Whether Gastens wanted it or not, the battle known as the Battle of Green Pine Mountain had begun, starting from the melodious sound of the air whistle. The 4th and 5th Divisions of the 6th Army Corps were responsible for guarding Green Pine Mountain. On the plains on both sides of the Green Pine Mountain, the 1st and 2nd Divisions also entered defensive formation. The two reserve first-line divisions were arranged behind the Green Pine Hill, waiting for support.

The enemy's armored gunners were still advancing, and they were already less than a hundred meters from the parametrical wall defended by Gastens. Gastens could even see the patterns on their armor and the patterns of the snow-capped mountains on their bodies. He silently calculated the distance in his heart, and when the other party approached about eighty meters, he shouted loudly:

"!!! release"

The thumping platoon of gunfire was deafening, but the sudden firing of Gastens' regiment sounded somewhat incongruous on the long line of the breastwork. They were almost the first to shoot on the battlefield. His own soldiers were already familiar with the rhythm at which they always had to be one step faster than others, and they were not too surprised. It was the first time that the panziers on the opposite side had encountered them, but they were following the sound of the air whistle, and the attacking forces on the other side were not affected, except for the row of panzer spearmen in front of Gastens, who had fallen a few.

The breakage rate is still too low.

Gastens could count at a glance the results of the first salvo from his side, and only three of the soldiers in the first row on the opposite side fell because of the first salvo from his side. The armor of the armored spearmen clearly prevented the lead bullet from penetrating further. The muzzle velocity and bullet kinetic energy of the steam rifle were much lower than the muzzle velocity of the smoothbore gun, and the lead bullet could not break through the defenses of those iron armor. This was still the steam lance that had been improved by Gastens, and it had been replaced with a Type 27 rifle for the rest of the line, and Gastens could think of the result of their shooting with his toes. Even if some of the soldiers had already started using the captured Welsh II steam rifles, even the Welsh II would have required closer distance and a bit of luck to deal with the iron bumps on the other side.

The sound of the air whistle continues, and the enemy is still advancing. The last ten meters of distance took less than twenty steps. Gastens' soldiers with Modified Welsh II steam rifles are reloading with their heads down. Other soldiers wielding Type 27 steam rifles, or captured Welsh II steam rifles, are still waiting. They have the same range of weapons as the other at most, and both sides are waiting for the point where the lethality is maximized.

The sound of the air flute stops before the drum beats. On the enemy's front, company commanders gave orders in loud Neglo.

"!!! release"

The heavier gunfire of the Welsh II rang out suddenly, and a large amount of lead bullets smashed into the defensive line of the Fourth Division like a rainstorm falling horizontally. Most of the buckshot was blocked by the breastwork, but a few flew over the breastwork and hit the soldiers hiding behind the breastwork.

The enemy continued to fire, and the armored gunners standing in the first row reloaded their ammunition on the spot, while the armored gunners in the second row extended their barrels through the gaps in the front rows and took aim and fire. It wasn't until their second-row armored gunners finished firing that Gastens realized that something was wrong.

The enemy seems to have known that the effective range of the Type 27 rifle was twenty meters less than that of the Welsh Type II rifle. They stood at a position of about sixty meters or so and fired, never taking a step forward. This distance embarrassed the defending units of the Sixth Army. If they are hiding behind a relatively safe breastwork to shoot, then the weapons in their hands will not be able to effectively kill the opponent due to the range and the opponent's armor defense. And if they abandon the breastwork, charge directly, and try to close the distance hand-to-hand combat. Then breaking through these last 60 meters will cost them dearly.

As soon as the contact began, there was a one-sided situation on the front. The commanders of the 6th Division had to give the order to shoot after the opposing side opened fire. However, the lead bullets that exceeded the effective range were already weak, and the bullet sound on the enemy's armor turned into an itching sound. On the contrary, each volley of the enemy took the lives of the soldiers behind the breastwork. Even if most of the buckshot was blocked by the breastwork, a discerning person could see where the battle was going.

"Fuck these iron turtles!!"

