There was no way Claude would be one of those brainless fools who would dare to ambush the scouts of the five anti-Austrian nations with a standard Aubass mark III musket.
The enemy scouts would move in groups of at least three or four. Even if he killed one, he wouldn't be able to escape the pursuit of the rest.
The red uniform he wore was especially eye-catching in the wilderness. Many soldiers of the Ranger Battalion had lost their lives because they weren't good at concealment and were discovered by the enemy scouts early on.
Unfortunately, the bearded Rosler didn't agree with Claude's opinion. Was the tradition of the Aueran army really that important? Was it worth more than the lives of the soldiers?
Claude felt helpless. He didn't understand why Hansbach would put Rosler in charge of the Ranger Battalion.
Perhaps he accepted the mission out of his loyalty to the prince, but he didn't have the ability to manage the experimental Ranger Camp and even led it astray.
Rosler was a stubborn traditional soldier of the kingdom. He looked down on the lives of his soldiers and himself. He viewed dying on the battlefield as the highest honor and rejected all innovations in the military.
Take the Ranger Battalion for example. Rosler treated his soldiers as expendable.
That was why they recruited all the soldiers who made mistakes and were punished. There was no training, no ambush plan, and they didn't even collect the cases of successful ambushes to learn from them that could effectively improve the effectiveness of the battle.
He only sent his soldiers to the battlefield and focused on the number of enemies they could kill, not the number of sacrifices they made.
Perhaps Rosler believed that killing the enemy scouts and completing the mission given to him by the prince was the most important thing. Nothing else mattered.
That was also the reason for the conflict. As a sergeant major, Claude didn't want his men to die on the battlefield one by one. It would be pointless.
Rosler also knew that Claude was the ace of the aces in the Ranger Battalion. He had brought back 43 identity tags from the enemy scouts, and that wasn't counting the ones he didn't get back.
Many of the soldiers swore that they saw Claude kill the enemy scouts with their own eyes. However, due to various reasons, they weren't able to retrieve their identity tags. The number of dead enemies added up to nearly a hundred.
In terms of military exploits, Claude should have been awarded the official rank of second lieutenant for killing a large number of enemies. However, Lieutenant Colonel Rossler had been suppressing him. He even concealed his military exploits and didn't report them to his superiors. Usually, Peach Bone would find fault with him and deduct his military exploits mainly because of jealousy and fear.
Claude was only 20 after the new year, yet he was already promoted to second lieutenant with his achievements. Rosler, on the other hand, only became second lieutenant when he was 25. It took him another ten years of hard work to reach the rank of major and another seven years to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel. He used his loyalty and hard work to gain the trust of Prince Hansbach to take charge of the newly formed Ranger Battalion.
Rosler was already 43 years old. If he couldn't become a general by the time he turned 50, he would have to retire and return to his hometown.
It was a painful thing for him. He wasn't a noble and would lose everything if he left the army. He would never have any power or wealth.
Even though he had the rank of colonel and a generous pension, compared to the life of the nobles he had seen before, he wanted to go one step further in the army. Becoming a general meant that he would become one of the new nobles.
Rosler had no love for the Ranger Battalion. He didn't care about it at all. As a proper soldier, he looked down on ambushes and sniping.
In his eyes, it was nothing more than a despicable act of assassination.
He believed that soldiers should fight openly on the battlefield. Even if they lost, they could at most die on the battlefield to repay the king's kindness. They shouldn't let their morale weaken. That was the opinion of many officers in the kingdom's army.
However, Prince Hansbach had put him in charge of the newly formed Ranger Battalion. As a loyal subordinate, Rosler could not say no. He could not refuse this appointment.
Even though he was disgusted, he still had to carry out the prince's orders. At the same time, he knew that the key to his promotion to the rank of general depended on whether the Ranger Battalion could meet the prince's requirements.
Having served in the army for more than two decades, Rosler wasn't an idiot. He knew that Claude's suggestion would have an obvious effect on the Ranger Battalion.
But what good would it do him?
If Claude's suggestion was carried out, the one who would shine would be Claude and not him, the officer in charge of the Ranger Battalion. When word of it reached Prince Hansbach's ears, he would understand who was more suited to lead the Ranger Battalion.
Rosler knew very well what kind of person the prince was. He would make an exception and promote Claude. Given his contributions, he could easily be promoted to first lieutenant, let alone second lieutenant. That was what being promoted on the frontlines meant.
Claude was only 20 years old. Once he became first lieutenant and pulled off a few more beautiful ambushes, he would be promoted to captain and the Ranger Battalion would become official. After all, he had once been a sergeant major and gained the attention of the prince for his innovative training methods.
If Claude were to take charge of the Ranger Battalion, what would his future be like? Would he have to return to the prince as a staff officer?
If he did that, Rosler could guarantee that he wouldn't be able to become a general of the kingdom for the rest of his life. He would have to say goodbye to his bright future and beautiful life.
That was why Rosler could only do his best to cause trouble for Claude and suppress him so that he wouldn't be able to stand up for himself.
He himself knew very well why he was so afraid of a mere sergeant major. He had seen countless rising stars like this climb up the ranks of their former superiors. Many of the old superiors who had offended these rising stars did not have a good ending.
