Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 59 The decisive moment
Guided by the system map, Morin led the group through the streets and buildings while gathering up the scattered friendly units nearby.

Some were Saxon soldiers from other companies whose platoons had been scattered and their organization completely destroyed. They were wandering around the ruins like headless flies.

Several others were soldiers from the International Brigades and the National Army. It's unclear how they managed to come together, but they managed to survive temporarily by clinging to some ruins.

When Morin encountered these remnants of the army, many soldiers were so nervous that they could not recognize their own troops.

If he hadn't spotted the nearby checkpoints beforehand and called out in both Saxon and Aragonese, a situation of being surrounded by friendly forces would very likely have occurred.
When Morin led Klaus, Bowman, and this hastily assembled unit into the 3rd Platoon's current defensive zone, several Saxon soldiers suddenly appeared from a nearby building and pointed their guns at them.

"Password!"

"?"

Morin was stunned; he couldn't remember what password he had set.

“Bavarian white sausage!” the platoon leader beside him said wearily.

"Don't let the church bells ring at noon! Welcome back!"

The soldiers inside the building breathed a sigh of relief and put down their guns.

Before they could say anything, they saw Klaus wave to the soldier leading the group inside the building.

"Come on, come down first."

Upon hearing Klaus's words, the soldier immediately ran out of the building and stood in front of the two men.

"Take a closer look at who this is?"

Only then did the soldier realize that the man next to him, whose face was covered in soot, was his new platoon leader.

However, you can't really blame him. After all, after this period of street fighting, Morin's pointed helmet is probably long gone.

His hair was covered with a thick layer of wall plaster, and his face was so smudged by smoke and fire that his original appearance was unrecognizable.
The messenger immediately stood up straight and saluted after realizing what was happening.

"Sorry, sir, I didn't recognize you!"

"It's alright, it's alright, no need to salute in a war zone!"

Morin quickly lowered the sentry's raised hand, then continued walking forward while saying to Klaus:
"It's good that you're disciplined. Keep it up, and just remember to tell me the command in advance next time!"

"Yes! It was my oversight, sir."

"Hey, speaking of which, why did I suddenly think of setting a password?"

Morin asked with some curiosity, after all, in his impression, password recognition was not common in this kind of army similar to that before World War I.

Even if they do, it's only when camping in the wild that they set up a password.

"Because we encountered other teams earlier, who said that some Kingdom soldiers had secretly changed into the uniforms of our fallen soldiers and were trying to get through the defenses."

"Is this even possible? Are they trying to infiltrate and launch an attack?"

"That's not true."

Sergeant Klaus shook his head, then a complex expression appeared on his face.

"According to several Kingdom soldiers who surrendered after being discovered, they would be shot dead by officers if they tried to escape to the rear, so they wanted to cross our defenses and escape from the south of the city this way."

"Sigh, this is really something." Morin shook his head after hearing this.

The two chatted for a while, and soon led the people back to the temporarily safe controlled area.

Now Morin could finally catch his breath. He felt he was pretty lucky to have survived the street fighting.

Of course, this is also related to the individual firepower of this era, plus the fact that the intensity of combat here is not very high.

If this were a world like World War II, it would probably be dead by now.

Looking at the soldiers around him, covered in gunpowder and blood, their faces etched with exhaustion and numbness, he felt a mix of emotions.

Urban warfare truly lives up to its name as a meat grinder.

Before the battle began, his 3rd Platoon was replenished, and with the addition of the reinforced heavy machine gun team, the number of soldiers exceeded one hundred.

But now, even including the remnants of the army he gathered along the way, he only has about sixty men left who are still breathing.

This was even with them holding a defensive advantage and having some theoretical guidance in urban warfare.

Morin could hardly imagine how many corpses the attacking Kingdom's army and the Britannians had left behind in the city.

He opened the system map again, his gaze sweeping over the blue soldier tokens representing his own forces.

Based on the troop strength statistics in the soldier's badge information, he did a rough mental calculation and then realized that his own situation was also quite bad.

