Gastens walked on the grass with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and his heavy steam backpack and rifle made it harder for him to move through the somewhat soft ground. He held the butt of the steam rifle in his left hand, held the handle in his right hand, put his index finger on the trigger, carefully aimed at the body of an enemy lying on the ground in front of him, and kicked him one by one.

It was a bearded uncle, with a pale face and closed eyes. His stomach was cut wide by a scimitar, and his intestines flowed to the ground, stained with mud, and turned red and black.

He's dead.

Gastens took a sip, stepped over the corpse, and moved on. Around him, soldiers from the 19 and 22 death squads were forming two loose skirmish lines, examining the corpses on the ground one by one. For these daredevils who experienced the first battle in their lives, there is still time to clean up the battlefield after the war, which is already considered an excellent performance.

"How many people did we kill?"

The burly Ivan? Warren walked diagonally behind Gastens, the large steam backpack looming on his back. With a rifle in one hand and a scimitar in the other, he fiddled with the corpses on the ground. For Anken Rein's army, the opportunity to clean up the battlefield was both an honor and a boon, and soldiers could take everything they found for themselves. The 19th death squad led by Gastens, and Kareiber? The 22nd Death Squad led by Warren was given the opportunity to clean up the battlefield because they performed well in the battle just now.

Gastens looked up into the distance, the corpse-strewn battlefield was smaller than expected, and the enemy had lost the courage to confront him when he realized that there was a fundamental difference between the weapons of the two sides, and that the enemy who attacked him was not from Ryrin, but from Anken Rein. Not long after the five death squads of the 1st Regiment made contact with the enemy, the battle ended. The freedfolk soldiers dressed in red didn't even have a chance to kill the enemy. But even so, there were only 81 men left under Gastens men, and 16 soldiers died in the battle.

"About a hundred people, our five death squads, together with eighty or ninety dead, roughly calculated, the exchange ratio is only one to one. This is still an absolute advantage in weapons, and this battle is not easy to fight. ”

"It's already okay, only a dozen have died, and at this rate, after three charges, at least half of our brothers will survive and become free people."

Big Ivan's math was surprisingly good, and Gastens answered a few words and looked at the town in the distance. After defeating the soldiers of this barracks, they have control over the area. The soldiers of the 1st Regiment had already stormed the town, leaving only a small part of the troops to stand guard outside. The soldiers in Ankenrein's red uniforms were like jackals rushing into the flock, excited but unrestrained. Gastens could hear gunfire and noise coming from the town from this distance.

Gastens knew what those people were doing, and he couldn't bear it, but he knew he couldn't do anything. He doesn't have the strength to save people who have nothing to do with him. He sighed and beckoned his men to speed up.

"Hurry up! Eat something good in the evening and celebrate! ”

————————————

That night, the 19th Death Squad did have a good meal. After the freedfolk soldiers ransacked the town, they got the looted food from them. Plenty of white bread, meat, various vegetables, and wine turned the night after the First World War into a night of revelry. Gastens and his teammates forgot about their dead comrades and about the battle they might encounter tomorrow. They ate and drank and had fun, and eventually fell asleep.

The next day, the 1st Reinforced Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the 6th Army Corps in the Western Theater was re-deployed, targeting Lorraine, a city bordering Tulucas and Reiling.

Gastens took advantage of the opportunity before the march to find Charlotte, the commander of the 1st Regiment? Findley, ask a few things clearly. It turned out that the six major powers were deliberately or unintentionally restricting the spread of steam weapons to these small border countries, in case the armies of the six major powers directly intervened in the war and received too much counterattack. That's why their opponents are still using cold weapons, and they themselves are using steam rifles.

As for what Gastens was more concerned about, the purpose of the campaign, the deployment of various units, the distribution of the enemy and other military information were all lost to Charlotte? Captain Findley refused. He said, "You death squad just need to rush forward," and pushed the death captain, who always asked questions, out of his tent. Gastens struggled with the lack of more information channels, and had to accept the helpless fact that he led his team to attack an ignorant enemy without knowing anything about the overall situation of the war.

