Munitions Empire

On the other side, in the military formation of Suthers, atop a gentle slope, Tucci was riding his warhorse, staring intently at the flanking battlefield enveloped in black smoke.

His trusted troops had crossed the roadbed over there, but battle broke out quickly. Things were developing in a direction beyond his expectations, and they seemed to be growing increasingly out of control.

That bizarre explosion and the unprecedented sound of gunfire filled Tucci with unease, until he saw a Knight galloping toward him, bringing news that somewhat shocked him.

"General! There’s half a battalion of enemy forces on the other side of the road! Our troops are already lining up for battle!" the Knight reported the latest news and then stopped in place, waiting for Tucci’s command.

Tucci looked toward another subordinate and immediately ordered, "Take men to reinforce them, wipe out that isolated force of the Northern Ridge!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the officer was preparing to lead men away. But at that moment, another Knight came rushing over, stopped next to Tucci, and reported loudly, "General! Captain Mars sent me to request reinforcements...the enemy..."

"It’s too late..." Tucci said with a wry smile, shaking his head, "Mars is my most formidable commander, and he has sent out two messengers so quickly... The situation over there must be worse than I thought."

While speaking, he turned to the subordinate who had just been about to lead the troops out: "Forced march! Leave the artillery! Get there as fast as you can and help Mars stabilize the front!"

"Yes, General!" The officer left briskly with the orders, while in the direction of the village, another round of dense gunfire erupted, and the Legion led by Viscount Romel, which had just managed to organize a third charge, was again repulsed.

The soldiers of Suthers, dirty and dispirited, seemed unable to muster the courage to climb over that seemingly frail low wall anymore.

In this tiny crossroads, Suthers’ famed commander Tucci, along with the Viscount Romel-led 4,500 men and three Legions, were now mired in battle for almost two hours, still making no progress.

"It’s not just a battalion! Absolutely not!" Tucci frowned, repeatedly scrutinizing the battlefields on both sides, then said to his adjutant, "It can’t be just one battalion! How could there be such sustained intense gunfire on both fronts?"

"But... General, if the enemy has arranged half their forces here, doesn’t that mean on the main battlefield, a mere 800 of them are facing our army of 5,000?" the adjutant said, rather shocked.

"Strange... Everything here oozes strangeness!" Tucci couldn’t make sense of it and complained to his adjutant in irritation, "Could it be that Northern Ridge actually has two legions? An army of 3,000?"

"That might be possible..." the adjutant mused, "Fisheo is cunning and sly, probably hiding some forces and only revealing them at the critical moment..."

"That’s why I hate these schemers the most." Tucci gripped the reins of his warhorse, gritting his teeth, "Those bastards from Shireck swore to me that Northern Ridge’s armories couldn’t possibly arm so many troops!"

"They said they sent Northern Ridge a large batch of defective firearms, claiming that once the battle started, the Northern Ridge troops would collapse quickly..." he gestured toward the distant village as he spoke: "Yet at this insignificant crossroads, I’ve been held up by a force of over 700 men!"

He did not yet know that Tang Mo’s force truly comprised only one battalion, which was just slightly overstrength, and not the familiar battalion-size he knew.

Nor did he know that the battalion that had routed his top commander, Mars, consisted of two companies under Tang Mo’s command, not some force with an advantage in numbers.

Of course, he was also unaware that Mars’s forces had since been thoroughly defeated, and his three Legions, a total of 4,500 soldiers, were already close to losing half their combat effectiveness...

Before his eyes, a group of Suthers soldiers abandoned the heavy artillery and disordered baggage behind them and began moving towards the road.

But before these soldiers could reach the vicinity of the road, some routed troops from the other side fled back in utter disarray.

These routed troops collided with their own lines, plunging the already somewhat disordered troops, tired from the march, into even greater chaos.

Tucci’s eyes widened in disbelief as he watched his own forces retreat in defeat, his mind momentarily shutting down.

He truly had not expected that his most valued and daring commander, leading 500 men in a battalion on a mission, would be crushed by the enemy in less than an hour.

According to his experience, even if the enemy had more than double the forces, Mars should have been able to hold out for at least three hours!

"What happened? What happened? What’s going on?" Tucci subconsciously reined in his mount, his warhorse turning in place as if snorting noisily because of its rider’s agitation. 𐍂äꞐȫＢĘS

He had led 3,000 men from the south toward the northwest, with the intention of pincering Fisheo, to eliminate this persistent troublemaker obstructing his army’s southern advance.

