181 – Fishing Operation (8)
Even though I took the opportunity to demoralize the enemy by personally blowing off the head of the Black Crow mercenary leader, I could not relax.
Rather, he urged the soldiers to come to their senses and warn them to stay alert.
“Don’t let go just by cutting off the head of the enemy mercenary leader! “Because now is the real start!”
If this were a normal battlefield, the enemy’s head would be cut off, which would drastically lower the morale of not only the mercenary unit he was commanding, but also other units.
Because the top commander of the mercenary unit under his command died in vain, the rest of the unit was shocked to see the friendly mercenary unit on the same side collapsing and the allies they were relying on losing their strength.
‘But it’s a little different before the retreat.’
Unlike a normal battle where you attack and annihilate the enemy, this doesn’t matter much in a battle for retreat.
Their morale has already completely collapsed.
The war has already been lost and now all I can think about is retreating safely and saving my life, so I am filled with the thought that I can survive only by breaking through the cage that blocked their way of life.
The will of those who run away and try to survive somehow is surprisingly strong.
As if to prove that, the black crows also attacked us with evil even though their leader was dead.
Most of them ran like crazy, holding a mace in one hand and a shield in the other.
“I will avenge you, Captain!”
Some of them even screamed like crazy people and rushed towards where we were.
“aaahhh, f*ck!”
If you want to live, you will surrender, but why are these guys, who have boiled all their concepts into a stew, charging towards us instead of surrendering…
Are you throwing your life away like an egg being thrown to break a rock?
Thinking like that, I held the sword tightly with both hands and swung it wildly.
The necks, torsos, arms, and legs of the enemies where the sword passed were cut off, and they either died on the spot or suffered serious injuries.
“Kill me, kill me… Argh!”
I may not know it in everyday life, but I was used to hearing the screams of enemies and allies on the battlefield, so I deliberately did not listen to the sounds of those who already had no hope of survival.
Instead, I gave orders to the guys fighting with me behind my back.
“Kill everyone except the one who wants to surrender!”
Even those who originally intended to surrender must be exterminated because we never know when they will turn around and stab us in the back.
However, if you do something crazy like kill all the prisoners, this idea will be stuck in the heads of those who are running away.
‘I’ll die anyway if I surrender, so I guess I’ll just have to fight to the death.’
You might be wondering what a big difference this is, but the power of the struggle between a guy who has another option in his head, surrender, and a guy who doesn’t, is different in power.
The proverb that clearly shows this is that a cornered mouse bites a cat.
So, we must somehow leave room for surrender until the end.
I shouted loudly even though I was swinging my sword wildly and slaughtering the enemy.
“I will spare the life of the one who surrenders! “There will be no ransom!”
Hundreds of soldiers below the rank of centurion must be gathered together and sold at a good price to obtain the ransom price of one baron.
And since these guys usually do not sell for a good price, they are sold as galley rowing slaves or mine slaves. In that case, if it sells well, it will be sold at half the price and you will have almost no money left.
‘For something big, you need to know how to let go of small things.’
I looked at a guy running over there, trembling.
“If you surrender, your life will be spared. Drop your weapons!”
The guy who made eye contact with those words hesitated, and the other things behind and next to him started targeting me and attacked.
“f*ck that bullsh*t!”
“Try to talk nonsense in moderation!”
After instantly dismembering the men who dared to kill me, I aimed my weapon at the trembling man for the last time, and the man trembled and dropped his weapon.
In normal cases, you even kill the person who accidentally dropped the weapon, but this kind of performance is important when it comes to lowering morale.
“Since you have thrown away your weapon, I will spare your life as promised. “Throw away the dagger and the rest of your weapons and go back.”
After saying that, I watched him throw away his weapons and allowed me to step back.
The traitor who threw away his weapon bowed his head and expressed his gratitude.
“Thank you for saving my life, thank you!”
My strategy of deliberately forcing the enemy to surrender seemed to have worked, as the movement of not only the Black Crow but also the other mercenaries around me slowed down.
