Chapter 43. Battle of Lake Apitello (4)

On the evening of the day when the battle between the 1st Army and the kingdom army took place.

Friedrich, who was commanding the deception operation of the 2nd Army in the Montfieu direction, called an emergency meeting to gather the officers.

"What's the matter!"

"An emergency, what on earth..."

Next to Friedrich, who had called the meeting, stood a scout still catching his breath.

With tension clearly visible on Friedrich's face, the imperial officers realized that something was not right.

"A report has come in about discovering enemy reinforcements. Explain in detail."

"Understood."

"!"

"Enemy reinforcements...!"

"Quiet. Speak after the scout's explanation is finished."

When Friedrich mentioned enemy reinforcements, the officers were surprised and began to murmur.

Friedrich calmed the officers for now, and the scout carefully began to speak.

"This morning, we confirmed that about 10,000 troops separated from the enemy forces marching towards Triel and moved to the rear."

"Well..."

"10,000? This is..."

"Judging by their direction of travel and observed marching speed, they are likely to join Gaston Chartier's forces around noon tomorrow."

At the news that enemy reinforcements would arrive in a day, the imperial officers fell into deep thought, letting out sighs.

"Once they join, it's only a matter of time before the enemy moves!"

As an officer who stood up after hearing the scout's words said, right now the enemy is just not moving because they think their numbers are similar to ours.

The moment they regain numerical superiority, the kingdom army is likely to move without delay.

"We received a communication from the 1st Army earlier."

"Yes. They said they encountered forces led by Bevis Lefebvre."

Moreover, it hasn't been long since the news of encountering the enemy arrived from the 1st Army.

"Is there no way to prevent the enemy from joining?"

"The scale of the reinforcements is large, and they even chose a safe route in the rear for their movement. It's difficult to prevent them from joining."

"...Is there a possibility that our forces will send reinforcements at an appropriate time?"

"Although the kingdom army is no match for the imperial army, they're not an opponent we can ignore as long as their numbers are equal to ours."

"That's right. Bevis Lefebvre is a fairly experienced figure in the kingdom. Although General Gerhart is in command so we'll surely win, sending reinforcements is a different matter."

"Hmm..."

It seemed difficult to carry out the original plan of the 1st Army quickly joining and attacking Gaston's kingdom army together with the 2nd Army before the enemy showed movement.

"..."

The officers were silent for a moment, watching Friedrich's expression, then,

"...Corps Commander Viktor also said to retreat immediately to Rochelle if the enemy moves faster than expected."

"That's right. We need to preserve our strength in preparation for a counterattack with the 1st Army."

"..."

An 8th Corps staff member cautiously mentioned retreating.

Encouraged by this, other officers also told Friedrich reasons why they should retreat.

"The role of the 2nd Army was to hold down 25,000 enemy troops to prevent them from supporting Bevis's forces. Although the battle between the 1st Army and the enemy has begun, they still haven't moved, so our purpose has already been achieved."

"Hah... Yes. The 2nd Army will retreat to Rochelle."

Friedrich, who had been listening to the officers' persuasion with a furrowed brow, decided to retreat with a long sigh, but,

"However, we can't retreat without doing anything."

His idea of retreat was a little different from what the other officers were thinking.

"News of the 1st Army's victory will also reach the kingdom army. Although the kingdom army desires battle, it's a different story if it's troops whose morale has fallen due to news of defeat. In the midst of this, we suddenly retreat?"

Friedrich saw this situation as an opportunity similar to when they crossed the Bildorne River, so he stood up and raised his voice.

"Corps Commander Viktor's plan aims to annihilate most of the enemy's expeditionary force. The enemy might turn to offense after grasping our actual scale, but if we retreat quickly and safely, there's a possibility they won't pursue out of concern for ambushes, counterattacks, or lures."

"..."

Friedrich also liked Viktor's plan to defeat the entire enemy separately through rapid maneuvers, taking on some degree of risk.

"If we just let them go now without inflicting damage, they'll return stronger after reorganizing. Now is the opportunity when the enemy has led out troops in an unstable situation. We'll maintain our formation, and when the enemy starts to move, we'll begin our retreat to induce pursuit."

He argued for a bold strategy of essentially using the 2nd Army as bait to firmly tie down the kingdom army.

"It's dangerous! With the enemy's numbers three times ours, we don't know what problems might occur during retreat!"

"It's not certain when the 1st Army can join us. If their joining is delayed, even Rochelle Castle is in danger!"

"Danger? To gain great fruit, one must take risks."

The officers, knowing that retreating with the enemy right in front of them is incomparably more difficult than a normal retreat, spoke of its dangers, but Friedrich, who had pushed through with the Bildorne River crossing operation despite everyone's dissuasion, didn't easily bend his will this time either.

"But..."

As the staff tried to explain how dangerous the strategy Friedrich proposed could be,

-Flutter.

"Corps Commander! Corps Commander Friedrich! Urgent news!"

"Hmm?"

"A great victory! Under Corps Commander Viktor's command, the imperial 1st Army completely annihilated the forces led by Bevis!"

The messenger who rushed in urgently announced the news of the 1st Army's victory first.

"There was also a message saying they would organize reinforcements as quickly as possible and depart right away tomorrow morning!"

"...A great victory, you say?"

"To be able to send reinforcements the very next day..."

"Corps Commander Viktor commanded? Wasn't the 1st Army led by Lord Gerhart?"

