Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 323 Advanced Workshops

On February 8, the senior seminar at the Royal Calebon Army Academy began. Claude has been wondering what a big cabin built by the playground is for, and now he understands that this is the tactical rehearsal room for advanced workshop participants, where you can see a large sand tray that covers a third of the interior as soon as you walk in.

Twenty-six officers participated in this advanced seminar, with the exception of Captain Claude, all of whom were officers at the school level. General Michelchi's walk to the rostrum is a very straightforward illustration of the purpose of this high-level seminar, which is to explore the shortcomings of the Royal Army in the Great War and to learn lessons, taking as an example the war that has just come to an end between the anti-Olympic countries and the Kingdom in the eastern part of the continent. At the same time, it brings together excellent and successful offensive and defensive combat practices in the war, and learns lessons for the Royal Army in conducting offensive and defensive operations in future wars.

General Michelchi said that in this war with the coalition forces of the anti-Olympic alliance, the enemy used strong defensive positions to defend against the attack of the Royal Army, rather than a proper assembly of troops and a field battle by the Royal Army. In addition to a limited number of counterattacks, such as the Blue Feather Regiment's siege on the Amelia Plains and the Kanas Plains, the enemy has largely abandoned their intention to fight in the field...

In fact, after the outbreak of the war, we discovered that the enemy's strategy in setting up defensive positions by retrenchment was to use time and space to drag us down and achieve the objective of the truce. From the outcome of the war as a whole, neither we nor our enemies were the real winners, and the enemies served their purpose and forced the Kingdom to sign a truce peace agreement with them. But neither has our kingdom failed, because we have destroyed the three enemy allied principalities and seized their territories.

The participants in the high-level seminar who stood and listened were somewhat disturbed, and General Michel was blunt, and the officers who were able to attend the high-level seminar had a certain strategic vision and professionalism. Though General Michel was right and correct, everyone in his ear still felt uncomfortable.

Next, however, General Michelch reported a series of post-war summary data, which were no secret to some of the school-level officers present. It is only after listening to these figures that it is clear to all that General Michelchi is right that this war is indeed a victory over Judea for the Kingdom. The most critical strategic goals have not been achieved, the eastern part of the continent has not been reunited, the kingdom's dead enemy, the kingdom of Nasserli, the leader of the anti-Olympic alliance, still exists, and it has lost only one county in this war, together with the loss of nearly 340,000 troops, which can be described as fragile, without losing ground.

In addition, the Blue Feather Regiment and two second-line regiments were raided and defeated on the Kanas Prairie, the greatest disgrace of the Royal Army in this war, but the war ended without retribution. The light cavalry of the Principality of Kanas became famous in this battle, and even though it promised to compensate the Kingdom with 80,000 horses in the coming years when the peace accords were signed, the shame they left to the Royal Army remains engraved in the history of the military, becoming the greatest scar on the hearts of the Royal Army.

So General Michelch mentioned in his speech that the purpose of this high-level seminar was to prepare for the next Eastern Regional War, to learn from the lessons of this war, to reform the tactics and tactics that now appear to be both traditional and backward, and to replicate them into the army of the whole kingdom using the model of the Rangers to be formed, in conjunction with the precisely targeted guns and horses equipped with them, to study and practice appropriate tactics and tactics with mobility, flexibility and precision.

He was basically listening to General Michel all morning, and he made clear the purpose of the high-level seminar. All participants in this high-level seminar were asked to collate their concerns about the wars that took place during this war, whether they failed or succeeded, in the more than twenty days leading up to the rainy season. Then over the course of the March rainy season, a wrap-up report will be written summarizing the successes and failures of this battle and the improvement plan, taking the example of the battle you have compiled…

After lunch, rest for two hours and resume classes in the afternoon.

