Chapter 171: George’s War Analysis

“I hope the barbarians tomorrow are just as clumsy.” Green said while stamping his feet on the side.

His words largely represented the feelings of the common soldiers. The warriors were physically and mentally exhausted from this defensive battle!

Although the barbarians’ organizational skills couldn’t manage a tide-like, endless wave of attacks, their style of throwing their entire army forward in one gust still multiplied the pressure on the defenders.

This was the power of the human wave! Unfortunately, given the barbarians’ level, they couldn’t unleash the true essence of the human wave tactic.

The so-called human wave tactic is a tactic that trades numbers and massive consumption for advantages in other areas. The factors gained could include time, space, offense, or defense. In a sense, it can be simply understood as the many fighting the few, the majority bullying the minority. Its foundation is concentrating superior forces to increase overall strength through numbers.

In the world George came from, the human wave tactic had great value in the cold weapon era where attack and defense means were basically equal. Without a large increase in firepower and range, the side with more firepower carriers was more likely to win. In the history of Tianchao, generals often exaggerated their troop numbers before battles to intimidate the opponent.

Of course, in actual war, the human wave tactic could be used to encircle and consume the enemy’s living strength. But its flaws were equally obvious: geographical limitations, low overall quality of soldiers, short operational radius, weak command, and so on.

The valley terrain where Brandenburg was located this time effectively limited the enemy’s manpower. At the same time, the Duchy of Nohan, with its generally superior soldier stats and command level, was able to bully the weak with strength in the same time and area. They quickly crushed the barbarians’ attacks and dealt a huge blow to their morale.

Like the famous Battle of Issus before his transmigration, Alexander the Great faced the Persian King Darius III with a disadvantage of 1 to 3-4. Alexander used cavalry to directly insert into the gaps of the enemy formation, striking the Persian center and disrupting enemy command. Darius III was the first to flee, causing the entire Persian line to collapse. This is a typical example of the few defeating the many.

If in this battle, the barbarians could have fully utilized their numerical advantage and launched rotation tactics, the difficulty of defending Brandenburg would have risen a level. After all, this kind of fatigue warfare would be a nightmare for the side with a 1 to 10 numerical disadvantage.

But the barbarians couldn’t do this. Their social structure was formed to survive on the grasslands. In large-scale warfare, they had innate defects that were hard to compensate for. This flaw was vividly displayed in this siege.

First, the army was temporarily cobbled together by various tribes. Although they had relatively unified command this time, it was absolutely impossible to command them like one’s own arms and fingers. In a large army, small groups were inevitable; even the elite troops of a unified nation like the PLA couldn’t avoid this, let alone in this feudal society.

Although small groups were unavoidable, the situation within them needed to be controlled. The key was not to let all members of a small group think that their group’s interest outweighed other groups or the whole at any time. But this barbarian army was formed by different tribes combining for profit. It could be said that every family had their own calculations, and every leader had their own ideas. Between different tribes, some had good relations, some had many conflicts, and some even had generational hatred. This web of relationships was truly impossible to sort out. Trying to twist these thousands of threads into a single rope was almost impossible.

It could be said that these barbarian troops performed well in small-scale operations because they had the goal of looting and the desire for wealth. But once so many people were gathered together, they only thought of letting others die while they grabbed the wealth. This meant that in battle, when there was an advantage, everyone charged at the front. Once danger appeared, running away was the priority, and no one stayed to cover the rear. An army similar to the KMT could easily turn a good retreat plan into a rout.

Thinking about this, George thought of other nomadic peoples: the Mongols, known as the “Yellow Peril,” the Huns led by Attila, the “Scourge of God,” and the Khitans led by Yelu Dashi. George didn’t know much about the first two. But for the vast Mongol Empire, George had learned about it before crossing over. Because the former were true winners, while the latter, though dominant in the West for a long time, were losers in the East.

George began to ponder, ‘I should think about the similarities and differences between them. It would be good to avoid making low-level mistakes due to past thinking when leading troops in the future.’

Let’s look at the Mongols first! Their entire social structure was a special militarized society. Like the nomadic peoples of northern China, Mongols were warriors from childhood.

Mongols were born riders; children had to start learning to ride horses at three or four years old. At the same time, to train the best army, Mongol children of three or four were sent to specialized military training departments for military learning. They were strictly trained in horse riding and archery.

The cavalry units composed of these children trained from childhood had amazing combat qualities and skills. Whether charging or retreating quickly on horseback, they could accurately shoot enemies. In other words, all ordinary soldiers were divine archers like Li Guang.

