309 – Training is like actual combat, actual combat is like training (8)
Peter Jaeger, who was watching the scene from a little distance away from the infantrymen of the 7th Division, muttered in an admiring voice. He said as if he was walking away.
“18Th Division Commander, you gave instructions that were better than expected. “In that situation, instead of giving the same order to charge and forward as I did, you gave the order to defend.”
When the enemy is stronger than the allies, giving an order to defend rather than attack is a natural order that every commander considers.
The enemy is stronger than me, but a guy who orders active attack instead of defense is no different from telling someone to charge Banzai like samurai.
If an officer possesses common sense, it is natural for him to not unconditionally order an assault.
However, the commander of the 18th Division is now in command of an army that has almost reached its limit after being robbed of two days’ worth of supplies.
Commanders who are pushed to these limits often issue wrong orders, making an already bad situation even worse.
This is because it is difficult to make a common-sense, optimal choice when faced with the worst situation.
However, the 18th Division commander made a choice that was close to the best.
Even so, the exhausted stamina of the 18th Division soldiers was not revived.
‘The 18th Division will have to hold on like an anvil, but since its stamina is low, it will inevitably collapse if it continues its onslaught.’
“Leading commanders below the battalion commander, leading commanders below the battalion commander. Unit commanders at all levels must stand at the forefront and destroy enemy units. “Push with all your might.”
Peter Yeager pointed forward with his baton and gave the order to destroy the troops with all his might.
Soon, this order was delivered to the infantry of the 7th Division, who were engaged in a close confrontation.
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“This is the commander’s order! Each company and platoon commander under this battalion commander is the vanguard! Take the spear and lead the way!”
“This is an order that the standoff should not be unnecessarily prolonged.”
“I’ll show you what it means to push with all your might! “Everyone, prepare to charge forward!”
With those words, the infantrymen of the 7th Division struck down the enemy’s spear posts in unison, creating an opportunity to regroup while facing straight ahead.
In the meantime, the battalion commanders and company commanders of each unit received spears from the soldiers in the vanguard and began to stand directly at the front.
Instead of further strengthening the defense in preparation for the enemy’s attack, the officers of the 18th Division gave orders to somehow break the momentum of the 7th Division before it launched an all-out attack.
“Charge forward! Pick up your spear and run!”
“The time has come to clearly show that the 18th Division is by no means a shabby division.”
“There is no time to reorganize the battle line, so run! “I will call the guy who shows his feet separately after training.”
As Captain Jaeger said, there was a high probability that the 18th Division, which was weaker in technology, physical strength, and morale than the 7th Guards Division, would take an active offensive and it would not be a very good choice.
This moment was a special exception.
Even a monster-like unit composed only of sword masters cannot properly demonstrate the power of the group when the formation is changed in a dense formation, so its combat power is inevitably weakened.
The 7th Guards Division had a sword master in name and reality, but there was only one, Captain Peter Yeager, and the others were mere ordinary people with extremely excellent mental strength and ability to adapt to battle.
At the moment of changing the formation, the force will naturally be weaker than usual, and if the 18th Division breaks through the gap and launches an attack, the 18th Division will be able to control the situation much more favorably than if it only maintains defense.
As a result, the 7th Guards Division was pushed back, albeit only slightly.
Seeing that scene, the soldiers of the 18th Division gained a spark of hope.
“Now that I know about the 7th Guards Division, I guess it’s worth dealing with them? “I will catch all these bastards like this.”
“Don’t miss this opportunity! “Charge without breaking the formation!”
“Heavy and fast, like lifting your waist in bed! Stab! “Stab!”
The 7th Division was slightly shocked by the unexpectedly strong infantry of the 18th Division, and the officer controllers stationed within the unit were strongly impressed by the sight.
In fact, the 18th Division clearly showed its physical limitations even before the battle began, as they had limited rations for three days after being deprived of supplies.
It was expected that even if we continued to defend, we would soon run out of stamina and break through anyway, so a reversal was needed to turn the situation around.
When the 7th Guards Division was reorganizing its ranks, it attacked aggressively and caught Peter Yeager off guard, albeit slightly.
