Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Madon's Rout
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Swoosh! The infantry in the rear lines set down their swords and shields and raised their bows.
It was the first day of the battle. Thanks to Ilya, who had taken Als's request, airlifting in a massive number of bows along with warhorses from the surrounding territories, their numbers were enormous.
In an instant, the number of archers surpassed 10,000.
Madon had thought it was to operate horse archers, but the opposite was true. Gathering the warhorses had merely been a ruse to collect the bows.
"Don't stop shooting! I promise a reward to the first one to empty their quiver!"
"Roaaar!"
The soldiers, their morale boosted, fired their bows wildly.
Normally, it was impossible to field this many archers.
No matter what, arrows would run out. Thus, the standard was to maintain archers only with soldiers skilled in archery. That way, the limited arrows could be used effectively.
"Ah, ahh...!"
Madon's army, caught on both flanks.
Realizing they'd been had, Julian's jaw trembled.
"General! Arrows are pouring in! Take cover now!"
Usually, arrows would be blocked by shields, halving their power, but when caught on both sides like this, it was different.
Block one side, and arrows would hit from the other.
As a result, Madon's camp turned into total chaos from arrows raining in from both directions.
"General! Take cover now...!"
"It's over."
"Yes!?"
"It's over, I said...!"
The moment they yielded both flanks, it was already a checkmate.
It wasn't a matter of holding out.
Caliper just needed to keep shooting arrows.
"But their arrows aren't infinite! If we endure just a little...!"
"No, they're practically infinite. And that's because... we've shot that many...!"
Caliper's army had recycled over 60% of the arrows Madon had fired. The quivers issued to the soldiers weren't just one each, but four or five.
10,000 archers, each with that many arrows.
Just like Zhuge Liang had obtained arrows from Cao Cao through a deception tactic.
Als had made the enemy think everything was going their way, completing the picture he desired.
By showing horse archers, he lured the enemy closer. Once close, he made them conscious of the cavalry on both flanks. Then he turned that cavalry into arrow catchers, collecting a massive amount of arrows.
Caught in the illusion that everything was going according to plan, Julian had bypassed 5,000 guerrilla troops, including 3,000 cavalry. This created the gap Als could tactically exploit.
"Moreover, the soldiers' execution of this tactic... They're no mere conscripts!"
Caliper's forces here consisted of 3,000 Caliper regulars and 20,000 soldiers from Kurabel.
Naturally, they wouldn't waver or lose morale from the guerrilla bypass maneuver.
So where were the conscripts?
All under Lutger's command.
Following Als's orders, Lutger had strongly repelled Yussis's attack from the very first clash. This was to make them mistake those forces for regulars.
Lutger, who knew Yussis's temperament and tactical abilities inside out, perfectly executed Als's orders. Julian ended up mistaken, thinking a large number of regulars were deployed in the Polldik Mountains.
The preparatory work for that had been mixing the soldiers' uniforms.
Before distributing the forces, they had mixed all the uniforms of Kurabel soldiers, Caliper regulars, and conscripts, then randomly reassigned them. This made it impossible for Madon to distinguish forces by uniform.
This meant Als had planned from the very start up to this situation.
"He played me like a fiddle in the palm of his hand! Wade...!!"
Endless arrows raining down.
In various spots among the archer units, master archers dispatched by Eonia were commanding the archers.
Madon's infantry tried to close in to take out those archer units but were blocked by the already-formed infantry phalanxes and halted.
The cavalry that had headed to the rear hurriedly accelerated into a charge, but their numbers were too few.
If the 3,000 cavalry extracted as guerrillas had been there, they might have broken through, but what wasn't there, wasn't. This meant Als had even read Julian's bypass stratagem.
If Julian had prepared a bypass to shatter Als's defensive strategy, Als had prepared a counter-tactic to shatter that stratagem.
In this battle of wits, Als held the upper hand.
"We'll be annihilated like this. Full retreat! Everyone, retreat!"
