As the soldiers pulled the triggers, the matchlock rifles fired with a loud crack, and flames erupted next to their faces.
After the flames burst forth, a thick, acrid smell began to emanate from the rising black smoke.
Shortly after, the rifles aimed at the enemies unleashed flames and a massive amount of black smoke while firing their bullets.
Moments later, the sound of a thousand rifles thundering resonated across the Waine Plain.
The ear-piercing noise and smoke, which nearly obscured vision, temporarily masked the suffering of the enemy soldiers hit by the bullets.
However, the sounds and smoke were only momentary… After about five seconds, vision and hearing returned somewhat, revealing a truly horrific sight.
The enemy mercenaries, well-armored in iron, had their armor riddled with holes like the perforated paper of a traditional Korean house…
From within, spurting blood gushed out, soaking the weeds on the plain.
Additionally, there were larger holes on their arms, legs, and faces that were not covered by armor, and some were unfortunate enough to be hit in the eyes…
Where their eyes should have been, only red blood flowed instead of whites and pupils.
In the meantime, a fortunate few, thanks to the low accuracy of the matchlock rifles, were unharmed, but they had already wet their pants.
After a short while, screams began to erupt among the enemy mercenaries.
“My arms… My legs… They’re full of holes… Even my iron armor…”
“Mom… Dad… It hurts… I feel like I’m going to die from the pain…”
“I just barely survived, but as soon as the thunder sounds… All my comrades were killed…”
“Hahaha, is this war? Just some ranged weapon… Not even a catapult, and it’s this strong? Nonsense!! Aaaah!”
But regardless of the enemies’ desperate cries, the matchlock rifle battalion led by Frost Lieutenant immediately prepared for the next volley.
First, Frost Lieutenant commanded the rear three lines to move forward with the sound of a blue flag and drum echoing across the battlefield.
Then, the soldiers who had finished firing their rifles quickly grabbed their weapons and started sprinting toward the back.
At the same time, soldiers in the rear, wearing blue armbands, emerged with matchlock rifles already lit.
So far, about 20 seconds had passed, and then, just as they had trained, all soldiers aimed their rifles at the enemy.
The enemies, witnessing this scene, could not react, only beginning to scream as they wet themselves.
“We surrender… We surrender! Please just let us live!!!”
“Aaaah!!! I don’t want to die!!”
“You bastards!! Don’t you have parents to go back to!!”
Surrounding those shouting idiots were living corpses groaning, begging to be put out of their misery, alongside corpses already spilling blood and entrails.
In such a situation, the sight of mercenaries pleading for their lives, asking for mercy like those praying in the hell described in the scriptures from the Church of Deus, was pitiful.
In modern times, even those who claim their emotions are dead would surely feel a desire to rescue these people…
However, this place was a battlefield more brutal than hell, and Frost Lieutenant, standing beside me with a solemn expression, lowered his command baton and ordered the next volley.
Seeing this reaction, the adjutant and other officers shouted loudly.
“Fire at will!”
“Shoot at the enemies!! Kill them all!”
As soon as those words were spoken, the soldiers pulled the triggers of their rifles aimed at the enemies almost simultaneously.
As the triggers were pulled, gray smoke and flames erupted from the priming pans next to the rifles, accompanied by the sound of explosions.
Then, Frost issued another command to the soldiers.
“Switch. Raise the white flags and beat the drums.”
“Raise the white flags and beat the drums! It’s time to switch with those in the rear!!”
“Move quickly. Not a single one of those bastards must be left alive.”
As the command was given, a new volley began aimed at the enemy.
Naturally, this time, dozens, if not hundreds, of people had already turned into corpses riddled with holes.
Thus, the matchlock rifle battalion led by Frost relentlessly poured lead projectiles at the enemy.
Moments later, one of the mercenaries, throwing down his pike, dashed toward the enemy lines and shouted.
“This is madness! No matter how important money and trust are, I can’t stay here! Captain Sense, Captain Thirty, and the others have all died… How can we win when not a single one of the enemies is dead yet?”
In response, the dam broke, and other soldiers in front began to flee after him.
There weren’t many at first, but once a retreat began, it would soon spiral out of control…
Eventually, this mercenary unit would break away from the vanguard.
Then Frost approached me and said.
“Your Excellency, part of the enemy mercenaries are retreating. If they start to fall back, we’ll halt our attack, but…”
Once they have been designated as the enemy, it is a soldier’s duty to kill as many as possible to maximize enemy casualties.
However, unlike other soldiers or knights belonging to the territory, mercenaries can be hired by us once this war ends.
At times, we even use captured ones to bolster our ranks, offering them a small sum to have them fight for us.
Due to such interests, mercenaries are usually let go when they begin a retreat.
While we do not use mercenaries in our territory, allowing them to retreat could greatly demoralize the enemy infantry following behind…
“Advise them to retreat and intensify the fire.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Frost Lieutenant urged his matchlock rifle battalion to fire even faster.
Under his urging, the soldiers handling the matchlock rifles began to fire even more fiercely, and during the crossover time, loud-voiced soldiers urged them to withdraw.
“You don’t have to surrender! Just retreat!!”
“If you don’t want to die, it’s best to drop your weapons and run away!!”
As the soldiers pressed for a retreat, the mercenaries, hearing this, began to panic and look back as they started to retreat.
Just a moment ago, they had come in an organized formation, but now they were scrambling away as if their lives depended on it.
Surely, even though we said that, they were likely worried about when we might change our minds and target them.
Well, if it were a regular situation, we would have aimed a shot at their backs to cause as many casualties as possible.
After about a minute, Frost issued his command.
“Matchlock rifle battalion, everyone fall back! Just grab the pavises and the matchlocks of the fallen! We will collect the bodies after the war!”
At his words, the battalion commanders of each unit echoed the command.
“Move behind the spearmen!! Grab the matchlocks and pavises!!”
As they attempted to retreat while collecting pavises and matchlocks, curiously, the enemies did not shoot arrows at us.
No matter how much we had shattered the vanguard, we had inflicted no damage on the enemy’s main force…
Surely they would leave the retreating mercenaries alone and bring peasant soldiers with them to attack us.
In that case, the enemies would soon open fire to support their advancing peasant soldiers…
The lack of response from them meant… could it be that those madmen…?
A feeling of foreboding began to set in.
And just to confirm that this foreboding was true, a soldier on horseback approached Frost and said.
“The Black Eagle mercenaries have stopped retreating and are returning to attack us!”
“What do you mean? They have already suffered tremendous losses against my regiment and are retreating!”
Then my head began to spin as all the pieces fell into place.
The current Architel Duke stands to lose nearly half of his territory if he is defeated and has borrowed money from all the nobles of Franche.
In other words, if he loses, he will incur massive debts that, while not as severe as Duke Maxburg’s, will still significantly harm his family.
If the trustworthy mercenaries lose morale and retreat for a legitimate reason…?
If it were me… I would accuse them of the crime of desertion in wartime to prevent them from fleeing…
If they still tried to escape… I would send in the elite troops…
Shortly after, the sounds of the enemy mercenaries echoed in our ears.
They came with their pikes raised, moving as fast as possible, like someone being chased…
The faces of the soldiers were filled with fear as they ground their teeth and said.
“That insane Duke Architel! Having killed so many of us, now he’s shooting arrows at us and ordering the infantry to advance?”
… The ones with no retreat will do anything, but to think those mercenaries in retreat would shoot our own people while unable to escape…
This war is about to become a real hell…
