To the Shiksans, the floating bridge at the fishing port was the reason they could face off against Thunderbolt outside Lanu.
As long as the floating bridge was there, no matter if it was the follow-up reinforcements or the replenishment of military supplies, they would be continuously transported from afar.
So, when they found out that the fishing port was burnt to the ground and the floating bridge was destroyed, the Shiksans in the camp outside Lanu went into an uproar. Everyone knew that they had no other way out.
To the war theatre, the hundred thousand Shiksans were like turtles in a jar, no longer a threat.
Their high-ranking officers and commanders, for some reason, actually wanted to retreat to Mormaly.
Claude only found out the reason after asking a few high-ranking captives. The Shiksans wanted to retreat to Mormaly and build a floating bridge to the deep sea to find a way out for the 80,000-90,000 men.
One of the Mormaly regiments of garrison had been transferred to General Beechklin, and was fighting in the mountains to the east.
The other received urgent orders from Claude to head to Port Cobicus in Tyrrsim to help defend the city.
There wasn't a single garrison in Mormaly anymore. The Shiksans only needed to send two light cavalry lines to occupy the entire colony. Perhaps that was the reason why the Shiksans decided to retreat to Mormaly.
Claude could only grieve for the hundred thousand Shiksans. If he was the frontline commander, he would only have one choice, which was to retreat to the fishing port and build a floating bridge to allow his troops to escape.
After all, the fishing port town was much closer than the coastal town of Mormaly. Even if it was burned to the ground, the mountains around the village were mostly forests, and it was still possible to build a temporary pontoon bridge.
However, the Shiksans' high-ranking officers decided to retreat to Mormaly's coastal town and build a floating bridge there. They no longer cared about reality or commanding blindly.
The reason was simple. After Thunderbolt reached Lanu, there was no longer any Shiksans infantry that could leave the camp. Thunderbolt's light cavalry had already seized the initiative on the battlefield.
Especially at night, Thunderbolt was a nightmare for the Shiksans in the camp.
They attacked the camp from all directions and bombarded it with grenades. The Shiksans had to put out the fires and defend themselves to prevent Thunderbolt from breaching the camp.
Many of the Shiksans hadn't had a good night's sleep since Thunderbolt arrived in Lanu. Their dark eye sockets had become their most obvious symbol.
As for the light cavalry of the royal knight reserve corps, they were terrified by Thunderbolt and couldn't leave the range of the grenades even during the day.
Countless light cavalry sent out to scout became Thunderbolt's ambushes the moment they left the camp. Every single gunshot signified the fall of the Shiksans.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Shiksans still had the will to fight and that attacking the camp would cause Thunderbolt to suffer heavy casualties, he would've broken through the Shiksans' camp long ago.
Since the war was already under his control, he didn't mind letting the Shiksans catch their breaths for a while longer. He would wipe them out when they ran out of ammunition and morale. That way, it would be much easier and he wouldn't have to pay too many casualties.
So, when Myjack and Bloweyk led 131 and Wolffang to report back with the captives, Claude ordered the release of a few captives to inform the Shiksans that their escape route was cut off. That would speed up the process of despair and see how the Shiksans would react to the news.
Staying in the camp would only result in death, but leaving the camp would give Thunderbolt a better opportunity.
Claude didn't think the Shiksans in the camp would decide to retreat to Mormali. Perhaps the towns they occupied gave them a false sense of security and made them feel like it was their territory.
Perhaps it was due to the fact that they could obtain sufficient rations in Mormali, so the Shiksans decamped and retreated to Mormali on the third day after they heard that the fishing town had been burned to the ground.
There were no end to the ten thousand Shiksans defending the camp. The retreat of the eighty thousand Shiksans was quite a sight to behold.
The remaining five light cavalry regiments acted as the vanguard, charging through Thundercrash's ambush line without any regard for their own casualties. They left behind nearly a thousand corpses, opening up a path to Mormaly for the infantry to follow.
After that, the Shiksans turned their horses around to guard the flanks of the retreating army and engaged in a fierce battle with Thunderbolt's reinforcements.
When Claude received the report that the Shiksans were retreating to Mormali, his jaw nearly dropped. He couldn't figure out the reason for that.
