novelAbuy #415 - Is it so difficult to bear the pressure for half a day?
#415 - Is it so difficult to bear the pressure for half a day?
"Our original goal was to rescue Rapidfall City."
Cici urgently chased after Jeshka, trotting to persuade him.
"Rapidfall City looked down on us in the first place. We're here to fulfill the alliance. Why should we risk a rescue?" Jeshka quickened his pace, his head aching, impatiently rebuking Cici.
"If it weren't for those lightning-infused wizards introduced by Lady Catherine, could we have gathered enough Holy Guns before the Battle of Pavia?"
"If it weren't for Lady Catherine's assistance, could 'The Saga of the Holy Son' have spread throughout the entire Thousand River Valley? Could the Holy Son's victory have been transformed into fame?"
"If it weren't for Lady Catherine's channels, could Martin have gone to Langsdon County? Without Martin and Lady Catherine's favor, could the grain agreement between Caxia County and Langsdon County have been signed so smoothly?"
Cici fired off a series of questions.
"What? Moral blackmail?" Annoyed by Cici's words, Jeshka's face flushed red for the first time while arguing with her. "Why don't you mention Rapidfall City planting spies in the Kush Territory, trying to infiltrate and seize power from the Salvation Army government?"
"The Megdi Merchant Guild has various branches and subordinate organizations. We don't understand every institution," Cici's face stiffened, but she still argued reasonably. "Didn't Lady Catherine later send a list of activities in Langsdon County and allow His Holiness to punish them?"
"You're from the Megdi Merchant Guild, of course you'd say that," Haktot, guarding the center army, said sarcastically from the side. "Who knows what you're really like?"
Considering the battlefield situation, Haktot stood on Jeshka's side. They had no feelings for Rapidfall City, simply fulfilling the previous alliance agreement.
If they could defeat Alman, this great enemy, here, Rapidfall City could be destroyed, so be it. It wasn't their city anyway, what did they care?
"But..." Cici rushed forward, blocking Jeshka's path, still wanting to persuade him.
"Cici, we're old friends." Looking at the stubborn Cici, Jeshka's anger subsided, his only remaining eye blinking with guilt and helplessness. "I know there are your relatives and partners in Rapidfall City, but the Salvation Army also has our relatives and partners."
"We'll bombard them here with fire ballistae. If we bombard them for a while longer and force them to attack, we'll win, and we can still rescue Rapidfall City then," Haktot added, arms crossed.
"By that time, the entire Rapidfall City will be burned to the ground, razed to the ground!" Unable to persuade Jeshka and Haktot, Cici quickly walked towards Jeanna. "Sister Jeanna, that's tens of thousands of innocent civilians!"
Jeanna had just returned from the battlefield. She pulled a slippery piece of intestine from the gap in her skirt armor and asked, head lowered, "How far is Rapidfall City from us?"
"Eight kilometers." After a moment of thought, Cici said, "The cavalry can go first, then the carts and saddles can be unloaded, and a regiment of infantry can ride over on horseback. It won't take half an hour."
"Is there still time to relieve the siege?" Jeanna turned her head, struggling to take off her riding boots, pouring sweat out of them. "I mean, what if we arrive and Rapidfall City has already surrendered, and the Church is defending the city instead?"
Cici said firmly, "I believe in Lady Catherine. She will definitely persist in fighting street battles with the Church army. You know me, please believe my judgment."
Jeanna's face showed hesitation, but in Cici's hopeful gaze, she sighed and nodded, "Okay, if it's for the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people, then I'm willing to take the risk."
In a two-to-two tie, the final decision-maker was only Horne.
Accurately speaking, in the Salvation Army government, even if it was zero to ten thousand, Horne would still make the final decision.
Normally, Horne followed the voting results and opinions of the ministers and elders, essentially giving them face and ensuring the normal operation of the government and the dignity of the ministers.
If he really became stubborn, then the Holy Son's power could be said to be unlimited.
If you're not convinced, be careful of the Holy Father descending and possessing you in public, providing one-on-one guidance.
Seeing the Holy Son, who was not showing any emotion, Cici gritted her teeth and stepped forward. "Your Holiness, if you can capture Rapidfall City, the entire Megdi Merchant Guild is willing to accept you as their male master."
Jeanna, who was bending over and wiping the inside of her shoes with a rag, suddenly straightened her back.
Wearing a full suit of Milanese plate armor that reached his knees, Horne inserted the blood-stained Cloud Cutter into the ground, still sheathed, and stood on a large rock, looking towards Rapidfall City in the distance.
"Don't make noise, I'm thinking."
Horne neither agreed nor refused.
From the Salvation Army's current position, only high-ranking knights with exceptional hearing could hear the bells of Rapidfall City eight kilometers away.
According to the news brought back by the cavalry, they should have broken the city twenty minutes ago.
Twenty minutes ago...
Horne rubbed his brow. He thought the Kush knights of Niedersall were bad enough teammates, but now another Rapidfall City had emerged?
The last letter was fine, telling the Salvation Army to take their time and not rush, and the next letter said the city had fallen.
No, ladies, the Church's main force has been transferred here. Is it so difficult to withstand half a day of pressure?
