or thirty thousand men to create such a localized opportunity with superior firepower. The emperor has bet everything on this one game. The next offensive will only get more insane.”
"Are you sure they're coming?" Ambrina asked.
"Our plan to outflank them and catch them off guard should have been within their expectations, or perhaps they deliberately guided us in this direction. However, it's impossible for them to have determined our specific marching route a few days in advance. Moreover, they were quite far away before, but now it seems they deliberately kept a considerable distance so that we could come with peace of mind."
Chapter 612 You bet, I bet; when paths cross, the brave prevail.
Ambrina nodded. "It seems we've been led around by them all this time."
“That’s true, but they’ve been going on like this for so long that they’re on their last legs. We just need to hold out for two or three days, wait for them to win elsewhere, and then we can surround them. They might collapse without even fighting,” Earl Alan said. “I admit that His Majesty the Emperor is indeed quite capable, and his advisors and generals are very strong in command. But complex tactics are ultimately just the struggles of the weak.”
Ambrina counted on her fingers and said, "First, they've been traveling and are exhausted. Second, our defense will have to make a lot of sacrifices. Third, we've been on the defensive the whole time. Am I right?"
Count Alan sensed that Ambrina seemed to be pondering something, but dared not ask, and simply nodded to indicate that His Majesty the King was right.
“I bet he’s gotten here so fast that his artillery hasn’t arrived yet, and our march isn’t that fast. The artillery isn’t far away, and we’re going to be sacrificed anyway, so why don’t we just charge over now and screw him, a guy with no guts? He dares to gamble, but I don’t? Damn that damn emperor!” Ambrina cursed at the end.
“We can fight, but how to fight is the question,” Earl Alan said.
They did not arrange or practice the corresponding tactics.
“Of course we’ll charge! Our firearms and armor are far superior to theirs,” Ambrina said. “Today we’ll employ a classic tactic: cavalry charging, followed by infantry. There’s no real skill involved in this tactic.”
The "cavalry" she referred to were mages, while the "infantry" were musketeers.
Count Alain admitted that such tactics were indeed not very sophisticated.
“But…” Count Alan still hesitated.
“Count, what you taught me is that in open field battles, if the weaker side keeps holding on, they will only become more and more passive. Overall, we are strong, but at this moment, we are the weaker side, right?” Ambrina countered.
“Your Majesty is right,” Earl Alan replied.
"Heh, don't worry, even if we lose, it's just because I, the king, acted arbitrarily." Ambrina said, patting Alan on the shoulder. "Go and issue the order: advance in two hours."
After saying that, Ambrina turned and went to her private tent.
Her strength at the third tier wasn't particularly strong. Due to the agreement on the battlefield that prohibited those above the fifth tier from appearing, she belonged to the second tier, so she had to wear magic-resistant armor. Besides that, her magic didn't have much offensive power, so she had to use a weapon. The weapon wasn't anything special either; it was a magic bullet machine gun made of magic stone, which was developed under the leadership of Kate Pierre.
The biggest advantage of this thing is its high firepower, low energy consumption, and no need for cooling.
To be honest, Ronan and Ambrina had high expectations for Caterpillar at first, but after so many years, she has taken a lot of money but hasn't managed to produce anything decent. All she talks about is that the manufacturing equipment and materials in this world are too rudimentary for her to use. She can only scavenge some junk from the second ruin of the Heidi people and then tinker around with it to make something.
She and Ronan realized that this guy was either a good-for-nothing or a fraud, or at least one of those things, and most likely both.
Two hours later.
Ambrina stood at the very front of the group, surrounded by a group of high-ranking mages and a thousand musketeer mages composed of novice mages. "I won't go into the enemy's disadvantages and our advantages; that's all nonsense. In short, I will be at the front. If anyone falls, I'll be the first to fall. If we win, we'll get the state-owned enterprise shares and the tobacco quota. As for losing, I haven't even thought about it."
"Only one eagle flag remained standing before the sun went down."
The emperor's banner, and the banner of the Freigo family of the Kingdom of Phos, both feature eagles.
Meanwhile, the emperor's aerial scouts observed the movements of the Phas Kingdom's army and quickly reported it to the command headquarters.
The emperor was somewhat surprised. He had assumed that the Kingdom of Phos would make a gesture, prepare to rest for a while, and then launch an attack at dusk after the artillery was in place. He never expected that the Kingdom of Phos's army would actually rush over, and not in a probing attack, but all of them would attack at once.
"Adjust the formation and deploy the defenses?" Emperor Antolo asked.
“It’s too late, Your Majesty. The two armies will be at war in at most an hour. We don’t have time to change formations,” Chief of Staff Schneider said. “Moreover, the artillery is not in place. Even if we had time, defense would not be very effective. Let’s attack.”
