I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 273: Scheme against each other
The tactics currently being used by the expeditionary force are called "iron cones".

Yes, it can also be called a one-shot kill.

There's a common problem among players: when playing games that require tactics and strategy, if there are fewer than twenty players, they will follow the lead of any player with a bit of prestige who steps up and gives some seemingly useful instructions.

Even if there is a troublemaker among the twenty people, the players can kick out the bad apple through a collective vote.

However, once the number of players exceeds twenty, or even reaches a hundred, the players' organization level will rapidly decline, and the authority of the commander will be questioned.

In a team of 100 people, there are often multiple small groups that operate independently and even fight amongst themselves.

The "iron cone" tactic, simply put, is to concentrate all firepower and thrust it straight into the enemy's core like a sharp cone.

This tactic is simple and brutal, requiring no complex coordination; all that's needed is for everyone to charge toward a single goal.

The Han and Tang warriors led the charge, leading the heavy infantry players from other battle groups in an assault, while the skirmishers lagged behind, using flintlock muskets to cover the advance.

Further away, two thousand NPCs, led by Lin Ruoyu, formed shield formations with shield carts and fired six-pound field guns, tiger crouch guns, and flintlock muskets to support the heavy infantry at the front.

The four-wheeled shield cart was cumbersome, but fortunately the area around Hygrand was mostly flat. The four people hid behind the shield cart and pushed it forward slowly, barely managing to keep up with the players' pace of attack.

The roar of artillery fire and the billowing smoke made the entire battlefield resemble a pot of boiling molten iron, chaotic and intense.

"Click, click, click..."

With the support of their rear, the Han and Tang warriors, with heavy steps, had approached the barricades outside the Bohemian camp.

"Chop it down!"

A heavy infantryman in armor stepped forward, carrying a giant axe. He cleaved the barricade with a heavy blow, and splintered wood splattered onto his faceplate, making a clanging sound.

The heavy infantry player with the ID "Mountain-Splitter Axe" bulged his muscles as his axe blade tore a gap in the barricade, allowing the Han and Tang warriors behind him to surge in.

Behind the barricades, the arquebusiers, screaming in despair, unleashed a final volley. The gunfire rolled across the battlefield like muffled thunder, and the smoke instantly filled the air, completely obscuring the view ahead.

Sparks suddenly erupted from the bodies of more than ten heavy infantrymen who were charging forward headlong into the air. The sound of lead bullets hitting armor plates filled the air, and three of them fell to the ground. The remaining vanguard heavy infantrymen rushed out of the smoke, their blood-stained blades slicing through the fragile cloth armor of the matchlock musketeers, and a cloud of blood mist rose up on the battlefield.

More heavy infantry used their heavy weapons to hack and slash at the barricades, creating more breaches.

In just one round, the originally sturdy chevaux-de-frise was riddled with holes, and the heavy infantry, under the repeated bombardment of axes and longswords, completely tore through the defenses.

After a number of arquebusiers hiding behind the barricades were killed, they hurriedly ran back. The swordsmen and shieldmen responsible for covering the rear rushed over, trying to hold off the enemy for a moment and buy time to retreat.

Monokuma, who was walking at the front, also encountered challengers. Three swordsmen and shieldmen charged towards him, but after they saw Monokuma's armor and weapons, two of them slammed on the brakes.

Only one hothead shouted and challenged the black and white bear.

Black Bear didn't hold back either. He raised his 25-kilogram longsword high and then gently swung it down.

The sword pierced the air, bringing with it a gust of wind. The face of the hot-headed swordsman instantly turned pale. His muscles tensed like a fully drawn bowstring as he gripped his sword and shield tightly, trying to block the fatal blow.

However, his sword and shield were like thin paper under the black and white bear's long-handled sword. The blade of the long-handled sword easily cut through the sword, shield, and his arm.

The swordsman let out a heart-wrenching scream. His body continued to lunge forward two steps due to inertia. Blood gushed out from his severed arm like a fountain, drawing crimson arcs in the air. His severed arm, along with his sword and shield, flew up, tumbled twice in the air, and landed seven or eight meters away.

Blood splattered on the black and white bear's visor, slowly flowing down the patterns on the armor plates.

The Mo Dao twirled beautifully in the hands of the Black and White Bear, then delivered another horizontal slash, the blade slicing across the swordsman's neck, slicing through his neck guard and cervical bone, giving him a swift and merciful death.

"Next!"