Before the war, the combined forces of the Saxon Expeditionary Force, the International Brigades, and the National Army totaled nearly 20,000 men.

After the previous offensive and the recent street fighting, the total number of troops represented by all the blue soldier markers on the map is less than 12,000.

Worse still, the remaining 10,000-plus people were scattered across several isolated defense zones within the city, making it difficult for them to support each other and forcing them to fight their own battles.

The area where Morin is located is currently the largest and most important core defense zone in the city. This is because the headquarters of the 16th Brigade is located within the city hall in this area.

Perhaps the brigade headquarters received advance warning and relocated in time, or perhaps it was because the high-ranking instructor, Eldridge, did not immediately locate the brigade headquarters after destroying the church bell tower.
In summary, the command center of the 16th Brigade appears to be relatively safe at present.

Morin's gaze shifted to the outer edge of the map, where densely packed red enemy unit icons had already occupied most of the city of Seville.

He roughly counted at least six battalion-level units, their soldiers preparing to attack their defensive zone.

On their side, the only troops they could muster for combat were three battalions, all badly damaged.

The situation was particularly bad for his 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion. The entire 1st Battalion had been scattered, and the battalion headquarters and other companies seemed to be trapped in another area.

Therefore, this area only has the 1st Company unit. Apart from his relatively intact 3rd Platoon, the 1st and 2nd Platoons were almost decimated in the previous battles. The two platoons combined have less than seventy people left.

"Ugh"

Morin rubbed his throbbing temples, forcing himself to cheer up; now was not the time for sighs and lamentations.

He wandered around the defense zone centered on the city hall and soon found his company commander, Captain Hauser.

The veteran captain, sweating profusely, directed the field kitchen and supply team personnel to carry boxes of ammunition and supplies up the defensive line.

These soldiers, now armed with rifles, though normally non-combatants, were prepared to participate in combat after receiving military training. Seeing Morin return safely with his men, Captain Hauser smiled genuinely.

Without saying a word, he stepped forward and gave Morin a tight bear hug, so strong that Morin almost couldn't breathe.

"Good lad! I knew you'd come back!"

Captain Hauser patted Morin's back hard, his voice tinged with a mixture of relief and sorrow.

"The platoon leaders of the 1st and 2nd platoons were killed in action, and the company headquarters also suffered heavy losses."

Although he had expected it, when Morin heard the news with his own ears, he was still somewhat at a loss for words.

Although the two platoon leaders were not yet familiar with each other, they had been having a meeting together just a few hours earlier to discuss how to defend.

During the attack on the village of San Isidro, one of the platoon leaders was the first to come out and support Morin's tactics.

"Captain Hauser"

"Kid, don't try to comfort me about fighting a war. People always die."

Captain Hauser released his grip and quickly regained his tough-guy demeanor, but Morin could still tell that he was simply hiding his sadness.

"Right now, the entire 3rd Company is counting on you and me. You're quick-witted, so you'll have to help me command the battles from now on, understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Morin immediately stood at attention and saluted.

Captain Hauser waved his hand and led Morin to where the other officers in this defense zone were gathered.

After a brief introduction to the others, everyone learned that the 'urban warfare theory' issued by the brigade headquarters was proposed by this second lieutenant who had just graduated from military academy.

"Young people think so fast! It seems that some of our experience and theories are starting to become outdated."

"Lieutenant Morin, tell me your thoughts. How should we defend this last line of defense?"

The low- and middle-ranking Saxon officers gathered here were surprisingly easy to talk to.

Or perhaps, at this point, everyone has long since abandoned their useless arrogance and is only thinking about how to survive.

The group quickly engaged in a tense tactical discussion.

Ultimately, on Morin's advice, they decided to stick with the tactic that had proven effective before—secretly dispersing a portion of their forces into buildings on both sides of the street, using crossfire to inflict maximum damage on the enemy.

This task fell to several Saxon units, including Morin's 3rd Company.

