AWDC Chapter 104

“Solveny told me to cooperate because he is going to attack Belga,” Elliot said.

This was what I had feared.

“He’s planning to use the capture of Belga as a pretext to advance the Royal Army into the Gregg territory and put pressure on me.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“Of course, I’ll refuse.”

Elliot’s confident background was due to the presence of the guns I had given him. The Gregg army was equipped with 3,000 guns and was training with them.

“I’m going to give Solveny a hard time here. I’ll brush aside the Royal Army, which only has bows and swords.”

We discussed countermeasures. If the Royal Army advanced into the Gregg territory, the Midland army would move to strike from the rear. And I would join the Gregg army as a military advisor.

I made a suggestion for a battle strategy.

“The Royal Army will likely adopt a strategy of using overwhelming force to attack all at once. We will counter this with guns.”

Specifically, we would set up a fence about 500 meters wide, and inside it, we would divide the gunners into three teams of 1,000 each, and place them in the front, middle, and rear rows.

The guns I gave them were improved matchlock guns. They were better protected against rain and had improved operability compared to those used in the Sengoku period. However, due to the immaturity of machining, the manufacture of magazines and ammunition was incomplete, and the ammunition was muzzle-loading. Once fired, the inside of the gun had to be cleaned of soot, and the ammunition had to be reloaded from the muzzle, so it could not be fired continuously. Therefore, I divided the Gregg army’s gunners into front, middle, and rear rows, and had them fire in order, so that they could fire continuously.

I believed that this would allow us to defeat the enemy by firing one after another even if the enemy army attacked all at once. I adopted the method used by Oda Nobunaga in the Battle of Nagashino during the Sengoku period. I believed that with this method, no matter how strong the enemy’s forces were, we could repel them with continuous gun fire. Even if we couldn’t annihilate them, our aim was to inflict significant damage on the enemy forces and prevent the Royal Army from rising again.

The Solveny government left 20,000 troops in the capital and entered the Gregg territory with an army of 40,000. If they had emptied the capital and tried to attack Gregg, the Midland army would have launched an operation to seize the capital, but Solveny wasn’t that careless.

The two armies glared at each other near the border of the Gregg Duchy.

The Royal Army entered the Gregg territory and set up camp in an open area.

Naturally, Elliot also countered and gathered 10,000 troops at the border of the duchy. I joined Elliot with 3,000 troops.

“The enemy has numbers, but we have the superior weapons,” Elliot said, breathing heavily.

His soldiers were equipped with guns. They wore helmets and armor, which may seem strange compared to modern Japan, but even in Japan, there was no concept of standardizing military equipment until the end of the modern era. It was not strange for these soldiers to carry guns while wearing armor and helmets.

Early in the morning, the enemy approached the Gregg army’s camp to within about 300 meters, and then waited as if to observe our situation. Finally, around noon, the enemy attacked all at once.

“Fire!” Gregg ordered.

“Boom!” The front row of the Gregg army’s gunners fired.

“Next!” Gregg ordered the middle row soldiers to prepare to fire.

“Boom!”

We could see many of the enemy’s vanguard falling.

At that moment, suddenly the enemy’s trumpet sounded loudly.

“Huh!” I didn’t understand the meaning of the trumpet resounding from the enemy’s side.

With that trumpet, the enemy army stopped their advance. No, they even began to retreat.

“What is this?” Elliot shouted. The enemy’s actions were completely unexpected for us.

The Royal Army, which had been about to crush the Gregg army with overwhelming force, turned around as soon as they clashed. It was no wonder Elliot was stunned.

The enemy’s front-line commander was a wise man.

“The Gregg army may be using some special weapons. If there are any signs of this, retreat immediately,” Hoffa had told him in advance.

When the guns were fired, the commander immediately blew the retreat trumpet. In addition to what Hoffa had told him, he was also concerned about Toma’s defeat of the Bawa Roma followers with mysterious weapons.

The moment the vanguard soldiers were shot, he judged that if things continued as they were, the enemy’s unknown weapons would cause widespread damage to his side.

“Recover as many of the wounded as possible.”

The subsequent retreat of the soldiers was also splendid. No one tried to break ranks and flee, and the rearguard was wary of the rear, lending a shoulder to those who had been injured and left behind.

The number of dead and wounded enemy soldiers lying on the battlefield was less than 800.

“We won, right?” Elliot was still half-doubtful. It was no wonder he thought so.

The enemy seemed to have engaged in battle, but then retreated all at once.

We tried to pursue them, but the enemy side began to retreat in an orderly manner, and the rearguard was so well-organized that there was no room to take advantage of them.

The Gregg army was unable to inflict much damage on the enemy, resulting in them being allowed to escape.

Both Elliot and I had expected the enemy to overconfidently rely on their overwhelming numbers and attack recklessly. If that had happened, the power of the guns would have come into play, and they would have become easy targets. If all went well, we would have inflicted great damage on the enemy. We were in the mood to thoroughly defeat them here, to the point where the Royal Army could never recover.

However, due to the enemy’s splendid retreat, we were unable to inflict significant damage. Neither Elliot nor I could honestly rejoice in the victory.