"Order, the Thunder 1301st Regiment opens the passage and allows the enemy's follow-up troops to rush in for reinforcements. After the enemy has passed, they will block their back road and set up a series of snagging ropes to prevent the enemy from escaping from the back road. In addition, let the division The battalion-level officers will come immediately to hold a pre-war meeting." Claude finally made up his mind and prepared to rely on the enemy's camp to face the enemy's follow-up troops arriving for reinforcements, and give this volunteer light cavalry regiment formed by retired soldiers of the Principality of Karnas to Catch them all.
This is a rare good opportunity, because the enemy has left the well-equipped and solid defensive positions in Vibato Colonial County and penetrated deep into the Beringana Direct Territory. Although Claude didn't know why the enemy left their turtle shells and whether they were really greedy for money in order to hunt the buffalo herds, this was undoubtedly a good opportunity to severely damage or annihilate them. Claude was confident of leading the Thunder Division to eliminate the enemy, but his hesitation was simply because he was worried that the price of casualties would be too high.
This so-called volunteer light cavalry regiment formed by retired soldiers of the Principality of Karrnath is actually the regular regiment of the Principality of Karnars. This is something that everyone knows very well. Claude admitted that they were indeed a formidable enemy. Compared to the standing legions of the Kingdom of Hicks, their combat effectiveness was superior. Moreover, the Albato Prairie is a very suitable terrain for these light cavalry of the Principality of Karnas to fight. Claude did not want to seriously injure the Thunder Division in order to annihilate the enemy.
However, the enemy's follow-up troops are now coming for reinforcements, but the Thunder Division is waiting for work. It can also use the enemy's campsite to carry out defensive operations, which is a geographical advantage. In addition, four enemy regiments have been annihilated, which is equivalent to annihilating one enemy division. The enemy's legion only has more than 60,000 troops. After subtracting 24,000, the remaining troops are only more than 30,000. They are nothing more than four field regiments plus the security and logistics troops directly under the division headquarters. How many more Thunder Divisions there are.
It should be noted that the Thunder Division had already achieved two victories in two battles. It had annihilated four enemy regiments and captured two camps. It only suffered a total of more than a thousand casualties. The morale of the soldiers was very high. Coupled with the equipment advantages he possesses, Claude feels that he also has the upper hand in terms of people and people. The right time, the right place, and the right people have two advantages, which is why Claude made up his mind to face the enemy head-on.
The follow-up troops of the Principality of Karrnath Volunteer Light Cavalry arrived at nine o'clock in the evening. When the leading troops discovered that the Thunder Division had occupied the camp, they quickly stopped and withdrew to a place five miles away. Start setting up a cordon. It can be seen from this that the commander of this volunteer light cavalry regiment is a mature and steady officer. He had anticipated that the camp might be lost, so the vanguard did not rush forward to launch an attack.
With more than 30,000 troops spread out, it feels boundless. Standing on the wall of the campsite and looking out, the black crows feel oppressive. Compared to the bustle of the enemy's camp, the camp seemed very quiet, like a silent giant lying prone on the grassland. It seemed quiet but was very threatening.
The enemy probably thought so too. A large group of troops arrived a thousand meters away and looked at the camp. However, they only found that a few more trenches had been added in front of the camp and a few half-height earthen walls had been built. Piles of cow dung bonfires were lit between the trenches, and the air was filled with the smell of burning.
In fact, this kind of defense can only be regarded as very average. However, the enemy's large group of troops stayed thousands of meters away for a long time and did not command the troops to launch a tentative night attack. Instead, they retreated after an hour and had already begun to attack. A large-scale camp.
Claude shook his head. It was bad luck to meet a mature and prudent commander. He tried his best to show weakness to the enemy, but the enemy was still too cunning to launch a night attack. All the plans for the evening were in vain.
"Let the 1302nd Regiment withdraw and rest. There is no need to continue to ambush in front. The enemy will not attack at night." Claude ordered Major Anders to pass the order, and he also walked down the wall to the tent in the middle of the camp. OK.
It seems that the follow-up force of the Volunteer Light Cavalry Corps wants to have a formal offensive and defensive battle with the Thunder Division. Claude hates such positional offensive and defensive battles. In this era, relying on matchlock guns and artillery that fired solid projectiles and shotgun shells, no one could be sure of victory. In particular, this volunteer regiment formed by retired soldiers from the Principality of Karnars is still a light cavalry regiment. As long as they are willing to pay a certain price of casualties, they can still use the cavalry's swift assault and group assault to quickly break through defensive positions and turn the battle into a hand-to-hand battle.