It would take seven days to travel from Lanu's camp to Mormali on foot, and Thunderbolt was a light-cavalry corps. How were the Shiksans going to defend against the attacks of the light-cavalry in those seven days and nights?
Claude gave the order to stop blocking the Shiksans' advance and deal with the remaining light-cavalry units of the royal knight reserve corps first to reduce unnecessary trouble for future attacks.
Two days ago, the Shiksans' retreat was rather orderly. They split up into divisions and set up simple defensive positions after half a day's journey. They dug trenches and built cannons to protect the light cavalry on both sides. They would then receive the retreating troops and act as the defenders at the back.
It was the same on the second day. The first division stopped to set up defensive positions after half a day's journey. Even though that would delay the retreat, it would protect most of the retreating army. That was common knowledge among the nations of Freia.
At the same time, among the retreating infantry troops, the vehicles were all outside, while the troops were moving in to prevent any sudden attacks from the enemy …
After two days of observation, Claude quickly came up with a strategy.
First, Thunderbolt's 1st and 2nd Folk were to take turns harassing and launching night attacks on the retreating Shiksans.
Secondly, he ordered the attacking troops to be split into battalions and only attack from the periphery. They would use projectiles and light infantry field artillery to launch long-range attacks and lure the pursuing enemies into their own ambush range to annihilate the pursuing troops.
Additionally, they would make use of the light-cavalry's ability to move and travel long distances to launch a full-scale attack on the Shiksans' retreating army.
In less than three days, the Shiksans were faced with complete collapse.
While most of the royal knight reserve corps was still around, the retreating army marched rather normally.
After all, Thunderbolt's light-cavalry would always be stopped by the Shiksans' light-cavalry on the periphery.
But as the number of light-cavalry in the reserve corps dwindled to the point where there was only one line left, the Shiksans' commanders were no longer willing to send them to their deaths. As a result, the retreating infantrymen were attacked day and night.
Just as they were about to eat and drink some hot soup, the enemy arrived. A few grenades or a few solid bullets flew into the crowd, taking away the lives of a few unlucky fellows and often throwing the entire formation into chaos.
When the enemy's light-cavalry finally retreated, they would find that the hot soup was gone and it was either spilled or stained with blood or mud. They couldn't drink it even if they wanted to.
Just as they closed their eyes at night, another explosion would be heard and the enemy's night attack would circle around their camp. Getting a good night's sleep and eating some hot food would become an extravagant hope.
In less than three days, the Shiksan soldiers who were still on the march were all numb. Even when Thundercrash's light cavalry attacked, some of them wished they could be killed in one shot. That would be far better than having to endure the torment of marching without sleep.
On the sixth day, Claude gave the order to attack. The Shiksan infantrymen at the rear had already lost the will to resist and just stood there blankly as they watched Thunderbolt's light-cavalry charge at them. Even the Shiksans who wanted to resist were too slow to react and were cut down like wooden stakes by the enemy.
When the cavalrymen of Thundercrash shouted that they would be spared, more Shiksan soldiers tossed their muskets aside as if relieved of a heavy burden and fell asleep. The war was finally over for them.
That wasn't the case for all Shiksans. The Shiksan unit in the middle was the one with the most energy. It was where the high-ranking officers and elite guards were gathered. They were at the centre of the retreat, so they suffered the least attacks and harassment.
That was why when Thunderbolt launched the attack, the Shiksans reacted the quickest. They abandoned all their supplies and gathered a large number of packhorses. They gathered the remaining light-cavalry and left the infantrymen at the back to block the enemy's advance before charging towards Mormaly with all their might.
Thunderbolt's light-cavalry units gathered most of the Shiksan captives and gave chase, but they weren't able to catch up.
The Shiksans that escaped to Mormaly would gather their garrison at every town and retreat. When they finally reached the coastal town of Bobia, Thunderbolt's light-cavalry caught up to them.
The Shiksans had no choice but to lock themselves in the town. They only had ten thousand men in total.
While Bobia was near the sea, it wasn't a fishing town. It was five hundred metres away from the sea on a beautiful brown beach that spanned a thousand metres from the shallow sea to the deep sea.
