Recapturing Sorane and wiping out all the soldiers of the Sun God Dynasty in Sorane are two tasks of vastly different difficulty. It seems that the decision-makers of the Legion did not consider whether the Iron-Blood Battalion of the 39th Division could complete this task, or even if it could, what price would be paid.
The Iron Horn Legion's battalion in Sorane was completely annihilated by the Sun God Dynasty's forces. The heads of all the Imperial soldiers were chopped off and piled up on the threshing floor of that mountain village in Sorane. Therefore, the Iron Horn Legion also had to chop off the heads of those Sun God Dynasty members who occupied Sorane and pile them up on the threshing floor.
It's that simple: it must be accomplished, no matter how many lives are lost.
The Norman Empire and the Sun God Dynasty are currently locked in a power struggle in the Karur region. When this power struggle between nations is applied to the legions below, it becomes mere friction. And when the friction between legions is applied to the legions below, it becomes countless people fighting to the death every day.
This was the first time that a battalion-level unit of the Iron Horn Legion had been completely annihilated by the Sun God Dynasty in the area of friction between the two sides. To accomplish this, the Sun God Dynasty's forces surrounding and attacking Sorane should have been at least twice the size of the Empire's battalion in Sorane.
The Sun God Dynasty's numerical superiority in the Karur region began to emerge at this point. Even in small-scale skirmishes and skirmishes between legions at the battalion level, the side with more troops could establish small-scale local advantages in some parts of Karur, thus gaining the initiative.
What happened in Sorane was just a microcosm of the problems facing the Norman Empire in the Karur region.
Therefore, the Iron-Blood Battalion must step up. They must teach those Radiant Feather a lesson they can't forget. They must use this lesson and victory to maintain the morale of the entire legion.
One objective was to occupy the territory, while the other was to annihilate the entire enemy force. These different missions led to adjustments in the operational plan.
This adjustment, orchestrated by Major Guderian, involved shifting the Iron-Blood Battalion's offensive direction from the north of Sorane to the Sorane. After circling around, the Iron-Blood Battalion would launch an attack from the enemy's rear, cutting off the retreat route of the Sun God Dynasty hybrids currently occupying Sorane from the outset.
This adjustment was simple, ruthless, fierce, and decisive. Faced with the attack from the south, the Sun God Dynasty troops occupying Sorane could only fight to the death against the Iron-Blood Battalion. Their chances of escaping to the north of Sorane were zero. Due to the terrain, it would also be very difficult for them to escape to the east or west of Sorane.
While adopting this strategy, the Iron-Blood Battalion also faced a significant threat. If the Iron-Blood Battalion became bogged down with the Sun God Dynasty forces occupying Sorane and was unable to eliminate them immediately, and if another Sun God Dynasty force appeared behind the Iron-Blood Battalion, the Iron-Blood Battalion would be surrounded by the enemy and completely put on the defensive.
The appearance of the Iron-Blood Battalion from the north of Sorane certainly surprised the enemy, but at the same time, it almost put them in an encirclement that would be easiest for the enemy to encircle.
This plan seemed somewhat insane, as few commanders would willingly jump into enemy encirclement to fight. But Battalion Commander Reinhardt was such a madman; when Major Guderian's operational plan was proposed, he adopted it immediately without even asking a single question.
Because of the detour, the Iron-Blood Battalion had to travel an additional ten kilometers or so of mountain road to reach Sorane.
Finally, as the first rays of morning sunlight touched Sorane, the more than one thousand men of the Iron-Blood Battalion had already circled around to a hillside north of Sorane and quietly lay in ambush.
Here, less than a kilometer from Sorane, after a 30-kilometer raid, the Iron-Blood Battalion lay in ambush at Sorane's entrance like hibernating snakes.
The Iron-Blood Battalion's men lay in ambush within an elm grove. Thousands of them remained completely silent, all crouching on the ground to rest, drink water, and eat, rapidly replenishing their strength.
Everyone has twenty minutes to recover their strength.
Finally able to catch his breath, Zhang Tie took out some dried meat and ate it, while staring wide-eyed at the small village built on the mountainside in the distance. That small village was Sorane.
Several plumes of smoke rose from the small village, seemingly the last gasps of several buildings that had been burning all night before the fire died down. After occupying Sorane, the bastards of the Sun God Dynasty had set fire to several houses in the village to prevent a nighttime attack. The burning houses looked like several giant torches, burning all night long.
By this time, there were no inhabitants left in Sorane. Long before the two armies arrived and began their standoff, the residents around Karur had scattered and fled in all directions, whether to Karur, south or north; no one wanted to be caught between the two legions.
I heard that hundreds of thousands of refugees have gathered outside the Karur City.
