I will be crowned king

Facing the fierce offensive launched by the empire as soon as the bombardment ended, Anson calmly ordered the Clovis soldiers of the advance army to get out of their bunkers and prepare for the battle.

Nearly five hundred soldiers formed three interlaced lines on the west side of the gap position. At the same time, skirmishers were placed at both ends of the lines and at the connections to cover. The standard Lowe defense formation - compared to The empire's rigid front values ​​more depth and flexibility.

Of course, this was also a gift from the empire; the lack of elite cavalry and high-quality artillery forced the Clovis Army to abandon its frontal intensive firepower: instead, it relied on sufficient depth to counter cavalry raids and strengthened the soldiers' flexibility to reduce the risk of large-scale attacks. Casualties caused by large-scale shelling.

Because of the high-quality infantry weapons and shooting level bonus, even if the front width is a quarter shorter than that of the Empire, the Clovis Army can still crush the Empire's lines in terms of firepower.

And because of the difference in infantry quality between the two sides, the imperial line is often the shorter one.

However, in Anson's view, this is not so much Clovis's excellent military system, but more a reflection of the gap in national strength between the two sides - anyway, if he had the capital of Major General Ludwig, he would have used several times more artillery shells than his opponent to kill Bo. Nader exploded into the sky.

But then again, if he really had Major General Ludwig's ability, he wouldn't be exiled to a hellish place like the New World...

Facing the advance army waiting for work, the colonial vassal army's offensive was no different from before - the numbers were absolutely overwhelming and the momentum was huge, but they still lacked the minimum organization and morale was completely non-existent.

Although there was no flank artillery attack this time, after receiving several rounds of volleys from the front, they immediately began to stagger like a drunk who hit the wall; the remaining lucky ones were hit by the "comrades" behind them before they could escape. He fell to the ground, took away the weapon from the opponent's hand, and continued to attack.

But in the face of the intensive and uninterrupted volleys of the advance army, which was almost like splashing water, the crude weapons in their hands were almost unable to counterattack. In the blink of an eye, they dropped corpses everywhere, fled and turned into another group of "comrades" Sacrifice underfoot.

Wave after wave like this, repeatedly impacting and collapsing, this meaningless offensive could not harm the advance army at all except creating more smelly flesh and blood.

Soon... around the northern gap occupied by the advance army, the counter-rebellion army's siege position was almost covered with the bones of the vassal army, and with King Clovis's flag as the center, a "vacuum" with a radius of about 100 meters was created. ”—not a single body crossed this border.

The very few who are close to success will be hit in the middle of the eyebrow by a cold gun fired from behind the line the moment they hit the border, and they will lie down in a pool of blood.

Watching these last vassal troops dead and wounded, Sir Sado not only showed no regrets, but even let out a sigh of relief.

Not only did the "sacrifice" of these people allow the troops on the Eastern Front to retreat smoothly while avoiding the threat of the advance army, but it also prevented him and a large number of officers from shrinking their wealth.

Just before the war started, those industrial owners actually used "sufficient labor force" as an excuse to purchase these "vassal armies" that were originally prepared to be sent back to Sail City at a low price, and cut them in half!

Of course, this kind of behavior cannot be tolerated by the officer corps of the counter-rebellion army. The problem is that this is a pure buyer's market, and the bargaining power of the officers is really limited. Therefore, after reaching a consensus with the majority of the officers, Sir Sadow did not hesitate to put this The last batch of vassal troops were all sent to die.

The purpose is also very straightforward, which is to threaten the industrial owners - if you dare to lower the price, we will not leave any survivors alive; now we can send vassal troops to die, and if we capture Black Reef Port, we can massacre the city.

Naturally, they would only tell Bernard after doing this kind of thing, and give him a piece of the pie to seal the deal.

For these military nobles who were sent to the new world, honor and status were secondary, and interests were the key; whoever could bring them more benefits was their real master.

The most realistic problem before them is that Bernard Morweis, the "colonial minister", can bring them too little benefit and often interferes with their money-making plans. However, it seems that no one can do it for the time being. Replacing him... This gave the officers headed by Sir Sadow a great headache.

