“General. Another corp of enemy troops has appeared in the front.”
“What?”
I furrowed my brows because of my adjutant’s report.
After obtaining our incomprehensible victory from this morning —I may have gone through a countless number of battlefields in my life, but this was the first time I’ve ever obtained an ‘incomprehensible victory’ instead of an ‘incomprehensible defeat’— our troops reorganized their ranks and were marching again.
Normally, it would be appropriate to allow my soldiers to rest after a battle. The fatigue military personnel received while engaging in a battlefield was unimaginable. It was an obvious consideration.
However, this time I was unable to allow them such leisure. The reason was simple. My voice of reason and common sense fused together and declared that ‘that’ could not possibly be considered as a battle. Since there was no combat there was no rest. There was no hole in my logic.
But for the enemy troops to appear again? What was he talking about?
“Give me the full details, adjutant.”
“Yes. It is estimated that the number of enemy soldiers is approximately around 150 this time as well. They seem to be in a battle formation on top of a relatively tall hill.”
“……Why wasn’t this unit with the troops we ‘clashed’ with this morning?”
“My apologies, but I am uncertain of that as well.”
My adjutant was as confused as I was. It would be difficult to expect a proper answer here.
With the cavalry following behind me, I made my way to the front. And sure enough, another unit of enemy forces lay ahead. Flags from an unknown affiliation were waving once more.
However, there was something decisively different about these soldiers compared to the troops we faced this morning.
“Adjutant. Don’t tell me that’s……”
“……Yes. General. After seeing it with my own eyes, I’ve come to the realization as well.
My adjutant murmured.
“That company, has nothing but crossbowmen.”
“……”
My vision felt faint.
In truth, this was an outrageous group.
It was my first time seeing a unit like this in my entire life.
Typically, an infantry unit consisted of spearmen and crossbowmen. It wasn’t like that for no reason. There was a rationale for all of this.
The spearmen used their long spears to prevent the other side’s troops from approaching. When the time came, they would keep their spear heads extended out to prevent things like cavalry from charging in.
As what happened in this morning’s ‘clash’ —Yes, I plan to use this term persistently— my men did not rush in recklessly from the start. It was because the enemy spearmen were standing their ranks without leaving a single gap. Thus, we had poured arrows down upon them from afar to force an opening in their ranks. The charge happened after that.
My adjutant spoke sourly.
“Though it seems they’ve set up wooden spikes around their position……”
“Hmm.”
The enemy forces had put down wooden spikes around themselves like a fence, for anti-cavalry purposes. As if they were trying to make up for what they lacked. Certainly, those were effective in hindering our cavalry from approaching, but spikes were inferior to actual puncture wounds. It would be impossible to completely block off our cavalry with just that.
“Adjutant. Is that, perhaps, a popular strategy in battlefields nowadays? Since I’ve aged, I’ve been unable follow recent trends.”
“My apologies, general. If something like that was a trend, then the empire would have united the entire continent long time ago. And I would have lost my job and currently be unemployed.”
“Should we…… judge it as an original strategy?”
“You’re quite kind, general. If it were me, I’d express it as nonsense.”
Overcoming the generation gap, I was able to identify with my adjutant……
At that moment, as if my adjutant had realized something, he opened his eyes wide.