Episode 114 Revolutionary Defense War – Collapse (1)
When I left Eris, who was exhausted and asleep, lying down in her dorm, the battle was already completely over.
“Waaah!”
“Long live the revolution!”
“It is a victory for Franzia!”
Archduke Leopold’s imperial army was routed and retreated to Nancy, and the revolutionary army was cheering as it saw the endless procession of prisoners.
It seems like Eris’s intentions worked better than expected? If there are that many prisoners, it will take even longer to recover.
Is it possible to advance directly to Nancy in this way?
Nancy is a city that the Archduke fortified throughout the winter. It will cost a lot to attack the enemy at the top, so we need to take the lead before the imperial army comes to its senses.
As I was walking through the camp, lost in thought, Damien de Mirbeau came running up in a huff and started talking.
“It is a great victory, His Excellency the Marquis de Lafayette! This is truly a legendary feat! Who would have thought that such a huge victory could be achieved under such unfavorable circumstances! Only Damien de Mirbeau, a loyal subject of the Marquis-”
“Count Mirbeau.”
“Yes old! “Your Majesty, Marquis de Lafayette!”
“Did you get my orders? “How far have the preparations for the advance to Nancy progressed?”
Considering the time it was delivered, it would be about two hours behind at the earliest.
That’s what I thought, but Damien immediately responded by taking a proper saluting stance.
“Preparations are almost complete and can be done within 30 minutes, Your Excellency the Marquis! “Just give me the order!”
“…as soon as?”
Does that work?
Even if you started preparing right away after receiving my order, isn’t that too fast?
Isn’t this person making false reports again?
Damien must have felt the way I was looking at him and immediately opened his mouth in a more angular posture.
“Didn’t His Excellency the Marquis always act with a view to the bigger situation rather than the trivial escalation of war? “I prepared in advance, believing that Your Excellency would give priority to targeting more important strategic points rather than pursuing the remnants!”
Damien’s face as he answers that question is full of joy and pride that cannot be hidden.
Actually, I was nervous.
“Is that so?”
No, fuck.
Damien de Mirbeau, no other guy, is analyzing and understanding my behavioral patterns and psychology to this extent?
I should definitely be happy to have such a capable subordinate… It
‘s hard to put into words, but I feel a strange sense of discomfort…
The person who read my intentions was no one else, but this guy.
I couldn’t shake off the bitter feeling, but I had to do what I had to do anyway, so I nodded to Damien.
“Okay, Commander Damien de Mirbeau. That’s great. Lead the Confederate army immediately and advance toward Nancy. Shandra and the Iberica army have been pursuing the enemy and delaying regrouping as much as possible, so if we do well, the southern army will be able to capture Nancy alone.”
I’m reluctant because the person who read my intentions was Damian, but since the southern army’s preparations are almost finished, it would be more effective to send only the southern army here and let Desai’s northern army take care of clearing the scene and recovering prisoners.
“I, too, will follow immediately after clearing this place with the northern army. “This is an important opportunity, so don’t disappoint me.”
The Northern Army will remain here, giving the Southern Army a chance to make a mark by stepping on the enemy’s mess and taking over the key point. Damien, who immediately understood the intention, answered with a smile on his face.
“Is it possible, Your Excellency the Marquis? “We will prepare the way for Your Excellency to come from Nancy and wait for you!”
“Yes, I look forward to it.”
I looked at the back of Damien running excitedly for a moment, then turned around and ran into Louis Desget, commander of the Northern Army, and Alexandre Werther, Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army.
“Congratulations on your great victory, His Excellency the Marquis de Lafayette.”
“Even though it was a crisis, we were able to win thanks to the excellent strategy of His Excellency the Marquis!”
“You guys did a great job too, Commander Desais, Chief of Staff Werther.”
Two people who actually allow me to leave the scene and jump to the front lines.
They must have been very busy managing the military on my behalf during this battle.
I looked at Deje with a grin and he looked a little embarrassed.
Before leaving, he and I had quite an argument.
-I lead the cuirassier cavalry and fight the enemy cuirassier cavalry. As always, I will leave the main unit to Commander Desais.
-Are you crazy? Or do you really want to remain a diplomat who died because of his reckless behavior? It’s an assassin! They are using a poison that put even the great General Gaston on the verge of death, and your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, is going to jump on them?
