Claude slowly sat down and his expression darkened like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Eiblont looked at him worriedly. "Are you alright?"
Slowly exhaling, Claude gritted his teeth and replied, "I'm fine …"
How could he be fine? He felt like he was about to explode.
The two pieces of news Eiblont brought him couldn't be any worse.
If Claude was given five, no, three days, he would definitely be able to wipe out the remaining ten thousand Shiksans in the camp.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do that now. He had to calm down and arrange for Thundercrash to retreat as soon as possible. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be him wiping out the remaining Shiksans. Instead, Thundercrash would be surrounded by the Shiksans from three sides and face total annihilation.
Claude couldn't blame anyone for that. Nobody knew that the third wave of Shiks' forces would arrive at Cape Loducus at that crucial moment. One of the two standing corps was light-cavalry.
It would take five days to travel from Cape Loducus to the northern border on foot, but light-cavalry would only need two to a day and a half to get there.
Birkin, on the other hand, only brought Monolith's folk, Thundercrash's 131 and the nikancha troops. Delaying the two Shiksans at the eastern border for so long was already the best they could do.
Now that the Shiksans had retreated from the eastern border, they only had one and a half standing corps left. It could be considered a huge defeat.
It took more than half a day for the spies in Cape Loducus to send a message to the war theatre and the war theatre to send it to Claude. Claude only had a day at most.
Fortunately, they were at the northern border and would only need two to three hours to enter the mountains to shake off the enemy's pursuit.
Claude still had time to clean up the battlefield and bring back the corpses of the dead and the wounded.
While Thundercrash still had the strength to attack the Shiksan remnants in the camp, the ten thousand Shiksan remnants that occupied the small hill were even more ferocious than Thundercrash. With the remaining four thousand iron pumpkins and the construction work, Claude was confident that he could flatten the entire hill and reduce them to ashes.
However, he wasn't confident that the Shiksan camp would be able to defend against the Shiksans' two-pronged encirclement and 200,000-strong attack.
If Thundercrash hadn't gone through the previous chaotic battle and had sufficient ammunition, he wouldn't have minded staying in the camp to clear out the remaining ten thousand Shiksan soldiers while fighting against the incoming enemies. Who knows, he might even be able to bleed the Shiksans a little.
It was simple. The light-cavalry unit rushed over as soon as they got off the ship. If they still had 30% of their fighting power, Claude would admit defeat.
After more than a month on the sea, even if the people could endure it, the horses could not. Could the light cavalry still have enough combat power without their mounts?
Perhaps Claude would be able to seize a large batch of warhorses the Shiksans worked so hard to transport.
On the other hand, Claude was more concerned about the semi-standing corps that retreated from the eastern battlefront and rushed to the northern border.
That semi-standing corps was made up of Shiksan veterans. Even if their morale was low, they would still charge forward without hesitation when it was time to put their lives on the line.
Even if they were tired from the long journey, Thundercrash wouldn't be able to shake them off if they were tangled up with them. Claude had seen their fighting spirit for himself.
The 3rd Line, equipped with the new rifles, ran out of ammo and the remaining seven lines didn't even have the strength to muster three lines. Letting Thundercrash face the enemy's reinforcements in such a state was something Claude wouldn't do unless he was crazy.
After calming down, Claude gave the order, "Clean up the battlefield and pack up. Send our valiant warriors home. Take whatever you can and burn whatever you can't."
In the evening, Claude turned back to look at the burning Shiksan camp on horseback. The outermost wooden walls had been splashed with kerosene, making it look like a ring of bonfire. Black smoke billowed above the camp and the flaming camp could be seen from a few kilometres away.
It was a pity that the Shiksans had set fire to their camp, warehouses and other facilities. Otherwise, they might have been able to suffocate the ten thousand Shiksans that were trapped on the hill.
The entire camp was burning, but there was a lot of space left in the camp due to the size of the area.
While the remaining Shiksan soldiers suffered quite a bit on the mound, they could still survive with enough water. They were lucky to be able to survive!
"Let's go!"
Claude said to Eiblont and turned his horse around to head north with the guards.
The fires in the valley had been burning for three days and three nights and would continue burning for a few more days.
The more than eighteen thousand corpses of Thunderclap Corps that had died in battle were all to be burned to ashes, placed in urns of ashes, and brought back to be buried in the corps' Martyrs' Mountain Cemetery.
It was a hill near Lanu in Anfiston's colony. It was renamed Heroic Hill after being designated as a military cemetery.
Regardless of whether it was Thunderclap, Monolith, or the local garrison, as long as they had died for the direct territories, they would all be buried in this military cemetery for future generations to pay their respects.
Needless to say, it was Claude's idea and everyone agreed to it.
Claude, however, didn't expect so many of Thundercrash's men to be stationed at Heroic Hill. Coupled with the 6,000 men that Eiblont lost during the first assault on the encampment, there were a total of nearly 25,000 soldiers who died.
Thundercrash's attack this time was equivalent to losing a folk's worth of soldiers. There were also more than 20,000 heavily injured. More than a thousand of them had to retire.
