Munitions Empire

More and more Suthers soldiers jumped over the low wall, taking their stance on the dirt road, appearing incredibly relaxed as they were almost certain that their enemy seemed to have departed.

Thus, the formation was in disarray, and this unit full of vulnerabilities due to their lowered guard collided with the soldiers from the Northern Ridge new recruits’ camp on the other side of the road embankment.

They didn’t expect the enemy to be on the other side of the road embankment, nor did they think the enemy would abandon the high ground to conceal themselves on such an uncomfortable path behind the road.

The officer, who was waiting for his men to bring his horse as he held his command saber, was about to shout at the soldiers who had climbed over the wall to get back into formation, when he saw a row of soldiers in uniforms he had never seen before rising up from the other side.

What shocked him even more was that these unfamiliar soldiers were all carrying brand new rifles!

He instinctively raised his saber, only to see the dark muzzles in front of him spew out a dense puff of white smoke.

Next, he felt an excruciating blow to his chest, a force so great it pushed him back several steps.

The Suthers officer touched his chest, and then saw his palm, drenched in blood. His command saber was nowhere to be found, and his strength was rapidly waning.

Amidst the white smoke, he looked towards his troops, where the neatly-dressed Suthers soldiers were sprawling on their backs— one drummer sat on the ground clutching his thigh, screaming until he went hoarse.

The soldiers who had just leapt over the low wall were hardly prepared when a barrage of bullets struck them head-on, riddling their bodies with holes.

As the Suthers soldiers armed with flintlock guns were about to return fire, those damn unseen Northern Ridge soldiers in front of them passed their weapons to the comrades behind them and received another prepared Quick Gun in return.

"Bang!" They aimed and fired their rifles through the rising mist with a smoothness that sent chills down the spine.

This was the result of Tang Mo’s continuous training of these Northern Ridge hunters over the past two months; they were repeating motions, muscle memory of movements meant for killing.

In fact, this was also thanks to the fact that before being trained, most of these soldiers had been rangers or hunters of the Northern Ridge, having hunted and seen bloodshed—though it wasn’t human blood, it greatly reduced the fear that came with their first battle.

After another barrage of gunfire, the Suthers soldiers who had climbed the wall were few in numbers. Groans and screams of agony filled the air, along with cries and pleas for mercy.

"I surrender! Don’t shoot!" One soldier, lifting an arm, knelt on the ground, crying out in despair. Another lay wailing a woman’s name.

The Suthers officer knelt on the ground, his consciousness beginning to blur, when he saw a young man, with a bandoleer bound over his coat and a bayonet hanging at his waist, walk up to him. The youth excitedly pulled from his waist the beautifully crafted pistol carved with his family crest.

And then, before he lost all consciousness, he heard the young man call out to the peasants behind him, "Look what I got! It’s this officer’s! Now it’s mine!"

...

"Bang!" As the Suthers soldiers began to scale the low wall, the expected gunfire Tucci had been longing for finally erupted. And after that first shot, the unfamiliar sound of gunfire suddenly became incessant.

"Bang!" "Bang!" The barrage of gunshots stunned Tucci, then he abruptly turned to look at the low wall teeming with Suthers soldiers as white smoke began to billow from behind it.

Immediately after, he saw Suthers soldiers retreating in disarray, many tumbling over the wall amid cries of distress that he could still hear clearly despite the distance.

They were three hundred soldiers! Approaching in a mightily arrayed formation of five columns, with drummers and standard-bearers on the side, they seemed an imposing force.

But in their retreat, these soldiers discarded their helmets and armor, some even losing their hats, without looking back to retrieve them.

The battle flag that represented their unit was ignominiously dragged back to their departure point, making the entire troop resemble a dog fleeing with its tail between its legs.

From Tucci’s vantage point, about half of the Suthers soldiers who had gone over the wall during the attack, but after the rout, he distinctly saw that not a single one of them had managed to climb back over the low wall to escape!

It was a barrier that seemed so insignificant, a low wall that looked like it could be easily scaled!

A warhorse, with no one to tend to it, struggled in the soft mud. No one had the energy to deal with it, so it was left to its own fate in the fields.

"It seems those Northern Ridge wall-builders haven’t left." Tucci looked with disdain at the knight who had just tried to explain, casting a cold taunt. ??@??%

The other party had a grim expression and remained silent, looking down.

