In order to capture Strongwood, the commander of the Sixth Legion, Joe? McFrey threw four divisions into the field, the first, second, and fourth, with the third division as a reserve, which he placed southwest of Strongwood. The three first-line divisions were lined up in a line north by the Lufenin River, and there was a border area of about 200 meters between them. Considering that the cavalry of the Duchy of Tulucas only had three regiments in total, and two regiments were also crippled in the Battle of Lorraine and Rennes, Joe? Instead of using the cavalry in his hands centrally, McFauly delegated the use of the troops to the division commanders, as long as they could attack Strongwood before sunset, as planned. McFaley didn't mind their tactics.

This order gave the Fourth Division the greatest room to maneuver. In accordance with the orders of the corps, the 4th Division was deployed next to the Lufenin River. Kaili placed the cavalry regiment in his hand at the junction with the 2nd Division, so that it was convenient to echo each other. The other eight infantry regiments, he lined up in a loose rectangular array in the order of the first four and the last four, intending to experiment with Gastens' platoon tactics in this battle.

The first regiment in which Gastens was located, was killed by Danny? Carey was on the front line. Unlike other regiments, the death squad of the 1st Regiment had a survival rate of more than 50% due to the tactics of Gastens, which was the highest survival rate among the nine regiments of the entire 4th Division. Due to the tight schedule of the march, new death squads were not sent in time to the rear, Danny? Carey had to combine the remaining death squads of the two regiments and place them at the front of the ranks as cannon fodder for the first wave of charges. Gastens was unable to use a steam spear because of an arm injury, and in Danny? Carey and the commander of the 1st Regiment, Charlotte? At Findley's strong request, as one of the overseers of the new tactics, he stood in front of the regular army, the last of the death squads.

"Captain, we're okay this time, right?"

Along with Gastens, who was in charge of playing the drums and controlling the tempo, was it Zink? Warren, the serf who killed his own landlord. He, like Gastens, wore the gray uniform of the death squad and stood in front of the flanks of the regular army of the 1st regiment. The river Lufenin flowed by their right hand and murmured.

"No problem, this is a tactic that is a generation ahead, as long as everyone can resolutely implement it, it will be absolutely fine!"

Gastens said yes, he believed in Earth's rich experience of warfare, and he also trusted his own judgment. As far as his eye could see, the enemy's troops had gathered. It was a patch of yellow waves and waves. The enemy was silent, frozen, as if something was brewing.

"These guys seem to want to fight hard, boss?"

"This is their capital, if they lose, the country will be gone, if they don't fight, what else can they do?"

Gastens did not question too much about the enemy's exuberant will to fight. He touched the whistle around his neck, looked at the drum in front of Zink, reached out and touched the rough drum surface, and told Zink.

"When you know how to play the drums, you'll follow our previous training, understand? Your drum beats control the pace of the whole group, be sure to pay attention to the tempo, not too fast, not messed up! ”

"Don't worry, boss, although I can't read, but I am very good at counting, when I helped our landlord herd sheep, ......"

Zinke was teased by Gastens and began to babble on and on, which was an unconscious sign of his nervousness. Gastens looked at the death squad in front of him with some uneasiness, and in that gray wave, Big Ivan's tall body could be recognized at a glance. According to Gastens' instructions, Big Ivan was in charge of the 19th death squad in Gastens' absence, and he, like Gastens, liked to be at the front when charging.

In the distance, a trumpet sounded.

"Qu—"

Gastens blew his whistle, and the first two platoons of the four combat regiments of the line raised their guns in unison, pressed down on the steam valve with their elbows, and began to inflate the cylinders of the steam rifles.

"Bang! Boom! ”

Zink struck the drum in front of him, and the muffled sound of the drum spread far across the battlefield. This drum beat attracts the attention of not only the enemy on the opposite side, but also the friendly troops. In the training and drill of the Sixth Regiment before, there was no precedent for the use of drums to control combat. The 2nd Division, lined up to the left of the 4th Division, paid a lot of attention to the drumming.

The soldiers of the Fourth Division, who had already entered the combat state, no longer had the energy to consider the gaze of others at this time. They waited for the first and second rows to walk about fifty meters before the third and fourth rows began to move forward. This is also Gastens to the division commander Danny? Carey's suggestion. Within the effective firing range of 50 meters, the battle groups of each two platoons should be separated from each other, so that when the first platoon engages the enemy and suffers casualties and loses its combat effectiveness, the third and fourth platoons can meet the enemy with a neat platoon of guns, maximizing the lethality of the platoon gun tactics.

