Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 252: Ready

The following afternoon, Claude received a message from the battalion. Major Ledfank, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Rangers, did not take any decision on the Claude report. He simply handed over to Claude the hostility that had befallen him on this side of Squirrel Village, whether it was retreat or defense, at Claude's disposal. Meanwhile, in his letter, he informed Claude of the situation in some of the southern three counties and of the current predicament faced by the 1st Battalion of the Rangers, and it was easy for Claude to conclude that Major Ledfank hoped that his side would be able to secure this important front-line gate in Squirrel Village and not allow militias of the aristocrats of those territories to enter the southern three counties.

In March, the troops of the former Kingdom of Orvilas competed for seconds to build a temporarily accessible heavy artillery and logistical heavy road in the Picklet Mountains, placing the Blue Feather Regiment and two second-line regiments in the southern three counties of the Principality of Eskilin order to survive the rainy season. Upon arrival in April, the Blue Feather Regiment, with a second-line regiment, set up a line of defense along the border between the three southern counties and the Principality of Rimodra, blocking the exit route of hundreds of thousands of anti-Olympic allied forces deployed in the Principality of Rimodra.

Another second-line regiment was deployed in the area bordering the eastern part of the Principality of Eskilin in preparation for counter-attacks by the remaining forces of the Principality of Eskilin against the three southern counties. As originally planned by Front Line Command, more than a dozen local guard battalions were to be deployed after the rainy season to the three southern counties through that temporary mountain path in the Piclett Mountains to prepare for tasks such as policing and collecting supplies. Unfortunately, however, heavy rains during the rainy season washed down that temporary passage in the Picklet Mountains, preventing either personnel or supplies from entering the three southern counties, and it is estimated that it will take a month and a half to repair and restore access to this temporary passage.

As a result, all the forces currently deployed in the Kingdom of Ovilas in the three southern counties have become de facto isolated, and the rear is unable to provide them with supplies and the delivery of reserves unless they last two months or the demise of all the anti-Olympic coalition forces in the Principality of Rimodra. But what is now happening is that the anti-Olympic coalition forces of the Principality of Rimodra have been so stupidly moving that they have been carrying out constant fire reconnaissance on the front lines for some time now and have been carrying out probative attacks against the Blue Feathers' defensive front.

Nor can the Duchy of Eskirin in the east wait to be killed, and they are well aware that the demise of the Principality of Eskirin is imminent once hundreds of thousands of coalitions deployed in the Principality of Rimodra have been overthrown by both sides of the Royal Auveras Army. So they similarly assembled all the local guards and drastically recruited new recruits to form two temporary regiments ready to attack the three southern counties. The second-line regiment deployed in the east has been unable to compete with the fierce enemy, and the current battle situation is one that the defensive front can sustain...

The deployment of the Blue Feather Regiment and the two second-line regiments on the front line resulted in inadequate internal guard capacity in the three southern counties and a lack of repressive and policing armed forces. Before the March rainy season, the youth of the three southern counties were vigorously recruited to build temporary highways in the Picklet Mountains, causing a number of casualties, so that the population of the three southern counties was extremely dissatisfied with the occupying forces of the Kingdom of Ovilas.

Following the arrival of April, the Principality of Eskirin dispatched a large number of agents into the three southern counties to incite and organize clandestine resistance by many people to the occupation and material collection operations of the Royal Oberas Army. The current state of insecurity in the southern three counties, the high incidence of local riots, the fatigue of the guard force in several large towns and the continued failure to quell the resistance in various parts of the country.

The same is true of the 1st Battalion of Rangers stationed in the town of Rocha, which, thanks to the prior abolition of a number of minor post checkpoints by Major Ledfank, also has three squadron reserves in the battalion headquarters to deal with those layers of resistance and local riots. Major Ledfank, in his letter, told Claude that fewer than one squadron was now unable to go out and repress local resistance. Simply put, the three southern counties are now like a volcano that is building up explosive power, just don't know when it will erupt...

