"We failed …" The Army Commander's face was extremely pale and haggard. After one day and one night, he seemed to have aged twenty years. He looked like an old man in his seventies or eighties. "We were tricked from the start. The enemy's commander is a schemer who is proficient in tactics.
He used the defensive position against our light cavalry at the beginning to force us to give up our advantages. At the same time, he used our captured captives to dig trenches to attract our attention. He made us use the same method of digging trenches to dismount and fight, causing us to unknowingly step into a trap.
It was only now that I understood why the enemy had invested so many troops in the trench defense circle over the past half a month. They didn't even hesitate to pay such a high price of casualties. They hoped that we would mistakenly believe that we could take them down if we put in a little more effort and occupy their camp. Thus, they would put all of their combat forces into this trench battle and no longer pay attention to the defense of their camp. This would create an opportunity for their ambushers to launch a sneak attack.
I have to admit, the enemy's setup was perfect. We did not notice it at all. Instead, we thought that all the enemy's forces were in this camp.
We took over the enemy's camp, but we were completely annihilated. Is there a more ridiculous victory than this?
It was not that our soldiers were not brave, nor was it that our officers were not decisive. It was just that all of this was within the enemy's expectations. They abandoned their position and retreated without hesitation. They did not leave behind a single corpse or wounded person.
The entire camp was swept clean. Other than the tents, there was not a single useful thing left.
Just as our soldiers were cheering for taking over this empty camp, the enemy turned around and took over the camp where our supplies were stored.
Admit defeat!
We are now out of food and ammunition. All the brave warriors who were unwilling to be captives have already died in front of the trench walls of the camp.
Unfortunately, they did not achieve their final wish of attacking the camp and taking back our supplies … The remaining children have been starving for a day and night. The guns and cannons in their hands have also run out of ammunition.
Send someone to surrender. As long as they can keep their lives, there is still hope for them to return home even if they have to do hard labor for a few years … Living is better than dying here. It was me, the useless Commander, who brought them to this point. It's all my fault … "
The Legion Commander glanced at the dejected officers around him one last time before resolutely turning around and walking down the wall.
The camp was filled with sadness and despair. The injured soldiers were bandaged and placed in a corner, but the sound of crying and screams echoed in the camp.
They could only pray for the blessings of the War God because they didn't have any healing potions, so they couldn't receive any treatment.
Ten minutes later, a faint gunshot rang out in the camp.
Soon, the army commander's orderly ran to the wall in fear and told the officers who had been staying on top of the wall a piece of unfortunate news.
Just a few minutes ago, the Army Commander who had returned to the main tent stuffed his beloved ivory handgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger …
The senior officers of the Volunteer Light Cavalry Regiment were relieved when they heard the unfortunate news. In fact, when the Legion Commander left the wall, everyone knew it in their hearts, but no one was willing to come out to stop him.
Now that the Corps Commander had committed suicide, he had perfectly become the scapegoat for the annihilation of the entire army. In that case, surrendering to the enemy Thundercrash Regiment could be said to be the Corps Commander's will, and there would be no need for the other officers to bear the crime of cowardice and the responsibility of surrendering.
On the 23rd of the 8th month, Year 589 of the Sacred Light Calendar, after a month of fierce battle, Aueras' Nubissia's war theatre Thundercrash, under the command of the Major-General of the kingdom, Baron Claude Han Ferd, won three battles and wiped out the 62,000-strong volunteer light cavalry hired by Shiks in the Great Plains of Albator.
Note: More than 3,000 of them were hired servants and didn't count as part of the corps.
According to the history of Faslan, the victory at the Battle of the Wild Bulls was a display of Claude's military prowess. It was also proof that Michaelc was right to recommend him to take over as Major-General.
At the start of the battle, Claude commanded Thundercrash to ambush and forcefully take down the two enemy camps set up to hunt the migrating wild bulls on the Albator Plains with minimal casualties. They also wiped out and captured 24,000 men from the four main corps of Thundercrash's light cavalry.
But at the same time, the rest of the light cavalry arrived and blocked off Thundercrash's seven thousand captives and spoils of war in the eastern camp.
At that time, the two sides were outnumbered by 37,000 to 22,000, with the light cavalry having the upper hand.
Claude then ordered Thundercrash to set up a trench around the camp and set up a special defensive formation to counter the Canasian light cavalry's assault tactics. The light cavalry's first probing attack was fruitless and resulted in heavy casualties.
