One night has passed, and Red Army has finished getting ready to sortie. The group of villagers that Nojico is leading (called volunteer soldiers for convenience) number 400 people. Their ages are those way past their prime and very young kids, and aside from the sick person who cannot move, pretty much everyone is equipped with agricultural machinery and a bow for hunting, as well as a wooden hammer, and they are not wearing any armour.
"If you take this much with you, the village will be destroyed. This is war, everyone will not be able to live and come back you know?"
"We are prepared for that. Even as it is the village would be destroyed. If everyone was just going to die off slowly, then we want to bet on the slim chance that we could live."
If you are going to say that much then, I will no longer make a fuss. It’s fine to let them choose how they die.
"All units move out! Each company takes the planned route!"
According to Nojico’s information, there are small villages dotted around up ahead. Advancing for one day, it seems that there will be a comparatively large town. First, we plan to have each company attack a village and then gather them in front of the town. The support division will follow the 1st division of cavalry company that I am commanding directly.
It’s a formation that kills the mobility of the cavalry, but this time we aren’t going to be fighting in a way that needs us to gallop quickly, so there is no problem. The volunteer soldiers are spread out among each corps.
"Amazing…"
Nojico’s voice leaks out. There is around 150 people in this village when we launch our attack and the amount is much larger than the original resident’s living in Cocoyashi village. Furthermore, the amount of soldiers situated within the Feudal Lord’s mansion is even larger. However, from the point of view of 100 cavalrymen, this minuscule force is akin to that of an ant. It will be as simple as crushing them beneath our feet.
Just 10 minutes of battle and the soldiers are turned into corpses, the lord is captured and had his head chopped off on the spot. I turn my back to the burning mansion of the feudal lord and announced my capture of the village. And from there on, it’s Nojico’s turn. I give a gentle reminder.
"I don’t want to spend much time on this. Convince them in one hour."
"Everyone! I…"
Whether it is a good thing that the feudal lord’s soldiers were finished in a flash, or whether the heavy cavalries look valiant, the villagers join as volunteer soldiers, but their response is slower than that of Cocoyashi village.
"There’s no way we can win against the Castall kingdom’s steel spear cavalry…if we lose, they’ll kill everyone…"
"Anyway, we burned the lord’s mansion so that’s over, should we get everyone ready to run away?"
The villagers are quietly talking to each other. The long years of political strife and the fear of the king and the army has been ingrained into them. For them to truly trust us, we need to win a major victory.
"It’s less than I thought, but it’s not like we had much to begin with. We can’t spare any more time."
I also agree with Leonhardt Strauch’s opinion. If we are unable to reach our designated town by today, we will lose sight of the other companies.
"We’re leaving! Once you’ve taken your portion of food, follow the rest of the squads."
The designated town, according to Nojico, is known as Glogow. By the time we reach the suburbs, the sun has pretty much set and night is close. The other companies have already arrived. It seems that all three companies managed to control the villages without much problems.
"The volunteer soldiers have also gathered accordingly."
Including the volunteer soldiers, we have a total of about 900 people from four villages. It becomes something a little too big for the mishmash of peasants.
"Well, the most crucial task is the capture of the town in front of us."
There is quite a distance still, but the town which is created in the plains is different in scale from the villages which we have encountered up until now. According to Nojico, there are nearly 2000 residents and there is one central existence – which is Viscount Gorecki – that rules the surrounding villages and the noble has set up a mansion, so normally around 500 soldiers should be there.
Excluding our volunteer soldiers, our actual military strength is about 1,200, it can’t be said to be overwhelmingly advantageous but,
"It will be tough to attack with power."
The town has rocks piled up around it; each corner has a wooden watchtower that can be seen. Unlike the villages up until now that only had a fence which protected them from beasts, the town has a full-fledged wall installed. Just as Leonhardt Strauch said, we will have to be prepared to suffer quite the amount of casualties if we are to attack with force.
"What do you think about surrounding it and firing flaming arrows?"
"The arrows from the enemies on the top of the walls will reach us first, so in the end we will suffer heavy casualties. Also, if we want to burn the town our plan to gather the volunteer soldiers cannot be used anymore."
That’s true, if we burn the townspeople it would be bad.
"If we can’t use force or fire, then only something like sending a spy to open the gates…"
Scott Aldiss is also giving some thought, but it doesn’t seem to be a good idea.
"Then, shall I have the enemies open the gate?"
Leonhardt Strauch opens his mouth. It’s times like these that I’m counting on you.
"First of all tonight, let’s put lots of torches on the wagons and have it walk. With that they will think that most of our army has moved."
Something like that is easy enough.
"After that on the next day, judging from that town, they can only see up to the hill we are on right now, so if we cover soldiers on the opposite side of the hill they won’t be able to see them. We will hide two cavalry and infantry companies there."
"I understand what we have to do, but from here to the town there is too much distance. Even if they let their guard down and open the gate, wouldn’t they simply close it while we are running towards it?"
"Yes. So that’s why we’ll bring them here. Once we get them here we’ll beat them, and the enemies that run away will try to get back into the town and like a dumpling, they won’t be able to close the gate. Even if they abandon them and close the gates, we will be able to eliminate the enemy that is outside the gate easily and after that we can attack them with force or whatever and that will be enough to cause them to fall."
"The reason for having one company is to get them to come here huh."
"Right. Then the most important thing will be the voluntary soldiers."
"The volunteer soldiers aren’t useful in actual battle, though? The line of command will also be sloppy."
"The enemy will also think that. We will give up on capturing the town and move our main force, the remaining units will be 200 and the volunteer soldiers will be 900. Even if they decide to fight us, they will have to be prepared with numbers to challenge us in night battle. But if the gathered volunteer soldiers start to go crazy and rampage in the attack, then of course we will suffer from the enemy’s counter-attack and lose…then in the confusion, the infantry company that also gets involved will mess up the formation…if you were the enemy commander in that situation, what would you do?"
Of course I would chase them. The troops in the castle are 500 in number, the confused volunteer soldiers are no help so I will aim for a win with 1,000 against 500.
"Are there any dangers in the castle that are outside our predictions?"
"If there is, they will wait until daybreak, they will come when they judge that our main force is not there. If so, then no matter what paths we take, it won’t be possible for us to capture the town by ourselves. Let’s leave the hill and wait for the reinforcements to help us."
Scott Aldiss opens his mouth.
"I understand what you’re saying. But regardless of our infantry company, can the volunteer soldiers perform something so adept? If they foresee that, then won’t they just get pierced by arrows and die a meaningless death?"
Riheet talks as if it is nothing.
I don’t think they will be able to pull off such acting. From the beginning, I don’t teach them anything. I just ordered them to ‘do their best to attack the town with everything you have.
