Day 169 of the Otherworld Summoning [Defense Battle] Part 3:

'Good! Don't miss! There's five times as many of them as there are of us! You can't just meditate on it and it will hit you!

The knights squeezed their arrows into the distributed bows while being exposed to Lyonne's angry voice.

I'm not going to be the only one. Not ... yet ... not yet!

I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.
They were screaming a battle cry like animals, their faces were bloodshot and their bodies were a gusher of blood.
They are like starving wolves unable to restrain themselves in the face of their prey.
They were not regular soldiers.
They were peasant soldiers drafted from the fiefdoms of Lord Gerhardt and his friends.
Naturally, they had never received any military training, and they were only given a spear and crude leather armor for their equipment.
They are never lent helmets or shields.
That's how worthless their lives are to the nobility.
But that was why they were raging now.
Feeling that the two thousand enemies in front of them were treasures.

The conscription system in this world is harsh.
They risk their lives at the behest of their lords.
Moreover, they are never paid by the lords for their services.
Is that because it's treated as a kind of tax?
But even so, there is a way out for them.
The rule is that what they take from the enemy becomes their own.
If you kill an enemy soldier, he or she will have swords, spears, armor, and some cash.
All of these things would become yours.
In the event of a war of aggression, it gets even better.
They will rape your women, burn your homes and take your property.
They sell men as labor slaves and women as s*x slaves.
It could be a huge profit for us at the cost of our lives.
That is why the peasants of this world go to the battlefield, hating and rejecting the nobility.
To trample the weaker ones and make their own hard lives a little easier.

A knight's equipment is expensive.
Whether it's armor, swords or horses.
It's no wonder that they pour all of their pride as knights into their own armor.
Of course, it is very difficult for a mere farmer to kill a knight.
To varying degrees, all of them use legal arts, and a knight's fighting ability is more than three times that of a peasant soldier.
A knight is like a beast of prey in human form.
But even a one-on-one battle with no chance of victory can be very different in the special environment of the battlefield.
If you can't win by yourself, then you can increase your numbers.
Like a swarm of ants eating elephants.

"Alright! Everything you have taken from the enemy is yours! In Duke Gerhardt's name, I guarantee it! Keep going~~!

""Woohoo!"

In response to the proclamation resounding from the rear, the front line has moved forward in a big way.
Now, in their eyes, Ryoma and the others must look like a mountain of treasure.
It is the confidence that their numbers are overwhelmingly numerous.

They stepped into the empty moat without any hesitation.
The pride that their own numbers outnumbered the enemy had paralyzed their fear.
When their leader was a little more than five meters away from the fence, it resounded.

'Now! Release the first line~~~!

The knights released drawn arrows in response to Lyonne's angry voice.

Huhuhuhuhu.

When the sound of wind noise rang out, several of the enemy's leaders were pierced by arrows.

''Gyaa l.''

'Shit! The arrows!

The resentment of the peasant soldiers who had been hit by the arrows echoed through the air.
When some of the men in the lead were shot through by the arrows, a previously forgotten fear came back to them.
And it slowed their steps.

'What are you doing! Move along! There aren't many of them left! We'll take them down in one fell swoop! Don't you want something with gold in it? Now move on!

The enemy commander shouted from behind.
He sensed that the speed of their march has sensitively slowed down.
Once again, he wields the whip called greed in the hearts of the peasants.
If they were to consider the lives of the peasants, they should be provided with shields to avoid arrows, but they have no such idea.
To them, a peasant soldier is a shield.
In extreme cases, they don't care how many peasants die, they are noblemen and they don't care at all.
They would trample the corpses of the peasants and raise a banner of victory over them.

''The second line! Let go!

Once again, under Rionne's command, the arrows that were released pierced the peasant soldiers.

''Poof! I don't know what you're afraid of! A few enemies! Arrows aren't infinite! We have the better numbers! Let's go! The first one to make it to the fence gets a special reward! Now move on!

