The beginning of the 299th verse

Robin walked past the group of soldiers he had just taken over. He noticed that at the end of the queue to his left, the young man's mouth was moving. Even though Robin was young, he was noticeably younger than he was—sixteen or seventeen years old, the typical recruit.

It took him a moment to make out that the young man was saying "I'm going to die now."

What to do in this situation? Robin suddenly found himself completely incapable of dealing with the situation, and all his past experience and all the knowledge he had learned in the books did not include this. He could see that this was not the young soldier's intention, he was just doing it unconsciously. What should we do? Kill him immediately on charges of "shaking the morale of the army"? Or ignore him, or simply drive him to the rear? None of this seems like a good idea.

Robin turned his head, and across the rugged battlefield, another army was arrayed. The sight alone made his mind a mess. The movements of the Chaos army in the distance appeared calm, neat, and methodical. The rear of the Chaos Legion is constantly being joined by new, sporadic troops. But all of these scattered troops quickly integrated into the battle formation. After seeing this scene, everyone will subconsciously understand a reality: opposite them is an elite division.

Some of the soldiers of the Chaos Legion wore leather armor and simple iron helmets. But more were dressed in black, ominous Chaos Heavy Armor. They had their own rules for being able to see their formations: soldiers in Chaos heavy armor were in the center, lightly armed soldiers on either side, and cavalry were lined up on the outside of lightly armed soldiers. No, there are practically no cavalry. The terrain here dictates that the cavalry cannot play to its strengths. The Chaos cavalry dismounted one after another, drove their horses to the rear, and joined the phalanx on foot.

Their weapons are simpler: black steel spears, heavy axes, war hammers, and other weapons that seem to be intimidating. It seems that they are not in a hurry to use these weapons, but continue to wait patiently.

Robin suddenly realized to his horror that he didn't have much more courage than this recruit. This is not training in the barracks with wooden weapons wielded in formations, it is true. Faced with this fact, he felt his heart beating violently uncontrollably, and his legs went slightly weak. It was entirely because of the strong self-esteem cultivated by his noble status that he maintained his composure in this situation, so that he would not behave like this recruit.

Robin didn't know any of them. They weren't Baylor's own soldiers, or even Tiberius. They were all routed soldiers who had been intercepted by Bayrell in the past two days - they had been hunted down by the Chaos Legion and lost their souls, and many of them had lost their weapons.

Bayor had a simple way of picking out a group of warriors from among them - to see if they still had their own weapons. If there is, then they are considered to still have the will to fight, and they are left behind to form this phalanx. Otherwise, they were sent to the rear and awaited severe punishment by military law. Some of them were charged with deprivation of their titles, and if they were commoners, they could be sent to hard labor. In this era of martial arts, no matter what kind of country it is, the fate of deserters is often quite tragic.

Even so, many people still feel that it is not enough. Some of the military texts emphasize the need to strengthen the punishment of deserters on the battlefield, beheading them with one out of ten, whipping them to death, beating them to death with sticks, cutting off their noses, reducing them to slavery, humiliating and abusing them in all kinds of public ways, and so on. In the minds of many military strategists, it is emphasized that soldiers must know their fears, so that their fear of flight surpasses the fear of the enemy, so as to ensure the combat effectiveness of soldiers on the battlefield.

Robin struggled to get these superfluous feelings out of his mind. He doesn't need this now, he's the adjutant of the General. Now he is performing the duties of an officer: leading a group of soldiers into an array, ready to engage the enemy. In addition, he was a nobleman, and he had to show himself as a nobleman in front of these commoners.

Although Robin believed that if he changed his armor, the soldiers would not recognize him as who he was.

However, the current situation is that the recruit must be captured, otherwise, by the time the enemy launches the first charge, the queue may simply collapse.

"It's dead...... It's a dead ......," the young man was still repeating these two words, his eyes blank and his hands holding the spear drenched with sweat. No one cared about him, because at this moment, everyone's hearts were the same nervous. It's just that their appearance is not as explicit as his.

"Young man, what's your name!" a voice suddenly sounded. The recruit looked at the source of the voice, it was a middle-aged man in simple armor, but wearing a pure white cloak rarely seen on the battlefield, without a helmet, revealing a simple face like a peasant.

"Thaler. The recruit replied subconsciously.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen Years ......"

"Is it the first time you're on the battlefield?" asked the middle-aged man. "Of course, the first few days when you fled without seeing the enemy did not count. He smiled slightly, causing Thaler's face to turn red.

"But everybody...... Who are you?"

"My name is Bayor. "I know, it's not any of you're fault. He reached out and patted the boy on the shoulder. "I heard what you just said. ”

This sentence made the young man's heart immediately fall back into the valley. His gaze turned to the enemy's battle array. "We're dead, aren't we?" he knew about the battle, and they were also defeated by the enemy when they had absolute superiority in forces. And this time, the enemy's forces look more numerous than theirs...... At least it's about the same.

