273 – Battle of Gryfino (11)
When the main naval force directly commanded by Peter Jaeger was preparing for close combat, the commanders of the Duchy of Warsaw, including Captain Timo, did not want to hear anything. A sound was heard.
The watchmen frantically rang the bell on the mast tower, sending out a warning in a loud voice.
“Emergency! Emergency! “A ship believed to be a Reich Imperial battleship is attempting to surround our troops’ rear!”
“The number is estimated to be approximately 20 ships! “The number is approximately 20 ships!”
“The enemy fleet appears in the rear! “The enemy fleet appears behind us!”
The most frightening thing for soldiers, both on land and on land, is the story of being surrounded by enemy forces.
If the enemy is only in front and the back is open, you can fight the enemy with a sense of stability because you can retreat in the worst case.
If the front, rear, left, and right sides are all blocked, the direction of the allies’ attacks must be dispersed, which not only weakens their strength, but also causes them to suffer from the pressure of having no way to survive even if they are cornered.
The soldiers began to become agitated at the fact that their rear was blocked, and the officers maintained discipline by pulling out their swords and scolding them to calm them down, or by cutting a few to death as an example.
“Being surrounded from front and back, we’re like this…”
“Shut up, why is a soldier from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw so scared? “You’re a spy, aren’t you?”
“In terms of numbers, there will be a lot more of us! “I will kill you with my own hands if you are so embarrassed!”
Captain Timo blamed himself, saying that even the worst people would never be like this.
From a tactical and strategic point of view, he thought that he might already be playing in the palm of Captain Jaeger’s hand.
With the fate of Warsaw on his shoulders, he had to achieve victory at all costs, so Timo gave the best orders he could think of.
“Please convey this to the deputy commander. From now on, the fleet will be divided in half, and operational authority and command of half of the fleet will be transferred to Vice Admiral Shumitrikov. “Order him to destroy the Reich army that is surrounding our army from the rear.”
As the order was about to be delivered, the attack of the imperial fleet, which succeeded in catching Warsaw, began.
Rocks fired from siege ballistas, arrows fired from crossbows, and fireballs fired by wizards attacked the Warsaw fleet.
The staff of the flagship that Captain Teemo was on hurriedly rushed over and started reporting.
“The enemy’s attacks continue from the rear! If we continue like this, we will all die.”
“Our vanguard fleet has been annihilated by the Reich Imperial Army!”
“Out of the 115 ships in the fleet, nearly 30 have already become unusable!”
Timo, who was already worried about going bald due to hair loss, heard the sad report from his staff and said while tearing out his hair with his fingers.
“f*ck, I know everything! We must drive out the Reich bastards by any means necessary! Since the bastards who surrounded us in the rear have been left to Lieutenant General Shmitrikov, we focus on killing Peter Yeager, an orphan born and raised among those homos*xuals, in the front! Focus all your attention on that guy. “If you keep babbling, I’ll hit you hard before the court martial!”
When the staff heard those words, they looked for a moment with pitiful eyes at the commander who was so angry even though they had not asked him to retreat.
They were afraid that if something went wrong, the angry captain would actually kill them for defiance, so they nodded and returned to their respective seats.
Meanwhile, the soldiers of the main Reich Imperial Fleet, commanded by Peter Jaeger, began to fight fiercely as if they were guarding the castle walls on their own ships.
Soldiers holding long spears kept a check on enemy soldiers who were not wearing armor by randomly stabbing them to death due to the nature of naval combat.
Among the spearmen, the pikemen chopped off the heads and shoulders of the Warsaw Marines, while the siege ballistas and crossbows reduced the number of enemies behind them at a tremendous speed.
“Warsaw bastards! “We can go up on the deck of your ship as we please, but you can’t!”
“How can a human being try to starve the people of his country living on the western coast to death?”
“You guys are trash that should never have been born!”
Among them, the most noticeable thing was Captain Jaeger, fighting at the vanguard with a sword.
“As long as I stand on this deck holding my sword, not a single one of you will pass by!”
People who say this usually just say it, and there are many cases where their skills do not match the grand words.
