From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

"Oh God! What the hell is going on!"

A Sardinian soldier on the front line of the crossfire collapsed and dropped his musket, yelled with a cry, then put his head in his hands and fled back desperately.

"Hey, John, what are you doing!" A soldier beside him hurriedly grabbed his arm and shouted:

"Do you want to be a deserter?!"

"Leave me the fuck alone, can't you see!"

The soldier named John struggled to shake off his companion's pull, and shouted with a pale face:

"The company commander is dead, the captain is dead, the lieutenant is dead, who can care about us!"

After that, John ignored his companions who were stunned on the spot, cried and ran away to the rear with a distorted expression.

Situations like this are happening everywhere within the Sardinian Army.

These soldiers recruited from Sardinia were originally farmers and villagers who received only simple training. When the battle situation went south and even the officers who supervised them were killed, their inner fears were finally aroused.

When the first few people took the lead in escaping, the avalanche effect they caused immediately spread to the entire Sardinian army. More and more soldiers began to throw away their muskets and ran away without looking back.

Major Trifali's eyes were fixed on the faces of the Sardinian soldiers on the battlefield. Judging from their panic and panic expressions, all the Corsican army had to do was to pursue the victory.

"Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, the enemy's morale has completely collapsed."

Major Cui Farley couldn't help but said excitedly.

Facing an enemy three times their own, the Corsican soldiers were pressing hard to pursue the enemy.

If not for personal experience, every soldier, including Major Cuifali, would not believe it.

"Inform the company commanders." Lawrence's expression was still not relaxed at all, and he ordered Major Trifali:

"Don't be too hasty when pursuing, lest the enemy forces reorganize. Wait, what is that?"

Just when Lawrence was giving the order, in his sight, a horseman galloping suddenly broke into the rear of the Sardinian army.

He rode through the perimeter of the array on horseback, gathering the retreating soldiers like a shepherd. At the same time, he raised the whip in his hand and whipped it ruthlessly at the fleeing soldiers, while shouting something in his mouth.

"You bastards! Go back to your places!"

Colonel Butland whipped the soldiers whose backs were turned to him mercilessly, roaring like a bull so loudly that Lawrence could hear him even hundreds of yards away.

"Yes, Colonel Bartram!"

"Oh my god, I, we still"

Many fleeing Sardinian soldiers looked at Bartlan and the whip in his hand in fear, and stopped hesitantly.

"Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, it's not good to go on like this."

Major Trifari frowned as he watched Colonel Bartland gradually regroup the troops, and said worriedly.

If the Sardinian army is allowed to regain its strength, even if the Corsican army has already established a victory, it will inevitably encounter a strong counterattack in the pursuit battle.

Lawrence glanced at Bartland from a distance, just shook his head indifferently, and said slowly:

"The commander's appearance is just right."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Major Cui Farley asked, stunned for a moment.

"Give them hope and then destroy it. In this way, this unit will completely lose its combat effectiveness."

As soon as Lawrence finished speaking, a certain precision shooter on the battlefield calmly pulled the trigger.

In the gun chamber, the gas generated by the explosion of gunpowder accumulates at the tail of the bullet, pushing the bullet to rotate at high speed along the rifling and fly out of the gun chamber.

The rotating warhead flies out of the muzzle steadily, disturbing the airflow in the air and creating a visible trajectory that lasts for a very short time.

The warhead passed through the battlefield filled with corpses and blood, and passed over the heads of the Sardinian soldiers.

For some reason, Colonel Butland always felt that at that moment, there was a shot that was particularly harsh, and even drowned out the whistling wind in his ears.

But he no longer had time to ponder such random thoughts.

Phew.

This is the sound of bullets tearing clothes and hitting human bodies.

Fortunately, the bullet did not sink into Colonel Bartland's heart as the shooter expected, but directly embedded in his thigh.

"Ah!"

The suddenly injured Colonel Bartland suddenly lost strength in his legs. He lost his balance and fell off the high-speed horse. He hit the ground hard and passed out.

The minds of the Sardinian soldiers who had just regrouped went blank. They watched blankly as Colonel Butland fell off his horse and rolled several times on the ground before stopping.

After a moment of sluggishness, someone immediately shouted:

"Colonel Bartram is dead!"

This panicked exclamation immediately became the last straw for the Sardinian army. More and more Sardinian soldiers could not help but repeat loudly:

"Colonel Bartram is dead!"

At this moment, no one had any intention of resisting, and the newly gathered formation immediately became a piece of scattered sand.

The Sardinian soldiers were like frightened deer, completely oblivious to what was going on, and had no other thoughts in their minds except running away.

"Oh my God."

Major Cui Farley looked at the fleeing enemy soldiers in shock, shook his head sadly and said:

"In all my years in the military, I have never seen a unit collapse like this, let alone that they still have numerical superiority until now."

Lawrence nodded slightly, breathed a long sigh of relief, and said in a deep voice:

"They have been completely defeated, Major. Inform the ministries to start pursuing them, but the main purpose is to persuade them to surrender."

"Understood!" Major Cui Farley nodded excitedly.

The blood-like sunset splashed on the plain, making it difficult to tell whether the land underfoot was illuminated by the setting sun or watered by blood.

"Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, it's over. The prisoners have been accepted, the battlefield has been cleaned, and the collected muskets and other equipment have been sent back to Bonifacio."

Major Trifali led his horse, and together with Lieutenant Seth, walked to Lawrence with a heavy face and said.

This was indeed a great victory, but it was also a tragic victory that made Major Trifari extremely sad.

"What are our losses?" Lawrence glanced at Trifali, and it could be seen from his expression that the losses of the Corsican army were not small.

"About 900 of our troops participated in the battle, and nearly 500 were seriously injured and killed."

Major Cui Farley sighed, closed his eyes, and said sadly:

"At the same time, the soldiers of the original Fourth Battalion, they are the most fearless and brave soldiers, and because of this... Alas, their casualty rate exceeded 60%."

The evening wind howled across the grassland, forming waves of grass.

The crows that came from nowhere had already smelled the corpse, and they were hovering in the air like a black whirlwind, making a noisy rattling sound.

Lawrence looked down at his feet. The blood of Sardinians or Corsicans flowed out, dyeing his boots bright red.

"What's the situation with the Sardinian Army?" Lawrence asked softly.

"We captured about a thousand people, and almost seven or eight hundred people escaped."

Lawrence nodded and turned to look behind Major Trifali. The soldiers of the Southern Legion were standing there solemnly.

There was no expression on their faces, no joy and excitement after a great victory, because these soldiers were still treading on the blood of their former brothers at their feet.

"Soldiers, my countrymen."

Lawrence wiped the dust from his forehead, looked at these soldiers who had just survived the artillery fire, walked slowly and said:

"The blood of those brothers who sleep under this grass will not be shed in vain. They watered the land of Corsica with their blood. I also swear to you that I will not let anyone touch this place they are sworn to guard. piece of land.”

Lawrence walked step by step among the soldiers and shouted loudly:

"And if there really are such rats that want to invade Corsica, tell me, brothers soldiers, what the Corsicans will entertain them with!"

Without any hesitation, Lawrence responded with a loud and deep roar:

"Knives and swords! Iron and blood!"

Major Trifali and Lieutenant Seth looked at Lawrence in the crowd silently. They both knew very well who the rat that Lawrence mentioned was who was involved in Corsica.