Tucci was unwilling to waste words with such a fool and continued to command, "Let Romel continue the attack! He made the mistake, let him solve it himself!"

The knight nodded slightly, then yanked the reins of his warhorse to convey Tucci’s orders.

Watching the knight ride away, Tucci turned to his own men and instructed, "Have the artillerymen spread out their position! Relying on these idiots is definitely hopeless! Let them first deplete the enemy’s ammunition, and then we’ll crush the enemy forces in one fell swoop!"

"Yes, sir!" Several commanders wore confident smiles, each pulling their warhorse’s reins and galloping toward the various formations that were resting on the ground not far away.

"You still gave me a surprise! Fisheo! I hope you continue to perform well and don’t disappoint me!" Tucci continued to watch the battlefield, murmuring to himself.

On the battlefield, the flustered Viscount Romel had already ordered two battalions of artillerymen to continue bombarding the low wall.

Not a single soldier who knew the actual situation behind the low wall had returned, and the commander of his 1st Battalion was still missing. He remained completely ignorant of the enemy’s deployment.

So, all he could do was to order the cannons to keep firing, bombarding the menacing-looking low wall, to bolster his own courage.

According to the organization of the Suthers Kingdom’s military, an infantry battalion has six field guns, ranging from 60 to 80 in caliber. Excluding the soldiers serving the field guns, subtracting the drivers, logistics, medics, and laborers, there were only a little more than three hundred riflemen.

The square formation of just three hundred soldiers had mostly scaled the low wall, and barely more than a hundred had actually escaped back.

This meant that Viscount Romel’s 1st Battalion had essentially suffered over half casualties and lost its combat effectiveness.

While Viscount Romel was bombarding the wall to embolden himself, the knight who had spoken for him earlier came riding back, bringing General Tucci’s orders: "Viscount sir! General Tucci orders your men to continue the attack..."

"Damn fool!" Viscount Romel cursed furiously, clenching his fist, then he turned to his adjutants: "Go! Order the 2nd Battalion to attack! Don’t stop the artillery fire! We’ll consider what to do once they get close to that damn low wall!"

Tang Mo surveyed his troops along the roadbed. Dressed in cotton coats and equipped with full gear, these soldiers seemed to have high morale after an easy victory.

At the very back, soldiers were busy loading the K1 Quick Guns. Below their feet were dugout "earholes," used to store ammunition.

In front of them stood the ready reserve, constantly poised to hand their weapons to the first line of shooters. They were responsible for continuously passing weapons to the shooters, allowing them to fire non-stop and inflict casualties on the enemy.

Their coordination was seamless because this tactic was not unusual, but it wasn’t as effective in a formal lineup battle between two armies.

However, at this moment, Tang Mo’s tactics were just right for this kind of trench warfare, and naturally, they were extremely powerful.

On the road, nearly two hundred Suthers soldiers’ corpses lay haphazardly, fully demonstrating the effectiveness of Tang Mo’s tactics.

"What about the injured? Have they all been treated?" Tang Mo asked, turning to Luff.

"Two soldiers were injured when they were hit by fragments from a shell that cracked the wall during reconnaissance... but neither of them is seriously hurt," Luff replied with a pleased expression. "More than the wounded, what I’m worried about is our flank."

Just moments ago, he had used 120 soldiers and a low wall to easily break an enemy battalion’s charge! Moreover, the soldiers of this company almost created a myth of routing the enemy with no casualties!

"There’s nothing to worry about, I’ve given Redman two companies and six cannons. I asked him to move south and block the enemy coming from the north. If he can’t do that, we’d just have to run, wouldn’t we?" Tang Mo looked at Wes, revealing a sly smile.

Wes, who was walking behind Tang Mo, also smiled, nodded to Tang Mo, and said, "You’re right, sir. When the time comes, I’ll make sure to run first."

Tang Mo extended his hand and patted Luff on the arm: "Listen to that cannon fire... it seems their second attack is about to begin."

"Let them come! No matter how many they send, it’s just a death sentence," Luff was about to speak when Wes, who for the first time felt that a large-scale battle could be won so easily, laughed and said to Tang Mo.

"I’m thankful that the fool opposite arrived a day earlier than we did and let us have such good terrain," Tang Mo looked at the rubble-strewn low wall on the ridge road and exclaimed with relief, "It seems, the Suthers Kingdom really doesn’t have the luck to win this war!"

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