Peter Yeager, living up to his titles of Khan Slayer and Sword Master, cut down and killed the soldiers who came in with swords pointed at him one by one.
In other words, the golden opportunity for Warsaw soldiers and officers to change the course of their lives by killing the enemy commander ended in vain with the death of the challenger.
Generally, if the guy with 4 stars came out at the front, it meant that the army was cornered, so it was normal for the Warsaw soldiers’ morale to be high, but none of them showed any signs of excitement or excitement.
No, everyone was scared.
“…… It’s a monster, there’s a monster over there.”
“Mom, f*ck. “What is that bastard?”
“…… Attack several people at a time! “Even that monster will get tired someday.”
It was a sight that would have horrified Emperor Michael of the Reich Empire, who had a small wish for Captain Jaeger to serve as Marshal until he was 100 years old, until his grandson’s generation.
There were many reasons why Peter Yeager came out like this and went around chopping up enemies with his sword.
When an ally and an enemy are engaged in close combat, especially if the enemy soldier is kept at a very close distance, there is a high risk that covering fire will cause friendly fire to the ally, so magic, ballista, and arrow attacks do not come in.
So, if you were confident in hand-to-hand combat, you were surprisingly safe.
The Reich Imperial Navy, which had a small number of soldiers, had many soldiers whose physical stamina was already at its limit, so it was necessary to overcome the limit with mental strength and morale.
In order to raise the will to fight, the captain had to personally hold the sword and stand on the front line.
But there was something else more important than this reason.
‘The eyes of Captain Teemo and all enemy generals and his staff must be directed only to me. That way, the time when they notice that the fishing boat that is planning to launch a fire attack is approaching them is delayed as much as possible.’
From noble mtl dot com
For this reason, even though Jaeger holds the title of Imperial Army Commander, he must fight alongside his soldiers.
On the other hand, Captain Teemo could not understand why a guy named Peter Yeager was fighting directly with a sword even though he had 4 stars just like him.
As he looked at the incomprehensible scene, he felt anxious as if defeat was getting closer, which drove him into a desperate situation where he felt like he was going crazy.
He was driven to the end, and as a commander, he issued orders filled with emotion, although they were based on reason.
“Use all your might to murder Peter Yeager, that bastard! Don’t even look at anything else. If we capture the enemy commander, it will be a victory for the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Long live Warsaw! Long live His Royal Highness Archduke Stefan! Everyone charges except the rowing soldiers! Break through the enemy’s defenses!”
It was the operation that most assuredly won the war, but it was also an order that caused tens of thousands of Warsaw Marines to die in return.
If Peter Yeager had heard about this later from someone else, he would have commented as follows.
‘What is this? They’re openly protesting to kill their own soldiers? ‘How is it different from the Japanese army’s Banzai assault?’
But now, the Reich soldiers, including Peter Jaeger, were busy dealing with the waves of soldiers that were nearly three times as many as they were.
There were many who looked like they were about to collapse due to exhaustion of stamina, but there were also many soldiers who fought hard and endured as they saw the captain next to them, who had killed several times more soldiers than them, but whose sword point had not dulled.
“The commander is fighting next to us! “Hold on with your wickedness!”
“Fight for the glory of the Reich Empire! Then you too will receive sufficient compensation!”
“If you hold on just a little longer, the captain will do something!”
This situation was also the same for the subfleet that surrounded and fought behind the Warsaw Fleet, which was not under the command of Captain Peter Jaeger.
Warsaw’s Captain Timo, who noticed the momentum, had expectations.
If this continues, you will be outnumbered and your stamina will run out first, that damned Captain Peter Jaeger of the Reich Empire. He saw the hope that he might be able to decapitate or capture him.
Whether he killed or captured, he wanted to inflict as much humiliation and shame as he could.
When the situation of the war was slightly, if not quite, tilted towards Warsaw, Lieutenant Vincent approached Captain Peter Jaeger and spoke in a whisper.
“The chemical ship will arrive soon.”
The last hidden move that will allow the Reich Imperial Navy to defeat the Warsaw Navy, which is three times more numerous than them, is the chemical ship, which has finally appeared.