Among the running enemies, there appeared those who were contemplating whether to throw away their weapons or kill us.
“Oh, what should I do?”
In addition, he showed that a lot of the venom on his face had disappeared.
All of this happened because the options for survival were expanded to either fight us to the death and fight our way through or surrender.
The centurion leaders and platoon leaders of our mercenary unit did not miss this moment.
“Push forward like this!”
“If you surrender, you live, if you don’t surrender, everyone dies!”
“If you want to live, surrender!”
The Whitebeard mercenaries, including me, did not miss this opportunity and continued to push back against the enemy.
“Kill every single one of those idiots!”
If I just talk and don’t move directly, the mercenaries of the Whitebeard mercenaries that follow me won’t be able to react in time.
I stood at the front holding the sword and continued to directly cut down the enemy.
“Die!”
The guys following me cheered when they saw that.
“Captain Martin, cool!”
“Let’s fight to the death, damn it!”
“Kill no one left behind!”
Guys, look at how excited they are to see me taking the lead like this.
This is why I cannot leave the front line even if I become a mercenary leader.
“Hang in here till the end! “The moment we allow them to retreat, we will have to fight a f*cking siege!”
I once again mentioned the reason why the 3,000 troops under Baron Eclair came back a long way to block this place and are holding out.
All of the enemies here are the ones brought in after almost scraping together the defense forces of the castle and fortress on the road to La Masana Castle.
If this army is annihilated, all the guards guarding the defensive bases on the way to Ramasana will be gone, so you will be able to take over a castle by sending just 10 soldiers.
On the other hand, if we break through here, they will succeed in retreating and the Montmartre army will be ruined.
In that way, we dealt with endless waves of enemies for an hour, or even longer than two hours.
Meanwhile, several small mercenary units around us suffered disasters in which their leaders were killed or wiped out.
“Ha, ha… I’m really dying.”
Quite a number of mercenaries in our Whitebeard mercenary unit died.
And at some point, Hilde came up next to me and asked, out of breath.
“Master, our mercenary unit is also becoming increasingly dangerous.”
“Probably 10% of the troops will be killed or seriously injured in this battle.”
The number of enemies we have killed is much higher than that, but humans are a race of people who feel that the pain caused by a needle stuck under their thumbnail is greater than the pain caused by someone else’s wrist being blown off.
I am also a mercenary leader, but just because 100 enemy soldiers died does not mean I am not sad that one of my allies died.
Even during these conversations that seemed to be going through difficult times, I saw hope.
“Look over there, Hilde. These are flags embroidered with gold thread. Clearly, the people under that flag are regular soldiers of the ‘nobles.'”
The highest priority for survival in a retreat like this are nobles with titles such as barons and viscounts, and the troops under their command.
So, when they are in a situation where they can escape, they come out first…
“The fact that they came out now while we were blocking the rear is probably because they realized that there was no other way than to come forward on their own.”
When they retreated, they blew their trumpets loudly, as if they wanted to show their own dignity.
Then they gave the order to attack as if they were the winners.
“Charge!”
At the same time, knights wearing splendid cloaks and magnificent armor rushed out.
“Are you planning to pierce the front with the knights at the center?”
I can’t let you do something like that.
“Hilde! “Each platoon leader and centurion leader, stop those guys!”
‘If we just hold on here, we will win.’
From Noble mtl dot com
When the centurions of our mercenary army ran out, those who could be called elite from all the units under Baron Eclair also ran out at the same time.
“This is the last time!”
“f*ck, die gracefully!”
“Attack!”
Then, a fairly strong knight of the enemy army ran towards where I was.
I don’t know if he was planning to do his best, or if he just wanted to show that he was such a strong knight. The flames on his sword were flickering.
At first glance, I could tell that he was a guy with a similar level to me. He is an opponent who can never let down their guard.
“Take a look around!”
He hit me with a sword that had a huge weight on it.
“It’s heavy…”
“I will kill you and make Baron Sornas retreat safely!”
“Do whatever you want. “But you’re the one who dies!”