109 – Battle of Hattin Forest (1)
From noble mtl dot com
And the next day.
When the 12th Brigade commanded by Peter Yeager was encamped in Hattin and waiting, ready to face the enemy.
Colonel Elan, deputy division commander of the 24th Division of the Francois Republic, spoke to the division commander.
“Division Commander, even if the enemy forces are around 4,000 and we have over 10,000. The opponent is Brigadier General Peter Yeager. Therefore, you need to scout the surrounding terrain more thoroughly.”
Under normal circumstances, Jean de Pompadour, commander of the 24th Division, would have accepted the proposal to conduct reconnaissance again, or would have convinced him with reasonable grounds.
Now, the entire François Republic had been excommunicated by the Pope, and the morale of the army had hit rock bottom, forcing it to go underground.
Republican lawmakers as well as high-ranking public officials like himself were in a situation where they would be dragged to the guillotine by angry citizens if they were not expelled from office by the Vatican as soon as possible.
“What nonsense are you talking about now? We’ve already scouted 3 times, and there are only about 4,000 of them! And although they built a fortress on the plain, they only built a few wooden fences! “There are no special traps.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Furthermore, our knights of the Francois Republic are the strongest on this European continent! But you don’t think you’re going to lose to the Reich pigs scurrying behind the fence, right?!”
When the division commander mentioned the strength of Knight François, other nobles also shouted along in a loud voice.
“Vice Division Commander, Brigadier General Yeager is definitely an enemy that cannot be ignored. But we won’t suffer like we did in the Rhineland.”
“We are fully alert to the enemy forces in front of us, and the number of troops is 2.5 Times greater.”
“Let us achieve victory here and then cut off Brigadier General Jaeger’s head!”
Hearing those words, Elan could no longer say anything, and Division Commander Pompadour chuckled and said,
“They say so. So just shut up and follow orders. “You coward.”
After subduing the deputy division commander who opposed such a hasty attack, the division commander raised the baton in his right hand and lowered it.
At the same time, he shouted in a loud voice that everyone could hear.
“400 Knights under Colonel Charles attack the enemy’s right wing! “Show Francois’ majesty and strength to the cowards who are trembling and hiding behind the fence!”
Then, as if they had been waiting for this moment, the 400 knights held a lance in their right hand and a shield in their left hand and slowly rode towards the Reich army.
Now that his knights have stepped forward, it seems as if the head of Brigadier General Jaeger, who has 4,000 weaklings in his command, is already theirs.
Their commander, Colonel Charles, shouted in a loud voice.
“We have already won! “We will inflict the righteous iron fist of God on those Reich bastards who misrepresented the orders of Deus, blinded the Pope, and drove us into excommunication!”
Then, to set his example, he went ahead, sporting his most distinctive armor and a lance with a banner.
The hearts of the other knights began to grow excited as he showed the arrogance and bravery befitting Francois’ nobleman.
In their minds, the conviction was firmly established that the dismissal of their country was only a conspiracy by the Reich bastards.
“Long live the Francois Republic! Long live the great republic that is by the people, for the people, and only looks out for the people!”
“A knight of the Republic will never be defeated under any circumstances!”
“Let’s go kill those cowards who rely on wooden fences that can only be used as toothpicks!”
With great confidence, they began running towards the right wing of the Reich Army, about 1.2Km away.
If we continue running at this speed, we will collide with the Reich Imperial Army in about 15 minutes.
Colonel Charles played a big role in winning the first battle against the Reich Empire with this assault, and then he was just a kid who got a little lucky.
I imagined a future where I captured the enemy captain Peter Yeager, was officially promoted to brigadier general, and received a star… And my path to success was wide open.
‘Brigadier General Yeager is just a brigadier general, but in our republic, his value is at least that of an enemy’s second-in-command. If I succeed in capturing him alive, I might be able to become a member of the noble council.’
“Ugh, sh*t! “Why are you shooting arrows from a horse?”