Although the 3rd Company may seem small, it is actually considered to be a relatively well-organized unit compared to other units that suffered heavy losses.
After agreeing on the plan with Captain Hauser, Morin immediately led a National Army unit to return to the previous defense zone.

After handing the position to these more heavily damaged troops, he led three platoons and the remaining soldiers to join Captain Hauser, and then began to infiltrate forward along the buildings.

When he was almost in the right spot, he saw a familiar figure through the window of a building in a side alley.

It was a Siegfried Type 1 armored knight painted with a black and white Teutonic cross.

However, it was lurking furtively in the shadows of the alley, its massive form almost completely blocking the alleyway.

Judging from the tactical number on its shoulder armor, it was Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig's vehicle.

In the previous battle, the Teutonic Knights attempted to destroy another enemy armored knight, but unfortunately the raid failed, and they ultimately lost another 'Siegfried Type 1'.

Now, the three remaining armored knights have all gathered in this core defense zone, shouldering the last heavy responsibility of protecting the 16th Brigade headquarters.

However, this also means that once the enemy discovers that three armored knights have gathered in this area, they will definitely guess that this is the location of the 16th Brigade headquarters, and will only launch a more ferocious attack.
Just as Morin was considering whether to take some time to go up and greet Ludwig and exchange information, there was a new commotion at the end of the street.

The dark mass of Britannian and royal soldiers advanced like a human wall, finally setting the stage for what could be considered a decisive battle.

As Morin and his ambush team discovered the enemy, the soldiers on the core defensive line also spotted the enemy advancing in their direction.

"Enemy sighted! Open fire!"

A member of the 105mm howitzer crew, who was temporarily in charge of artillery, loudly issued the order.

The two 77mm field guns and the only remaining 105mm howitzer deployed in front of the city hall square soon roared deafeningly.

At this distance of several hundred meters, the gunners had already lowered the muzzles of their guns to a near-horizontal level, and then pulled the firing levers towards the densest group of enemy soldiers at the end of the street.

Three high-explosive shells, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, instantly covered a distance of hundreds of meters and plunged into the Britannian charging ranks.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Violent explosions rang out in succession, and three huge plumes of smoke exploded, blasting enemy soldiers near the impact point into the air along with their weapons.

The scorching heat and flying shrapnel spread outwards, instantly clearing a large area, and filling the air with a strong smell of blood and burning.

This sudden shelling halted the initial momentum of the Brittany's charge.

"Well done!" Morin, who saw this from the second-floor window, couldn't help but whisper a cheer.

He believed that if a few more rounds were conducted, no matter how determined the enemy's will was, or how many deserters the supervising officers executed, no infantryman would be able to muster the courage to charge into the face of such artillery fire on a straight street.

After all, not all infantry can be called the Death Legion.
However, just as the defending gunners opened the breechblocks and prepared to reload, an unexpected incident occurred.

Three white steel giants suddenly burst out of the smoke and dust.

They are armored knights of the Knights of the Garter!
The three 'St. George 3' armored knights, abandoning their previous arrogant attitude of fighting alone, formed a tight triangular formation.

They raised their shields, which bore the emblem of the Knights of the Garter, and protected the infantry behind them, forming a moving steel wall as they charged toward the City Hall Square.

This may be the first time that the high and mighty knights have taken the initiative to come out and cover the infantry.

"It's an armored knight!"

"Oh my god, the knights are covering us!"

The Britannian soldiers who had been hiding behind the armored knight quickly calmed down from the panic of the shelling when they saw the tall and sturdy figure blocking their way.

These noble armored knights had never acted this way before; like the highland mages, they simply treated ordinary infantry as expendable resources.
Soon, the Britannian infantrymen's faces regained their fanatical and ferocious expressions. They shouted "Long live the Knights of the Garter!" and followed closely behind the armored knights, advancing rapidly.

A simple yet effective tactic of 'infantry-tank combined arms', belonging to this era, was thus naturally formed.

　My family elder has passed away, so updates may be unstable. Please forgive me.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)