High School Soldier
139. Boiled cassava, is help coming?

In the history of the world that discussed a siege of the fort, breaking through the fort was related to the defeat of the defense. Once the enemy is inside the fortress, the enemy troops who managed to break into the fortress will finish off the entire defensive army.

The most effective strategy was to increase the depth of the defensive trench, as was the case with the World War I trenches. Instead of strengthening the defenses, the Expeditionary Forces and the volunteer forces were short of three things: personnel, logistics, and time, it was all inevitable to face the next consecutive attack of the Alliance Forces.

The Expeditionary Force was given little rest, but they fought bravely. The troops concentrated the remaining mechanical units to carry out the batting attack. An attack maneuver by flanking the enemy and focusing the shot towards the 9th corps of the Alliance Army led by the Hero of Happiness really surprised them. The directed attack made the Happiness Hero from the Republic of Finland stare blankly at his shocked troops and start to mess up.

But, this Finnish man named Kalle saw hope after almost experiencing defeat.

Following Rio and Hero Iri Hati, the troops moving from an imperfect Gate that opened on the east side of the fortress and served as the 9th corps' relief force, arrived.

Hero Iri Hati, aka Theodore, led an army with Rio with an army of 80,000. In addition to the army led by the heroes, the troops from the Andzrev Continent country that sided with the Alliance such as the Hrabro Kingdom, the Biez Kingdom, the Syrd Empire, the Kingdom of Salodki also became a relief force. That way, the total number of relief forces is around 120,000.

They joined Kalle's 9th corps, which had about 49,000 troops on the east side of the fort, and would carry out a major offensive after this.

“If the large number of our troops lose in this attack, we will not be able to go home to our origin.”

The hope of returning to the home world of the heroes (the same world as the origin of the Expeditionary Force) must make the heroes fight hard. Although most of them had a compulsion when fighting the Expeditionary Force, even though they had a little bit of the power of the God of War, still these heroes were parties that could be said to be ‘forced’ to fight the Expeditionary Force. Even so, the Hero of Anger, the Hero of Lust, and the Hero of Hate still resisted with light feelings. Because the three of them had a balanced strength with two battalions of Student Army infantry.

The heroes are also the same as the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force, which are both afraid of facing death when fighting. Although Rio had a rifle with Eternal Bullet magic that would never run out, and he did not have to worry that his rifle would be damaged if used to shoot continuously, he remained afraid that he would have to meet with Nio and the youth unit. I don't know what reason Rio was afraid if he had to meet Nio with his current strength.

The heroes since fighting the Expeditionary Force and the volunteer forces, could not retreat and refused the orders they had obtained. These 9-man heroes were actually forced to fight against the weapons of the Expeditionary Force, in return for being returned to the original world if they fell in this battle.

If the heroes had stayed until the battle ended, what would they have got, only the higher-ups of the Alliance and the War Gods would know.

**

The tactics that the Alliance Army used despite being reinforced by heroes remained monotonous.

The Alliance generals continued to use the concept of close combat with their large numbers of troops. But the Alliance Army, which was dominated by a new recruits army, did not have the fighting ability of an old veteran. On the other hand, the Expeditionary Forces that were still defending their strongholds still had an advantage in firepower, and if their ammunition ran out, the difference in numbers between the Expeditionary Forces and the Alliance Forces would be stark.

Then, if the firepower of the Expeditionary Force and the combat power of the volunteer forces could be reduced, the Alliance Army would be easy to finish the battle. That was their hope, and it was placed on the shoulders of the generals and their armies, and the heroes.

But, the strong heroes also had even greater problems. Among the heroes, only Rio and Gurion were warriors who had experience of war, and had both once led a Squad and Company. But, the two of them and the other heroes had never led and controlled such a large army. That was why they were very difficult and had not managed to break through the trenches of the defense and resistance of the volunteer forces. Even so, they managed to destroy the entire defense turret belonging to the Expeditionary Force, and killed hundreds of its soldiers.

On the other hand, the Alliance Army was very pleased with the siding of the other four countries of the Andzrev Continent who exerted most of their strength. The four leaders of the four countries decided to ditch plans on making peace with Indonesia, and joined the Alliance to attack the Expeditionary Force.

The last arriving of the Empire's Syrd Army, his generals divided his army into four corps and let them join the hero-led forces and make a siege of the Expeditionary Force's fortress.

