When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#414 - Will the Salvation Army lose if it doesn’t fight a positional war?

Seeing the mercenary knights scattering and fleeing across the battlefield, Countess Marika stood there dumbfounded.

This was completely different from what she had imagined!

In her opinion, while the fire ball crossbow was good, its range was limited. To place it so brazenly outside the battle formation was a huge vulnerability.

Sending some light cavalry to feint and attack, even just circling around a few times, would have been enough to scare off the wizards operating the crossbow.

But what was she seeing now? The mercenary knights rushing forward like a tide hadn't managed to scare the infantry at all!

And those Holy Light Rifle cavalry, with their crude equipment, had routed the mercenary knights in a single charge, sending them fleeing like a receding tide.

Silver chainmail was stained with dark red blood, and the rebel 'retainer knights' in breastplates drew wooden-handled iron clubs from their saddle holsters.

Sparks flew amidst the whirring gears and loud noises, and then a knight would stiffen and fall.

Fragments of armor flew through the air, and all the mercenary knights became startled birds, either trembling on the ground or desperately fleeing with bleeding holes in their bodies.

The scene before her left Countess Marika gasping.

You have six hundred transcendents, and you're being decimated so easily?

"Get back, get back!"

Ignoring her servants' attempts to stop her, Marika rode out on her large horse, lashing the fleeing mercenary knights with her whip: "I paid you a fortune, and this is how you fight?"

"They use witchcraft, Countess," the panting mercenary knights protested. "Perhaps the monks should suppress them with divine magic first."

"If the monks could run that far and cast divine magic, what would I need you for?!"

Countess Marika's red lips were flecked with spittle, and the unfortunate mercenary leaders were covered in her saliva.

After such a scolding, many mercenary captains looked displeased.

The inferior potions Marika provided were not only ineffective but also had side effects, so why was she blaming them?

But out of respect for Marika's family, the mercenary captains endured it.

"Lady Marika, you should retreat to the formation quickly!" A mercenary knight named Desai squeezed through, covered in sweat. "The rebel cavalry are charging."

Sure enough, like sheep driven by wolves, hundreds of mercenary knights were being driven toward their own formation by the Holy Light Rifle cavalry.

"Dodge, dodge!" Earl Komar rode back and forth in front of the formation, but seventeen or eighteen mercenary knights whose horses had lost control charged into their own infantry ranks.

A dozen guards were sent flying, trampled by their own horses before the battle even began, their bones broken and tendons torn.

The injured rolled on the ground, clutching their arms and chests, crying and wailing dramatically.

The sound of orderly hooves grew closer, and Marika, who hadn't felt anything due to the adrenaline rush, now realized she was too far forward.

Seeing the cavalry charging with iron clubs and maces, Marika screamed, "Quick, get out of here!"

The massive Cheyenne horse neighed in pain, galloping toward the main formation, followed by hundreds of fleeing mercenary knights.

It looked as if she were leading the mercenary knights in a charge against her own forces.

Huddled awkwardly on her horse, Marika's fleshy face trembled uncontrollably.

This was an ungraceful posture that Marika usually avoided, but she couldn't care less about appearances when her life was at stake.

This Cheyenne horse was a good horse, carefully selected, and it managed to carry Countess Marika back to the main formation faster than the mercenary knights.

The mercenary knights were forced to collide with their own local transcendent knights, and stray bullets whizzed through the front lines, knocking down several transcendent knights who were utterly bewildered.

They had never fought the Salvation Army before and had never seen such weapons.

While the cavalry ranks on the right flank were in chaos, trouble arose in the center infantry formation.

Along with Marika, the second volley of ten fireballs arrived.

However, perhaps due to the smoke gradually appearing on the battlefield and the earlier mercenary knight charge, the astrologers were somewhat hampered.

Three of the ten fireballs missed their targets in this round, and one hit an ammunition wagon.

Amidst the raging flames of the ammunition wagon, the six fireballs once again engulfed nearly a hundred people, and black smoke and flames engulfed the infantry square once more.

Covered in dirt and ash, Marika finally emerged from the chaotic cavalry ranks on the right flank, watching the main force of her family's knights move out to drive away the Holy Light Rifle cavalry, and she clenched her teeth.

"Lady Marika, are you alright?"

Hearing a familiar voice, Marika questioned Earl Komar as soon as she saw him: "Can we launch a full-scale attack now? This is the second round of fireballs. If we don't attack now, when will we?"

Earl Komar turned his head, looked at Alman in the distance, and sighed as he turned back.

Marika's eyebrows shot up, and she was about to react, but after a few seconds, she fell silent.

She had insisted on attacking earlier, and as a result, a detachment of mercenary knights had been decimated.

After one wrong command, her influence had diminished greatly, and there was no point in saying more now.

Seeing Marika kick a male servant who was blocking her path and break his neck, she felt slightly better.

