Chapter 16 (1/2)

CHAPTER 16 – THIS IS ALREADY A DECIDED MATTER

I wonder what kind of thing is that which paints the sky red on daybreak? Is it the beginning of congratulations by the soil welco the soil to emit heat? Akseli desired to understand that and believed the church, which doesn’t teach this, to be superficial

“… You will not yield on this no matter what?” (Daniel)

It’s Daniel, who’s worn-out, telling hiuard corps, he is the head of a Baron household, which has now, at last, both fath Even him, no matter how many times he tries to entreat, is unable to overthrow the view of that person Although Lauri as well as Oiva, and even Jarkko, are hoping for that, the boy repeats his opinion without even changing his facial expression

“Yes It’s necessary” (Marko)

Continuing sighs resounded within the room unbeknownst to how many times it has already been The conference roouard corps, was simple and cramped Also, the air beco Akseli, appear together Standing at his usual place by the , he reh he was participating in thisthe way of winning this dispute

The strategy of subjugating theup all resources of the Hakkinen guard corps… the plan for that had been drawn by Marko

It was also Marko, who affir of the incidents “The objective of thethe territory of Earl Helrevi isn’t any kind of property They don’t make any distinction between the territorial army and the civilians either The reason why is because their true aim is to disturb the transport lines of the military towards the front-line”

Akseli belatedly realized what Marko had said At theattacked by the bandits, there were of course oods destroyed Broken wine barrels, burned wheat bags, killed livestock… with the situation of thean unforeseeable hit-and-run tactic relying on speed, won’t there be sooods, he wondered, but if their goal was to hinder the transport towards the front, it’s an understandable argument

If I also classify it froe in various places within the territory, I understand that they have been focusing their attacks on iht as oods and items that were transported to the front If I follow up on the details, it will become obvious in reverse that they did diversionary raids for the sake of concealing their goal Those caused a lot of harm to the civilians

The mounted bandits mainly aimed at the transportation units of the territorial ares of their appearances and disappearances This was strange in the first place If you consider the nuuard forces, there was no necessity to brave the danger of attacking the territorial army It would have been fine if they simply aimed for the civilian transports It’s at least better if you plan to obtain a large aoods all at once I deemed the reason they didn’t do that to be contempt and resentment towards the territorial ar their own combat potential

And Marko’s huge move sowed a trap within the territory

The Hakkinen guard corps, which has reached the point of owning a large, influential voice within the territory by now, extensively used its clout for this sche in the transport schedule of the territorial aroods, they slowly but steadily incited the ets The assistance of Bertrand, who continued to reinforce their schee

Although the mounted bandits, who didn’t accomplish their objectives as they planned, started to plot once again, that in itself was already an act induced by Marko Rather, you could say that theclose Those, ere believing too much in their own plan and scoffed at the opponent’s plan, had their own plan used against the deftly turned towards this conclusion by Marko’s conductor stick

As for the final phase a hilly area, during the night, was the arranged stage

500 uised as a transport unit, were prepared as bait, which the main force of the mounted bandits couldn’t resist to strike at The first corps consisting of 254 members, led by Daniel, was placed at the front of the transport unit, the second corps consisting of 241 members, led by Jarkko, was located at the rear of the transport unit and 48 members were positioned in the centre as transport personnel

Tenerous h they had even prepared pikes for that situation At any rate, the h they had ainst horses loaded, it was a questionable point whether they would gain the tiful to have Daniel, who is the leader, and Jarkko, who is deeply trusted by the soldiers, deployed

The uards knew about the, but they weren’t able to specify the location the mounted bandits would use for their attack I have to say that they demonstrated their skill as a cavalry troop Further once, the uard corps expected, but it was a judgement which let Akseli experience the ability of the mounted bandits after all

There were 4 units that nal

2 a of 40a large nu up athe existence of an entire military force Their role was to li a cavalry unit fro base This is Akseli’s personal opinion, but he believes that there are e penchant for recklessness in the fourth corps

