With the help of Prince Eliot's artillery cavalry, Ankenrein's army won a beautiful victory in Negro. They drove the enemy out of the plains of green pines, re-approached Fort Edphi, killed and wounded a large number of enemy armored spearmen, and basically destroyed the enemy's ability to launch a strategic counteroffensive in this direction.

"The victory in this battle is due to the artillery cavalry of His Royal Highness the Prince. This class moves fast, has powerful weapons, and has a long range, which can crush almost any class of the enemy. Let us thank His Royal Highness Prince Eliot again! ”

At the regimental headquarters in front of the Sixth Legion, a simple celebration banquet was underway. Acting Commander of the Sixth Legion, Dieter? Schubert held his glass high and saluted Prince Eliot, who was held up by the crowd. Prince Elliot smiled and nodded, and drank the wine in his hand.

"!"

The generals shouted in unison and drank all the wine in their hands. Dressed in his brand-new captain's uniform, Gastens stood in front of a long row of cold tables, frowning slightly as he looked at the generals in the pyroxene light not far away.

"Why, you're not happy after all the wins?"

Staff Officer Erica, Colonel of the 3rd Guards Division? Russell stood beside Gastens, holding a small piece of cake in his hand.

"My steam cannon is broken, and there is no way to fix it here."

There is a reason for Gastens' concern. From the construction, power and materials of the Type 27 rifle and the Welsh II rifle, it can be seen that there is a gap between the industrial production capacity and level of the Ankenrein Empire and the Negru Republic. He had thought that the Type 27 rifle had been finalized earlier and did not reflect the modern technical level of Anken Rein. But when he came into contact with the most advanced steam hand cannon that the Royal Arms Research Institute could almost say at present, Anken Rein could handle, he found that the country's current industrial level was still limited compared to the Type 27 rifle.

"If it's broken, it's broken, and we've brought a thousand sets of spare, which will be delivered from the rear at night, and we'll get you a new one when the time comes. As a celebrity of His Royal Highness, are you still worried that there is no steam hand cannon? ”

"I asked about logistics, after today's battle, our division has more than 9,000 steam hand cannons, and more than 500 sets are broken, even if there are 1,000 sets of spare parts, it can only support one more big battle, right?"

"What are you afraid of, if you fight again, the enemy should go back to his hometown. Moreover, even if the new equipment in the rear is not supplied, and there are five hundred sets less, we are still invincible artillery cavalry, who are you afraid of? ”

Erica? Russell didn't take Gastens' words to heart. He smiled and chatted a few words, diverting the topic. Gastens chatted with him absentmindedly, but worried about the enemy. They are the aggressors, and they have finally achieved a strategic advantage and do not take advantage of the victory to pursue, but they are still holding a drinking party here. So what are the troops of the Negru Republic that they invaded?

Halfway through the reception, Gastens' fears became a reality. The Neglo Republic launched night raids against their front-line troops using light cavalry. The light cavalry seemed to have already figured out the road, and took advantage of the darkness and moonlight, without using pyroxene, to approach the Ankenrein forward camp with Welsh II steam rifles, and fired at close range. Although the front-line camps were on duty, there had been almost no night attacks since the two sides were fighting, and they were inevitably in a hurry. After receiving a report from the front at the reception, Prince Eliot gave an order to let the 3rd Guards Division continue to rest and send his own cavalry to meet it. The two sides fought on the front line for a while, the cavalry of the Neglo Republic retreated, and the night attack ended. And from beginning to end, the drinking party of the Sixth Army did not stop because of this.

After the reception, the chief of staff of the 3rd Guards Division, Vincent? Navle gathered all the staff officers of the 3rd Guards Division to discuss the purpose of this enemy night attack. Judging from the results of the battle, the number of soldiers killed by the enemy in this night attack was less than 200, and the number of wounded was only a few dozen. And the Neglo Republic itself lost close to two hundred cavalry and horses. Navre couldn't understand the purpose of this unprofitable night raid, so he called everyone over for reference.

"It's a tired tactic, isn't it?" Gastens was the first to speak, "Harassing us through continuous night raids will prevent us from having a good rest and slow down our combat effectiveness for the next day." ”

"Or do you want to save some face? After all, they lost the battle during the day, and if the night attack was successful, it would be better to report the merit? ”

"Or is it a troop reconnaissance, hoping to spy on the deployment area of our Third Guards Division?"

The staff officers were gossiping, but Gastens turned his mind to the front. Only the front-line soldiers who have experienced the night attack have the most say in the impact of this night attack on their own soldiers.