Therefore, the casualties in position offensive and defensive battles have always been relatively heavy, both for the attacker and the defender. This has been proven in the five-year war in the eastern region. In the most cruel and casualty offensive and defensive battle of the Principality of Rimodra, even the Guards Corps, which is known for its good offensive skills, almost lost most of its troops and had to be replenished several times, not to mention the other second-line legions. said. In the five-year war, half of the more than 600,000 troops lost by the Kingdom of Ovelas were lost in the offensive and defensive battles of the Principality of Rimodra.
However, this time the Thunder Division led by Claude was on the defensive side and took advantage of it. But the volunteer regiment of the Principality of Karrnath can use light cavalry raids to offset the defender's advantage, depending on how much casualties they are willing to pay. If the defensive position is breached, the next thing to look at is the fighting will and courage of the soldiers. The longer both sides persist, the more severe the casualties will be, until the morale of one of them collapses.
Claude doesn't like to fight positional offensive and defensive battles. Even if he is confident of winning, it is very likely that the casualties of the Thunder Division will be very heavy. Therefore, his favorite tactics in the past were sneak attacks and assault tactics. He could take a bite out of the enemy before he was prepared and run away, which could not only inflict trauma on the enemy but also reduce his own casualties. After doing it over and over again, the enemy will naturally collapse, and Claude will be able to win an easy victory.
But it didn't work this time. Time was too tight. He couldn't get rid of the enemy immediately after capturing the enemy's camp and implement guerrilla strategies. With nearly seven thousand prisoners and rich booty in the bivouac, it was impossible for him to give up these gains. Unless all the prisoners are slaughtered and the harvest of the camp is burned, then we can leave immediately. But that would mean that the battle to capture the camp was in vain. It was related to the rewards of all the officers and soldiers of the Thunder Division, and Claude knew very well that no one would agree. Especially everyone thinks that it is the greatest shame for a soldier to retreat in front of an enemy who is weaker than himself.
Everyone believes that they will be the winner standing with the last laugh, but they do not believe that they will become one of the unfortunate ones who fall on the battlefield. Claude could only go with the flow and decided to have a tough battle with the volunteer light cavalry regiment of the Principality of Karnas. In fact, he knew in his heart that troops who have not experienced a tough battle can never become strong on the battlefield. Even if you pay a heavy price in casualties, as long as you win, it will be very worthwhile, because such a battle will create the military soul of a strong army.
At around eight o'clock in the morning the next day, whether it was the enemy camp thousands of meters away or the camp occupied by the Thunder Division, the battle horn sounded. The horn from the Principality of Karnas meant to send out troops. Light cavalry troops rushed out of the camp and formed a neat formation 1,500 meters away from the camp. The blowing of the horn by the Thunder Division reminds its officers and soldiers to be prepared to defend against the enemy's attack.
Claude believed that the enemy also had information about the Thunder Division and could estimate the strength of both sides. The facts before them showed that the enemy had made a wrong choice. They believed that they had a great advantage in strength. Obviously, the enemy commander believed that the Thunder Division also suffered heavy casualties after capturing the two camps, because he had a very good understanding of the combat effectiveness of the four field regiments under his command and confirmed that even if the Thunder Division was annihilated His four regiments with more than 20,000 troops will also pay a heavy price in casualties.
When the Thunder Division attacked the two camps, it adopted a siege on all sides, trying not to let any enemy escape. Now, the volunteer light cavalry regiment of the Principality of Karnas is adopting a focused assault, attacking only one side. This is to prepare to use its superiority in strength to defeat the enemy's will to resist. Therefore, they placed all their troops in front of the camp instead of dividing their troops in the other three directions.
This brings convenience to the defenders to concentrate their forces for defense, but relatively speaking, if the frontal defensive position is breached, the morale of the defenders will be ruined. Even if he could escape from the other three directions, it would be difficult to escape from the pursuit of the enemy's light cavalry on the flat Albato prairie. The enemy commander seemed very confident that they could win the battle.
Four light cavalry field regiments were lined up on the left and right, but the Chinese army lineup in the middle looked more crowded. But soon, a deep horn sounded, and a large group of light cavalry rushed out from the large square formations of the four field regiments on the left and right sides, rushing straight towards the camp. This is a tentative attack, using a small team of troops to test the strength of the defensive position to determine the focus of the next attack and the location of the feint attack.
Seen from a distance, there are several trenches surrounding the wall of the camp occupied by the Thunder Division. The total distance is only two hundred meters in diameter. He couldn't see clearly last night. He was worried that the enemy had other plans and set a trap, so the commander of the volunteer light cavalry regiment of the Principality of Karnars rejected his subordinate's request for a night attack and decided to launch an attack during the day when the visibility was better.