Such excellent archers, paired with the characteristics of Mongolian horses that had excellent mobility and endurance… Both grew up together in harsh cold and difficult environments, possessed extremely tough and enduring characters, almost never demanded material conditions, and considered climbing ice and lying in snow as normal. Long-distance trekking was a habit from childhood. The lack of demand for material conditions made the Mongol army’s logistical burden very light.

Of course, more importantly, Mongol soldiers possessed the will and ability for continuous warfare that the settled farming peoples of the East and West lacked. This was something the pampered noble knights of the West and the stable-living citizens of China could never hope to match. Compared to all enemies, Mongols were in a backward position culturally and materially; large-scale conquest and looting were always the reason and motivation for them to maintain vigorous combat power.

It was precisely because the Mongols established this social organization adapted to war that the leaders of each tribe were both managers of life and production and managers of military operations. When launching wars externally, they could mobilize the whole people; men, women, old, and young could all participate in combat operations. For example, the long-term siege of the Khwarezmian Empire involved the whole people; they herded and lived under the city walls, maintaining the army’s continuous attack power until the city was conquered.

But the barbarians of this world couldn’t do this at all. Their tribes survived by herding. External looting was a means to improve life, consume population, and plunder slaves. Perhaps in individual riding and shooting skills, the barbarians of this world wouldn’t lose to Mongol cavalry due to their physical strength. But in obedience, endurance, and teamwork, they were worlds apart.

This was like the difference between bandit mountain thieves and a regular army. Bandits might have elites like sharpshooters, but their overall strength was low, and they lacked heavy equipment. The latter was like a regular army; not only was individual quality comparable, but it even exceeded it. At the same time, strict hierarchy brought extremely high execution of orders, coupled with a perfect military system; the combat power of the two could not be mentioned in the same breath.

The tactics used by Western armies were not adapted to the Mongol horse archery tactics. The Europeans at that time used the tactic of iron-armored knights charging in formation, which didn’t have much effect against Mongol mounted archers.

And the biggest common point between the two was that they were both good at using horse archery units as the main force. The Mongols were extremely good at the tactic called “Parthian shot” by the ancient Romans, where the mounted archer shoots arrows at the enemy behind while fleeing. The essence of this tactic was: one, attacking the enemy from a distance; two, continuously attacking the enemy; three, not giving the enemy a chance to fight back.

Under this kind of attack, no matter how strong the enemy’s spirit and armor were, total collapse was only a matter of time. European knights at that time were mostly equipped with heavy helmets and armor; although powerful in close combat, their mobility was simply incomparable to Mongol cavalry. If they encountered Mongol mounted archers, not only could they not catch up, they couldn’t even escape; they were just arrow targets. Moreover, Mongol cavalry didn’t rely entirely on strong charges like European knights; they only engaged in close combat with the enemy after using bows and arrows to kill most of them.

In fact, the barbarians in this world used a similar routine. When sieging cities, they could use the horse’s running to accelerate the arrows, thereby increasing the power of the shot arrows. The only but most important problem was that the enemies they faced were fundamentally different. Through continuous crossbreeding, as well as using Magic and Divine Arts to cultivate excellent warhorses, even when loaded with heavy armor, they could catch up with those light-mounted barbarian archers.

The gap in individual strength was an even bigger problem. Facing a strong warrior who could match a thousand, these barbarians were not low-level undead or Construct creatures without thoughts or emotions. Under heavy losses, they would also cower, lose control of their emotions, and deserters would appear. So using numbers to pile up and kill the enemy’s strong ones was theoretically feasible, but the actual difficulty was very high.

Were there no strong ones among the barbarians who could contend with them? With the same population base, the proportion of strong ones among barbarians was far lower than in civilized society. This was because of the gap in knowledge and culture, just like in the world before crossing over, where nomadic peoples began to lose to farming peoples once the technological level reached a point that couldn’t be surpassed in a short time. The methods to improve strength in this world were equivalent to the technology of that world.

There was another extremely important point: most strong people needed to train without working or with half-work from childhood. And the growth cycle couldn’t be called short. The barbarians’ lifestyle, in most cases, did not possess these conditions. And a Legend was not only a monument of iron and blood but also the fruit of civilization and humanity. Since ancient times, the barbarians themselves had never produced a true Legend.

Although the Church originated from ignorance, it could not flourish in ignorance. The True God needed faith that was the spark of spirituality and the sublimation of wisdom. Plus, the totem worship of barbarian ancestral spirits was the great enemy of the Gods. The relationship between the two was one of immortality, which made the opportunity to borrow power from the True God vanish into thin air.

