chapter 26
26 – Crown Prince vs Northern Grand Duke – 10
The battle was going on.
Emilia tried to kill Diane by dropping her sword, but at that moment, the cavalry under Diane’s command charged Emilia.
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No matter how many sword masters it is, it is impossible to receive the charge of the cavalry as it is. The moment Emilia slightly retreated, the cavalry began retreating with Diane.
The soldiers around Emilia fired their spears and arrows at the cavalry all at once. However, it only killed dozens of cavalrymen in the rear line. The rest of the cavalry had succeeded in retreating with Dian.
At that moment, Emilia’s subordinates shouted at Emilia.
“Shall we go after the cavalry?”
“no. Diane de Balboa Military victories are more important than individual victories. All troops, follow my lead from now on!”
Emilia shouted at the soldiers. Seeing Emilia win against Diane, the morale of the soldiers skyrocketed in an instant.
“Ohhh!!!”
The morale of the Northern Army seemed to skyrocket at the sound of shouting that shook all directions, and the morale of the Central Army went down.
Emilia stood at the forefront and charged in, slicing the enemy like radishes, and the central army was killed unilaterally by the cavalry trying to escape with Dian and the infantry trying to advance.
In addition, the Northern Army lacks iron, so there are relatively many light infantry, while the Central Army has plenty of iron, so there are many heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.
Originally, it is self-evident that heavy infantry is stronger than light infantry, and heavy cavalry is stronger than light cavalry. Otherwise, heavy cavalry and light cavalry would not have existed.
But in the river it was different. The iron armor of the heavy infantry was stuffed with mud and thin ice from crossing the river, which slowed their movement endlessly.
On the other hand, the armor worn by northerners is cotton armor and leather armor.
It was easy to put on and take off, and even if mud got inside, I just had to shake it off, so it was much easier to move.
It was at this point that Charles foretold the defeat of the central army led by the crown prince. The Central Army was not accustomed to fighting in the North.
“Little clothes have mud inside! Run wild!”
As Emilia shouted and attacked, the Northern Army began to push the Central Army with great momentum.
The Central Army tried to overcome the disadvantage of crossing the river with the performance of one outstanding general named Diane de Balboa, but it was impossible to do since Diane was also defeated.
Soon, the war situation became unfavorable for the crown prince.
“Your Highness, what shall we do? retreat… ”
“Shut up! Our soldiers are double the enemy’s! If you fight to the end, you will surely win! I will never admit to retreat!”
“But the armor gets mud and it’s hard to fight! The very idea of crossing a river was a failure!”
-Shhh!
The Crown Prince cut the throat of a subordinate officer who was admonishing him to retreat.
“Look! This is the coward’s neck! If you try to retreat, everyone will be like this!”
At those words, I wanted the soldiers to advance temporarily.
Because the soldiers at the forefront were retreating, the advancing and retreating soldiers were intertwined, unable to do this or that, and die unilaterally.
In addition, the arrows of the longbowmen made of yew trees from Northern Mountain fell like rain from the sky.
The prince’s army suddenly became less than half of the 35,000 left.
“Don’t back down! I mean don’t back down!”
Although the prince encouraged them by slicing down his allies with his sword.
That encouragement was nothing more than a poison that further confused the allies.
The officers seized the crown prince and forced him to retreat.
And Emilia crossed the river and pursued the crown prince to the end.
“I’m going to capture the crown prince here! If we capture the successor of the Empire, it is not a dream for us to launch a counter-invasion against the Empire!”
So far, the central region has invaded the northern region. However, if only the crown prince is in their hands, the northern part will have a justification for invading the central part.
The archduke, Carl von Kronor, shouted, and Emilia nodded at the archduke’s words and started chasing the enemy.
“Miss Emilia! I mean!”
A cavalryman under her command spoke to Emilia, and Emilia chased after the enemy, driving someone else’s horse accustomed to riding for the first time.
It was very easy to slash enemies with their backs visible. The enemy was slowly running away with his armor filled with mud. There were even people who tried to take off the armor and rolled on the floor because they failed to take it off because it was so heavy.
Such a man was trampled to death by the hooves of a running horse, and the rest of the soldiers died while running away with their backs turned.
