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Vol 05 Chapter 146: The First Southern Campaign II

「Comrades!! A royal decree has been issued by His Majesty the King!! We are to suppress the foolish Kirisians!!」

Bartolo declared this to his soldiers. The soldiers raised a great cheer. Their eyes shone brightly, filled with motivation.

「There are rumors about new laws and strikes being the new fad. However! Those things have nothing to do with us!!」

「That’s right!!」

「It has nothing to do with us!!」

The soldiers echoed Bartolo’s words. They had been training with Bartolo for the past six months.

They hadn’t thought about wanting the laws to be compiled, nor had they participated in any strike meetings. They had been kept out of the loop.

What was on their minds was training and battle.

「Now, let’s show them our strength. Let’s go!!」

「OOOOHHHH!!!!」

And so, Bartolo headed south.

◇

About two days later…

「Oh!! Isn’t it Roswald!! Thank you for catching up. I was actually worried since we didn’t have any cavalry!」

「Nii-sa… I received orders from His Majesty to join General Bartolo in advance… Could you please let go?」

Roswald desperately turned his face away from Bartolo, who had his arm around Roswald’s shoulder.

Bartolo always reeked of alcohol. However, he was not drunk. Bartolo was a man with a very narrow personal space to begin with. Well, you could say he was born drunk.

「By the way, will the Equus Tribe cavalry be coming?」

「No, His Majesty does not intend to use the power of another country to suppress the rebellion.」

「Haha, that’s a good judgment. After all, the Equus tribe are the kind of people who plunder others’ territories at will. We can’t have them rampaging around our country.」

There was friendship and firm trust between Mutzio, the chieftain of the Equus Tribe, and Almus, the king of King Rosais’ Country. However, such trust did not exist among the vassals like Bartolo.

In the first place, a king who cannot quell a rebellion without using the power of another country is not fit to be called a king. Moreover, inviting another country while having a rebellion is a very dangerous act.

Almus surely understood this well.

「We have three hundred cavalry and three thousand infantry… But the enemy’s forces are…」

「Well, around eight thousand to fifteen thousand. The population of the rebellious Kirisian cities is about twenty thousand to thirty thousand. It’s a war of independence, so all the men will take up arms and fight, right? Considering reinforcements from surrounding Kirisian cities, it will be around that number.」

An enemy more than three times their size. Roswald looked worried. However, Bartolo cheerfully patted Roswald on the back multiple times.

「What, the stronger the enemy, the more worthwhile it is. Besides, they can’t gather more than ten thousand at the same time. We just need to defeat them one by one.」

That was why Bartolo moved without waiting for reinforcements. To crush the rebels before they could unite. Swift action was essential for that.

「Lord Bartolo!! We’ve spotted the enemy ahead! It looks like there are about four thousand of them.」

Upon receiving the report from the scouts, Bartolo smiled. A victorious smile.

◇

「Vilgar, you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.」

「Yes, sir. By the way, something seems different about our army this time.」

Vilgar, a former Germanic slave and Roswald’s lieutenant, had been wondering about something and finally asked Roswald.

The Rosais army equipment Vilgar knew was round shields and long spears. They formed a phalanx and fought with it. However, the heavy infantry led by Bartolo had completely different equipment.

They had large rectangular shields that covered their entire bodies and short swords.

Could they really fight with such equipment?

「Well… that person seemed confident, so it should be fine.」

「Really? That guy is always drunk. He was chugging down alcohol just a while ago…」

「That’s normal for him. He’s not just any drunk, he’s a very capable drunk. It’ll be fine, probably, surely…」

Roswald also began to worry gradually. However, Bartolo was the commander.

「Anyway! Trust him. Trust General Bartolo!」

「Yes, I’ll do my best.」

After such an exchange, they quickly took their positions.

◇

The enemy formed a typical phalanx formation, a dense formation combining spears and round shields. It was like a walking fortress. From above, it was clear that the flanks were reinforced. This was likely a countermeasure against Bartolo’s flanking tactics.

Additionally, there were two hundred cavalrymen on each side, a total of four hundred.

On the other hand, the Rosais army led by Bartolo had formed a completely different formation.

The basic unit was a maniple1 of 160 men, each maniple consisted of two centuriae2 of eighty men, and each centuria consisted of ten squads of eight men. Fifteen such maniples made a total of 2,400 men.

Each maniple was divided into three lines: front, middle, and rear, with a certain distance maintained between each maniple. Additionally, 600 light infantry were positioned ahead of the front line.

On each flank, there were 150 cavalrymen, making a total of 300 cavalry. The Rosais cavalry seemed to be fewer in number than the rebel cavalry.

◇

「What should we do, General?」

「First, let’s force the enemy cavalry to withdraw from the battlefield.」

The rebel general answered his lieutenant while stroking his beard. Immediately, a gong sounded, and the rebel cavalry charged forward.

The Rosais cavalry, led by Roswald, moved to intercept them. As expected of the elite tasked with protecting the King, the Rosais cavalry held their own against the enemy despite being outnumbered.

However, the enemy’s goal was not to defeat the Rosais cavalry. Their aim was to lure them away from the battlefield. Gradually, under the guidance of the rebel cavalry, the Rosais cavalry was drawn away from the main battlefield.

