Chapter 44. Battle of Lake Apitello (5)

A large force of 35,000 troops stationed in the fortification couldn't all move immediately as soon as the order was given.

Moreover, the cavalry, most crucial in pursuit, coincidentally couldn't depart right away as they were tending to their horses, but,

"The enemy is trying to flee! Attack! The cavalry should join the attack as soon as they're ready!"

"General!"

At a time close to noon.

The impatient Gaston led about 20,000 infantry towards the imperial army as soon as they finished preparations.

"They're running away?"

"If it's just those fleeing bastards...!"

At the mention of chasing retreating enemies, the kingdom army soldiers, who had been flustered while preparing for the sudden departure, gained confidence and followed Gaston.

"The enemy camp is in chaos. Horses are running between tents, and soldiers are still organizing supplies and tents."

"...I see. Yes, yes! Bevis and Auguste made mistakes, so it's time for the enemy to make mistakes too. That's right. It should be. Yes."

When Mathieu reported the imperial army's reaction upon seeing the kingdom army's advance, Gaston, who was commanding soldiers at the front, kept reassuring himself that the imperial army's belated retreat attempt stemmed from a mistake, then.

"The enemy can't stand against us! Let's show the power of the Brotan Kingdom!"

"Waaaaaaah!"

He vigorously declared an attack, trying to suppress the slight ominousness that kept raising its head.

The kingdom army charged towards the imperial army's fortification with a battle cry.

The imperial army, seemingly not expecting the attack, was busy fleeing, leaving their supplies intact.

"Not even a rear guard..."

Gaspar, who was following with soldiers whose preparations were delayed, felt a sense of discomfort at the sight of the imperial army that didn't even seem to have a rear guard, which is basic for retreats.

"We'll gather supplies after dealing with them! Keep advancing!"

Gaston, commanding troops at the front, confirmed with his own eyes the imperial army fleeing with just their weapons, so he rode among the kingdom army troops, encouraging the advance.

As Gaston's forces didn't stop, Gaspar had no choice but to follow him.

"The enemy force is estimated at about 10,000."

"10,000? Ha."

Although he had expected it, Gaston was dumbfounded that barely 10,000 soldiers came out of a fortification that could easily accommodate over 20,000.

"Chase them! The enemy is just 10,000!"

Encouraged by the fact that the enemy numbers were less than a third of their own, the kingdom army advanced quickly, ignoring potential spoils, and the gap between the fleeing imperial infantry and the pursuing kingdom infantry gradually narrowed.

"...Hmm."

Gaston felt something strange about the oddly slow speed of the imperial army and their appearance of hastily retreating yet without any stragglers, but,

"General! Enemy cavalry has appeared in front! Their number is about 500!"

"Cavalry?"

He brightened at the news of a small number of enemy cavalry appearing.

"Haha, they must have been in quite a hurry."

In Gaston's thinking, which had staked everything on the imperial army's mistake, the fact that cavalry, not regrouped infantry, had come out to delay the pursuit was rather a good sign.

The enemy infantry was still retreating without properly forming ranks, so the enemy cavalry had volunteered to sacrifice themselves to protect them.

He thought this was an indicator of the imperial army's desperate situation.

"Is our cavalry ready?"

"Yes! 2,000 cavalry led by Lord Gerard Leo are approaching."

"Tell him! The cavalry should prioritize dealing with the enemy cavalry!"

"Understood!"

Gaston entrusted the enemy cavalry to his own cavalry and continued to charge,

"Don't stop moving! They're getting closer!"

After a pursuit lasting dozens of minutes, the gap between the imperial army and the kingdom army, which had been almost 1km, had now narrowed to just a few hundred meters.

"Cowards! Stop right there!"

"Let's fight!"

As the speed of the fleeing imperial army noticeably decreased compared to earlier, kingdom army soldiers, thinking they could catch them, charged forward with battle cries.

However, at that moment.

"General! A cavalry force of several thousand has appeared on the enemy's left flank!"

