novelraw Chapter 102: Revolution Defense War - Grand Duke Leopold (3)
Chapter 102: Revolution Defense War - Grand Duke Leopold (3)
[Lafayette, my brother! I, Kroxx, have come to keep my promise!]
Brimming with mana, the shout thundered across the plains, overwhelming all screams and battlefield noises.
Yet, the Common Central Continent Language echoed, spoken with a somewhat awkward accent.
In the momentarily silenced battlefield, as everyone paused, failing to grasp Kroxx’s cry, Pierre de Lafayette’s shout rang out again.
[Revolutionary Army, Reinforcements have arrived! Drive back the enemy!]
Only then did the fortunes of the soldiers on both sides diverge.
The Francia forces' spirits lifted at the news of reinforcements amidst a desperate war situation.
The Imperial Army, already unnerved by the enemy's tenacious resistance despite their clear advantage, was now thrown into complete chaos by the devastating news.
“Y-Your Grace. Those are not Francia troops! They are Barbarians! They look to be well over 20,000!”
At the Hussar's report, who had belatedly come to his senses, Grand Duke Leopold turned his gaze northwest, his face etched with disbelief.Through the raised telescope, the Grand Duke could see the Orcish Forces rapidly approaching, galloping across the plains.
He also saw Duke Gunhild's Forces, utterly exhausted after repeatedly launching offensives to their limits only to be repulsed. Now completely agitated and unsure what to do, they watched the Orcs swiftly drawing near.
“Heathen Barbarians, come to help them…….”
The words the Grand Duke uttered in the face of this unbelievable situation lacked any sense of reality.
In that moment, only one conclusion surfaced in Grand Duke Leopold’s mind.
This battle was lost.
He had no cards left to play.
The Imperial Army, which had been holding on by sheer grit, their only hope the collapse of Marquis Lafayette’s forces, completely lost their morale at the presence of these unimaginable reinforcements.
Should we retreat?
Where to?
To trap Marquis Lafayette and the Revolutionary Army, he had already abandoned Count Baden and the occupation forces, who must be collapsing and begging for help.
He had personally given up supply lines and risked a Short-Term Decisive Battle, and it had failed.
Is there even any point in retreating when he doesn't know if Alsace and Lorraine are intact?
Can I bear such a defeat?
The Grand Duke unconsciously reached for the pistol at his hip.
Better, here.
“Your Grace!”
“What should we do, Your Grace!”
The Grand Duke’s thoughts were shattered by his subordinates calling out to him desperately.
He saw the despair and fear filling their eyes, and desperation pleading for an answer from him.
Only then did the Grand Duke grit his teeth.
To think I almost tried to escape, abandoning my responsibility for all my men.
Not yet.
The Grand Duke quickly turned his gaze—
And saw an Orc, having sprinted across the plain like cavalry, leap into the air and land amidst Duke Gunhild’s infantry.
He also saw other Orcs charging towards the Line Infantry, who were thrown into complete chaos by the imposing presence of the large, muscular Orc felling several men at once and swinging a giant axe.
If the Grand Duke lost his focus for even a moment longer, the Main Force would be completely swept away.
“Order a Full Retreat! Destination, Alsace!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
“Commit all remaining cavalry to delay the enemy pursuit, even slightly!”
To the order that essentially commanded them to die in place of the other troops—
“We obey Your Grace’s command!”
The cavalry officer, who had barely survived the cavalry engagement defeat, replied without hesitation and spurred his horse forward.
As the command flags waved frantically, signaling the retreat, and the Imperial Army, which had been on the verge of victory, finally turned and began to flee frantically.
All that remained on the plains they had occupied were countless corpses.
Grand Duke Leopold gazed at the horrific battlefield, then forced himself to look away and spurred his horse onward.
*
“It’s our victory!”
“We won! Woooah!”
Amidst everyone’s cheers and relief, I gasped for breath, roughly dropped my sword, and collapsed right where I stood.
The ground was filthy with blood, but right now, concerns about aristocratic decorum were nonexistent.
It’s hard to even keep my eyes open from the sweat pouring like rain, and I’m just dead tired.
“Wow…….”
The soldiers weren’t much different from me; they all sat collapsed on the spot, watching Kroxx’s army strike Duke Gunhild’s forces from the flank and shatter them.
Kroxx and the Orcs charged in like cavalry at the front, followed by a Mixed Unit of humans and Goblins carrying swords and Muskets.
