Chapter 50: Cut Off Their Retreat!
The emaciated and exhausted noble laborers looked on in terror at the people beside them—those commoners who, in their eyes, had once been synonymous with filth, laziness, and lowliness—cheering madly.
Perhaps it was that damned phrase from Mitia, “Long live the working people,” that had deceived them.
Although their bodies were still dirty at this moment, their eyes had completely changed.
Their whole being seemed to be reborn, bursting forth with unprecedented passion.
It was as if something had become different.
Clearly, they were only doing the dirtiest and most exhausting job of hammering stone, yet every swing of that high-raised pickaxe seemed to strike directly into their hearts.
What Mitia said in her speech today would later be played on a loop in all the various territories by other civil officials.
She wanted to help the common people pick up once more the confidence and dignity they had long since lost.
In the past, these words might have sounded ill-suited—when one hadn’t eaten their fill, talk like this was useless, better to just hand them two big loaves of bread.
But now it was just the right time.
In the newly acquired lands under the Astal Family’s jurisdiction, every household could now eat its fill, wear cotton clothes for warmth, and have the chance to enter factories, earn wages, and purchase the industrial goods they desired.
Once they became accustomed to this better life, their numb and guarded hearts would be unlocked by the thriving, vibrant environment around them.
Only then would Mitia have a foundation for her speech.
She had, in reality, given them bread and milk.
Only then could trust be built, and only then would the people truly take her words to heart.
And the confidence and dignity she bestowed upon them were to make them feel recognition and belonging toward this newborn regime.
She did not speak of race but directly of “the people” and “comrades.” This provided a basis for merging different races together.
Regardless of race or gender, as long as one was like-minded, they were comrades and brothers.
Though such things seemed illusory at present, they were real.
Under certain circumstances, they could burst forth with an incomparable power that shook the world.
While Mitia was inspiring hearts in Alos territory, on the Hendak front, Lawrence held back the Church’s army despite their frenzied assault.
The damage caused by the mortars that Mitia continuously supplied to the front was simply too terrifying.
These small-sized, quick-support firepower weapons that could even be assigned to platoon-level units made the Church’s army suffer bitterly.
But one had to admit, this Church army was indeed fearsome.
Even without supervisory troops behind them, they could endure losses of fifty percent and still not collapse—an inhuman feat.
Against other opponents, this death-defying charge might really have broken through.
Unfortunately for them, Mitia replenished the mortars—these weapons capable of delivering dense, rapid firepower—far too quickly.
Coupled with the fact that the Astal army’s morale was no weaker than the Church’s, even as the Church dropped countless corpses each day, they still failed to break through the defenses.
Once the situation stabilized, Lawrence began pulling back his mobile forces, emptying the army’s reserves and using the trucks Mitia had sent to cobble together an under-strength mechanized infantry division.
This 5,000-strong infantry division was ordered by Lawrence to bypass the Hendak frontline slaughterhouse, quickly maneuvering along dirt roads within Hendak’s borders deep into its rear.
They split into three mechanized infantry regiments, penetrating into Hendak’s territories, using superior firepower and mobility to destroy numerous noble castles under Hendak’s jurisdiction.
They hanged the nobles beneath the city gates, declared the civilians free, and opened the granaries.
With the nobles dead, a local power vacuum formed, greatly disrupting Hendak’s supply lines.
After their success, the mechanized division commander did not grow arrogant.
He quickly regrouped his forces and charged at Memlotorh, which had yet to react.
They captured this frontline stronghold, destroyed all supplies, blew up the city gates and walls, and quite literally turned it into a city of leaking winds.
This move completely cut off the connection between Hendak and Memlotorh.
The Church’s reserve troops and military supplies could no longer safely enter Hendak’s lands through this transit hub.
Just clearing the ruins would take an enormous amount of time.
And since the city defenses were destroyed, they had to station more troops to prevent a second attack.
This shift in balance left Hendak’s frontline battlefield unsustainable.
A fire in the rear could be truly fatal.
This mechanized force, appearing and vanishing like a ghost, could easily massacre the Church’s reserve troops—who marched on foot—like chickens on the plains.
Even if they couldn’t destroy them, the Church’s forces could not stop them from retreating.
And with only two snow-cleared roads, it was impossible for them to scatter into the vast snowfields.
The Church could no longer fight on Hendak’s behalf, but Lawrence could!
Revived, Lawrence once again pressed his entire line up to Hendak’s city walls, launching bombardments and artillery strikes, occasionally feinting one or two waves of attacks to keep up relentless pressure on the front.
This forced Hendak’s territories to maintain a large-scale frontline presence, lest Astal break through and cause a total collapse of the war.
They could not withdraw troops to the rear to join up with support forces in encircling the mechanized division, while reinforcements sent were too weak, and their supply lines were cut.
Thus the battlefield in Hendak suddenly became passive.
What was worse, Mitia’s speech had sparked a surge of enthusiasm across the territory to enlist and liberate comrades, freeing up the defensive forces of Titusburg.
Under Mitia’s coordination, two divisions from Titusburg were transferred to the Hendak rear, where they joined with the mechanized division to form an army, seizing Hendak’s rear and completing a pincer encirclement.
Meanwhile, Milves’ forces launched an offensive against Lausach in Paria, cutting off Hendak’s chances of receiving aid, completely isolating it.
By the time Marquis Hendak and the two bishops realized something was wrong, everything had already been decided.
The three were left dumbstruck.
Musket units were good—very good.
Their training costs were astonishingly low.
In just a couple of months, soldiers could be prepared for the battlefield.
The Church provided manpower and basic resources, Hendak supplied blacksmiths to forge weapons and refine magic potions.
Both sides benefitted mutually.
But now, with supply lines cut, how could they replenish the astronomical amount of ammunition consumed daily by their massive musket corps?
Food, at least, could be managed.
Hendak ruthlessly carried out purges of territories influenced by Astal’s revolutionary ideas, forcibly seizing enough grain to keep the army fed for a month or so.
But the new recruits trained by the Church in the rear could not be sent as reinforcements.
Thus Hendak not only carried out confiscations but also forcibly drafted adult men from these territories into the army, demanding they atone for their families’ supposed crimes.
The most direct consequence of insufficient ammunition was a sharp reduction in the magic potion rations distributed to the frontline troops.
The most obvious sign was that the firepower density along the city’s defensive line began to weaken.
Meanwhile, Astal’s mobile mortar positions constantly managed to kill or cripple groups of soldiers.
The newly drafted conscripts had barely received training, lacking any professionalism.
On top of that, with resentment in their hearts from Marquis Hendak’s purges of their homes, they slacked off and performed poorly.
With this decline, the more such conscripts were added, the weaker the army’s overall combat effectiveness became, and morale dropped sharply.
On the Church’s side, once they learned their rear had been cut off, morale also wavered.
They had fought continuously for days, with countless deaths, yet seen no tangible gains.
And now, even their homes had been seized.
What would happen next, they did not know.
And in the Lausach direction, Astal was attacking but not encircling…