Although Major Ledfank left the hostility to Squirrel Village to Claude to decide, the lines in the letter indicated that he did not wish Claude to withdraw, adopting Sergeant Markzi's suggestion to concentrate his troops on guarding the entrance to the hillside, where defensive positions would be set up to the point where the enemy's logistical supplies would not be able to pull back.

In his letter, Major Ledfank pointed to the fact that a total of three squadrons were deployed to guard this Ranger Battalion. The first is Claude, followed by Muried's squadron in Blackstone Village, and finally by a squadron at the entrance to the hill. If Claude resolves to retreat, there will be no need to guard this highway.

If Claude decides to withdraw, that squadron in Muried in Blackstone Village cannot be guarded either, because the terrain there is even less defensive than that of Squirrel Village. The attacking enemy can easily go around the hillside to launch an attack. You know that Muried, a squadron arranged in Blackstone Village, is mainly responsible for picking up, breaking down the hillside after being attacked by the enemy on Claude's side, in case the enemy rapidly passes through the hillside in front of Squirrel Village, surrounding Claude's section from the rear and making it lonely.

As for the hillside entrance on the southern tri-county side, although a squadron was also deployed, the terrain on the hillside entrance was even less suitable for setting up defensive positions. Because the terrain at the entrance is equally imminent, even if it blocks the enemy's attack in the front, the enemy is perfectly capable of opening a new path from the side and bypassing the defensive positions into the three southern counties. The hillside entrance is full of sparse woods and hills, and even if Claude gathers three squadrons, he can't defend that long a defensive front.

If you want to block the entrance, you need a battalion of troops to be able to allocate it. But at present, the first battalion of the guerrillas is fragmented and divided between the various key points for guarding, and Major Ledfank is powerless. He doesn't have a lot of people on his hands, and he needs to be in charge of guarding the town of Rosa.

So Major Ledfank hoped that Claude would be able to resist the incursions of aristocratic militias from the forthcoming territory in Squirrel Village, and of course he didn't want Claude to die for nothing. He left Claude to decide whether to fight or withdraw. If it's best to stick to it, he can bite his teeth and squadron his strength and deliver to Claude a shipment of heavy logistical items such as ammunition and food. The only regret was that battalion headquarters could only provide Claude with one more light infantry cannon at most, and the two sides could not fit together.

The pigeon message from the battalion was placed on the table, and Claude knocked on the table and said, "I've decided to fight a defensive battle here to block the enemy's offenders. Communicators immediately sent a letter to the battalion headquarters, informing them of my decision and requesting their support as soon as possible. Sergeant Markzi, you are in charge of the first squad, dispatching reconnaissance personnel to ascertain the strength and equipment of the two enemies and to determine the date of their attack.

The second and third squadrons, responsible for the construction and reinforcement of defensive positions, I ask you to dig up the road ahead and lay the wooden rows temporarily for passage. That way, even if the enemy attacks, it can delay them, even if they can bury the craters on these highways, within our range of fire. I'd like to see how much the enemy pays to fix the road.

Team 4, which is responsible for the construction of the barrier between the cantonment camp and Squirrel Village and the excavation of trenches, avoids an enemy attack from the rear of Squirrel Village. Artillery team, responsible for the positioning of artillery, the defense and concealment of artillery. McJackie, you go to Blackstone Village this afternoon and have Sergeant Muriel come right over. I need to talk to him about picking up and stationing, and if we can't resist the enemy's attack, I need his squadron to provide security for our evacuation route... ”

Markie stayed at the end, and he looked at Claude desperately: "Sir, are you sure you don't want to withdraw? ”

After all, it's more than 2,000 enemies, and even with that squadron from battalion, it's less than 120. This is almost a 20-to-1 force comparison. In the view of Markzi, the veteran oil, Claude's decision to insist on defending himself here is self-immolation, and the countdown of all lives has begun...

