I will be crowned king

If someone immediately asked Joseph what was the proudest day in his life, the commander of the Freikorps Infantry Division would answer without hesitation: "Today!"

A mere colonial militia group not only descended on the friendly forces at the most critical moment, but also successfully tore open the empire's siege network - such a fantastic experience, who would believe it if told about it!

Although sporadic gunshots could still be heard from time to time, after repelling two counterattacks by the Imperial Infantry Regiment that suffered heavy casualties, the Changhu Town militiamen under his command had completely taken control of the position and successfully covered Alexei's breakout. He regained a firm foothold on the original position and established a stable protrusion connecting the defense lines around the stronghold.

Even he himself did not expect that victory would come so easily. The seemingly invincible imperial army was defeated with just a few rounds of gunfire, a shelling and a bayonet charge. It was like falling into a dream.

Next, as long as we stand firm and wait for the follow-up troops to arrive, we can establish a solid front to resist the empire's attack, and even regain part of the position to regain the initiative in the battle!

Backed by the main road, there are forests and hills as barriers on both sides, and behind the stronghold there is a stream that can serve as the last line of defense... If the imperial army on the opposite side wants to continue the siege, they must send their troops deep into the forest or even over the hills.

If it is infantry, the lines broken up by the forest terrain have no deterrent effect. If it is cavalry... this stupid operation of letting the cavalry go deep into the forest to launch an attack is simply impossible to happen to the empire's army.

As long as they don't mess up their position, fight steadily, and have strongholds and sufficient supplies, the Confederate army can advance, attack, retreat and defend; no matter what they want to do, they can do it with ease, and they can definitely block the first round of the empire's attack.

"So, when do we retreat?!"

Joseph couldn't wait to ask with a flattering look on his face, which made Alexei who was about to thank him just now bewildered and didn't know what to say at all.

You came over with a military spirit and a strong momentum, and before you could repel the enemy's counterattack, you actually asked me when I wanted to retreat - I should be the one to say this, right? !

Yes, I know that you colonial militias are just a bunch of rotten fish and shrimps, but is it too self-aware to be so direct?

I don’t know if I was lucky or unlucky to be rescued by such a group of reinforcements who were thinking about running for their lives...

Alexey, who wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, took a deep breath and pointed to the grassy forest stronghold not far away with great confusion:

"Retreat is necessary, but before that, the enemy's siege on the stronghold must be temporarily lifted. There is a large amount of supplies and arms there, and they must not be left to the imperial army on the opposite side; what can be taken away must be taken away, and the rest must be taken away. Destroy as much as possible.”

"In addition, we must also ensure that the enemy cannot easily pursue us during the retreat, so we must not let the enemy notice our intention to retreat, otherwise no amount of reinforcements can save the entire army from being wiped out!"

"Use feints to cover up and buy time to destroy and take away the supplies—understood!" Joseph nodded and agreed happily:

"So do you want me to control the position for you so that the Winter Torch City skirmishers can launch several rounds of counterattacks, so that the enemy thinks that we really won't retreat?"

"Uh...yeah."

Alexey raised his eyebrows. He hesitated to speak at first, and then he couldn't help but asked out of curiosity: "Your Excellency Joseph, did you know about the situation here from the beginning?"

If I remember correctly, Carl Bain clearly told the reconnaissance cavalry sent to find reinforcements that they were not allowed to tell the Confederate army the true situation to prevent them from escaping. Could it be that someone disobeyed and told the truth?

"of course not!"

Faced with Alexei's suspicion, Joseph shrugged his shoulders and said matter-of-factly: "I don't know what the specific situation is, but I know very well who I and these guys from Chang Lake Town are - so even if It’s support, but we have to prepare for retreat in advance!”

Alexey: "..."

This too impeccable answer left him completely speechless. The most important thing is that if he thought about it a little more, he would even think that what he said made sense.

After a minute of silence, Alexei, who had a tangled face, finally gave the order to attack. Under the cover of the Changhu Town Infantry Regiment, the Dongju City Skirmishers and an infantry company of the Storm Division launched a counterattack.

Faced with this self-destructive attack, Bernard and his imperial knight officers fully expressed their disdain - half of the infantry regiment in the middle was deployed to block the front, and twenty hussars were deployed in a roundabout way to harass the formation. flank.