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Mark? Merels was a second lieutenant company commander in the 1st Division of the 6th Army Corps of the Western Military Region of the Ankenrein Empire, and his company was on night readiness duty, but unfortunately encountered a night attack by the Negro Republic, killing five soldiers.

Hastily put the collected corpses in a clearing, Mark? Merels decided to get up tomorrow morning and bury his men again. His other surviving subordinates also agreed with him, and everyone rearranged the order of combat readiness duty, and the soldiers who did not need to be on duty for the time being returned to their bunks to seize the time to rest. Merels lay on the bed for a while, feeling that he needed to solve his personal problems, so he left the tent, walked a few steps, found a corner in the middle of nowhere, unbuttoned his trouser pockets, and began to drain the water.

"These water pigs in Negro don't let people sleep well!"

Merels cursed as he explained, but he felt that his excrement had been poured on something, and he hissed. He sighed softly, peeled off the grass and looked closer, and saw only a black iron ball the size of half a man's head lying in the grass. The excrement he had just poured on would be half-dry, and a foul smell would blow in the air.

"What the is this—"

Merels had barely finished cursing when he saw the strange thing explode in front of him with a deafening roar. The shockwave from the explosion destroyed Merels' consciousness in an instant, taking his life.

——————————

"What is this?"

The discussion about the enemy's offensive and the tactics of the second day was not over, and the new news from the front once again alarmed Prince Eliot and Commander Dieter. By the time they arrived at the staff headquarters of the Sixth Legion, the gadget they had retrieved from the front had already been placed on the table. It was a exploded, torn iron ball, with a number written on it in a white pen, and it was vaguely recognizable that it was 403. Around the remains of the iron ball, there was also a piece of burning gold and a small pyroxene.

"This is something that the enemy threw in during the night attack just now, it seems to be some kind of explosive", the staff officers of the 6th Army Corps said.

"Explosives?" , Prince Eliot asked, a little puzzled.

"That's right, Your Royal Highness", the 3rd Guards Division and the Legion Headquarters Staff were very close to each other, and Gastens, who heard the news, came here early, "This is a device that uses steam pressure to produce an explosion, consisting of two iron balls up and down, a pyroxene, and a moderate amount of water. They put the activated pyroxene and water in the iron ball, and then screwed the other half. This iron ball is completely sealed. When the water inside the iron ball is heated and has nowhere to go, it turns into water vapor, increasing the pressure inside the iron ball, and when the pressure exceeds the pressure range of the container, it will explode. The explosion of our own steam boiler is on a similar principle. ”

"How does this weapon affect us? If they are used on the battlefield, will they be a threat? ”

"The impact is generally limited", Gastens calmly replied, "this kind of thing is very difficult to control the time of explosion, and it is not time-sensitive to use on the battlefield." However, in a sneak attack like this, when they get closer, they throw some at our camp, because the time of the explosion is uncertain, and it will seriously affect the rest of our soldiers. ”

"That's right, it's almost dawn this day, and there are explosions of this kind of thing on the front line from time to time, although there are not a few deaths, but it has a great impact on the psychology of our soldiers."

Navre stood beside Prince Elliot and added.

"Carving insect skills!" Elliot cursed, told the front line to change the guard after dawn, move the affected soldiers to the rear, and asked Gastens to study to see if there was any way to deal with it, so he focused his attention on the attack to be launched after dawn. He hopes to be able to prove his ability to recapture Fort Edphi in two days.

Although the steam bomblet dropped by the Negru Republic was regarded by Eliot as a small thing that was not on the table, Gastens still took it seriously. This kind of bomb has a simple structure, two metal hemispheres, a sealed rubber ring, and a pyroxene on the line, although the cost may be relatively high, but the effect is very good. The people of the Neglo Republic did not seem to have solved the problem of the timing of the detonation of such bombs, and Gastens figured it out for a while, decided to make it his own long-term problem, and fell asleep. There is still a day to fight after dawn, and if you don't hurry up and rest, you will die.

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The next day, with the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th Divisions of the 6th Army Corps as the vanguard, the 1st Division was harassed by night attacks, and the 1st Division was rotated as a reserve, and the 3rd Guards Division of Prince Eliot was the main offensive line on the east side of Fort Edelphi. The 17th and 19th Armies of the Republic of Negro and the 21st Army, which had previously been responsible for the defense of Fort Edelphi, established a defensive line. Ankenrein used tactics that proved effective in the Battle of the Eternal Green Plains, using the hand artillery cavalry of the 3rd Guards Division to break the enemy's armoured spear line, close the gap between the two sides' weapons, and then tear apart the opponent's defense line with subsequent infantry attacks. The Negru Republic did not have any new tactics, and they still put their armored spearmen at the front, and after withstanding the rounds of fire from the pistol-cavalry, they made contact with the follow-up Ankenrein infantry. The battle was fought fiercely on both sides, and the army of the Negru Republic seemed determined to drag Ankenrein's army east of Fort Edphi, and they fought stubbornly, and fought more than twenty rounds of fire with Ankenrein's army on many small frontal battlefields, and the formation was abolished in groups of soldiers. Prince Eliot's artillery cavalry had no choice but to re-enter the front line three times during the battle, destroying the enemy's small forces that were more determined to resist.