The village was filled with the figures of the Radiant Feather Legion soldiers in their blue uniforms. Many of the soldiers in blue uniforms seemed to have just woken up and were washing up by the river in the distance.
Zhang Tie had little combat experience; he only estimated, based on what he saw, that the number of the Radiant Feather Legion occupying Sorane was between two thousand five hundred and three thousand.
The small village had only one main road, so the attack plan was very simple: the Iron-Blood Battalion just needed to charge in along the main road and kill everyone in blue uniforms they could see along the way. The key to all of this was speed; they should not give the Sorane Sun God Dynasty's troops time to assemble.
After eating two small strips of dried meat, drinking a couple of sips of water, and resting for five minutes, Zhang Tie's strength began to slowly recover. Everyone ate very little, as eating too much would negatively impact their performance in the upcoming battle.
This march carrying half a ton of weight was a full test of Zhang Tie's physical strength. Zhang Tie knew that if he went another ten kilometers or so, he really wouldn't be able to keep going. Carrying that half ton of weight was no joke. When he saw Sorane, Zhang Tie breathed a huge sigh of relief.
This weapon, Proof of Manhood, is top-notch equipment for showing off, but bringing it to the battlefield, Zhang Tie felt as if he were temporarily trapping himself in a self-inflicted wound.
Two weeks later, when it's the Iron-Blood Battalion's turn to rest, I think I'll need to get a new main weapon. If I really need to escape or make a long-distance raid, carrying this thing will be a real burden.
Zhang Tie secretly made up his mind. He felt that this was the first lesson he had learned in this war after getting off the train: never try to appear stronger than you are, otherwise, you will only suffer the consequences.
Less than two minutes after Zhang Tie uttered this thought, Zhang Tie quickly learned a second thing—no battle begins until you are fully prepared.
The Iron-Blood Battalion's original rest time before the attack was 20 minutes, but they had only rested for less than 10 minutes Sorane and ran along a mountain road toward the area where the Iron-Blood Battalion was hiding.
The group consisted of about five or six hundred men. They left Sorane and ran towards this area, not because they had discovered that the Iron-Blood Battalion was already lying in ambush nearby, but because they were preparing to leave Sorane.
Just as Zhang Tie was wondering whether Reinhardt would let these people pass to avoid alerting the enemy.
Reinhardt's orders have been given. "Prepare for battle! Kill them all!"
Because the Legion Command's orders were to kill all the Sun God Dynasty bastards who had occupied Sorane, Battalion Commander Reinhardt had no intention of letting a single one escape.
After receiving orders, the two companies of brothers equipped with light crossbows had quietly infiltrated both sides of the mountain path, loaded several bolts, and waited with narrowed eyes for the group of people to pass by.
Because this was his first time experiencing such a battle, Zhang Tie was slightly nervous and couldn't help but swallow a couple of times.
A strong hand landed on Zhang Tie's shoulder. Zhang Tie turned his head and saw Fereau quietly crouching behind him. "When the fight starts, all three platoons will follow you. You just need to stick with me. Don't be afraid..."
Zhang Tie nodded.
The group of people were jogging forward, and in no time they appeared before Zhang Tie, covering a distance of less than a kilometer.
It was a troop of soldiers with Radiant Feather. At the front of the troop were Knight in full armor carrying a banner that looked like a pair of wings. Four columns of soldiers, armed and in armor, followed behind the mounted Knight. At the rear of the column were several more Knight, also on horseback, with more ornate armor. These Knight seemed to be officers of the troop.
The Sun God Dynasty's troops used a three-three system, while the Norman Empire's troops used a five-five system. The two armies differed in many ways. The five or six hundred men in front of them were probably a battalion under the Radiant Feather.
The group seemed completely unprepared for an ambush shortly after leaving Sorane. A volley of crossbow bolts shot out from the elm grove by the roadside, instantly sending half the group flying and screaming in terror.
"Kill!" Battalion Commander Reinhardt was the first to charge out of the elm forest like a tiger. With a single punch, he shattered the body of the Knight at the front of the column, who was riding a frightened horse and spinning wildly, into a pile of blood, flesh, and steel fragments that flew backward, and also shot down a large number of the Sun God Dynasty soldiers.
The Iron-Blood Battalion soldiers in the forest sprang up like tigers, instantly cutting the five or six hundred-strong group into several pieces.
Lieutenant Fereau's main weapons were two double-edged giant axes that resembled wheels. The way this burly, bald man swung his axes was like a human meat grinder in motion; wherever he went, not a single soldier of the Sun God Dynasty could stand.
In the blink of an eye, Lieutenant Fereau had torn a bloody path more than ten meters long in front of Zhang Tie...