After that, he sent out a large number of captives to dig trenches, prompting the light cavalry commanders to dismount from their horses and dig trenches to advance on foot.
For the next half a month of trench warfare, Claude persisted in sending large numbers of troops into the trench warfare to convince the light cavalry commanders that Thundercrash's entire army was there.
For the sake of obtaining victory and ultimately wiping out Thunderclap Regiment, the volunteer light cavalry army slowly sent their reserve troops into the attack, advancing step by step towards Thunderclap Regiment's camp.
And at that time, all the volunteer light cavalry officers were very confident that victory in this battle was already close at hand.
It was just that when the commanders of the volunteer light cavalry corps put all their forces into the attack, they unknowingly relaxed the defense of their own headquarters.
By then, Claude had already made all the preparations for the attack.
He ordered Thunderbolt Regiment 1301, which was hidden outside, to join forces with the division's most elite assault force, Guerrilla Battalion 131, to launch an attack on the enemy's camp.
Claude, on the other hand, stayed in the camp to command the defense and buy time for the logistics department to relocate the wounded and captives.
Two days later, Claude ordered the defensive force to evacuate the wounded and corpses from the camp, leaving the defensive position they had held for half a month.
While the soldiers of the volunteer light cavalry who had successfully scaled the walls of the encampment were celebrating their disastrous victory, they did not know that they had only occupied an empty encampment.
Just as all the volunteer light cavalry on the battlefield were rushing to the camp to celebrate their victory, Thundercrash's hidden troops launched a surprise attack on the volunteer light cavalry's main camp.
They sent a small group of people to pretend to be the scouts of the volunteer light cavalry corps, and successfully infiltrated the enemy's camp. They easily cleared out all the outposts and patrols in the back of the camp, and opened the camp's gate wide to welcome the follow-up troops into the camp.
The result was that the entire back of the camp was occupied by Thunderclap's ambushes, while the volunteer light cavalry troops in the front didn't know anything about it. As a result, when Thunderclap's ambushing troops finished assembling and launched a surprise attack on the front camp, the remaining troops were caught unprepared and didn't have the slightest ability to resist. The entire camp was easily occupied, and all of the supplies, ammunition, and warhorses were left for Thunderclap.
The loss of their camp meant that the light cavalry's victory was a complete joke. Apart from the tents that were left intact, there wasn't a single useful item to be found in the camp.
The logistics department of the Thunderclap Regiment had cleaned up the entire camp before they left. Not even a broken can could be found.
The next morning, when the volunteer light cavalry regiment was ready to launch a counterattack on the camp in an attempt to recapture the headquarters, those brave soldiers who were ready to fight did not even have the chance to drink horse meat soup. They could only take a piece of horse meat and roast it on the cow dung bonfire before stuffing it into their mouths. After drinking a few mouthfuls of underground water to fill their stomachs, they went to the battlefield and finally fell in front of the camp.
The most exciting part of the battle was the time General Claude chose to leave the camp and take over the enemy camp. It was three in the afternoon.
That time was like a shot of adrenaline for the attackers who had been fighting for a whole day. The enemy had fled and they had finally taken over the enemy's camp.
To the soldiers of the volunteer light cavalry corps, they didn't care about anything else. They just wanted to celebrate, to stand in their positions and cheer, so they swarmed to the camp.
However, after the cheers and celebrations, their bodies were extremely exhausted. The bad news that their headquarters had been captured by the enemy was like a heavy blow to them. It was easy for the officers and soldiers to sink into a very low and depressed state.
Under such circumstances, even if the commander wanted to organize his troops for a counterattack, not many of them could take it. They needed a good rest to recover their energy and stamina.
However, Thundercrash's camp didn't have any rations or ammunition. On the other hand, the camp itself wasn't contaminated at all. Even the wooden buckets used for fetching water were still there.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a single pot or pot to be found in the camp. The soldiers could only drink some cold water to sleep.
After taking over the light cavalry's camp, Thundercrash avoided the enemy's counterattack and had enough time to set up night defences. They also cleaned up the camp and eliminated any potential threats.
As the rest of Thundercrash's troops moved to the camp, the defenses of the camp became even tighter. The scales of the battle were now completely tilted in Thundercrash's favor.
Early the next morning, the commanders of the volunteer light cavalry corps, who had hoped that Thundercrash would only send a small force to launch a sneak attack on their headquarters, slaughtered more than a hundred of their warhorses. Gathering more than three thousand of their most elite soldiers and officers, they each had a piece of horse meat and roasted it over a bonfire to fill their stomachs. Then, they began their assault on the headquarters occupied by Thundercrash.
