"Duke, the Ostorian army is not an army under our command."
"Yes, Duke, I know."
The crown territory of Ostoria and St. Stephen is the territory of the Habsburg family. It is not an independent country in name, but a dependency of Charlemagne. In wartime, its troops must obey Charlemagne's command.
In this regard, various countries, including the Pope and Ostoria's Castilian cousins, gave their acquiescence.
"Duke, we all know that the command of the coalition forces lies with Charlemagne. We can use the 'Marine Corps' as an excuse to avoid Charlemagne's blind command of the frog, but Ostoria cannot."
"Yes, Duke, I know."
Command of land forces.
The Duke of Wellington recalled the words that made him unhappy. According to the agreement between the countries, the army commander of the coalition forces was provided by the country that contributed the most. Albion originally had a chance to compete for this title, but they had already obtained the navy.
The title of commander, one more
An army commander from Albion... Not only would the proud Charlemagne be seriously unhappy with this, but His Holiness the Pope, who had already expressed distrust in the growth of the Church of Albion, would also strongly oppose it.
Ang would also be uneasy if he held the command of the coalition forces in one hand.
For the sake of the integrity of the coalition, and more importantly, to prevent itself from falling into serious isolation, Albion must accept a coalition army commander who meets political needs.
A…Dauphin Charlemagne.
Louis Dieudonné, the Dauphin of Bourbon, a talented but untimely nobleman, was the army commander of the coalition forces.
This candidate was not proposed by Albion, but was the result of communication and coordination between the Pope and other countries, and the reasons given are reasonable.
Serres and Castile were limited by their national strength and only sent two symbolic companies. It is obvious that it is impossible to appoint a lieutenant to serve as the commander of the coalition army; Lapland is a long-term recipient of assistance from these countries.
It seems a bit inappropriate to let a general from a country that accepts charity serve as the commander of the sponsors. Albion is already
Naval commanders, so army commanders have no chance with them; and the last and most important point is that Albion sends veteran generals like the Duke of Marlborough and the Duke of Wellington to serve as frontline commanders. If the status of the army commander is lower than
These two people may affect the chain of command, and a person with a noble enough status must balance the two dukes.
Therefore, the commander of the coalition army could only be Prince Charlemagne.
Although he is a bit younger, his military literacy and experience are far less than those of the two Dukes. But the Crown Prince is also a general who has experienced on the northern front. He is more familiar with the combat environment. Even if he cannot win, he can still bring the army back intact.
.If serious differences of opinion really occur, the identity of the crown prince can also restrict the dukes.
The Duke of Wellington did not like this arrangement at all. First, it was a secret stumbling block; secondly, he felt it was an insult to accept the command of a Dauphin Charlemagne, or to be equal to him.
To let the crown prince of a failed country who has never gained the upper hand in hundreds of years of mutual strife and often relies on dwarfs and foreigners to save the crisis to point fingers at the victors, the glorious Albion army, is a disservice to the great Albion.
Angry, this is a serious insult to Her Majesty the Queen, all the nobles and even the Duke personally.
At least the Duke himself considered it a serious insult, an offense, a blasphemy, and made no secret of his feelings about it.
"That His Highness gives the impression that he is an ill-educated young man. Of course, this has nothing to do with us. If he were my son, I would beat him from morning to night every day. Whip, wand, every day.
Stopped 'pah pah pah'."
"'Papapapa'?"
"'Papapapa' means 'papapapa'."
"Okay, you have the final say. But now you have to seize the command of the vanguard force from the evil young man."
The Duke of Marlborough sighed and asked:
"Do you know what this means?"
The Duke of Wellington was silent, his eyes fixed on the other person. Regardless of his tone or expression, the Duke of Marlborough showed no emotion other than calmness, as if he was really just raising a question rather than some kind of warning.
In fact, he didn't have to do this. Everyone knew that it meant that Albion had to make certain concessions, even major concessions, in order for Charlemagne to hand over the command of the forward troops to Albion. This is normal, regardless of
Is he the "evil young" crown prince, or the cunning red-coated master?
Teacher, they are not fools, let alone good people who respond to requests. Do you want them to make concessions? Yes, but they must give a price that is enough to make them tempted. But for Albion, even if they don’t care about the issue of face, Charlemagne’s
Quotes are also likely to exceed the bottom line of affordability.
"But we must do this, or implement general mobilization! End this damn war immediately!"
Wellington waved his fist in the air and roared loudly, letting out the resentment he had accumulated recently with the roar.
"Yesterday I promoted 30 non-commissioned officers and 16 lieutenants to replace their killed officers! Then I signed a death warrant for 150 people. They were all deserters, defeatists, and those who used self-mutilation to avoid going to the battlefield.