All the Revolutionary Army soldiers watched with fascination at the unusual sight.
As Duke Gunhild’s forces began to panic, the Grand Duke’s army immediately signaled a retreat.
A short while later, after Duke Gunhild’s forces completely disintegrated and began to rout, a familiar Orc approached me.
Even though they had just watched them crush the enemy in real-time, the Revolutionary Army soldiers instinctively flinched and stepped back due to the Orc’s immense size and intimidating muscles.
Kroxx paid them no mind and walked up to me, laughing heartily as he extended a hand.
“Uhahaha, Brother! You look like hell.”
“Haha…….”
Taking the hand Kroxx offered, he lifted me up with surprising ease.
“I knew you would come, but……”
I looked up at Kroxx and grinned.
“You came at such a perfect time, I owe you a great debt.”
“Uhaha, a promise made as a king must naturally be kept!”
Kroxx had made a king's promise to repay the help I gave him with corresponding aid.
To buy time immediately, and lacking any way to muster troops to close the overwhelming military power gap, I decided to ask Kroxx for help.
“Even so, I didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly.”
They were also engaged in conflicts on the Iberian Peninsula, so I couldn’t just ask for help empty-handed. Many objected, arguing against letting the army of untrustworthy Barbarians into Francia.
We also had to promise compensation and arrange border crossing, but as Commander-in-Chief, my immediate duty was the battlefield, precluding my personal involvement.
Kroxx touched a tusk with his hand and replied.
“That fellow named Talleyrand is quite skilled at negotiation. We agreed on a satisfactory reward, so don’t worry too much.”
“That’s a relief.”
Apparently Christine resolved the opposition to allowing the Barbarian army into Francia, and Talleyrand, predictably, skillfully secured satisfactory conditions this time as well.
“Seeing as your army seems exhausted, we shall handle the pursuit.”
“I’ll leave it to you. ……Thank you, once again.”
Thanks to them, I was able to make the decision to hold out here instead of abandoning the trade route with the Kingdom of Alps.
Facing Leopold’s 90,000 with 50,000 on the plains was quite a reckless decision, but I knew Kroxx’s army was coming.
“Uhahaha! Repaying a debt to a brother and filling the bellies of my people, isn’t that a good trade!”
Kroxx laughed heartily, slapped my back forcefully, and then ran off with heavy footfalls.
It’s a bit amusing watching the Revolutionary Army soldiers staring slack-jawed at his retreating figure.
In any case, this will likely dilute much of the prejudice and hostility towards them that remained within Francia.
I let out a light sigh, stretched my still aching body, and turned my gaze.
We finally won. Against absolute inferiority, against Grand Duke Leopold’s overwhelming forces, we held out until Kroxx arrived.
However.
I shifted my gaze from my resting soldiers to the corpses that covered the plains.
Ultimately, this battle left deep scars on both armies.
Scars far too deep and vast to be attributed solely to the ambition of a single individual, the Empire's Empress.
*
The outcome of the Decisive Battle fought in the Western Plains of Besançon was catastrophic.
The Francia army suffered 17,000 casualties out of 50,000 troops.
The Germania Empire army suffered a crushing defeat, with 26,000 casualties out of 90,000 troops, and 12,000 captured as Prisoners of War.
But the Imperial Army’s losses didn’t end there.
They suffered immense battlefield losses, and securing their scarce supplies became impossible due to blocked supply lines during the chaotic retreat.
Kroxx’s brothers, who had arrived fresh in the latter half of the battle, quickly crushed the weak resistance of the Imperial cavalry. During the retreat to Alsace, countless Imperial soldiers, starved, exhausted, and wounded, fell behind.
“……Forty thousand, forty thousand.”
Ultimately, only 40,000 of the initial 90,000 soldiers retreated to the vicinity of Alsace.
“My apologies, Your Grace.”
Grand Duke Leopold lifted his vacant eyes to the gloomy, rain-threatening sky.
The gamble he took had utterly failed.
A gamble.
Fifty thousand subordinates were lost - the price for his adventurous gamble as a military commander, risking his soldiers' lives.
Suppressing his emotions, the Grand Duke spoke calmly.
“……Try to reorganize the soldiers’ formations, even slightly. Marquis Lafayette’s army likely lacks the strength to pursue, but we might face a pincer attack from the Barbarians and Count Milbeau’s forces.”
Even as he gave the order, the Grand Duke knew it would be the end if that happened.
