Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 513 Battle of Polyviria (1)

“... we can't get help from defensive positions here.” Colonel Derivique smiled bitterly at his deputy Lieutenant Vidalek and said: "Although our weapons and soldiers are several times more combatant than the Nasseries, here in Durmel County the terrain does not help us, the enemy's strength is too obvious, let the 28th battalion on the front line withdraw and let the ready 7th battalion take over...”

The Seventh Regiment of Thunder Division II has been under siege by a regiment of the Kingdom of Nasri since the morning of October 17. If the enemy had only one division, the Seventh Regiment should be able to defend its position even on the ground. But as soon as the enemy came up, it used the strength of an army and encircled it from the front and left and right wings, as if it were a rising tide, with waves and waves of attacks, putting a great deal of pressure on the defensive positions of the Seventh Regiment.

The so-called defensive front only excavated several trenches on the ground and was built on a small river half a metre deep. On the topography, such defensive positions did not bring more defensive boosts to the Seventh Regiment, but rather reduced casualties among the soldiers, with a place to hide before enemy projectiles and artillery shelling. However, in the face of endless waves of enemy attacks, the soldiers defending the position continued to pay a considerable amount of casualties.

I have to admit that Prince Ducklind has more courage and military command than Prince Vedario, who has dealt with the Legion of Thunder. The attacking Royal Nasri Army no longer followed the traditional pattern of proceeding in rows, but instead struck defensive positions in rows of bulk lines, and began to lie down and advance towards the ground at a distance of 200 metres, climbing within a distance of 780 metres before engaging with the Thunder Legion officers and soldiers guarding the positions.

Rather than abandoning the wooden platoons and shields, the attacking Nasserli regiment placed the throwers and the lightweight front-loaded artillery behind the infantry of the assault, approaching the defensive positions, starting to fire or throw bombs at the defensive positions as soon as they reached range, which is also the greatest cause of death and injury to the guards.

The war will make fools smarter, and the Allied armies that have eaten the Rock Legion's losses have now come up with a much improved offensive plan. While the new rifles and new types of artillery equipped by the Legion of Thunder are indeed powerful, the offensive approach now employed by the Kingdom of Nasri has also discredited the Seventh Regiment, which guards the defensive positions.

Attacks by the Bulletin Line have rendered the bombardment of new artillery more lethal, with one shell exploding to kill only a few digits of enemies, whose strength can now afford such casualties. A crawl attack 200 metres from the defensive position made it much harder for soldiers in the trenches to target fire. And some Royal Nasserli soldiers even stacked the bodies of their comrades in front of them, and the shooting at a distance of 70 to 80 meters, even with a fire rope gun, still posed a deadly threat to the Thunder Corps officers and soldiers guarding the defensive positions.

There are also throwers and front-loaded light artillery, arranged behind assault infantry, which are dispersed and pose great difficulties for artillery firing, allowing several rounds of artillery to hit a target, while at the same time guarding against enemy projectiles and solid iron bullets fired by artillery. Even though this regiment in the Kingdom of Nasserli has paid more than several times the cost of casualties in the course of the attack, it remains a minor loss of war for its vast force...

Colonel Derivique commanded the Seventh Regiment of Thunder Division, which could only be withdrawn while fighting, slowly quenching the aggressive energy of this Nasserli Regiment. Anyway, Claude's orders did not make them absolutely defensive, but let them lure their enemies under the Royal City of Polyviria...

From morning to evening, the Seventh Regiment was finally separated from contact with the enemy. According to calculations, the enemy should have paid two regiments today, while the seventh regiment was close to a battalion, which was almost a quarter of the casualty. Colonel Derivique was distressed not to know how much of the Seventh Regiment's full force would remain after completing Claude's five-day mandate.

