Chapter 295
The battle on the high ground lasted for nearly half an hour. Schroeder, Claude, Tirpitz and other senior officers personally led the team to participate in hand-to-hand combat and finally recaptured the artillery position.
No matter how experienced the mercenaries are on the battlefield and have rich combat experience, they cannot stop the close cooperation of more than 600 Alda soldiers. What’s more, the mercenaries on the highlands are mostly longbowmen, and close combat is not What they were best at, they ultimately failed helplessly.
As for the ordinary soldiers sent to protect the longbowmen, they were frightened after seeing the power of the musket fire.
In Paul's design, the army under his command will not follow the elite route, but will rely more on discipline and organization. Soldiers must absolutely obey the orders of their superiors, even if the order is not the best or even the best. Be obedient even if you have flaws.
They don't need to be proficient in all skills, but they must be proficient in their own skills, perform their duties during battle, and complete tasks with good collective organization and division of labor and a spirit of self-sacrifice, just like ants or bees.
Of course, due to the limitations of the era, the so-called "elite soldiers" in this era are not very elite, so the quality of Alda's individual soldiers can be regarded as the taller among the dwarfs. Just based on the per capita literacy level. Xiang can crush most of the soldiers in the army.
In short, the Duke's army in the highlands faced a powerful opponent that was half a generation or even a generation beyond them.
Leaving a pile of wounded people lying on the ground groaning, the duke's army retreated into the woods in the opposite direction to Arda's army.
Schroeder ordered the battlefield to be cleared quickly. The first thing was to check the damage of the artillery.
Fortunately, although there were signs of being moved, not a single artillery piece was pulled away and all remained on the position. However, more than half of the artillery mounts were damaged.
"Why didn't you get the artillery away earlier?"
Schroeder was very surprised and interrogated the wounded prisoners who stayed on the position.
“Those Southerners (mercenaries) boasted that they have seen all the weapons in the world. There is nothing they can’t use, so they wanted to use these thunder hammers to bombard you, but later they saw you hit them. , and couldn’t pull it away in time, so it destroyed the shelf below.”
The prisoner’s answer made Schroeder laugh a few times. This is the first time in history that weapons like artillery have appeared, even for mercenaries. How could he play with it despite being well-informed, not to mention that the artillerymen also moved down the gunpowder when they retreated.
"Immediately use the intact artillery to bombard the enemy, and at the same time organize the artillery to repair the damaged gun mount."
Schroeder immediately issued the order.
……
Ferguson and Emerson are still waiting eagerly for news.
Previously, they sent an army to attack in a roundabout way where the Arda people deployed the thunder hammer. They fell into ecstasy after seeing the flag indicating success raised. According to the next plan, the army on the high ground will fight with the front. The attacking troops flanked the Ardaeans,
I saw a group of enemy troops below moving to the high ground. Ferguson lost no time in ordering the renovated troops to launch a second attack, either to eat up the enemy troops who stayed in place, or to force the enemy troops to counterattack the high ground. Return support.
Subsequent developments disappointed Ferguson and Emerson. The Alda army that stayed in place remained motionless, and the cavalry and infantry in the frontal attack continued to kill people. What was even worse was that the side of the enemy erected on the high ground The flag fell.
"They are back!" An attendant rushed over to report.
Then a group of dejected and ashamed people came to Fergus and Emerson.
They knew what the situation was without them opening their mouths. Fergus asked with a cold face: "Where is the thunder hammer?"
The leading team leader did not dare to raise his head, and shook his head with his head drooped.
Fergus was stunned: "You didn't bring any of them back?"
There was a long silence after that. "Trash!"
The mercenary captain was furious, raised his whip and whipped his subordinates hard.
"You guys have been up there for so long, and you can't even pull back as many doors as you can with all your manpower?"
The squad leader felt uncomfortable after being beaten, so he defended himself and said, "Sir Fergus, the rack carrying the thunder hammer Although it was equipped with wheels, the Arda people took away all the horses on the highlands when they retreated. Such cunning guys also locked the wheels, so we couldn't go far by dragging or carrying them manually, so we had to Think about how to use them to deal with the Arda people."
Fergus stopped cracking his whip and asked with a livid face: "What have you gained?" But he saw that after the mercenaries captured the high ground. , there was no movement from the thunder hammer on the high ground. It was obvious that his subordinates had no clue.
"Well...because the opponent counterattacked too quickly, we haven't figured out how to use them yet, but there is a brazier next to them, which is obviously related to fire."
Fergus 1 Staring: "Do you need to talk nonsense? There is such a big smoke when launching, do you think I am blind?"
The team leader suddenly said in a hurry: "There is another important message. There is a strong strange smell permeating the highlands. The smell seems to be... it seems to be..."
He scratched his head and scratched his head, thinking quickly in his mind Recalling the smell he had smelled, he suddenly slapped his forehead and shouted loudly: "That's right! It's sulfur. That strange smell should be the smell of burning sulfur."
"Sulfur?"
Fergus and Emerson asked questions at the same time, and they looked at each other. Sulfur is a very common ignition substance, but no matter how violent the burning is, it cannot be associated with the earth-shattering sound when the thunder hammer is launched. There must be something else.
Emerson sat on the horse and leaned down and asked: "Have you carefully seen the specific structure of the thunder hammer?"
The mercenary squad leader touched the back of his head and said, "The structure is very simple. It's just a big metal pipe. Some are made of bronze and some are made of iron." Draw a picture."
"Yes, sir"
While Emerson and others were discussing Thunder Hammer, the Arda army began to attack them. Artillery bombarded this side, and many troops deployed in the front began to move backwards without orders to avoid the whizzing artillery shells.
Both Fergus and Emerson could see that after the failure of roundabout attacks on the side and the failure of multiple frontal attacks, the morale of the troops had dropped to the extreme.
"Damn, this is the first time I have encountered such a small number of strong opponents." Fergus complained bitterly in his heart. In his previous war career, he had encountered difficult opponents not only once or twice, but that This was when the strength of the two sides was not much different, and in today's battle, even after the other side received reinforcements, his own number was three times that of the enemy.
The result was such a disgrace...
Fergus looked to the north and saw that the Ardas were moving this way in a horizontal formation. The formation was so neat that it was easy to see from a distance. There was an illusion - it was not individual people, but a moving wall, full of oppression.
"Lord Emerson?"
The mercenary captain no longer had the same arrogance when he spoke.
Emerson nodded unwillingly: "Oh... withdraw."
The battle on the border of the duchy finally came to an end.
(End of this chapter)