As long as he eliminated Fisheo and advanced into Northern Ridge, he could eliminate the risk of the enemy’s pincer attack surrounding the southern legion. Strategically, he would be indomitable.

For this purpose, he brought a full 3,000 men, added to the 1,500 men under Viscount Romel, plus the original army of 5,000 already in front of the Northern Ridge Legion, totaling over six legions, nearly 10,000 men in military strength.

The advantage is ours! The excitement was written all over his face! He felt so assured of victory that he couldn’t even conceive how his force of 10,000 could possibly lose against a force of 1,500.

However, what he hadn’t anticipated was that even without encountering Fisheo, he fought a battle at this obscure three-way junction against an unidentified opponent.

And at this moment, he saw that the disturbance on the road seemed to intensify. Raising his telescope, he looked through the lens and saw some military forces he had never seen before appearing on the other side of the road.

These troops marched in orderly strides across the highway, took up positions to overlook it, and aimed their rifles at the chaotic Suthers troops below. powered-by-MvLeMpYr

A cloud of white smoke billowed, followed belatedly by the sound of gunfire, and these soldiers from their superior position, after firing their shots, began to reload amidst the rolling smoke.

They didn’t lower their rifles, nor did they pull out the cleaning rod below the barrel to clear the chamber.

These unfamiliar soldiers merely lowered their rifle barrels slightly, cocked the bolt on the side, then swiftly blew through the chamber and jammed in a new bullet.

In Tucci’s astonished gaze, the soldiers took only a dozen seconds to lift their rifles and pull the trigger once more against the nearby Suthers troops.

The second volley arrived as expected, and Tucci felt his throat go dry, even shouting orders became a struggle.

He even wanted to rush over, snatch a weapon from the hands of the enemy, and take a close look at what exactly it was.

The aide-de-camp, seeing the chaos in the distance, turned to his superior. Seeing Tucci standing bewildered, he had no choice but to pluck up the courage and ask, "General! The enemy troops are crossing the road… Our troops are too disorganized, should we call a retreat?"

"Have them retreat! Mas’s troops have collapsed… If he comes back, bring him to me," Tucci snapped back to his senses, grudgingly accepting the reality that the force he sent out in an attempt to encircle the enemy was pushed back by the enemy.

The signalmen, receiving the order, immediately sprang into action. They rode their tall horses down from the hillock and dashed toward the chaotic crowd.

What Tucci and his officers didn’t notice was that, in the distance on another high ground, which was by the road, Tang Mo stood there, watching the hillock full of knights, and put down his telescope.

"Do you see that hillock over there?" Tang Mo pointed towards Tucci’s breakthrough position and turned to ask a soldier.

"I see it! Sir!" The soldier immediately nodded to show that he had seen it clearly.

"Calculate the parameters with me! Using the artillery position as the reference!" Tang Mo glanced at the intentionally chosen artillery trainee standing with him, and said, "You are the top of your class in artillery! Don’t be nervous! Just do what needs to be done."

Tang Mo knew his troops were few, and it would be impossible to sweep the entire battlefield with casualties. It was practically impossible for just under 200 men to launch an attack and crush 2,000.

So, he never expected his infantry to sweep the battlefield; all he wanted was to locate the enemy’s command post and bombard it with artillery fire.

His artillery had a range of 3 kilometers, sufficient to cover the entire battlefield. As long as the parameters were calculated correctly and the firing data were accurate, he was confident that with his new artillery shells, he could take out the enemy’s command structure.

This was his tactic, and also roughly the least costly option. Thus, he gave a thumbs-up towards the distant hillock.

The artillery trainee not far from him also raised his thumb, starting to measure the distance. He was focused and dedicated, as if the fierce combat on the battlefield had nothing to do with him.

Soon, Tang Mo braced a notebook against his waist and wrote down a set of coordinate parameters. The artillery trainee likewise jotted down a number and handed it to Tang Mo.

The two numbers were very close, which indicated that there shouldn’t be any significant problem with the precision of this figure. Tang Mo tore off the page from his notebook, handed it together with the trainee’s note to a soldier holding a horse beside him: "Take this to Redman! Tell him, this time, don’t miss!"

"Yes, sir!" The soldier mounted his horse, yanked the reins, and sprinted back in the direction they had come from.

In the distance, Tucci stood on the hillock on his tall horse, just catching sight of a blurry figure standing on the road. He instinctively stared at the figure, who also seemed to sense that the shadow was observing him.

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