Although he did not realize all his intentions, Gastens seized the opportunity of the march and began to pass on the tactics of lining up to shoot his teammates. This tactic is not difficult, but it requires the willpower and obedience of the soldier to execute. Gastens was questioned just after he spoke about the basic methods in the queue.

"Wait for the enemy to rush in front of you and then shoot? What if the enemy kills us? ”

"Why can't we shoot first?"

"Boss, have you ever fought? According to what you said, why do I think it's unreliable? ”

Although they were marching, the soldiers were still very sad about deciding their life and death. Gastens listened to their discussion for a moment before he made his point.

"The steam rifle we use now has very poor accuracy, even if you aim it accurately, the lead bullet will fly out seventy or eighty meters and then float away, you yourself have hit the target, naturally you know that what I said is true. In this case, if you shoot face to face with your enemy, it is possible that your enemy is aiming at you, but the bullets have already flown out of nowhere, which is why we are also armed with scimitars, and mainly use scimitars. Today's steam rifles are so old that if you shoot them separately, you can only kill the enemy by luck. ”

"Would it be better to stand in a row?" , Ivan walked beside Gastens, a little curious.

"If we stand in a row, we'll shoot a lot of bullets, like a wall. Even if this wall can't hit the target that each is aiming at, it can always hit the target, think about it, see if this is the truth? ”

Gastens explained in a simple and easy-to-understand manner, coupled with the prestige he had accumulated in this death squad by killing people and commanding the first battle, although everyone did not understand the tactic of lining up to shoot, but the execution of his orders was still very efficient. As a result, other soldiers who were on the road with the 19th Death Squad would always see the soldiers of the 19th Death Squad doing queue exercises while advancing. Sometimes they move forward quickly, sometimes they suddenly stop and stand in a row, or in two. It's like rehearsing some tactics.

This time the march lasted two days, and the death squads were all on foot. Like the steam rifle, the Big Six seem to have restricted the construction of steam locomotives in these countries. The only way for the death squads to rush is on foot. It was not until the evening of the next day, when the troops were encamped in a wooded field, that Gastens was told that they would meet the enemy again the next morning.

These small countries located on the border between Ankenrein and the Republic of Negro, although they are very limited in military technology and equipment, are extremely familiar with the atmosphere of war because of the years of war. Ankenre's all-out offensive against Tulucas alerted Tulucas the day after it was launched, and they abandoned most of the border areas that were destined to be undefended and organized an initial defense outside the two cities close to Railin. And the Gastens have to deal with the Tulucas army outside Lorraine.

Unlike the first battle Gastens experienced, this time he was no longer going to fight five hundred against a thousand. In order to take the first of the five cities of Tulucas, the commander of the 6th Army Corps in the Western Theater committed one division each outside Lorraine and Rennes, each with nine reinforced regiments. More than 10,000 troops were assembled on the outskirts of the two cities, facing the improvised defensive forces of Tulucas. Battles can break out at any time.

The 1st Reinforced Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, to which Gastens belonged, was placed on the southeast side of the battlefield, and they, along with five of the other nine reinforced regiments, formed a half encirclement southeast of Lorraine. On the inner side of this encirclement, near the city of Lorraine, were densely packed with death squads of slave soldiers from all over the world.

"I'll repeat, as soon as the attack begins, you listen to my command, stop when you hear the order, line up, shoot when you hear the second order, exchange the front and rear teams, and draw your sword and go up and cut people when you hear the third order, do you understand?"

Gastens stood in front of the 19 soldiers of the 81st death squad and roared loudly. The soldiers of the 22nd and 23rd death squads not far from him looked at them with some curiosity, not knowing what these people were talking about before the battle. As for the Tulucas troops, who lined up opposite them and could already see the figure in the distance, they would not know what this handful of serfs, who numbered less than a hundred, were doing.