Today the task of the Second Division of the Legion of Thunder is to block, all four major field regiments, like the Seventh Regiment, frontally pull the defensive line to block the enemy's attack. The Seventh Regiment is tasked with defending the left wing of the entire line of defense against an enemy regiment alone, under more pressure than the Fifth and Sixth Regiments, which are front-facing. Nevertheless, Colonel Derivique successfully completed his mission, in line with the steps taken to gradually retreat the entire line of defence.

The first division of Thunderbolt commanded by General Berklin attacked in the evening, causing some trouble to the enemies who had captured the line of defense, but at least not giving them a restful and sharp rest. As Claude said, although we are enemies, we also need to take care of their physical and mental health, shooting a few shots at night to remind them to pee...

During the daytime thunder division 2 engaged in obstruction fighting, thunder division 1 continued to dig trenches in the rear, as thunder division 2 continued to obstruct enemy defensive positions the following day. At the same time, there is a need to send a light rider main group to monitor the movement of the enemy, in strict defense of the three Duchy of Kanas cavalry groups in the coalition army from the rear to surround and clandestine attacks.

At night, however, in Division Command, Claude paid tribute to Colonel Derivique, as his seventh regiment suffered the smallest number of casualties today, while the remaining three regiments were similarly attacked by an enemy regiment, and the generals swelled bloodbath in the position, even launching several counterattacks. While inflicting a heavy toll on the face of the enemy, his own casualties are even greater. The Sixth Regiment was more than 2,000 casualties, almost semi-disabled.

Claude was therefore very angry: "This is the territory of the Kingdom of Nasseri, where enemy casualties, if any, can be replenished. And our generals are one less casualty, and every soldier is a precious force! Don't forget what we said when we marched out of the Autonomous Leadership, and try to bring our squadrons back alive, not cold ash cans. ”

It was only after the firing that Claude began to explore and summarize today's experience and lessons learned from the clash with senior officers from the second division present.

“We lack the weapons to deal with enemy dispersal lines. Colonel Derivique's first statement:" The new artillery, while good, was unable to fire shotguns, leaving no way to hedge enemy infantry within 100 metres of the position. Moreover, our soldiers, while equipped with iron and steel helmets, have effectively reduced casualties in firing, this does not leave us unharmed. The enemy also learned to cover up, stowing guns in front of them with their companions' bodies and dirt bags, which required us to attack them with projectiles. But the trench is too small to fit the thrower... "

It is true, by the way, that the Legion of Thunder is too careless, because no one would expect the enemy to engage in such an attack. Everyone thought it would be easy to lay in the trenches and target the enemy, keeping them away from the line of defense 100 meters away. But it was unexpected that the enemy would also learn from battlefield experience, and in this way they made it clear that the advantage of the force was to consume the battle power and ammunition of the Legion of Thunder while mitigating the casualties of some of the attacking forces.

“We should have old-fashioned, front-loaded light artillery on the front line to counter enemy lines of attack. We also need light throwers in the trenches to bomb enemy infantry that crawl forward. Instead, new types of artillery should deal first with enemy throwers and front-loaded artillery to remove the threat from our defensive positions.” Another head of delegation made a statement, which was endorsed by senior officers present.

Claude nodded: "We've made some improvements, and the regiment-affiliated field corps is now holding more than 30,000 prisoners overnight to improve the positions you'll be guarding tomorrow. Believing that tomorrow the enemy will regret using an attack like this again, my request is that your guard tomorrow should reduce your own casualties while causing massive casualties to the enemy.

By about 3: 00 tomorrow afternoon, you can retreat later, and we'll reset our defensive positions 30 miles away. Remember, fight and retreat, and the battlefield of the final battle is beneath the royal city. And the enemies we really want to deal with are the last five Hicks Regiments, not the grey legions of the Nasserly kingdom right now... "

Had it not been for the first contact war and the night raids that wiped out the Allied armies, the 34,000 advance troops would have left the Legion of Thunder with over 30,000 more prisoners. So in the face of the approaching Allied forces, Claude may indeed lead the Thunder Corps in its quest for a chance to defeat the enemy in the movement. With just over 30,000 more prisoners, Claude thought it would be a good idea to use them as labor to fight a couple of blockades with the Allied forces.

