I will be crowned king

At 4:55, the piercing sound of bugles exploded in the hills on the west side of the Red Moon Trunk Road, and black and red "ripples" climbed over the rugged mountain road and launched an attack on the right flank of the Jialan Army.

More than 3,000 Imperial soldiers who were marching in a hurry, preparing to flank the Army Flag Mountain to surround the defenders' positions, panicked and had to turn around to fight without completing their assembly; scattered companies stretched between the mountain roads, unable to form any formation at all. In the sense of a defensive line, even because they don't know who the enemy is or where they are, they are just blocking the road and yelling at each other because they are blocked by the troops in front.

Of course, this situation would never have occurred originally, and a smart Sir Gloria would not have made such a mistake that caused the troops to lose contact and collapse the organization. The highland command headquarters, which is located high above the ground, is fully capable of providing emergency services to the people down the hillside at the first time. The troops provide signals to tell them the battle situation and the direction of the enemy, so they can continue the attack or make an emergency retreat.

But it just doesn’t work now!

An unprepared assault directly disrupted Sir Garland's rhythm. The complete incompetence of his men forced him to shrink his troops in the highlands and go all out to deal with Anson Bach's organized, premeditated and unreasonable sneak attack.

When trying to convey orders and information to distant armies on a chaotic battlefield, apart from the messengers who don’t know whether they can arrive on time and depend on luck, signal flags and sounds (both artillery and musical instruments) are the most common. Methods, of course, there are also methods such as beacon smoke, and the principles are basically the same.

After all, except for the Holy See, no force has mastered the ability to transmit information remotely.

There are two problems here: First, Lisa's attack directly threatened the artillery position, and Sir Garland did not dare to neglect to organize the transfer immediately. Then, because he wanted to stabilize the mood of the highland headquarters, he himself sat in command throughout the entire process. The army's counterattack, "trivial matters" such as sending intelligence to the troops below, naturally had to be temporarily postponed...

But Anson and Charles Sanders obviously would not delay. Not only were they not late, they also took advantage of his lack of timely reaction to press forward against the scattered enemy flanks and strike hard.

"Ranger Corps—Attack!"

The nearly 5,000-man cavalry division spread out its skirmishing line and divided it into three very skillfully. The Chinese army launched an attack in columns, quickly outflanking the enemy's leading and rear troops on both sides, tearing apart the scattered flanks of the Jialan Army from the middle. , launched a bayonet charge with a fierce offensive topped by thunder.

Yes, there is no time for lingering line shooting, the battle must be ended immediately with bayonets.

Facing the sudden appearance of the enemy, although the knights and soldiers of the Jialan Legion panicked, they quickly gathered on the spot, formed a dense firing line, and pulled the triggers in an orderly manner.

Although the imperial infantry's shooting accuracy is notoriously inaccurate, it still has considerable power with the blessing of a fifty-meter salvo; the white mist spurting from the muzzle is stained with blood, and the figures of the charging soldiers are constantly intertwined. He fell down, clutching the wound torn open by the lead bullet and screaming in agony.

But no matter how ferocious the firepower was, it couldn't stop him from a mere fifty meters away... Stepping on the blood of his comrades, he rushed into the square formation of the imperial line soldiers without hesitation, and strangled with the enemy.

The cold bayonets crisscrossed each other, and some hussars soldiers even pulled out their sabers and cooperated with their teammates to rush into the crowd and slash left and right, frantically tearing apart the enemy's improvised defense line.

"This is exactly how we, the Clovis Cavalry, fight!"

Behind the battle line, Charles Sanders, holding a monocular, boasted to Anson: "Many people think that the Clovis cavalry is inferior to the Empire. In fact, this is a huge fallacy and prejudice. The two sides just have different combat concepts. .”

"The empire's cavalry emphasizes coordination, impact and the ability to destroy enemy lines. It is the absolute core and main force of an army. However, our cavalry is different. Absolute mobility is the most important thing; abandon the front and use the most Being the first to enter the battle at a fast speed, disrupting the enemy's deployment, and creating opportunities for the infantry are the greatest strengths of the Clovis Hussars!"