As for the act of betraying ancestral spirits and changing faith, if it were a single tribe, after this battle, they would become public enemies of the grasslands. First, they would face annihilation and annexation by their own kind. Other tribes would certainly not let go of this great opportunity to quickly enhance their own strength.

Similarly, the Shaman and Witch Doctor professional systems passed down among barbarians were inferior in strength to the numerous Druid schools. As for the common Barbarians and Barbarian Fighters, they were basically mass-produced goods. The only somewhat unique mounted archers needed to form an army to exert maximum utility. And this was precisely the barbarians’ weakness. As for the Shamans on the Orc side, they were completely different from the barbarians. They were a profession more similar to the Paladin of general churches.

Of course, the barbarians weren’t useless; otherwise, they would have been wiped out many times over the years. If they were in terrain suitable for them like plains or grasslands, they could still cause quite an impact. Moreover, if they besieged small castles in some territories, it wasn’t impossible for them to succeed. Like that castle in Bolerum Territory, George wasn’t confident he could hold it.

But these guys went crazy, gave up their own strengths, and insisted on gnawing on the hard bone that was Brandenburg. If they didn’t end up with their heads broken and bleeding, Nohan should just give away its title as a military power of the Western Continent.

Even the Mongol army, which was invincible in expeditions east and west on the Eurasian Continent, experienced serious failures in Japan and Vietnam. This was precisely because these two battlefields were where the Mongol army could least utilize its advantages. They had to dismount and board ships, relying on the heavens to reach their destination safely. After landing, facing jungle and mountains, they couldn’t maneuver on a large scale, and they couldn’t even fight on horseback.

Even worse, the humid air made their noses, adapted to the continental climate, unable to breathe; they became sick or were taken by plague, just as European armies couldn’t adapt to them, they couldn’t adapt to the armies constantly emerging from the jungles here.

‘The utilization of terrain and the adjustment of organizational structure are in the category of great similarity in both worlds. As thought before, the most important difference is the individual difference in high-end combat power. At the same time, we must add the possible influence of religion. Yes, this is very important. Religion here represents not just a belief, a spiritual sustenance. It is also better medical treatment and enhancement of status…’ Lessons are not only learned from oneself but also from enemies. George was now busy recalling the merits and faults of both sides on the battlefield during this time.

Because he knew that according to the situation just now, the barbarians wouldn’t launch another attack today. And the future war situation would probably be just like today. After today’s battle, not only were the barbarians’ shortcomings in attacking cities in this weather fully revealed, but their last bit of morale was also completely defeated. If nothing unexpected happened, the barbarians’ performance in the future would only get worse and worse.

When a person is lost in thought, time always passes quickly. George was sitting on the city wall, leaning on his Longsword, his back against the Crenelation. In this weather of flying snow, he remained motionless for a long time, and now he was a snowman. The patches of white had formed armor on his body like an exoskeleton.

“Crack! Crack! Crack!” Aldred was knocking quite energetically on George’s Breastplate with his hand. Looking at the hardened snowflakes covering it, constantly cracking and peeling off.

Finally, when George couldn’t take it anymore, he came out of his contemplation. He gently patted Aldred’s hand and said: “Stop it, I’m thinking about things right now!”

“I’m talking about the weather, don’t you feel cold? Just lying half in the snow like this.” Aldred was relentless, continuing to fiddle with George’s armor.

“Didn’t I receive the blessing of the Lord of Justice a while ago? I still have the ability to resist cold.” Saying this, George swept away Aldred’s hands, shook off the snow on his body, and began to stand up.

The effect of the feat “Immune to Cold and Heat” that George had cultivated for many years showed its power again here. Perhaps it didn’t show any obvious effect in normal times, but in this kind of harsh weather, it could be considered a timely help. Like Ben, Aldred, Green, and Chrispian, in this weather, originally being able to display 80% of their 100% ability was considered not bad.

Therefore, although this feat couldn’t improve George’s combat power, in certain times, it could ensure the stable performance of his combat power. Most severe cold and heat were not much different from a warm spring day in March for George.

“I say, come and look quickly! Those barbarians seem to be busy with something again.” Green, with his sharp eyes, discovered something unusual in the barbarian camp through the snow that seemed to have lessened a bit.

Hearing this, the few people immediately threw themselves onto the crenelations of the outer wall. In the distance, a lively scene appeared in the barbarian camp, completely different from their performance after previous defeats. Unfortunately, separated by the wind and snow, everyone couldn’t see clearly what those barbarians, busy like ants, were actually doing.