Episode 149

As arrows and magic from both armies soared into the sky and flew toward each other, the captains and lieutenants of the Reich Empire shouted loudly.

“Don’t fear the magic and arrows shot by the Swiss mercenaries! What use is a man of the Reich Empire if he is scared of just this much?!”

“If you don’t want to die, don’t raise your head trying to block the arrows! You can’t stop them anyway. If you lift your face, you’ll just get hit in the eye socket!”

“From the moment you stepped onto the battlefield, your lives have been in the hands of Deus! So, clear your minds!”

Hearing this, Lieutenant General Peter Yaeger remained calm and rational, reading the current situation, even as arrows rained down.

He thought that, in lieu of knights, most Swiss infantrymen had rich combat experience equivalent to that of Imperial Army non-commissioned officers.

Although they would take casualties from arrows and magic, he believed it would not lower the soldiers’ morale or break their formation.

Therefore, he expected that initially, the Swiss infantry might have the upper hand in a head-on confrontation with the Imperial Army.

‘That doesn’t mean we can’t beat them in infantry combat. In fact, from their lowest soldiers to Count Ticino, they are addicted to their tried-and-true winning formula. The Imperial Army can use this to our advantage and strike them from behind for a sure victory!’

As Lieutenant General Yaeger did, when the experience or capability of his soldiers was lacking, a commander’s job was to identify the weaknesses in the enemy’s strategy.

And it was the duty of a great general to capitalize on those weaknesses and strike the enemy hard from behind.

While Lieutenant General Yaeger had all these strategies in mind against the enemy, the arrows shot by the Swiss Army reached the vanguard of the Imperial Army.

“Damn, that hurts like hell!”

“Those hit by arrows, if it’s not fatal, pull them out and keep advancing! If you can’t pull them out, break the shaft and endure!”

“Maria, I loved you. I wanted to touch your chest before I died.”

At this point, the soldiers were divided into three main types.

The slightly wounded, who were hit by arrows but not in vital areas, able to continue fighting somewhat.

Those seriously injured or killed by arrows or magic, unable to continue fighting.

And the majority, who were either not hit at all by arrows or were hit but suffered no harm due to their armor.

Regardless, for the soldiers and officers engaged in battle, the recent deaths of their comrades and subordinates, who had just moments before talked about returning alive to visit a tavern or getting married, imposed tremendous pressure.

This pressure was a complex mix of fear of their own deaths and feelings of loss and sorrow for the comrades they could no longer be with.

Yet, amidst this, one thing was clear. If they tried to flee now, while advancing towards the enemy, it would put both their comrades and themselves in even greater danger.

The only option given to the soldiers was to overcome the fear they felt and keep moving forward.

As the soldiers of the Reich Empire were being hit and killed by arrows and magic, Lieutenant General Yaeger calmed his mind and commanded in a composed tone.

“Position soldiers with poleaxes among the spear-armed troops in each row to support in close combat. Also, mobilize the headquarters company soldiers to scatter what we have prepared near the entrance of the forest on our right. However, if an enemy ambush is detected during the operation, the headquarters company must immediately retreat.”

Upon this order, the headquarters company soldiers around Lieutenant General Yaeger, each carrying a large basket reaching their waist, quietly headed towards the forest entrance.

Messengers quickly ran to the front lines to convey the order to support the spear troops to the poleaxe soldiers.

Thus, Lieutenant General Yaeger, without revealing his own nervousness to his soldiers, tried his best to instill hope that following him would lead to great victory, as it always had.

Despite the chaos of arrows and magic flying around the battlefield, the officers and soldiers around Lieutenant General Yaeger showed no sign of tension.

They gained hope from seeing their commander confidently ensuring victory, calmly and coolly issuing sequential, appropriate commands.

In the midst of this fierce slaughter, there arose an expectation that they would survive and return alive with their Lieutenant General, and a belief that even if they were cornered, he would somehow find a way to victory.

