"You're lucky," Claude said.
Major Skerry led three squadrons of soldiers out of the castle to rescue the old, weak, women and children who had been massacred. There were three main reasons why he was able to fight the enemy fiercely for a day and night in the village. First, the light cavalry of the Principality of Karnas did not expect that the defenders huddled in the castle would take the initiative to attack. A small team of them was wiped out at the beginning, and there was not much difference between the two sides in terms of strength.
Second, the original lord, Count Leucade Barclaus, must have been a thoughtful man. He built the village less than a hundred meters away from the castle. He was probably planning to combine the castle with the castle in the future. Villages are connected together and upgraded into cities. Therefore, the enemy's light cavalry could not use their speed to penetrate between the village and the castle, cutting off Major Skerry's retreat. Because this distance was just within the precise shooting range of the city wall guards, the enemy gave up the plan after two attempts and four or five corpses.
The last reason is that the original earl lord is the most powerful among the territorial nobles here. Therefore, as a facade, the villages under the castle are not like other territories with broken houses and shacks. Instead, some planning has been carried out. On both sides are houses with relatively neat stone and wood structures.
After Major Skerry and the others rushed into the village, they used the cover of these houses to raid the light cavalry who were committing atrocities, and then started a street fight with them in the village. They used these houses to render the enemy's light cavalry raid ineffective. It has persisted to this day and has also rescued many old, weak, women and children.
The black smoke that Claude and the others saw here at Randers Castle yesterday afternoon was because the light cavalry found that they had no choice but to take down Major Skerry, so they set fire to the houses in the village and the farmland outside. The sound of gunfire heard was naturally from the exchange of fire between the two sides, and the sound of artillery was caused by the guards on the city wall firing shotguns to block the two sides of the road from the village to the castle to prevent the enemy from bringing the rescued old, weak, women and children into the castle. The light cavalry took this opportunity to raid the castle.
"Actually, you are really taking a risk this time. The enemy cannot breach the castle, but there is no problem in entangling those of you who attack rashly in the village. They can burn down the houses one by one until you have nowhere to hide. Wait. When you are about to retreat to the castle, if you suddenly break out and gather with you, you can go to the city wall to receive your artillery..." Claude looked at the corpses scattered on the ground of the village, including the light cavalry of the Principality of Karnnus. Yes, there were a battalion of guerrilla soldiers, and more of them were headless corpses wearing civilian clothes with their heads cut off. These were the old, weak, women and children who had been massacred.
"I know I was indeed a little impulsive." Major Skerry said with a wry smile: "But I really can't bear that those beasts slaughter the old, weak, women and children, and bully those women in front of us. You must know that these are from their own principality. People, how could they do this? Coupled with the pleading of those young men, the soldiers' request to fight, and the strength of our troops and the enemy's are not much different, how can I bear to hide in the castle and be a coward? …”
If it were Claude who encountered such a situation, he would also fight, otherwise he would not be able to command the soldiers below, especially when the troops are of equal strength. If he refuses to fight, he will only be labeled as cowardly and cowardly. All prestige is lost. Even after this incident was over, he would be held accountable by the higher authorities for sitting back and watching the enemy massacre his own people, so Major Skerry could only lead the soldiers to risk an attack from the castle.
Fortunately, Major Skerry was still clear-headed. After rushing into the village, he did not rush the soldiers to attack the enemy. Instead, he immediately occupied the houses on both sides of the street and used windows and doors to snipe the enemy light cavalry on the street. , forcing the enemy to be unable to gather troops on the street to launch a charge. At the same time, they set up roadblocks on the street and used dense volleys of guns to drive the enemy out of the street.
The enemy did not expect that the defenders in the castle would take the initiative to attack, so they had no choice but to withdraw from the village. Light cavalry are not easy to use in villages and will only become targets in street fighting. He walked around to the open space behind the village and was shot by the guards on the city wall. He had no choice but to dismount and fight with Major Skerry and the others for every room and alley in the village. To put it bluntly, they were shooting at each other from a distance, but with weapons They suffered a lot of losses and finally set fire to the house...
