"fire!"

The moment Henares roared, fifteen six-pound infantry cannons lined up in front of the Hantu Army line exploded one after another, and thick white smoke instantly enveloped the entire forward position.

Accompanied by a scream that tore through the air, each shell flew across two-thirds of the battlefield, "lighting" columns of smoke on the Imperial Expeditionary Force's position.

Although the Hantu Army's artillery lacked accuracy - or lacked qualified artillery - apart from blasting a few craters in the middle of the road and flying away debris from the hills and mountains on both sides, it was unable to completely defend the Imperial Expeditionary Force.

constitute a substantial threat.

But for the Hantu Army, which has not yet truly realized "modernization," these high-priced artillery pieces imported from Clovis have fulfilled its most important mission - to embolden them.

Looking at the "fireworks" that were blooming on the opposite side, the Hantu soldiers shrouded in gunpowder smoke burst into fanatical cheers. The wave of shouts even overwhelmed the roar of the artillery barrels.

However, the two thousand Imperial Expeditionary Forces still stood in the well-built civil fortifications and trenches, facing the "massive" bombardment, and the thin blue line remained motionless amidst the choking smoke and falling gravel and mud.

Such a tenacious army further deepened Claude François's judgment - the one lying in front of him was definitely not a lone army abandoned by the Imperial Expeditionary Force and left behind to slow him down.

That kind of army that has no morale at all will be dispersed by a rapid fire of artillery; those who can persist undefeated must be the "bait" prepared by the expeditionary force for themselves.

But... Claude Francois looked coldly at the Imperial Expeditionary Force's position shrouded in billowing black smoke, and turned to look at Henares behind him:

"Command - the artillery stops firing and the infantry prepares to attack."

"Attack?!" Henares was shocked:

"But didn't you say before..."

"Yes, but our enemies don't know. We already know what they don't want us to know." Claude Francois sneered and looked at the Imperial Expeditionary Force position in the distance:

"So we have to pretend to follow their wishes so as not to be noticed by them."

"...obey."

Looking at his king's meaningful expression, Henares understood: "I will transfer several infantry regiments from the central garrison to serve as the vanguard of the attack."

Although the Royal Army Corps and the Central Garrison Army are both elites composed of Thun and Aiden troops, there are also three, six or nine ranks among the elites.

The Royal Legion, based on the Grand Duke's Guard of Thun and established entirely in accordance with the Clovis military system, is an absolute elite and the foundation of the Francois family's rule; it must not be easily used unless it is at the last moment.

In comparison, the "Central Garrison Corps", which is filled with private soldiers of the nobles of Thun and Aiden, is an object that can be expended.

To a certain extent, Claude Francois even hoped that the opposite side would be a trap set by the enemy, so that he could "cleanse" certain "loyal people" with the help of the imperial people and think about rebellion all day long.

bastards.

"Soldiers—advance!"

Amidst the fierce sound of artillery, there was a commotion in the ranks of the Hantu Army - a total of sixteen infantry battalions and four cavalry battalions spread out in six rows, stepped on the rapid drum beat, left the formation, and walked towards the golden iris flag on the opposite side.

The Hantu army followed the vanguard and advanced steadily; their speed was not fast, and their formation was definitely not neat and orderly. They were so messy that they had to rely on dense square formations to maintain their formation.

But with such an extremely bad military appearance, looking at it, it looks like a giant beast from the ancient times wrapped in smoke and dust, staggering but ferocious and ferocious, and constantly making chaotic, meaningless roars.

At the same time, the artillerymen on the Imperial Expeditionary Force's position began to fight back despite repeated bombardments.

Although the momentum is far less "massive" than that of the Hantu Army, the Imperial artillerymen with only four eight-pound cannons showed their superb skills - the four cannons were divided into two and placed behind the two wings of the position, slightly higher than the ground

In the artillery fort on the hillside at a certain point, fire was fired at a position slightly behind the Hantu Army's line.

Compared with the Empire, Hantu's army is less organized, so it must rely on dense formations to maintain order; in the eyes of skilled veteran artillerymen, the military flags they hold high are the coordinates, and the dense phalanx is the bullseye.

"Boom——!!!!Boom——!!!!Boom——!!!!"

The scorching solid bullet rushed out of the gun barrel and hit the center of the dense queue amidst heart-rending screams. It "bounced" from the pile of flesh and blood on the ground with the heartbreaking sound of bones shattering, and rushed to the next target.

.

The heat wave mixed with broken bones and rotten flesh spread to the surroundings, bursting into countless wails; the hot solid bullets continued to "dance" happily, leaving behind their colorful dance steps with the blood and bones of the soldiers from the vast land.

After only one minute of rapid fire, the vanguard of the Hantu army, which had been baptized by the rain of bullets, was briefly confused - the troops in the central position obviously slowed down their advance, and the military line changed from the "one" shape to the "several" shape.

"Look, look! This is the difference between real artillery and false artillery!" Pointing at the chaotic Hantu Army on the opposite side, Casper turned to look at the soldiers in the trench and laughed loudly:

"These bastards from the Han Earth will never understand this. Even if they buy a hundred of the Empire's most advanced artillery pieces, they can only use them to make noise to embolden these cowards!"

For a time, the trench, shrouded in billowing black smoke and flickering firelight, was filled with joyful air.

It was clear that the line on the opposite side was approaching, and there were unlucky people being killed by stray bullets and gravel all around them. However, there was still no tension on the faces of these Imperial line soldiers, who looked as leisurely as if they were on vacation.

