Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 377: Position Attack and Defense

“Ordered the 1301 Thunder Regiment to open the passage and release the enemy's follow-on forces for reinforcement. Wait for the enemy to pass before blocking its rear path and setting up a connecting tripping horse so that the enemy cannot flee from the rear path. Also, let the battalion officers of the division come immediately for a pre-war conference..." Claude finally made up his mind, ready to reinforce the enemy's follow-on army with this camp of the enemy, knocking out the Voluntary Light Rider Corps, formed by the retired soldiers of the Principality of Kanas.

This is a rare opportunity, as the enemy has left the well-equipped and robust defensive positions in Colonial County of Vibato to penetrate the direct authority of Bering Ghana. Though Claude doesn't know why the enemy left their turtle shells and whether it's a real financial trick to hunt down a buffalo herd, this is undoubtedly a great opportunity to traumatize or destroy them. Claude was confident that he would lead the Thunder Division to destroy the enemy, and hesitated to worry that the cost of casualties would be somewhat greater.

The so-called Voluntary Light Riding Corps, formed by the retired soldiers of the Principality of Kanas, is actually a regular corps of the Principality of Kanas, something that everyone knows. Claude admitted that they were indeed a powerful enemy, and that their fighting power prevailed over those standing regiments in the Kingdom of the Hicks. And the Alberto Prairie is a perfect terrain for these Duchy of Kanas light cavalry. Claude didn't want the Thunder Regiment to be devastated to annihilate the enemy.

However, while the enemy's successor troops now arrive to reinforce them, the Thunder Division stands idle and can use the enemy's cantonment sites to carry out defensive operations, which is a local advantage. Four other regiments of enemies have been exterminated, equivalent to one division of the enemy. An enemy regiment of more than 60,000 troops, minus 24,000, leaves more than 30,000 troops. There are no more than four field regiments plus the immediate security and logistics units of the division headquarters, which is not much more than the Thunder Division.

It is important to note that the Thunder Division has been victorious in the Second World War and that the forces of the four regiments that annihilated the enemy have seized two camps, paying only more than 1,000 casualties in total, and that the morale of the soldiers is high. Combined with the advantage of the equipment, Claude felt that people and sides also prevailed. Claude's determination to confront the enemy positively was also the reason why the celestial elites and the two predominants prevailed.

The follow-on forces of the Voluntary Light Riding Corps of the Principality of Kanas arrived only at 9 p.m. When the advance forces found that the Thunder Division had occupied the camp, they stopped hastily, retreated five miles away and began to lay a cordon. From this, it can be seen that the commander of this volunteer light cavalry was an old and steady officer who had anticipated in advance that the camp might fail, so the advance troops did not rush to attack.

With more than 30,000 troops, there was an endless feeling when they were laid out, and they stood on the walls of the camp, and the black crows felt a sense of oppression. Compared to the noise of the camp camp on the enemy side, the camp side appeared very quiet, like a silent giant beast lying on the grassland, seemingly quiet but very threatening.

The enemy should think the same way. A large group of people arrived a thousand meters away and the horses measured the camp, but they only found a few more trenches in front of the camp, built several half-height earth walls, lit a pile of cow dung bonfires between the trenches and the trenches, and the air smelled of scorch.

Such defenses can only be regarded as ordinary, except that the enemy's large group of men stayed a long time kilometers away. Instead of conducting a probationary night attack by the commanding forces, they returned to their original camp after an hour.

Claude shook his head, had bad luck, ran into an old, heavy commander, and had tried to show weakness with his enemies, but the enemies were still conspiring not to launch night raids. Planning for the evening was done for nothing.

“Let the 1302 pull back and rest. You don't have to keep ambushing ahead. The enemy won't attack at night.” Claude instructed Major Anders to deliver the order, and he himself walked down the fence to the tent in the middle of the camp.

Looks like the Volunteer Light Rider Regiment Successor Army is trying to have a regular offensive defense with the Thunder Division, and Claude hates such positions. In these days, no one can be sure that they will win, relying on firearms and firing solid bullets and shotguns. In particular, the volunteer regiment formed by the retired soldiers of the Principality of Kanas is also a corps of light cavalry soldiers who, if they are willing to pay a certain price for casualties, can take advantage of the cavalry's rapid raids and cluster raids to break through defensive positions, turning combat into physical combat.