Rio praised the Alliance's tactics of conducting the surging attacks day and night. It was a tactic capable of reducing the number of soldiers and weakening some sides of the fortress that was expected to make the enemy's morale decline.

“It's a bad gamble..” Rio muttered.

He currently ordered his 20,000 soldiers to make the Expeditionary Force soldiers defending the north side of the fortress even more tired.

Rio knew this was a bad mission as he was ordered to lead this corps. Before carrying out a massive attack, depleting the Expeditionary Force's ammunition was a must. Of course, what causes the reduced attack power is the fatigue of soldiers and the reduction of ammunition. If the number of Expeditionary Force soldiers and volunteer forces cannot be gradually reduced, the Alliance will be forced to use the bodies of its soldiers to reduce the supply of Expeditionary Force ammunition.

However, Rio had no intention of using the tactic, even though it was quite effective.

The Alliance trained its soldiers to fear their comrades more than their enemies. When the Rio-led army managed to reach the moat of the north side of the fortress, they jumped into the moat, drew out their swords, and slashed at the frightened and exhausted body of the Expeditionary Force soldiers. However, the soldier's striped uniform that was designed to withstand the slash of sharp objects required the Alliance's soldiers to slash them many times before they actually died.

Then, the resistance given by the volunteer forces was fierce, especially the fight of the mercenaries and the three girls that Rio did not yet know their identity. But still, Rio praised the resilience of the volunteer forces when dealing with his troops.

“We managed to break through the north side of the fortress, it's time to advance!”

Rio ordered all his soldiers to launch a direct attack on the north side of the fortress that the 4th and 6th Combat Groups fought for. The Combat Group officers were forced to command their subordinates in addition to continuing to fight, with or without fighting spirit. The soldiers of the Expeditionary Force had decided it was better to die while fighting desperately than to die by suicide to avoid this fierce fight.

But…

“Tax!”

From behind the lines of the Combat Group 4 and 6 defense, several mortars of large caliber were fired with pride. Mortar artillery hit the Rio-led line of troops, and rattled the young man as hundreds of his soldiers were hit by mortar fire.

“Toothing again...!”

The next series of mortars fired blew away the hundreds of Alliance Army soldiers who had almost managed to enter the north side of the fortress. The bodies of soldiers hit by mortar blasts blocked the entrance to the north side of the fort, causing a traffic jam. At the moment when Rio's forces slowed down, the fire support vehicles started the artillery attack.

“T Shoot...!”

Two armored vehicles mounted with field artillery on its roof opened sweeping fire by forming a sickle pattern. This attack swept through the enemy infantry. In addition, there were dozens of grenades fired by grenade launchers and killed enemy soldiers with their shale. Then, Combat Group warriors 4 and 6 attacked the enemy with a gun in the left hand and a sword in the right hand.

They began to chop the bodies of the enemy troops with serious faces and excited cries, as if forgetting that the number of enemies was too much to be defeated with just a gun and a sword. Perhaps it was because the effects of sleep deprivation caused the warriors of Combat Group 4 and 6 to stress, and fight with movements like drunk people.

The cavalry troops that Rio sent out were also forced to stop after seeing the Combat Group 4 and 6 warriors slaughtering their companions crazily.

Some fire support vehicles moved slowly to save fuel, and fired artillery. The meager number of vehicles could not cause serious damage on the enemy's side, but the slowly moving fire aid vehicles disrupted the formation of the cavalry troops, he said, and fire from a number of artillery managed to protect the north side of the fort in this battle.

The still overwhelming firepower of the Expeditionary Force pushed the already low morale of amateur soldiers to the bottom of the valley.

Then, after the amateur soldiers tried to escape by shouting and angry…

“Kill all who escaped and did not fight..!”

The soldier who was about to flee turned to the source of the voice, and the one who shouted earlier was the Hero of Lust, aka Baron. After which, what was seen was the rain of arrows and the slashes of Eternal Bullets belonging to Rio raining down on the troops that were about to flee and the fighters of the 4th and 6th Combat Groups.

In front of the north side of the fortress, tens of thousands of soldiers moved as the rain of arrows and Eternal Bullets was still going on. The entire Combat Group 4 and 6 warriors cursed the opponent and rushed back inside the fortress while preparing protection.