The 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd Brigade, which was positioned halfway between the 4th and 2nd Divisions, had already begun to charge, and there was no cavalry on their opposite side, only a large number of infantry with poles and spears. Tulucas's cavalry, consisting of only one regiment, was placed directly behind the battlefield, apparently intended as a reserve. As the defenders, they had the conditions to use infantry phalanxes against cavalry.

Gastens stared at his brothers, and in the gray waves, he had a hard time distinguishing which daredevils were his own. He could only stare at Big Ivan's figure, which was half a head taller than others, silently calculating the distance between the two sides in his heart.

"Bang! Boom! ”

Zink's drumming continued, and the two sides were getting closer. Not only was the 4th Division advancing to the rhythm of the drums, but even their enemies were somewhat affected by the drums. Gastens stared at the distance between the two sides, and estimated that when he was about sixty meters away, he blew the second whistle.

"Brush—"

Almost uniformly, the daredevils who rushed to the front stood in line and leveled the steam rifles in their hands. They stood in four rows in a dense group, and fifty meters behind them were the soldiers of the regular army of the Fourth Division, also in two rows, and stopped.

It's time to get started.

The earthy soldiers on the opposite side did not hesitate, they began to shoot arrows, howling, waving long knives in their hands. As Gastens had predicted, Tulukas's soldiers were not equipped with steam rifles, relying on cold weapons and bows against steam weapons, and with advanced gun platoon tactics, Gastens did not feel that he could lose.

"Qu—"

The third whistle sounded, and the yellowish soldiers who rushed to the fifty-meter firing zone saw for the first time the hideous face of the platoon gun tactic. As the death squads pulled the trigger in unison, after a dense burst of gunfire, the earthy yellow soldiers fell down in unison.

Unlike the first time they used platoon gun tactics in their own death squads, this time, all the death squads of the Fourth Division used this tactic, they stood in four rows, the first two rows of soldiers repeated the process of releasing guns and reloading, and the soldiers in the back two rows looked at which of their comrades in front of them was knocked down, and stood up to take the place of their comrades, and they also shouldered the task of dealing with the enemy who rushed over and approached the defensive line. This is a new tactic tailored by Gastens for the death squads, which can reduce the difficulty of training while increasing the combat effectiveness of the death squads.

By this time, the other two divisions had already entered the stage of hand-to-hand contact with the enemy. On the side of the Fourth Division, the battle line of the death squad was used as the city wall, and a dazzling line of flesh and blood was built on the battlefield. In less than ten minutes, the enemy had already dropped more than a hundred corpses in front of this line. Although more and more people rushed through the last fifty meters and rushed into the crowd of death squads, there was a certain disturbance to the battle line. But on the whole, this front has shown amazing lethality.

"We're done!"

Zink shouted in a loud voice. His words were heard by the soldiers who passed by him, and the red-clad soldiers gave a thumbs-up to the two gray-clad death squad soldiers, Gastens and Zinke, and moved on.

The fighting continues, and the attrition of the death squads is becoming more and more obvious. The training time for platoon tactics was limited, and the distance of less than 50 meters did not completely block the path of the enemy's counterattack. But Gastens could roughly tell that the earthy waves were not as determined as they had been.

Go on, keep going like this.

The turnaround occurred in an instant, and at a certain moment, just as the formation of the death squad was about to be broken through, the enemy howled. The yellowish soldiers who had engaged the 4th Division gave up their charge, turned around and began to run back. The death squads in the front row were already red-eyed by this time, and they threw down their steam backpacks one after another, raised their scimitars and rushed after the enemy.

"Don't pursue!! Maintain Formation!! ”

Gastens was in a hurry in an instant, the basis of the gun platoon tactics lies in the formation, if there is no formation, then there is no essential difference between them and the enemy. But his position was too far back, and his voice was too quiet, and no one could hear him. Only Ivan and the members of the old 19 death squad are still in line to be shot.

