Chapter 777.3: Ruh Roh

At that very moment, however, Jacques, who was leading his men away from their own positions, knew nothing about what was happening. All he saw was the silence on the high ground ahead, and he assumed the moonfolk crouched in those trenches had already been scared witless.

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he turned to the officer beside him and ordered, “Kukas, have your artillery put ten rounds onto that dirt ridge first! Mikhaino, once you hear the tenth shot, take your men and charge!”

“Yes!” Both captains each accepted their orders and quickly ran back to their units.

Soon, two cannon blasts rang out, and as the shells landed, the silence of the battlefield was shattered. Deafening explosions echoed across the Moon Clan Resistance Army’s positions. Young men clutching rifles pressed their heads firmly against the walls of the trench, a vicious light gleaming in their eyes.

Not one of them showed fear and not one of them hesitated. That was because even as the shells rained down on them, their commander was standing right there with them! They believed with absolute certainty that this man could lead them to final victory!

Amid the thunder of artillery, Laxi not only refused to hide in a bomb shelter, he went directly to the frontline and crouched inside the trench, roaring into a loudspeaker. “Keep your heads buried in the trench! Pretend you’re already dead! Don’t feel ashamed! Soon you’ll be ripping open those wild dogs’ bellies, spilling their guts all over the ground, and polishing your boots with their faces!”

“Remember the sound of these guns! When our artillery starts firing, we’ll return this fear to them twice over, and our voices along with it!”

At the exact moment his voice fell, a deafening explosion suddenly came from far to the northwest.

The sound seemed to come from somewhere over the river.

When Duke Bamut heard it from the local army’s position, he froze slightly, still wondering what it had been, when General Daxina beside him instantly went pale.

“The embankment... It’s the Tassen River embankment!”

Mammoth State lay downstream along the Tassen River on an alluvial plain. The soil was indeed fertile, but every rainy season the river flooded catastrophically. It wasn’t only the farmers who suffered; the nobles controlling estates of every size complained bitterly as well. Because of that, the nobles who controlled several stretches of fertile land along the river had pooled their resources to build an embankment along the widest channel so they could irrigate their estates.

Mammoth State had seen heavy rainfall recently, and the Tassen River was currently in flood season. Once the embankment was breached, the entire downstream region would be submerged!

The immediate area wasn’t the only thing that would be affected. Even Mammoth City, more than a hundred kilometers away, would suffer!

At General Daxina’s yell, Duke Bamut abruptly came to his senses. His face turned deathly pale, his lips trembled with rage, and his breathing grew rapid. “That madman! What the hell is he trying to do?!”

And hadn’t the Moon Clan Resistance Army already been completely surrounded at the riverbank? How could there still be people operating outside the encirclement?! What the hell were those idiots guarding the embankment doing?! How could they fail to hold something as massive as a river dike?!

There were far too many questions he couldn’t understand, and no time left to think about them.

Nearly 80% of his 100,000 strong army was stationed along the Tassen River. Once the upstream waters came pouring down, they wouldn’t just flood a small part. The entire area for 10 to 20 kilometers around the river could turn into swamp! There would be no chance to run at all!

“Quick! Load all the grain onto the carts!” General Daxina screamed desperately, ordering the soldiers to hurriedly pack up the military rations and ammunition carelessly piled beneath the shelters, while he himself ran toward the ox carts.

As though they could already hear the roar of the approaching flood, the livestock throughout the camp began to grow restless and agitated.

Meanwhile, Mikhaino, who was waiting at the front for the right moment to attack, had no idea what was happening behind him. When he finally counted the tenth blast, he excitedly waved his unit forward.

Before they had charged more than a couple of steps, they heard an eleventh cannon shot.

Mikhaino was still wondering why the artillerymen had fired one extra round when the wildly inaccurate shell came down in front of the resistance position.

Boom!

A flash of fire erupted and vanished. None of the resistance soldiers seemed to have been hit, but the charging troops had no time to hit the ground and were instantly shredded by the sweeping fragments.