The battle horn did not come too late. Not long after the encirclement was formed, Gastens received the order to set off. As he had done last time, he walked at the front of the line with his steam pack on his back, steam rifle in hand, and watched the enemy as he began to approach in front of him.

The enemies were also in combat mode after Anken Rein's army began to move. They also began to line up and move forward, without losing a single ounce in momentum. And by the time the infantry of both sides began to approach each other, the cavalry of both sides was already engaged in a fierce battle on the flanks. Some of Ankenrein's cavalry were lancers, with steam rifles that were more powerful than bows and arrows, but they also had to carry heavier steam backpacks, so horses were not as agile as the light Tulucas cavalry. Although the Turacas cavalry took advantage of the lightness and dexterity, they still used bows and arrows in their weapons, and each side had its own advantages and disadvantages, so it was impossible to distinguish the winner for the time being.

However, Gastens was no longer in the mood to worry about the outcome of the cavalry battle. He had gone from brisk walking to trotting, and his soldiers were running just like him. The heavy steam pack swayed slightly on their backs, and from time to time there was the sound of liquid hitting the walls of the barrel. On their opposite side, Tulukas's army began to fire arrows.

"Hold your breath!!"

Gastens shouted, raised his left hand into a fist in the air, and his soldiers, seeing his movements, stopped and began to line up. Although it was a little chaotic, in less than a minute, Gastens's 19th death squad had turned into a two-row steam backpack gunner, eyeing the tiger.

To their left and right, the other death squads had rushed to the front, as if bypassing the current of the reef standing in the water, and colliding with the oncoming enemy. The sound of steam rifles began to sound, which was sparse at first, but gradually became dense, which was a sign that the two sides were beginning to engage the enemy.

"Raise the gun !!"

Undisturbed by the chaos of the surrounding battlefield, Gastens and his soldiers stood in two rows, guns in their hands, waiting to face the enemy. Around them, gunshots, screams, and roars mingled together to form a peculiar symphony. Two feathered arrows grazed Gastens's cheeks and struck the soldier standing behind him, who let out a low groan.

"Prepare !!!"

Gastens shouted again. The unwounded team members put their steam rifles in front of their eyes and used the rudimentary crosshair to lasso the onrushing enemy. As Gastens had previously requested, they didn't waste much time on aiming, instead focusing only on keeping the team in order.

The enemy on the opposite side was closer, raising their scimitars aloft and screaming and cursing. However, because they spoke Neglu, Gastens' soldiers were largely incomprehensible. They simply followed Gastens's instructions, leveled their guns, and waited for the final order.

Fifty meters, forty meters, Gastens wanted to wait a little longer, but he didn't know who in the team didn't resist the pressure and fired the first shot. Knowing he couldn't wait any longer, Garstens swung his left hand down as the shot fell.

"Shoot!"

An unusually dense burst of gunfire erupted suddenly, like a muffled thunder exploding on the battlefield. The enemies on the other side of Gastens fell to the ground with a sudden thud, like long grass suddenly blown by the wind.

"Let's!"

Gastens shouted, and the first row of death squad soldiers standing behind him stepped to the left, giving way to the second row of soldiers with guns in tow.

"!!! release"

Gastens shouted again, followed by an even more intensive burst of gunfire. The enemies on the opposite side fell down again. This time, the pace of their charge was noticeably slower.

However, the distance between the two sides is also close to the limit at this time.

"Kill !!!! me"

Gastens drew his scimitar and rushed out first, holding it aloft. Some of his soldiers left their backpacks and rifles and went straight into battle with scimitars. Some stood in place, desperately pressing the gas storage valve, trying to fire another shot. In normal times, Gastens would try to adjust everyone's pace, but at this time, neither he nor his soldiers had the heart to care about others, and everyone put their reason aside and repeated the same cycle.

Find someone to kill, or be killed.