Chapter Four: The Fall of the Madrid Empire, Part II

The entire Royal Guard had completely abandoned muskets and other ranged weapons, each man gripping a melee blade as they launched a dense, relentless charge.

“Fire!” the defending commander, standing at the very front, raised his sabre and pointed it toward the soaring Royal Guard of the Franconian Empire.

Boom, boom, boom. Volley after volley of grapeshot once again revealed its terrifying lethality. The guards, advancing in tightly packed ranks, were cut down in swathes by the hail of iron pellets. Yet the soldiers in the rear did not slow in the slightest, pressing forward with unwavering resolve toward the gun batteries.

If an army of the age of blades had charged in close formation against artillery firing grapeshot, even cavalry might not have withstood the appalling losses, let alone infantry.

And yet these Royal Guards, bearing the unshakable pride of soldiers, faced that devastating storm of grapeshot and still charged ahead without the slightest hesitation.

After the defenders’ second volley of grapeshot, the guards, their pace undiminished, finally stormed the artillery positions. There were defending troops there as well, of course, but what chance did these dispirited soldiers have against the guards’ relentless advance?

Naturally, the entire battery was taken without suspense, and the defending commander who had come personally to the front was beheaded by a guard, his face frozen in disbelief.

Although the Royal Guard of the Franconian Empire succeeded in smashing the Madrid Empire’s last line of resistance, their own losses were tremendous as well. After two rounds of grapeshot and one volley of musket fire, more than ten thousand men were reduced to barely half still standing fit for battle. Their casualties exceeded fifty percent.

It had to be said: this Royal Guard truly deserved its reputation as one of the Franconian Empire’s elite forces. In Europe, an army that could endure such losses and still retain combat effectiveness could be counted among the finest of the finest.

Of course, that did not include those fanatics of the Holy Kingdom of Light, whose minds had been thoroughly poisoned by religion.

Marshal Max spent fifteen days advancing with earthworks and siegeworks, another five days pounding the fortress with concentrated artillery fire, and finally one last day completely shattering its defensive system.

Three days later, the entire fortress network built by the Madrid Empire had fallen completely. After the battle, the bastions, ravelins, and all such works were everywhere in ruins, walls collapsed in heaps and the scars of cannon fire visible on every side. Outside the perimeter, great breaches ripped open by heavy bombardment yawned in all directions. It was clear that this fortress complex would be useless unless repaired over the course of several months and at the cost of enormous sums of money.

This fortress network, which could be counted among the most formidable in the history of Europe, would never have fallen so quickly if not for the low morale of the Madrid Empire’s defenders.

In the course of a single battle, out of one hundred thousand Madrid defenders, only a little over ten thousand were killed; most of the rest surrendered, and a small number got lucky and deserted. The Madrid Empire’s final garrison force was utterly destroyed.

By contrast, the coalition forces of the English Empire and the Franconian Empire suffered far more deaths than the Madrid Empire. The English soldiers did not fight with the same ferocity as the Franconian Empire’s main armies, and over twelve thousand of them were killed or wounded.

The Franconian Empire’s troops were unquestionably the main force in this campaign. That said, the English Empire had made its own contribution as well, shouldering two-thirds of the logistical supplies.

In relative terms, more than twenty-seven thousand Franconian soldiers were killed, including over six thousand of the empire’s most elite troops: the Royal Guard.

After this battle, the Royal Guard would find it difficult to return to the battlefield again.

Nearly two hundred thousand troops had attacked the immense fortress complex, and in the end their number had been reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand.

Even the decayed defenders of the Madrid Empire had managed to inflict such losses upon so many elite regulars. One could only imagine how many lives would have to be poured into such a fortress if it were held by the fanatical soldiers of the Holy Kingdom of Light or the Elven Empire.

Still, those immensely powerful nations apparently did not need such fortress complexes in the first place. They could field hundreds of thousands of troops at will within their own borders. If the enemy truly reached their doorstep, their situation would probably not differ much from that of the Madrid Empire.

While the coalition of the English Empire and the Franconian Empire was clearing the ruins and resting their troops, the entire Madrid Empire was thrown into turmoil by the disastrous defeat at the front. The once calm empire was plunged once more into a tremendous crisis.

The Madrid Emperor, a man obsessed with pomp and glory, fainted on the spot upon hearing the dreadful news. Well, he was old, and he had been eating far too much rich food every day; his blood pressure was a little high.

The various noble factions within the country began moving their wealth en masse into their own domains. In truth, there was not much to move; most of their hidden assets had already been transferred earlier. What remained were only the outward trappings they had kept on display for the Madrid Emperor. Now even those trappings were about to be taken back.

The emperor’s collapse, combined with the annihilation of the empire’s main forces, left all the common people of Madrid bewildered. Seizing the opportunity, an organization called the Germanic Order stirred up the crowds and denounced the Madrid Empire’s cruelty everywhere.

And the Germanic Order, which held deep influence within the new army, was not suppressed by government troops. On the contrary, the authorities feared it like a tiger. Outside the capital, the imperial decrees carried less weight than the words of the local nobles and the Germanic Order.

The Madrid Emperor did not have to wait long. Following a mass proclamation by Amascia von William, the Germanic Order’s peasant uprising erupted in full. One after another, the noble factions in various regions declared independence, raised their own armed government forces, and openly announced their secession from Madrid rule.

The Germanic peasant uprising did not even bother turning against those noble forces. With the newly defected soldiers of the new army flocking to his side, Amascia von William led more than ten thousand insurgents through the city gates and into the capital of the Madrid Empire, whose gates now stood wide open.

In the entire capital, apart from the Royal Guards, scarcely any soldiers were willing to fight for the emperor. His cruel rule had truly alienated the people beyond repair.

Amascia von William took the lead, using the strength of a great knight to break straight through the defenses of those fanatically loyal Royal Guards, and the entire imperial palace was swiftly occupied by the rebels.

When Amascia von William led his men into the Madrid Emperor’s private chamber, they found that the aged ruler, who had sat on the throne for more than twenty years, had already taken poison and died by his own hand. Looking upon the old emperor’s face in death, Amascia gave this foolish monarch a nod of approval for the first and last time in his life.

Though Amascia von William admired the old fool’s courage in choosing suicide, his own hand showed no mercy. The imperial clan of the Madrid Empire was slaughtered until the ground ran red with blood, and every minister who had remained loyal to Madrid rule was hanged in public.

From that day on, the Madrid Empire became history. Not a single direct heir of the royal line was left alive.