But what Claude didn't expect was that he was named to the podium by General Michelch just after class, asking Claude to tell the participants about the battle to capture the Weaver post and the entire battle of Claude-led Squirrel Village Daejet. Poor Claude had just spoken at Baron Normanly's mansion and Viscount Carter's the other day, and I didn't expect to have to speak again on the day of the advanced seminar.

But Claude knew in his heart that General Michelch had named himself to go up and talk about the two battles, so that the other school-level officers at this senior seminar would not look down on themselves because they were captains. And it's very well prepared, with the maps of Wilfgang and Squirrel Village hanging on the walls, and a couple of deputies moving onto a new sand tray, a simulated geographic arrangement of the entire crossing.

Claude was pointing to the map and the sand tray, and after telling the story of the two battles in which he had participated, he retreated. General Michelch then went on to make his concluding remarks on the two battles. He believed that Squirrel Village Daejet was actually a battle miracle, and after replicating the entire battle, it could be concluded that the tactics of combat deployment and command employed by the coalition of aristocrats in a territory with more than 5,000 troops were median ranges and did not make very minor mistakes.

It's just that the mountainside of Squirrel Village has a special geographic environment for defense. While Claude defended fewer men and horses, he anticipated the enemy's every move, combined with the fact that the enemy's weapons and equipment lagged behind depended only on the strength of the number of people, and with his luck, the enemy himself jumped into the pit that Claude dug for them, thus extinguishing the vast majority of his enemies through a fire and gaining an unexpected and miraculous victory.

General Michelch called Squirrel Village Daejet a miraculous victory because it was an unrepeatable victory. He admitted that he had repeated more than a dozen battles in Squirrel Village, and found that without the use of Claude's incendiary manoeuvre, the end of a failed battle could not have been avoided under his command, which was delayed by more than half a month at most, but the end of the battle was still over.

And Claude had luck in setting the trap of fire in Squirrel Village beforehand. If it rained that night, or there was no big wind after the fire burned, the result would not be very good. The fleeing enemy would soon be able to roll back into the ground, and the burning squirrel village in white would become the starting position for the enemy to launch a wave of attacks on the cantonment camp...

It can only be said that Claude was very lucky, which is why General Michelchi considered the Squirrel Village Daejet to be a miracle victory that cannot be replicated, and he suggested that the participants in the Higher Seminar could use the battle as a reference, but that no in-depth study was necessary.

General Michelch thinks the battle to capture the Vilph Gang deserves more attention than Squirrel Village Daejet. As a result of this battle, the Royal Army changed the traditional method of warfare in which it proceeded in line. The Obash 3 type firearms, which were ignored before the war and were described by the soldiers as crooked neck guns, received the attention of the Royal Army only because of their unpopular precise targeting and became cargo grabbing. They were highly colorful in the battle against enemy defensive positions, greatly reducing the casualties of the Royal Army.

General Michelch said that an unhappy cavalry regiment of fewer than 3,000 men had been used by the enemy in a surprise attack to seize the Wolfgang and to use the weapons and equipment at the position to defend against the attack of forces commanded by Grand Prince Hansburg. Before Claude and their arrival in battle, the Kingdom launched seven successive offensives against the Vilph post, using traditional methods of warfare, namely marching in line and firing several dozen metres before reaching the enemy's defensive positions, before launching an offensive.

However, due to terrain constraints, the enemies at the defensive positions were similarly queued to fire at the attacking forces, and they were at high altitude, together with four captured light infantry field artillery shells covering the 100-metre range in front of the defensive position, so that the Royal Army could not reach the position at close range and more than 5,000 soldiers were killed and injured in seven attacks. It appeared that the only way to succeed was to sustain, launch an uninterrupted offensive and use the lives of soldiers to deplete the artillery and ammunition stockpiles at the enemy positions, thus making it possible to attack the defensive positions of the enemy.

“If we continue to attack according to traditional methods of warfare, it is estimated that the post-war staff will have to fill in the lives of five or six thousand soldiers in order to occupy this Weaver post. But by then, it was no longer a question of victory, but of the collapse of our soldiers. Because the Grand Prince commanded those local guard battalions, not second-line regiments, their fighting will and sacrifice were not as resilient and courageous as we thought...