The enemy fled toward the forest, and Emilia followed.
It looked as if we could annihilate all 35,000 of them within tonight.
Until that man, Charles Jean Rochepole, appeared.
Emilia chased after the soldiers of the prince’s army who fled.
Thirty-five thousand people. There were 35,000 people who were good at talking, but most of them came to take the loot and have a good time.
It was a different mindset from the northerners who set out to protect their hometown.
Therefore, in order to survive, he abandons his colleagues and seeks only to survive rather than kill enemies.
It was not difficult to cut down such people. That was until the man appeared.
There was a forest behind the prince’s army formation. Most of the soldiers fled into the forest.
Emilia also followed the fleeing soldiers into the forest. But the moment I entered…
“All troops fired!!!”
A familiar voice came. It was the voice of Charles Jean Rochepole. and…
-Shuwook!
Hundreds of arrows flew. Emilia was able to dodge the arrows with her excellent five senses, but dozens of cavalry units following Emilia were knocked down by arrows.
Looking around, there were archers encamped all over the hill. And the archers guarded the retreating soldiers.
“Sir, f*ck. You really came.”
“Did you know you wouldn’t come?”
“I thought you were just a different kind of bookseller. I never thought it would be this accurate… ”
At Gabriel’s words, Charles laughed lightly.
“Emilia von Chronor.”
The strongest in the world has appeared. If Diane de Balboa is the second most powerful warrior in the world, Emilia von Cronor is the first.
A woman who firmly believes that she is loved by the Goddess of War, but is actually loved by a slightly different being. If Princess Leonia had perfect stats in every way, this woman lost all stats in the war.
“Charles Jean Rochepole.”
Emilia whispered softly. Emilia knew the name Charles Jean Rochepole. It was because I had seen the mock battle between Yuria Russell and Charles Jean Rochepole.
It was a famous match. There was no other way to describe the fight other than saying it was a great match. Charles Jean Rochepole was a consummate tactician and strategist. Because of this, the name of Charles remained strong in Emilia’s mind. furthermore…
[That child.]
Even the Goddess of War was interested in her. It was to the extent that the Goddess of War told her to go and see for herself. The day before leaving the academy and heading north, Emilia met Charles Jean Rochepole, who was reading a book alone in the hall of the academy late at night. Although he was not a handsome man by northern standards (more than 2 meters tall and weighed over 120 kg), I remember that he had a special aura of his own.
And that Charles Jean Rochepole was blocking his way.
“Emilia-sama, what will you do! Do you want to attack?”
“… ”
Emilia was troubled. Charles probably knew in advance that the crown prince would be defeated and deployed soldiers here. In fact, in a way, it was natural. It was a battle with a high possibility of defeat as they carried out the crossing operation with heavy cavalry and heavy infantry.
Yes. Charles knew from the beginning that the prince’s army would lose. So, if an ambush was placed here…
‘If it were me, I would have deployed at least 5,000.’
Emilia thought. If the number of ambush was only 1-2,000, you could just break through, but that Charles wouldn’t have placed only 1-2,000. Probably a good 5,000 were deployed. If so, it would be difficult for even Emilia to break through. He would follow in the same footsteps as the crown prince, who recklessly attacked and lost without considering the geographical advantage.
“All troops!”
Emilia exclaimed.
“Retreat!”
Hearing those words, Charles Jean Rochepole sighed in relief. Meanwhile, the reconnaissance officer Gabriel made a puzzled expression.
“Why are you retreating? If we fight, we will lose.”
“Is it night now?”
“Yes.”
“This is a forest.”
“It is.”
“That’s why I have no idea what the number of allies is. If we had known there were only 1,000 soldiers, we would have just broken through, but I thought it might be 3,000 or 5,000, so we dropped out.”
“Oh~”
Emilia is a competent commander. Since Emilia was such a competent commander, she thought that she wouldn’t be too hasty. And that prediction came true. Charles’ idea of using Emilia’s competence was exactly right.
Thanks to this, the prince’s army was able to escape safely, and the prince’s army, which was almost wiped out, was able to preserve nearly half of its soldiers. It was only the performance of Charles and a thousand soldiers.