At Julian's retreat signal, Madon's soldiers lost all discipline.
Even in retreat, discipline was essential, but with arrows pouring down, they had no chance to maintain it.
"A gap has opened."
Madon's forces were already concentrated on both flanks, so in the retreat, a massive space opened in the center.
Als fired an arrow wrapped in red cloth high into the sky with a whistle. Eonia, waiting in the center, saw the signal and pierced through.
"Haaah!"
Boom! Madon's soldiers were swept away.
Eonia rapidly closed in on Julian's position and began fierce combat with his close staff officers.
Julian tried to escape in the chaos, but arrows struck—thunk! thunk!—one in the calf, one in the thigh, and he collapsed.
"Urk! Damn...!"
As a strategist, not a warrior, Julian had no choice when Eonia finished off the staff officers and approached.
"I surrender! Treat me as a prisoner!"
"Hmph!"
Thud! Eonia kicked Julian in the head, knocking him out, then shouted.
"I've captured the enemy general! This battle is a complete victory for the great Lord Wade!"
Roooaaar!! Cheers echoed across Setes Plains.
The Caliper army led by Als lost 3,000 warhorses and suffered 5,000 casualties, but out of Madon's 25,000 troops, they killed 10,000 and captured 9,000 alive.
The remaining Madon soldiers scattered in defeat.
*
*
*
Meanwhile, Madon's guerrilla unit that had bypassed.
Draken, commanding that guerrilla unit, narrowed his eyes at the eerie atmosphere.
He had divided the unit into groups of 600 and ordered them to plunder the surrounding territories, personally leading the cavalry to strike the deepest one, Tirran.
But there was nothing.
"This is..."
Not even a dog's tail in sight.
"Captain. There's plenty left to plunder."
Valuables and food were still intact in the territory.
"If they didn't take the food, they must have evacuated recently."
Likely just hours before the guerrillas set out, they had urgently evacuated. Which meant.
"That bastard Wade read Craig's scheme...?"
Sniff! Sniff! Suddenly sniffing something, Draken turned his gaze in one direction.
"This way. Follow me!"
"What about the territory? Shouldn't we destroy it?"
"No time! Hurry!"
The place he tracked the scent to was the fortress city of Ashton. The territory's residents had huddled there for evacuation, and 2,000 soldiers were encamped, holding the fortress.
Most of those 2,000 were militia hastily donning helmets and armor.
"They evacuated here. Captain, what do we do?"
"What do you mean? Even if rabble are guarding it, we don't have the capacity for a siege!"
At the same time, a report came from another guerrilla unit.
"Message from Jeremiah's unit raiding Libel! No people in Libel! They've plundered and burned it all, awaiting next orders!"
"They've definitely evacuated to the nearby military fortress, Jumelt Gate. Same for the others."
They could destroy the towns but not kill the core residents. Half a success.
"But isn't that fine?"
Draken's adjutant said.
"They've done something stupid. Holding a siege without taking the territory's food. No way they have enough stockpiled to feed that many in the fortress. They'll collapse from food shortages in less than two days."
"Probably."
It was a desperate measure to avoid plunder, but overall, not a good one.
"If we just surround them, the situation will resolve itself. Caliper's forces at Setes Crossroads will be wiped out too. Supplies will be cut off soon with the surrounding territories paralyzed."
A situation favoring Madon.
But Draken shuddered! with instinctive chill.
"The problem is that Wade wouldn't fail to anticipate that. If he read our bypass from the start, he wouldn't have them evacuate on this razor-thin timing. He'd have moved the food ahead and evacuated thoroughly."
"Maybe he just realized late?"
"Then some territories would have been too late to evacuate. For every territory to evacuate this swiftly means he warned them in advance."
"That's... Then why? Why would the enemy do something this stupid...?"
"He wanted as many guerrilla units formed as possible. If they knew we'd discover the prior evacuation, we'd reduce the guerrillas or not form them at all."
Draken turned his gaze toward Setes Plains.