"What?"

Gaston's expression hardened at Mathieu's urgent report.

As he reported, Gaston could confirm a not-small cavalry force kicking up dust as they charged towards the kingdom army.

"Reinforcements?"

"What, what should we do?"

Even the soldiers who had been charging confidently slowed their pace, flustered by the appearance of enemy forces.

"How does the empire have spare troops!"

Gaston's expectation was that there couldn't be additional troops since no signs of the imperial army pulling out troops in advance at night were detected, nor did they separate forces during retreat.

He asked Mathieu back in confusion.

"They're carrying Gerhart's flag! They appear to be enemy reinforcements!"

"Reinforcements? Bevis, until the very end...!"

The cavalry appeared from across Lake Apitello, in the direction of Chenet.

If they were indeed reinforcements, it was easy to deduce that they were Gerhart's forces who had fought with Bevis.

Gaston was about to burst with frustration at the thought that if only Bevis had held out a little longer, this wouldn't have happened, when,

"...Wait a moment."

Feeling something suspicious, he went to the front of the formation and carefully observed the approaching enemy cavalry.

As he wasn't yet prepared to give up the thread-like hope,

"They've only put on saddles without horse armor. Their speed is too slow for imperial cavalry."

"What do you mean?"

He tried to persuade Mathieu, pointing at the approaching cavalry.

"Moreover, look closely. Despite the swirling dust, the number of cavalry itself isn't that large."

"..."

"That's it. That's what it was! Yes, even Gerhart couldn't possibly send proper reinforcements!"

Gaston, swinging his fist as if he had realized something,

"...Is that so?"

"Viscount Delong, don't you understand yet? That too is a deception operation! To stop our pursuit!"

"Well..."

"They haven't fully recovered the horses' stamina, so they removed the horse armor to reduce weight. And since it's impossible for the entire cavalry to be intact after a large-scale battle, they're kicking up dust to hide their numbers! Those coming now are just cavalry exhausted from the previous day's battle, and it's still far for the enemy's main force to come as reinforcements!"

"Then...?"

"Look closely! At a glance they might seem numerous, but considering their spacing, they're at most 3,000 in number!"

He explained his deduction to the dazed-looking Mathieu, unable to hide his excitement.

Before Mathieu could answer,

"They're a deception! There's no need to fear! The enemy has only sent a small cavalry force, in the end their forces don't even amount to half of ours! Let's go!"

"...Waaaaaaah!"

"Waaaaaaah!"

Gaston, sensing victory—or more precisely, trying hard to think he sensed victory—swung his sword while shouting to instill courage in the soldiers who were hesitating at the news of reinforcements.

Just after the soldiers started charging like that.

"...General."

"What is it?"

Mathieu called Gaston with a trembling voice.

"There, over there..."

Mathieu, with a pale face, was pointing his finger towards where the enemy cavalry had come from.

"Didn't I tell you, they're already tired..."

"Behind them!"

"..."

At his voice close to a scream, Gaston looked again where he was pointing and,

"...Fuck."

He cursed at the sight of enemy infantry approaching carrying Gerhart's flag.

The infantry force, numbering at least 3,000, was coming towards the kingdom army at a fast pace despite being fully armored.

"Infantry? How on earth?"

Although all scouts had been deployed, it was impossible for the kingdom army scouts, who had already lost most of their numbers, to grasp the scale of reinforcements appearing from the imperial army's rear.

To Gaston's eyes, it seemed as if he could see the main force of reinforcements following right behind those thousands of infantry.

When he looked at the fleeing imperial army in confusion, even the imperial army that had been fleeing in disorder was now forming ranks and preparing a counterattack while the kingdom army hesitated.

"Could it be?"

The unexpected appearance of infantry reinforcements and the imperial army's preparation for counterattack as if they had been waiting burst the anxiety Gaston had been forcibly suppressing.

To Gaston, who had been constantly fearing Gerhart's schemes, this entire situation felt like it had flowed according to his plan.