Fortunately, they have recently found a perfect "alternative plan" that is enough to replace an incompetent minister at the most critical moment.

So everything ultimately depends on the outcome of the battle at Black Reef Harbor; if the winner is Bernard Morweis, then all the plans are still just plans; but what if the Clovis win? After this offensive and defensive battle, they must also start thinking about the future...

Thinking of this, the expressionless Sir Sado turned back silently, and his eyes towards the main offensive position on the Western Front became more subtle.

……………………

Almost at the same time, Bernard Morweis, who was not aware that a conspiracy to overthrow him was quietly brewing, was staring at the western defense line of Black Reef Port, frowning.

The smooth return of the Eastern Front troops allowed him to regain some confidence. Although almost all the remnants were wiped out, they still maintained a considerable degree of organization; and casualties are sometimes not a bad thing. For example, when he gave the order now, The leaders of these three infantry regiments no longer have the courage to disobey orders.

Seeing the slightly fearful looks in the eyes of the officers and soldiers, Bernard even had the urge to thank the Clovis people opposite him.

"Warriors of the Empire, move forward!"

The roar of the Chief Minister echoed under the smoke-filled dome. Three infantry regiments and more than 2,000 imperial line infantry formed dense column formations and began to advance towards the Black Reef Port defense line.

Behind them, the five infantry regiments, the main force on the Western Front, were also ready. The artillery, which had been silent for a moment, once again showed its remaining power to cover the advance of the infantry.

Although the momentum of this round of bombardment was obviously not as strong as before due to objective reasons such as running out of ammunition, the excellent imperial artillerymen still made up for this shortcoming with their superb skills - the defense line had already been devastated in many previous sieges. Once again, they were baptized by ruthless artillery fire. The few remaining intact low walls and bunkers were blown to pieces amidst the roar, leaving only burning flames and countless craters.

As for the counterattack... After experiencing the siege for the past ten days, Bernard did not think that the defenders of Black Reef Port still had the courage to go out of the city to fight.

With the help of the smoke and dust stirred up by the artillery shells, when the last artillery shell hit the ruins of the Black Reef Port defense line, the three infantry regiments had arrived at the foot of the hills, and there was only one salvo left from the defense line, which was a distance of fifty meters.

"For the glory of His Majesty Hred—fix your bayonet and charge!"

There was no volley, no grenade cover, no roundabout attack... The three infantry regiments decisively launched a bayonet charge from the front, preparing to defeat the Black Reef Port defenders directly with their momentum!

To be honest, if it were the Clovis army that stayed within the defense line, they would never dare to do this; facing Clovis's multi-layered and multi-angle complex firepower network, they would rashly attack without smoke cover during shooting and explosions. To charge is to seek death.

But the Black Reef Harbor Militia...

What are they? !

For these rabble-like traitors, if we fight seriously, we will look down upon you! They dared to use artillery to attack from the flank and kill hundreds of us like hunting rabbits... Those are real elites of the empire!

When were you allowed to have the upper hand? Ah, when did a bunch of traitors allow themselves to overwhelm the regular legions of the empire? !

How unreasonable!

After being bombarded on the flanks, beaten on the head by the advance guard, and finally "turning in" in dejection, the Imperial line soldiers turned their fear into the fuel of their anger. With blazing anger, they straightened their bayonets emitting a cold light and launched. Attack across the board.

But when this group of imperial soldiers transformed into man-eating ferocious beasts rushed to the defense line, ready to chop everyone they saw to the ground, the scene in front of them stunned them.

Where are people?

In front of me, on the defense line that had just been ravaged by imperial artillery fire, there were bombed fortifications, blue stars and rings fluttering in the wind, scattered empty ammunition boxes and some standing facilities in the stronghold, and even in some corners Inside, they discovered a pile of garbage suspected to be breakfast kitchen waste...

But there was not a single shadow of the defenders of Black Reef Port, nor could any retaliatory gunshots be heard.

The leading imperial knights looked at each other in confusion. After hesitating for a moment, they all unanimously decided not to report such "boring" information to the minister in charge.

