As the saying goes, even a wise man makes mistakes. He finally understood the true meaning of that saying in his past life.
For example, comparing the grenades used by the theatre to the ones used by Shiks, Claude found that he was being too stubborn and focused on being light and nimble. As a result, the throwing distance of the grenades used by the theatre was only half that of the iron pumpkins used by Shiks. That was equivalent to being suppressed by the iron pumpkins of Shiks.
Perhaps, the heavy catapults and the iron pumpkins that were three times the weight of the heavy ones did indeed cause a lot of trouble for the transport of troops and attacks.
At the same time, it made it easy for the grenade throwers to become the most obvious targets on the battlefield and cause a lot of casualties.
However, the 140-metre throwing distance and greater explosive power made up for those shortcomings. After all, the mission of a soldier was to destroy the enemy, not to protect their own lives on the battlefield.
That was especially true for the cold-hearted commanders. The lives of their soldiers were expendable on the battlefield, and the only thing that mattered was whether or not their losses were enough to make the enemy pay a higher price.
Claude had the problem of being softhearted. Fortunately, his softheartedness was directed towards his soldiers and not his enemies.
The grenades used by the theatre were the ones Claude had first invented. They had a throwing distance of only 70 metres.
Although these projectiles and throwers had great concealment, maneuverability, and ease of control for the soldiers when attacking, these advantages were all overshadowed by the shortcoming of throwing distance when defending.
When defending, the soldiers had to stay in their defensive positions. They didn't need to be mobile or agile. The biggest requirement was to have a long throwing distance. The best weapon to deal with the projectiles was also the projectile.
That had been proven in the theatre in the past. The grenades used by the defenders were able to suppress the grenades used by the attackers and cause them great damage.
However, Claude's stubbornness caused the division to suffer unnecessary losses. It wasn't as if Angelina and Sonia hadn't experimented with catapults and managed to throw them more than 200 metres away.
However, Claude didn't like the fact that there were too many people operating the throwers and that they would easily be attacked by the enemy's defensive cannons, which would cause too many casualties. So, he refused to let his troops equip them.
That was why when Birkin said that the catapults were the best defensive weapons in the field, Claude realised how big of a mistake he had made back then.
He could create two different types of throwers, one for offense and one for defense. That way, the Shiksans wouldn't have such a huge advantage in suppressing the defensive line.
Claude had always wanted to use a grenade launcher or a mortar to replace the grenade. After all, he had invented the grenade as a grenade in the past.
In the end, because there was no way to safely produce nitroglycerin on a large scale to make safe explosives, they could only fill it with black gunpowder. However, because the explosive power was not enough, they increased the amount of black gunpowder, making the grenade heavy and could not be thrown far. In the end, they had no choice but to make a thrower that could be thrown 70 meters away …
That was also why Claude didn't care too much about the grenades. He easily sold the production rights to the military industry representatives from the old noble houses of the kingdom.
He didn't think that the other kingdoms on Freia would start copying the grenade. Shiks used the catapult-like throwers that Claude despised to cause great damage to the defensive line.
The grenade used in the theatre could only throw half as far as the catapults, so it couldn't be used to counterattack or suppress them.
As for the grenade launchers and mortars that Claude had high hopes for, they couldn't be manufactured for a long time due to technical issues.
Perhaps the grenade used in the theatre had become the one with the shortest range and the lightest explosive power among the ones imitated by the other kingdoms on Freia.
Fortunately, Birkin didn't really blame Claude for that. No general could fully predict the changes that would happen to their enemies in the future.
Claude was the happiest when he brought over the garrison from Monknad Castle. They were his old subordinates and were veterans of Monkrock, so they easily assimilated into his command and stabilized the defensive line in the eastern mountains, increasing their chances of holding the second line.
Claude also brought Thunderbolt 131 and Line 1303 equipped with the new rifles. So, Birkin eagerly proposed a counterattack plan to retake the line that had fallen into the enemy's hands.
However, after careful consideration, Claude rejected Birkin's counterattack plan. He even allowed the general to continue organizing the nikancha youths to build a few more defensive lines in the rear.
Claude's reasoning was simple. It was like fishing. If a fish bit on the hook, pulling on the hook in a hurry would cause the fish to escape.
He had to be patient and let the fish swallow deeper. Only then would he be considered to have caught a fish.
The first line of defence was the bait that the three Shiksan corps had just swallowed. Retaking the line right away might alert the wily commander-in-chief and cause him to escape.
That was why Birkin ordered his troops to defend the line. After inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, he had to abandon the line to lure the enemy deeper in.