“Aaagh!”

“My leg!!”

“My arm! My arm, aaahhh!”

Several soldiers with limbs blown off collapsed to the ground screaming. The bloody scene sent chills through their comrades nearby, who involuntarily slowed their advance.

“What the hell are those artillerymen doing?!” Mikhaino screamed, both shocked and furious. He hurriedly looked back, but before he could continue cursing, he heard the rapid stutter of gunfire above him.

At some point, a machine gun had been set up directly ahead on the high ground. As the weapon opened fire, streams of tracer rounds accompanied by flashing muzzle bursts rained down into their faces.

The scene could only be described as horrific. The soldiers at the very front didn’t even have time to scream before they fell silently like wheat being cut down.

The troops behind them were completely stunned by the machine gun fire. They threw themselves flat on the ground and huddled behind cover, too terrified to move forward.

Then gunfire erupted again from the position to the left, and bullets came slashing down diagonally from above. They seemed to be plunging fire from a rearward position. This time, they couldn’t even see the muzzle flashes before bullets were hammering down all around them. Low cover and simply lying flat on the ground were useless.

Seeing half his men wiped out in the blink of an eye, Mikhaino felt as though his heart were bleeding. Gritting his teeth, he could only shout for the soldiers who had not yet reached the enemy position to retreat.

By the time they pulled back, an entire company had been reduced to barely 20 or so survivors, and every one of them wore a stunned, terrified expression.

Hadn’t their officer told them the enemy was just a bunch of slaves?

Was this the kind of battle slaves could fight?!

Captain Mikhaino wasn’t the only one left dumbfounded. Commander Jacques, positioned slightly farther back, was equally stunned.

But what bewildered both of them even more came next. How had the mud beneath their feet somehow become soaked in water in the middle of the battle?!

By the time everyone realized what was happening, the floodwaters from the breached embankment had already risen to their knees. Soon afterward, they reached their chests.

Huge quantities of driftwood and rocks came rushing downstream, along with the wreckage of collapsed wooden houses.

The released river water swept across the plains in an unstoppable torrent, turning hundreds of square kilometers into a vast flooded marsh.

The soldiers on the frontline were scattered everywhere by the current. They clung to floating logs and dead trees, screaming for help. Those who couldn’t swim, or who were simply too short, drowned outright and became yet more corpses drifting downstream. They didn’t even know what had happened, nor could they contact their superiors.

Their superiors were no better. They were far too busy trying to save their own lives to care about the soldiers under their command.

Looking at the imperial soldiers floundering in the water, Laxi’s lips curled into a cold smile.

So this is what the Empire is made from... What a fucking pushover.

“This flood will probably last five or six days,” his adjutant said cautiously from beside him.

Their original plan had been to use the breached river to flood the enemy’s trenches, force the soldiers out of their fortifications, and then sweep downstream with the floodwaters to wipe them all out in one stroke.

Now, it seemed the plan could no longer keep up with reality. Being unfamiliar with the area, they had underestimated the force of the Tassen River. The chain reaction caused by the breach was far more severe than they had expected. They had practically won without even needing to follow the floodwaters downstream.

The troops hidden upstream should have completed their assembly by now. They had lashed their ammunition and supplies onto wooden rafts prepared in advance. Before long, they should arrive to rendezvous with the main force.

6,000 against nearly 60,000, with fewer than 100 casualties over the entire campaign... This battle alone was enough to enter the military history of the Poro Province!

“Forget five or six days. Even if it floods for ten days or half a month, it doesn’t matter.” Looking over the inundated plain, Laxi continued without excitement, “We can use the opportunity to enter the city and provide disaster relief.”

As long as they captured Mammoth City and its docks and showed the people that victory was possible, food and money would naturally begin pouring in without end, whether from Port Gallon or from French Fry Harbor.

When that was done, he could begin the next phase of his plan...

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