So the casualties from the offensive and defensive positions have always been severe, both on the offensive side and on the defensive side, as has been demonstrated in the five years of Eastern Regional Wars. In the defensive battle against the positions of the Principality of Rimodra, which suffered the most brutal casualties, the Guardianship Corps, known for its good offense, also lost almost half of its troops, replenishing them several times, not to mention the other second-line corps. Half of the more than 600,000 troops lost by the Kingdom of Ovilas during the five-year war were lost in the battle against positions in the Principality of Rimodra...

But Claude's Thunder Division was on the defensive side this time, and it was a little cheap. But this volunteer regiment in the Principality of Kanas can counteract the defense's advantage with light-handed raids, depending on how much casualties they are willing to pay. And if the defensive position is broken, then what follows is the fighting will and courage of the subordinate generals. The longer the two sides persist, the more serious the casualties will be until the morale of one of them breaks down.

Claude doesn't like to fight positions, that's what it is, and even if he is confident that he will win, it is likely that the Thunder Division will suffer very heavy casualties. So his favorite tactics in the past were sneak attacks and surprise tactics, while the enemy didn't have a bite to bite, which can both traumatize the enemy and alleviate casualties. Three or five times down, the enemy collapses, and Claude wins a very easy victory...

But not this time. The time is too tight for him to get rid of the enemy and engage in guerrilla tactics as soon as he takes over the enemy's camp. Since nearly 7,000 prisoners and a wealth of loot were in the camp, it was impossible for him to give up those gains. Unless all the prisoners were slaughtered and the harvest of the camp burned, it would be possible to leave immediately. But that means the battle to capture the camp was done for nothing, involving the rewards of all the officers and soldiers of the Thunder Division, and Claude knew very well that no one would agree. Especially since everyone thinks it's the greatest disgrace of a soldier to retreat in front of his weaker enemies...

Everyone believes that they will be the last winners to stand, not believing that they will be part of the unfortunate falling on the sand. Claude also had to push the boat, deciding to wage a hard war with the Principality of Kanas, a volunteer corps of light horsemen, and in fact he himself knew that troops who had not experienced a hard war could never be strong on the battlefield. Even at great cost of casualties, it is well worth winning, because such a battle will shape the soul of a strong army!

Around 8 a.m. the following day, the battle trumpet was sounded, both at enemy barracks a few kilometres away and at the camp occupied by the Thunder Division. The horn on the Duchy of Kanas meant troop contributions, and a light cavalry unit stormed out of the camp and arranged a neat queue 1,500 metres from the camp. On the other hand, the thunder division blows the horn to remind its own officers and soldiers to be prepared to defend themselves against enemy attacks.

Claude believed that the enemy also had information on the Thunder Division to estimate the strength of both sides. The facts before them show that the enemy has made the wrong choice and that they believe that they have a great advantage in terms of strength. Obviously, the enemy commander believed that the Thunder Division had suffered equally heavy casualties after taking over two camps, because he had a good understanding of the fighting power of his four field regiments and confirmed that the Thunder Division would pay a heavy casualty price even if it destroyed more than 20,000 troops of its four regiments.

When attacking the two camps, the Thunder Division employs a four-sided siege in an effort not to allow an enemy to escape. And now the Principality of Kanas' volunteer Light Rider Corps is taking a focused raid, attacking only one side, prepared to defeat the enemy's resistance with force superiority. So they put all their troops in front of the camp, and they didn't split up in the other three directions.

This has facilitated the defense to concentrate, but in relative terms, if a positive defensive position is breached, the defensive morale will be lost. Even if you can escape from the other three directions, it is difficult to escape from the pursuit of the enemy's light cavalry on the flat Alberto Prairie. The commanders of the enemy seem very confident that they can win this battle.

Four Light Mounted Field Regiments were lined up on the left and right, and the middle ranks appeared rather crowded. Soon, however, a low trumpet sounded, and each of the four field-group squadrons on the left and right sides rushed out a large group of light riders and headed straight for the camp. This is a probationary attack, using a team of horses to test the strength of the defensive position to determine the focus of the next attack and the location of the forged attack.

From a distance, a few more trenches surround the enclosure walls occupied by the Thunder Division, which add up to a distance of 200 metres in diameter. Difficult to see clearly last night, fearing that the enemy would be set up to trap him, the commander of the Duchy of Kanas Voluntary Light Ride Corps refused his men's request for a night raid and decided to resume the attack when the daylight horizon was better.