"No!" replied Beller categorically. "As long as you're clear-headed, you know what you're doing. Form a battle formation, rely on your companions to fight together, and you won't die!"

"But they ...... It's too much......" The boy looked into the distance. The Chaos Legions are already in formation, or they seem to be in formation. They seem to be a lot more numerous.

+ For the width of their battle array is much longer than that of this side.

However, experienced veterans can see that in fact, the difference in numbers between the two sides is not so great, and the reason why the chaotic formation looks wide is because they are lined up in a sparse offensive formation, while this side is lined up in a tight defensive formation.

It was unclear how much of Baylor's words of encouragement had helped, but at least the young soldier named Thaler never said anything like "dead." After Bayral left, he couldn't help but ask the people around him.

"Who is this man called Bayrell?"

His companion gave him a strange look. "Our general...... Tiberius was the general who came to reinforce him. Now our commander!"

"All right, boys!" Beller looked around in front of the queue. These are all new recruits - at least the inexperienced type. However, this is exactly the result of his choices. When Parry was in formation, he put the veterans in the front line and the young soldiers in the rear. Therefore, when the whole army collapsed, it was these recruits who were able to escape unharmed, and who could escape relatively quickly. "My name is Beller, and I'm sure you've all heard of me. Ten years ago, I wiped out those Chaos Cubs, and now it's going to happen again!"

"You see, they look like they're a lot of people, but they're not!" Beller's voice was loud, and in the most vulgar tone, it was not at all like his usual life.

A long horn interrupted Bayral's speech. This is a signal to attack. In fact, by this time both armies had already completed the action of the formation. The battlefield between the two armies was an open and stony field. The warm wind blew by, blowing the flags of the two armies to the sound of hunting.

“...... We'll defeat these chaotic wolf cubs once again!, as evidenced by the gods of the Star Field!" Beller hurriedly finished his speech, and then walked through the gap in the queue,

The formation of the two armies was simple and obvious. The Chaos Legion is a horizontal battle array, and their goal is to crush it, like a rolling boulder, crushing the resistance in front of them. Chaos has no ranged troops - they are inclined to use violence to directly smash the enemy in front of them, rather than using ranged weapons to gradually weaken and finally destroy the enemy.

Bayral relied on the terrain to lay out an inverted V-shaped battle formation. Hundreds of soldiers lined up with spears, flanked by musketeers with muskets - in order to prevent harassment by the enemy's light cavalry, Bayral carried a large number of muskets - but the musketeers were located high up the hill, and the uphill road was behind the spearmen, zigzag.

To put it simply, the Chaos Legion must destroy the spearmen in front of them in order to chase them down the zigzag path and eliminate the musketeers. However, when engaging spearmen, they will be fired from the side of muskets.

If you can compare it, this is almost similar to a siege battle, a siege without a gate.

"Stand firm!" Robin shouted to his men. He looked around at the battlefield. The Chaos Legion had not yet moved after blowing their trumpets, but the musketeers lined up on either side had already raised their muskets and were ready to fire.

Damn it...... There were so many of them!He observed the number of enemies, and after mental calculations, Robin confirmed that the Chaos Legion had more troops than he had. Although he knew that his side had occupied the favorable terrain, he also knew that the Chaos Legion had an overwhelming advantage not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality. Parry had miscalculated this - this force was the elite of the Chaos Legion, and it was very brave. Parry has superior forces, but not superior forces - many people get the difference between the two.

Several large, what looked like giant onions appeared in the ranks of the Chaos Legion. As they passed, the Chaos Warriors were split apart like the tide of a reef. These monsters came to the front line.

"Chaos Eggs!" Robin recognized the monsters. Not so long ago, the corpse of one such monster was on display in the city of Neustria until it was rotten. It's not hard to recognize them.

Wasn't this horn an attack order, but a way to send the Chaos Egg to the front line?

They should have retreated, not stayed to engage the Chaos Legions. Robin suddenly noticed a thought of remorse in his mind. All of them were cavalry, and they could have retreated in time. He did say this to the general. It was Parry's poor command that had nothing to do with them, and no one could blame Baylor. But Baylor just smiled and rejected Robin's offer.

"Robin, it's not a question of who is responsible. That's what Bayral replied. If you don't understand this, you'll never be qualified to be a general. ”

The trumpet sounded again. The Chaos Legion began to move, and the Chaos Egg led the way.

Robin returned to his place, and suddenly remembered that this should be his first battle. At his time in Sylvania, he was actually an observer rather than a warrior. During the previous operation to destroy the Wizard of Chaos...... It was more of a hunt than a fight. In these actions, he was just following the general.

It was the first time he had stood on the battlefield, weapon in hand, leading troops, facing a surging enemy.