The aim of the enemy commander is clear.
They want a war of attrition in close quarters with an advantage in numbers.
If they can kill one knight, even if five peasant soldiers die, they will be able to make up the books.
On the other hand, for Ryouma and the others, if they fought at a certain distance, they would have an advantage over the knights whose basic performance is superior.
The aristocrats want to bring the war into the fray, while Ryoma and his friends want to keep a certain distance.
However, it's still difficult to prevent violence in numbers.
At first, the peasant soldiers, who had been shot at about 5 meters from the fence, continued to advance little by little.
They stepped over the corpses of their comrades.
Sometimes they used the corpses of their comrades as arrow shields.
3m, 2m, 1m, under the command of Rionne, they advance through a rain of arrows.

'We're here! I'll be the first to go!

One peasant soldier shouts as he finally reaches the fence.
A rare and stingy nobleman declares a reward for his efforts.
The money will surely provide some relief for their high taxation.
That's why we have to make a big show of it.
He had to make a big appeal to the public that he was the first to arrive.
But the cost was great.
Yes, his life.

The third line forward!

As the archers move backwards at Lyonne's command, the knights, clad in spears and steel armor in their hands, take turns stepping forward.

''Thrust out!''

All at once spears are thrust forward from the gap in the fence under Lionel's command.
The target is the faces of the peasant soldiers.

The man who shouted that he was the first to arrive at the scene is thrust into his left eye with a spear.

''Geez!''

A voice that resembled the cry of an animal gushed from the man's throat.

'Draw the spear!'

The protruding spears are sucked inside the fence all at once.

''Thrust out!''

Once again, countless spears were thrust out from between the fences, reaping the lives of the foolish peasant soldiers.

'Dung! Brother! Lloyd! ...Shit! You killed my brother! I'll kill you!

'My eyes! My eyes!

Heeeee! I can't do this! I... I don't want to! I don't want to die!

Shouts of rage and lamentations echoed across the battlefield.
Those who tried to advance and those who tried to back down to escape the spear.
The clash between the two halted the soldiers, who by nature did not have such lofty skills as formation, in their tracks.
And Rionne is not naive enough to let them get away with it.
The sense of smell of someone who had been running through the battlefield as a mercenary for many years was keen.

''First line, second line! Ready! Let go~~!

She moved her spearmen back and brought her archers to the front again and began firing wildly.

'Good! Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot! Don't be shy! There's a lot of arrows out there! We're going to shoot as hard as we can!

The arrows fired by the knights under Lyonne's vehemence fall like rain on the peasant soldiers.

''d*mn! We're not going to get anywhere.................or else! Message! Dear Mr. Cale, tell Mr. Cale that the enemy is putting up such a strong resistance on the south flank that we are requesting permission to withdraw temporarily! Otherwise, we would like you to send in reinforcements.

The nobleman who tried to break through the south gate in one fell swoop applied to Cale for an order to retreat in order to make a fresh start.
It's probably because he has no experience in actual battles, but as expected, he understood that it's useless to attack with force at this point.

''d*mn! This one is five times the size of the enemy! Why do you take so much trouble!

crack

He snapped the command pole in his hand in frustration.

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Withdrawal? Stop screwing around! We have a huge advantage! Why must we retreat!

Hearing the words of the message, Cale's face turned red and he shouted at them.

I'm not sure that the resistance of the south gate is so fierce that we can attack it down to the ground... if you're ordering us to attack it like this, at least give us some reinforcements...

No matter how he was shouted at, he never pulled the message.
Whether it was out of self-defense or loyalty, he was faithful to his duties.
But that's why his words irritated Cale's mind.

'Don't be silly!'

Boom!

You! I have a duty to carry out Master Gerhardt's orders!

Cale slammed his fist into Denrei's face in anger and yelled at his head as he crawled down.
Normally he would never have done something like this.
This is because calm judgment was supposed to be his strong point.
But now those qualities are nowhere to be found.
I'm sure you'll be able to find a good deal more than you'd like.
I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.
There is no way that they can send in reinforcements.
It's not just that, it's that I want to order reinforcements to the center.

There are no reinforcements to be sent there! You must break through the enemy's defenses with the forces you've been given! Why can't we break through the enemy's lines with five times as many troops as we have? Tell them that they may be too loose!