-If you don’t show that level of desperation, you won’t be able to reliably attract the imperial army. I’m just the person best suited to the role needed. And if it’s a surprise attack without anyone knowing, they’re not clumsy enough to be attacked by assassins who already know their existence.
– It may be presumptuous, but historically, among the commanders who died in the vanguard, none of them thought they would die, His Excellency the Marquis.
-Your concerns are valid, but we are already at a disadvantage. If things continue like this, this battle will end in a crushing defeat. Then, the momentum of the imperial army that has been shaking so far will ignite, and the capital will immediately become dangerous. I trust you to take care of me, so I hope you trust me too.
In the end, Deje remained silent for a moment, then smiled awkwardly and opened his mouth.
“You kept what you said, Your Excellency the Marquis.”
“Yes, you also safely carried out the responsibility I trusted you with.”
Deje sighed lightly and bowed to me.
“I apologize for my rude words and actions before departure, Your Excellency the Marquis.”
“I am willing to forgive your advice. But that’s it. There are more prisoners than expected, so the northern army will have to take care of the local situation. The advance to Nancy is left to Mirbeau. “The northern army probably wasn’t ready anyway, right?”
Deje smiled bitterly and answered.
“I will follow the orders of His Excellency the Marquis. “I’ll have to be more moderate in my advice next time since I’m losing my place to eat raw food.”
“Oh, that’s difficult, so I guess we shouldn’t give credit to Mirbeau by eating Nancy?”
After exchanging jokes, Deje and I looked at each other for a moment and eventually burst out laughing.
The feeling of trusting and fighting for each other like this is not bad.
* * *
The state of the imperial army that suffered a crushing defeat in the Valois Hills could be expressed simply.
Despair and fear.
The mixed force of Orcs and Goblins, led by Shandra, doggedly attacked the Imperial forces, and countless people fell behind and surrendered.
Pierre de Lafayette was not only able to trap the empire and achieve victory at that important moment, but he did not take advantage of it and attacked the light cavalry just outside the area, destroying it.
The hussars, who had been responsible for reconnaissance and cover for retreating allies in the imperial army for a long time, while also acting as messengers between units, completely collapsed.
Thanks to this, the imperial army, whose communication system was a mess, was unable to even properly understand the situation and had no choice but to flee in a panic to avoid Shandra’s pursuing army.
Archduke Leopold, who managed to arrive at Nancy after a difficult retreat, was listening to a despairing report.
“The number of troops that have returned so far is 45,000, Your Highness.”
100,000 people went out and not even half of them returned.
There may still be many units returning to Nancy, but it was a crushing defeat that was unimaginable.
Losses were heavy in the battle on the western plains of Besançon, but this was due to unexpected enemy reinforcements attacking from the rear.
I couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t want to believe it, that they had engaged in a head-on battle of power under equal conditions and suffered enormous damage that surpassed that of the previous battle.
Nevertheless, words that were close to a sigh flowed from the Archduke’s mouth at the stark reality.
“…The Count of Baden. “I guess we couldn’t find it in the end.”
“I apologize, Your Highness….”
Duke Henry, the Chief of Staff, bowed his head to him, but he had nothing to say.
As Chief of Staff, I had to foresee and warn of such a situation in advance.
If he had understood the mood of the imperial army, which was longing for revenge and victory after being severely harassed and defeated by the revolutionary army, and warned him in advance, he might have been able to avoid being caught so easily by the Marquis de Lafayette.
However, this could not be done, and the Count of Baden, who led the charge, longing for revenge on the revolutionary army more than anyone else, disappeared.
It is obvious what his fate would have been if he had taken the lead and gone missing.
It must have become one of the countless corpses on the battlefield.
Archduke Leopold raised his hand and touched his face, which was full of deep fatigue.
“What about Count Wittelsbach?”
“I rode a horse for a long time with a wound on my thigh, so the injury is severe. “We administered first aid, but it was difficult for him to recover immediately, so we called the bishop from his home country.”
“Yeah, I see.”
The Archduke answered helplessly.
The Empire’s greatest knight, Count Albert von Wittelsbach.
He was not even Gaston, who was said to be their strongest knight, but he lost the battle against the Marquis de Lafayette.
At the moment when everyone in the empire was struggling, hoping that their only hope, the best knight of the empire, would defeat their commander-in-chief, the sight of his spirit breaking and falling engraved deep despair in the entire imperial army.
The Archduke bit his lip.
Marquis Pierre de Lafayette.
The Archduke regarded him as a threat equal to, or even greater than, him and went into battle.
