Chapter 60 The Blue Shirts

Hu Hei had now been gloriously promoted to the rank of Division Commander.

He was considered quite "fortunate" within the Song Empire's Redcoat system. During the landing operation, he had been accidentally bombarded by his own fleet's artillery, yet miraculously survived. Then, turning misfortune into a blessing, he successfully recuperated away from the catastrophic battle between the Song Empire and the Dwarf Empire. Otherwise, given the survival rate of less than ten percent, Hu Hei might have already turned into plant fertilizer.

The lucky Hu Hei was now a formidable figure. Commanding a full twenty thousand Bluecoats and a personal honor guard of over two hundred veteran Redcoats, with the rank of Brigadier General, he could be considered a person of consequence in any nation. Well, at least he had finally graduated from the cannon fodder tier...

As an officer of the older generation of Redcoats, Hu Hei naturally became the vanguard for the Bluecoats occupying the territories left behind by the Dwarf Empire. Consequently, he found his advance blocked by fanatical dwarf troops holding out in the city of Bernia!

Knowing this battle was unavoidable, and after scouting that there were fewer than two thousand dwarf soldiers left in the city, Hu Hei used a force ten times that of the enemy to completely surround Bernia.

Outside the walls of Bernia, several infantry regiments of Bluecoats stood in neat ranks. At a glance, they actually possessed the bearing of a formidable army; the Song Empire's instructors certainly knew how to drill their men. However, upon walking closer, the entire Bluecoat formation was a buzz of idle chatter...

"Qi Long, yesterday in some indigenous village, I deflowered an untouched maiden. Tsk tsk... the taste of it, haha, taking part in this expedition was totally worth the suffering!"

The Song Empire's system-generated civilians adhered to the casual tradition of naming characters. When they materialized, they only knew their surname, and Bai's irresponsible steward certainly wouldn't waste brain cells thinking up names for such a massive quantity of cannon fodder, simply leaving them to cobble names together themselves. Because the Song Empire used the Dragon Banner, it resulted in a recruitment system where almost every piece of cannon fodder ended up with a name like so-and-so Dragon, or so-and-so Golden Dragon...

"Tyrant Golden Dragon, I heard General Hu Hei has very strict military discipline. Didn't your captain catch you in the act?" Qi Long asked with envy.

"Heh heh, General Hu is naturally brilliant and resolute when it comes to enforcing discipline. But with so many brothers in the Bluecoats, back at the garrison we lived the high life, and when bored, we'd bully the local natives. We were ordered on an expedition, leaving our comfort zones to suffer. We haven't killed anyone, nor have we looted—we're just finding a few women to have some fun with. Can he really control that? The Song Empire is great in every way, except for the lack of camp followers, which truly makes life hard for everyone. Which other native country's expeditions don't have camp prostitutes? We're not like those iron men of the Redcoats, who have nothing else on their minds besides fighting...

Since we're from the same hometown, I'll tell you this, but don't spread it around: our captain spent five or six hours at some local landowner's estate yesterday before finally walking out looking exhausted, and he wasn't even the only one—there were several of them together! Compared to him, I'm just playing in the shallows."

Upon hearing this, Qi Long thought it made sense. With so many Bluecoats, could General Hu possibly manage all two hundred and some odd men under his direct command?

Initially, Hu Hei had wanted to hold these Bluecoats—trained system civilians—to the rigorous standards of the Redcoats. Unfortunately, the difference between the Bluecoats and Redcoats was as distinct as the colors of their uniforms!

The Song Empire's high-pressure rule over the occupied territories had long fostered arrogance and lawlessness among these regional garrison troops, who treated the indigenous population with utter ruthlessness. If not for strict military orders forbidding murder, and the fact that corpses made it too easy to leave evidence, the territories the Bluecoats passed through would have suffered far worse than just young maidens and newlywed brides being violated!

The people of the Fenibo region and the Franconia plains were truly wretched souls. Ever since the outbreak of the European continental war, they had first been subjected to the dwarves looting grain everywhere (though those short bastards showed no interest in human women...). When they finally managed to wait for human armies to arrive, while the looting and killing stopped (primarily because the Song Empire was not short on grain, and soldiers were required to turn in precious metals anyway—Sun Li had long since issued an order in the army for the confiscation of precious metals, as these were all gold-coin resources!), how could these regional garrisons, comprised entirely of red-blooded men, possibly suppress their urges?

And so, it was a journey marked by romance at every turn...

The high-ranking Redcoat officers had once attempted to ban such behavior, but throwing two or three thousand Redcoats into a sea of over a hundred thousand Bluecoats created not even a ripple. Coupled with the temporary nature of the expeditionary force, passive resistance against minor orders within the Bluecoat ranks was practically endless.

Just look at them now: the army was lined up and on the verge of battle, yet the Bluecoat soldiers were still chatting and whispering merrily to one another, while the low and mid-level officers of Bluecoat origin simply turned a blind eye and busied themselves with their own affairs...

If this were happening among the Redcoats, offenders would have been dragged out for a public beating with military staves, and likely faced even harsher punishment!

Hu Hei wore a crisp, laced brigadier general's uniform, a sabre tucked diagonally at his waist, as he frowned down at the whispering Bluecoat soldiers below.

Sigh, an army like this was only slightly better than armed rabble. No wonder His Majesty the Emperor never deployed these hundreds of thousands of regional garrison troops from start to finish. If they were to collide with elite enemy forces, the defeat would be too humiliating to behold!

Fortunately, the enemy's numbers were extremely small, and they didn't even have artillery. Under such overwhelmingly suppressive conditions, things should go smoothly.

Hu Hei muttered to himself as he looked at the sparse dwarf soldiers atop the walls of Bernia.

"General Emer, the Song troops have deployed five thousand men outside each city wall. From the looks of it, they intend to launch a concerted siege against us, while we only have around four hundred soldiers per wall. Although our dwarf warriors do not fear formidable enemies, we cannot ignore such a massive disparity in numbers!" worried Emer's confidant.

General Emer had shed his previous decadent demeanor. Standing resolutely atop the ramparts with a telescope in hand, he gazed out at the blue ocean of the Song military formation.

At this distance, it was impossible to see the soldiers whispering to one another; they only saw that these second-line Song troops were neatly arrayed with fluttering banners—clearly possessing the bearing of a regular army rather than a rabble!

"Tell the soldiers to hold the line first and test the enemy's caliber. We have the city walls to rely upon, so we might just be able to withstand their assault. If... if we truly cannot hold, retreat to my position. I will join all of you in teaching these detestable Song people an unforgettable lesson. Even if we die in battle, dwarven warriors will bite a chunk of flesh out of the enemy!"

"Understood! Glory to the dwarves forever!" Several officers around General Emer acknowledged the order and returned to their respective posts, preparing to meet the Song army's initial assault. No matter how formidable the enemy, a fiery light of glory burned in the eyes of these dwarf soldiers.