Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 95 Surprise Attack on the 32nd Regiment

The Kingdom's soldiers fled quickly, but the assault team was just as fast as they rushed through the smoke wall.

Once they reached the doorway, the assault team's division of labor was very clear.

The assault troops, armed with large P08 drum magazines, followed Morin and charged straight into the doorway, then began frantically scooping up potatoes with a deluge of 9mm bullets.

The Kingdom's soldiers were all crammed into the doorway, so they didn't even need to aim much.

Once the morale of the team collapses, the speed at which fear spreads will exceed everyone's imagination, and no one will even think of firing back.
Meanwhile, other soldiers using Gew.98 rifles began exchanging fire in the streets.

Although there was virtually no cover on the streets in front of the castle, these commandos were quick-witted.

They used the still-lingering smoke wall as cover, moving towards the gate while occasionally firing precise shots at any enemy daring to peek out from the city wall.

In just over ten seconds, the castle gate was completely under control, and the room directly above the gate, which was responsible for controlling the drawbridge and the main gate, was also cleared by the assault team with grenades.

Morin also changed to the last spare drumstick and led his team into the castle, where a cold and damp atmosphere rushed in.

The scene before them instantly shifted from an open battlefield to a typical indoor close-quarters combat environment.

Narrow corridors, dim lighting, countless rooms and corners.
This place is every infantryman's nightmare.

Morin glanced at his system map and frowned.

He discovered that the 'golden touch' also revealed some limitations in this environment.

On the map, the area representing the castle was turned into a gray square with a soldier's tag on it—the unit to which the soldiers who fled into the castle belonged.

Apart from that, he could only see a red number [42].

This number represents the number of enemy troops remaining inside the castle.

However, the map does not show the exact location of these enemies, or which room or corner they are in.

"Just like in Battlefield Domination, it only shows the number of enemies within the area, right?"

Morin mentally scoffed, but he knew now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

After glancing at the [Mage Armor] and seeing that its durability was already low, Bro activated another defensive spell.

[First-Circle Spell - Shield]

A circular shield made of pure magical energy appeared instantly in front of him, moving with him.

While digging trenches all night last night, Morin roughly predicted today's battle situation, so this is how he filled his spell slots:

[2nd Ring Spell - Shadow Step] 0/2
【1环法术-法师护甲】0/2【1环法术-护盾术】1/2
Today's battle made him realize that the mages in this world really don't have much stamina.

At least low-level mages' sustain is completely insufficient to support high-intensity combat.
"So how did the Brittany manage to be all about shaping and changing energy?"

As the assault team penetrated deeper into the castle, the royal army garrison inside began to fight back.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Gunshots rang out continuously in the darkness at the end of the corridor, but the bullets all hit the shield, only creating two transparent ripples.

"The enemy is at the end of the corridor! Suppress fire!"

The assault team members following behind Morin reacted immediately. They leaned out and fired several P08s at the same time, and a dense hail of bullets instantly covered the entire corridor.

Stone chips flew everywhere from the wall, and the three royal soldiers hiding at the far end were hit and let out a 'William scream' before falling silent.

"Don't stop! Keep going!"

Morin gave the enemy no chance to catch their breath.

The battlefield is different from the war on terror. In this high-pressure environment, there are no fancy corner-cutting or room-clearing CQB tactics to speak of.

The most effective way is to simply and brutally overwhelm them with superior firepower.

Grenades to clear the way, concentrated firepower to suppress, just charge and you're done.

In close-quarters combat, Morin's 'Storm Commando Youth Edition' possesses an overwhelming advantage in firepower density.

Therefore, there is no need to carefully set up guns and exchange fire while slowly advancing.

Moreover, they don't have time to push things out slowly.

No one knew what the situation was outside the castle, or whether the enemy would send reinforcements.

The most important thing right now is to end the fighting inside the castle as soon as possible and completely control this high ground.

It must be said that the twenty soldiers that Klaus picked out for Morin from the entire company were indeed good candidates to be assault team members.

Having experienced the battle outside the castle, they have quickly adapted to this high-intensity combat rhythm.