In fact, Cale's words were nothing more than a tease, but Denrei, Denrei had no words to defend himself against Cale's swordsmanship.
If you speak poorly, you could be cut down and killed.
Such insanity was becoming clothed in Cale's body.

While looking at the back of Denrei's hurriedly running his horse, Cale poisoned himself in his mind.

(You incompetent bastards! (You're pulling my leg!

The moat and fence, which were thought to be an apparent oversight, stubbornly prevented their own invasion.
We judged that the morale of our 500 troops under Mikhail had been annihilated, but that's not the case either.
The advantage of having an overwhelmingly large number of troops is completely meaningless in the current situation.

(Why! (Why can we have such a strong defense... why can't we cut it down!

Cale can't afford to lose this war.
You can't afford to lose a battle, since he switched from the princess faction to the noble faction because of his battle commanding ability.
You can't lose a battle, on the contrary, you can't struggle.
The reason for this is because we have an overwhelming advantage in terms of the number of soldiers.
If you are supposed to be at an advantage and you win a hard-fought battle, everyone in the aristocracy will underestimate Cale.
Even Lord Gerhardt, who recognizes Cale's power, doubts Cale's ability.
And the label of incompetence, once applied to him, is not easily removed.
It's tantamount to a death sentence for Cale for betraying the princess faction.

(Duh! Shit! (All these people are making fun of me!

Kale didn't want to admit that he was struggling right now.
He wanted to believe that people around him were deliberately cutting corners to drag him down.
The fact that they had so brilliantly defeated a scouting unit led by Mikhail, made me even more reluctant to admit that I was inferior to their commander.

''I'll go to the front!

The lieutenants changed their faces at Cale's words.
The fact that Cale, as the overall commander, is going to the front line means that the knights that have been preserved in the rear are going to be put into the front line.
This time the ratio of troops Cale is leading is 2,000 knights and 5,000 peasant soldiers.
However, these knights are not a force to be depleted lightly.
They are the trump card that Duke Gerhardt secretly assembled in order to counter the knightly faction.

Although Duke Gerhardt dislikes General Hodram, he has never unfairly evaluated the knights' abilities.
A knight composed only of people who can use the legal arts would be a powerful fighting force.
You will be able to get a great deal more out of it.
That's why Duke Gerhardt gathered in hiding the knights that only the four grand dukes were allowed to have to guard the king and his borders.
Old mercenaries, knights exiled from other countries, Roserian knights who committed crimes and had their titles stripped from them.
He recruited such people into his own knightly order for a large sum of money.
A total of 6,000 of them.
It was 2,000 among them that were given to Cale.
He was well aware of their importance.

''Please wait! Isn't it too early to tell?

The adjutants stopped Cale with a change of color.
It was because the original plan was to have the peasant soldiers break through the gate and then raid the knights to destroy the opponents in one fell swoop.

''Shut up! I was naive in trying to get the peasants and others to break through the enemy lines! .........Why, the enemy must be exhausted as they drive away the peasants. There's no way we can prevent the knight's assault now!

But Cale repelled his second-in-command's advances.
And he appeals to the fact that now is the time to win.
He wanted to make this statement.
But his words seeped into the minds of his lieutenants like poison.
They, too, understand the situation they are in.

As long as their role was to assist Cale, Cale's failure in his mission was also the failure of his lieutenants.
And Lord Gerhardt is not so lenient as to leave an incompetent person in place.
It's still good if he can be demoted or just get away with it.
If he loses, he could even be sentenced to death.

I get it! But if that's the case, let's call for an all-out assault on the northern and southern troops, if we attack at all three locations at the same time, that level of moat and fence won't be a problem.

One of his lieutenants followed Cale's words, and the rest of the men didn't have any objections.

'Mm! Give the word now! We must finish this before the sun goes down!

It would be about 30 minutes before the sun set.
The sun has not prepared for a night battle, so once the sun goes down, it will be a dark night.
However, once the avalanche of light falls into the enemy camp, the light source can be secured by setting fire to the rest.
With those calculations, Cale gave the order for the entire army to charge in.

The battle between the aristocrats and the princesses has been transformed into an all-out battle that both sides cannot pull back from the first day.
Who will win?
It was clear to everyone that the side that won this first battle would be heavily favored.