On the other side, the Hantu Outpost Army, which experienced a brief turmoil, finally stabilized its order after killing a few unlucky ones who took the lead in making trouble and were too frightened. They were advancing steadily amidst the continuous solid bullets falling from the sky, but they were obviously gone.

It was very arrogant at the beginning.

But slowing down the marching speed means that the empire's artillery can pour out firepower more unscrupulously; the dense formation is slowly shortening the distance between them and the golden iris amid the equally dense artillery fire in the sky.

For some unknown reason, as the Hantu Army gradually approached, the imperial artillery began to slow down the frequency of shelling, causing the outposts that had become "several" shaped to involuntarily speed up their pace.

The distance between the two sides shortened rapidly, and soon...the forward troops had already come within 100 meters of the expeditionary force's position.

"Let the artillery stop firing and get ready!" Casper, who was yelling, jumped up from the ground and slapped a line soldier next to him with a "Bang!"

"Boys, let's get to work!"

“Everyone is in position—line up and prepare to fire!”

Rows and rows of line infantry stood up from the trenches, forming a relatively tight and orderly three-row line elbow to elbow, and poked out the slender barrels of loaded ammunition from their positions.

"Eighty meters—fire!"

In an instant, large swaths of gunpowder smoke enveloped the entire battlefield; the Hantu Army, which was hit hard head-on, began to lose control. The soldiers did not wait for the commander's order, stopped one after another, and fired back on their own initiative.

When the troops in the rear row saw the front row firing, they thought they had already opened fire, so they stopped one after another and fired volleys at an object they didn't know what it was.

"No shooting! I haven't heard from you scumbags. I haven't given the order yet. Stop! Stop!"

Many Hantu noble officers who "recognized a few words" immediately realized that this was most likely an enemy's conspiracy, and tried to disrupt their rhythm. They shouted loudly to stop it, but all the curses and orders were drowned.

Amidst the roar of volleys and the choking smoke.

Amidst the deafening roar, the hurried soldiers fell into chaos almost from the first shot: some people forgot to load the propellant when loading the ammunition, some dropped the lead bullets on the ground, and some used the purge rod as a gun.

Bullets were forced into the barrel of the gun and they forgot to pull it out. Some people only remembered that they had not loaded the bullet until the moment they raised the gun...

All the doctrines, actions and orders that were required to be memorized during previous training sessions were thrown behind their heads; from the front row to the back row, all the soldiers couldn't wait to shoot the lead bullets out of the barrels, and then collapsed without any surprise.

The head of a former companion.

Facts have proved that just one month of training and "advanced" equipment are not enough to change the nature of the Hantu Army - a private army of feudal lords.

In comparison, the Imperial Expeditionary Force, which withstood the first salvo of the Hantu Army, remained in order and poured out firepower methodically on the opposite side. On the desolate Mount Ai Mountain, a battle of two thousand men with more firepower than six thousand was staged.

Absurd scene.

Under the chaotic shooting, the entire sixteen infantry battalions of Hantu soldiers were like headless flies, being harvested by the Imperial Expeditionary Force that kept pouring firepower. The number of casualties increased rapidly like the blood spurting from the wounds.

"What should we do? If we continue like this, it won't take long before we are all dead!"

"Then attack! Stop thinking about shooting, decide the outcome with the bayonet!"

"But, your Majesty doesn't have it yet..."

"Never mind it, Your Majesty, are you going to be a coward who will be killed by bullets, or a warrior who will see red on the bayonet?!"

"I……"

Unable to bear the casualties, the Hantu nobles quickly reached a consensus and directly issued an attack order.

Accompanied by the rapid sound of bugles, the outposts of the sixteen infantry battalions suddenly burst into fanatical roars, completely abandoning their already chaotic formation, and raised their bayonets and rushed toward the Imperial Expeditionary Force position that was still firing volleys.

"What's going on?!"

Looking at the outpost in the distance who suddenly blew the charge horn, Claude Francois looked at Henares in shock and anger: "I haven't given the order yet, who told them to attack?!"

"It should be that the officers of the frontline troops could not bear the casualties and took matters into their own hands..." Henares was also surprised:

"Do you want to call stop?"

"Stop, why stop?!" Claude Francois gritted his teeth and said with hatred, and then sighed:

"Forget it, it's already like this, let them attack, anyway..."

"boom--!!!!"

A sudden loud noise interrupted Claude's words - the imperial artillery suddenly opened fire, and this time it was not a solid bullet.

It's shrapnel.

Four shrapnel shells exploded violently in front of the Imperial Expeditionary Force's position, centering on the explosion point and spreading out four overlapping sectors directly forward.

The Hantu soldiers who had just rushed to the position were torn to pieces in an instant, and their blood, broken bones and flesh were carried by countless small lead bullets and spread around, arousing countless screams.

In an instant, a ferocious gap was torn open in the dense formation, and rows of soldiers fell down like wheat being cut, screaming in agony.

But the imperial artillery did not stop the bombardment. They turned the muzzle as quickly as possible, aiming in the direction where the Hantu soldiers retreated in panic, and then...

"boom--!!!!"

Soon, the frontline troops began to collapse before they even really came into contact with the expeditionary force positions.

However, the soldiers in the rear row continued to attack despite the urging and cursing of the officers. The soldiers who were routed by artillery fire continued to fight with the attacking troops.

"Send the order - aim the muzzle as far back as possible to divide the enemy's lines and disrupt their offensive!" The excited Casper ordered:

"Boys! Don't be afraid of wasting ammunition; just shoot until you run out of ammunition!"
To be continued...