Everyone needs to become an urban warfare ace

The officers fell silent. Morin's words had made these professional soldiers realize just how brutal urban warfare could be.

Morin, meanwhile, turned to the battalion commander, Major Thomas.

"Major, I suggest we immediately request that Regimental Headquarters break up the regiment's heavy machine gun company and distribute it among our battalion's companies!"

"Break it up? But heavy machine guns are the regiment's most important supporting firepower, especially in defensive battles. Besides, everyone has seen how powerful those machine guns are over the past few days..."

Major Thomas answered somewhat hesitantly.

"Wouldn't concentrating our machine gun positions let us make the most of that advantage?"

"In urban warfare, concentrated heavy machine gun positions are sitting ducks!"

Morin countered bluntly.

"Never mind the enemy's flying mages, who can attack concentrated machine gun positions at any time! Even their infantry could circle around from another direction, get onto our flank, and finish the whole position with a few grenades!"

"But if we disperse them, a machine gun team with two or three riflemen providing cover can completely seal off an entire street! Just find a window with a good field of view, or an intersection with some cover and room to relocate, then camouflage the position!"

"Machine gun positions must never be fixed in one spot. That makes them easy for the enemy to target. The moment something looks wrong, the crew must move to an alternate firing position..."

"We also need to build barricades with anything we can find. Didn't the supply train bring barbed wire? Stop saving it. Put all of it out in the streets!"

Morin rapidly laid out everything he knew, while the officers, Major Thomas included, had already taken out their notebooks and begun writing.

"Finally, there's our artillery."

Morin looked toward the edge of the city. "Once the street fighting begins, our 77mm Field Guns and 105mm Howitzers will struggle to provide accurate indirect fire support, because our troops and the enemy will be completely mixed together."

"Rather than leave them sitting idle in the rear, we should bring them into the city too!"

This idea was even crazier than all his previous suggestions. Everyone in the command post was stunned.

Bring the artillery into the streets? Had the kid lost his mind?

"Second Lieutenant Morin!" Even Major Thomas's voice had changed. "Artillery personnel are precious. Sending them into street fighting will cause enormous casualties!"

"Major, I know it's risky."

Morin looked at his battalion commander and explained firmly but patiently.

"But in urban warfare, guns firing horizontally are the most powerful weapons we have. Especially those 77mm Field Guns. I know they're equipped with old-fashioned shrapnel shells. Fired horizontally, a single shell can sweep an entire street!"

"And a 105mm Howitzer is a mobile battering ram! As one of our fellow officers asked earlier, what do we do if the enemy occupies a building?"

"Simple. Blast them with 105mm high-explosive shells!"

"If Brigade Headquarters wants to hold this city, then it needs to think about how to hold it first, and worry about rebuilding afterward."

The temporary Battalion Headquarters fell utterly silent. Only the sound of heavy breathing remained.

Every officer, Major Thomas included, had been thoroughly shaken by the entirely new vision of warfare Morin had painted.

Dispersing into small units, using buildings for cover, moving through interiors, sealing streets with machine guns, putting artillery into close combat...

Together, these separate tactics formed a complete and tightly integrated system for urban warfare.

They had never encountered anything like it, but as professional soldiers, they could immediately grasp its feasibility and tremendous power.

"A genius... An absolute genius. You were born to wage war, kid..."

Captain Hauser murmured to himself. The admiration in his eyes as he watched Morin had become something closer to awe.

After all, a normal person would have struggled to come up with these things.

Major Thomas, meanwhile, seemed to have finally caught up. His whole body shook with excitement as he seized Morin's arm, visibly worked up.

"Morin! You... you... I have to go to Brigade Headquarters immediately! I have to report your plan to the regimental commander and General Paul! If we need a plan to hold Seville, then these tactics of yours are it!"

With that, he gave Morin no chance to respond. Clutching his hastily scribbled notes, he rushed out of the command post like a gust of wind.

