Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World-Chapter 741: Annihilation

TL: Rui88

Andrew was quite surprised when the advance force, composed of the Horn Bay army, hastily withdrew.

For some time now, the advance of the New Protestant Army had been unstoppable. Having lost the protection of the Crusader Army, the towns along the way did not dare to block the New Protestant Army’s path.

Inside the command tent, the commander of the advance force described his encounter with lingering fear.

“It was a terrifying army. They were arranged in strict formations, looking from a distance like rows of trees planted neatly upon the earth.”

“Their soldiers seemed to know no fear. Once their commander gave the order, they charged like a pack of mad dogs, unafraid of the arrows we fired or our forest of bayonets.”

“Their combat strength was extremely formidable, as if they were tireless machines from a fantasy novel. Although our soldiers were also valiant, we ultimately could not hold on and were defeated.”

Andrew poured a cup of wine and handed it to the shame-faced soldier. “You and your troops did your best. Go and rest for now.”

The officer gave him a salute, lifted the tent flap, and went out.

“Gentlemen, it seems we have encountered a powerful opponent.”

Andrew looked at the others present.

“It’s Jars’s army—the Undead Army!” Mariana said in a low voice.

“Jars?”

Andrew became vigilant. He knew that the reason he had been sent to Horn Bay was to relieve the threat the Church’s army posed to Lion’s Port, and the initial cause was that Jars, allied with the Horn Bay Church, had sent men to attack Lion’s Port.

He inquired, “It seems you know something about this army.”

“Yes, General.” Mariana began to explain the army’s origins to him. “Jars obtained a magical drug from some wizards, which can make his soldiers as strong as steel and multiply their strength.”

As the person in charge of Horn Bay’s land-based military operations, Andrew had been informed back in Northwest Bay about the kind of people he would be fighting alongside.

They were a group of people who were disrespectful to the Holy See, a group that sheltered magic. Eton, in particular, was the first nation on the continent to openly declare wizards as having legal status. Under Eton’s lead, other nations in the New Protestant Alliance had also, one after another, declared that wizards enjoyed the same rights and status as ordinary people.

The Horn Bay war had a tremendous impact on this world. Just before the war broke out, wizards existed only in urban legends and rural folklore, but as the Horn Bay war progressed, they had invaded the real world, becoming a semi-public presence in many places.

When Paul Grayman had tested the waters regarding appointments in Horn Bay, Andrew and Quik had shown a tendency that deeply impressed Paul—they would place the interests of Alda and Northwest Bay above their own faith. Of course, this was not to say that the others had turned into cowards upon hearing they would be fighting the Holy See, but these two had been particularly enthusiastic. So, they were sent to Horn Bay, one to command the army, and one to command the navy.

Therefore, when Andrew heard words like “wizards” and “magic” from Mariana’s mouth, he expressed no surprise or anger, merely evaluating their danger on the battlefield from a military commander’s perspective.

He questioned Mariana in detail, and only when he confirmed that Jars’s Undead Army was, in the end, still made of flesh and blood did his anxious heart finally settle.

Under Andrew’s command, the main force of the New Protestant Army continued to advance on the capital of Collins, which was also the stronghold of the Horn Bay Church.

Finally, they met the so-called Undead Army.

Jars’s army and Webster’s army combined numbered about thirty thousand men, and they formed up on the road that the New Protestant Army had to take.

Andrew used his customary tactic—cannons first, then infantry charge. After a bombardment from the artillery, he ordered his troops to attack the enemy phalanxes.

The Undead Army was indeed extraordinary. While Webster’s army was wavering from the artillery bombardment, the phalanxes of the Undead Army immediately dispersed to reduce the probability of being harmed by cannonballs. But once the artillery stopped and the New Protestant Army began to press forward, they quickly reassembled into formation, their efficiency only slightly inferior to that of the well-trained Alda army.

Seeing the line formations of the Alda army approaching, Fernando Peyton, commander of the Undead Army, ordered the attack.

Instantly, the soldiers of the Undead Army, who had been as solid as a rock just a moment before, broke into a run and charged forward. As the advance force had described, they were like a pack of long-starved mad dogs released from their cages.

Under Andrew’s command, the line formations of Alda soldiers, after a hurried volley, quickly withdrew to the rear.

Amidst the fire and thick smoke, the first batch of charging Undead Army soldiers fell, but the rest showed no fear and continued to charge fiercely towards the Alda army.

After a chase, the two armies gradually entered a forest.

“Bang!” With a loud crack, an officer in the Undead Army tumbled from his horse and fell to the ground.

“Bang!” “Bang!”

Before anyone could react, sounds like the first one grew more frequent, taking more officers with them.

Strangely, whenever an officer fell from his horse and died, the Undead Army soldiers around him would become very peculiar. They either stood dumbfounded on the spot, not moving, or they devolved into beasts driven only by instinct, even attacking their own comrades.

This was the weakness of the Undead Army that Andrew had learned from Mariana. Although their combat strength was formidable, they relied on individual “nodes” to command them. If their superior node suddenly disappeared, they would lose control.

So Andrew ordered snipers using rifled muskets to set up an ambush in the woods. After luring the Undead Army into the forest, the snipers hiding in the woods aimed at the commanding officers, crippling or killing them with a single shot!

The dense jungle environment of Horn Bay provided excellent cover. Andrew’s strategy was executed well. As the snipers’ successes mounted, the Undead Army became increasingly chaotic.

The Alda army, which had previously feigned retreat, emerged from the forest and began an organized hunt for this pack of irrational beasts. Although Jars’s soldiers were individually formidable, they ultimately became prey in the face of tight coordination and deadly bullets.

As for their commander, General Peyton, he also died at the hands of a small bullet. He had been shouting for his troops to retreat to open ground when suddenly the top of his skull flew off, his brains splattering everywhere.

Webster’s army was powerless to rescue them. Facing the numerically superior New Protestant Army, he once again issued the order to retreat, falling back directly into the City of Collins.