Let each of the four field regiments send out a large group of light cavalry to test. The regiment commander wanted to test the strength of the Thunder Division's defensive position and see if the trenches in front of the camp could hinder the light cavalry's surprise attack. From his point of view, they were just a few roughly dug trenches. Any light cavalry could easily jump over those trenches with his mount.
But something happened that surprised the legion commander. In just a few minutes, nearly a thousand light cavalry who went to test had rushed to the first trench, but they all forcibly restrained their mounts and stopped in front of the trench. However, there were more than a dozen riders who did not rein in their horses and leaped over the ditch. However, the moment they landed, both men and horses fell to the ground. Immediately afterwards, countless heads were exposed in the third trench, gunshots were fired in succession, firelight flickered and gunpowder smoke rose. The light cavalry who stayed in front of the first trench were knocked down in large numbers at once.
"Blow the trumpet and tell them to withdraw immediately." The legion commander ordered with a livid face.
There were nearly a thousand Qingqi, but less than one brigade returned. Those who could run back were the lucky ones. It took them a long time to explain before the legion commander and the senior officers finally understood why they reined in their horses in front of the trench. This can only be blamed on the enemy being too cunning. The first trench was only more than two meters wide and two meters deep, making it easy for a horse to jump through.
But behind the trench, the enemy continuously dug trenches with a depth of only one foot. They were so densely packed that they looked like flat ground from a distance. Only when they got closer did they realize that there was no place for the prancing horse to land. Just like the dozen light cavalry who jumped over forcefully, the horse jumped over and stepped into the deep ditch. It rushed forward, and both the man and the horse were tripped and fell to the ground, falling half to death.
Then the enemy soldiers ambush in the third trench behind and use muskets to fire at the light cavalry standing in front of the first trench, causing heavy casualties to nearly a thousand light cavalry who went to test. The most painful thing for the regiment commander was that he failed to detect the fire deployment location and shell coverage of the enemy's artillery. This was an almost futile exploratory attack.
A few seemingly simple trenches were ingeniously arranged by the enemy to create special effects. According to the light cavalry who ran back, this was specially arranged according to the characteristics of the light cavalry assault of the Principality of Karrnath, and the purpose was to render the light cavalry useless.
"We can use woven straw bags filled with soil to fill the trenches." A senior officer proposed the most commonly used offensive method on the grassland, which is specially designed to deal with positions that use trenches for defense. As long as a few attack routes are filled with those straw mud bags, the light cavalry of the Principality of Karrnath can rush into the enemy's position and chop the enemy into pieces with their sabers.
But the only disadvantage of this method is that the possible casualties will be very high. The enemy is not a fool. Their artillery deployment location has not been exposed, and they can even use several artillery to block this buried passage. The light cavalry of the Principality of Karrnath wanted to rush into the enemy's defensive position through this passage, so one can imagine how much sacrifice they had to make.
The legion commander shook his head: "Let's withdraw the troops and return to the camp first. Let's discuss how to deal with the trench defense positions set up by the enemy."
This is the result of no choice. Today's battle can no longer continue. Not to mention that morale is a bit low after the tentative attack. The enemy's insidious trench layout has made the light cavalry raid useless. In addition to withdrawing the troops and returning to camp, You can't continue to launch an attack and let your men rush to the trench and become the target of the enemy's muskets.
However, just after returning to the main tent and before any discussion, the sentry reported that the enemy was digging trenches in front of the position while escorting the prisoners after capturing the camp. The legion commander led his men to the front line again, used a monocular to watch, and found that it was indeed the prisoners on his side who were being escorted by the soldiers of the Thunder Division to repair the trenches. After a rough count, he saw that there were nearly a thousand captured soldiers on his side, and more prisoners were being escorted out of the camp.
The soldiers of the Thunder Division were very rough, and their whips and gun butts were used on the prisoners who made the slightest move. The legion commander and his men could see from the monocular telescope that many prisoners on their side were beaten by the enemy soldiers and rolled all over the ground, with blood on their faces.
"General, we have to rescue them," some of the officers nearby begged angrily.
Rescue is easy to say, but how do you do it? They will return to the camp after you dispatch the troops. In addition, so what if you send out troops? You can't even rush through the enemy's defensive positions.
"I think maybe we can also dig trenches to get close to the enemy's trenches and connect the trenches together. Then let our soldiers dismount and attack the enemy as infantry." A senior staff officer made a suggestion.
The legion commander's eyes lit up. Indeed, the enemy's defensive position was aimed at the light cavalry, but it could not help the infantry attack. The advantage of light cavalry over infantry is that they can quickly pass through the enemy's fire coverage and rush to the defensive position. The infantry suffered heavy casualties due to enemy fire due to their slow speed during the attack, but now they can avoid enemy fire by digging trenches. It must be said that this senior staff officer had a good idea.
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