Chapter 57: The rise of regional power (Part 4)

**Pov: MC

"These idiots look to have finally realized what happens when you run a horse directly into a long pointy stick! hahaha, I am truly amazed that they even tried a charge... But now it seems we will face a hard battle from here on out, I want you commanders to reform the skirmishers in front of the army allowing them to fire upon the enemies until they are too close, then we shall begin hand-to-hand combat!"

A few commanders hurried off into the distance doing what I commanded them to do. Now we will follow our basic strategy from here on out, wait until the enemies enter our cannon and skirmisher's range and explode, crush, and shoot as many enemy soldiers as possible before they are too close.

Then following the tragedy caused by our cannons and skirmishers, we will attack the enemy with our infantry. My highly trained and now experienced infantry will engage in combat with the remaining enemies while our horse archers run amok launching arrows into the enemy flanks.

This is the best outcome, but it could go many other ways in which we shall adapt our troops allowing for a more positive outcome for my troops. After a few moments, the enemies finished forming their army in attacking order and began moving toward our forces in a steady march.

In what seemed like no time the first line of their army entered my cannons range and we promptly greeted their arrival with well-placed exploding cannon balls. *BOOM BOOM BOOM* "Fire fire break their spirits let them see OTTOMAN SUPREMACY! Let them see how outclassed they are, how barbaric their militaristic practice is...

-We will beat them until they see that they need us to rule and protect them because they aren't capable of doing it themselves." I yelled out through the continuous booming cannons in the background. Looking closely the battlefield looked horrifying men's bodies were split apart all over the ground.

While their fellow soldiers were forced to stay in formation through the bombarding of our cannons walked all over their shredded comrade's bodies... I can say with confidence that this will ruin the enemy's morale, not knowing if they will end up like the men who were shredded right before their eyes, or if it is right to walk all over their dead like this.

The enemy has no chance to get used to our cannons, as they aren't just shooting at walls, they are firing directly at them and with troubling accuracy to boot. By the time the cannonball gets close enough to a clump of enemies, it explodes in a fiery hell shooting hot led all over the place injuring and killing many soldiers and practically disappearing anyone too close to the initial explosion.

And once the enemies entered the range of our crossbows, muskets, and bowmen all had their own individual accuracy range based on the weapon in use and the soldier's own skill. But after many months of battles, we managed to figure out a sweet spot for all of them to work well together.

Like a beautiful symphony of death, our skirmishers began targeting the enemy soldier formations with such speed and precision that even I looked on in awe of their handiwork. After traveling through our late medieval attempt at a world war I defense the enemies looked rather ragged, their eyes holding barely any hope for victory or even surviving this onslaught.

But to my surprise, before I could apply even more pressure to break them, their Tsar screamed out something that changed their army's entire aura... They went from sluggish zombie-like men to zealous warriors in a matter of seconds. All this happening to my chagrin, I just accepted it wasn't going to be that easy to break this army after all, and that we may well have to kill them all.

I may not speak Serbian, but I understood what the enemies meant once they were all hyped up they all screamed charge, kill, and kill. Then the enemy soldier ran full speed into my army's defensive formation, my men hoisting their pikes and bills out as far as possible, keeping the charging enemies at a safe distance for now.

While they held the enemies back they would stab them with their pikes but these aren't enough to kill or fatally injure most men. So the killing is usually left to the close combat specialized men within the square of pikes. Rushing through the pike wall and at the enemy horde being held back by the pikes my soldiers began hacking the enemies down all the while hiding within the pike wall for defense.

Eventually, the fighting picked up in intensity and the pikemen were ordered to drop their pikes and join the battle with their sword or axe. I also began to use the second line of Janissary infantry as well ordering them to fill in the gaps in our lines and to meet the enemies now arriving at our flanks as the enemy infantry outnumbered our infantry by about ten thousand or more still.

At this moment when we began to truly enter the most intense moment of battle I ordered the sipahi horse archers and Kapikulu horse archer types to begin their assault. *POP* The firework popping in the sky is the signal to start their endless skirmishing upon the now busy enemy infantry.

I believe if they were allowed to endlessly fire their arrows into the side and back of the enemy army we could win this war rather quickly, but I doubt the enemies will allow this to go on for long I guess we will see. Within a few moments, our horse archers numbering in the thousands were already circling round' the vast battlefield firing arrows about the entirety of the enemy's formation.

