17th July 1574 morningThe reconquest of the Tarnowian lands was implemented with a total of three small armies, yet when my troops finally reached the outskirts of the city proper, only a bit less than two hundred men remained.
"Are you sure it is a good idea?"
Looking behind, as if that could change anything at this point, Pavlo spoke with a worried expression. Thinking about this over again, but now actually facing all the forces that dared to lay siege to my lands, maybe leaving most of my army back near the marketplace wasn"t the brightest idea…
"Yes, I am."
Even if I had doubts, I couldn"t just let them show on my face, or even worse, I couldn"t dare to admit to them. Right now, all that mattered, was that the plan to lift the siege off the Tarnow would be finally enacted!
"Everyone, move forth!"
Not bothering to even hide our appearances, my troops moved forward, pulling two, heavy guns along with them. Yet it was the items that all of the foot troops were carrying that would matter in this fight!
"Are you sure it"s not enough to just fire and retreat?"
As great of a worker as Pavlo was back in the city, he wasn"t suited for the fields of open combat at all. Freaking out even before the real battle would start was a sign that he would never make a good frontline soldier… But that didn"t mean he didn"t have his own uses!
"Yes, I"m sure. Just let my men do their job."
As much as I hated the fact that not all of my troops could get enough of their training, at least I could hope that the very first of the armies that I trained, showed enough discipline and fighting spirit to use them in this drastic gamble of mine.
Even though there were only about two hundred of us and from what I could already see, nearly two thousand troops that laid siege to the city, I didn"t consider my position as a lost one!
Rather than that, while the reports about the movements in the enemy camp started flooding my command centre, I was focusing on the process of installation of the simple blockade.
The entire battle line was as simple as it could get. The bags filled with earth and sand were placed as to secure their position, while a simple set of wooden poles were erected few meters in front of them, with a barbered wire connecting all of the poles together.
With the small forest behind our backs, we were just outside of the effective range of our enemies. But as much as it was true for our rifles just as well, this wasn"t the case for the two field guns that we brought with us!
"Sir, all units are ready and waiting for the signal!"
Looking at the perfect state of my first army, properly hidden behind the simple fortifications that would turn this place from just a small clearing to the fortified position of the modern military, I couldn"t help but feel a painful tingle in my heart as I thought about what would have to happen soon.
All of this hard work, gone just like that…
"Sir, the guns are…"
"Fire!"
Not daring to waste even a single moment, I interrupted the report and over shouted it with an order of mine. After all, there was only one report that was stopping me from sending that order through earlier!
At once, two of the field guns started shooting. While still not proper Gatling guns without their rotating set of barrels, thanks to the several improvements, not only was the problem of overheating solved by a mechanism that allowed to manually change the barrels in use, a magazine that fed the bullets to the firing mechanism allowed for far longer, continuous fire!
But in the case of the current situation, it was their supreme range that mattered the most!
As soon as the jaws of the guns started screaming their lethal chant, the bodies hidden behind the encampment near the city walls started falling.
In the same, battle in which the first iteration of the reaper guns took the lives of Peter"s troops, men were falling down one by one, as if a deathly reaper swung his scythe, claiming the lives as it went.
"Form up!"
Faced with the fire at a distance too great to respond with their own, enemy troops had no other choice than to react somehow to the sudden attack. Yet as disciplined their troops were, the moment one unit would properly group up and start forming for the counterattack, the muzzles of the reaper guns mark two would turn towards them, sending even the entire groups of men down at once!
"Keep firing! Prepare your hand rifles!"
As b.l.o.o.d.y carnage as the machine guns created in the enemy line, their sheer numerical superiority was enough to allow them to push some of their troops forward. Even though the bodies were littering the entire place from their camp all the way to the furthest point that Ostros troops managed to get, more and more soldiers were rus.h.i.+ng towards this meatgrinder, as if giving up their life for the traitors was their ultimate desire.
"Just what the h.e.l.l is wrong with them…"
Seeing this insane bloodshed, I wasn"t even allowed a quick moment of reflection, as the enemy ranks moved even closer towards my reinforced camp.
"Fire at will!"
This time, I wasn"t playing tricks with the enemy, allowing them to enter deeply into the firing range of my men, before actually allowing any fire from my side. Rather than, I hoped that the instant and powerful reply would be enough to press them back!
Yet even there, my hopes turned out to be futile. Even despite the intense and continuous fire of both my hand weapon and the reaper guns, enemies were closing in, steadily shortening the distance between two forces while ignoring all the casualty that this reckless and stupid charge caused.
And then they met the barbed wire.