But at this moment, the parade camp led by Sergeant Claude surprised us unexpectedly. As you all know, the Grand Prince formed the guerrilla battalion as an experimental, independent combat unit solely to counter enemy reconnaissance cavalry rampant on the battlefield and to ambush the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry with the precise targeting performance of the Obash III.

It was only unexpected that, in the battle against enemy positions, the guerrilla battalion would be able to suppress the enemy's defensive fire with the precise aim of an Obash type III flare gun, covering the subsequent troops in a physical battle with the enemy, thus seizing the enemy's defensive position. This tactic of warfare soon opened the deadlock on the front line against the enemy's strong and perfect defensive positions for a long time and greatly reduced the casualties of the Royal Army… "

Speaking of which, General Michelch said with all seriousness: "Perhaps our armistice peace agreement would have been signed at the border of the Principality of Rimodra if it had not been inspired by the battle at the Vilph's post and if His Royal Highness had ordered the regiments on the front line to stop attacking enemy defensive positions with traditional methods of warfare and to vigorously promote the Obash III. Because the guard regiment that led the four second-line regiments to attack enemy defensive positions at that time had already suffered heavy casualties, losing nearly half its strength and being unable to launch further attacks.

Ridiculously, the enemy is better at learning lessons than we are, and they are better at learning from the changes in our Royal Army and correcting their shortcomings. When we used the precise targeting performance of the Obash III to suppress defensive fire at enemy positions and successfully captured enemy defensive positions at the expense of few casualties, breaking through the defensive front of that road, it took the enemy only three months to launch their precise targeting firing rifle, even though the performance was not comparable to that of the Obash III in our kingdom, causing a lot of casualties in the position defensive battle...

At this time, the Royal Army, and many other officers of the Regiment, are still struggling to exclude the application of the Obash 3 type fire rope gun in the Army, insisting on traditional methods of warfare to attack enemy defensive positions, giving more lives to the Royal Army for nothing, which is the biggest crime committed against the Royal Army! Although they were all punished after the war, the harm they inflicted on the Royal Army was permanent... ”

Looking around at the solemn twenty-six officers, General Michelchi nodded slightly: "The reason why we brought you to the military academy for this advanced seminar is that you all presented different insights and perspectives on the application of precision targeting performance firearms in war, with your own unique strategic vision in offensive and defensive combat. So the upcoming Rangers will be the object of your various tactics of warfare.

The Kingdom needs you to harness your talents, learn from the lessons of this war, develop tactics and tactics that are better suited to the needs of future wars, and avoid the recurrence of the tragedies and failures of this war, which is our duty and mission as soldiers of the Kingdom. Over the next year or so, you will have plenty of time to study and practice various tactics of warfare, and I am sure you will not disappoint the Kingdom... "

Almost all officers raised their hands at the same time: "May you serve the kingdom, serve your duty and do not disgrace your mission! ”

Well, the slogan, though somewhat second-class, is also the standard oath of answer for officers in the Royal Army. Claude raised his hand the same salute, shouting slogans, but he thought to himself, at last it's over, it's dark, we can go to dinner...

On the first day of the senior seminar, General Michelch said that tomorrow the archives would move all the battle reports, archives, examples and copies of the five years of war into the classified archives, which would be open to all participants in the senior seminar to read and copy, except that the archives would not be allowed to be leaked outside.

Each participant can select archival material of his or her own interest for research and exploration, from which relevant data and combat summaries can be transcribed. After the rainy season in March, you will not need to come back to the seminar room of the military academy to write a case summary and improvement plan at your respective residences in the villa area, and return on April 1st to submit the written text report, which will be reviewed by General Michelchi and discussed and commented on by everyone. On the basis of these written reports, there will be a sandbox and battle drill in the days to come...