「Damn, we’re being led away…」

Roswald cursed under his breath as he cut down an enemy. But against the numerically superior enemy, holding the line was the best they could manage.

「Now, the stage is set. All troops, charge! Break through the center of the enemy!!」

The rebel phalanx roared as it charged towards the Rosais army.

◇

「Hmm, so they have done their research. They’re imitating General Kuryuu’s tactics.」

Bartolo muttered while drinking. So far, the battle had been unfolding in the same manner as the first battle against Kuryuu.

If things continued as they had, the Rosais army would face defeat. If things continued as they had.

「Sigh… It’s incredible that they think the same method would work twice on me. It’s truly displeasing.」

Bartolo threw away the empty bottle.

「Light infantry, front and middle heavy infantry, begin javelin throw!!」

The trumpet blared, and the light and heavy infantry began throwing their javelins one after another. The javelins rained down on the rebel army. The rebels raised their round shields to the sky to block the attack.

「Damn, these are too heavy to be of any use!!」

The javelins that pierced the round shields bent at the tips, dangling to the ground, and were difficult to remove. The rebels discarded their now-useless shields one after another.

Soldiers who lost their round shields lost their sense of security and became uneasy. It was only natural, as they had lost the protection that covered half of their bodies.

But the battle continued.

As the light infantry finished throwing their javelins and moved back, both armies clashed.

「Don’t worry about the spears. Charge and push through!!」

Following the orders of the centurions, the heavy infantry of the Rosais army closed in on the rebel army, relying on their shields as they had been trained. A melee ensued.

「This, this way the spears won’t hit anything. What should we… aagh!」

A centurion of the rebel army screamed and fell to the ground. Blood poured from his neck. The one who killed him was a young heavy infantryman from the Rosais army, in his late teens.

His weapon was a short sword.

While a short sword has much less reach compared to a spear, once they closed in, that advantage disappeared. In fact, in the current melee, the more maneuverable short sword was advantageous.

「Looks like it’s going according to training.」

Bartolo, in high spirits, began drinking a new bottle of liquor. This was the tactic Bartolo had devised.

Enlarge the shields to block enemy attacks. Then, stab the exposed enemy with the short sword.

As time passed, fatigue began to show on both sides. It was inevitable. They were fighting for their lives, wielding heavy weapons with both hands.

「Front line, switch with the middle line.」

The trumpet sounded. The front line of the Rosais army swiftly moved back, and the rear line filled the gap.

Immediately, the Rosais army began pushing back the rebels. The rebels were taken aback by the sudden resurgence of energy in their opponents.

One of the features of Bartolo’s new tactic was the ability to quickly rotate troops.

In a tightly packed phalanx, rotating soldiers was difficult. If a soldier stepped back, the formation would quickly collapse.

Therefore, they had no choice but to fight until they died. If they fell, they would be trampled by their own comrades.

However, Bartolo’s new tactic allowed for gaps between companies, enabling swift rotation of lines. If soldiers were deemed exhausted, they could be quickly replaced with fresh troops.

The front line of the Rosais army consisted of new recruits in their late teens to twenties. The middle line was composed of veterans in their thirties.

The veteran soldiers, who had been anxiously watching the young recruits in the front line, were eager to take their turn. When it came, they pushed the enemy back with great vigor.

「General Bartolo, there are some units that are advancing too far…」

「Well, isn’t that fine? Momentum is important.」

Bartolo further instructed the heavy infantry on both wings to gradually pressure the sides of the phalanx. This maneuver was possible only because of the superior mobility of the new tactics.

The phalanx began to collapse gradually. Once this happened, the rebel army was pressed by their own comrades, trampled, and crushed.

Many soldiers threw down their weapons and fled. All that was left was for the enemy formation to collapse completely.

「Deploy the rear line. Pursue them.」

The veteran soldiers of the rear line were deployed. They were armed with relatively light shields and short spears.

Not wanting to be outdone by the younger soldiers, the veterans, like lions unleashed from their cage, pounced on the backs of the fleeing rebels.

Rebel Army loses: 1,000 killed, 500 wounded, 1,500 fled.

Rosais Army loses: 130 killed, 300 wounded.

Thus, the Rosais army achieved a great victory.

AN: New Tactics

Advantages:

• Superior mobility
• Flexibility
• Constant troop rotation
• High tactical effectiveness
• Sustained endurance

Disadvantages:

• Lack of charging power

Challenges:

• Training to enable flexible movements
• Maintaining discipline
• Need for competent non-commissioned officers

Frankly speaking, it could be said that only Bartolo could master this tactic. Bartolo’s high command ability and the year he spent meticulously training the non-commissioned officers allowed the troops to withstand the phalanx’s charge. If it had been an average commander, they wouldn’t have been able to hold back the phalanx’s momentum and would have collapsed. These tactics are still in their infancy.

TN1: The maniple was one of the basic units of the Roman legion and the basis for its flexibility and versatility. The basics were the same as explained in the story.

TN2: The centuria was the smallest unit of the Roman legion; despite its name (meaning one hundred), it usually consisted of eighty legionaries. It was originally composed of one hundred soldiers, but the evolution of military tactics and organization reduced the number of soldiers to eighty, a number that would remain unchanged until the later periods of the Empire.