"Keep beating the drums! Push forward! ”

Gastens tilted his head and told Zink. The drums sounded again, and the regular army, already in formation, began to move forward, and in front of them was a chaotic battle of death squads and enemy troops. If the situation continued in this way, as soon as the enemy's formation completely collapsed, the 4th Division would be able to open a gap from the opposite side and attack Strongwood.

However, the earthy soldiers seemed to want the formation to collapse more than they did here, and they scattered as fast as they could, giving way to a large clearing of land. Immediately afterward, the sound of an instrument that had never been heard before sounded opposite the 4th Division.

The sound made Gastens nervous, and he vaguely remembered hearing it, but he couldn't remember it. Their own death squads were still charging, pulling out a straggler belt on the banks of the Lufinin. Behind the stragglers was a small array of guns in which the soldiers of the 19th Death Squad stood. After that, there were the red regular troops, lined up in a neat formation, advancing to the beat of the drums.

The enemy's khaki soldiers were still retreating, and the new voices seemed to have no effect on them. Gastens was in a state of confusion, when he suddenly noticed a faint metallic glow behind the enemy's earthy yellow soldiers. It was like a black reef emerging from the retreat of the earthy waves, silent and hard.

That's armored spearmen! The elite power of the Neglo Republic!

Gastens finally remembered the sound, it was the empty flute of the Negru Republic, a long, ethereal sound. And those black reefs are the troops that should have appeared in batches in the Negro Republic during the Great War, the armored spearmen who wore thin plate armor but were strong enough to withstand the bullets of the Type 27 rifle!

After more than 800 years, will the armies of the two great countries finally meet on the battlefield?

The charging daredevils did not recognize the identity of the enemy on the opposite side. They howled and charged, but they didn't see the silent reefs begin to follow the sound of the air whistles, and the steps were equally neat. Their steam backpack is different from Anken Rein's, they are smaller, and the steam rifle in their hands is not the same. Gastens watched as they moved forward, cocking his steam rifle and pulling the trigger at the gray daredevils all over the floor.

A gunshot, even greater than the Type 27 rifle, rang out, and the charging daredevils fell to the ground. In order to catch up with the deserters on the opposite side, many of them had left behind their steam packs. Now relying on a scimitar, to fight the enemy's armored spearmen, it is obvious that there is no life or death. Gastens felt that it was just a blink of an eye, and his own death squads, which were still all over the ground just now, had disappeared from the battlefield.

The sound of the air whistle continues, and the black reef is still advancing. And directly in front of the reef advance was a thin line of guns formed by the 19th Death Squad, and the regular troops of the 4th Division behind.

Don't, don't, don't!!

Gastens could still see Ivan's tall body, and he wanted to call his brothers back, and Gastens, who had fought these armored spearmen in the Great War, knew how terrible they were. But this is the battlefield, and he is not qualified to command the troops except for the division commander and the regiment commander. He could only grit his teeth and look at the two groups of troops that were about to come into contact.

"Qu—"

Even so, Gastens did not forget his duty to command. His whistle was remembered when the two sides were only sixty meters apart. The small line of guns of the 19th Death Squad raised their guns. Just wait for the next whistle of Gastens, and they will prove their bravery with the weapons in their hands.

The sound of the empty whistle that overflowed the battlefield changed abruptly. The reefers kept moving forward, leveled their guns, and pulled the trigger faster than the 19th daredevils. After the gunshots, half of the platoon gun line of the 19th death squad fell.

The enemy's weapons are more advanced! More advanced in range and power!

Gastens let out a silent groan of pain, and he blew the whistle so hard that he wanted to bite off the handle of the whistle. The 19th death squad, which was still standing on the battlefield, fired, and the gunfire was clearer than the other side. But after the gunshots passed, the enemy's formation did not change significantly. The small lead bullets of the Type 27 rifle could not break through the defenses of the opponent's plate armor, and most of the bullets bounced off those dark armors. A handful of hits won't stop those reefs from advancing, or disrupt their formation.

"Boss ......"

Gastens heard Zink's moans, and with his current position, he couldn't react at all. He watched as the enemy fired a second time, and this time, the small line of guns of the 19th Death Squad finally disappeared from the battlefield.

"Boss !!!!"

Zink's voice was filled with tears. Gastens glared at the black soldiers in the distance, his lip bitten out of blood. He turned his head sideways and shouted at Zink.

"You're fucking drumming me!!!!"