I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 252 Encounter Battle (Part Two)
"waste!"

On the smoke-filled mountain road, Colonel Carlos, dressed in a simple blue cotton coat, held up his binoculars and looked at the noble carriage that had crashed into the rock wall, letting out a disdainful sneer.

The carriage that crashed into the wall was a vehicle brought from the country by his adjutant. From the screams and cries of pain, it was clear that this nobleman had brought more than one woman with him in the carriage.

Colonel Carlos despised a typical spoiled brat who had entered the army to gain experience, but he had no choice but to accept him as his adjutant.

There are many reasons, the most important of which is that Carlos was just a commoner.

In the army of the Bohemian Empire, there was an unwritten rule that the commander of any independent fighting force should be a nobleman. If a non-nobleman was appointed as the commander, he should be assigned a nobleman as his adjutant.

The reasons given for doing so are absurd and deeply ingrained.

The nobles believed that while officers from commoner backgrounds might have strengths in military talent, they always lacked "leadership qualities" and "strategic vision."

They believed that noble lineage and birth gave them a kind of "natural leadership" that made soldiers more convinced and helped them better manage relationships with superior nobles and local officials.

This concept is deeply ingrained in the military's upper echelons, and this tradition is stubbornly preserved despite the fact that many officers of commoner origin perform better than nobles in actual combat.

Colonel Carlos scoffed at this, but he also knew that he could not change this tradition. He could only tolerate the existence of this spoiled brat and at the same time prove his ability on the battlefield to shut up the nobles who questioned him.

However, Carlos suddenly realized that having such a noble adjutant wasn't all bad.

Sure enough, the enemy's first wave of attacks was all aimed at that playboy and his noble carriage. However, not a single lead bullet fell around Carlos, who was riding a tall horse a little behind.

This shows that the adjutant is a good target.

Of course, such things did not prevent Carlos from despising the cowardice of spoiled brats.

"Hold the formation steady, don't be afraid, the enemy doesn't outnumber us!"

Carlos mounted his horse again, shouting orders to the nearby soldiers to calm down. He lashed out with his whip, striking several men before the attacked troops regained their composure.

There were quite a few lead bullets fired from the woods, but the firing points were scattered haphazardly. Carlos deduced that there weren't many attackers, and that they only dared to harass him from a distance, not to charge forward.

"Captain Morris!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Lead your men in a counter-offensive, drive the enemy away. They can't possibly outnumber us. Drive them out and establish a perimeter!"

"Yes, sir!"

Shortly after Captain Morris received his orders and turned to leave, a lead bullet whistled through the air and landed on a swordsman and shieldman beside Carlos's horse. The latter fell to the ground without a sound, and the sound of his fall caught Carlos's attention.

Looking at the guard's body, Colonel Bohemia squinted and gazed at the woods to his left... The gunshots came from the pine forest at the ten o'clock position, about two hundred paces away, with the enemy positioned on higher ground.

Musketeers, fire at that crooked pine tree, free fire.

Carlos immediately reined in his horse and moved to hide behind a supply wagon. At his command, a dozen musketeers hiding on either side of the wagon opened fire simultaneously. Amid the gunfire, pine needles from the forest fell like rain.

The sound of gunfire triggered a chain reaction. More Bohemian musketeers reacted at that moment, and without the command of their officers, they spontaneously raised their muskets and opened fire in the direction of the enemy attack.

Such indiscriminate shooting was questionably inefficient at killing the enemy, but it certainly created a sense of momentum, which calmed more Bohemian soldiers down and made them able to hear the orders from the officers around them.

At this moment, Captain Maurice led his men into the forest. Soon after, Colonel Carlos and the other Bohemian soldiers heard shouts of battle coming from Captain Maurice's troops. The gunfire became increasingly sparse, indicating that the enemy had retreated and was not engaging the Bohemian army in direct combat.

Colonel Carlos's judgment was correct.

Soon, the messenger sent by Captain Maurice found him, stood at attention, saluted, and reported.

"Colonel, Captain Morris sent me to report that the enemy has been successfully driven out, our troops have established a perimeter and are currently in control of the mountainous area. The captain is asking whether we should pursue the remaining enemy forces."

"No, stop the pursuit. This is not a suitable place for our troops to deploy. We should not engage the enemy here. Our troops are about to retreat. Your unit should stop and cover the main force's retreat."

Colonel Carlos didn't know how many enemies there were. He knew that the vanguard had been defeated, but the fleeing soldiers had just returned, and before he could even ask anyone for a question, he was attacked.

Judging from the current situation, the enemy's numbers are not large, at least not exceeding one of our own infantry squares, about 1,500 men.

This meant that his side had a numerical advantage, but Carlos was unwilling to engage the enemy in a direct confrontation here.

There are many reasons. One is that the enemy situation is unclear. Another is that the terrain here is too complex and not suitable for deploying the large infantry square formations that the Bohemian Empire's army loved.

Carlos knew his troops very well. He was now commanding a large infantry square of about 1,600 men, half of whom were spearmen and axemen, the remaining three-tenths were swordsmen and shieldmen, and the other two-tenths were musketeers. There was also a light cavalry company.

This composition of troops made the Bohemian Empire invincible on the main battlefield, often able to win with fewer troops and suppress the Reteria Empire's army in open field battles.

However, now that they have been attacked, Carlos has realized that his soldiers are too slow to react in the mountains, and that the four-meter-long spears of the spearmen are not easy to form ranks and gather on the mountain paths full of trees.

Therefore, Carlos wisely believed that this place was not suitable as a battlefield because the terrain was too complex and narrow, and his musketeers and spearmen, apart from the swordsmen and shieldmen, would have difficulty moving around.

Retreat is the only option.

Colonel Carlos's order quickly spread throughout the army.

"Spearmen, lower your spears! Swordsmen, clear the way! Musketeers, provide alternating cover as you retreat!"

He dismounted and personally went to the front of the troops to direct the operation.

"Let's leave here and retreat to the foot of the mountain."

The Bohemians carried out the order strictly: the front column became the rear column, and the 1,500-strong group turned around and headed down the mountain path.

This left players who hadn't run far behind extremely disappointed.

"Oh no, they've run away! What do we do?"

"Chase!"

"But they still left people there, which is disgusting!"

"Bayonet charge! Charge!"

"What the hell are you doing? Taking a detour, you idiot? This mountain area is so spacious, and they don't have many people left behind. We can leave two people to watch them, and the rest of us can just run a few steps and bypass them, right?"

"Oh, that's right."

(End of this chapter)