It was just a fluke that a line of defense was torn apart. Do you really think that you bunch of rotten fish and shrimps can stand up to the imperial army?

The facts were basically the same as Bernard had guessed... Before the more than four hundred Winter Torch City skirmishers could rush in front of them, they were dispersed by the fast-attacking hussars with carbines and sabers; when the cavalry walked away, they showed their lines. The imperial infantry met each other with a volley of fire.

The skirmishers of Winter Torch City, who were screaming and wanting to kill them one second, were running away as fast as they could in the next second, faster than the weather in Sail City could change.

Before Alexei and the Storm Division infantry company around him could prepare to cover and fire, they were coerced by the retreating skirmishers and forced to retreat to their positions.

Looking at this farce-like counterattack, Bernard calmly commanded the troops to surround the salient controlled by Alexei, preparing to completely cut off the retreat from the Barren Grass Forest stronghold.

Half an hour later, the Imperial line established a firm foothold on the outer defense line of the wild grass forest, and began to press on the protrusions and strongholds one battalion at a time; like a blackboard eraser, it wiped out Confederate troops from the position in pieces.

Even with reinforcements, the strength comparison between the two sides is still a despairing four to one, and the quality level is even worse. It can be said that once the empire completely takes the initiative, there will be no suspense about the outcome of the battle.

After a brief struggle, the helpless Karl finally gave the order to retreat; the soldiers began to burn the supplies in the stronghold, and at the same time took everything they could with them as much as possible.

Especially the eight artillery pieces of the artillery company, which is absolutely irreplaceable equipment in the new world; Karl finally found a way to dismantle the two six-pound infantry cannons and stuff them into the baggage carriage, and the rest could only be nailed to the cannons. Bolt them to prevent them from becoming imperial trophies.

At 16:30, a Changhu Town infantry regiment and a Dongju City skirmisher regiment arrived on the battlefield.

Under the cover of the reinforcements, Karl immediately began to organize the two Red Hand Bay infantry regiments that had lost all morale to withdraw to the stream to establish a temporary defense line; Alexei and Joseph's salients also began to retreat while fighting, covering the escort of supplies in the stronghold. Storm Division Infantry Regiment.

Looking at the billowing smoke rising from the stronghold, Bernard, who sensed something was wrong, immediately began to order a storm; a line battalion attempted to pass through the forest and circle back to intercept the retreating strongholds in the stronghold, but was met with a storm of formations along the river. The division artillery company and the two Red Hand Bay regiments blocked the attack and quickly retreated.

But the sound of gunfire revealed the retreat direction of the stronghold defenders. Bernard quickly set up a cavalry cannon and aimed a burst of covering fire at the direction of the stream.

Compared with ordinary infantry artillery, cavalry artillery is generally lighter and less powerful; and compared with Clovis's "obsession" with six-pounder and 12-pounder cannons, the Empire prefers four-pounder, eight-pounder, sixteen-pounder and Eighteen pounder gun.

Plus it’s still blind shooting. Except for six unlucky guys who rose to the sky and one carriage that fell apart, no damage was caused.

In comparison, the frontal battle was quite unsightly - two Confederate infantry regiments that had just arrived on the battlefield and thought they were hoping to win the war, bore the brunt of the three attacking Imperial infantry regiments, and suffered heavy casualties under several rounds of gunfire. , almost collapsed directly.

Alexey and Joseph, who were fighting and retreating, used this "new force human shield" to successfully avoid the tragic end of being surrounded and annihilated, and successfully broke through. At the same time, they continued to gather the defeated troops of the two regiments, and managed to maintain the order of the front. The enemy dare not pursue easily.

Fortunately, the imperial army's attention was not on them at all, and they gave up the pursuit after driving the last stinky fish out of their position.

At seventeen o'clock, the imperial army repulsed the defense line deployed by the Red Hand Bay Infantry Regiment along the river. All the defenders retreated to the northern suburbs, and the Huangcaolin stronghold officially fell.

……………………

Stepping over the corpses and embers everywhere, the expressionless Bernard entered the grass forest stronghold surrounded by cheers and welcomes from the soldiers.

Although it was only a small and insignificant victory, there was no suspense about winning except for a slight setback in the middle, but it still swept away the decline of the imperial army for many days and boosted the morale of the army.