The first is to use the powerful power of new weapons to kill and reduce enemy forces, while also testing the Alliance's determination to fight. Unexpectedly, the Kingdom of Hicks had placed five legions of the Nasser kingdom in front of it for ashes. And as the winner of the two princes' struggle for succession to the throne, Prince Ducklind naturally worked hard to occupy the defensive position set by the Legion of Thunder in a hurry over the course of a day.

The only thing that made Claude dissatisfied with a day of offensive defense was that the casualties of Thunder Division II were somewhat large, and together with nearly 5,000 casualties, almost one regiment's strength. Though casualties are low, the impact on the second division's strength has been somewhat significant. As for the five standing regiments in Nasseri that launched the offensive, the casualties should be close to 70,000, with a one-fifth casualty rate, and it is believed that their offensive will be less aggressive tomorrow.

In the distance, thunderous gunfire was heard, and hundreds of long-barrelled rockets with flames at their tails swept through the air. Claude knows that this was a night raid by the Thunder First Division, led by Berklin, against the forces of the Kingdom of Nasri, which occupied the defensive position. But what made Claude strange was that the gunfire stopped quickly, and the longbarrel rocket stopped firing, and instead a loud shot was fired...

Soon after, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes, the deputy who Claude was broken into the tent, reported bad news that the first division of Thunder, which attacked enemy positions at night, had been suddenly attacked by three light-jockey regiments in the Principality of Kanas and was now at war.

Even worse, the enemy was premeditated to use the night to cover the early ambush of the Kanas Light Cavalry on one side. And when General Berklin led the Thunder Division I attack, he divided his troops into battalions, so when confronted with a light-handed assault by an enemy battalion, he was unable to muster his troops and sustained significant damage...

Claude punched himself in the head with his fist and was careless. He went to attack his enemies every night, and the foolish enemies would react and be ready. And the generals of the Thunder Legion used to think that the enemy would only stay in the battalion and be beaten passively. Never expected the enemy to set a trap to fight back, this time it was a real loss.

When Thundering Division II made an emergency move, after receiving Thundering Division I returned, it was found that Thundering Division I had nearly 12,000 casualties. Almost two major field regiments suffered battle damage. Even Berklin's left shoulder was knifed and covered with blood.

Fortunately, his life was safe, said Dr. Perente, who rushed in, and if the knife slanted a little further down, harder, General Berklin would be a one-armed general from now on. Good thing the guards around Berklin rescued this arm of General Berklin by cutting off the Kanas Light Cavalry, which burst into front of General Berklin's horse.

After the bandage, Dr. Perente said that in order to retain this arm, General Berklin needed six months of rest and could not work hard to heal the wound on his left arm. This means that Berlin must be sent to the rear and must no longer be on the front line. Claude was depressed, the night attack was ambushed, and Derek's little brother was injured.

The only thing that made Claude happy was the timely rescue of Thunder Division II, which had killed a large number of Duchy of Kanas light cavalry troops with fierce fire and was currently counting enemy casualties, estimated at no less than one division's loss. There are also two less good news, because the three lightweight cavaliers of the Principality of Kanas came in unusually suddenly, the unprotected Thunder First Division ate a huge loss from the start, and was directly annihilated by two battalions, losing many new rifles and several new artillery...

Claude can only wave, new rifles and new artillery are impossible without loss on the battlefield, but tonight's loss was unexpected. But new rifles and new types of artillery can't be replicated by the enemy. The key is to see if the enemy can prevent the powder that Mrs. Sonia invented. There is not much chemistry and physics in the world, but more experimentation and self-exploration by rune magicians in the alchemy spell array. So some of the secret ingredients, if you don't know the details of the formula, are hard to imitate exactly the same.

