EP.75
Battle of annihilation In other words, ‘scorched earth tactics’ are a strategy that cannot be used unless allies in an extreme situation are prepared to completely give up the occupied territory in order to repel an enemy invasion or weaken the enemy’s power.
If the scorched earth tactic is implemented, not only will the rice fields in the occupied territory be completely devastated, but the remaining food, livestock, and even homes will be destroyed.
It takes several years to literally rebuild an area that has been completely devastated into a habitable village.
The villagers, who had lost all their fields, livestock, and even the houses they had lived in, were left in a situation where they could not help but understand.
If proper support is not provided later, the men will become criminals and the women will be put in an extreme position of having to sell their bodies to make a living, and the public sentiment in the region will hit a rock bottom.
So, when fighting in Visozhia, the Czechoslovaks did not use clear field tactics even though they knew that our imperial army would requisition food from their territory.
“If we completely destroy their villages, the barbarians from the north will gnash their teeth at us, but they have been kidnapping the people of our empire, selling them as sexual playthings, and using them as slaves to enjoy luxury. There is absolutely no need to feel guilty. Therefore, I will explain purely strategic reasons and benefits.”
There are times when a military commander of the rank of colonel must view the lives of his allies as just numbers on a ledger on the battlefield.
There is no need to consider the circumstances and feelings of those who killed and plundered the people of my empire. Because it pays back equally.
“First of all, when the Northern Army doctrine was created, the enemy we were dealing with was a single nomadic tribe. So, if the number was wrong, even if they ran away with as little livestock and family as possible, they would not all starve to death. “Nowadays, they are both ranching and farming at the same time, so if they abandon the fields they were cultivating and run away, even if not all of the tribe starve to death, more than half of them will die of starvation.”
When the Czechovian War broke out, the Reich Imperial Army could plunder enemy villages and kill the residents at any time.
But that was always a possibility, and the Reich Army did not do that.
After all, it was the land and inhabitants of the Reich Empire after it was occupied.
However, the operation our military will use now is to destroy the villages that are the barbarians’ survival base.
When the barbarians see villages disappearing one by one from the hands of the Reich Imperial Army, they will become so anxious that they will have no choice but to respond even if they insist that we fight on a battlefield that is only advantageous to us.
“Of course, Töner, who leads about 20 large and small tribes under Ludvik, who calls himself Khan, is not going to come out and fight in a place that is unfavorable to them, to the extent of destroying a village. “We will gnaw away at them one by one, making it impossible for them to come out and fight even in places that are unfavorable to them.”
The reason why a village, or a small tribe, is robbed is because Töner will not come out to fight despite our provocations, claiming that this is a trap for the imperial army.
Due to the nature of the nomads, who are not even at the level of a tribal state, let alone centralized, if two or three tribes are robbed, his leadership will be questioned and we will have no choice but to go out to fight wherever we want.
Otherwise, the tribal leaders below will pull out their swords and threaten us, saying that if we follow that bastard, we will all lose our wives and children and starve.
Rather than giving up like that, there is no choice but to look for an opportunity to turn the tables in an unfavorable battlefield.
“I have a question. So what do you do with the prisoners that remain after the village is devastated? Are you going to kill them all?”
To be honest, the tribesmen over there first killed and sold innocent civilians, so even if we do the same, we can’t say it’s a big mistake, but it’s too precious of a human resource to kill them.
If you kill the enemy’s wife or children for no reason or do something bad before the war, you will only increase the enemy’s morale needlessly.
“When a village is devastated, anyone who resists is killed, but anyone who surrenders or has no will to resist is captured alive and imprisoned in an appropriate place in the village, separating men and women as much as possible, tying up their arms and legs.”
However, if you don’t kill it and keep it alive, it can be a good means of breaking the enemy’s morale.
No matter how much autonomy you have as a regiment commander in the Northern Army, that’s true. If you go around killing barbarians needlessly, you will only gain notoriety.
“Anyway, if they fall for our provocation and show up to fight with their soldiers, we will engage in an all-out war from the front. “I plan to proceed roughly like this.”
After saying that, I placed three wooden horses representing the barbarians and a horse representing the knight-mage infantry of our regiment on the map on the desk.
“The tactic the enemy mainly uses is to divide the troops into three groups, left and right, centered on the central army where the tribal chief is located, and use the left and right armies to lure us in and scatter our regiments. Units used as decoys will try to target the left and right sides of our troops.”
On Earth, they are called Parthian Shots, and they skillfully attack with archery while on horseback and repeatedly bounce, and when their allies are at a disadvantage, they dig into the inside of the formation and charge, destroying the enemy camp.