The attack on the soldier who was about to escape made the soldier feel unreasonable. And the rain of arrows made the Combat Groups 4 and 6 forced to temporarily retreat due to the very clear difference in firepower.

The Rio-led forces contributed the highest death toll in the offensive, just as they did during the Expeditionary Force's first battle against the five-nation joint force.

**

“Fuck, I've failed twice!” Rio cursed himself in the heart.

After the previous battle failed, Rio was humiliated before the higher-ups of the Alliance member states. Although he already had great strength and a large army as well, Rio should have managed to break through into the Expeditionary Force fortress.

Yet…

“What are you doing, Angry Hero!?”

As long as Rio led the troops that the Alliance had given him, he had lost 45% of the total strength of his troops. In general, the amount of 45% was damage that was at a level where an army lost most of its strength, and was considered incapable of fighting again until the reorganization was complete, so it could be described as ‘slaughter’.

“Even he was more lousy than us who had no direct combat experience,” scorned the Hero of Empathy who came from the Empire of Japan. The teenager who made the condescending remarks to Rio was named Nanaharu Sakuya.

Rio who has not developed at all since becoming a hero, even though he has quite a lot of direct combat experience, he is still at a lower level than the Hero of Sadness, aka Beautiful.

The damage inflicted by the Combat Group 4 and 6 fire relief vehicles is indeed very large. But Rio had noticed that there were no cannon blasts, which signaled the firepower of the Expeditionary Force tanks and cannons was running low.

“Then, I have no choice but to continue, because all I can do is that.”

Rio convinced himself hard, and was forced to lead the army again to death one after another.

**

The attack of the Royal Alliances forces created great damage to the Expeditionary Force fighters.

Previously, it was indeed one of the Alliance Forces that did not equip their new recruits soldiers with sufficient equipment, and did not train the soldiers to have strong morals. It was only natural that the previous assault required the Alliance to suffer great damage.

The troops led by the Hero of Anger Rio returned with a tragic failure, and the other Alliance member countries lost quite a bit of their strength.

Elsewhere, Maslac and Hero Iri Hati Theodore are planning something with the weapon created by Hero Iri Hati, as well as planning a strategy to use this weapon after knowing all the shortcomings of the Alliance Army. In addition to successfully making the Expeditionary Force soldiers exhausted without their members rest time due to attacks three times a day, they both decided to make ‘ weapons once in use’ as well as possible.

This weapon is expected that the Alliance bid farewell “See you” to Expeditionary Forces and volunteer forces.

**

Sidik sighed when he saw the time on his watch already showing at 17:22. Beside him, Fariz leaned on his shoulder while eating a biscuit which was one of the foods in the ration package. The pair shared food at a time when logistics were dwindling, even sharing biscuits that had nearly half the hardness of a brick. That's why during the test to join the Student Army the enrollees checked their dental health.

Beside these pair of lovers, the entire members of the 1st Cruiser Squad stared at the two of them with sharp gazes, or rather envious gazes, not least Nio who was feeling an overwhelming longing with his brother.

They were all also relieved when the enemy troops had yet to show any signs of attacking this afternoon. Even so, all the soldiers in charge of defending the defensive moat protecting the south side of the fortress did not relax their readiness.

Fire relief vehicles and entire armored vehicles returned inside the fort for a brief inspection. All soldiers who have brevet skills to repair combat vehicles must exert all their remaining capabilities and manpower to repair all weapons and war vehicles.

Meanwhile, some refugee women assisted by female soldiers of the Expeditionary Force distributed boiled cassava as emergency personnel fillers for the soldiers. Even without boiled cassava, the soldiers could light a bonfire to burn some cassava.

Cassava is still much better than eating the carcasses of goats and chickens that were killed by enemy forces in the previous attack. It did make the troops angry, but it only made the stomach even hungrier. Cassava is still much more filling than processing tree bark or grasses.

A generous budget was given by the government to the Expeditionary Force, and it was used for development here, including opening farmland and raising chickens and goats. However, all of that was nearly destroyed when the Alliance Forces declared war with the Expeditionary Force.

The Expeditionary Force ate a very simple dinner, with a hopeful feeling of help that would either be there or not.

Why didn't Arevelk send his troops to help us?

Isn't the Yekirnovo State also our ally, why aren't they sending in help?