That was the reason Claude asked Birkin to continue building a few more defensive lines in the depths. It was to keep the enemy from giving up hope even when they were exhausted. They would always think that they could succeed with just a little more effort, not knowing that they were falling into a trap step by step.
Claude was ready to lead his troops to attack according to the plan before the battle. They were going to enter the enemy's rear and disrupt their supply lines.
If possible, he would surround the Shiksan veterans of the three corps in the mountains and make them prisoners of war after running out of food and ammunition. That way, they would be able to contribute to the construction of the war theatre's public facilities.
Even though he managed to convince Birkin to follow his plan, Claude discovered that the Shiksan weren't that easy to bait when he led Thunderbolt 131 deep into the enemy's rear.
The war theatre had planned to take down one of the enemy's standing corps, but Claude now found that plan impossible to carry out. There was no other reason for that other than the fact that three tables of guests showed up for a banquet.
In the northern mountainous region, there were still a dozen nikancha camps stationed by Birkin.
Having learned their lesson from the annihilation of the Nikancha's defensive positions in the mountains to the east, the Monolith Army sent another platoon of soldiers to the Nikancha's camp. Their main purpose was to train the Nikancha in how to repel projectiles.
Claude took a roundabout route from the northern mountainous region to the eastern mountainous region. The officers in charge of the nikancha camps there reported that the Shiksans didn't launch any feint attacks in the northern mountainous region. Instead, there were quite a few Shiksan scouting squads.
The nikancha camps stationed in the mountainous region mainly dealt with the Shiksan scouting squads. Both sides suffered some casualties.
After entering the eastern mountainous region, Claude found that the area was filled with Shiksan scouts and sentries. Quite a number of Shiksan sentries were stationed at high points.
Had it not been for Thunderbolt 131's special training and the new rifles, Claude wouldn't have been able to deal with the infiltrating Shiksan troops.
Claude ordered Thunderbolt 131 to spread out and clear out the Shiksan scouting squads and sentries in the mountainous region.
Since they couldn't sneak behind enemy lines without being detected, they might as well make a ruckus and startle the enemy. That way, they wouldn't know how many troops were on their side.
Only by beating the enemy up so badly that they would automatically pull back their forces and give them enough space to maneuver in the mountainous region.
Clearly, the Shiksans had sensed that an enemy unit had infiltrated their rear. That was the inevitable choice of the theatre.
Back then, the five Shiksan corps were cut off by Ranger just like that. They also burned down all their supplies and supplies in Wickhamsburg. In the end, 300,000 starving soldiers were forced to put down their weapons and enter the captive camp to begin their life of hard labor.
It seemed that the theatre was up to their old tricks again. The Shiksans were already prepared for it. They guessed that the theatre had only sent one or two battalions into the mountainous region, so they sent two lines to wipe out the troublemakers.
However, they didn't expect Thunderbolt 131 to be so powerful after being equipped with the new rifles. The two lines were routed before they even saw the enemy. Less than a tenth of them survived.
Claude ordered Thunderbolt 131 to launch a night raid and an ambush on the two enemy units that entered the mountainous region.
These were all Thundercrash's specialties. There was no need to talk about night raids. Grenades that didn't need to be ignited rained down on the enemy's camp. Meanwhile, the new automatic rifles were like the autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves. Any enemy soldier that ignited a match and prepared to counterattack would become the most obvious target in the dark night, quickly shot dead.
Originally, the enemies of this regiment wanted to rely on their camp to defend until the reinforcements from the rear came, but under the thunderous attacks, they could not hold on at all. The most painful thing was that it was difficult for them to find out where the enemy was, because they could not see the light emitted by the kindling of the match. This was the basis of anti-night attack warfare, so they could not counterattack.
The Shiksan veterans of the line could only hear gunshots and grenades exploding as their comrades fell one after another. They only managed to hold out for half an hour before collapsing.
Less than a battalion of Shiksan veterans managed to escape the hellish camp and hide in the dark forest. It wasn't until the sky brightened that they saw reinforcements arrive.
There were less than a hundred casualties in Tribe 131 during the night raid. The casualties were mainly due to the Shiksan veterans firing all over the place and firing grapeshot from the light cannons they brought with them.
Even a blind cat would stumble upon a dead mouse. Although the cannoneers and members of the cannons were instantly killed, there were a few unlucky Thundercrash soldiers who were too close to the enemy camp and were caught in the crossfire ….