"In other words, the enemy wanted our main army weakened. To devour it in that fleeting moment."
"Even so, we have about 2,000 more! And in just a little time, we'll be far superior!"
"Yes, if we hold out just today, we'll have a big advantage."
Draken couldn't shake the foreboding.
'That bastard Wade has prepared something to finish Julian's main force in short order. What the hell is it?'
Julian Craig wasn't some roadside general. How could he settle it in this short time?
'Whether that guy's scheme worked or not—that's the most important thing now.'
With nothing left to plunder, the guerrilla units could only wait for news.
"We'll besiege this place for now. Relay to the guerrilla units that finished plundering territories: Surround the fortresses where the residents evacuated!"
"Yes!"
Just 3 hours after surrounding the fortress and waiting.
As the sun set and darkness fell, one unit approached them.
It was Ilya Anpei's 1,000-strong guerrilla unit.
Following Als's orders, Ilya—who had induced the residents' evacuation—targeted Draken, the focal point of the guerrillas.
"Madon's guerrillas, hear this! Your main force at Setes Plains has been annihilated! Your movements are meaningless struggles, so if you value your lives, surrender immediately!"
"Bullshit!"
Draken's adjutant bellowed.
"You think that bluff will work!?"
"Hmph, you think it's a bluff? Being guerrillas, your intel must be slow? Well, can't be helped. Your main force, who should deliver the info, is all done for. No choice then. I'll take those worthless lives. Unit, battle ready!"
Ilya's unit assumed combat formation.
"Captain Draken! Order the charge now! We'll slaughter them all!"
"..."
Draken's instinct told him Ilya's words weren't a bluff.
'Did Julian really fall? In just a few hours...!'
If so, as Ilya said, the guerrilla units deep in Caliper territory were dead pieces. Surrender was wisest.
"Captain, it's definitely a bluff. If true, why would they bother fighting us?"
"...!"
That was true too. If Caliper's main army that crushed Madon's had come to tighten the noose on the guerrillas, they could force surrender without fighting.
Yet Ilya insisted on battle.
"No way..."
In that instant, Draken envisioned the worst. Not just Setes Crossroads, but every battlefield could end in disaster.
'If he planned that far ahead, he's truly terrifying. Wade!'
Grip! He clutched his greatsword.
"Is there truly nothing left I can do? Damn, damn, damn!"
As a pureblood beastman, his rage made him roar like a feral beast.
"Dying idle like this pisses me off most! Battle ready! Kill them all!"
Both units entered night battle after sunset.
Ilya's had 400 more, but Draken's were all cavalry.
Normally cavalry would dominate, but night battle's difficulty in commanding cavalry made their strengths even.
"Raise shields and thrust spears! Fear not the cavalry! Block their charge, and we can crush them!"
Ilya, dubbed cavalry mixer in the game. She effectively positioned soldiers to absorb the cavalry charge and drag it into melee chaos.
"Krahaha! Not bad, Caliper scum! Raaah!"
Crunch! Draken cleaved a Caliper soldier with his greatsword. Spotting Ilya, he charged.
"Dieee!"
"You're the one."
Draken's horse charged in.
Ilya charged straight at it instead.
"What...!?"
"Haat!"
Clang! She deflected Draken's greatsword with her spear shaft, slid under on the ground, and slash! severed the horse's leg with her left-hand sword.
"Urk!"
Scraaape! Draken somehow rolled into a stance.
He mercy-killed the horse thrashing in agony, then faced Ilya.
"A female mercenary using Chester Style... Guderian once told me. A disciple with potential to surpass him had appeared—even a woman, he said."
"You know my master?"
"Of course. Though it's been ages since I saw his face. Shame. To kill my friend's prized disciple with my own hands."
"I feel the same. To cut down my master's old friend—it's sad."
"Krah! Good spirit! Come on!"
Their weapons clashed fiercely.
After over 400 exchanges in a prolonged duel, Ilya subdued Draken, capturing him alive and annihilating his unit, the guerrillas' linchpin.