That was a huge blow to Thundercrash. Killing ten thousand of the enemy came at a cost of three thousand of their own.
However, it was too late for Claude to regret it now. Had he known that there would be such a chaotic battle after taking the second wall, he might've let the Shiksans go.
Nobody expected the Shiksans to charge at them with their lives on the line. There wasn't any cover on the battlefield either.
Like in a traditional battle, the two sides fired their guns at each other from a distance of twenty metres before drawing their bayonets and killing each other.
Of the more than eighteen thousand soldiers who sacrificed themselves bravely, close to sixteen thousand fell in the chaotic battle at the second defensive wall. Meanwhile, in the seven days and seven nights of trench warfare, Thunder Corps only paid the price of a bit more than two thousand soldiers.
Naturally, the Shiksans didn't have it easy either. They had collected more than 44,000 nameplates from the battle alone.
It wasn't hard to imagine that after Thundercrash took the second wall, the Shiksans would send in all their remaining forces for a counterattack. Even so, they still suffered defeat in the end.
The lesson Claude learned from that battle was that he had to ensure that he had enough bullets for the new rifles. Without bullets, they were no better than fire sticks.
Actually, he couldn't be blamed for his carelessness. His long habit of using matchlocks made him forget that the new rifles were a completely different weapon from matchlocks. He couldn't use common sense to predict the bullet consumption of the new rifles in a battle.
Back when Claude joined Bluefeather, the war in the east erupted five years later. Back then, the soldiers who participated in the war were equipped with matchlocks and gunpowder that could fire 150 shots.
In fact, many soldiers didn't even need to restock their guns and gunpowder for three years, as they couldn't fire more than 20 shots in a single battle.
Most of the time, a soldier would only fire one or two shots at most before entering melee combat. Only soldiers equipped with aubass mark 3 muskets that could accurately aim could fire a few more times in a battle.
Claude's troops were equipped with the new rifles. Apart from the 100 bullets each, the logistics department had also prepared a batch of bullets for the soldiers equipped with the new rifles. Claude believed that they would be able to reload three times each.
However, he hadn't expected that in the end, they would still suffer such a great loss because they ran out of bullets, causing the Thundercrash Corps to pay such a heavy price and fall short of success.
If 3rd Line had enough ammo and didn't need to retreat, they would be able to set up a simple bunker even if they only had a little more than an hour to prepare. Then, they would be able to use the rapid firing capabilities of the new rifles to teach the Shiksans a harsh lesson.
Claude believed that if his imagination worked, Thundercrash wouldn't have to pay such a heavy price.
For the Shiksans, it would be a massacre. The fiercer they charged and the more soldiers they gathered, the faster they would die.
Reloading a musket was troublesome and the enemy could use that time to charge in front of you, forcing you to give up on the thought of firing again and engage in melee combat with them.
However, the new rifles could fire six shots in a row and all they had to do after each shot was pull the bolt back. It was as quick and natural as breathing.
Perhaps it could be said that the time it took to reload a musket after a single shot was enough for the new rifles to reload six times.
On the other hand, if a musket didn't hit its target the first time, by the time it was reloaded and fired again, the target would be nowhere to be seen.
The new rifles, on the other hand, could fire again until it hit its target.
That was probably the main reason why the soldiers equipped with the new rifles used up their bullets so quickly. None of them would just watch their target escape. Not one of them wanted to admit defeat, so they would often waste a few bullets on a moving target.
Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret in this world, be it in Claude's previous life or his current one.
The only thing he could do was to engrave the lesson in his mind to prevent himself from making the same mistake in the future.
Perhaps he would have to double the ammunition supply of the new rifles in the future. After all, pulling the bolt and pulling the trigger was far too simple and convenient.
"General, the nikancha's chief is here again. They still want you to give them the Shiksan throwers and iron pumpkins. That's the only way they'll be able to defend the mountain front," the newly promoted adjutant, Mason Hughes, said as he hurried to Claude's side and broke his train of thought.
Claude's former adjutant, Anders, was made the acting linesman of Line 1304, replacing the unfortunate Jedwalker.
Claude's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Tell them to scram. I really don't understand where they get the courage to take the throwers and iron pumpkins from me.
Tell them to either buy them with real money or to scram. I don't want to annoy them. "
However, the newly appointed adjutant, Mason Hughes, still hadn't figured out Claude's temper. "But General, the nikancha chief said that if we don't give them the throwers and iron pumpkins, they won't be able to defend against the Shiksans' attack.
To avoid unnecessary casualties, they'll have to retreat and give up on the northern front line. They won't be able to provide cover for our corps anymore. "
"Hahaha …" Claude laughed in exasperation. Did the nikancha get it straight? Thundercrash didn't enter the mountains to hide from the Shiksans. Otherwise, they wouldn't have stayed there.
When the nikancha saw so many of Thundercrash's soldiers die, they thought that Thundercrash had retreated after a huge defeat.
Then, the nikancha noticed two Shiksans standing corps at the border and blamed Claude's attack on the Shiksan camp for attracting more enemies.