One of the 4 units was 100 cavalry of the fourth corps led by Oiva With the as a raid unit, their duties were to relieve other units depending on the situation and to reinforce the entire operation With Marko participating there as well, you could expect all situations to be optimally resolved

The last unit was 519 cavalrymen led by Akseli Their numbers added up with 269 cavalryuard corps and 250 cavalry with the feudal lord and the territorial army, these numbers hat they somehow accepted to provide Akseli chose excellent soldiers including his previous subordinates, but he wanted to have twice the number if he could have voiced his desires

The reason is that Akseli’s group’s assigned task was to dae the mounted bandits As fruits of the scheains in itself on top of that It’s not like it lessened Akseli’s expectations, but once he considered the eneth, it was better to have many soldiers He considered that he could e army

And this way of thinking resulted in hi crisis

Even when the ht up in the duainst the non-existent 2000 cavalrymen Even Akseli was amazed by their bravery and cleverness As result, the route of the htly diverted fro it impossible to cooperate with Daniel’s pike soldiers on foot

But even at that time their scheme demonstrated its effectiveness as the ers to their detached force The irony was that their cleverness in tactics also resulted in a decrease of their main force’s combat potentialWith this it became a close matter since they barely had the same number as Akseli’s unit It was unlikely to turn into a decisive battle seeing that the du, but it beca on the coordination with Oiva’s unit whether they would be able to achieve ains or not

The 500 nificent cavalry unit

As they likely also felt the oppression of being chased by great nued the for the terrain, they took various actions Akseli regarded this as similar to the mystery of cavalry tactics He also recalled Marko’s words with cold sweat “It’s a cavalry unit related to that Salomon ar the strongest cavalry unit on the continent?”

For Akseli it was advantageous that he knew the place where Oiva’s 100 cavalrymen unit laid in ambush There was no need to recklessly attack them If I skilfully lead them over there, that Marco is extraordinary and there’s no doubt that he will cooperate with us by landing an effective blow It’s fine, if I handle it cleverly until then

If he thinks about it now, Akseli is ashaap It’s essentially the same with any scale of battle, it’s vital to crush the intention of the opponent And this is likely only possible after owning soft and hard tactics (T/N: soft = evasive/defensive, hard = offensive) At that tilected the hard one He ended up leaving it to Marko

That’s why he decided to receive that detached attack Getting attacked by plunging in from the left flank, dozens were defeated in a short auard corps and territorial army acted as a weak-point as well Akseli was convinced that the daanize them He also predicted for it to become fatal if they were to be attacked by the 250 bandits, they were chasing However, he also believed that this wouldn’t happen

It was because they reached an adequate location where Oiva’s unit could get to As a result the surprise attack was a flawless success, an utter defeat, shown by capturing the boss of the mounted bandits alive Since you can say it was Marko, who raised that directbut impressed In all respects he is a boy outside the norm

Having said that, the eneht unrest by their boss being taken prisoner and seeing that rescue was impossible, they immediately darted away It wasn’t a chaotic escape either It was a retreat meant to preserve their combat potential as unit Not only was it adle soldier, but likely they were even carrying out their objectives as an organization

The ains reached more or less the standard

With 93been killed, there wasn’t much of a difference to those killed in action of the territorial aruard corps, but the number of prisoners added up to 209 It could be considered that the main force of the mounted bandits was partially destroyed and their boss was captured

This was a necessary battle It was soation of the uard corps The outco a victory will likely raise the uard corps even further It’s also the same with the public order within the territory However, it’s unavoidable for this uard corps in reverse instead

The uard corps, in a sense it was a relationshi+p of give-and-take

With the losses this time, the mounted bandits will have to reduce their activities Even if we don’t know the location of their village, I have no doubt about this But, if that is the case, the necessity for a guard corps will decline as well Merchants are sensitive towards profit Proposing to lower the nu the journey at first, they will probably also deh we certainly gained their trust, we have lost our use