Of course, compared to the power of a completely nomadic people like Mongolia, they do farming and do not hunt.
However, since the skill level has dropped so much that it is not possible to completely destroy the enemy with such tactics alone, it only inflicts a considerable amount of damage.
“However, the range of a bow that can be used on horseback is approximately 100 meters, which is the level that wizards and crossbow archers can respond to. “We will focus our attacks on the central army while doing minimal counterattacks and defenses against the attacks of the left and right armies, which are in charge of luring us.”
After saying that, one of the officers asked with doubt.
“But unless they are idiots, wouldn’t the central army, under heavy attack, try to escape? Of course, considering the tactics they usually use, the central army where the chieftain is located has infantry, so they won’t be able to just run away.”
When I signaled for anyone to answer that question, Laura answered for me.
“Previously, when you were fighting in Czechia, you successfully used 12 knights to block the reinforcements of an enemy infantry battalion. If you divert your knights to the rear of the enemy’s central army and crash them at the right time like you did then, the central army will be stranded. In this case, there is a possibility that the enemy’s central army will try to repel it by mobilizing cavalry, but if the horses of Major Werner’s 50 knights are also equipped with plate barding, they will be able to withstand the arrows of the enemy cavalry to some extent.”
This is an answer typical of Laura, who graduated first at the academy and at the top of her class at the General Staff College.
I was hoping to attack the central army, and they came up with a perfect way to stop them and prepare for an enemy attack.
“When it comes to tying up the central army, we will adopt the strategy suggested by Captain Laura. Additionally, they do not have the level of control that we can to force a single unit to sacrifice when necessary. To exaggerate a bit, they are a group of thugs attached to a local bastard called the Töner tribe chief.”
After hearing these words, all the officers looked at me with puzzled eyes.
Actually, it’s not a situation where you have to curse at the enemy’s commander, but during a strategy meeting, you called the enemy commander a gangster, so everyone may be surprised.
Everyone came together under the name of Ludvik, and the subordinates who fought for him received government positions such as ‘Ten Commander’ and ‘Centurion Commander’ according to their merits, as well as land and livestock for the tribesmen, so in a way, it could be said that the form of the country was established.
Even if a tribe wins a war, if it loses many of its warriors during the war, the number of people available to work decreases, resulting in a decrease in food production.
Then, if support comes from the center, the tribe can survive without starving to death, but they do not have that.
“Unlike the trained cavalry, the infantrymen are frankly on the level of Reich Empire trainers. Therefore, if they join the infantry trained in the north, they will be cut to pieces. Then the enemy cavalry will charge to save the infantry.”
Everyone knows that their infantry is considered of lower status than cavalry on horseback, and frankly, they are not that strong of a force.
However, since they have to farm in rough places, do all kinds of odd jobs, and sometimes fight wild animals, they will be stronger than our new recruits. Still, wouldn’t it be helpful to say this to improve morale?
“We pretended not to notice, but then the momentum of them all charging towards one place became so strong that we couldn’t change direction. “Reverse the infantry in the direction they are coming from and completely block their cavalry charge with long spears.”
No matter how skilled the archers are, when they charge into the enemy camp, they come in full line, so if they suddenly change direction, they will collide with each other more or get trampled to death.
The more experienced a cavalryman is, the less likely he is to change direction even when he realizes that the enemy has formed a square with long spears and that wizards and archers are openly waiting to kill him.
It is said that even knights riding horses and wearing chain armor often die if they are blocked by a phalanx of spearmen holding long spears.
Even if you don’t watch the video, you can see what would happen if our spearmen hit the lightly armed guys with bows and only short cavalry swords.
So, we held a meeting for several hours, found and supplemented the information that was missing from the operation, discussed it, and even completed the division of tasks.
At that time, enough meat and beer for all of the unit, which I bought with my own money when I came here, arrived.
Then the officers, including the deputy regiment commander, who were a little disappointed to hear that there would be no company dinner, looked at me with emotion.
“I have heard a lot from the Staff College that you here in the north are having a hard time. However, planning a strategy was the most important thing, and it would have been difficult if my mind was elsewhere while thinking about having a company dinner, so I deliberately didn’t tell you. Now, call the soldiers and have them prepare for the dinner party.”
Actually, I thought I should hurry up and go to war right away.
In times like these, it is more important to let officers and soldiers know that although I am faithful to my principles, I am also a generous person and know how to give.
That way, the soldiers will trust me more and work harder to achieve achievements and receive awards.
A word from the author (author review)
Thank you, zakuti.
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