“But we rushed here overnight, and most of the soldiers are quite exhausted,” the emperor said.
Actually, it's not just a little tired, it's very tired.
Ordinary people's physical strength and energy simply cannot withstand such a large-scale and high-speed transfer.
“It’s alright. With the mages in front engaging in battle, the regular soldiers behind them will still be some distance away,” Schneider explained. “Moreover, their goal in charging in like this is to directly target our central army and rout it, rather than to kill the regular soldiers.”
"Ha, how foolish, they don't even know the principle that the rich shouldn't gamble with the poor." The emperor spoke with disdain to Ambrina.
Rich people don't gamble with poor people; the poor will never be able to turn the tables.
Schneider frowned inwardly. In the current situation, the Kingdom of Fas, with only 20,000 troops, was the poor, while those with 30,000 troops were the rich.
However, this is really not like Alan's style. He is used to playing it safe and steady, so rigid that he would rather have more deaths than give the enemy any openings. Is the Kingdom of Fas changing its commander at the last minute? If so, they can win this battle.
Just then, another staff officer responsible for delivering battle reports came in and reported something: at the forefront of the enemy army was none other than King Ambrina.
"Hahaha, this foolish emperor who only knows how to play with flowers and plants, listen to songs and watch plays actually dares to charge into battle?" Emperor Antolo almost laughed his teeth out. As he laughed, his expression gradually turned cold and became full of murderous intent. "Today, I will teach this woman who is courting death a good lesson."
Emperor Antoro had absolute confidence. He was a fifth-tier official, while Ambrina was only a third-tier official. Even if the intelligence was wrong, she was at most a fourth-tier official.
"Pass down the order: ordinary soldiers, hold your ground; mages, and mage musketeers, charge with me."
As intellectuals, the mages assembled much faster than ordinary soldiers, and within half an hour, they had completed their assembly.
The emperor rode ahead on horseback, raising his long sword, declaring, "Everyone who captures heretics and bandits will be rewarded."
Less than fifteen minutes later, the main force of the two armies, the mage legions, clashed.
Instantly, muskets opened fire, smoke filled the air, and the entire battlefield seemed to rise from the ground in a thick fog. Within the fog, grenades flew back and forth towards each other, while dozens of spells clashed. Flames exploded, water dragons raged, winds howled, and lightning struck from the sky and the ground. Many other unusual spells were also interspersed in this scene that resembled a collection of natural disasters. At this moment, not only could people not see, but even the sky and the ground were obscured, making it impossible to locate enemies. Everyone was charging towards the other side with their most destructive attacks.
Then came the Emperor's surprise for Ambrina: he had quite a few sworn mages under his command, perfect for a surprise attack amidst the chaos.
Chapter 613 Charge! Kill! I admit you!
First, a strange divine spell was unleashed, and the Kingdom of Phos was instantly surrounded. Taking advantage of this opportunity, a group of mage musketeers followed the mutated mage with extremely strong physical strength, piercing through the thick fog and smoke, and charging straight towards the enemy formation.
The hundred or so musketeers who were the first to charge forward from the empire were also buffed by the lion summoned by the emperor, their speed, strength, and physical toughness breaking through to the positive level.
But then, Ambrina gave them a surprise in return. A super-sized magic stone machine gun, 1.8 meters long and composed of 24 barrels with an inner diameter of 3 centimeters, was activated and fired a barrage at the charging person. There were no tongues of fire or vibrations, only the rotation of white light that looked incredibly sacred.
The Empire's magic-resistant armor couldn't block this white light at all.
In an instant, of the hundreds of people who rushed over, only a few mutated mages remained standing; the rest had all fallen. But these few had successfully closed in on Ambrina.
Ambrina stopped firing and instead picked up the machine gun and started swinging it like a big iron bar.
With a single blow, Ambrina knocked one down. She drew her Demon-Slaying Mace from the side and stabbed the man in the eye, popping it out. She kicked him away and shouted, "Don't get distracted protecting me! Fifth-tier warriors, go up and activate your domains! Fourth-tier warriors, spread out! Those below third-tier, follow me! Head towards that dog emperor! He's just a useless support! Charge!"
On the other side, the emperor's summoned magic, a giant red lion, protected itself while simultaneously buffing the surrounding area. "I don't need protection. Everyone, charge at that wretched woman! In this chaotic battle, she won't dare use her sealing magic domain. Charge!"
In the blink of an eye, the two or three fifth-tier mages on both sides opened their domains and began to fight in the air. The scene looked grand, but the two sides did not cause much damage to each other. They were all elemental mages, and their strengths were not much different from each other. Their defenses were also very strong, and the moves they used were similar. More importantly, fifth-tier mages were no longer people who were willing to risk their lives.