I never looked down on him and never let down my guard.
Rather, they prepared a lot to somehow gain the upper hand during the time when they were not on the offensive.
However, assassins to outwit them, dragoons to block their Chasseurs, more troops, and even the young genius of the empire.
In the end, I couldn’t defeat them.
Archduke Leopold was defeated by Pierre de Lafayette even in a head-to-head race with equal conditions, which he pulled out with great difficulty.
Pierre de Lafayette has a lot of cards he can trust.
Count Damien de Mirbeau, a master of defense who is recognized as a de facto wailing wall by the imperial army.
Louis Desget is cool and calm, and has the ability to command the entire army from the rear and carry out the operation without difficulty even when the Marquis de Lafayette rushes to the front line.
Gaston, the strongest knight who inherits the reputation of the kingdom of knights, and Jerome Morel, the Chasseur commander who overwhelms the Hussars, the pride of the empire. Nicola, the brave warrior who is always at the forefront and shares danger with the soldiers.
Even the Saint Queen Esiliste, who performs all kinds of miracles and raises the morale of her enemies with her mere presence, and breaks our own morale.
But to Archduke Leopold, to him.
There are no such people.
Count Wittelsbach, who was still superior, was defeated from the front by the Marquis de Lafayette, and even if the Archduke himself evaluated it as conservatively as possible, the imperial commanders were far inferior to the commanders of the French Revolutionary Army.
“We lost this war.”
“Your Highness…”
The weight of those words was even heavier because they were despairing words coming from the mouth of none other than the Empire’s greatest commander and hero.
“This war must end.”
No matter what, there is no way to win this war.
Even the relatively reasonable goal of ending the war by achieving even a small victory and taking Alsace-Lorraine, as requested by Empress Cecilia, cannot be achieved.
No, rather.
Now we have to worry about total defeat.
“We have to somehow get the unit together quickly. Nancy is well fortified, so we need to collect our troops, reorganize our defenses, and quickly request a ceasefire. The best way to end the war is to defend Nancy, return the occupied territory, and acknowledge the queen’s ascension to the throne-”
“Messenger! Your Majesty! “It’s urgent!”
However, even the Archduke’s last hope was cut off by a messenger who rushed to him.
“What’s going on?”
“This is the revolutionary army! The revolutionary army led by Count Damien de Mirbeau is approaching Nancy! It is estimated that there are at least 30,000 people!”
Archduke Leopold jumped up from his seat with his eyes wide open.
It was after the great battle, but you’ve already come this far?
How?
For such a thing to be possible, the troops must be collected and ready to move even before the battle is over.
The young marquis prepared this far in advance during the battle?
Archduke Leopold looked at Duke Henry without being able to hide his trepidation, but the Duke lowered his head with a despairing look on his face.
“Currently, our troops are exhausted troops who have barely arrived in Nancy, and their equipment and morale are in shambles. “I can’t fight them in this condition.”
Archduke Leopold let out a helpless laugh.
He sent a message to the completely collapsed imperial army to desperately retreat to Nancy.
Even at this very moment, countless fallen imperial troops must be coming here, believing the Archduke’s final orders.
“I’m leaving Nancy… and retreating. “Let’s go to Metz and hold there until the armistice is signed.”
Again and again.
He, who has driven countless subordinates to death in a war whose purpose is unknown, must once again give orders to abandon his subordinates and retreat.
“…I follow your orders, Your Majesty the Archduke.”
After Duke Henry ran out with the messenger, the Archduke unfolded a piece of paper to send a letter.
However, water droplets fell on the unfolded paper, and the Archduke frowned and threw the paper away.
Nevertheless, the water kept falling and the Archduke bit his lip and stretched out his arm to grab the quill to avoid the falling water droplets.
[Great Kaiser, father of the Germanian Empire.
Total defeat of the Empire is imminent. The situation is extremely unfavorable and there is no longer any possibility of victory.
I am a sinner. I failed to repay the Kaiser’s trust and tarnished the empire’s honor. My incompetence and foolishness drove countless sons of the empire to death.
Please, please punish me for my sins.
However, I ask that the father of the great empire be generous and grant a truce with them and allow the surviving sons of the empire to return to their homeland.] The
Grand Duke laughed as he looked at the messy writing with his trembling hands.
As the water drops continued to fall, soaking the military uniform and medals he was once proud of, he only let out a hollow laugh.
