Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 153 All-Out Assault!

The attack by the Third Reserve Division was exactly as Renn had anticipated earlier.

When General von Morgan led several infantry regiments under the cover of smoke bombs to attack the Imperial positions, the cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Division had already completed their breakthrough operation against the rear of the Imperial Fourth Army.

Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division, in company units, swiftly penetrated the Imperial Fourth Army's battle line, which stretched for over ten kilometers.

But in reality, this is something most cavalry units wouldn't even dare to dream of.

The reason is that the killing efficiency and range of modern guns and cannons are completely incomparable to those of bows and arrows in the past.

It is precisely for this reason that the current empire has shifted the cavalry's mission from offensive to reconnaissance and communications.

However, today is an exception.

Lieutenant General Stranz, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, rode his horse across the plains of East Prussia, his gaze toward the front lines filled with a mixture of excitement and wariness.

Although the Empire's cavalry was excellent, it could not completely defeat the Imperial Cossack cavalry in actual combat.

The Cossack cavalry, who were just as familiar with the terrain of East Prussia as he was, would be the most serious threat in this operation.

However, more than these concerns, he was concerned about whether his troops could resist the urge to turn back and, after breaking through the Fourth Army's lines, obediently rush towards Insterburg in a desperate frantic march.

After all, according to the intelligence department, most of the Cossack cavalry were gathered at the location of the Imperial First Army, which was more than 60 kilometers away from here. It was not an easy journey for the cavalry to reach.

Just then, the final wave of shelling began.

Countless shells began to fall on the Fourth Army's positions, exploding into black and gray clouds of mist on the ground.

This was the initial deterrent bombardment, loose and not very dense.

For the Fourth Army, it was like an Imperial artillery barrage accidentally missing its target—a perfectly normal occurrence.

The sound of rapid hoofbeats came from the side, and as soon as Stranz turned around, he heard his adjutant's voice.

"General! The First Brigade has launched its attack!"

"Is it?"

Stranz immediately pulled on the reins, changing the horse's pace from a gallop to a brisk walk: "What did the Fourth Hussars say?"

"They will depart last; the 3rd Hussars will depart with them!"

The adjutant, pulling on the reins to control the horse's direction, asked in a steady voice, "Should we retreat?"

The 1st Cavalry Division's staff consisted of a rear staff headquarters and companies responsible for emergency command at the front. The rear staff headquarters did not move, so there was only about thirty guards with Stranz.

Stranz did not answer immediately. He first rode his horse up a high ground, and after glancing at the rising dust, he said, "We will set off together with the Second Lancer Regiment!"

"But they..."

Before the adjutant could even finish saying, "His task is to separate the Fourth Army from the Seventeenth Army," Stranz cracked his whip and charged towards the direction of the Second Lancer Regiment.

"Damn..."

The adjutant, who hadn't sworn in years since being promoted to nobility, instinctively uttered a curse, but could only blow his whistle and give orders to the guards behind him while hurrying after Stranz.

His gaze, however, involuntarily fell on one side of the saddle.

There hung an MP-14 submachine gun that Rennes had sent.

at the same time.

Two bright red beams of light lit up the sky above the battlefront.

"The 3rd Reserve Infantry Division has launched an attack."

As soon as Ryan finished speaking, Brinkman spotted the red light shining on the distant horizon.

Horses that had rarely seen the glow of honor communications became increasingly tense and somewhat difficult to control under the blinding light.

This forced Renn to grip the reins even tighter and keep controlling his horse with commands: "Let them continue their attack; it's not our turn yet."

In this operation, the entire assault company, the second battalion, plus the guiding beams from the Ninth Army, will only have a maximum of six beams.

Conversely, the 3rd Reserve Infantry Division will launch its attack guided by over a hundred beams of honor.

This was to protect the troops on the northern front, in order to force the Imperial Command and staff to misjudge the situation.

Therefore, two beams of light are definitely not enough.

And that was exactly the moment Ryan finished speaking.

More than a dozen beams of red light shot into the sky.

This signifies that the 3rd Reserve Infantry Division has officially begun its battle against the Imperial Fourth Army. On the semi-transparent battlefield map before them, the red dots within the Fourth Army's positions begin to disappear at a visible rate, quickly being filled with light dots representing friendly forces.

