Swiss Arms
Chapter 177: The Battle of Olang pt.1
-VB-
Duke Frederick the Fair
1310
Frederick glared at the steep hills on either side of the lake. The passage through were either blocked or around those hills. Which basically meant that he had only one option: to punch through.
Even though he wanted to charge in from the front with his knights, he knew better than to do that. Count von Fluelaberg proved himself as a renowned warrior. If he went up and got hurt, then his army, the last army of his House, would crumble away and they would lose the war. He couldn’t risk that.
Considering what he knew about the rangers underneath the count, he shouldn’t get close either. He should, in fact, have multiple men-at-arms with tall tower shields at the ready.
He got off of his horse as he looked down the lower point of the valley where the lake and the count’s two split forces were.
And he made the choice right there and then.
“Baron von Kobneider. I want you to take charge of the left wing,” he said as he looked to his trustworthy and competent commander. “Take Gray, Blue, and Green commands with you. I will command the Black and White commands.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The baron went to the messenger, and the messenger began to slowly but methodically blow his horns while another messenger waved his flags. Frederick watched as his commanders quickly shifted along with the commands being meted out, and the army shuffled. Calls went out, men began to drop their belongings, and soon, everyone was forming battlelines. Or battlelines as best as they could with how narrow the valley was.
“Put the Gray and Green on the front! I want Blue and their archers to rain down hell on them!” he ordered then he turned to his own commands, or rather the captains of the commands. “I want Black to be at the front and the White to be at the back. The White has more archers, same reason. Got it?!”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Good! Then go and form them up.”
As his captains and lieutenants went to shape up his army, he looked back at the lower valley and the lake. It was obviously why the count put the larger half of his army on the southern shores; that part of the valley hills simply had flatter and wider land. It was not, however, so wide as to allow a proper cavalry charge.
And the northern shore…
That was where the count was.
That’s what needed to be crushed.
He looked at the count’s army.
Despite the fact that his much larger army of four thousand was reassembling to crush them, they appeared… stony. Almost like they were statues. No, they were just prepared.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. He had with him four thousand soldiers and the count had … a thousand and a half at best. It didn’t even look like a thousand, actually. Well, he was also missing a thousand, but those were mostly cavalry.
Good, that just meant that he will be able to grind down the count and chase after him when he eventually routs.
---
Hans
I stared slightly up at the eastern side of the valley. It was slightly higher on that side of the valley, but the area directly in front of us was more or less flat and the sides of the lake was steep.
Good.
This was the kind of combat I liked. The kind that favored me.
But even as I thought about this, I noticed something off with the Habsburg army in front of me.
Namely, I noticed something strange with its size.
If I remembered Rudolf’s words correctly, then the army under Duke Frederick was supposed to be around five thousand soldiers, knights included but camp followers excluded.
But a quick count of the banners and heads I could count only gave me something like four thousand. Where was the last one thousand? It couldn’t be that they were on the other side of the hill that their entire army came over.
I looked to my army on the other side of the lake. They looked ready.
I looked back to the front and saw the Habsburg army form up properly. And begin marching toward us.
“Let them walk, gentlemen,” I said loudly for my soldiers to hear. “Let them walk into the jaws of death. The Habsburgs think they can rule these valleys through deceit and war, but we’ll meet them face to face and spit them in the eye. Tell them to fuck off like the assholes they are!”
My men roared with me, and the valley rang with our cries.
… I didn’t see the banner of the duke anywhere close to the front. In fact, it was in the rear.
Coward.
I looked back at the soldiers … and realized they were marching forward.
I grunted.
Time to fight.
“Shields up! Spears and pikes to the front! Rangers and archers, ready yourself!”
---
Frederick
He watched as the two armies marched forward with their shields drawn and spears held forward, and the count’s army did the same.
But the count’s archers let their arrows fly from a further distance than his archers.
And they landed hard.
His eyes widened. Those arrows were hitting his backline, not the frontline!
Frederick narrowed his eyes and leaned his head forward, though he knew the gesture was in vain, as he tried to see exactly where all of it was landing and … the arrows were landing deep into his rear. Into the Blue command. He snapped to the other side of the lake and saw the same thing. Arrows came down on the White command.
“Shit,” he muttered before he reached out and grabbed his horn. He took a deep gasp in and blew.
It was a simple command.
Charge.
---
I grunted when I saw the men-at-arms and the levies start to charge.
The Habsburgs noticed what I was doing too quickly.
I hefted my giant sword up… and charged right back at them.
My men roared as they followed into the thick of the battle.
As the two lines grew closer, I poured my mana - my magic - into my sword and body in a rudimentary hardening spell. It wasn’t structured or good, but it would be enough.
Our two lines grew close enough that I could see the crooked, stained teeth and bloodshot eyes of the enemy soldiers. Most of their levies wore their normal clothes with maybe a tattered gambeson on top. They had shitty spears and a few had axes. Most of the men-at-arms wore quality gambesons, held a round shield, a spear, and a sword.
It was the classic divide in quality that one expected from such an army. And it would be their undoing.
Because unless they sent a hundred knights just to kill me, I wasn’t gonna go down.
When the first of their spears reached me to try and skewer me, I leaned out of the way and swung my sword.
I watched, almost in slow motion, as the sword screamed through the air and slammed into the first soldier’s round shield.
And the sword didn’t crush the soldier and his shield like it normally did.
It cut through.
Then the sword struck the second person.
And the third person.
Finally, it came out of the other side and I had to stop the sword’s momentum with strength alone.
Then I reversed and cut into men who didn’t even realize what was happening.
---
Frederick
He watched as the battle of the southern shore stalled.
But then he heard screams from the northern shore.
He looked.
And he couldn’t believe his eyes.
His northern army was losing.