Zinke ducked behind the breastwall, bending over to reload his steam rifle. This type of front-loading reloading was very complicated, and the soldiers had to wrap the lead bullet in a layer of brown paper and stuff it into the muzzle, and then use the strip to stuff the lead bullet into the bottom of the barrel. The whole process requires a lot of space and a long time. The best way for soldiers to reload was to stand and reload, but in the face of the enemy's platoon attack, many people in the 6th Division chose to hide behind the breastwork and bend over to reload, which further extended the reload time and reduced the density of their own firepower.

"It can't go on like this."

Gastens doesn't know if he is the person who knows the situation and the advantages and disadvantages of both sides on the battlefield, but he has a deep study of the tactics of the era of the earth's guns, and he has also experienced a great war, and he knows very well that the current situation is a dead end. If you are shot in a queue that controls the distance in this way, if your own range is inferior, sooner or later the enemy will break through the line. And as soon as the front is breached, the battle turns into a slaughter.

"What then?"

When Zinke finally finished reloading, he half-hunched over, looked up, took aim with his friends, and then shot at Gastens' orders. From the beginning of the battle to the present, this section of the defensive line that the 5th Company of the 4th Regiment Gastens is responsible for defending has become the most effective front bulge point for the enemy on the entire battlefield. But even so, less than forty modified Welsh II steam rifles could not have any effect on a battlefield of more than 50,000 men.

"Bang Bang Bang !!!"

The drums beat again, but the rhythm changed to a charge command. The higher-ranking commanders, apparently aware of their inferiority, began to order the front-row soldiers to break through the breastwork and charge. Although this will cause great casualties, it is the only way to hope for a turnaround in the current situation.

"Head, what are we going to do!" Hearing the drums, the Gastens team looked at the big brother who had led them all the way. In this case, none of them believed it, only the young man in front of him, who was less than eighteen years old.

"Keep shooting, let them charge !!!"

Gastens had a clear head, and the forty modified Welsh II rifles in his hand were his biggest cards. At this distance, he and the other party have killed each other, although the other party's damage to his own side is greater, but with the chest wall, they can basically tie. But if it were to charge, those breasts would become deadly killers.

The breastwork of the 4th Division was not continuous, and the breastwork between regiments was independent of each other, leaving a gap of about five or six meters. The soldiers who launched the charge had two options, one was to fish out of the gap between the two columns of breastwork in a column, but then the attack would be faced with cross-fire from the front and to the left and right, which would be very lethal. Attacking soldiers can also climb over the breastwork and charge with their swords. But then they'd have to ditch their steam packs and rely on a scimitar to fight. Moreover, when climbing over the breastwork, the soldiers behind the breastwork cannot shoot, and the enemy has more room to shoot, and the losses inflicted on the attacking soldiers will not be less.

Gastens watched the situation while controlling the pace of the company's firing. Because the 5th Company, which was pressed against the front row, did not move, the other companies of the 1st Regiment in the rear had to charge through the gaps in the breastwork on the left and right. The soldiers screamed and rushed over the breastwork, only to be shot to the ground by the enemy. More soldiers rushed up like a tidal wave, and were shot to the ground again.

"Keep shooting!"

Gastens was still trying to control the frequency of the fifth company's firing, but the company's new serfs had lost their rhythm. They hid behind the breastwork and reloaded, raising their guns above their heads to shoot, neither aiming nor observing the results, and then continued to crouch down and reload. And as the number of opponents wounding their own team members gradually increased, the barrage of the fifth company became thinner and thinner.

Around Gastens, after paying a lot of lives, the soldiers of the 4th Division finally came into contact with the armored spearmen. They fought with the enemy's long knives with their scimitars, but they were hampered by the enemy's armor defenses, making it difficult to gain an advantage. The gunfire on the position gradually subsided as the range of the approaching battle grew, and more soldiers rushed over the breastwork, rushed forward, and began to fight.

Gastens told his teammates to stop shooting. Now that the enemy and the enemy are mixed, there is no point in shooting. He picked up his scimitar and led the team over the breastwork and rushed forward.

——————

Gastens' enemies were armored spearmen who had been disrupted by their own soldiers. He fought with the enemy with the scimitar in his hand, and attacked the opponent's body several times, but was blocked by the iron shell. The enemy, on the other hand, has little need to defend, and all the action is on the offensive. Gastens used his lighter weight flexibility to shake off a few enemies, but he was tired enough. And around him, the soldiers who had just rushed up had already fought with the enemy into a mess, and the shouts and moans on the field were one after another, but the battle line was still retreating little by little.

