101 – The Three Quarters of the World – 3
Giovanni du Couteau, the governor of the Petrine Republic, was 93 years old. He was elected governor at the age of 53. Most people thought he would die or retire after about 10 years, but thanks to healthy eating habits, moderate exercise, and his genes, he was able to not die until the age of 93, and was in power for a long period of 40 years, which no one expected.
He has been an elite diplomat since his youth and has shown excellent diplomatic acumen, and in fact, after he took office as governor, the Petrine Republic became much stronger under his leadership.
The Petrine Republic had already suffered dozens of small invasions and several major invasions during the 40 years since Giovanni took office, but it has never once given up its territory to the enemy. This is because every time that happened, the five countries belonging to the Taspilia Peninsula joined forces to stop it. However…
“The story is a little different now. The Duchy of Plos has continued to show its ambitions for military unification since Princess Lucrezia took office. “If the Petrine Republic weakens due to invasion by foreign enemies, there is nothing more beneficial to the Principality of Plos.”
Even that was when it was blocked. Even if the Petrine Republic loses all of its territory due to its inability to stop foreign enemies, there will be no loss to the Principality of Plos.
“Because the independence of the people of the Taspilia peninsula can be used as a justification to defeat foreign enemies and allow the Principality of Plos to swallow up their territory.”
That said, if I were to summarize the current situation, it would be like this.
“We are surrounded from front and back by two lions.”
And there was only one way to somehow overcome the current situation.
From Noble mtl dot com
First, defeat Leonia von Arcadia in a field battle.
—–
Meanwhile, Leonia von Arcadia was advancing with a total of 10,000 soldiers.
Among the soldiers of Leonia, there were about 4,000 soldiers directly under his command, and the rest were all soldiers of his subjects. Among them, 3,000 were Dian’s soldiers, and 1,000 were soldiers each from Yuria, Isabel, and Charles.
Leonia appointed Dian’s army as the vanguard. That’s because Dian, as the world’s second-largest military force, had a cavalry unit with tremendous breakthrough power, and he also had the largest number of soldiers.
‘Normally, it is difficult to appoint a captain (general who surrendered) as the vanguard.’
This was a case that clearly showed Princess Leonia’s tendencies, and in her original story, Princess Leonia was portrayed as an extreme meritocrat. What she meant was that regardless of whether she betrayed her, whether she came from a lowly world, or whether her character was dirty, as long as her abilities were good, she would unconditionally coerce her.
‘That is what makes her Leonia different from her other monarchs.’
It is difficult for an ordinary monarch to show such extreme meritocracy. This is because a monarch is someone who belongs to a force before he or she leads it. In most cases, he elevates his position by embedding his own faction in power to avoid being caught from within and protects himself from being overthrown. And the best way to create a faction is based on background, and those from the port are naturally ignored.
However, Leonia abandoned all such behavior and used methods that only increased the group’s efficiency. The very fact that this is possible shows what an extraordinary person she is.
Anyway, Dian, who had already betrayed him once, was appointed as the vanguard and was unofficially treated as number 2. He was the one with the strongest army, so in a way, this is understandable.
However, what Charles was paying attention to was not the issue of who was number two and who was number three. Of course, that was important, but what was right in front of us was war. So what was important was the war at hand.
The leader of the Petrine Republic that we are going to invade is Giovanni du Couteau. Of course, he is too old to command the military, so we will use a mercenary leader hired from outside.
And the main weapons of the mercenaries operating on the Taspilia peninsula are a floor-mounted shield called a Pavis and a large mechanically loaded crossbow.
‘Either way, it’s nothing compared to a musket. The battle itself will be easily won.’
Even though the numbers are the same (10,000 to 10,000), the tech trees are different, the solidarity is different, and the training levels are different. Our army is ahead in every way, so there is no way we will be defeated.
The real problem came after victory. After the battle is over, the real war begins. This is what I told Diane before.
But that didn’t apply only to Dian’s case. It was a story that applied to many wars that the real war begins after the battle is over. It was the same in this case. As soon as the battle is over, a real war, more troublesome than the battle, will await.
—–
The enemy was waiting for us with 10,000 soldiers stationed on a plain named Spoleto.