Meanwhile, Count Ticino, commanding 9,000 soldiers of the Swiss Confederation, was scoffing at Lieutenant General Yaeger for boldly approaching head-on despite being weaker in infantry combat.

“It seems like the Reich Empire has no one competent enough to be a general, resorting to a mere 27-year-old kid as one. Now, he’s lost his mind and is thinking of a head-on clash with our Swiss infantry! This must be a sign that the goddess of victory is smiling upon us!”

As he said this, not only the nobles around Count Ticino but also the infantrymen, despite being hit by arrows and advancing, laughed loudly with ease.

This was because the Swiss infantry, considered among the strongest in Europa and also mercenaries, had rarely lost in direct infantry battles since Switzerland’s independence 200 years ago.

In thousands of wars and battles, they had lost only a handful of times, and in the rest, they had emerged gloriously victorious.

Despite the dangerous situation of being under arrow and magic attack, there was leisure to mock the Reich Empire’s army, walking into their own death.

“But a lion never lets its guard down until the hunt is successful. We must also do our best against Lieutenant General Yaeger. Therefore, when the spear troops engage and the battle intensifies, send out the two-handed swordsmen and deploy enough skilled troops to crawl on the ground to support the pike soldiers during intense combat.”

Count Ticino’s strategy was as follows.

First, as their infantry clashed with the Reich Empire’s troops and real combat began, there would naturally be attempts to grab and strike with spears, initiating a struggle for dominance.

Then, naturally, the enemy infantry, including those with spears at the front, would instinctively focus only on their own spear-armed comrades facing them.

At that moment, the two-handed swordsmen would find an opening, dive in, and cut the Reich Empire’s spears with their swords, disrupting their formation and combat ability.

Or, towards the Reich Empire’s infantry, whose gaze was fixed on the spears held by the infantry of the Swiss Confederation.

The skilled troops would crawl under the spears of both armies, reach the Reich Empire’s lines, and then slash their feet and calves with daggers.

This would naturally create gaps in the Imperial Army’s ranks, which the Swiss soldiers would exploit to launch a coordinated attack.

Switzerland had used this tactic hundreds of times, a secret weapon of the Confederation that rarely failed.

Thus, Count Ticino, confident of his victory and contemplating the rise of his status within the canton by killing the well-known 27-year-old Lieutenant General Peter Yaeger, couldn’t hide his smile.

Soon after, the distance between the Swiss and Reich Empire’s armies closed significantly.

Both armies, as if by agreement, implicitly did not attack each other until the archers and mages had retreated.

To the uninformed, it might have seemed as if they were conspiring together.

Soldiers wielding long-range weapons were most effective at a certain distance from the enemy, being of little use in close combat.

If they charged before the archers and mages had fully retreated, the friendly crossbowmen, mages, and infantry would become entangled, resulting in chaos, a situation they sought to prevent.

Eventually, the infantry of the Swiss Confederation, with great dignity, began to advance towards the Reich Empire’s soldiers, spears aimed.

The soldiers of the Empire also set aside their fears and gradually advanced towards the Confederation’s troops.

As the tips of their spears nearly touched, they momentarily stopped, then took one powerful step forward, thrusting fiercely with that momentum.

“Die, you dogs of the Empire!”

“Let’s show them the might of our great mercenaries’ spears!”

“I’ll make a pretty air hole in your throat!”

As the Swiss infantry and the Reich Empire’s spearmen clashed, the battlefield naturally descended into chaos.

Amidst this turmoil, soldiers from both sides gradually died, their focus increasingly shifting to only the enemy’s spears in front of them.

“Now’s the time! Swordsmen, grab your two-handed swords, sweep away or cut the enemy spearmen’s spears to support, and the skilled troops should crawl on the ground with daggers to stab the enemy’s feet and slash their ankles and calves!”

Switzerland’s secret tactic was set in motion to claim the lives of the Reich Empire’s army.