Since he had already offended Claude, all he could do was suppress him and prevent him from rising.
It was rather funny that as the officer in charge of the Ranger Battalion, dealing with a mere sergeant major should be a piece of cake. Yet, Rosler didn't dare to do anything to Claude.
While it was easy to punish Claude with military law, he wouldn't be able to put him to death. That would be pointless as he couldn't find a good reason to do so.
Additionally, Claude was on the first prince's watch list. If the prince were to ask about him one day and find out that he was executed under military law, the first prince would definitely find it strange.
With the Elder Prince's temperament, he would definitely find it strange. He would send someone to investigate and find out what happened in the Ranger Camp. He was sure that it wouldn't end well … Because the Elder Prince hated people who were jealous and killed each other.
Rosler had prayed to the gods countless times, hoping that Claude would die on the battlefield. If he did, it would be great news for Rosler. He could even play the role of a commander mourning the loss of one of his best subordinates in front of the prince.
Then, he could present Claude's suggestion as his own to the first prince and gain the prince's recognition, allowing him to rise to the top.
Unfortunately, things didn't go according to his wishes. Despite losing so many soldiers in the Ranger Battalion, Claude still managed to survive and return safely from the battlefield every single time.
Even if Rosler gave him the most difficult mission, he would still be able to complete it.
Just like the time when he didn't return to the camp for three days, Lieutenant Colonel Rosler was overjoyed, thinking that he had finally gotten rid of this thorn in his side. However, on the fourth morning, he returned to the camp with three soldiers and the ID tags of seven enemy cavalry scouts.
Rosler had no choice but to deduct Claude's merit points on the grounds that he didn't return to camp on time.
Many of the rules of the Ranger Battalion were set by Rosler himself. For example, when a soldier went to the battlefield, he could stay outside for two days and return the next night.
If he could get an enemy ID tag, he could get two days of rest.
If he couldn't, he would have to go to the battlefield to ambush the enemy the next day.
There was also a soldier who was sent to the Ranger Battalion for punishment and had to get three ID tags from the enemy before he could return to his original unit.
Claude had once talked to Rosler about the irrationality of some of the rules he had set, but Rosler ignored all of it.
As far as he was concerned, completing the first prince's mission was the most important. Nothing else mattered. It was normal for a few soldiers to die. This was a battlefield, not a nursing home.
As soldiers, it was only natural for them to fight on the battlefield. Only with sacrifice could they be rewarded.
Therefore, Rosler increased the reward for the enemy's ID tags. An enemy's ID tag could not only earn two days of vacation, but also a silver thale.
The Ranger Camp, which had the potential to change the way of warfare for hundreds of years and revolutionize the method of lining up and shooting, was forcibly turned into a place where mercenaries and outlaws gathered. Countless greedy soldiers swarmed over and applied to join the camp.
Rosler wasn't worried about the lack of soldiers in the Ranger Battalion. He was rather pleased with his decision.
The way he saw it, exchanging a thale for the life of an enemy cavalry scout was a good deal.
As for the losses on their side, even if they had to pay a price of four to five to one, as long as they could cover the battlefield on their side and prevent the enemy's scouts from penetrating their rear to gather intelligence, it would be considered that they had completed the mission given to them by the eldest prince. Then, no matter how great the price and how many soldiers they had to sacrifice, it would be worth it.
That was why Rosler didn't care about the casualty rate of the Ranger Battalion, but Claude couldn't just watch his men die for nothing.
Unfortunately, even if he did his best, he couldn't reduce the casualties of the soldiers who went on the ambush mission alone.
Because he also needed to go to the battlefield and kill the enemy's scouts, instead of staying in the camp all day like Rossler, driving the soldiers to the battlefield...
Claude had three squads of men lying in ambush in the field. If there hadn't been a battle, the field would have been filled with winter wheat and was nearing harvest time.
It wouldn't have been overgrown with weeds like it was now. Claude's men could hide in it.
It was probably a trench used to drain water from the fields, but it became a rather long hole after it was blocked.
Claude didn't wear a military cap. He also forbade his men from wearing red caps.
Everyone was wearing a straw hat made of weeds and shrubs. Although they were wearing bright red military uniforms, they had a straw mat draped over them. The straw mat was smeared with a lot of mud, and some branches and shrubs were stuck in it as camouflage …
There was a saying that war was the best teacher for a soldier. The problem was that your enemy had become your best student, but your squad leader was stubborn. Not only did he not study hard, he even forced you to study hard.
The thought of that made Claude's heart ache.
In just a month's time, the enemy's scouts understood what kind of opponent they were facing. They changed their usual habit of scouting in groups of three or four. Instead, they used a small scouting party and would often occupy high ground to search the area for enemy infantry ambushes.
Thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Rossler's insistence, the soldiers of the Ranger Battalion who went on an ambush mission would be easily spotted by the enemy due to their bright red uniforms. As a result, the casualty ratio between the Ranger Battalion and the enemy rose to 7 to 1 or 8 to 1 at the end of April and the beginning of May. In other words, seven to eight soldiers of the Ranger Battalion had to be sacrificed to get an enemy ID tag.