After Major Thomas left, the remaining officers all crowded around Morin at once, clamoring to ask him about the finer details.

"Second Lieutenant Morin, how do we deal with enemies who might be hiding out of sight?"

"What's the most effective way to arrange firing positions inside a room?"

"What if the enemy copies us and knocks holes through the walls?"

Surrounded by them, Morin felt his head begin to ache.

Still, he patiently answered their questions one by one.

He knew that the better these men understood urban warfare, the better their chances of survival, and the stronger Seville's entire defensive line would be.

He had to make sure this force was still standing when the armored airships arrived. That would improve his own chances of survival too.

When he finally managed to send everyone on their way, Morin could catch his breath.

He sat down casually on an empty ammunition crate, but another problem surfaced in his mind.

His tactical system was built on conventional thinking: infantry fighting infantry.

But the enemy had mages and Armored Knights.

Leaving the mages aside for now, they still appeared to fear attacks from firearms.

But how were they supposed to deal with those eight White Iron Cans from the Order of the Garter?

On open ground, they were formidable assault weapons.

In the confined spaces of urban warfare, they would only become even more unstoppable mobile fortresses...

With the strength they had already demonstrated, they could easily smash through walls, crush barricades, and ignore anything the infantry fired at them.

The thought of that scene sent a chill through Morin.

Perhaps infantrymen in another world were just as helpless when they first saw tanks...

The thought flashed through Morin's mind, but he knew he had to find a solution.

Otherwise, the seemingly perfect urban warfare system he had just devised would be no more than a paper lantern before those Iron Behemoths, bursting at the slightest touch.

Could infantry blow them up with grenades or military explosives?

Leaving aside whether those would be powerful enough, Morin doubted infantry would even have a chance to get close to an Armored Knight rampaging through the streets.

These machines were clearly far more agile than early tanks. "Anti-Tank Gymnastics" would be unlikely to work against these iron cans.

The weapon in an Armored Knight's hands and the Knight Squires accompanying it would also tear apart any infantrymen who tried to approach.

Then what about artillery?

That was the only possibility Morin could think of. He had just suggested bringing artillery to the front for direct fire, so could those guns threaten an Armored Knight?

He could not answer that question himself.

He needed to find someone who understood Armored Knights and ask.

Ludwig.

Once that name came to mind, Morin hesitated no longer. He immediately rose and ran toward the Teutonic Order squad's encampment.

The Teutonic Order squad's encampment looked completely different from the ordinary infantry's temporary quarters.

There were no noisy soldiers here, only technicians and squires in oil-stained work clothes, working quietly and efficiently.

The six Armored Knights that had survived the earlier battle stood in an open area. Technicians climbed up and down them, carrying out emergency repairs with assorted tools. The hammering and clanging never stopped, and a peculiar mixture of smells hung in the air.

Someone noticed Morin as soon as he entered the camp.

"Second Lieutenant Morin?"

It was Ludwig's voice.

Morin looked toward the sound and saw Ludwig standing on his machine's shoulder, a wrench still in his hand.

A flicker of surprise crossed Ludwig's face when he saw Morin. Then he nimbly leaped from the three-meter-tall Armored Knight and landed steadily on the ground.

"What brings you here? Do you want to talk about Patricia again?"

Ludwig walked toward Morin while wiping the grease from his hands, his voice carrying the warmth of someone who already considered them close friends.

Come to think of it, Morin rather admired the man.

Despite helping maintain an Armored Knight, Ludwig had no visible grease anywhere except on his gloves. He still looked every bit as elegant as ever.

Morin still felt a little uncomfortable with Ludwig's change in attitude, but this was no time to dwell on it. He went straight to the point.

"Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig, I have a very urgent question I'd like to ask you."

Seeing Morin's serious expression, Ludwig dropped his smile and grew solemn as well.

"Go ahead."

"Can our 77mm Field Guns and 105mm Howitzers threaten the Order of the Garter's Armored Knights when firing directly at close range?"