They had no idea that Thundercrash had already wiped out nearly a hundred thousand Shiksans from the two corps, leaving only about ten thousand survivors.
When the nikancha discovered that Thundercrash, which they thought had retreated in defeat, was escorting more than twenty thousand Shiksan captives and nearly a hundred wagons filled with iron pumpkins, they started eyeing the Shiksan throwers and iron pumpkins.
So, they set their sights on the Shiksan throwers and pumpkins and asked Thundercrash to hand them over to them in the name of defending the northern front lines to defend against the Shiksans.
He couldn't communicate with those idiots at all. Didn't the nikancha think about how Thundercrash would be able to bring back so many captives and spoils of war after losing the battle?
Claude didn't hesitate to tell them to scram as far away as they could.
He didn't think that those idiots would be so persistent and come asking for the throwers and iron pumpkins even after three rejections. But this time, they even threatened to give up the front line and not provide cover for Thundercrash.
Those words could only deceive Captain Mason Hughes, who had just been promoted from his post as a civilian officer in the logistics department. For Claude to favor him and promote him to take over the newly promoted Anders as his adjutant, Mason Hughes could be considered a stroke of luck.
Claude got to know Mason Hughes on the battlefield after the battle. He was sleeping soundly on top of a few Shiksan corpses back then.
Claude thought that he was an officer who had died in battle and found it strange that no one was taking care of him. When he got closer, he noticed that he was still snoring.
It was the first time Claude saw someone using an enemy's corpse as a mattress. He thought that the captain was a pervert.
However, the soldiers beside him told Claude that it was the first time the captain was on the battlefield and he was very brave and accurate.
He killed three Shiksan veterans with his musket and killed another with his bayonet. At the same time, he covered the rest of the soldiers and killed the last five Shiksan veterans. He only paid the price of three deaths and eleven injuries for Thundercrash to hold off the Shiksan's final attack.
Mason Hughes was born a commoner and was 28 years old this year.
Ranger had been expanded into a corps after the second colonial war and was sent from the kingdom to the war zone.
As he graduated from the royal family's military academy in logistics, he was assigned to the royal guard as a logistics officer.
Back then, he was still a second lieutenant and his head was filled with thoughts of making a name for himself.
Because he was born a commoner and there were many nobles in the royal guard, he didn't have the chance to make a name for himself.
When the ministry of the army was recruiting new soldiers to expand Ranger's forces in the colonies, Lieutenant Mason Hughes, who was motivated by Ranger's exploits, applied to be transferred to Nubissia to serve the kingdom.
Hence, Second Lieutenant Mason Hughes was sent to the war zone. Because he graduated from a proper military school and was a logistical officer, he was transferred to one of the five newly formed enhanced divisions by Marshal Michelci who valued talents highly.
He somehow became a logistics officer in the second line corps and was promoted to first lieutenant, becoming Eiblont's subordinate.
After a few years, First Lieutenant Mason Hughes, who had worked diligently in the logistics department, was promoted to Captain, taking up the position of logistics supervisor for the 28th Field Battalion of the Thundercrash 2nd Division 1307 Regiment.
In this battle royale, General Eiblont had organized three temporary battalions of logistics officers and direct service personnel from the 1st Division and the 2nd Division. Captain Mason Hughes volunteered to fight for the first time.
When Captain Mason Hughes first saw the blood and the corpses on the ground, he vomited so much that his stomach turned upside down.
But he was adaptable and quickly got used to the rhythm of the battlefield.
Even though he was a logistics officer, his military skills were strong and he won the trust of the soldiers on the battlefield.
After the officer in charge of the area they were defending was injured and sent away, Mason Hughes, who was the highest-ranking officer, became the commander of the battalion.
After commanding the soldiers to fend off the enemy's last attack, Mason Hughes felt really tired and wanted to lie down for a while.
But there was nowhere to lie down and the ground was covered in blood, so he dragged a few enemy corpses to cover himself. He didn't think he would fall asleep the moment he closed his eyes.
That was how Claude saw the real scene of sleeping with the corpses of the enemy.
Mason Hughes didn't know that he had caught Claude's eye. Soon, Eiblont came looking for him with a transfer order to be Claude's adjutant.
Since he had just been appointed, he didn't know Claude's temper well enough and hadn't interacted with the nikancha before. That was why he told Claude about the nikancha's threats.
"Tell them to scram. If they don't, get the guards to chase them away.
Tell those idiots that Thundercrash has never needed their protection. Tell them not to think too highly of themselves. "Claude felt that he couldn't be too serious with those idiots.
There was a saying in his previous life that went like this: 'Being serious with an idiot will make you an idiot as well. Then, those idiots will use their rich experience to defeat you, the new idiot.'
However, Claude didn't think the nikancha would really abandon their front line and leave without saying goodbye the next night.
Claude was infuriated when he received the news. He ordered Mason Hughes, "Have Dyavid's Line 3 take over these positions. Tell them that this will be our war theatre's territory from now on."