Even if the city falls, there must be a process, at least some foreshadowing. One second everything is fine and energetic, and the next second, how is it all over?
"The Megdi Merchant Guild is willing to bear all the expenses of the Salvation Army!" Seeing Horne still silent, Cici added in a panic.
This time Horne finally responded. He raised his eyes and glanced at Cici. "Don't say that a second time."
Realizing her slip of the tongue, Cici quickly closed her mouth, standing aside like a pleading little white rabbit, waiting for Horne's decision.
Withdrawing his gaze, Horne cast his eyes on the army in front of him, which had fought all the way from Autumn Twilight Island.
No one understood the Salvation Army's combat power better than Horne.
This was not Horne's usual joking nonsense, but a fact.
Because he needed to develop Holy Gunners, unlike most religious leaders of this era, Horne needed to spend a lot of time accompanying the War Monks.
So he was quite familiar with the War Monks' combat power.
If he was in his hometown, without the supernatural, these Salvation Army infantry could easily beat these late medieval feudal armies.
But specific problems must be analyzed specifically. Due to the existence of the supernatural, knights could ignore trenches, chevaux-de-frise, wagon forts, and mortal ultra-long spear phalanxes.
Without the supernatural, in this empire without cannons and gunpowder, the wagon fort tactics they used on the Bloody Sweat Road would be a death sentence for the knights.
But with the supernatural, these terrifying knights could physically smash wagon forts, or even jump over them.
If they continued to use rigid wagon fort tactics, the consequence would be that the soldiers would become dependent.
If they didn't transform in time, it would be difficult to have the motivation to promote field battle capabilities on the plains.
This forced Horne to adopt the more flexible Galar horizontal formation tactics, coupled with the Holy Gun cavalry and hussars, forming a barely complete tactical system.
Since its birth, this system had been using the defensive counterattack concept of wagon fort tactics, which actually violated Horne's original intention.
He realized that the wagon fort tactics were not flexible enough, so he chose the Galar horizontal formation.
But reality and ideals had a gap after all. Horne's starting environment was too poor, and development was too rapid, so even if he provided enough meat, the entire army was still in the process of quantitative change.
That is, the supernatural rate and training did not match their morale. They could exert their full strength in static defense, but in attack, they could easily reveal flaws and be countered.
Simply put, the original knights were high attack and thick health, the ordinary mortal battle formations were low attack and thin health, and the Dungal phalanx, which popularized the supernatural and armor, was low attack and thick health.
Horne's Galar phalanx, equipped with Holy Guns, changed the problem of low mortal attack, bringing the supernatural knights to the same level—both sides were high attack and thin health, meeting and killing each other instantly.
This was why Horne had been trying to fight defensive counterattack tactics. The combat power of the supernatural knights far exceeded the knights on Earth, so they tried to reduce casualties as much as possible.
But the problem was that if they fought like this, they would win tactically, but fall behind strategically.
If he sat here in a stalemate with the Church army, leading to the massacre of Rapidfall City, perhaps the people of the Thousand River Valley would know that it was unavoidable, but they would still feel some disappointment in him.
You must know that Horne's Holy Son status was quite sensitive, like a ghost, you either believe it or you don't.
Compared to other traditional powerful figures in the Thousand River Valley, his influence was not deep, mainly extending among the lowest-level vagrants.
If he watched Rapidfall City being massacred, he would not only lose a lot of hearts and minds, but also lose some legitimacy, especially since Rapidfall City was an important strategic stronghold.
From Rapidfall City, one could go down the river to attack Flufall Fortress or go north to support Melia Ti. Retreating, one could withdraw to Little Pool City. If it was taken by the Church, they would probably fall into a strategic passivity.
Thinking of this, Horne couldn't help but shake his head. He couldn't accept such an ending.
Seeing Horne shake his head, Cici's heart turned cold, and her entire spirit seemed to shatter like a porcelain doll.
But a few seconds later, he returned to normal, but there was actually a bit of tragic expression in his eyes. "If you are unwilling to go to the rescue, please lend me a war horse and a long sword."
"Who said I wasn't going to the rescue." Horne raised the Cloud Cutter that had been placed on the ground in surprise, and re-hung it on his waist.
"You just..." Cici opened her mouth in astonishment.
The grayish smoke of firewood floated in the wind, making the entire battlefield somewhat blurred.
But Horne could still see rows of black-clothed soldiers standing neatly, as upright as iron rods inserted into the ground.
The humid wind made the clothes sticky, and from time to time someone would reach out to secretly pull up their clothes to fan themselves or scratch the itch on their noses.
Except for the occasional low noise, almost no other sound could be heard. In this small range of maneuvering and standing, they seemed like a wall of steel.
Since the start of the war, the Salvation Army had almost always fought positional battles.
But this was not a long-term solution after all. Horne couldn't choose the battlefield every time. There would always be encounters or even ambushes.
An ugly daughter-in-law must eventually meet her parents-in-law.
"Order!" Drawing the Cloud Cutter from its scabbard, Horne's voice was as sonorous as steel, pointing to the enemy's right flank, "March obliquely to the west, flanking!"