"Alright, Lord Mizam must have a deeper meaning... Under the gaze of the Holy Lord, we will surely be victorious... Don't take what happened just now to heart..."

Just as Earl Komar was rambling on with his consolations, the anger on Marika's face gradually disappeared, and she raised her right hand, interrupting Earl Komar.

"Shh, do you hear that?" Marika raised her head, her eyes, squeezed into the size of mung beans by her fat, turned towards the direction of Rapid Current City.

Earl Komar listened intently for a while and asked blankly, "Hear what?"

"Bells." Marika quickly walked out of the tent and took two steps towards that direction. "It's the sound of bells coming from Rapid Current City."

"What does this bell sound mean?" Earl Komar's tall figure made him look like Marika's small attendant.

"That is, that is..." Marika's eyes widened.

"It's the sound of Rapid Current City falling!" On the other side of the army, Alman said excitedly to Mizam, "Priest Mizam, listen, Rapid Current City has fallen!"

"Mm." Sitting cross-legged on a large rock with a blanket under his bottom, Mizam said calmly.

Alman, who was already unable to restrain himself, couldn't bear it any longer. The third round of fireballs was about to fall on their heads again. If they didn't counterattack, the infantry would truly collapse.

"Lord Mizam, now that Rapid Current City has fallen, we should take advantage of their unease and launch an attack. If we don't attack now, won't it be pointless when they react?"

"Why do you always assume they're uneasy?" Mizam finally opened his eyes. "Do you still see them as rebels?"

Alman was baffled by Mizam's question: "If we don't see them as rebels, what should we see them as?"

Glaring at Alman with disappointment, Mizam looked towards the fire ball crossbow reloading for the third round in the distance: "Would we be beaten into this state by rebels? Could rebels wipe out an Edict Company?"

"Uh..."

"A year ago, they were just a band of foolish mobs, yet they managed to defeat the Church's encirclement twice and seize the Gulag Monastery.

Nine months ago, they were chased by the Edict Company, but they miraculously escaped the encirclement and fled into the Black Bone Swamp.

Six months ago, they suddenly appeared in Cush territory, leading thousands of mortal mobs to attack and behead Duke Cush, and once again escaped from the Edict Company.

Three months ago, they left the Black Bone Swamp and, in just one winter, trained an army that could defeat transcendents, even wiping out an Edict Company!

In the following three months, they miraculously quelled all the rebellions in their territory and successfully ruled over the territory of two townships.

They even defeated the Ibe Knights of Golden River Township, including the titular knight of Red Copper Fortress, Nidsal."

"Give them another three months, can you imagine how far they'll go?"

Standing up from the blanket, Mizam's usually drooping eyes suddenly widened: "A year ago, we only needed a team of mercenary cavalry to deal with them.

But now we are forced to remain motionless. Do you know what that means?"

Having some understanding, but Alman still pretended not to notice and said, "What?"

"Under equal or near equal strength, we have lost the ability to attack proactively, because if we reveal any weakness, we can easily crush the opponent."

Standing up straight, the 屮-shaped amulet fluttering on his chest, Mizam pointed remotely to the flag in the distance: "In other words, after we both enter the battlefield, whoever takes the initiative to attack first will lose the initiative."

This was what Nidsal and Boao had not realized—

This band of rebels was no longer a mob. Their opponent was never a rebel army, but the regular army of another country.

Yet they were still using the methods of dealing with rebels to cope. Wasn't that taking their own lives as a joke?

Mizam never joked with life, especially his own.

So, after realizing this, he studied Horn's two battles in Black Mountain and Pavia in advance and quickly found the Salvation Army's weakness.

He found that the Salvation Army almost always fought positional warfare, and always waited for the enemy to attack before counterattacking.

By using the terrain, as long as their formation was not disrupted, they could maximize the power of the 'Devil's Wind'.

You, the Salvation Army, want to fight positional warfare, but Mizam is determined not to fight positional warfare with you.

You, the Salvation Army, don't move, but Mizam is determined to make the Salvation Army have to move.

The key to forcing the Salvation Army to act was only one point, and that was their strategic goal for this expedition—to rescue Rapid Current City.

Now that Rapid Current City had fallen, Mizam's order to Elard was to slaughter the city!

Either the Salvation Army would have to sit by and watch the entire city of Rapid Current City be slaughtered, and the Holy Grandson's foundation in Lower River County and Kashya County would be completely destroyed.

Or the Salvation Army would have to give up the advantage of positional warfare, go to the plains, and fight the Edict Company head-on with their own disadvantages and the Edict Company's advantages.

Either way, the Salvation Army would lose.

The only thing outside the plan was the marching speed of Horn's reinforcements and the ultra-long range fire ball crossbow.

But it didn't matter, some small mistakes were harmless.

Looking at the increasingly agitated army of the Salvation Army opposite, Alman suddenly realized, Mizam smiled and patted him on the shoulder, chuckling softly.

"I have planned everything before the war, don't let me down, and don't let Lord Shahr down."