Leaving no one out they launched arrows into the enemy failing formation that is slowly starting to look similar to a horde and less like an organized army as the battle continued on... Leaving the more experienced and trained soldiers like outliers because they stayed in formation and even attempted to correct the less experienced peasant conscripts.

Giving our horse archers even better targets the professional soldiers, and even allowing their arrows to travel into the armor of some of the Tsar's guards. This greatly angered the Tsar, as he ordered his remaining calvary who he previously made responsible for guarding the army's flanks, to chase down these pests like horse archers.

All of this happened rather quickly so I guess, the Tsar did not really think about the terrible decision he just made... And just believed he was defending his army from annoying horse archers. But what he just did was basically open his army to my very deadly heavy cavalry.

Not just that he even allowed my horse archers to annihilate his cavalry by outrunning and tiring out their horses, then turning about and slaughtering them... If he was thinking correctly he would've realized this common steppe tactic would be employed if he ordered his cav to chase them down... But obviously, the man is panicking.

As soon as the enemy cavalry left our sight and left over the horizon, my commander Omar did not need an order and yelled "ALL KAPIKULU CAV CHARGE!" They formed up quickly and swept out and charged directly into the enemy's flank. *Crash crash*

They smashed into their flanks from the north and the south, giving the enemies only one direction to flee in and that is east, but this will not happen as they have already invested so much. I doubt they will break from just one charge from my heavy cav, this will take a little to fully break them.

Either way, it is getting easier and easier to kill the enemies as their numbers and number of professionals are getting lower and lower as the fight continues on... Looking at the Janissary infantry I noticed that these men were even better trained than I believed, as in field battles I never had to use them a lot I mostly used infantry in sieges.

They fought way harder and more brutally than the enemy infantry... One janissary captain of a squad of ten can be seen leading and fighting at the same time, wielding a tiny metal shield on the forearm for great defense and the sword in the other hand to great effect slicing down plenty of enemies who decided to try this gallant warrior.

Another can be seen to be just too big for the enemy to deal with, this man wielded a large two-handed axe gilded with a small amount of gold probably looted recently. He rushed through enemy hordes rather easily knocking over tens of men at a time like a superhuman almost, then stabbing his fallen foes with a spear tip mounted in the base of his axe.

I can see many scenes like these playing out across this vast battlefield, honestly, I never had time to just sit back and watch like this... Now I think I understand why most in my time believe war to be a barbaric and hideous event humans partake in... But after viewing even more closely I feel there is beauty to this battlefield, and can even more closely align myself with the beautiful poems and writings about war.

At this moment, my heavy Kapikulu corps were wheeling around for another type of charge a full-force wedge formation involving thousands of horsemen on each side, in the north the cavalry will strike closer to the battlefield frontlines nearest me and the infantry... While in the south the cavalry will focus on the enemies not engaged in combat, allowing for more pushback by the enemies there.

But either way, we will indeed see success in this maneuver. I hope this is enough to put this foe on the back foot enough to force a route... My forces will not have the mental energy to fight another day with these zealous fools I would include myself in this as well.

Finally, my cav finished forming up in a wedge and the commander in charge led the men forward with great speed, and soon they were already rushing through the vast crowd of soldiers. crushing men with their horse's hooves, and piercing a single victim with their lance, my cav forced their way into this crowd of soldiers.

Hacking and slashing once they entered the large swath of enemies, using their momentum to continue forwards unimpeded. But before long, my troops met a true foe the Tsar's mercenary guard stood like a wall, trying to stop the charge of my horseman.

I can hear screams like "GIVE NO GROUND" and "KILL THE HORSE THEN SLAY THE RIDER!" I can see they still do not feel the need to flee, almost as if they are willing to fight to the death no matter how bad things look for them. I thought I made my rule look more appealing to the people but apparently, I only swayed the ruling classes so far.

I give up playing fair, or nice... I ordered the southern-based cavalry to withdraw, and I will have the north cavalry continue to attack the infantry on the frontline in conjunction with the janissaries fighting there already.

The southern cav will save its remaining stamina to run down the fleeing enemies. Now that no friendly forces are in the way, or too close to the Tsar and his mercenary guards... I gave the order "ALL CANNONS FIRE!" *BOOM BOOM BOOM*

-Now that the amount of souls has been reached mc can now evolve into a demon lord... Well no this is a joke, but happy easter everyone hope you enjoy the chapter and the cliff hanger :)