This stalemate dragged on until noon, the fighters on both sides were close to exhaustion, the large number of steam rifles lacked enough water to fire, and the battle entered the phase of hand-to-hand combat. The 6th Army Corps was committed to the 1st Division, which was prepared for the second line, and became the last straw that crushed the enemy. By evening, the Negru Republic's army had begun to retreat after leaving behind a large number of corpses, and Ankenrein's troops were too exhausted to pursue. They barely drove the enemy north of Fort Edphi and took control of the outskirts of Fort Edfi at nightfall.

"More than 600 of them were broken today, and there are not enough steam hand cannons in reserve, right?"

Gastens completed the casualty count at the General Staff and remained concerned about the equipment of the 3rd Guards Division.

"Enough is enough, crush the enemy today, and enter the city tomorrow. Having captured Fort Edphi, all that remains is Green Pine Mountain, which is the turning point of your previous offensive, and we are going to take Green Pine Mountain this time and take back the entire province of Anta. ”

Although it was a war of aggression, Ankenrein also found a reason for himself, and the provinces of Anta and Scat once belonged to the ancient Ankenrein Empire at that time in the Second Age. So in Anken Rein's official propaganda caliber, this war is a war of liberation, not a war of aggression.

"But the enemy is really stubborn today, and I guess he doesn't want us to take Fort Edphi so easily."

"No matter how tenacious you are, there is no way, with our hand artillery cavalry, they are lagging behind us in terms of quantity and quality, why win?"

Another staff officer joined the conversation, and everyone was optimistic about the development of the battle situation, and Gastens hid his worries and studied the situation on Green Pine Mountain with everyone.

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The next day, Ankenrein's forces captured Fort Edphi, leaving the 3rd Division, which had suffered heavy losses to defend Fort Eddefe, and the large force left Fort Edff and entered the Green Pine Hill area to seek the enemy. According to the spies' report, the enemy had established a defensive line west of Green Pine Mountain, and they were going to destroy that defensive line and take Anta Province once and for all.

However, this time, the Negro Republic changed the fighting style of the previous two days, and was reluctant to even make contact with Ankenrein's troops, except for throwing some of those steam bomblets to block the march of Ankenrein's troops. Anken Rein's forces easily re-established a defensive line at Green Pine Mountain. Just as they were waiting for an opportunity to fight the enemy, Prince Eliot received shocking news.

From the time they launched a general offensive two days earlier and defeated the enemy at the Battle of Eternal Green, to the day when they fought to the death yesterday in the eastern suburbs of Fort Edphi and the 17th, 19th, and 21st Armies of the Republic of Negru, the Republic of Neglo has newly invested six armies, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 9th armies, divided into two army groups, passing through the province of Scat and crushing the Fourth Army Corps responsible for the offensive in the province of Scat and Tulukas, and has already attacked Tulucas from the junction of Scat Province and Tulukas. A fierce battle is being fought against the Second and Third Legions, which are building a second line of defense on the border between Tulucas and the Negru Republic. Judging from the latest war situation, the situation on our side is not optimistic.

"What if...... If the enemy takes the Tulucas border defenses, we ......"

At the headquarters of the Sixth Legion, Prince Eliot, Acting Commander Schubert, and a group of high-ranking officers looked at the map and worried.

"We'll be surrounded by them!"

"Were they deliberately luring us deeper before?"

"But looking at the way they resisted, it didn't look like they were tempting the enemy."

"No wonder they gave up Edphi Fort so cleanly, they had a plan."

"What shall we do, is there an enemy in the rear?"

"Since they want to outflank us, I suspect that the enemy has been ambushed in the rear."

"The scouts sent to the rear have not returned, but the logistical supplies from the rear have been cut off."

"Then be prepared to be surrounded."

"Can we retreat to Fort Edphi?"

The staff officers were gossiping and talking, and everyone's faces were not good-looking. Gastens stood in the corner, reminiscing about the year of war he remembered, but he couldn't think of another one. How did history change when he didn't know it? Will Ankenrein be able to win the Year War like he did last time?

If he can't take it, how should he deal with it?