Claude slowly poked his head out of the mud and looked around. When he didn't see any movement in the distance, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Myjack and Gum. "We'll do it here. Take a break and put away your guns. Make sure you're well hidden and don't expose yourselves.
Myjack, go to the back and tell Maud and Becker to hide on our left and right sides. This is where the ambush point will be. "
Two months ago, Claude received another order to report to the ranger camp with the garrison band.
Contrary to what Wardlov imagined, Claude didn't receive the prince's favor and rise to the top. Instead, he was sent to the prince's new experimental unit, the ranger camp.
The purpose of this experimental unit was to use the accuracy of the aubass mark 3 muskets to conceal the battlefield.
In other words, they had to deal with the scouts and combat squads sent by the anti-Auerian alliance.
That way, the enemy wouldn't know about the movements of their own troops and the deployment of their cannons.
Usually, both sides would send out light cavalry as scouts to spy on the enemy's movements and the firepower of their defensive positions.
If they discovered the enemy's scouts, they would send out combat squads to hunt them down. Sometimes, the scouts from both sides would fight each other, but those methods weren't very effective.
The most common scenario was for the enemy's scouts to run in front while the combat squads gave chase. After a while, the scouts would run and the enemy's combat squads would give chase.
So, when both sides concentrated their forces in a stalemate, the entire battlefield would be the stage for the scouts. Usually, the scouts would form groups of three or four and each squad would be split into three or four groups. They would work together while scouting and would often have a combat squad behind them to provide cover or support.
When the enemy scouts came to scout their positions, there wasn't much they could do to defend themselves.
The main reason was simple. The enemy was light cavalry and highly mobile. As long as they didn't get close, cannons would be useless. Canister shells didn't have enough range and it would take a lot of luck to hit them with live ammunition.
On the other hand, if the soldiers were to line up and fire in unison, there would be no accuracy or large area of effect. The enemy only had three or four riders, and firing a few more times would be a waste of gunpowder and bullets. Thus, the best method was to use the scouts to deal with the enemy scouts.
But against the scouts of Aueria, the scouts of the alliance were much more skilled and experienced. They had the upper hand in terms of baiting, guerrilla warfare and killing on horseback.
Teams of scouts from both sides would kill each other as soon as they met, and the ones who emerged victorious were usually the scouts of the alliance. The standoff had lasted for five months, and Aueras had lost 500 scouts, which was equivalent to half a battalion's strength.
Prince Hansbach put a stop to such useless scouting after he arrived at Emis.
The battlefield where the two sides faced off had become the domain of the scouts of the alliance. Usually, they would boldly make their way to the back of the kingdom's defences with just three or four riders.
They would bait or provoke the kingdom's scouts to attack. If there were too many of them, they would run. If there were too few, they would kill them on the spot. After winning, they would swagger away.
"In terms of individual bravery and horsemanship, we can't compare to the light cavalry of Canas. They're natural cavalry.
The late king, Stellin IX, once said that even if it was one on one or ten on ten, our cavalry wouldn't be a match for the light cavalry of Canas. But if it was a hundred on a hundred, we'd be able to fight them to a draw.
If it were a thousand against a thousand, we could crush them and kill them, "said Prince Hansbach to his officers.
Canas was located on the only Great Plains of Canas in the eastern part of Freia. The youths there were all natural horsemen.
The cavalry of Aueras, on the other hand, were cuirassiers. They were known for their fearless charge and were renowned in the eastern part of the continent.
However, they couldn't compare to the light cavalry of Canas in terms of killing on horseback.
Setting up a Ranger Battalion was an idea Prince Hansbach had when he was overseer of Reddragon and Griffon on the western front. He noticed that while the aubass mark 3 was disliked by many soldiers, there were many veterans who liked using it.
According to them, the gun had its own unique advantages in aiming and shooting accurately. A veteran of the Red Dragon Legion had used it to take out an enemy cannon at close range, rendering the cannon useless. In the end, the attacking force took advantage of the gap in firepower left by the cannon and took over the castle. It left a deep impression on Prince Hansbach, who was watching the battle.
So, on the first day he arrived in Emis, he heard that they couldn't conduct reconnaissance on the enemy. The enemy had spread out and dominated the battlefield between the two sides.
His Royal Highness recalled the Garrison Squadron's precision shooting drill he saw on his way here and decided to form an experimental combat unit, the Ranger Battalion. He ordered his attendants to drag Captain Wardlov out of bed in the middle of the night and asked him to check the files of the Garrison Squadron guarding the entrance.
Just like that, Claude joined the Ranger Battalion as a temporary experimental unit. If there were any medicine he could buy for regret, he would definitely buy it and swallow it.
Why did he have to train his own garrison on the mountain pass? Couldn't he just watch the show? Why did he have to train there? Yet, the first prince took a liking to him. Captain Wardlov thought he was going to make a meteoric rise in his career. Was there really such a thing as a meteoric rise to the battlefield?
On the first day he joined the Ranger Battalion, Claude learned from the bearded lieutenant colonel that the battalion's mission was to ambush the enemy's scouts on the battlefield and conceal their positions from the enemy's scouts. Be it troop movements or firepower allocation, they had to be hidden from the enemy's eyes.