"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have suggested that the four castles be dispersed. If we gather our forces together, it is impossible for the enemy to dare to act recklessly in front of us with this small force." Claude admitted his mistake honestly. Facts have proven that his defense strategy of four brigades stationed in four castles to take care of each other is wrong. The enemy can completely ignore those three castles and just attack Count Crelaus's castle here at the battalion headquarters.
However, if Claude and the others send troops to reinforce, they will give the enemy a chance to encircle the point for reinforcements. The biggest disadvantage is that the mobility of the Ranger Battalion is not as good as that of the enemy. The terrain here is flat, which is where the light cavalry comes into play. This time the enemy was just a large group of light cavalry, but they made a battalion of rangers so embarrassed. If it was also a battalion of troops, I'm afraid there would be no good results for everyone this time.
If it is in a mountainous area, maybe Claude's strategy of dividing his troops and garrisoning them is right. No matter where the enemy attacks, he will be counterattacked by the four castles. But this is a grassland, and the enemy only needs a small group of light cavalry to tie down the defenders of a castle. If Claude's night attack hadn't wiped out the small group of light cavalry monitoring Landes Castle, then when he sent troops to rescue the camp, the enemy could have assembled the light cavalry brigade to deal with Claude's reinforcements first. Even if Claude brought four light infantry artillery, as long as the enemy is ruthless, he can pay a certain price of casualties to eliminate them. As long as the light cavalry can break into the infantry formation, the consequences will be very serious.
This is actually no wonder Claude, after all, he has never attended a military school and received a complete military education, whether in his previous life or in this life. When he enlisted in the Blue Feather Corps, he only received the most basic non-commissioned officer training. The defense strategy of dividing troops to garrison four castles was just what he took for granted. An old officer with more than ten years of military experience would naturally understand that this defensive plan is an undesirable strategy for troops without mobility on the grassland.
Although Major Skerry graduated from the Junior Military Academy, his major was not strategic command, but administration and management. Later, he served as the personal adjutant of Prince Hansbach for six years, and was also responsible for intelligence and personnel information consulting. aspect. Although he is a qualified soldier, his strategic vision is really not much better than that of Claude. In addition, because of becoming the battalion commander, I felt guilty about Claude, and I also believed that I was not as good as Claude in terms of combat command, so I almost followed Claude's suggestions and adopted them without hesitation. Lord's advice.
It was not until now that they suffered a loss that the two of them realized that this strategy of dividing their troops and garrisoning them was wrong. Fortunately, they still had a chance to correct this mistake.
"It's not your fault. I didn't find this mistake either." Major Skerry sighed: "Now that I have actually come into contact with the light cavalry of the Principality of Karnas, I realized that the descriptions I saw in the reports were not the exaggerated descriptions of the officers and soldiers below. , but we at the top are too self-righteous, think of the enemy too simply and stupidly, and think too highly of ourselves... "
Claude smiled bitterly: "The light cavalry brigade sent by the enemy this time are all veterans and very elite. They should have been transferred back from the Principality of Rimodra. I really can't figure out why the enemy attaches so much importance to this remote area. , actually using such elites to carry out reconnaissance... "
The captain of the fourth brigade came, and Claude remembered that he was transferred from the rear. His name was Cold Walker, and he seemed to be a noble boy. He came to report casualties.
Half of the old, weak, women and children living in the village were slaughtered, leaving only about 460 people, and about 20 young women were kidnapped. Major Skerry led three squadrons in an attack yesterday afternoon and suffered sixty-one casualties. Forty-three were killed, two were maimed, and the rest were lightly or seriously injured. It is worth noting that among the casualties, except for a dozen or so who were killed and wounded in hand-to-hand combat, the rest were all casualties from house-to-house shootings with the enemy.
The enemy left behind eighty-nine corpses, including twenty-seven bodies left behind when they discovered that Claude and his group were coming for reinforcements. They launched an assault on Claude and his group, but were attacked by shotguns and muskets. corpse. In other words, Major Skerry and the others fought fiercely with these light cavalry for a day and night in the village, and the casualty ratio was almost one to one. This proved that Claude was right. The enemy light cavalry in this group were all elite veterans.
