117 – Battle of Crecy Plains (2)
At those words, Captain Patton smiled brightly at me and asked for my opinion.
“So, what is our Brigadier General Jaeger thinking? “I believe he must be planning a good plan that will lead our imperial army to victory.”
“I think it is the most likely and efficient operation on this battlefield.”
After saying that, I placed the wooden horses symbolizing the Francois Republic and Reich Imperial forces in the appropriate positions where the map of the Plain of Crecy was placed.
Archers, crossbowmen, and wizards were placed at the front of the formation, followed by infantry, and knights at the back.
This type of troop deployment is a formation that focuses on defense, and may seem like a passive operation to fight a large number of enemies with a typical small number of soldiers.
“The arrangement I was thinking of is like the wooden horses placed here. In the beginning, units capable of long-distance attacks are placed at the forefront, and infantry and knights are placed at the rear. Then, since we do not attack first, the enemy will have no choice but to come to where our imperial troops are.”
Because their morale is already at a low level due to the excommunication incident, they had to wait for us to come to achieve a clear victory at a tactical level.
Even if the Reich Empire doesn’t use scouts to spread any rumors, they will just say among themselves that the high-ranking members of the Francois Republic army are too scared to attack them.
What if the effect of excommunication is added to that? Surely there will be this level of nonsense going around.
‘In the Forest of Hattin, Francois’ 10,000-strong army was massacred because Deus performed a miracle on Brigadier General Jaeger’s brigade. And now, Philippe de Valois, Duke of Valois, has been deposed and cannot even attack because he is afraid that if he is defeated and killed, he will go to hell.’
When the Duke of Valois hears these words, he will feel the urge to rip out his hair while swearing at me, but what can he do?
That’s the reality they face, so if you’re in a bad mood, why don’t you rush in and fight and win?
“In addition, the morale of the infantry of the Francois Republic Army is already at its worst, so their upper echelons probably know that the battle itself will be difficult even if the infantry is used. So, they will put forward the articles they can put forward with the most confidence first.”
There is only one reason to do so, or rather, to put the Knights of the Republic at the forefront.
In order to restore the morale of the infantrymen crawling on the ground, the best choice the headquarters of the Francois Republic Army can make.
‘By showing the knights in action, instilling confidence in the infantry that they can win.’
This means that there is a very high probability that he will make the same choice, even though he knows very well that Major General Pompadour was completely defeated in the Forest of Hattin.
And the other generals all nodded as if they agreed with this opinion.
In particular, I don’t know what Captain Patton was thinking, but he looked at me with a smiling expression and asked in a bright voice, like a child receiving a new toy as a gift.
“So, are you saying we should use the infantry as an anvil and mobilize our knights to flank them? Just like how you struck the side of the archers led by Ludvik.”
If only the Reich Empire’s knights could stab their flanks in a wedge formation at the right time when they charged.
I can bet you all that no matter how many knights of the Francois Republic there are, they will be defeated with a single blow.
The problem is that, rather than going to the spot first, waiting, and then hitting the enemy knights, waiting in the rear and hitting them at the right time is a feat that is impossible for an ordinary commander to even dare to do.
Because, unless the enemy commander is as stupid as Mr. Mudaguchi of the Dark Independence Army, everyone knows that the flanks are the weakest when knights charge.
If they know that we are likely to be flanked, they will naturally try to change the course of their charge.
So, as Captain Patton said, to properly aim for the enemy’s flank, you must reach the point where they form a perfect wedge formation and can no longer change direction.
In other words, we have to attack by taking a long detour, aiming to hit the enemy infantry from the rear, at a distance of 10 to 300 meters from our infantry, which is only about 3 minutes in time.
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This is a feat that is impossible to imitate even with any level of ability.
However, in terms of the Three Kingdoms, our captain in front of me is a man whose ability to use force and cavalry is as good as that of Lü Bu or Guan Yu.
If we hold out two or three times, we will definitely succeed in defeating the enemy knights.
However, in a battle situation like this, it would seem very unreasonable for the commander of the expeditionary force to lead the knights directly.
However, in battles throughout the Middle Ages and modern times…
Although in most cases the commander, the highest officer in the army, supervises and commands all units from the rear, it is also relatively common for him to directly command the cavalry, which is the core of the attack.
If you have the ability to stab the side, it could be a very good strategy.
But if you ask me if there is any reason to take this risk…
“If Captain Patton were to lead the knights directly, he could easily stab the knights’ flanks. In my opinion, in order to use this opportunity to show the miracle of Deus to those who were unable to come to their senses even after receiving the excommunication from the Holy See, it would be better to show them using infantry to block their knights. However, since it is difficult to stop the knights’ charge with infantry alone, I would like you to dismount about 1,000 knights and place them in the vanguard.”
The correct answer is that there is no need or value in taking such risks.
Because Francois, whose brains are steeped in romance, will definitely attack from the front.
Even if the infantry holds long spears and maintains a tight formation, they will be able to properly block most charges.
Of course, we would create an environment where it would be difficult for them to attack by putting up things like fences or dirt hills.
If an enemy knight is targeting our infantry, the best policy is to strike the enemy infantry with our knights, as is also mentioned in military science textbooks.
“Hum hum, then the remaining 6,000 knights can just attack the infantry.”
But anyway, the commander of this army is Captain Patton, so it would be a good idea to put in a play that can somewhat suit his mood and even raise the morale of the allies.
“It might be any other battle, but this battle is a completely open plain where it would be difficult to ambush soldiers. And just before the battle begins, François and his army will induce an argument in order to convince their soldiers and nobles that our imperial army is a fake. “At that time, I hope you will personally break the morale of the enemy soldiers with a manly speech from the horse.”
Hearing those words, the expressions of the other generals crumpled a little.
It’s not that I don’t understand that reaction; Captain Patton is a man who treats everyone from generals with stars to individual soldiers in a consistent and manly manner.
This is probably because he is a very harsh person with every word he speaks, so there is a very high possibility that an unimaginable level of profanity will come out even when he criticizes the Francois Republic.
However, since you have an overwhelming weapon called the excommunication, you can use vulgar and easy-to-understand curses to demoralize enemy soldiers with words that are easy to understand.
If you mix the anxiety and impatience of being dismissed with the anger toward us, even if the first charge fails, you will end up as the commander-in-chief of the enemy army.
They know that the more they charge, the more they will lose, but there is a very high possibility that they will do crazy things such as continuing to charge head-on even if the angry knights notice them.
Just like a person who keeps losing at gambling constantly wastes money on gambling, thinking that they will succeed this time if they do it again.
And it would be best if I explained how to handle knights here, but the captain in front of me rose to the rank of captain solely with his skills in handling knights.
If I go into even the most trivial details in front of someone like that, there’s a high chance that I’ll just get scolded, so I kept my mouth shut and finished the presentation.
In that way, my presentation overwhelmed the audience, and in the end, according to the strategy I suggested, we decided that during the first argument, Captain Patton would make a personal attack on the enemy with his fiery remarks.
Then, put crossbowmen and soldiers capable of long-distance attacks at the forefront to kill the knight’s momentum, and then block them with infantry.
The knights of the Reich Empire were able to perfectly establish an operation to crush Francois’s infantry.