As for the failure to annihilate all the enemies, there is a slight regret, but in Bernard's view, this is not a problem at all. In a sense, it is even a good thing - for an army composed of a ragtag group of people, "fear" is the most terrifying thing It is an infectious disease, and the power of every exaggerated statement by the deserters is greater than an 18-pound cannon shell.

The same goes for the Clovis people... Anson Bach was able to mobilize his men to go on an expedition to fight the Battle of Sailing City, which was hard to say to gain much benefit. The main reason must be that they had absolute confidence in victory.

Once there is a slight setback, and the loot obtained before is already rich enough, it is easy to become tired and unwilling to fight for the benefit of these colonial traitors.

And this is Bernard's core goal - he simply doesn't want to fight a so-called showdown with these traitors and the Clovis people. If he wins in that way, he will lose more than he loses.

Through several small-scale but high-intensity consecutive battles, the enemy's exploratory attacks were thwarted and the plan to rescue Sailing City was canceled. Finally, under pressure and unable to maintain army supplies, they withdrew from Gray Pigeon Castle... without spending a single soldier, allowing the imperial forces to avoid It was the wishful thinking of the colonial minister to start this crisis that was very likely to bring about destruction.

Of course, winning so easily is not all a good thing.

"According to statistics, a total of sixty rounds of artillery shells were consumed in this battle. One infantry regiment used up all the ammunition they carried, and the other two regiments carried less than thirty rounds of ammunition on average. The guns and bayonets were also damaged. The ratio is roughly between 30 and 10/20..."

Taking the documents just sent by the logistics department and the scouts, the herald reported to Bernard cautiously:

"In terms of casualties, two cuirassiers were seriously disabled and fifteen were lightly wounded; in terms of infantry, the heaviest loss was the Croma Infantry Regiment. Sixty-seven people from one company were killed, fifty-five from the other company, and two The company commander was cut in half by a cannonball, and the Tianling Gai was smashed by flying stones..."

"As for the seized materials - after emergency fire fighting and rescue operations, almost one-tenth of the food supplies were finally recovered; except for a few boxes of lead bullets and a dozen powder barrels, only twenty-five rifles and bayonets were left in total. One of them was intact, the rest were either broken or missing.”

"The breechblocks of several captured Clovis infantry cannons were all nailed to scrap metal. As for the prisoners... they only captured more than two dozen militiamen from Red Hand Bay and Winter Torch City, and no useful clues were obtained - —Don’t talk about the main position, they don’t even know where they are!”

Even the herald couldn't help but get excited when he said this - he obviously won the battle but seemed to be the one who suffered the greater loss. What's going on? !

"In other words, the enemy's march route is not uniform, and it is even very likely that they are deliberately or forced to disperse their actions."

Bernard was unusually calm at this moment and analyzed seriously: "It is very likely that the enemy's vanguard is planning to besiege the Huangcaolin stronghold while gathering the army, and finally rely on the terrain around the stronghold to launch a decisive battle with us - but because the stronghold fell too quickly , we counterattacked too quickly, causing the enemy's strategic deployment to be disrupted."

"Now that we have recaptured the Barren Grass Forest, they are forced to retreat towards Gray Pigeon Castle. However, at the same time, a large number of troops are still scattered on the roads on the east and north sides. We must gather the troops while retreating to ensure nothing is lost."

"So they must be very vulnerable now..." Bernard murmured to himself, and then looked sharply at the herald:

"Where is the cavalry?!"

For a group of troops that are fleeing in panic, scattered and disorderly, the empire's cavalry is the most terrifying nightmare... The opponent still retreats along the road, which is simply the best hunting target for the cavalry!

"Uh...we're preparing to go out for reconnaissance!"

After hearing the words of the chief minister, the herald quickly replied: "Several cavalry companies found traces of a large number of troops passing through in the surrounding forests, and are gradually launching a search based on the prisoners' confessions!"

search?

Bernard was stunned for a moment: "Can you confirm the number of troops and their direction of action?"

"The most accurate results have to wait for the cavalry's search results, but based on what we see now, there are about 4,000 to 5,000 people, mainly infantry, supplemented by a small number of cavalry and baggage carriages, as well as …”

"Four or five thousand?!"

Bernard, whose expression froze, directly intercepted the herald's words: "In which direction did they go?!"

"Uh, well, it seems..."

"like?!"

"It seems to be...the direction of Sailing City!"