However, when a fifth-tier mage uses their domain to engage in a battle of attrition, the aftershocks of their attacks will occasionally take away a group of people, or even lower-tier individuals.
Compared to the several powerful high-level mages, the battle on the ground was far more brutal.
In a regular battle, the mages and musketeers, who were already elite, were now cannon fodder. Soon after the two sides engaged in battle, they fell into a brutal melee.
The equipment of the two mage musketeers differs slightly in appearance and color, but they are essentially the same: a plain military uniform, an outer magical breastplate that can protect against magical impact, arm armor, leg guards, a large-caliber musket, a magical revolver, three grenades, and a magic-piercing mace about one meter long, similar to a mace but with a pointed tip.
With a loud bang, the sound of armor shattering and bones breaking echoed as the faster and more ruthless man smashed his opponent, armor and all, into a crater. He then gripped the long handle and shoved it into the opponent's body through the crack, kicking him away and simultaneously drawing his Demon-Slaying Mace. But in that brief pause, a gunshot rang out from the side. The impact of the magic gun struck his face, knocking the man who had just killed someone to the ground. Immediately afterward, another man appeared to finish him off, but then, a loud explosion rang out. The man who had finished off the attacker and the one who had fired the shot were both knocked to the ground by the explosion, their heads spinning and their ears ringing. Before they could even stand up, a group of enemies pounced on them, smashing them repeatedly, fracturing their skulls and splattering their brains. These men had just killed two people, but then they were met with another round of gunfire, forced to retreat. Before they could retaliate, the enemy's Demon-Slaying Mace was already upon them.
Such scenes of you killing me and me killing you erupted continuously among the numerous mages and musketeers. There was no rationality, no fear, and no excitement; they simply acted instinctively to kill people of different clothing colors.
Meanwhile, the Empire's mages maneuvered, weaved, and infiltrated amidst the fighting between the mage musketeers, steadily closing in on Ambrina in preparation for a general's attack.
From the overall situation, the Empire's magic is closer to completing the "General" mission, because although Ambrina is no longer at the very front, she is still in the forward arrow position, while the Emperor is in a central position.
However, the arrowhead position where Ambrina was located was also the place with the most intense firepower from the Kingdom of Phos. In addition, Ambrina's weapon was extremely powerful and her full-body armor was surprisingly tough. Those who attacked her could not inflict enough damage on Ambrina, or even stop her arrowhead from advancing.
Gradually, the emperor's expression began to darken.
He realized the problem: although he had a numerical advantage of 30,000 against 20,000, the number of mages in his army was not much greater than that of the enemy. With high-level mages exchanging blows, he did not have an advantage.
While it wasn't exactly a disadvantage, on the other hand, the ordinary troops brought by the Kingdom of Fas had bypassed the main battlefield, and with the addition of artillery using field guns, they were approaching the lines of the Imperial soldiers. The Imperial forces were numerous, but exhausted, and more importantly, they lacked artillery support. Their 20,000-plus men might not be able to defeat the opposing force of 10,000-plus men.
Having fought this far, Antoro realized that things couldn't continue like this.
He stopped casting the buff that had been barely effective against the opponent's targeted magic countermeasures. Instead, he merged his summoned red lion with his own body, transforming from a normal-looking middle-aged man into a half-beast berserker warrior over two meters tall. His explosive muscles and bursting magic power tore through his armor, and his wild red hair made him look like a dagger. The one-meter-long magic-breaking mace in his hand looked like a dagger.
Now, he is no longer the emperor who continues to sit in the center, but the arrowhead, the lion king who launches the charge.
With a lunge forward, he forcefully hurled the Demon-Slaying Mace, instantly killing a first-tier opponent.
Emperor Antorlo didn't stop, charging forward with lightning speed. A burst of magic sent several corpses and blood-stained magic-dispelling maces flying. He swiftly advanced, grabbing two of the maces with both hands. At that moment, a figure flew in. In the next instant, a magic-dispelling mace pierced through his shattered armor, but failed to penetrate any further into flesh; instead, it was blocked by the two maces. Antorlo pushed hard, deflecting the opponent's magic-dispelling mace. The opponent held a sphere of magical energy in his other hand, but before he could unleash it, two magic-dispelling maces pierced his temples from either side, exploding his head.
In fact, Antoro's "Lion of Contracts" is a summoning magic that involves making a pact with someone and receiving magic from them after fulfilling the pact. In addition to casting buffs and the enhancements he is currently using, he also has three other types of magic that he can obtain from others.
However, he didn't use that; he insisted on using violence to break through, to intimidate, and to create a sense of oppression for the enemy.