For the army of the Luman Kingdom, the deaths and injuries of the cannon fodder didn’t matter much to the knightly lords;
but the damage to the Sentinel Mechas was a different kind of pain.
Death was one thing, but the destruction of a Sentinel Mecha under the feudal political system of the Luman Kingdom was almost equivalent to the bankruptcy and demotion of a minor knightly family.
Without a Sentinel Mecha, how could one call themselves a knight?
In this assault on the town, there were only about a hundred ‘knights’. Up to now, at least twenty Sentinel Mechas were lost.
The remaining men suffered severe morale damage.
Even the two Knight Titans began to consider retreat.
The Ranger-class Knight Titans were equipped with Shield Generators, but the power wasn’t particularly high; after all, with a height of five meters and two, they couldn’t afford to use miniaturized generators. If they used regular-sized ones, the load on the Shield Generator was also significant and hard to bear for the Ranger class.
The intensity-reduced Shield Generators couldn’t withstand too many rounds of shelling from 155mm howitzers.
In fact, after these four rounds of bombardment, the Shield Generators of the two Knight Titans were extinguished.
Up to this point, there was definitely no significant damage. In half an hour, if they didn’t continue to be hit, the Shield Generators would start running again; or even now, they could force them to work in overload.
At the same time, the Knight Titans themselves were durable enough to withstand a few hits from the canons without much problem.
They had the opportunity to charge during the gaps in the enemy’s fire.
The defensive positions built by the Alliance Expeditionary Force using street barricades and residential houses wouldn’t possibly stop them. Wherever the rapid-fire and laser cannons pointed, that position would blow to the skies; their firepower was of a different concept altogether.
But those two nobles from great families still retreated.
What good would it do to annihilate those members of the Expeditionary Force? What if a Ranger-class Knight Titan was damaged in the process?
Not to mention being damaged, but even overloading the Shield Generator, causing subsequent malfunctions, or if the Mecha took a few hits and was damaged or even just lost some paint… that would be very distressing!
The maintenance and repair costs for these behemoths were sky-high!
If something went wrong with this big machine, even for great nobles, counts, marquises, or princes, none of that mattered.
Realizing that the Alliance Expeditionary Force indeed had the ability to harm them, even though they knew charging ahead with resolve, having two Knight Titans penetrate the town would mean death to gods and buddhas in their path, and following their breakthrough, the kingdom’s army would likely secure victory.
But in the end, they still chose to retreat.
Seven hundred thousand Tax Currency, for a noble family, how many years would it take to save up? Moreover, if they lost the Knight Titan, they’d probably also lose their status as great nobles very soon, or at least be severely damaged. Under such circumstances, the chances of saving up that seven hundred thousand Tax Currency might not even be there anymore.
Plainly put, those piloting the Titans were from great noble families, not barefooted commoners. For them, warfare was a means to profit, a way to seek honors and achievements, not something into which they should throw their entire fortunes and even the life or death of their entire families.
Why bother, then?
…
With the two Knight Titans retreating, the pressure on the defense line of the Alliance Expeditionary Force also sharply decreased.
When they had just emerged and demonstrated their power, Perbov and Leroy, the seasoned partners, were indeed quite nervous.
Though they were hastily repelled and didn’t put up too much resistance, even so, the blow to the Expeditionary Force was not insignificant.
At least four hundred people were killed or injured because of those two machines.
It was mainly due to a lack of experience and insufficient preparedness.
Previously, the thirty-two rockets fired in a volley by these two war machines caught the Alliance artillery off guard, destroying over a dozen cannons and causing casualties to hundreds of artillerymen.
Subsequently, the rapid-fire grenade launchers and laser cannons, in their charge, destroyed numerous positions and inflicted over two hundred casualties.
After suffering losses, they drew some lessons.
For example, in situations where artillery might be threatened, transport trucks would always remain attached to the cannons. After several rounds of rapid firing, they would swiftly change positions.
For example, within the environment of a small town, the artillerymen would do their best to add concealment and cover to their firing positions.
For example, in the outer defense positions, the combat teams at each defensive point should reduce their numbers, but increase the number of defense emplacements. Under the premise of maintaining the density and layers of firepower, they dispersed their forces to avoid incurring heavy casualties when struck by enemy fire.
These measures were all effective in reducing the threat posed by the two Knight Titans.
But just this was not enough.
Holding the main position was the most fundamental.
Before this, they had already received news that the Governor’s mother was under attack, and Lacroix was escorting her to evacuate outside the city.
Although they had repelled the enemy’s attacks several times, whether it was Perbov or Leroy, they both understood profoundly that the purpose of their mission, far from their homeland, was to ensure the safety of Miss Wang Qi.
Merely repelling the enemy’s attacks was insufficient.
However, when those two Knight Titans hastily ended their rampage, Perbov and his companion keenly sensed the problem of these two most terrifying war machines having a very weak will to fight.
This was a good opportunity.
So, after a brief discussion, the two entrusted this important task to the 38th Brigade. They divided their main armored forces to execute a rapid assault.
The reconnaissance soldiers scouting ahead located the positions of the two retreating Knight Titans and clearly saw them being loaded with new long-range rockets, assisted by heavy engineering machines.
— It was hard not to see, searching for two six-meter-tall behemoths with a telescope was easy.
It seemed like they weren’t planning on a continued frontal assault anymore, but instead, relying on the Titans’ rockets, which had a range far exceeding that of the 155mm howitzer, to bomb safely from a distance.
But there wasn’t much to fear.
The Ranger-type Titan’s rocket launchers were powerful, but they only had a sixteen-round capacity. Each loading was cumbersome, requiring engineering machines, making the rate of fire problematic.
So, they would just have to withstand it for now.
Meanwhile, the main force of the 38th Brigade, racing in their vehicles, quickly burst out of the town following the reconnaissance soldiers’ information, choosing a path that avoided the Knight Titans, successfully broke through, and met with Miss Wang Qi protected by Lacroix.
On their way back, the two Knight Titans, like mad, blocked the route of their return.
This led to Perbov deciding to lead the main force of the 37th Brigade, along with the remainder of the 38th Brigade troops, to go out and provide assistance. Discover more content at empire
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There will be another chapter tonight
