Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: Battle of Hatin Forest (5)
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The Franco Republic's formation had devolved into a hellscape, losing all order and plunging into utter chaos.
Platoon leaders and veteran NCOs right beside them were shouting to reform the lines and restore discipline, but the soldiers couldn't even hear them amid their frantic screams.
"Save me! Save me!"
"Fuck, I don't want to die like this! Mom! Dad!"
"The formation... we have to reform the formation!"
When enemies were thrown into such disarray that they couldn't mount a proper response, victorious soldiers usually got overexcited, trying to take prisoners or dropping their guard.
But the Reich Empire's soldiers knew full well that killing even one more enemy now would tip the scales for future battles.
Thanks to relentless drill training, their soldiers had become killing machines—arms and legs snapping into perfect rhythm at the mere call of "one, two."
Under the booming commands of their battalion and company commanders, they stabbed and withdrew their spears with clockwork precision, pressing the slaughter onward.
Franco Republic soldiers witnessing this were gripped by terror—some even pissed themselves—and entire frontline units spiraled out of control.
"Fuck, those bastards are monsters. They move exactly the same, like measured with a ruler!"
"You crazy fuck, if you're dying, die alone! I'm surviving this."
"Get out of the way! Move!"
And so, brainless idiots lost all reason, bolting in the opposite direction of their own advance.
Every last one of them was summarily executed on the spot by Republic officers and veteran NCOs.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Jaeger, watching the scene unfold, signaled the crossbowmen and mage units with flags, ordering them to target the middle of the enemy infantry lines.
In the end, Franco infantry clutching spears in the center of their ranks were pinned in place, helplessly sacrificed to the arrows and spells raining down from above.
The battlefield wasn't wide enough for Division Commander Pontpadour to leverage their numerical superiority into an enveloping crane-wing formation.
Unable to issue any orders to turn the tide, he vented his rage by slashing his sword at empty air.
"Peter Jaeger, you cowardly, scheming bastard! If you're any kind of noble, at least follow the basic etiquette of the battlefield! Not satisfied with horse archers, now you're shuffling your infantry front and back to dodge a fair fight!?"
Normally, any officer nearby would nod in agreement at words like that.
But Pontpadour and his men all subscribed to the unyielding truth that "in war, the victor defines justice."
They couldn't bring themselves to voice criticism, figuring their commander was just spouting nonsense out of frustration from losing.
Pontpadour, swinging his baton, suddenly hit upon the one gambit that might salvage the situation—and resolved to play it.
"We outnumber them overwhelmingly in crossbowmen and mages, so in this cramped battlefield, we can unleash far more arrows and spells at once. The frontline's as good as lost anyway, so even risking friendly fire..."
With that, he thrust his baton skyward, then slashed it down as he barked his order.
"Direct ranged support on the foremost enemy lines! It'll cost more enemies than friends! Fire your spells and arrows to back them up—but try to avoid hitting our own!"
At his command, signalers and the military band relayed the order with flags and horns, directing long-range fire toward the Republic's frontline.
Mages and crossbowmen hesitated at the near-certainty of friendly casualties but obeyed, unleashing volleys toward the leading ranks of Reich Empire soldiers.
The Reich soldiers, who had been unilaterally massacring Franco troops moments before, now faltered under the deluge of arrows and spells.
In that interval, the Republic soldiers regained some fighting spirit, and the tide began to tilt slightly in their favor... but...
"Division Commander Pontpadour, is that what a human being does?"
"Even if winning matters most, is it okay for one of ours to drop every time four enemies fall to our arrows?"
"Fucking prick. Hope some heretic shanks you on the street once the war's over."
With discontent among Republic soldiers piercing the heavens, the Franco Republic forces and Empire troops settled into a tense standoff.
At this point, Brigadier General Jaeger would normally have committed his light cavalry to flip the battle, but instead he issued a different order.
"Keep the light infantry in reserve and hold the line at all costs. It's not time yet."
With that, he signaled the waiting horse archer brigade and knight unit to advance.
They surged out in the same direction simultaneously, and some Franco infantry spotting them reported to Pontpadour—but...
Pontpadour had no troops left to counter them except his knights.
"Order the glorious knights of the Republic to intercept those Imperial flies!"
He had no choice but to commit 750 knights, largely ineffective against horse archers.
Major Anastasia, fully aware of Jaeger's orchestrated flow, charged toward the knights with her bow at the ready in her right hand. She called out to her horse archers.
"The Brigadier General who personally beheaded Ludwig to avenge us trusts you all. Can we possibly lose to those tin-plated coward snails?"
The horse archers roared back in unison.
"For the man who avenged us like no other, we'd gladly die on his command!"
"Who made discriminated northern barbarians like us able to live like humans?"
"Now's our chance to repay even a fraction of his grace!"
And so Major Anastasia led her horse archers in a blistering charge. Spotting over 700 Franco knights barreling toward the Empire knights in wedge formation,
she wheeled left, right, and behind them, raining arrows in the classic nomadic style.
The knights' speed gradually slackened, and cracks appeared in their formation.
Lieutenant Colonel Werner's knights, untouched by the Franco knight assault, closed in on the enemy left and right flanks—where crossbowmen and mages fixated on the infantry melee.
Those ranged units bore the duty to support their infantry's victory by any means, so their focus was entirely forward, oblivious to the approaching knights.
Werner, commanding the Jaeger Brigade's knights, grinned like a madman.
"Those crossbow and mage idiots must have stiff necks! Staring dead ahead even now! Gahahaha!"
His knights targeted the rear of the ranged support on both flanks.
Discarding the penetration-focused wedge for a diagonal formation that maximized shock,
they charged—ranged troops being utter pushovers in close quarters.
When the Empire knights closed to about 100 meters, the enemy finally noticed and scrambled to respond—but...
Orders rippling through the entire unit took time, leaving only a handful of mages and crossbowmen to face the lance charge.
"What the hell are the knights doing? We outnumber them several times over!"
"No idea, fuck! If you wanna live, load and shoot! Fire at anything!"
"Aa... Aa!!"
The lance-wielding knights trampled the unresisting foes underhoof and skewered them through.
Enemy blood and screams echoed massively across the field.
With that, ranged support from both enemy flanks ground to a halt, and without it, the infantry frontline began tilting decisively toward the Reich Empire.
Brigadier General Jaeger seized the opening without mercy, ordering his troops.
"Pikemen of each infantry unit—charge forward keeping spears extended, hold the line. Send light infantry through the gaps between soldiers in the infantry squares. Time to begin the one-sided slaughter."
Thus did Brigadier General Peter Jaeger seize complete dominance in the battle against over 10,000 Franco Republic troops.