In fact, this was somewhat predictable. There were many mountains in the southern part of the Taspilia peninsula, but the northern part was mostly plains, so it was difficult to occupy terrain with high defense such as rivers, forests, and hills.
Since most of the battlefields are plains, it is natural that the battlefield will also be a plain. And that was also why I chose the south as my first invasion route. The point was that the terrain was not rough.
The fight on the plains is fair and square. Both allies and enemies must fight on equal footing.
Of course, the defenders may not like a fair fight. This is because, as the defense side, it was natural to be greedy for terrain with an advantage.
However, due to the nature of the Taspilia Peninsula, such luxury cannot be desired. If you want to blame something, you should blame the map creator who flattened the land.
Of course, in this era, if you said something that criticized God, there was a high possibility that you would be taken to the Inquisition and burned at the stake.
Anyway, the enemy was waiting with 10,000 soldiers stretched out on the plain, and our troops also arrived at the Spoleto Plain with 10,000 soldiers.
With the Plain of Spoleto in the center, the two forces glared at each other from afar. Although the distance was over 500 meters, there were no forests or trees nearby, so we were able to easily check each other’s situation.
As expected, the enemy soldiers were mainly Taspilian mercenaries carrying pavis (large shields placed on the floor) and crossbows, followed by heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.
Their tactics were quite unusual: they placed a shield on the ground, loaded a crossbow behind the shield, and when they finished loading, they only stuck their heads out and shot.
He was able to avoid the enemy’s arrows by hiding behind his shield, and the crossbow he fired flew straight at the enemy, so it was literally a tactic that allowed for a selfish deal exchange that only hit the enemy and did not hit me.
“But this time it will be a little different.”
The combination of parvis and crossbow is a tactic that can give you an advantage against regular archers, but is no match for muskets.
“March!”
At Leonia’s order, our musketeers stood at the forefront and began to advance. In response, the enemy crossbowman placed a pavis (giant shield) on the ground, hid behind it, and began loading his crossbow.
The crossbow had a narrow advantage in range. Before the musketeers could reach the firing range, the enemy’s bolts (crossbow arrows) started flying.
“Ugh!”
“Ugh!”
Several musketeers began to fall. But the real battle came once the enemy was within range of the musketeers.
“Muslims, fire!”
At those words, the musketeers who had previously lit their matchlocks began to pull the trigger.
-Kwakwakwaang!!!
A sound like thunder was heard, and the soldiers hiding behind Pavis began to fall all at once.
“What, what!”
The enemy mercenary leader shouted. He also knew of the existence of muskets, but secretly thought that they would be no match for crossbows.
But surprisingly, the musket penetrated the huge shield called Pavis and even began to kill the crossbowmen hiding behind the shield.
Just as a musket can pierce plate armor, it can also pierce wooden shields, which are much weaker than plate armor. To block the musket’s overwhelming penetrating power, a very thick iron plate must be brought.
However, if you surround a large shield like Pavis with such an iron plate, it will naturally not be heavy enough to carry and move. Therefore, it is calculated that the enemy’s shield cannot naturally block the musket.
However, since this fact was revealed through numerous practical tests throughout history, there was no way that soldiers who had not yet experienced muskets properly would have known this fact, and as a result…
“Ahh!”
“Your opponent is not your opponent! Captain! “Please order the crossbowmen to retreat!”
Poca, the mercenary leader of the enemy army, thought to himself.
‘I don’t think I’ll give any orders…’ ‘
Because before he could give the order to retreat, the crossbowmen became frantic and started running away.
‘Holy sh*t, this is the problem.’
A chronic problem with mercenaries was occurring. That was moral, that is, fraud.
Because ordinary soldiers are part of the military, they do not easily run away even when they are at a disadvantage. This is especially true when it comes to protecting their country. He desperately protects his family because he thinks they will die if he runs away.
But mercenaries are not like that. Since they come to someone else’s land and fight for someone else’s money, they run away as soon as they are at a slight disadvantage.
But the good news was that the only ones who were still running away were the crossbowmen. There were still infantry and cavalry left.
“Cavalry, charge!”
Although we lost the firefight, the true battle always begins with the cavalry. The defeats so far are not even on the axis of defeat. From now on it was a real battle.