Fortunately, we were in a village, with a house as cover, and the fight was a street fight. If they encounter this group of light cavalry in the field, I am afraid that none of Major Skerry and the others who attacked from the castle will be able to come back. Fortunately, the enemy only has one group of troops. If there is one more group, you can imagine the result.
"I don't understand why such elite light cavalry would be so cruel to the people of their own principality. How could they massacre these old, weak, women and children without any scruples..." Major Skerry murmured.
Claude didn't understand either, but Captain Coldwalker, the captain of the Fourth Brigade, answered the question: "Sir, I used to like to read leisure books. I once read a travel diary about the Principality of Karnas, which recorded There are some very interesting chapters. The book says that the Principality of Karrnath does not have territorial nobles as its ruling class like other countries, but the tribal leaders. To be honest, the Grand Duke of Karrnath is just the largest nomad. The leader of the tribe, it was only after he won the inter-tribal war that he occupied the most fertile Beibu Gulf area and began to settle and establish the country, and the Principality of Karnas was established.
After establishing the principality, the Grand Duke of Karrnath introduced some policies from neighboring countries, preparing to reform the principality, enfeoff the territorial nobles, and quell the wars between nomadic tribes. However, what he did was unanimously opposed by many nomadic tribe leaders. These tribal leaders believed that the Karnas Prairie was a treasure land given by God to all nomadic tribes and could not be divided and enfeoffed. Therefore, the Grand Duke of Karnas had no choice but to divide the area at the foot of the Daqing Mountains where we are now, enfeoff it to tribal leaders who are willing to settle, and grant them titles of nobility.
The rest of the nomadic tribes still roam the prairie and make a living by grazing. Small-scale wars often occur between tribes to compete for pasture. The winning side will rob the young and strong livestock and kill the old and the weak because they think the old and the weak are useless. , living is just a waste of food. So they are very cruel to the old and weak of other tribes..."
Perhaps this is the folk custom of the Principality of Karnnus. Claude and Major Skree looked at each other. This is the most barbaric folk custom they have ever heard of. After a long while, Major Skerry asked: "What should we do next?"
Claude has considered this issue: "We have to gather the four brigades here first and abandon the three garrisoned castles. Count Crelaus's castle is large enough to accommodate our entire battalion. But I I think it is best to send a squadron to defend the entrance to the mountain pass. That is our retreat and the channel for us to get reinforcements from the rear. It must be in our hands.
I have seen the terrain at the entrance of the mountain road. It is very dangerous and the mountain road is very narrow. An infantry squadron plus four light infantry artillery can be enough to resist the enemy's attack. The only trouble is that there are still barren mountains and mountains. We need to build defense facilities. I don’t know if the enemy will give us this time. As long as we guard the entrance to the mountain road and this castle, we don't have to worry even if a group of enemies comes.
Another problem is that we need to send away these prisoners, the young men, the old, the weak, women and children we gathered, and we cannot let them stay here anymore. If the enemy comes back, they will only increase our material consumption and become an unstable factor in our defense. In addition, it will be very unsafe for them to stay here. "
"Okay, let's do it like this." Major Skerry nodded and said: "First send the reconnaissance cavalry to confirm whether the enemy's light cavalry group has left. If the enemy has left, then we will seize the time immediately, gather the troops first, and also send the three The grain, grass, ammunition and other supplies stored in the castle will be transported back. By the way, Claude, which squadron do you think is better for guarding the entrance to the mountain road?"
"Let the squadron of Murray Ed go. He is more prudent in doing things. He has led a squadron to garrison in Blackstone Village alone before. This time, just equip him with four artillery groups." Claude thought for a while and felt that it was better to It feels more secure to leave it to my younger brother. If Markchi, a veteran, is allowed to lead the team, he might sneak away secretly when he sees that the enemy is strong. As for the second, third, and fourth squadrons, to be honest, Claude didn't know much about the newly transferred squadron leaders below. At most, they were just familiar faces.
Soon, the scout cavalry came to report that the enemy had indeed left.
Claude said to Major Scree: "First withdraw everyone to the castle, and then give me a squadron. I will have as many carriages as I want. I will set off for the second group immediately and withdraw the personnel and materials there first. … ” See more! Prestige official account: hhxs665