Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World-Chapter 739: The New Protestant Victory

TL: Rui88

In this battle, the Alda Army had deployed 10 six-pounder cannons and 4 twelve-pounder cannons.

Following Andrew’s orders, the gunners concentrated their fire on the middle section of the Crusader Army’s trapezoidal formation, firing in volleys.

The sound of fourteen cannons firing in unison was immense, reverberating across the entire battlefield and shaking the hearts of all who heard it.

High-speed cannonballs slammed into the Crusader phalanxes, bouncing joyfully across the ground, kicking up a storm of blood and gore. No flesh and blood could block these metal spheres imbued with immense energy until their own energy was spent, and they finally sank into the mud, motionless.

The Crusader soldiers screamed miserably. The shields in their hands and the armor on their bodies offered no protection, proving as fragile as cheese before the incoming cannonballs.

The Aldan gunners targeted one phalanx at a time. The first volley achieved very considerable results, mainly because the enemy’s active offensive had greatly closed the distance between the two armies, increasing both the hit rate and the power exponentially.

From the Crusader perspective, the fifth phalanx from the left seemed as if it had been viciously stabbed several times by several invisible giants with thick wooden clubs. A large number of soldiers were killed or wounded. The standing soldiers were scattered and disorganized, looking in horror at their comrades screaming in agony on the ground.

Morale plummeted instantly, and fear seized every man’s heart.

And before long, the Aldan infantry, advancing at a quick trot, brought them into firing range.

“Halt!” the commander shouted.

Because of the rapid movement just now, the lines formed by the infantry had become uneven, but they still maintained their general formation. Under the command, they returned to neat horizontal lines in less than fifteen seconds.

“Aim!”

“Fire!”

The soldiers executed the commands in one smooth motion. Their rigorous daily training had long since ingrained these actions into their muscle memory.

Instantly, another roar erupted. To the opposing Crusader soldiers, it sounded like it was composed of countless popping sounds, like that of roasting beans.

Accompanied by spitting flames and thick smoke, a large number of metal projectiles, moving too fast for them to see, shot into the phalanx that had already been ravaged by cannonballs. The soldiers in the first few ranks instantly exploded in a mist of blood and collapsed to the ground with a great clatter.

“Ah!” “Devils!”

The soldiers of that phalanx screamed in terror and immediately scattered like birds and beasts.

Webster stared, dumbfounded, at the phalanx that had been intact just a moment ago. In a flash, all that was left was a pile of corpses on the ground and wounded men who could not move due to their severe injuries.

At the beginning of the battle, because the distance was greater and the Aldan gunners were firing sporadically, the casualties caused were still within the Crusader Army’s tolerance.

But as the distance closed and the Alda Army concentrated its fire, with cannons and muskets firing continuously, the casualties they inflicted suddenly soared, and the psychological impact became immense.

In terms of actual effect, the firepower just now had only inflicted a few hundred casualties on a phalanx of more than two thousand men. Although this casualty rate was already very high for an army of the old era, it was not yet fatal for some elite troops with high morale and good training.

But the terrifying thing was that these casualties occurred in a short period of time in a rapid, violent, and irresistible manner, rather than the kind of casualties caused by a slow attrition as soldiers from two armies faced each other, attacking and defending, trading blows with swords and spears. This was a huge blow to the Crusader Army.

Because of the rout of this phalanx, the Crusader Army’s trapezoidal oblique offensive almost came to a halt, and a large gap appeared in their overall formation.

Webster, who had come to his senses, was furious. He ordered the signal flags to be waved repeatedly, urging the troops behind the trapezoidal formation to plug the gap and to concentrate their attack on the enemy soldiers who were holding fire-spitting weapons and arrayed in thin horizontal lines.

Although the Crusader officers and soldiers were hesitant, they still carried out their commander’s order and advanced toward the Alda Army’s infantry lines.

The commander of the Aldan artillery immediately divided the gunners into two groups, firing at the enemies coming from the left and right sides respectively. This greatly slowed their movement, while the enemy approaching from the front was left for the infantrymen to deal with themselves.

“Aim!” “Fire!” “Aim!” “Fire!” In the intervals between the sound of firing, the officers’ commands rang out continuously.

Apart from one Naval Infantry battalion sent to the left wing to support the armies of Eton and other nations, there were still more than four thousand Aldan soldiers left here to take on the frontal assault. The various units were linked end to end in three-rank lines, forming an extremely wide front.

Facing the enemy advancing from the front, the officers adopted volley fire tactics, inflicting a continuous stream of casualties on the enemy through uninterrupted firepower.

The Crusader soldiers, enduring such a blow, held their useless shields and slowly walked forward. But watching their comrades fall one after another, they finally hesitated. Hesitation quickly turned into fear. When the first man turned and ran, he was immediately followed by a large number of imitators. Then the entire unit retreated, all the way back to what they considered a safe distance. They did not scatter in a rout but still maintained their formation, yet ultimately, they did not dare to advance.

Seeing the enemy’s retreat, Andrew certainly would not let this opportunity slip by. He immediately ordered his own army to continue pressing forward, while the artillery also moved forward, ready to provide support at any time.

In this way, the Crusader Army’s originally neat oblique trapezoidal formation was severely damaged and was forced to split into two parts. Its original left wing, which was at the very front, was still mired in a chaotic battle with the Horn Bay mercenaries. Its central part and right wing were being constantly pushed back by the Aldan infantry, and the gap between these two parts was growing larger and larger.

Webster sensed that he was about to lose control of his army. At the critical moment, he remembered that he still had a cavalry force. So he immediately sent someone to inform Fedotov to return to support, to circle around and attack the flank of the relentlessly advancing Alda Army.

In fact, he did not need to be notified. Fedotov was already aware of the change in the situation. Feeling the gravity of the situation, he immediately rallied his cavalry, gave up his entanglement with the armies of Eton and other nations, and turned to support the central battlefield.

“We can’t let him succeed! After them.”

The Duke of Eton, seeing the departing enemy cavalry, ordered his army to pursue at full speed.

Risking a counter-charge from the enemy cavalry, the armies of Eton and the other nations broke into a run, sprinting at full speed toward the central battlefield.

Finally, through their efforts, Fedotov’s plan failed. When he saw that his main force had been torn into two, he knew that he was powerless to turn the tide. Facing the pursuing Etonian army from the rear, he did not dare risk being caught in a pincer attack, so he led his cavalry to withdraw.

“We’ve lost!”

The soldiers of the leftmost part of Webster’s oblique offensive, seeing that friendly forces were not coming to their aid, finally realized that things were not looking good. In an instant, their defeat was like a landslide. Some surrendered, some fled for their lives.

With this as a start, the tide of defeat spread like a plague through the Crusader Army!

Webster was both furious and deeply unwilling to accept it. He waved the signal flags, he sent messengers, he even went personally, issuing one order after another in an attempt to turn the tide of defeat. But to his pain, no army would obey his orders anymore.

Finally, he lost control of the entire army. Now, the only command he could give that others would obey was to retreat.

Watching the New Protestant armies advancing on all fronts—left, center, and right—Webster reluctantly issued this humiliating order.