There was no next one. Watching Monokuma effortlessly wield his Mo Dao and kill one of the sword-and-shield men, the two sword-and-shield men behind him immediately turned and ran away.

They were both trained fighters, though their training methods differed. These two swordsmen could tell who was capable and who wasn't. They weren't players; they only had one life, so naturally they weren't willing to die needlessly.

The small group of heavy infantry, spearheaded by Monokuma, easily overwhelmed the swordsmen and shieldmen who stood in their way, and the other heavy infantry players were also virtually unstoppable.

The more than three hundred Bohemian swordsmen and shieldmen who tried to stop them were routed in a single encounter by the players. They fled to both sides of the camp, while the players used the clearing space created by the broken swordsmen and rushed into the Bohemian camp through the main gate.

As for the fleeing swordsmen and shieldmen on the left and right flanks, and the Bohemian artillerymen further away... let the skirmishers and the count's army further back handle them. The battlefield is too wide, and there are too few players, so they can't launch a full-scale attack.

The Bohemian Army's barracks was a square fort built according to standard military specifications, covering an area of ​​approximately twenty hectares.

The entire camp was surrounded by a three-meter-high wooden fence, with arrow towers at the four corners and the commander's tent in the center. The roads inside the camp were laid out in a grid pattern. After Black and White Bear led his men in, they were greeted by hundreds of neatly arranged gray tents, where Bohemians dressed in gray military uniforms were running around in a panic.

Monokuma's first instinct was that something was wrong. He subconsciously stopped, wanting to slow down and wait for the scattered players behind him to catch up.

Monokuma had such a broad perspective and keen sense of smell that he could sense something was wrong, but the other players didn't care. They shouted excitedly and rushed past Monokuma from both sides, completely ignoring his raised left hand and the order to stop advancing. They surged into the camp and chased after the panicked Bohemian soldiers.

Amid the chaos, some Han-Tang warriors charged in, completely ignoring Black and White Bear... There was no way around it; Black and White Bear was merely the chief champion of the Han-Tang warrior band, not the band leader, and many people were not willing to obey him.

As for where the battle group leader is?

Monokuma didn't know, but the guy called Old Li never really liked showing up on the battlefield. This strange man liked to gather tough male players, but he wasn't willing to go to war with them. Seeing this, Monokuma sighed helplessly and could only lead the remaining Han-Tang warriors into the Bohemian camp.

As it turned out, Monokuma's premonition was correct. When the heavy armored torrent of players rolled over the third row of tents, a sudden, intense tremor came from the ground.

The seemingly chaotic clusters of tents on both sides collapsed one after another like dominoes, revealing the menacing array of spear formations behind them... Each formation consisted of three hundred soldiers, with four-meter-long infantry spears forming layers upon layers of a deadly forest.

"Push forward!"

The Bohemian officer's roar was particularly clear amidst the smoke of battle. The spear formations on both sides began to advance in unison, the dense spear tips undulating with each step, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen in the sunlight.

In addition to the phalanxes of spearmen appearing on the left and right, the arquebusiers who had previously fled also appeared in front of the player, lined up in formation. They planted the muskets in the ground, placed the heavy arquebuses on them, lit the muskets, and pointed the muzzles at the player.

The heavy muskets, already loaded, spewed out deathly flames, and the thumb-thick lead bullets formed a metal storm, striking the dozen or so players at the forefront as if they had been hit by an invisible giant hammer.

Upon seeing this, Monokuma forgot to blame the other players for their recklessness and shouted.

"Where's the crouching tiger cannon? Charge it up and blast the musketeers in front to death! We have to take them out first; the musketeers are the biggest threat to us..."

Heavy armor players aren't actually without ranged weapons. Besides some carrying a few tiger crouching cannons, many others have flintlock pistols on their waists, or carry large bows and heavy arrows.

Now that the players are in such a crisis, and Monokuma is shouting so loudly, in an instant, players carrying tiger-squatting cannons and holding flintlock pistols and big bows rushed forward.

At the same time, the impenetrable steel forest formed by the four-meter-long infantry spears on the left and right sides also began to advance and encircle. Three players rushed forward, trying to break the formation, but were instantly pierced into pincushions. One of the players was even pierced by six spears at the same time, and his whole body was suspended in mid-air like a specimen.

"grass!"

Black and White Bear cursed and led the Han and Tang warriors to charge towards the spear formation on the right. He swept his broadsword across, cutting off seven or eight spearheads, but more spears came from all directions. Suddenly, he crouched down, grabbed two broken spears, and used his waist and abdomen to lift two Bohemian soldiers, armor and all, into the air, slamming them heavily onto the spear formation behind them.