After destroying the Shiksan camp, Claude didn't allow Thunderbolt 131 to enter the camp to search for spoils of war or treat the wounded. Instead, he led Thunderbolt 131 towards the back of the camp and set up another ambush halfway up a valley.
It wasn't until all the soldiers had set up their shelters and cleared away all traces that Claude ordered everyone to rest.
The vanguard of the Shiksan line that finally arrived at daybreak ran into the fleeing soldiers. After learning from the fleeing soldiers that their allied line had been ambushed in the camp, the commanding officer of the vanguard battalion was terrified and didn't dare to continue forward.
If the main force of the field battalion was defeated in the camp and only a few people escaped, then even if his battalion rushed over, it would be no different from sending themselves to their deaths.
After two hours of dawdling, they finally reached HQ. When the news of the deserters was relayed, the commanding officer cursed the vanguard battalion's commanding officer for being a Shiksan.
It was simple. Since the enemy launched a night raid, it meant that their forces weren't that much stronger than the line that was attacked. That was why they resorted to such a despicable tactic.
If they had at least two or three lines or even a folk as the deserters said, they could've just used brute force.
It was clear that the line was careless and didn't put up any defenses, allowing the weaker enemy to take advantage of them.
If the vanguard battalion had rushed to their aid the moment they heard the news, they might've been able to catch the enemy's tail.
Usually, after a victory like that, the commanding officer would let his soldiers search the battlefield and the enemy's corpses for spoils of war.
If the vanguard battalion had rushed over then, they might've dealt a fatal blow to the enemies who had let their guard down.
The more he spoke, the angrier the commanding officer got, the more he relieved the cowardly battalion commander of his post. He then ordered the entire line to hurry to the camp that was attacked.
The commanding officer reckoned that the enemy should've cleaned up the battlefield and left the camp after so much time had passed.
So, it would be safe for them to rush there. It also showed his eagerness to save his allies. Regardless of how the battle was judged, his performance was impeccable.
So, the Shiksan line dove right into Claude's ambush and that was how tragedy unfolded.
When they were ambushed, the Shiksan line wanted to put up a last-ditch struggle. He noticed that the enemy's ambush was a hundred metres away and ordered his men to counterattack.
But right after that, he was shot down and a few bullet holes appeared on his body.
With the suppressive fire of the new rifles, all the Shiksan veterans could hear the concentrated gunfire from all directions. They could tell from the sound alone that the enemy wasn't any weaker than they were.
They couldn't retaliate even if they wanted to. The braver veterans would draw the enemy's bullets regardless of whether they were loading or aiming. If they just stood up a little, they'd die a glorious death.
There seemed to be no end to the gunshots. The ambushed Shiksan veterans increased their numbers and ambushed the enemy.
They felt that it was impossible for the enemy to fire so many shots with just a single regiment, because it took time to reload a matchlock gun, but the enemy's gunfire was still so dense ….
The experienced Shiksan veterans who were prone on the ground, behind rocks and under corpses could only silently endure the enemy's gunfire. They believed that the enemy's gunfire would eventually stop.
And that was indeed the case. In the eyes of Thundercrash's soldiers, almost every single one of them had emptied six to seven five-shot magazines. The 1,300 men in the line had fired close to 40,000 bullets. On the battlefield, a line of five thousand Shiksan veterans was lying on the ground. Not a single Shiksan was left standing or sitting.
The gunfire finally stopped. Thundercrash's soldiers found that there were no more targets to shoot at. They couldn't keep shooting at the corpses on the ground and cheered.
However, Claude ordered his soldiers to remain vigilant and had the grenade squad go up and fire three more rounds of grenades. He didn't order his soldiers to clean up the battlefield right away.
Claude's cautiousness allowed Thundercrash's soldiers to avoid unnecessary casualties. When the grenades exploded on the battlefield, Thundercrash's soldiers were shocked to see countless silhouettes leaping out from the pile of Shiksan corpses. The Shiksan veterans braved the bullets fired by Thundercrash's soldiers and fled like the wind. Nearly a thousand of them didn't care about the casualties. In the end, two to three hundred were lucky enough to escape the encirclement.
Claude felt rather helpless. The new rifles performed well on the battlefield, but Thundercrash's soldiers, who had the most live ammunition training, still wasted too many bullets.
For example, the three hundred Shiksan veterans who managed to escape the encirclement. Had it not been for the fact that he didn't have enough troops, he could've surrounded them and wiped them out.
Looking at the corpses and the bloody battlefield, Claude finally gave the order, "Go clean up the battlefield …"