Duke Heinrich, who received the order, and Duke Gunhild, head bandaged from battle injuries, knew reorganization among the utterly ruined Stragglers would be futile.
“……Understood, Your Grace.”
Nevertheless, Duke Heinrich bowed his head and moved to carry out his assigned duty.
As Grand Duke Leopold quietly reached out and fiddled with the pistol at his hip again, Duke Gunhild spoke with a hopeful voice.
“Your Grace, a messenger!”
The Grand Duke looked up and saw a Hussar galloping towards them from afar.
At least Count Baden had enough strength left to send a messenger.
The Grand Duke mentally prepared himself, composed himself, and waited for the messenger’s arrival.
The moment he abandoned the supply lines and struck Marquis Lafayette’s army, Count Baden would have lost any means to defeat Count Milbeau’s Revolutionary Army.
The question was how much of his army Count Milbeau had preserved to block their path, and whether the Barbarian army was still pursuing them.
“Your Grace, a message from Count Baden!”
The Grand Duke swallowed dryly and unfolded the paper the messenger brought, but the news the messenger delivered far exceeded his expectations.
“……Count Milbeau retreated?”
Duke Gunhild and the commanders let out sighs of relief, but Grand Duke Leopold furrowed his brow.
Count Baden must have been getting hammered senseless, and with no reinforcements, Milbeau retreated now? Why would Count Milbeau do that?
“What happened?”
“Fifty thousand reinforcements have arrived from the Homeland and the Northern Allied Kingdom, Your Grace.”
“Ooh……!”
“These reinforcements, sent by the Kaiserin and recruited to overthrow the Francia Rebel Army's puppet government, caused Count Milbeau to immediately retreat from his offensive on Metz.”
“Ooh, congratulations, Your Grace!”
Amidst the commanders' rejoicing, the Grand Duke let out a hollow laugh.
Mobilizing even 120,000 required overcoming the opposition of the Feudal Lords, and now another 50,000 by reaching out to foreign powers?
What exorbitant price did the Empire pay for this?
What did the Kaiserin have to give up to send them?
The Grand Duke had always considered the Kaiserin, who had devoted long years to the Empire and assisted the Kaiser, as dedicated to the Empire.
But, is that truly the case?
“This gives us another chance!”
At the overjoyed shouts of the commanders, Grand Duke Leopold looked back at his army, sitting scattered and resting haphazardly on the roadside.
They were already battered and broken, and the images of his subordinates' corpses covering the plains he had turned his back on would not fade.
And now I'm supposed to drive them back onto the battlefield to fight?
Does my Kaiser, who trusted me completely and appointed me to lead the army, making me a hero of the Empire, truly believe this is a war for the Empire?
-If another war breaks out, both sides must see it to the end. The Empire’s justification is already shaken, must we wage a war that could destabilize the Empire for the Empress’s ambition?
The words he had heard from Marquis Lafayette stabbed the Grand Duke’s heart like daggers.
“……Kaiser, my Kaiser.”
The Grand Duke quietly sought an answer, but there was no reply from the Kaiser, far away in the heart of the Empire.
The Grand Duke saw the hope in his commanders' eyes.
The expectation that the Grand Duke, who had cornered Marquis Lafayette despite being defeated by unexpected reinforcements, might lead them to victory this time.
He saw the despair etched in his soldiers' eyes.
The sense of defeat, having lost both honor and morale, longing only to return home safely.
The light of false hope and the darkness of despair mingled, painting the Grand Duke's heart in a black, viscous color.
Within that deep, dark, suffocating feeling.
The loyalty and conviction he held as a soldier faded to black, leaving only an exhaustion that made him want to lay it all down.
He almost wished the Kaiser would reprimand his failure, punish him, and relieve him of his position.
However.
-To follow blindly even when knowing the path is wrong. Is that truly the way to protect, Your Grace?
-Though we mourn the soldiers sacrificed, a soldier's duty is to fight for what must be protected. If the Kaiser walks a dangerous path, I shall gladly become his sword and open that path.
He had said that. That even if soldiers were sacrificed, he would follow if it was the Kaiser’s will.
The very words he himself had spoken became his chains.
The weight of the soldiers whose lives were senselessly consumed as stakes in the gamble he made to offer victory to the Kaiser became his shackles.
He had neither the freedom to flee nor the right to relinquish his responsibility.
“……Prepare, for a defensive battle.”
The voice the Grand Duke uttered after a long silence mirrored his own pitch-black state of mind.