"Many officers one-sidedly believe that cavalry should be like the Empire, which is really wrong. If they use Clovis cavalry as they do, of course they will think that this is also a problem, and that is also a problem." The cavalry colonel complained, and then the topic changed. Then he began to praise a certain commander-in-chief:

"On the other hand, you are proficient in skirmishing tactics, but you are able to discern people with a keen eye and discover the true potential of the Clovis cavalry, so that we guys who have been marginalized all year round can be used!"

In the face of someone's compliments, Anson could only keep a polite smile and say nothing. Are you kidding? They only have mobility and harassment capabilities. Doesn't this prove that the Clovis cavalry is indeed inferior to the Empire?

Of course, this is indeed caused by many factors: for example, Clovis has no tradition of knights, for example, cavalry is too expensive, and the cost of fully armed elite hussars is almost the same as ten or even fifteen line infantry, for example, excellent horse breeds are almost Monopolized by the empire, or in the hands of some wealthy families...

But it is true that Clovis’s cavalry is inferior to that of the Empire, and there is nothing to say; if you insist on saying so, Clovis, which uses infantry as the core force of the battle, does not need to train cavalry like the Empire does; that would be equivalent to completely overthrowing all the current It would be unnecessary and foolish to start all over again in military theory.

In Anson's eyes, the ideal state of the Clovis cavalry is that it is sufficient to perform both harassment and reconnaissance tasks, but the scale must be increased; ideally, it is best to achieve a four-to-one, or even three-to-one ratio with the infantry.

In the final analysis, it is to improve the army's reconnaissance and response capabilities, as well as the efficiency of logistics and communications. Clovis, who fights locally, can rely on railways and logistics systems to maintain high mobility, but it becomes ineffective as soon as it leaves the mainland, which is far inferior to previous operations. An empire dominated by cavalry is more efficient and flexible.

To maintain this advantage, large-scale cavalry units, especially light cavalry, are indispensable; in Anson's plan, these cavalry will be withdrawn from the regular combat order and transferred to the headquarters and staff establishments to undertake reconnaissance missions. Road, enemy detection, intelligence search, communications, map making and other tasks. As for combat, well...

Anyway, it's like this now. It's considered the last in the entire world of order. How much worse can it be?

"Column formation, rush them!"

"Attack! Attack, attack—!"

During the chaotic battle, the Clovis skirmishers and cavalry who surrounded the enemy's vanguard were the first to defeat the enemy's hastily firmed defenses. They interrupted the counterattack momentum of the Imperial line soldiers with rounds of random gunfire. The bones continued to pound the front, giving the enemy no chance to regroup.

At the same time, the impact column that broke through the center line began to position its defensive line, preparing to cooperate with the front army to encircle and suppress the five infantry regiments that had been completely defeated.

In the melee, both sides could hardly speak of an "orderly attack." However, even in the case of individual combat, the Ranger Corps maintained a slight advantage and could always pull the trigger before the Imperial line soldiers opened fire.

This is not only because Clovis pays more attention to the role of infantry, but also because of the gap in weapons and equipment. Although both sides are mainly pre-loaded rifles, Clovis still has an advantage that the empire still cannot achieve:

Customized ammunition.

In fact, as early as a hundred years before the Saints' Calendar, Clovis had basically completed the popularization of fixed ammunition; by integrating lead bullets and gunpowder, he prepared different types of shells and propellants for different types of cannons. This greatly reduces logistical pressure; soldiers can directly carry a considerable amount of ammunition into action, and officers can also make more accurate judgments on whether their men are still capable of combat.

But even this small change is an almost impossible task for the empire.

The reason is also very simple: the empire's army is not purely a professional mercenary, but is recruited; the knights and soldiers who perform their duties for the emperor need to prepare their own weapons and equipment.

If that's all, that's fine. At worst, just tell the knights and farmers on the manor to just come and report. All weapons will be provided by the emperor - in fact, this is what the empire's artillery troops do because of their high degree of professionalism.

The problem is that the troops under the emperor's command are not just the knights and tenant farmers of the Principality of Xiaolong. During the war, various archdukes are also recruited to participate in the war. Ordinary knights can receive weapons from the emperor, do the soldiers of the grand dukes also have to be treated equally?

Even this is easy to say. There is no precedent in history for emperors to make standardized requirements for the troops and weapons provided by the Grand Dukes. So what about the army that is neither the Grand Duke nor the Xiaolong Principality?

