Chapter 45. Battle of Lake Apitello (6)

"The general is dead! Retreat!"

"...Retreat?"

The kingdom army, with its vanguard hastily retreating and rear units still advancing without having received the retreat order, became entangled. With even Gaston, who could have coordinated this chaos, gone, they quickly lost control and disintegrated.

"Kill them!"

"Argh..."

"Aaaagh!"

Friedrich's 2nd Army, emboldened by the arrival of reinforcements, launched a fierce attack against the completely collapsed kingdom army, and,

"Surrender! We won't harm you if you lay down your weapons!"

"Lower your weapons!"

-Clang!

"I-I've lowered it!"

"Surrender!"

"Uh... spare me!"

Viktor's reinforcements, striking from the flank, actively urged surrender to enemies hesitating to resist.

As an atmosphere of fleeing or surrendering formed, mainly among new recruits, the soldiers, mostly conscripts, were easily swept up in this mood.

"Gather! Retreat while staying as grouped as possible!"

The kingdom army officers tried their best to gather the troops, but the soldiers, already in chaos due to the death of their commander Gaston, couldn't carry out the officers' instructions.

"8th Company! Gather here!"

-Tweet! Tweet!

Although officers shouted until veins popped in their necks, blew whistles with all their might, and waved flags, it wasn't enough to control soldiers consumed by fear.

"Ugh!"

"I want to live, I want to live!"

"Stop! Stop... Argh!"

It even reached the point where an officer trying to block retreating unit members was swept away by them, so the kingdom army couldn't offer proper resistance even with forces twice as large.

"...What? Enemy reinforcements?"

"Yes! General Gaston has died, and the main force is retreating in defeat!"

"Huh. If the main force has already collapsed, we stand no chance. We're retreating too!"

Gerard Leo of the kingdom army cavalry, who had been battling the imperial 2nd Army's cavalry, decided to retreat upon hearing that the main force was retreating in defeat, and,

"Waaaaaaah!"

"Glory to the Empire!"

At this, the 2nd Army's cavalry joined the battle even with reduced forces, raiding the kingdom army's flanks and rear together with the 1st Army's cavalry under Viktor's command.

"Even our rear is under attack..."

"Hah..."

"Resistance is... meaningless. Prepare white flags."

The kingdom army, having lost the will to fight, lowered their weapons and surrendered, and only some forces in the rear that could retreat quickly were able to stably leave the battlefield.

The imperial army pursued the fleeing kingdom army, whipping themselves to their physical limits.

---

That evening, what greeted Gerhart, who had rushed over at the news that the 2nd Army had engaged in battle with Gaston's kingdom army, was the sight of the 2nd Army already finishing the battle and cleaning up the battlefield.

"...A battle broke out in that time, and you won again?"

"That's right."

An officer from the 8th Corps approached the bewildered Gerhart and explained the details of the incident.

"Corps Commander Friedrich! Didn't I tell you to prepare for retreat in advance, and to retreat immediately if you judged that the 1st Army couldn't join even if the enemy moved!"

After hearing the explanation, Gerhart gathered the officers and questioned Friedrich about conducting such a reckless luring operation.

Although the 2nd Army was assigned the role of luring the enemy, the luring operation Friedrich conducted was much more reckless than the original plan.

"Moreover, deciding to counterattack upon seeing the reinforcements sent to aid the retreat! If there had been even a small mistake, the 2nd Army would not have escaped annihilation!"

Gerhart was also displeased with Friedrich's decision to counterattack.

Gerhart's main force had marched at maximum speed, but even though they moved until everyone was exhausted, they could only arrive at the battle site by evening.

In this state, it would have been difficult to engage in battle even if they had arrived, so Gerhart thought Friedrich's decision to counterattack was too hasty.

"...I thought the main force had joined."

"What?"

However, Friedrich answered Gerhart with a slightly aggrieved tone.

"What I clearly received was that they would first send cavalry as reinforcements, and infantry would join later."

"Hmm."

"However, the reinforcements that arrived were about 2,000 cavalry and several thousand infantry. So I thought the main force's infantry had arrived as well, and seeing the enemy's confusion at a visible level, I initiated the attack."

"Infantry?"

"I'll explain."

Viktor, who had been listening to Friedrich's explanation from the side, opened his mouth.

"I arrived leading 5,000 cavalry, but at that time, the kingdom army was chasing the imperial army with momentum. The gap was only a few hundred meters."

"Hmm."

"However, having fought a battle the day before and already traveled for several hours to arrive, it was difficult to immediately jump into battle. Moreover, our movement speed was slow, and we hadn't even put on horse armor to reduce the burden on the horses, so I thought the enemy might notice that those I was leading were just a small number of hastily gathered reinforcements."

"..."

Gerhart listened silently to Viktor's words.

"So I sent 2,000 with horses in relatively good condition to pressure the enemy, and had the rest dismount and carry your flag to deceive them into thinking they were infantry reinforcements from the main force."

"...You did this impromptu?"

"That's right. Since the intention was just to delay the kingdom army's advance, I sent a messenger to Corps Commander Friedrich as well, but almost simultaneously with our infantry revealing themselves, Friedrich's forces initiated their attack."

"Is this true?"

"Yes. Seeing the kingdom army's vanguard suddenly turn their backs, I felt it was an unparalleled opportunity and ordered the attack."

Friedrich readily agreed.

He maintained his dignity, thinking his judgment at the time had not been wrong.

"The kingdom army's confusion was compounded by his attack, and amidst this, someone who appeared to be the enemy commander was commanding soldiers at the front, seemingly trying to control them. The full-scale battle broke out as I dispatched cavalry to kill him."

"That's right. Taking out the enemy commander, Gaston Chartier, was effective."

"..."

Gerhart felt a headache coming on as he listened to Viktor and Friedrich's story.