To lose.

Gastens relied on his own experience and intuition to judge the direction of this battle. If the rear does not adjust its strategy again, abandon the position. The retreat would turn into a rout, and the entire Fourth Division would be a scattered mess, and even more severely, the strategic layout of the Sixth Army in Anta Province would become eroded.

"Bang Bang

As if hearing Gastens' thoughts, the retreating war drums sounded almost an hour after the start of the battle. Gastens gathered his ranks in the chaos and began to retreat.

To say that it is to retreat, in fact, is to flee for its life. The enemy was unable to catch up with the fleeing soldiers because of the need to maintain their formation and carry weight. They fired two scattered rounds of cold guns, drove the retreating soldiers away like ducks, and then crossed the hastily erected breastwork of the Gastens, and broke through the Green Pine Mountain line.

————————————

"Head, head!"

In the process of fleeing, Zink, who had been following Gastens all along, stopped Gastens, and the other two dozen soldiers who had been fighting with Gastens since the Battle of the Lufinn River also stopped. Gastens looked at them, a little curious.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's run!" There was some expectation on Zink's face, "What's the use of fighting this dog emperor?" It's no good to win, we still eat like every day, and the dead captain of Findley always puts us in the first row, he just wants us to die! Now that the team is broken up and we are sneaking away, how about returning home? Anyway, everyone's serf status is gone! How nice it is to go back home and live our own lives! ”

"Run now?"

Gastens thought for a few seconds and rejected Zink's proposal, "It's not time yet, the reason why we can get rid of slavery status is because of the military merit certificate issued by the master, but what if we run away and become deserters, and the master tells the rear that we are deserters and cancels our military merit?" ”

Gastens's words obviously hit the point of Zink and the others, and they surrounded Gastens and gossiped, but they could not form a unified opinion. Gastens saw more soldiers rushing past him one after another, and knowing that time was running out, he urged everyone to continue backwards.

"Let's go back first, after we find the assembly point, I will find a way to solve the problem of Findley, you believe me, I will not take my brothers to death."

The soldiers nodded, and it was clear that Gastens' consistent performance had given them a lot of confidence. Gastens and his men continued to run back, and finally found the headquarters of the 4th Division two kilometers behind the battlefield. The troops scattered at the front stopped in front of the second line of defense of the two retreating combat-ready divisions and began to organize their troops. Most of these soldiers were crippled, and many lost their steam rifles and scimitars. Their clothes were in tatters, their eyes were blank, and some of them were wounded. Gastens walked two times through the crowd and recovered about half of his fifth company.

"Gastens! Gastens! ”

In the distance, someone pushed through the crowd and walked over. As soon as Gastens heard that he was calling himself, he stood up. The man asked Gastens two words, confirmed that he was Gastens, and led him through the chaotic rout of the army to enter the division headquarters of the Fourth Division, and met Danny, the commander of the Fourth Division, who summoned him? Carey.

Danny? Carey doesn't look in great shape. His clothes were still neat, and the badges on his shoulders and chest were still shining, but his expression was a little decadent, and his hairstyle was a little unkempt. When Gastens entered the tent, he happened to see Danny? Carey circles around in front of the map.

"Master, Gastens is here."

The soldiers with Gastens reported loudly and retreated. Danny? Carey couldn't wait to step forward, looked at Gastens, and spoke.

"Garth, I watched today's battle, the fourth regiment you are in is the most lethal defense line against the other side in the whole division, I think that the breastwork was also started by you first, you kid has a lot of ideas. Tell me how to do it! ”

Hear Danny? Carey's question, Gastens was slightly stunned. The fact that he improved the rifle was not publicized everywhere, and the commander of the regiment, Charlotte? Findley only knows a rough idea. Fearing that if he told the truth, the regimental commander would forcibly take away his improved rifles, kept this secret with his soldiers. But now that the division commander asked, Gastens thought of a way to get rid of that Charlotte who looked at him unpleasantly? Good way to get Findley.