Other heavy infantry players naturally launched an attack on the left side of the gun emplacement. The desperate efforts of Black Bear and others bought time for the Tiger Crouching Cannon players to fire.

Players wielding greatbows and flintlock pistols rushed forward, unleashing a rapid-fire barrage of heavy arrows and lead bullets that whistled through the air, killing over twenty enemies.

The Bohemian arquebusiers at the front, who were being attacked, frantically dragged their wailing comrades back. The second rank of arquebusiers stepped forward and opened fire, unleashing a barrage of lead bullets at the player, once again knocking down many heavily armored infantry.

But no matter what players lack, they will never lack courage and the determination to fight to the death. Even with bullets raining down in front of them, the players who were being hit still braved the enemy's bullets and pushed the Tiger Crouching Cannon forward, then gritted their teeth and pushed the matchlock towards the cannon door.

The firing of the three tiger-squatting cannons sent out a fan-shaped spray of lead bullets.

The arquebusiers, who were preparing for their third salvo, were dealt a heavy blow. Wearing only light armor, they were no match for the shrapnel from the tiger-squat cannon. Three platoons of musketeers fell like wheat being harvested, and their once orderly formation was instantly disrupted.

When the heavy infantry players fell into a trap inside the Bohemian military camp and were surrounded and attacked by arquebusiers and spearmen, the skirmisher players outside the camp, as well as the wagon camp, quickly sensed that something was wrong.

However, at this moment, the previously collapsed Bohemian swordsmen and shieldmen rushed out from both sides of the camp, and with the fire support of the Bohemian artillery, they charged towards the skirmishers.

Players equipped only with cotton armor, flintlock muskets, and one-handed weapons are not afraid of close combat, but they have to retreat temporarily when faced with the charging of sword and shield warriors who have regrouped.

At the same time, the advancing wagon corps and the Count's army that followed also encountered trouble, as the Bohemian light cavalry that had been roaming the flanks of the battlefield surrounded them.

Equipped with four-wheeled shield carts, tiger-squatting cannons, and six-pound field guns, the wagon battalion was not afraid of the cavalry charge, not to mention the support of three thousand cavalry and infantry sent by the Earl's army.

Lin Ruoyu stood on the three-meter-high command vehicle, observing the battlefield through binoculars. He watched the stragglers who had been temporarily driven away, and the Bohemian cavalry who were closing in from the left and right sides, poised to charge, but always staying outside the range of the tiger-squatting cannons.

"Tsk tsk... This is a trap to lure the enemy in and wipe out our heavy infantry."

The plan was good, but would the Bohemians be able to get what they wanted?
Lin Ruoyu didn't think so; he also thought it was a good opportunity... a perfect chance to lure the Bohemian light cavalry forward and eliminate their mobile forces.

"Advance, muskets and musketeers, prepare to fire!"

The tiger-squatting cannons in the wagon camp were all placed on four-wheeled shield wagons. One wagon carried one cannon, and two gunners served it. The six-pound field guns had their own gun carriages, which could be pushed by two people. To fire, they simply released their grip, and the gun position was set up. Once the ammunition was loaded, they could fire.

If the Bohemian cavalry dare to approach, Lin Ruoyu will let them taste what a "steel storm" is like.

He smiled slightly and gave the messenger new instructions.

"Notify the skirmishers at the front to feign a rout and lure the enemy to the front of the wagon camp."

Following Lin Ruoyu's orders, the situation on the battlefield quickly underwent some subtle changes.

The skirmishers retreated in a panic, some even deliberately dropping their flintlock pistols and backpacks. The swordsmen behind them, seeing this, did not suspect anything, because at this moment, the Bohemian artillery was also shelling the skirmishers.

With pursuers behind them and cannonballs raining down from above, even the musketeers of the Bohemian Guard would have collapsed under such circumstances. Therefore, the swordsmen and shieldmen relentlessly pursued them.

The Bohemian cavalry, who were roaming on both sides of the battlefield, also began to stir.

Of course, they weren't foolish enough to directly attack the wagon camp. Instead, they charged towards the fleeing skirmishers, trying to intercept them before they could escape back into the wagon camp.

As for whether they would be hit by artillery shells during the process, the Bohemian cavalry commander felt it wouldn't be a big problem. At most, they would be hit by artillery during the charge, but once they were engaged in close combat with the enemy, the enemy's long-range firepower would be rendered ineffective.

(End of this chapter)