He was well aware that Friedrich often utilized bold strategies, but Viktor was no less so.

Viktor's boldness in attempting deception by giving up the advantage of cavalry and attacking the commander by exploiting the gaps of an enemy several times larger was completely beyond his imagination.

The fact that all of this was an impromptu decision was even more astonishing.

"So, both the enemy and our forces were deceived by Corps Commander Viktor's deception attempt. Is that what you're saying? And then the kingdom army happened to show a vulnerability, and Corps Commander Viktor immediately exploited it?"

"...Yes."

Gerhart, who had been pondering while chewing over Viktor's words,

"What's the damage?"

Asked the officers about the damage situation as he sat down.

The battle had already occurred, so what mattered was the result.

"The 8th Corps had 1,328 deaths and 3,312 wounded."

"The 1st Army's reinforcements had 389 deaths and 1,642 wounded."

As Gerhart had expected that the damage would be large since they fought an enemy more than twice their size, the imperial army's losses were over 40%.

"...And the enemy?"

"Casualties are estimated to be around 8,000. Prisoners are roughly 13,000. The number of scattered enemies is even larger, but we stopped pursuit as our soldiers' stamina reached its limit."

"..."

What differed from his expectation was that the kingdom army's level of damage was much larger.

Out of 15,000, the imperial army lost 6,671, while out of 35,000, the kingdom army's confirmed losses were about 18,000.

Considering the difference in troop scale, it was an overwhelming result comparable to the battle just the day before.

"...With so many prisoners, further battles will be difficult. How about the enemy in the Triel direction?"

Instead of admiring or praising the result, Gerhart asked about the movements of the enemy headed towards Triel.

Gerhart, who had just spoken as if questioning Friedrich and Viktor's responses.

As the commander-in-chief, he judged that praising the victory in this place where all officers were watching might seem like encouraging dangerous independent action by the officers.

"There's still no movement, but we expect they will retreat once news of these defeats reaches them."

"We will clean up the battlefield and then retreat to Rochelle for reorganization. Continue to monitor the movements of the retreating enemy."

"Understood."

After finishing giving detailed instructions, Gerhart,

"Thank you all for fighting well. We'll conduct merit evaluations after arriving in Rochelle, so Corps Commander Viktor and Corps Commander Friedrich stay behind, the rest may go first."

"...Yes."

He sent out the other officers from the meeting room except for Viktor and Friedrich who had commanded this battle.

"You know why I kept only you two behind, right?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

Gerhart first turned his gaze to Friedrich.

Friedrich answered, clenching his hands as if what he expected had come.

"Corps Commander Friedrich. I've seen many cases where your boldness worked positively, but I think today was a bit excessive."

"..."

"You succeeded only because the kingdom army wasn't properly prepared to attack, but I think your luring could have been caught at any time. Moreover, your subsequent decision to attack was rash. The enemy numbered 35,000, so if they had come to their senses even late, we might have suffered a great defeat."

"...I'm sorry."

Friedrich bowed his head at Gerhart's rebuke with a hardened expression.

Although Friedrich's decision ultimately led to victory, Gerhart was inwardly satisfied that he admitted his mistake and apologized instead of making excuses or feeling aggrieved.

"Corps Commander Viktor."

"Yes."

"You probably know this too. If the enemy had been better prepared or saw through our deception, the situation would have been very different. 3,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry have different weights on the battlefield."

"...That's right."

"I'm not doubting your command ability, but you said the soldiers were exhausted. Did you have a plan for when the enemy saw through your intentions? What about when the surprise attack on the enemy commander failed, or when part of the enemy recovered from confusion and attempted a counterattack?"

"..."

Instead of answering his words, Viktor bowed his head with a hardened expression.

"It was a dangerous engagement. We need to face the Brotan Kingdom with relatively few resources, so maintaining our forces is more important than inflicting great losses on the enemy."

"That's right."

"Be careful. These are grateful people who stepped forward to fight for the empire, not just simple numbers 1 and 2."

"...I understand."

Gerhart could be reassured when he saw Viktor's fingertips trembling as he answered the last words.

This meant that Viktor was keeping the sacrifices of allied soldiers in his heart despite pulling off two great victories.

As Gerhart knew that this was a virtue difficult for young officers to possess.

-Clap!

"Well, let's stop with the unpleasant words here. Given my position, it's difficult for me to praise you freely."

He, who had refreshed the atmosphere with the sound of applause,

"Up until now was the opinion of Commander Gerhart leading the imperial army in the Brotan Kingdom direction, so now I'll speak as Gerhart Weissilt, the old warrior of the empire."

"...?"

He smiled towards the corps commanders surprised by the sudden change in attitude.

"I wanted to say this in front of everyone, but it's a shame I couldn't. Friedrich, Viktor. You did well. It was a victory worthy of going down in history."

"Thank you."

"Ah..."

He addressed Friedrich and Viktor with a lightened voice.

"The boldness, decisiveness, command ability, and judgment you showed are almost frightening for an old man like me to evaluate. If I had been in your position, I couldn't have brought such a victory."

"..."

"Don't worry too much about what I said earlier. Having been on battlefields for over 40 years, I don't have much time left before retirement. It's you who will lead the imperial army in the future."

"General..."

Friedrich's eyes reddened.

"You have already brilliantly proven your abilities, so keep moving forward by your own standards. ...If it's you, it should be possible. Please, take good care of the Dragonian Empire from now on."

Gerhart patted Viktor and Friedrich's shoulders, then,

"You worked hard today too. Leave the rest to me and go in first. We'll talk about future plans after entering Rochelle."

He left the meeting room, carrying documents.

"..."

Viktor and Friedrich, immersed in the lingering impression, remained sitting quietly in that place for several minutes even after he left.