They've even developed the habit of 'firing in advance'.

Whenever they encountered a corner or an open door, they would throw a grenade first, and then rush over while firing their guns.

This simple and brutal tactic has the advantage of maximizing the firepower advantage of the assault team, leaving the enemy with no chance to retaliate.

The downside is that the ammunition is consumed very quickly.

As the assault team fought their way through and cleared out most of the rooms on the first floor of the castle, preparing to advance up the stairs to the second floor, the assault soldiers equipped with P08 munitions had already emptied their two 32-round drum magazines and were switching to their last ones.

Meanwhile, Morin had already picked up the enemy's rifle and fixed the bayonet.

"Company commander, we're almost out of bullets!" a corporal said to Morin during a break while changing the drum magazine.

"Shoot your pistols, then your rifles! Pick up the pieces from the enemy corpses!" Morin roared without turning his head. "Don't stop! Crush them all in one go!"

He knew very well that once their offensive slowed down, the defenders in the castle would catch their breath.

Once they reorganize an effective defense, these twenty men will likely be surrounded and annihilated.

Therefore, we must continue our advance and completely crush the defending forces in one fell swoop.

With the shield spell on him, Morin charged at the front of the group, drawing almost all of the firepower.

The commandos behind him only needed to follow him and fire bullets at any suspicious target.

This indoor combat tactic certainly puts a lot of psychological and mental stress on the assault team members, but the technical and tactical requirements are not as high as when they are infiltrating from the outside.

Since they are unlikely to be hit by bullets, all the assault team members have to do is pull the trigger.

Even so, by the time the assault team stormed up to the second floor of the castle and reached the main hall, only 15 men remained.

Moreover, ammunition was almost exhausted, and most of the assault troops had switched to rifles.

Standing in front of the main hall's doors, Morin couldn't immediately tell how many enemies were inside.

The true value of the [First Ring Spell - Life Perception] is now evident.

Unfortunately, Morin hasn't learned this spell yet.

“Let’s count how many grenades we have left,” Morin said to a corporal who had been following him.

Soon, the other party also told Morin a number: 8.

Morin: "How come you used it so quickly?"

"But you were just outside giving orders, telling people to use grenades to clear houses here and suppress enemy fire there," the corporal said, sounding somewhat aggrieved.

"It's alright. Well done." Morin quickly skipped the topic, then kicked the main hall door open with his back to it, opening half of the door.

A burst of gunfire suddenly erupted in the main hall.

The commandos didn't hesitate and, after receiving a signal from Morin, poured the remaining grenades into the container.

"Boom boom boom!"

The continuous grenade explosions sent dust flying throughout the main hall and the corridor near the main entrance.

Immediately afterwards, led by Morin who had cast a shield spell, the assault team spread out on both sides of him and rushed in amidst the smoke and dust.

Several surviving soldiers who were close to the gate attempted to return fire.

But the commandos and Morin reacted even faster, directly knocking down the Kingdom soldiers who attempted to retaliate.

This is like toppling the first domino.

The remaining soldiers of the kingdom also lost the courage to resist.

"Don't shoot! We surrender! We really surrender!"

They threw down their weapons, raised their hands high, their faces filled with terror and despair.

"Tie them all up! Check if anyone on the ground is still alive!"

Morin stopped and gave orders to the assault team behind him.

He leaned against a pillar, keeping watch over the interior of the hall, feeling as if all his strength had been drained away.

From the start of the attack until now, he has been in a state of high tension, and his mental and physical strength have been greatly depleted.

Moreover, the march the previous day had already exhausted a great deal of physical strength.
Just then, Morin noticed that among the surrendered Kingdom soldiers, several wore uniforms that were clearly different from the others.

Although Morin wasn't very familiar with the style of the Kingdom's army's black uniforms, he could tell that it was an officer's uniform.

A thought struck him, and he opened the system map again.

Then, to my surprise, I discovered that on the gray square icon of the castle, there was another soldier card that originally represented the castle's garrison.

Surprisingly, there was an extra soldier badge with a crossed sword symbol that he hadn't noticed before.