The 8th Corps officers were surprised and murmured about the fact that they had achieved a great victory against an enemy of the same scale, and that Viktor, not Gerhart, had taken charge of the command, but for Friedrich, who knew Viktor's abilities to some extent through strategy meetings and the success of the deception operation, the fact that reinforcements would depart tomorrow was most important.

"I see. We'll need to revise the plan."

Instead of being surprised like the other officers, he looked around at them with a triumphant expression.

"Our goal is not retreat, but luring. We'll lure the enemy to near Lake Apitello and crush them together with the reinforcements from the 1st Army!"

No officer objected to Friedrich's words spoken with a confident voice.

"First..."

They pondered strategies to lure out Gaston's kingdom army.

---

The next morning.

"Bevis, Auguste... These incompetent fools...!"

Gaston Chartier gritted his teeth, recalling the contents delivered by Bevis and Auguste's messengers who arrived yesterday.

Auguste, who gave up attacking despite leading 30,000 men and facing only 10,000 troops, and Bevis, who suffered a complete defeat after clashing with forces of similar size.

Especially the fact that Bevis was defeated by 35,000 imperial troops came as a shock to Gaston.

Scouts receiving Viktor's instructions intercepted Bevis's messengers right up until the engagement began, so Gaston only learned that the enemy forces exceeded 30,000 when he received the report of Bevis's defeat.

Even though Gaston realized that the imperial army had employed deception tactics only after hearing the news that Gerhart had led that imperial army, by the time the messenger arrived, it was already too late to move troops.

Since engaging in night battles with an army mostly composed of conscripts is close to suicide, even knowing that the number of imperial troops he faced was at most 10,000, he had no choice but to wait for the next day.

Since Gaston had no way of knowing that Viktor had intercepted Bevis's messengers, he resented Bevis for not sending a messenger to inform them of the information as soon as he encountered the enemy.

"What will you do?"

"Hmm..."

Gaspar Ferring, who had joined with reinforcements this morning, asked Gaston, who was tearing at his hair.

"Viscount Mathieu Delong. How is the imperial army's movement?"

Gaston asked Mathieu about the imperial army's movements in a half-resigned state.

In his thinking, it wouldn't be strange if the answer came back that their camps were already empty.

There was no reason for the imperial army to remain here after fulfilling their role of tying down 25,000 troops.

If they retreated without giving any leeway, Gaston was prepared to face punishment for not achieving results and planned to retreat to preserve his forces.

The original goal was to recapture the Bildorne River basin, but with Bevis's forces shattered, if Gaston's forces were lost as well, the Brotan Kingdom might find it difficult even to withstand the empire's attack.

For him, protecting the kingdom was more important than things like punishment.

However,

"There has been no particular movement."

"...What?"

At Mathieu's report that the imperial army was still in place, Gaston jumped up from his seat.

35,000 fought with Bevis, and 10,000 were blocking Auguste, so the imperial army in front of Gaston was at most about 10,000.

Gaston thought that if they stayed still, there was still hope for the kingdom army.

"Is that true?"

"Yes. They are maintaining a defensive posture just like yesterday."

"Hmm..."

As he pondered the intentions of the imperial army maintaining their deception operation despite having already completed their mission,

"...You said Gerhart commanded the battle with Bevis, right?"

"That's correct."

Recalling the report that Gerhart had shown himself in the Chenet direction, he smiled slightly.

"Hehe. Hehehe..."

"...General?"

"For now, continue to monitor their movements. Report immediately if there are any unusual developments."

"Understood."

"For now, we'll wait."

Gaston gave orders to Mathieu and waited for his report.

Not long after,

"The imperial army is moving supplies to the rear and calling back their scouts. We also saw them hastily dismantling camps and separately organizing and deploying some troops."

They could confirm the circumstances of the imperial army preparing to retreat.

"An opportunity, this is an opportunity."

Gaston judged this as a gap created by the imperial army following Gerhart's instructions from afar.

Since the imperial army had shown such mistakes before when moving only according to the commander's orders, he chose to cling to this thread-like possibility instead of quietly retreating, pressed by the frustration from his allies' poor performance and the sense of responsibility to show results.

"Prepare to advance immediately! We must attack before they finish their retreat preparations!"

Thinking that striking them now and annihilating them was the only chance for the kingdom army to maintain numerical superiority, Gaston urged the officers to prepare for attack.

"The enemy might send reinforcements..."

"What reinforcements! The place where Bevis fought is at least 30 km away from here. Unless he surrendered as soon as he encountered the enemy, there's no way reinforcements could arrive today!"

When Gaspar, feeling an inexplicable anxiety, mentioned the possibility of reinforcements, Gaston firmly denied it.

In his common sense, built over years of war, it was impossible for troops that had fought an intense battle to move 30km the very next day.

"It's suspicious that they're suddenly showing such vulnerabilities."

"The enemy is the imperial army led by Gerhart. This could also be a trap!"

"Gerhart is not here! A trap? Our forces are more than three times theirs. We can break through any ordinary trap with force!"

Gaston, who had lost his composure in urgency, didn't yield to the dissuasion of other staff members.

"...Understood."

Seeing Gaston's appearance as if he had already lost his mind, the kingdom army officers no longer objected and followed his orders.

"Are you anxious? Mathieu! Use all the scouts if necessary to grasp the enemy's intentions! This is our last chance!"

"Yes!"

Gaston, who had ordered to use even the scouts he had saved for contingencies, mounted his horse as soon as the troops were ready to depart,

"Let's go! Let's defeat those imperial bastards!"

Around 1 PM, he swung his sword towards the imperial army that still appeared to be preparing for retreat.