Claude patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "Even if we retreat, is there anything more dangerous than the terrain down the hill? No. Since World War I is inevitable, here we are, at least, taking advantage of the terrain. Although there are many enemies, they are territorial aristocratic militias with little combat power. I think there's a good chance that we'll be able to resist the enemy attack, and maybe after the victory, your shoulder tag will be just like mine. ”

Veteran oils like Mark's were purely frightened by the enemy's strength, and in his experience, one side more than one would definitely win. And now the enemy ratio reaches twenty to one, so he thinks it's definitely a dead end. If he wants to retreat, he can only live a little longer and earn a little more, but even if he retreats, he can't avoid the end of a defensive war. Claude's defensive plan to fight in Squirrel Village is to see the terrain, even if the final retreat is to give the enemy a harsh memory and kill as many enemies as possible.

Markie bit his teeth: "Forget it, let's go crazy with you. If I really want to die here, it is my destiny to meet such a foolish lieutenant as you as the top boss...”

Mark took the horse with him to the first squad for reconnaissance.

Claude smiled and shook his head and said to the big man, "Go, go to Squirrel Village and meet the village elder. ”

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Claude would not allow the villagers of Squirrel Village to remain in the village, and he decided to let the village elder move the villagers to Blackstone Village with him until the battle was over. The village elder, who was reasonable, promised Claude's relocation, but offered to send the village's labor to help Claude build a defensive position. Claude was pleased with the decision to compensate these villagers with a stock of food supplies.

All things are going on in a tense, chaotic and orderly manner, only in the passage of time, with no indication of the arrival of so-called aristocratic militias from the territory. Furious and angry, Marquette went into the dungeon as a makeshift prison to interrogate the agent again and beat him up. Agents believed Dandan's words were all true. Before his departure, his lord said that he would leave the army as soon as he returned. What should have happened if nothing had happened.

Another four days later, the squadron supported by the battalion arrived in Squirrel Village. What surprised Claude greatly was that the squadron leader leading the squadron was Diaved, who said he had led the squadron to support himself after receiving information from the battalion.

Now that Claude has two squadrons, nearly a hundred, Diavid is not bringing this squadron in full strength, only forty-five. His squadron killed and injured nine soldiers in the crackdown on local riots in the southern three counties, and six more are currently in the battalion treatment facility. Mark, this squadron is fully staffed with 54 men, plus three artillery units of 15, Claude, McJackie, Big Grimes and a telecommuter from battalion headquarters, for a total of 118 men. This gives Claude an extra confidence in resisting enemy offenders.

Only after all the defensive preparations had been completed, the enemy was found to be slow. After Marky gave up the idea of retreating, he stopped being afraid to die and took the initiative to dive into the name of Roycade. Count Ba Krillause's territory went to spy on hostilities and was almost discovered. He came back with good, bad news for Claude.

The good news is that Roy Cade. The private militias assembled by Count Ba Krillaus are indeed a crowd apart from the fact that the two squadrons are armed with approximately the same strength as the local guards. Most of the rest are farmers and herders' units, their weapons are uneven, okay, and they have an old-fashioned firearm or something, and the bad news is they have a machete and spear, and they even have manure forks to prepare for battle...

The bad news is that the man from Count Lloyds Cades is not just a battalion, but nearly 4,000 people from a regiment. This is mainly because some other territorial aristocrats in the Principality of Kanas have heard that Count Roycade is going to march to the southern three counties of the Principality of Eskirin to collect a large sum of money, all of which are rushing to get ready for a buzz and, in the meantime, get some extra money for themselves. So the reason for the delay of the enemy is that the nobles of some territories have not arrived yet, and it is estimated that it will take some time to wait.

As for the Principality of Eskilin, it was the nobility of those territories and the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Principality that were peeling, thus delaying the attack. The Grand Duke and the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Principality of Eskirin are said to have demanded that the territorial nobles hand over all the militias in their possession to the eastern front in an effort to return to the three southern counties as soon as possible. However, the nobles of the Territory were reluctant to put their own private arms into the battlefield on the eastern front, so they demanded that they organize their own invasion of the three counties of the south from the side of the mountain path for the purpose of involving the army of the Kingdom of Ovilas...

Well, both enemies delayed the original attack date, Claude. They can only wait anxiously for their arrival...