The flashes of the grenades were as dense as firecrackers for the New Year, blasting the crudely constructed trenches of the Imperial Fourth Army into chaos.

However, the soldiers of the 3rd Reserve Infantry Division had no intention of fighting for the trenches.

Remembering the order to cross the front line at high speed, they used grenades and pistols to quickly eliminate all Imperial Army soldiers who appeared in front of them, and used all their strength to cross the Imperial Army's front trenches and rush towards the support and reserve trenches behind them.

The Imperial Fourth Army soldiers, who were hiding in the trenches and preparing to watch the neighboring 17th Army get utterly defeated, had just been bombarded by the hail of grenades from the 3rd Reserve Division, only to find that the Imperial soldiers had jumped over their heads and were running towards the rear lines with even more grenades in their hands.

Both the timid and the daring were caught off guard by this inexplicable charge, but what followed was the deafening sound of horses' hooves coming from the side.

The 1st Cavalry Division's marksmen, operating in units of half a company, immediately turned around after charging into the battle line. Under the cover of the 3rd Reserve Infantry Division, they charged forward along the rear of the trenches, throwing all the explosives they had into the trenches that had just been bombarded with grenades.

Even so, quite a few Imperial Army soldiers still survived.

They hid in the corner of the trench, trying to intercept the cavalry with their Mosin-Nagant rifles.

The smoke grenades that had been detonated earlier had effectively protected the surviving soldiers, but reality had played a cruel joke on these Imperial Army soldiers.

Because they discovered that these cavalrymen did not resemble any of the cavalrymen they knew.

Logically, cavalrymen would immediately draw their swords and attack the soldiers after charging into battle; if they did not have the opportunity to draw their swords, they would raise their guns and fire.

But the imperial cavalry were completely different.

They threw all their grenades along the way, then without looking back, they pulled on the reins and sped off towards Insterburg, showing no intention of stopping on the battlefield.

Then these Imperial Army soldiers died from the bullets of the second wave of the assault troops that followed the infantry charge ahead.

The morale of the Fourth Army had already declined to the point of being merely lip service when supplies ran out, and even after supplies arrived, it still failed to recover.

Then they were subjected to a thorough bombardment of grenades by the cavalry and the reckless stormtroopers.

This attack reduced the three regiments in the Fourth Army's front-line trenches to the point where they couldn't even muster enough personnel to reorganize and launch a counterattack.

But the Imperial Army will not stop here.

As the first trench was completely breached and cleared, the honor communication beams, signifying a change in the offensive rhythm, began to light up uniformly behind the front trenches.

The troops that had run out of grenades immediately regrouped on the spot, while the troops that hadn't run out of grenades became the first echelon and began to charge toward the trenches of the second rank.

The cavalrymen of the 1st Cavalry Division immediately began to change their targets.

The same grenade barrage began to unfold in the second row of support trenches, and even further back in the reserve trenches.

More and more beams of light from the Honor Communication system lit up, almost turning the entire sky red.

But the imperial kingdom had no way to deal with it.

The Empire's attack speed is too fast.

The Fourth Army's position, which was the main battlefield, also found itself in a dilemma, just like the Twenty-Seventh Army had been before, due to a lack of preparation.

Their commander only learned that his position was under heavy attack by the Empire after his own support trenches had been breached!

By the time his communications officer began urgently sending this intelligence to the group headquarters in the rear, the support trenches had already been completely breached, and the fighting had spread to the reserve trenches behind.

In a moment of urgency, the 17th Army finally reacted, and a large number of its troops began to move toward the 4th Army's positions, attempting to assist the 4th Army in protecting its positions from the side.

The artillery in the rear also began to bombard the battlefield in front of the Fourth Army's positions and the flanks under the orders of the headquarters, in an attempt to disrupt the Imperial Army's offensive rhythm.

All of this was observed by Renn.

He could even see that some of the Twelfth Army's artillery units had already been withdrawn from their positions to provide support to the Fourth Army.

The beams of honor communication, representing the steady progress of the battlefront, became increasingly dense.

"it's time."

Let's get back to reality.

Raine looked at the soldiers standing ready in front of him, then at the infantry of the Ninth Army not far behind, and at the mobile artillery that had already completed the construction of their artillery positions.

"Lieutenant."

He then looked at Brinkman.

"Give me the order."

"The whole army attacks!"

(End of this chapter)