Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 154 - 26: A Crushing Defeat (Extra for All Supporters)

Chapter 154: Chapter 26: A Crushing Defeat (Extra for All Supporters)

The cavalry charges, followed by the infantry charge.

After the infantry charge, the cavalry charges again.

Or sometimes both cavalry and infantry charge together.

Such has always been the combat style of this era.

But the conscript army had never witnessed such a brutal scene.

After the cavalry charge, there were still fifty or sixty soldiers standing in place.

They didn’t flee or fall apart; instead, they quickly regrouped.

Small-scale battles can often withstand a higher casualty ratio due to the limited number of combatants and the clear view of the battlefield situation.

Instead, large-scale battles can easily collapse because one can’t see the whole situation, and once things look grim, someone will flee immediately, which triggers a mass retreat.

"They have suffered heavy casualties, everyone, charge!" The conscript army commander braced himself to boost morale.

The conscripted soldiers suddenly awakened.

Yes!

The enemy has suffered heavy casualties.

If not now, then when!

Five hundred conscripted soldiers launched an attack on their enemy. They were following behind the cavalry charge, and when the cavalry pierced through, the two sides were only twenty to thirty meters apart.

At the moment of engagement.

"Roar!" A towering warrior, standing two meters tall, with a voice like thunder, resounded across the battlefield, leading the charge, swinging a wide long axe, killing two conscripted soldiers with one blow, limbs severed and blood spraying, much like a bloody war god.

The remaining soldiers also wielded long weapons, fighting like wounded beasts in a desperate battle.

They were charged, and felt the call of war, their innermost madness activated, their emotions surging, and they too were seeing red.

The conscript army was extremely terrified. Although their numbers were nearly ten times that of the enemy, they had lost their will to fight at that moment.

These people truly aren’t afraid of death!

A defeat like an avalanche!

Lacking the courage to fight, they were even worse than an equal number of pigs, at least pigs wouldn’t surrender, nor sit waiting to die, and once they rampaged, no one could stop them.

At this time, Roman and Dick had also finished off their respective opponents and came to aid.

Four Conquest Knights flanked the five hundred men from behind.

"Drop your weapons! Drop your weapons!!" Roman shouted.

Aaron and Green also shouted for them to drop their weapons.

The enemy’s morale now collapsed.

They tried their best to avoid the ensuing battle.

If they could avoid fighting, they would!

It was like the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

The conscript army, with an absolute numerical advantage, only symbolically fought for ten seconds.

Seeing no chance of victory, they surrendered en masse.

Those with sharp eyes noticed that the knights who ruled them didn’t initiate a second round of charges—they rode away from the battlefield without looking back.

You couldn’t blame the cavalry; the casualties were too severe this time.

There were fifty cavalry at the start of the charge.

And when they broke through, they found only a dozen of their own left, with just one Conquest Knight surviving; how despairing is that?

They were supposed to obstruct the convoy’s marching speed, while these hundred soldiers were supposed to obstruct them.

The ambush battle turned into a battle of annihilation.

This land was originally theirs, yet they were the ones deeply besieged.

There was no time to care about those lowly civilians; escaping to save their lives was the priority at this moment.

In the past two days, a total of fifteen Conquest Knights were lost.

To the Kant Territory, this couldn’t be considered insignificant, but rather a severe blow.

Roman was not surprised by this outcome.

He never regarded the Kant Territory’s army as worth his attention; the only thing worthy of attention was the Conquest Knights.

If a regular army couldn’t beat militia, he might as well find a stone to bash his head against immediately.

...

In this battle, Roman completely shattered the surrounding forces of the Kant Territory.

Once the heavy equipment troops guarding the convoy learned of the battle’s result, they immediately let down their guard and advanced quickly.

There was no time to clean up the battlefield.

He ordered the fallen to be gathered and taken away.

Leaves return to their roots.

Roman wanted to bury them in the Sige Town cemetery.

There were many wounded this time.

Roman dismounted, walking, and tied the injured Kao to the saddle.

The light troops sent to capture fleeing villagers also reported.

Villagers from the fourth village were carrying luggage, herding pigs and sheep, and bringing children.

They had fled ten kilometers away.

Dota led the scouts in pursuit, and if they had been even slightly delayed, these people would have vanished without a trace, which would have been a significant loss for Roman.

Fortunately, they were intercepted by the light troops in time.

The two hundred men captured more than a thousand villagers, but they had to abandon all livestock and property they carried because they were burdens that would delay their marching speed.

The innocent villagers were driven along without the ability to resist and joined up with Roman.

As a result, the convoy became increasingly large and cumbersome.

When people gather, they become easily controlled like a flock of sheep; no one dared leave the group for fear of being killed by the guarding soldiers.

But when Roman dispatched scouts to check the situation of the fifth village, they found it deserted, with no idea where the villagers had fled.

He merely sighed, realizing that they wouldn’t have waited for him to come and take them.

The fifth village was under the jurisdiction of Baron Crow. It was only three kilometers from the Bridgehead.

It was only seven to eight kilometers from Bro River.

This was also the final leg of the plundering plan.

By dusk.

Roman arrived at the fifth village.

They would spend their last night in the Kant Territory here.

It was also at this time that a vague tail appeared at the rear of the convoy.

Count Kant’s reinforcements had finally arrived.

According to the scouts’ observations, there were more than five hundred of them.

If they hadn’t lost over a thousand conscripted soldiers in the early stages and had assembled their forces, this number would have posed a significant problem for Roman.

However, not now. Roman was able to recruit three to four hundred conscripted soldiers from the first three villages he plundered, but they were controlled before they could take any action.

Subsequently, six to seven hundred more were captured, and once these conscripted soldiers were captured, they practically lost their ability to resist.

So now, the enemy had mobilized very few troops and needed to wait for forces from other areas to gather.

Roman snorted lightly, "Ignore them!"

If those people dared to launch an attack, he’d be happy to capture a few hundred more fit young laborers.

Sure enough, they didn’t launch an attack.

When it comes to war, either you don’t fight at all, or you go all out to achieve victory in one battle.

And the last thing you want is a piecemeal approach, sending them in one by one.

These fools had no military sense at all!

Now they finally figured it out.

Too late!

...

By evening, Count Kant’s reinforcements gradually arrived.

They set up camp a kilometer away from the fifth village.

At this moment, the last heavy snow of winter fell on Sige Town.

Several tens of kilometers away in the Kant Territory, the night became exceptionally cold.

Roman dismantled everything that could be torn down in the fifth village and piled it up for a bonfire to dispel the chill.

Those many slaves were crammed into every thatched cottage within the fifth village.

Regardless of whether they belonged to the light troops or heavy equipment, everyone gathered around the fire, weapon in hand, sleeping in armor to guard against an enemy night attack.

Even if he believed Count Kant’s conscripts lacked the ability to fight at night, Roman remained cautious.

Failure at this time was not an option, as it would render all his efforts in vain!

...