Such a question came out from the mouth of the Expeditionary Force soldiers who were almost desperate and exhausted with this battle. Lux and Zariv who heard it also could not believe the words they heard. However, the two of them remained convinced that Sigiz was planning something for the sake of this army, and immediately saved Nio.

Then, Edera could only watch over Nio, without being able to fight beside him. This cat girl was specialized in close combat, and was not particularly adept at using bows and arrows, or such long-range weapons.

His hearing is as sharp as a cat is generally tired of hearing the complaints and expectations of Expeditionary Force soldiers will be a help, and a way to return to Indonesia.

Upon hearing such a thing, Edera, Zariv, and Lux concluded that the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force were almost desperate. However, the three girls were very amazed by the TNI soldier despite being very tired, almost desperate with this fight. All the soldiers of the relief force, including the three girls were amazed by the fighting spirit of the Expeditionary Force soldiers who were like without limits.

The cool night breeze felt all the soldiers defending this fortress.

In the middle of this dim night, Edera realized something from this blowing wind.

“The aroma is strange..”

The soldiers were indeed getting used to the scent of blood, and the corpses were already rotting away. However, the scent of the wind tonight was really strange.

Nio who walked from the water storage and was seen carrying a bucket full of water approached Edera who was sniffing something. Nio felt if Edera who looked sniffing something was quite funny.

“What's up, what do you smell?”

“Didn't you smell that strange, Mr Nio?”

After hearing Edera's reply, Nio put down a bucket full of water and imitated the way Edera sniffed.

Then he was stunned by what he got from his kiss.

“This smell... Impossible!”

Nio then ran while carrying a bucket full of water and shouted as hard as he could, to the point that he felt his throat being broken as he loudly shouted. He felt responsible for spreading this news while the troops were resting before the enemy attacks again.

As he reached the moat on the south side of the fortress, this pungent scent smelled increasingly clearer, and cold sweat began to drench Nio's back. He saw all the soldiers defending this trench were still on the move as if there was nothing strange about the scent of air tonight.

“There is poisonous gas....!!!”

By the time Nio said that that pungent smell that he smelled started to spread widely. This increasingly pungent odor that hurts the eyes and breathing.

If it was sensed from the scent of gas that was like rotten eggs, it seemed that the enemy was gathering large amounts of sulfur from some volcanoes in the territory of the Luan Empire and the other Alliance member countries. The imperfect gates speed up the delivery of sulfur from other Alliance member states.

The Alliance forces seemed to be burning sulfur to produce hydrogen sulfide or toxic carbon monoxide from burning sulfur. Or maybe they were using poison substances or magic that the Expeditionary Force was unaware of. If that were true, the situation would get worse.

The large number of enemy troops was already very troublesome, and facing it was extremely exhausting, and do not ask again what happened if the Alliance Army used chemical weapons.

The hero's existence also reinforces the statement that the Alliance Forces managed to make this chemical weapon.

Gas masks were not enough for the entire army defending the southern side of the fort, and medical units were also unable to treat all those affected by the poisonous gas and wounded.

The psychological effects of poisonous gases are enormous, above all else. All the soldiers defending the south side of the fort began to panic. If the enemy came to attack, it would be very easy to finish off all those panicked soldiers.

Fortunately, some of the soldiers were trained to deal with the poisonous gas in a very simple way. Some soldiers shouted to ask their friends to remove their uniforms or cloths, then wet them with water, then covered their faces with the wet cloth. However, this method is not very effective if used to ward off very strong toxic gases.

“Retreat! Leave this position...!!!”

Nio decided to order his entire subordinates to retreat before the poison gas dampat was really severe.

Sidik took off and tore off his field uniform to be moistened with the water Nio had brought before, and covered his face and Fariz with the wet cloth. The two of them then retreated along with the other members of the 1st Cruiser Squad and the soldiers defending the south side of the other fortress trenches.

“Bre-jerk..!”

Nio goosebumps on the preparations for the Alliance Army. He thought if the enemy thought a step or two ahead.

Soldiers exposed to poisonous gas would feel like they were suffocating very strongly and their eyes were burning. The ability of the blood to bind oxygen will be reduced, so the amount of oxygen will be reduced, and cause unlucky soldiers to fall.

However, this was the result of the thinking speed and learning ability of the Alliance Forces, and the knowledge that the heroes brought from their world, this was what the source of the strength of the Alliance Army was.