Headquarters of the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the Kingdom of Aragon

"Holy crap, that was a real surprise attack!"

Morin couldn't help but swear.

Although Major Thomas had previously stated that the enemy regimental headquarters might be in the town.
But their fierce attack actually wiped out the enemy's regimental command post.

Not long after, Klaus arrived at the castle with a group of soldiers.

When he saw the mess in the main hall and the dejected, bound-up officers of the Kingdom Army, even this seasoned sergeant major couldn't help but gape in astonishment.

"Company commander, you actually managed to take down the enemy's regimental headquarters?"

Klaus asked incredulously, his tone tinged with regret.

Being a 'ballast' is nowhere near as good as following the company commander in a fierce attack.
"more or less."

Morin had recovered by now. He dusted himself off, pointed at the officers, and said to Klaus:

"Keep a close eye on these guys. Have the others clean up the battlefield, inventory the spoils and prisoners, and make sure the maps and documents are kept safe!"

"Yes, sir!"

Klaus saluted excitedly and immediately began organizing the soldiers to move out of the way.

As news from other units of the 1st Company, including friendly units from the 2nd and 3rd Companies, gradually arrived, the initial battle results were tallied.

The attack on the town resulted in a resounding victory for the entire battalion, with fewer than a hundred casualties.

They not only routed a Royal Army infantry battalion stationed in the town and captured most of the soldiers, but also destroyed the headquarters of the Royal Army's 32nd Infantry Regiment.

Among the captured enemies were the lieutenant colonel commander of the Kingdom's 32nd Infantry Regiment and the battalion commander of the infantry battalion, as well as the battalion commander of the magic crystal cannon battalion who was assisting in the defense of this place.

In addition, a large amount of weapons, ammunition, military supplies, a complete field hospital, and hundreds of military horses were seized.

The most important spoils of war were the six magic crystal cannons that were completely captured by the soldiers of the 1st Company.

When Sergeant Klaus reported the results of the battle to Morin, his voice trembled with excitement.

As Morin listened to the report, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

The battle was actually fought quite well.

He proved the value of his new tactics to everyone with a resounding victory.

More importantly, his company, having undergone this baptism of blood and fire, can now truly begin its transformation.

Whether it was the new recruits or the three newly appointed platoon leaders, anyone who survived gained a lot of experience in this battle.

"Well done, Klaus."

Morin patted his old soldier on the shoulder: "Let's all work a little harder to clean up the battlefield, and then we'll go check on those magic crystal cannons."

He was extremely curious about those powerful weapons capable of launching 'airbursts'.

As the fighting in the town gradually subsided, several kilometers away in the sky behind the battlefield, one of the three giant observation balloons began to slowly descend.

Inside the basket, Crown Prince Georg put down the bulky optical observation instrument in his hand, his face still showing lingering shock.

"General."

He turned to look at Mackensen beside him, whose expression remained serious, his tone filled with amazement.

"I never imagined that infantry offensive operations could be fought in this way."

Although they couldn't see the specific details of the street fighting inside the town due to the distance and angle.

However, the earthwork carried out by the 1st Company before the attack and the raids by the commandos after the battle began still brought a huge visual and psychological impact to the young crown prince.

The scene where Morin used the "Stealth Step" for the first time, breaking through the enemy's defenses with smoke, was especially thrilling for him.

As the crown prince, Georg had naturally seen more mages than other Saxons.

But he never imagined that mages, who mostly served as researchers of magical technology in the rear, could be used in this way on the battlefield.
“This is just like the ‘Breakthrough’ from ancient epics,” Georg muttered to himself.

General Mackensen did not immediately offer any comment upon hearing this.

But the barely suppressed upturn of his lips still betrayed his true thoughts.

"Your Highness, please don't praise him like that."

After a moment, the old general spoke in his usual stern tone:

“I know this kid too well. If you praise him today, he’ll dare to promise you tomorrow that he can take down Madrid all by himself.”

"Haha, if that's true, then Father Emperor will have an easier time."

(End of this chapter)