Having a large group of light cavalry from each of the four field regiments test out, the commander wants to test the strength of the Thunder Division defensive positions and see if the trenches in front of the camp can hinder the light-handed raids. On his side, it was just a few roughly dug trenches, and any lightweight cavalry could easily ride across those trenches...

Just a surprise happened to the regiment leader. In a few minutes, nearly a thousand light riders who had gone to try had rushed into the first trench, but the same forced the rider to stay in front of the trench. More than a dozen horses rode without strangling them and jumped into the trenches, but even the horses fell on the ground at the moment they landed. Immediately after the third trench, countless heads were exposed, gunshots were fired, the fire sparkled with smoke, and the light cavalry parked in front of the first trench was knocked down in a flash...

“Blow the horn! Tell them to pull back immediately.” The Commander of the Legion gave the order with a blue face.

Nearly a thousand light riders retreated back less than a large team. Lucky enough to come back, they explained half a day before finally letting the Legion Leader and the senior officers figure out why they were lying in front of the trenches. This can only be blamed on the cunning of the enemy. The first trench is just over two meters wide, two meters deep, and it's easy to jump over.

But the enemy, behind the trenches, continuously dug a trench only a foot deep, dense and numb, from far away is flat ground, found only near, jumping horses in the past without a foothold. Just like those dozen light cavalry men who jumped forcibly, they jumped over and stepped in the deep ditch, and their bodies rushed forward, and even their horses were tripped to the ground, and they fell and died.

The enemy soldiers then ambushed the third trench behind them, firing guns at the light cavalry stationed in front of the first trench, causing the tragic death and injury of nearly a thousand light cavalry members who had gone to probe. The most painful part of the regiment was the failure to detect the location of enemy artillery fire and shotgun coverage, which was almost a futile, probative attack.

A few seemingly simple trenches have been unintentionally tailored by the enemy. According to those returning light cavalry, this was deliberately arranged in response to the characteristics of the light cavalry raid in the Principality of Kanas, with the aim of rendering the light cavalry useless.

“We can use grass woven bags to fill trenches with dirt...” A senior officer suggested the most commonly used method of attack on the grasslands, a position dedicated to defending against trenches. As long as several offensive routes are filled with those grass bags, the Duchy of Kanas will be able to rush into enemy positions and cut the enemy to pieces with a horse knife.

But the only downside to this approach is that the cost of possible casualties can be enormous, the enemy is not a fool, their artillery has not been exposed, and even several artillery cannons can be used to block this buried passage. The light cavalry of the Principality of Kanas wanted to rush through this passage to the enemy's defensive positions, and it was conceivable how much sacrifice would have to be made.

The Legion Leader shook his head: “Return to the barracks and discuss how to deal with the trench defensive positions placed by the enemy. ”

As a result, this battle cannot continue today, not to mention that morale is a little low after a probationary attack. The enemy's insidious trench arrangement has rendered the light-handed raid ineffective. Except for the barracks, you can't continue the attack to make your men the enemy's musket targets before rushing into the trench...

However, just after returning to the large accounts and without negotiation, they were rewarded by sentries who said that the enemy had escorted the captives who had taken over the camp and dug trenches in front of the position. The Legion Leader came down to the front line with his men, watched with a single telescope, found that he was indeed a prisoner on his side, and was taken by the soldiers of the Thunder Division to repair the trenches. On a rough count, nearly a thousand soldiers were seen on their side, and more prisoners were being taken out of the camp.

The soldiers of the Thunder Division were very rough, and the captives came to their whips and barrels with a slight movement. As the Legion Commander and his men can see from the single-barrel telescope, many prisoners on his side were beaten to the ground by enemy soldiers and bled to death...

“General, we have to rescue them...” some officers next to angry requests said.

It's easy to say, but how do you do it? They'll be back in the camp when you deploy your troops. Besides, you can't even rush the enemy's defensive positions!

“I thought maybe we could dig trenches close to enemy trenches and connect them together. Get our soldiers off the horses and attack the enemy with infantry!” A senior staff member made a recommendation.

The commander's eyes lit up, indeed, the enemy's defensive position was aimed at the light cavalry, but he could not help but attack the infantry. The advantage of a light cavalry over an infantry is that it quickly passes through enemy fire coverage and rushes into defensive positions. Infantry, on the other hand, were struck hard by enemy fire at slow speeds during the attack, causing heavy casualties, but are now able to avoid enemy fire by digging trenches. I have to say, this senior staff member came up with a good idea.