Chapter 420: Wall of Pikes

The first battle fought with tercio tactics was a small one, fewer than a thousand men between both sides, but it was also a historic one, the battle in which firearms began their rise to become the main force on the battlefield.

Until now, gunners had been nothing more than a harassing force; the era in which they would form the heart of an army had not yet come. The tactics for it did not exist, and the firearms of the day were too unreliable to carry a battle on their own.

Even so, I had boldly sent gunners onto the field, because as a lord I bore a heavy responsibility to prepare for what was coming. The tide of history that would make gunners the stars of the battlefield could not be turned back.

By adopting these tactics first, as a pioneer, the Streit Gunners would gain real combat experience and a level of skill that no gunner corps in any other European nation could ever match.

Feuer!

Bang! Bang-bang-bang!

The moment the first rank fell back, the second rank of gunners fired into the smoke ahead. The timing was ragged enough that it could hardly be called a proper volley, but the mercenaries’ losses were severe all the same.

Even so, the mercenaries pressed forward instead of falling back, hoping to deny the gunners time to reload. When they burst through the fog of gunpowder smoke, though, what met their eyes was an unbroken wall of pikes.

The gunners had ducked behind the pike line, and the pikemen had formed a hollow infantry square. The formation had existed as far back as ancient Rome, so it was not an unfamiliar concept, and the pikemen had picked it up quickly.

That was the skill of the duchy army’s battle-hardened pikemen.

Had the gunners been told to form an infantry square on their own, it would have collapsed at once.

"The enemy has completely surrounded the company!"

"Commander! Why don’t we attack while they’re distracted?"

The men watching from a distance with me urged an attack on the enemy, whose backs were completely exposed. To a cavalryman it must have looked like the perfect moment, but it was not yet time for us to move.

"Our gunners are reloading calmly. Wait just a little longer."

"But can raw recruits really fire properly, wedged in among those pikemen?"

The gunner corps had been founded barely a month ago and was made up of recruits with almost no combat experience, so the cavalrymen were worried the company might crumble before their eyes.

I understood their concern perfectly well.

But the company did not crumble.

The pikemen were working hard to hold off the mercenaries, and amid the chaos the gunners reloaded calmly under Oscar’s direction. Those who fumbled their reload were sent to fill the gaps between the pikemen.

Starting the reload over would only cost more time, so instead they had been trained to run their bayonets through any enemy who squeezed between the pikes. In that way, some of the gunners took on the role of swordsmen.

"Commander! The enemy archers have been wiped out!"

"Anton did a fine job. The enemy’s morale is starting to waver now."

The mercenaries were struggling desperately to break through the pike line, and their morale shifted from green to yellow, their combat power falling with it. The company facing them, on the other hand, still held green morale and had lost no combat power at all.

The mercenaries seemed thoroughly rattled. With the pikemen focused on defense, they could hardly break through, and even when one of them did squeeze in, a waiting gunner would pounce in an instant and run him through with a bayonet.

If anything, mercenary casualties only multiplied.

Without the pike line, they would have slaughtered the gunners as they reloaded, but they could not get close, and their morale began to crumble. Precious time slipped away from them.

At last, the gunners finished reloading and took aim at the enemy again.

That decided it.

The muzzles spat fire once more.

Feuer!

Bang-bang-bang!

This time it was a proper volley. The mercenaries who had been pressing relentlessly against the pike line were cut down in droves, and in the end they turned tail and ran.

Morale in the red, combat power at rock bottom.

The gunners had fired only three rounds per man.

As the mercenaries collapsed in an instant and chose to flee, I sent in Anton, who had been doggedly harassing them from the rear, along with my personal squad, who had been itching to charge. Now it was the cavalry’s turn.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Watching my men gallop off in high spirits, I marveled at how much sturdier the company had proven than I had expected. Truth be told, I had believed we would win, but I had been nervous all the same. The enemy outnumbered us more than two to one.

I had worried my men might panic at the enemy’s overwhelming numbers and run. Recruits are called recruits for a reason. Fortunately, the pikemen held without breaking, so the gunners never wavered.

And with me standing firm behind them, it seems what kept the soldiers going was their faith that I would come to the rescue even if the line broke. After all, I was a war hero, renowned as an undefeated general.

"Hooray!"

"We won!"

"Long live Streit!"

"Streit! Streit!"

[E-Rank Streit Gunners (Discipline 20%, Firepower 20%, Accuracy 20%)]

[F-Rank Gunner Commander (Control 20%)]

[Upon achieving S-Rank in both Gunner Commander and Cavalry Commander, you may advance to Dragoon Commander]

Dragoons? Does that mean cavalry who fire guns from horseback? It was the direction the Gale Knights were headed anyway. Warrior and Knight could be combined to advance to Berserker or Paladin, but this was the first time I had seen an advancement for a commander class.

Since I had no idea when I would reach S-Rank, I simply shrugged it off.

What pleased me most was that the Streit Gunners had gone up a rank.

Sure enough, there was a world of difference between training and real combat. The men had fought their first real battle admirably and beaten the enemy. They had earned the right to savor the joy of victory and the sweetness of reward.

"Streit! Streit!"

"Hooray!"

"A great victory, Master!"

"We won!"

Oscar and Peter, buoyed by the victory, were flushed as red as their uniforms. I waved to the cheering soldiers and congratulated them on their win.

Then the soldiers suddenly tossed their hats into the air.

The commanders were caught off guard by the soldiers’ spontaneous celebration.

"It’s a French way of celebrating a victory, but hey, it’s not bad."

I let them carry on, and the soldiers celebrated all the more exuberantly. Throwing hats is fine, but if anyone throws an expensive gun or a powder flask, there will be hell to pay.

"Clean up the battlefield and we return to Vintenheim."

"Soldiers, clean up the battlefield!"

Pikemen and gunners alike gleefully gathered up the spoils of war. The cavalry who had chased the fleeing mercenaries did not return until late in the afternoon. In the meantime, we pitched tents nearby and waited for them.

I mulled over the battle.

Tercio tactics were revolutionary enough to dominate Europe for a time, but their heyday did not last long. As firearms and cannon improved, dense formations became easy prey for artillery.

Firearms grew more reliable, and barrels grew ever longer, reaching nearly six and a half feet with a bayonet attached, long enough to stop a cavalry charge. Little by little, the pikemen faded away.

As a result, battles grew simpler. Through a combination of factors, the tactic of infantry lining up in straight rows and shooting at one another, the kind of thing you only see in movies, became the norm.

The problem was that the terror of the battlefield was beyond imagination.

The groundbreaking methods tacticians devised, like three-rank volley fire, were never as effective as they should have been, and the reason had nothing to do with efficiency. The morale of the line infantry was the decisive factor.

No matter how groundbreaking the tactic, if the line infantry took fright and ran, there was nothing to be done. The reality of the battle line was that victory came down to which side lost its nerve and bolted first. Theory and practice were two very different things.