A few Shiksan warships from Seaking were patrolling the deep sea. They could see the Shiksan flag and the distress signal above the town, but there was nothing they could do.
The light cavalry battalion that arrived first from Thundercrash had already surrounded the entire town. They were only in charge of monitoring the Shiksans' movements to prevent them from building any bridges on the beach. At the same time, they sent some soldiers to burn the fishing boats of the townsfolk on the beach so that the Shiksans wouldn't have the chance to abandon their high-ranking officers and escape on the boats.
Even though they outnumbered the light-cavalry unit ten times that of Thunderbolt's light-cavalry unit, the Shiksans didn't have any intention of leaving town to fight.
The escape had used up too much of their energy. After entering the town, most of the high-ranking Shiksan officers found a place to sleep after a simple meal. Only a few of them were stationed at the outskirts of the town to set up a defensive perimeter.
The next day, a line of Thunderbolt's light-cavalry arrived in Bobia. By then, the high-ranking Shiksan officers who had regained their energy couldn't escape. They stood on the town's walls and looked at the Shiksan warships at sea. There was nothing more despairing than the sight before them.
The distance of a few hundred meters from the town to the beach had become a natural moat for them to escape from their predicament.
Thunderbolt's light-cavalry had set up an ambush there and anyone who tried to get to the beach would be their target.
When Eiblont arrived at Popbia with two light cavalry lines from Thundercrash 2nd Folk, the besieged Shiksans no longer had any hope of escaping. After two days of negotiations, the high-ranking Shiksan officers and commanders received Eiblont's promise that their families would be allowed to ransom them back. So, they ordered their troops to lay down their weapons and raise the white flag to surrender.
Then, under the watchful eyes of the three Shiksan warships, the Shiksan flag was lowered above Bobia and the Aueran and war theatre's flags were raised.
The recapture of Bobia meant that the war theatre had wiped out the three Shiksan standing corps deep within the war theatre and crushed their diversionary tactic.
However, the war theatre also suffered heavy losses. There were thirty thousand casualties, ten thousand of which were civilians killed or injured by the Shiksans.
The losses amounted to around twenty million crowns.
Lanu had to be rebuilt and the fishing town, as well as the civilians and property lost to the Shiksans, had to be compensated.
Close to two hundred thousand Shiksans landed in the fishing town. Half of the three corps suffered casualties and only around eighty thousand were captives.
However, that wasn't all that surprising. One of them was 2nd Disgrace, which was made up of captured veterans, which was almost completely wiped out.
They suffered over forty thousand casualties during the attack on Lanu and the ones who resisted the most during the retreat were the veterans. They would rather die in battle than become captives again.
Claude finally solved the mystery in his mind. After asking the high-ranking Shiksan officers who surrendered, he found out that the previous frontline commander, Marquis Clario De Sirios, wasn't acclimatized to the environment in Cape Loducus. After coming up with the plan to attack the fishing town, he was sent back to the kingdom vomiting and vomiting. It was unknown if he could be saved.
Meanwhile, the senior officers of the three standing corps who carried out this plan received orders from Majid III to completely destroy the administrative center of the war zone and the headquarters of the war zone, Lanu City, in order to vent the anger of the previous four colonial wars.
Additionally, according to the traditional rules of war on Freia, taking down the enemy's imperial capital was equivalent to winning the war. Lanu was the imperial capital of a colony, so the Shiksans were bent on fighting it to the death.
However, that victory didn't mean the end of the war. Seaking and the Alliance were still patrolling the seas of the war theatre, eyeing them covetously.
There were still four Shiksan corps in Cape Loducus. Claude's Thundercrash could only stay in Mormali and Anfiston to maintain order and clean up the mess.
Next, he had to reorganize the garrisons along the coast to prevent further Shiksan attacks.
While Claude was busy, it was already the end of the year. Year 593 of the Sacred Light Calendar was about to pass. However, the arrival of the new year wasn't particularly festive. The ruins of Lanu were a testament to the cruelty of the war.
General Birkin's eagle message stated that the Shiksans had stopped advancing after receiving news that the three corps that landed at the fishing town had been wiped out. Instead, they retracted their forces and strengthened their defences in the mountains at the front, switching from offense to defense.