Chapter 68: Receiving the Enemy
Chapter 68: Receiving the Enemy
At dawn on September 3rd, when the first rays of the morning sunlight poured onto the earth, Arda’s army, which had long been gathering near the border for two days, began to march towards Butua, the capital of Bairdine.
According to the intelligence, the four rebel ministers have gathered all their troops in Butua, they intend to attack Alda after spending 3 to 4 days to prepare the ordnance and supplies for the battle, this kind of logistical efficiency makes Paul spit for a while, there is no need for you guys to travel all the way there, I’ll go there by myself.
Because this is the new military system established by Paul and the world’s more “formal” military force for the first time collision, so he attaches great importance to, led part of the staff officers personally command, chief of staff Schroeder led the rest of the staff to sit in the town of Lake Town, commanding the militia forces to deal with emergencies.
There are Bairdine’s sentries on the border, the news of Alda’s army crossing the border was sent back to Butua by fast horse, shocked at the other side so quickly at the same time, Aibut wanted to lead the troops to immediately set out to intercept Paul, but the resourceful Angelo advised them to wait for the enemy under Butua, and finally the people all agreed to Angelo’s plan.
By about 4:00 p.m., the small city of Butua came into Paul’s sight, and through his binoculars he realized that Angelo and the others had already taken up positions in front of the city gates.
When they got close enough, the other side’s deployment became clearer in the binoculars.
The main composition of the rebel army was 4 lined up infantry squares, each square had about 500 people, each commanded by a knight standing in front, inside each square more than half of the people were holding uniform spears, the other people’s weapons were a mess of everything, and there were even people holding agricultural implements such as pitchforks, hoes, and so on. At the back of the 4 squares, there were about 30 archers forming a horizontal line.
In the middle of the four squares, there were four people wearing very ornate armor riding on horses, presumably those four rebels of the Garnard family.
Surrounding them were squads of about 30 people made up of their respective family knights and knight squires.
This high mobility force of around 30 people was what worried Paul the most, the knights were all dressed in armor, although not as ornate as their lord’s armor, it was still well made and tightly protected every vital part of their bodies.
In contrast, the equipment of the squires was much more modest, some were in full chainmail armor, while others had no protection whatsoever.
They finally appeared in the sight of the rebels as Arda’s army drew closer and closer to Butua.
Angelo revealed a look of contempt and said disdainfully, ”Heh, how stupid! Still too young in the end, just annihilating a few third-rate pirate groups makes you arrogant to such an extent.”
Baron Amos beside him asked curiously, “Why did Lord Chief Steward say that?”
Angelo explained, “They set out at dawn and have traveled nearly a day’s journey by now, Paul Gleeman himself may feel fine on his horse, but the soldiers under his command were probably exhausted long ago, so how much strength can he still have left to use to fight?”
Although he knew nothing about the military, Baron Amos still felt his face heat up, such a simple truth that he did not see.
When both sides were 300 meters away, Alda’s army stopped advancing, Paul ordered the artillery company to build a firing position on a nearby high ground, sending a platoon of spearmen to assist the artillery and provide protection.
At this time from the rebel side ran over a knight holding a white flag, the battle has not yet begun to fight, holding a white flag naturally means to come to negotiate.
As expected, the knight came to the front of Alda’s army and shouted: “Count Gleiman, Lord Angelo asked me to send a message to you, if you release Count Garnard and offer 10,000 silver coins, Baldin will no longer pursue you for your crime. If you continue to be obstinate, we will crush your army, occupy your territory, and escort you to the Northwest Duke for trial.”
“Yoo-hoo!” The words shouted out by this knight amused Paul. He pointed his riding crop at the knight and shouted, “Go back and tell those traitors to wash their necks and wait to be slaughtered! I’m going to use their heads to make night jars out of them.”
The knight estimated the size of Arda’s army to be about a thousand men. The formation was quite neat and tidy, wearing clothes of the same color and uniform style, it was a kind of eye-catching feeling, but what was the use of it? They were facing an enemy twice their size.
And more importantly, there was no cavalry force in the Arda army except for a few officers on horseback, so the outcome of this battle was already determined. “Stupid!” After hearing Paul’s reply, the knight sighed in his heart, and then turned his horse and galloped towards his own people, and soon he arrived at the side of Angelo and the others, relaying to them Paul’s reply and describing the overview of the Alda army.
“Hahaha!” Angelo and the others couldn’t help but laugh one after another after hearing the knight’s description, victory or defeat was no longer in doubt.
Angelo looked around the crowd and said, “Gentlemen! We have the advantage in numbers, we have the advantage in physical strength, and we have the advantage in geography. If we stand still and wait for that pathetic army across the street to attack us, it would be a disgrace to spread the word. I suggest – it is up to us to launch the attack.”
……
Just as Paul was debating whether to continue forward and initiate the attack, or to stimulate the other side to come and attack himself, he noticed that the rebel squares were beginning to move in his direction, and immediately gave the order to prepare to receive the enemy.
As the order was given, two battalions of lancers and a company of musketeers by quickly changed from marching columns to linear battle formations, while two battalions of direct mortar platoons were deployed in the gaps between the lines.
In order to test the effectiveness of the muskets in actual combat when massed and equipped, Paul ordered the artillery not to fire when explicitly instructed to do so, and he delegated to the musket company commander, Dempsey, the command of the musketeers’ fire.
“Check your equipment ……Light the cord of fire ……”
Accompanied by Company Commander Dempsey’s loud command, the soldiers of the musket company removed the fire ropes on their bodies and pulled out their fire barrels to light them.
“Load ammunition!”
Thanks to the harsh training and paper-case fixed-loading ammunition on weekdays, it took the soldiers a total of less than a minute from the time they removed their muskets to the time the ammunition was loaded.
While the musketeers were loading their ammunition, the mortar platoons deployed in the gaps between the ranks also fixed their guns, loaded loose bullets, and were ready to fire.
On the rebel side, with the movement of the four squares, the original fairly neat formation began to be chaotic, and after more than 100 meters could not see the square, as Paul in the lake town square at the time of the first review of the army scene.
As the enemy approached, Company Commander Dempsey emphasized to his men once again that they were not to fire until they received an order, and that in order to get a good hit, they had to wait until they were close enough to the enemy to fire.
It wasn’t until the rebels were just over 100 meters away from Arda’s army that Company Commander Dempsey ordered, “Prepare to fire!” The soldiers secured their fire ropes to the serpentine poles, with their rifle butts against their shoulders and their muzzles flat, aiming at the moving enemy.
“First Platoon, fire!”
Finally, the moment Paul had been waiting for.
Thanks to “MD Reincarnation” for the reward.
(End of chapter)