Coward! This is just the amount for one day,
Count the dead officers, sergeants, and orderlies, and then go and see those demoralized bastards, the cowards who refused to fight the long-haired bastards... We must do this, otherwise we will implement general mobilization
, flood every inch of that fortress with artillery shells!"
Wellington's emotions were a little out of control, but it was definitely not because he could not avenge his brother-in-law. If Major General Parkinson had not died in time enough, the Duke would probably have strangled to death the idiot brother-in-law who had brought his reputation into disrepute.
The Duke of Marlborough knew the reason, and his mood also became bad.
Everything started when the furry bears on the opposite side systematically shot and killed Albion officers.
When the port of Kaliningrad resumed its functions and Albion's revenge army continuously landed in Riga, the principality quickly felt the pressure. Although the defense system of Riga Fortress was strong, the fortress also became precarious in the face of crazy artillery fire coverage.
The Albionites did not cover the defense line with artillery fire, but flooded the defense line with artillery shells. In addition to more field guns, Congreve rockets and floating battleship guns, they also spared no expense in deploying 32-pound guns.
They fought with similar artillery on the fortress, and even moved out the heavy mortars that were still in testing state, specifically for bombarding the trenches.
The bombardment lasted for a whole day and did not stop until dusk. Under the illumination technique, a fusilier regiment began to attack the fortress.
Everything went smoothly at first. Accompanied by the "Grenadier March", the infantry phalanx advanced cautiously. Mines, square nails, and iron horses had all been cleared by artillery fire, while the bears squatting in the trenches
It seemed that everything was over, and there was no counterattack. As they got closer and closer to a trench, their mood gradually relaxed. But tragedy struck at this moment.
As the queue approached and was only 70 meters away from the first trench, a sharp whistle broke the silence. Countless cylindrical hats of the New Army of the Principality stood up from the trenches, including many eye-catching blue hats.
incredible.
This was the unanimous feeling of the Albion soldiers. They could not believe that the furry bears could survive such a violent bombardment. Before they could think further about what to do, the vigorous exchange of fire began.
The red military uniforms are particularly conspicuous under the light of the illumination spell, and the distance between the two sides is only 70 meters, plus the opponent's dense formation. There is almost no need to aim. As long as the gun is not pointed towards the sky, the ** soldiers will definitely be able to hit it.
A certain target, but it was difficult for the Albionans to shoot at the opponents in the trenches. The bears could be protected by just lowering their heads, while the red-shirted troops were exposed to the fire net without any defense.
It's really unfair.
The Albion soldiers complained as they continued to charge forward, but soon the soldiers discovered that no one gave them instructions.
This is simply unbelievable. There are at least hundreds or even more people in an infantry regiment who give orders or convey orders, including officers, sergeants, and orderlies. But at this moment, these guys have actually disappeared from the world?
Before the soldiers could get out of their confusion, a man who looked like an officer suddenly jumped out of the public position. He raised his pistol high and roared: "For the motherland Rus! Forward!" The entire position immediately boiled, and under the tsunami-like "Ula"
"At the sound, the bears charged.
There is no suspense about the ensuing battle. Regardless of the number or physical strength, the human soldiers are inferior to the newly drugged Principality soldiers. Even the bayonets are the same - the Albion army is equipped with the same sleeve-type single-armed weapon as Charlemagne's army.
A bayonet with a sharp edge, while a bayonet with a cross-shaped tip is a four-edged military bayonet. As long as it does not hurt the
Injury, you can always find ways to suture the wound to heal, but the wound caused by the latter is difficult to suture. Even poking a hole in the arm or thigh can cause the other person to bleed to death. Moreover, in order to prevent rust during the processing, the manufacturer
Arsenic was mixed into the military thorns, which further increased the mortality rate of the victims...
In less than half an hour, most of the infantry regiment was lying on the ground. In retaliation, the Albion artillery started shelling again. However, because the cunning furry bear had already retreated into the trench, except for a few unlucky guys who patronized scalping,
Basically no damage worth mentioning was caused to the opponent.
Afterwards, the two dukes organized an investigation in an attempt to punish the officers and soldiers who had failed in combat as a warning to others. However, they searched all the wounded soldiers and found no one who could be called an officer. The soldiers claimed that at the end of the battle,
At this stage, the troops were in a state of complete lack of command, so they were overwhelmed by the numbers and momentum of the bear. But it was not yet
To attract the attention of the Duke, after executing the soldiers who retreated without authorization, they organized two more large-scale offensives. The results were the same disastrous defeat, and almost no officers returned to the position each time. Until then, the two
Only then did the Duke realize that something was wrong, and sent someone to snatch the body back from the battlefield for examination, and then discovered what was going on.