However, their hopes were dashed. Most of the three thousand soldiers fell in front of the camp, not a single one able to charge in.
This crushing defeat signified the end of the battle of the wild bulls. The complete annihilation of the light cavalry was unavoidable.
Apart from the lack of rations, most of their ammunition reserves were in the camp. Many soldiers only had one or two bullets left in their guns.
Even though there was water, they lacked food. Even the wild bulls had long since left the area after half a month of fighting. All that was left was a muddy field where even grass was rarely seen.
The most painful thing was that the light cavalry had to switch from riding to walking in order to attack the camp. Without their warhorses, everyone was trapped in the camp.
Thundercrash, on the other hand, reverted to light cavalry and could monitor the situation from afar until all of them starved to death.
As a result, when the commander of the volunteer light cavalry army committed suicide, the remaining officers led more than 26,000 soldiers to surrender to Thunderclap.
The battle of the wild bulls ended with the complete annihilation of the volunteer light cavalry corps. In this battle, the volunteer light cavalry corps suffered more than seventeen thousand casualties, of which more than six thousand died in battle, and more than ten thousand were either lightly or severely injured.
Thundercrash, on the other hand, suffered more than 8,000 casualties, with 3,000 dead and 5,000 injured. The casualty ratio was 2.2 to 1.
Thundercrash was also heavily damaged. Even though it was a reinforced folk with a full complement of 32,000 men, it only had four regiments and six battalions with around 30,000 men. The remaining 2,000 or so were soldiers, but they were mostly clerical and didn't have much fighting power.
From the moment they ambushed the enemy camp to the moment they forced the enemy's main force to land, Thundercrash suffered close to 10,000 casualties, losing about a third of their fighting force.
However, the harvest was quite bountiful. Not to mention the provisions and ammunition, just the more than 50,000 warhorses and pack horses was a huge asset that would make anyone envious.
If Claude was willing to sell the warhorses and draft horses, he would be able to earn more than 200,000 crowns and satisfy the needs of the civilian population in the war theatre.
However, Claude also felt that his side's greatest weakness from the battle against the light cavalry was that their combat prowess was far inferior to Ranger's.
That was to be expected. Ranger was made up of the elites of the five years of war in Edom.
Even though Line 131 was transferred to serve as the backbone of Thundercrash, most of the new recruits were veterans of military age and emigrants. Even after half a year of training, they were still far weaker than the elites who joined Ranger.
Claude believed that Thundercrash was on the same level as the four ace corps of the kingdom and might even be a little weaker than the royal guard.
That was why they suffered so many casualties in the battle and often felt like they were lacking in manpower.
So, Claude was currently considering whether he should take another folk out of the war theatre and form it into 2nd Thundercrash Folk.
In the past, when Marshal Michelic came up with the plan for five folks, he limited Ranger's equipment to the number of warhorses they had to the amount of equipment needed to equip a folks.
That was why he named the folk Thundercrash and gave it to Claude because he was the best at offense.
1st and 2nd Monolith Corps were used by Michelic to hold down Shiks, while 1st and 2nd Reserve Folk were used to make up for the casualties on the frontlines. However, the two linesmen didn't like the name 'reserve' and changed it to 3rd and 4th Monolith. Even so, they were still reserve forces that played a supporting role.
Claude now had close to 50,000 warhorses and draft horses from the volunteer light-cavalry corps. He could form another 2nd Thundercrash to work with him and make up for his lack of manpower.
However, he would have to discuss it with the other four linesmen first and see which folk was more suitable.
At that moment, Myjack came in with an eagle messenger. "General, Colonel Androok has returned with 5,000 grenades. 3rd Monolith Folk has also come with him."
Claude was stunned. "3rd Monolith Folk?
General Eiblont?
What's he doing here? "
Myjack replied, "The Eagle Messenger said that General Eiblont is leading Monolith's 3rd Folk here for a long distance training."
Claude pursed his lips. "Training my ass. He's just here to see if there's any loot to be had. He's bored staying in the rear and wants to join in the fun."
Myjack smiled. "General, it's actually a good thing that they're here. We can hand over the captives to them and bring them to Crowell to have a look.
Didn't the high-ranking officers of Canas say that Nasri's volunteer corps has arrived at Wickhamsburg and is preparing to set up a supply base there? "