After all, strictly speaking, they are all "criminal persons". There is an obvious essential difference between taking a position by force and occupying a position abandoned by others without firing a shot.

After some serious discussions, the three infantry regiments replaced the blue star ring on the position with the golden fleur-de-lis of the empire. They left a few lightly injured soldiers to guard and support them, and continued to advance along the hillside towards Black Reef Port. .

"What? This...taken down now?!"

Looking at the several imperial flags rising on the hill, Bernard was so surprised that he couldn't believe his eyes.

Only one bayonet charge was used to capture the outer defense line? !

Although the combat effectiveness of the defenders of Black Reef Port is indeed not strong, based on the siege experience of the past ten days, at least when relying on favorable terrain for defense, they can still barely block their own offensive.

According to Bernard's wishful thinking, he originally planned to let the three infantry regiments take the lead and wait until the enemy was almost exhausted and all the thunder that should be stepped on had been stepped on by them, and then he would personally lead the four already prepared troops. The long-term infantry regiment launched a general offensive, relying on artillery fire coverage to completely defeat the morale of Black Reef Port, and invaded the city in a large scale.

Even if the advance army can find ways to contain them, or even retreat to the city to fight on the streets with themselves, they will not be able to reverse the direction of the war - after all, the gap in strength between the two sides is too great. As long as the outer defense line is lost, no matter how hard they resist, it will be nothing more than a desperate struggle.

Who would have thought that this ragtag group of people couldn't even stop an attack?

Bernard was silent. He now seriously doubted whether this was a trap by the Clovis people, because a similar thing seemed to have happened before in Hantu.

But the herald...or rather all the officers except him didn't think so.

"Sir, since the vanguard has already taken the position, why haven't you ordered a general attack yet?"

Glancing at the battle situation in the distance, the herald who was pushed out by the crowd hesitated and said: "If you keep waiting like this, won't you give up the victory of conquering Black Reef Port to..."

"It's better to surrender to a group of bastards who have committed crimes than to be wiped out." Before he could finish speaking, Bernard interrupted with a cold snort:

"Now that the outer defense line has been breached, the next step is to clear out the remaining enemies in the streets. For a city the size of Black Reef Port, three infantry regiments are responsible for killing the remaining enemies, which is more than enough to suppress the riots."

"I know very well the desire of those behind you for loot and plundering the city, but..."

Bernard narrowed his eyes slightly and looked meaningfully at his "loyal" herald: "But don't forget, I am the colonial minister appointed by His Majesty; you'd better not make it public before I am dismissed. Challenging my authority, handing over with my own hands the grounds for hanging certain people in public.”

The herald quickly shut his mouth and knelt down on one knee in front of Bernard fearfully. The entire position was completely silent, and no one dared to say anything.

But this rare silence did not last long... Just as Bernard was still struggling with how to appease the officers, gunshots were heard again in the distance from the direction of Black Reef Port.

Although it was not unexpected, the conflict with the enemy's remnants in such a short period of time gave Bernard some bad premonitions. He became more and more suspicious that the defense layout of the Black Reef Harbor people might be more than what he saw in front of him. This way.

The fact that the Clovis in the advance army could safely hand over the city defense to the traitors in Black Reef Port proves that they are confident in defending the city even with the strength of this ragtag group of people.

Who gave them this confidence?

Just when he was about to send someone to contact the troops stationed on the position, a scout hurriedly rode in from the direction of Sir Sadow.

"grown ups!"

After chatting quietly with the scout for a few words, the herald, whose expression suddenly changed, hurriedly handed Bernard the letter containing the intelligence: "There is a new situation in the east!"

"east?"

Bernard's expression was startled. As he took the letter, his attention involuntarily turned to the direction of the advance army.

Are those Clovis people doing something again... No, even if they wipe out the more than 2,000 vassal troops sent, they should not do it again at this time...

Thinking stopped abruptly at this moment.

The colonial minister's eyes widened in an instant. He was so surprised that he didn't even notice that he subconsciously opened his mouth, and his lower lip that couldn't be closed was trembling slightly:

"This...how is this possible...the Clovis people...he, they..."

"How did they get here so quickly?!"