Chapter 118
Chapter 118
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: Battle of Crécy Plains (3)
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And a week later.
The Franco Republic's army of 100,000 appeared opposite the Imperial forces.
Just as I'd expected, they'd positioned crossbowmen and mages at the front to disrupt our formation.
Behind them, they placed knights, clearly aiming to punch straight through the center when our infantry's defense weakened even slightly, seizing victory in a frontal breakthrough.
Meanwhile, our Reich Empire forces had piled up dirt in front to form a small hill even before the snail-eating Franco bastards arrived.
We stationed soldiers capable of ranged attacks, like crossbowmen, atop it, securing an advantage in shooting range by firing from a slightly elevated position.
But if the hill was too steep or tall, the Franco troops might snap out of it and avoid charging the center altogether.
So we made the slope about 10 degrees and kept the height to just around 3 meters—extremely low.
Still, for us, who had to hold off charges from knights weighing over 500kg each, it was far better than nothing.
This alone could slow their horses by nearly 20%.
Then our 12th Brigade was placed at the forefront of the infantry arrayed in three ranks.
All the knights had been requisitioned by General Patton because they'd be needed to smash the enemy infantry.
"Ha, fuck me, no knights under my command? Does that even make sense?!"
I shouted that, but not a single soldier or officer under me responded.
Twenty minutes passed, and Duke Valois, the Franco army's commander, rode right up to the precarious edge of our arrow range.
At the same time, his army advanced to within 200 meters of us, clearly intent on threatening our position. The duke at the vanguard bellowed in a loud voice.
"As Duke of the Franco Republic and permanent member of the Assembly representing all the people, I rebuke you tyrannical soldiers of the Empire! How dare you drive the innocent among us to ruin, plunge our poor serfs and industrious citizens into fear, and ignite the flames of war! As believers in Deus, how can you blind yourselves to His Holiness the Pope?!"
The distance between him and us was close, and with no wind blowing, his voice carried clearly all the way to where our infantry and knights were positioned.
Yet not one of our soldiers shrank back or showed fear at his words...
Instead, they stared at the enemy commander with expressions like, You bark all you want; we'll just let it go in one ear and out the other.
At this point, with us showing zero reaction, it would've been far smarter for him to cut his rant short and withdraw.
Whether he was just stupid or blinded by rage toward us, Duke Valois—the assemblyman, no less—kept blabbering on without stop.
Our soldiers, even though chitchat right before battle was forbidden by military law, started grumbling in boredom anyway.
"What a retard. They started this shit, and now they're bitching about it."
"His Holiness the Pope loves all with the heart of Deus, and even he excommunicated these lunatics."
"Even the enemy grunts under that asshole are pitiful. Die and straight to hell."
The officers who should've shut them up clearly agreed there wasn't a shred of value in the duke's words, so they laid down no reprimands.
After bellowing alone like that for about 15 minutes, the duke finally seemed relieved as he wheeled his horse around and trotted back briskly.
This time, our General Patton rode to the spot the duke had occupied and began shouting toward the enemy in a booming voice.
"Hear me, you pitiful Franco soldiers and the heretical nobles who serve that assembly of heathens who treat the teachings of Deus as less than dog chews!"
Even though the Francos had been excommunicated, starting off by naturally calling them heretics—a curse worse than insulting someone's parents on this Euro continent of ours.
In the Reich Empire, where charging headlong was a virtue befitting a true man of the battlefield, this was the brilliant rhetoric of a general who'd risen to his rank through assaults alone.
The enemy listening would be dumbfounded, but more than that, with no ground to refute even harsher barbs, they'd be driven mad.
"I already knew your nation was ruled by madmen who dragged the emperor and royals from the Capetian dynasty to the guillotine under the pretext of oppressing commoners and nobles, then sucked the people dry. But three years ago, when I heard you'd invaded the peaceful citizens of our Reich Empire without even a declaration of war, I doubted my own ears!"
In the plan I'd devised, the operation's success hinged on how much General Patton could stoke the Franco nobles' fury.
He'd jabbed with radical terms like heretics and heathens, then trashed the revolutionary spirit they prided themselves on so dearly as the ravings of lunatics.
Those with even a scratch to their pride—all ten out of ten—would lose their minds and charge headlong, spears or no spears in our infantry's phalanx.
After all, in this era, honor mattered more to nobles and the ruling class than their own lives.
Plus, the Franco Republic preached it was a nation of the people, but aside from ditching the emperor, they kept the class system and hereditary estates intact.
In the end, equal opportunity applied only to the top 1% who owned land—a world for nobles in all but name. Rotten democracy, plain and simple.
"No matter how insane they were, I could never have imagined vermin less than human—utterly ignoring the bare minimum of morality set by His Holiness—could brazenly exist in this world."
With that, General Patton raised the Imperial flag high in both hands from horseback and bellowed as he waved it.
"Yet Deus, as expected, showed us a miracle: the 10,000-strong army led by Division Commander Pompadour utterly annihilated by mere 4,000 under Brigadier General Jaeger! Hasn't He already proven we're in the right?!"
It was my plan and exactly as I'd foreseen, so I didn't shed a tear, of course.
But some of the soldiers beside me, and even a few junior officers, were so moved by General Patton's speech that their eyes started to redden.
"Heed His warning through the whip of excommunication and repent! Even now, reflect deeply on the sins you've committed to earn it. Beg the Empire and His Holiness for forgiveness and pay the price for your crimes. Fail to do so, and you will pay the full penalty for your sins!"
With this speech, the enemy infantry's morale might plummet so low that our knights need only charge with lances to make them weep and lose all will to fight.
Of course, with political officers and supervising officers holding swords at their sides, they wouldn't scatter immediately.
But the moment any gap appeared, they'd bolt without regard for front or rear.
Because nobody wants to die, and even less to end up in hell.
"If you refuse, so be it! Like Division Commander Pompadour in Hatten Forest, come crush our infantry with the knightly charges the Franco Republic so boasts of! If we're wrong and you're right in the eyes of Deus, won't He aid you?"
With that, General Patton calmly withdrew. Duke Valois, visibly fuming even from afar, hurled curses back at him.
The Imperial soldiers, deeply inspired by General Patton's speech, cheered with such fervor it seemed they'd break into applause.
"Long live the General! Long live the Empire! Long live His Imperial Majesty the Emperor!"
"Fuck those Franco knights—they don't scare me one bit! We're gonna win!"
"Deus, protect us!"
Having secured an overwhelming victory in the initial war of words and morale, Duke Valois pulled his forces back 500 meters.
The unit leaders for our mages, crossbowmen, and archers—capable of ranged attacks—hurriedly began preparations.
"Crossbowmen, mages, archers—forward and ready to fire!"
"Pull every arrow from your quivers and stick 'em in the ground! It's faster that way!"
"Get right up to the base of the hill and hit it with Water Balls to soak it! Make it harder for their mounted knights to climb. That'll give us the edge later!"
As we all scrambled to prepare, a massive trumpet blast echoed from ahead, accompanied by the rhythmic stomp of infantry boots and the ground trembling beneath them.
The real battle was about to begin.
"We will surely win. So don't fear—thrust your long spears at the enemy and hold the line. That's how we triumph."