That was easy for him to say. Was it that easy for infantry to deal with cavalry? Even though the Aubass mark III in his hand was the only firearm in the kingdom that could accurately aim and fire, the range of this shot was only a hundred meters.
For light cavalry, a hundred meters would only take ten seconds for them to reach you. You only had one chance to fire.
Claude suspected that Prince Hansbach was using the strategy of exchanging infantrymen for light cavalry scouts.
Even if an infantryman killed a cavalry scout with a single shot and was then cut down by another cavalry scout, the kingdom would still make a huge profit in terms of trade.
After all, mastering the Aubass mark 3 standard matchlock marksmanship and aiming was very simple. Three points to a line, one just had to hide and wait for the enemy to come and aim and fire. On the other hand, if the enemy wanted to train an outstanding scout, they would need to invest a lot of resources.
However, there was nothing Claude could do since he was already in the battalion. Fortunately, the rainy season was about to arrive in March and he still had time to prepare. He increased the training intensity of his unit and told them to pay attention to the important points of concealment and retreat on the battlefield.
The officer in charge of the Ranger Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Rosler with a straight face and a mustache, was holding a competition with the second-line corps. He transferred the soldiers with good marksmanship into the Ranger Battalion, ready to send them to the battlefield to fight the enemy scouts when the weather cleared up.
In terms of battlefield results, Hansbach's goal of setting up the Ranger Battalion had been achieved.
The enemy scouts were now restricted to their own side of the formation and could no longer charge into the rear of the kingdom's formation.
They were very afraid of the sudden gunshots, which meant that the enemy was aiming at them. It was very likely that this gunshot would mean that they would lose another brother.
But from a certain point of view, the establishment of the Ranger Battalion was a failure. Hansbach appointed an unqualified officer to be the officer in charge of the battalion and didn't develop it to its full potential.
In the end, the Ranger Camp was turned into a disciplinary camp. The people who joined were all soldiers who had done wrong. Their goal in joining the Ranger Camp was to kill three enemies and retrieve their identity tags. Only then could they leave the camp and return to their original unit.
The reason for that was because the casualty rate in the battalion was too high, just as Claude was worried about.
Without any training or planning, as soon as the rainy season ended in April, the mustached Lieutenant Colonel Rosler rushed the soldiers of the Ranger Battalion to the battlefield to ambush the enemy's scouts without any hesitation.
In that one month, the battalion lost a third of its soldiers. Even though they were treated rather well, there weren't any more soldiers who requested to join. Rosler had to recruit the soldiers who had made mistakes to replenish his manpower.
Claude's garrison unit also lost half of its men in that month. Only 27 remained of the original 60 men. Eight of them were still lying in the infirmary in Amis.
Three of them were crippled. They had their arms cut off by the enemy and it was already a miracle that they could be saved.
The other fortunate thing was that the four nobles were unscathed. One, they listened to Claude, and two, they were naturally quick-witted.
Claude had become the best archer in the battalion and was the most popular in the battalion. No matter who asked him what they should do on the battlefield, he would patiently tell them what they should pay attention to and what they shouldn't do.
Many soldiers were able to return safely because of Claude's advice. As a result, he was quite popular in the battalion and was the most respected sergeant in the battalion.
But at the same time, Claude had also become a thorn in Rosler's side. He had clashed with Claude three times. Had it not been for the fact that Claude had killed the most number of enemies in the camp, Rosler might have ordered his soldiers to arrest him on the spot and put him on trial. He might have even punished him as a warning to the others.
The first conflict had to do with the uniforms. Claude felt that the soldiers' red uniforms and caps weren't suitable for ambushes and would be discovered by enemy scouts from afar. It would be best to change them to green or camouflage. He suggested that Rosler write a letter to Prince Hansbach to change the color of the battalion's uniforms.
It was a reasonable suggestion to Claude and he was doing it for the sake of the soldiers' safety.
He didn't think that Rosler would fly into a rage. He said that the color of the Aueran army's uniforms had been set since the founding of the kingdom and that red symbolized bravery and invincibility. What right did a mere sergeant major like Claude have to change the color of the uniforms? Was he trying to betray the kingdom?
The second conflict was when Claude suggested that the soldiers who went out for ambushes should move in small groups and bring an extra gun so that they could fire twice in a row.
Rosler was already biased against Claude. He felt that Claude's suggestion was akin to giving aid to the enemy. All the enemy had to do was wipe out one battalion and they would be able to get two guns.
The third conflict was when Rosler felt that many soldiers were slacking off and would only return to camp at night instead of ambushing the enemy.
That was why he asked the soldiers to bring back an enemy's identity plate every time they returned. That way, they would be given two days of rest. Otherwise, they would have to continue ambushing the enemy.
Claude didn't think that was practical. Obtaining an enemy's identity plate would only increase the danger of the ambushing soldiers. Sometimes, they would have to retreat immediately after an attack. Getting an enemy's identity plate wasn't practical at all.
Rosler was enraged and yelled at Claude. He demanded that Claude get at least ten enemy identity plates within the next week or he wouldn't get any rest.