"All officers, non-commissioned officers, and orderlies were shot in the head or chest, with almost no exceptions."
The Duke of Wellington shook his head and said in an incredible tone:
"This is the first time I have heard of such a thing. The orc army shot and killed our officers in a planned manner, so that some troops lost their command as soon as they entered the battlefield and were cut off from the rear. The battlefield commander was unable to control the troops."
The Duke of Marlborough sighed. This was actually not the first time. In the past, before muskets were invented, the principality often organized excellent shooters to shoot enemy commanders, and then the cavalry took advantage of the chaos to launch a charge.
Tear your opponent into pieces.
"Unlike us, they have no regard for war ethics and chivalry."
"Those guys are not knights in the first place, they are just a group of beasts and a group of criminals!"
Everyone can understand that Wellington lost control of his emotions again. The Duke has never lost so many outstanding officers in a few days of fighting - hundreds of people, or even more. Even though the Duke has always ignored the lives of soldiers
, and it is impossible to accept a noble officer becoming a consumable. Moreover, considering that this tactic is clearly targeted, it means that the Duke's head will be the top priority target of the orc sharpshooters, no one.
He does have reason to be angry about this.
"We also tried to have magician sergeants open a 'barrier' in front of the formation to provide cover for the troops, but the results were not ideal. Just the front of a regiment requires dozens of triangle-level magician non-commissioned officers. Or a dozen quadruple-level magician non-commissioned officers.
The level is at the forefront. Not only do you have to guard against cannonballs and magic attacks from enemy priests, but you also have to beware of the opponent's sharpshooters' special bullets! Those damn bastards actually use the Sky Crystal implanted with 'Honkai' to make bullets!"
The Duke of Wellington actually wronged the orc snipers. You must know that the duchy did obtain a batch of special bullets, but the trajectories of those special bullets were quite unstable. They could not be used to snipe moving targets. Those magician non-commissioned officers were all for defense.
The results of the army's hunting expedition.
Only a few people know the truth. The Duke is not among them, and he doesn't care about the truth. What he needs is reinforcements.
At least 20,000 soldiers and thousands of cannons.
"If it is lower than this number, then we can only watch the proud rooster cut off the supply of the fortress and then take all the credit."
"That won't happen."
The Duke of Marlborough looked serious, and the calmness before had completely disappeared.
"Victory and honor belong only to Albion, no one can steal it from us."
After a pause, he emphasized again.
"Don't even think about it."
"Then the command of the forward troops..."
"We will try our best, but before that, we should try some new combat methods."
"you mean……"
The Duke of Marlborough was about to explain carefully when the voice of the Duke's adjutant suddenly came from outside the tent.
"Report! Your Highness the Duke, they are coming."
"It's just right. Rather than just talking about it, it's better to go and see it directly."
Pulling hard on the hem of his military uniform, the Duke of Marlborough finally revealed a smile on his tense face.
When he first saw that group of people, the Duke of Wellington thought he had been fooled. No one would associate the group of people in front of him with soldiers. Soldiers should be a group of people wearing bright military uniforms and moving neatly.
Although the group of guys in front of them were wearing military uniforms, they had not buttoned any formal buttons. They were wearing white capes, carrying skis on their backs, holding rifles and ski poles in their hands, standing in a twisted row.
This doesn't look like an army! They are clearly hunters in the mountains!
Wellington clenched his fists and soon relaxed them.
The soldiers in front of him were not Albion soldiers, but Lapland soldiers. Everyone knew that Lapland was a very poor country, and they could not expect these rustic country people to do as well as the Albion soldiers.
"Welcome to the walls of Riga, Lieutenant Haye."
The Duke of Marlborough nodded to the man leading the group. The man wearing a Lapland military uniform and a mask bowed and agreed.
"If there is no need, I won't say more. I hope that the 'White Death' of Lapland can take action quickly and fight a bloody path for the victory of the human camp. But before that -"
Following the Duke's gaze, the adjutant took a step forward and handed the lieutenant a leaflet, which had the characters of the principality that he was familiar with and also kindly translated it in the characters of the human country.
——The sniper hero of the New Army of the Principality, Sergeant Vasily Zaitsev from the Ural Mountains, once again killed 4 enemy officers and 5 non-commissioned officers today.
Perhaps in order to allow illiterate people to understand the contents, there are pictures below the text. The military caps circled in a square are marked with a big red cross, and the number is the same as described in the text.
"Lately, the shaggy bastards are promoting this sharpshooter, Lieutenant Simon Haye, and he is your prey."
"I understand, Duke."
The corners of the masked man's mouth curved up, and his blue eyes reflected a cold light.
"I will make some preparations and let the young shepherd come to me on his own." (To be continued..)