Perhaps this is the strange and selfish part of the Farsian world, where scientific and exploratory discoveries are not as well known as the recent history of that world in previous generations. And that's why chemistry lists, all kinds of physical and mathematical theorems and formulas, and the scientists behind them stepped on the shoulders of these scientific giants, leading civilization and technology...

And here, every spell magician hides his discoveries and inventions in his own mind, and the law is not so trivial, and with the monopoly of knowledge at the upper echelons of nations, knowledge like physics and chemistry is rarely taught in schools to a large number of students. Like the Kingdom of Ovilas, even though propaganda speaks of education for all, it is the foolishness that is practised. No wonder the countries of the continent have been playing with firearms for more than 600 years, and scientific research seems to have stalled in time and space.

In retrospect, Claude began to ask about the attack on Thundering's first division at night. In fact, it is very simple that the four Light Mounted Field Regiments under the customary orders of Berlin are divided into four directions, and then one battalion is used as a battalion to shell enemy positions and camps with artillery and to harass enemy camps with long-barreled rockets. No one would have thought that the three Light Riders of the Principality of Kanas would have been ambushed long ago, and that they had broken up into three arrows to storm the left and middle of the Legion of Thunder.

The night allowed the generals of the Thunder Legion to ignore the trail of the Duchy of Kanas. When the enemy raid was discovered, the distance between the two sides was very close. The generals of the first division of Thunder in battalion could not resist the sweep of the enemy brigade. One magazine of the rifle was shot before it could be loaded, more directly pulling out the knife and chopping each other to death.

That's how General Berklin got caught up in the battlefield, not even sending a signal to get the two groups on the right to assemble. And the light cavalry of the Principality of Kanas used the night to mix up with the officers and soldiers of the Thunder Legion. Without the hesitation of being the target of guns, he killed extremely fiercely. The first division of Thunder was the worst casualty at this moment. Fortunately, Thunder Division II rescue arrived quickly, using rifles to cut off the follow-up reinforcements of the Kanas Light Cavalry before the enemy retreated.

Perhaps the victory of the Kanas light-handed ambush last night inspired morale, and perhaps the prize awarded by the senior ranks of the coalition forces, and the next day the attack launched by the Nasserli infantry was even more insane. However, Thunder Ting Division II was prepared to deliberately lure the enemy into attack. Whenever the enemy couldn't hold out to retreat, he abandoned a line of defense. He kept misleading the enemy into the feeling that he could take down all defensive positions if he tried harder, thus ignoring his own casualties.

When the Legion of Thunder finally abandoned its entire defensive position and stepped back, senior officers of the Kingdom of Nasserli found that more than half of their four regiments had been killed or injured and were unable to fight anymore. More than 200,000 troops were thrown into the madness of the attack. One day of battle, after occupying the enemy's defensive positions, only about 100,000 troops were discovered. The battlefield was filled with the bodies and wounded of Nasserly soldiers, while the enemy took all their wounded and dead soldiers...

After this blockade, the Kingdom of Nasri was no longer in a position to fight, and their remaining strength could only be formed into two dissatisfied regiments. It is now only the turn of the five standing regiments of the Kingdom of Hicks to enter the battle in person, but it is surprising to find that the Thunder Regiment has not set up any more defensive positions to thwart the advance of the Allied forces, but has quickly withdrawn to the Royal City of Polyvisia, abandoning even those 30,000 captives. However, the more than 30,000 prisoners were similarly severed on their thighs, not only as a help to the Allied forces, but also as a burden to the Allied forces.

The commanders of the Kingdom of Hicks and senior officers of the Allied Coalition Army agreed that the Thunder Legion should be overdepleted with ammunition and equally heavy casualties, so they could only abandon their obstruction and withdraw to the Imperial City as soon as possible. This is the best fighter plane for the Allied forces and must be caught up as soon as possible to avoid being evacuated from the Royal City by the Thunder Regiment...