“You cowards! If you guys are knights too, let’s fight from the front with lances fair and square!”
“Stand there!! At there!!”
Colonel Charles’ reverie was completely broken by the sound of shouting like that, and the knight next to him reported in an urgent voice.
“A big problem has occurred. The evil Reich pigs are cowardly shooting arrows from their horses!”
“What? “How can a person drive a horse that fast and even shoot an arrow?”
“Look to the side! Even now, they are shooting arrows back and forth around us!”
Colonel Charles was in the lead and could not look around, but the Reich Empire’s archer cavalry was already firing arrows around the left and rear of the French Republic knights’ wedge formation.
No matter how much the knights were armed with heavy armor, the side and rear armor was relatively weak, so there were already casualties of nearly 20 knights falling from their horses or being pierced by arrows.
But an even more terrible fact was that Francois and his knights had to go another 800 meters, or about 10 minutes, before they reached the right wing of the Reich army.
At that time, the archers would be able to fire more than a thousand arrows, so troop losses would gradually increase.
Because we were attacked in the middle, our assault power is gradually decreasing, and we are in a situation where we are not sure that we will be able to break through if we clash with the enemy spearmen like this.
“Colonel, shouldn’t we kill those cowardly archers first? Just looking at them, they are small talkers and barely wearing chain armor. “One shot from our lance will be enough to annihilate them.”
Colonel Charles, who heard those words, opened the face shield of his helmet and shouted.
“I’m sure that those delicate horses and the children riding them will all melt with a single blow from our lance. But they are much more lightly armed than us! It will be faster if we follow along and our horses spread out! Just charge! “If you chase them, everyone will die.”
As the saying goes, the horses of the archers, who specialized in covering long distances quickly, were full of muscle, so the horses of the knights, who were strong at headbutting, could never catch up.
The lieutenant colonel who encouraged him to pursue lowered his head, grabbed his lance again, and charged toward the right wing of the Reich Empire visible in front of him.
“Help me! Evil!!”
“Don’t step on it!! “Don’t step on it!!”
In the meantime, the horses, which were wearing thinner armor than humans, were struck by arrows and fell, and the fallen knights had no choice but to be trampled by their fellow war horses.
They were crushed by horses weighing over 500 kg and started dying as soon as they fell from the horses.
Ordinary soldiers might retreat in fear at such a situation, but this type of death was relatively common among knights.
François’ knights knew nothing and continued charging towards the enemy in front of them.
Lieutenant Colonel Marco, who was the commander of the right wing of the Jaeger Brigade, watched this and thought it was time to give an order.
“The crossbowmen and wizard battalion should move forward 20 steps and move 300 steps to the right! “Look at the direction the enemy is coming from, form a diagonal formation, and when the enemy knights’ flanks are exposed, shoot immediately!”
At those words, the crossbowmen and wizards slowly moved according to the lieutenant colonel’s orders and began running to prepare to meet the enemy.
Brigadier General Yeager gave the order after spotting the distant unit moving.
“Tell the knights led by Lieutenant Colonel Werner to prepare to charge! “I will turn to the left of the right wing and stab the flanks of the enemy knights!”
Around the same time, Major Anastasia ordered to hang his bow on his horse’s saddle.
“The archers will leave here according to the strategy! “I guess there won’t be any idiots killed by Francois’ knights who have no talent other than eating snails, right?”
Then, the archers killed nearly 50 knights with only arrow fire and leisurely left the battlefield.
On the other hand, Colonel Charles of the Francois Republic pointed his lance at the enemy and shouted, gritting his teeth and shedding bloody tears.
“We must kill the evil and cowardly pigs of the Empire who try to tarnish the Republic by selling God’s name! Kill every single one of them! “I’ll take responsibility, so kill everyone except Brigadier General Jaeger!!”
From noble mtl dot com
Then a signal was sent to the crossbowmen and wizard battalion deployed on the right wing of the imperial army.
“Exterminate the foolish enemy.”