That weakness was not enough to change the situation of the war, but it had enough influence to slightly raise Peter Yeager’s evaluation of the 18th Division.
As soon as reorganization was completed, the infantry commanders of the 7th Division participated in the battle at the front of the line without sparing themselves.
“The battalion commander is in the lead! I will give an order, so the 3rd battalion will thrust and pull out at the same time! Poke in one and subtract in two. Practice!”
“While watching them stab, throw the spear to the left! Then hit and stab! Do you understand? “Think of it as a practical exercise and do it thoroughly!”
“Oh, ten! Oh wow! Those who leave will get caught even during training. “Vacation is restricted for one month due to military discipline violations.”
Once the formation of the 7th Division was completed and the battle began head-on, the soldiers of the 18th Division, who had not eaten properly for three days, began to slowly fall behind.
The hand that was tightly holding the spear began to slowly loosen, and the weapons that had felt light to hold just a moment ago now felt as heavy as if I were holding a stone.
The soldiers were increasingly panting and breathing harder, and those who had been fighting the war for a long time were doing their best to hide their exhaustion.
Now their thoughts were almost the same.
‘f*ck, I think I’m going to fall behind at this rate.’
The controllers noticed the soldiers’ condition and visited the soldiers who were about to be exhausted, placed their hands on their shoulders, and gave them orders to leave.
The formation was quickly pushed back, and before we knew it, 1/4 of the infantry of the 18th Division, who had been at the forefront, had either exhausted their stamina or been declared dead in the mock battle and disappeared.
When the 18th Division commander received this battle situation from the division messenger, he sighed and gave an order.
“Infantry units continue to fight against the 7th Division infantry. 500 Archers are leaving immediately to catch the knights of the 7th Division. “The 18th Division knights will go to attack the flanks of the 7th Division infantry fighting our infantry in 20 minutes, so prepare and stand by.”
Just as a division commander intentionally lets infantrymen die even though it is a mock battle, ordering them to continue fighting in an unfavorable situation may seem cruel.
Viewed objectively, this operation is by no means a bad operation.
What a commander must do in war is to fight and win against the enemy in front of him, but if victory is impossible, the next goal should be to somehow reduce the number of enemy troops.
What if the exhausted and exhausted infantry somehow manages to hold back the 7th Division’s infantry, and then attacks the enemy infantry with 500 knights to create a gap?
The soldiers of the 18th Division may not be able to win an infantry battle due to their lack of stamina, but as the saying goes, they will be able to eliminate at least one more soldier of the 7th Division.
‘Even if we cannot win against Captain Jaeger, we can at least achieve the goal of reducing the number of enemy forces as much as possible.’
He decided that this was the best move he could make, so he thought he would have made the same choice if it were a real fight.
“As long as you can hold out against Captain Jaeger for a long time, it will be quite advantageous for your promotion. So, you have to endure at all costs and give it a shot.”
Meanwhile, Peter Yeager sensed something strange when he saw that his knights were not moving despite this situation.
“According to the messenger’s report, the 18th Division’s infantry is in danger of being completely destroyed by the 7th Division, but I see that they haven’t sent out any knights yet. “There’s something up there.”
No matter how much Peter Yeager sensed that the 18th Division was suspicious because it did not send out its knights even when the infantry was collapsing, he could not see into the head of the 18th Division commander, so he could not know exactly what he was planning.
So, he quickly turned his thinking circuit to ‘what is the best way to act?’
Not long after that, he came up with an operation to end the current war situation as quickly and reliably as possible and issued orders.
“Rush the archers and knights to the left and right wings of the enemy army, respectively. Destroy the enemy infantry very little by little. “I don’t know what kind of strategy the 18th Division is planning, but if the anvil is destroyed, most of the strategies will be destroyed.”
The strategy chosen by Peter Jaeger was to wipe out the infantry of the 18th Division, which served as the anvil, among hammers and anvils commonly used from ancient times to modern warfare in the 21st century.
Through this operation, he decided to make the knights who served as hammers hammer in the air, unable to harm their allies no matter how well they performed.