You must know that although in actual legal terms, the territory controlled by the emperor is quite limited, in name he is the highest-ranking guardian of the world of order, and the object of allegiance to all knights in the world!

Yes, in theory, as long as the emperor wants to, he can issue a call to any country that claims to believe in the Ring of Order and ask local knights to join his army - in theory.

But this is not entirely false: there are countless people from the empire's grand duchies, Hantu, the Three Kingdoms of the North Sea, and even Clovis who took the initiative to join the emperor's court.

For this kind of "volunteer army" force, it is extremely difficult to set unified specifications and restrictions on their weapons and equipment.

In addition, if you want to complete the custom-made ammunition, the prerequisite must be a strong enough military industry. Although the empire is larger in scale, its level and mechanization are far inferior to Clovis. Naturally, even Clovis himself would not be able to do this. Reforms that took decades to complete.

But if you have to say it, the empire may not care about this. After all, overall it is still stronger than Clovis. What the emperor still needs to care about is how to integrate the power of the entire empire, not this small detail.

But this "little detail" has become the key to breaking the current balance of combat power between Clovis and the Imperial soldiers, allowing Clovis soldiers to always get the first shot.

"Bang-!!!! Bang-!!!! Bang-!!!!"

After several rounds of rapid fire, the choking smoke once again enveloped the hills, causing huge casualties to the imperial soldiers who tried to fight back. The five infantry regiments of the flanking troops were almost completely scattered. The remaining soldiers seemed to be still struggling to death, but No longer poses any threat.

"Win!" The cavalry colonel holding the binoculars clenched his fists tightly, his whole body immersed in huge surprise.

"Still early."

The expressionless Anson poured cold water on the opponent on the spot: "The enemy's vanguard of three thousand people are still entangled in the encirclement of Junqi Mountain. Sir Garland still occupies the high ground and may cooperate with the artillery to launch reinforcements at any time. There is also a group of Fernando's troops." Thousands of people…”

"We have only defeated the enemy's five regiments. The battle is far from being decided. Let the troops finish the battle as soon as possible. While Sir Gloriosa is silent, we can end the battle before dark!"

"Yes... yes, you are right, I am too excited."

Colonel Charles nodded in agreement, but he was quite dissatisfied in his heart - it only took thirty minutes to defeat the two enemy infantry regiments, and was almost able to annihilate two enemy infantry regiments. It seemed that the remaining three were only a matter of time. , what else is there to say?

But the ruling lord in front of him still seemed quite dissatisfied, as if he felt that the Rangers were still too slow... What kind of monsters were those damn Storm Legions?

What the cavalry colonel didn't know was that what really dissatisfied Anson was not the performance of the Rangers, but Sir Gloria.

Thirty minutes have passed since the battle began. He doesn't believe that the opponent has not noticed the change in the battle situation yet. Why has there been no reaction at all?

In fact, of course Sir Garland saw it, and he also understood that if he continued like this, most of the three thousand people on the flanks would probably be wiped out. Immediately afterwards, the Highland Command was completely cut off from the front army, but...

But going directly down the mountain for reinforcements is obviously more dangerous!

Previous attacks have proven that in addition to the troops on the flanks, the enemy also has an ambush behind them. If I lead troops down the mountain for reinforcements, is it possible that the enemy will control the high ground?

The reason why we chose to set up the headquarters here is because the special terrain of the Red Moon Trunk Road can ensure that the troops in the lowlands can see the highlands at all times. If they mistakenly think that "the headquarters has been captured," the situation may not only not get better, but On the contrary, it may get worse!

But in the current battle situation, if I don't reinforce myself, let alone whether I can reinforce Lord Fernando, it is really possible that all of my more than 10,000 troops will be wiped out, leaving only more than 3,000 of my troops besieged on this hillside with no way out. On.

What should I do? What should I do?

Sir Garland, who had a splitting headache in his head, questioned himself over and over again. He even wanted to scold some unlucky guy who was besieged on Junqi Mountain for putting himself in such a situation where he couldn't get up or get down.

But Anson would not give him time to think - at exactly 6:30, after defeating the last imperial line company that was still resisting, the battle on the Red Moon Trunk Road finally entered its final stage.

I'm late for a whole day because I slept for a whole day - using my own example to tell everyone, don't stay up late, it's really painful, really.