"...No."

He fell into shock from the guilt of endangering the Brotan Kingdom's hope with his own hands and the collapse of his conviction, unable to think normally.

"Retreat."

"Pardon?"

His mind was filled with thoughts of somehow overcoming this crisis.

Although he couldn't even begin to guess how it had been done, if enemy infantry reinforcements had arrived to this extent, it was fair to say the kingdom army no longer had the advantage.

Rather, as the kingdom army was tired from chasing the fleeing imperial army, the possibility of defeating the imperial army joined by reinforcements was extremely small.

With a sense of despair that if this army was annihilated here, it would be the end of the Brotan Kingdom,

"All forces! Retreat and form ranks! Stop the attack!"

Gaston stepped forward, shouting desperately, blocking soldiers rushing towards the enemy.

His mind, having already concluded they had fallen into Gerhart's plan, still couldn't recall the fact that this place was more than 20km away from where Bevis and Gerhart had fought, making it impossible for the imperial infantry to arrive on time.

"Retreat?"

"Weren't we attacking?"

The kingdom army soldiers, who had been advancing according to the previous order, were confused by the suddenly issued exactly opposite order, and most of the kingdom army couldn't even form proper ranks despite Gaston's desperate command.

"For the Dragonian Empire!"

"What, enemy reinforcements!"

"Run away!"

At the imperial army's attack that followed as if driving in a wedge to that confusion, the confusion soon turned into fear.

"Regroup, regroup!"

"G-Get out of the way, don't block!"

Fear spread in an instant, and the kingdom army began to collapse without giving the officers time to gather them.

"Everyone, reform the ranks... Gah!"

Moreover, as imperial cavalry receiving Viktor's command knocked Gaston, who was commanding troops at the very front in his urgent state, off his horse,

"General!"

"Uh, ugh..."

The last hope of the Brotan Kingdom army shattered just like that.

"Aaaagh!"

"I'm here, ugh!"

"Help me!"

Seeing the pandemonium of soldiers entangled here and there being pushed over, and terrified soldiers trampling over them, Gaspar,

"...We've lost."

Uttered a brief impression and put away the weapon he was holding.

---

"...Hmm."

Honestly, as I'm not a genius, I didn't expect it to turn out like this.

It started when Friedrich suddenly notified that he would conduct a luring operation instead of quietly retreating, so I decided to first support him with 5,000 cavalry that were in relatively good condition.

Although Gerhart's main force had also departed, it would take another day for them to arrive here and engage in battle.

Even the cavalry that came as reinforcements weren't in perfect condition as the horses' fatigue hadn't fully recovered, so we had to give up horse armor.

That's why I had some of the cavalry dismount and disguise themselves as infantry.

Cavalry reinforcements that rushed here without horse armor and heavily armored infantry reinforcements appearing nearby would inevitably feel different.

The intention was to make it appear as if the main infantry reinforcements had already arrived, to delay the enemy's pursuit.

In fact, before they collapsed, I intended to move no more than just checking the enemy.

As the kingdom army had many conscripts and thus would be greatly affected by momentum, just stopping once would buy time for the main force led by Gerhart to arrive.

"...You're amazing."

"It looks like it will end before General Gerhart arrives."

"..."

...I'm saying I didn't conduct this expecting such a dramatic result.

Of course, it's not bad that they view me favorably, so I didn't avoid the gaze of the officers looking at me with sparkling eyes from nearby.

"Deputy Commander, what should we do now?"

Whether it was influenced by Friedrich's sudden luring operation, or due to something else.

I don't know the exact reason, but the result is that an opportunity has come, so the reason isn't important.

The kingdom army has been literally melting away since we dealt with the person who seemed to be the enemy commander who was in a dangerous position.

"Cooperate with Corps Commander Friedrich's 2nd Army and crush them."

"Yes!"

After sending the nearby officers to the battlefield, I closed my eyes and silently commanded the reinforcements.