Chapter 30: The Dwarf Empire Takes Action

While Sun Li was launching a surprise landing in the Mexican region and advancing victoriously, Marshal Gertrud, commanding the 100,000-strong army of the British Empire bogged down in the Istria Peninsula, witnessed the sudden rise of the Germanic Republic led by Amasga. In one fell swoop, Amasga shattered the main legions of the Franconian Empire, forcing them into a disastrous retreat and even claiming the head of his old friend, Marshal Max.

Knowing his forces were no match for the main Franconian legions, Marshal Gertrud abandoned the impractical notion of occupying the entire Istria Peninsula and ordered his troops to retreat without delay. Amasga, having long prepared for this, had stabilized the Germanic Guards through measures like the establishment of the Veterans' Hospital. Leveraging the advantage of shorter supply lines, he blocked Marshal Gertrud’s 100,000 men in the Bodi Province.

Incensed and feeling insulted, Marshal Gertrud could not believe that Amasga, a man he viewed with contempt, dared to block his path with an army of Germanic Republic peasants equal in number to his own. In the Marshal’s eyes, these peasants, with only months of training, relied solely on stubborn willpower and sheer numbers. Having studied the Franconian Empire's defeat, he believed the combat capability of the Germanic Guards was no better than the hastily mobilized levies of the British mainland; their previous victories had been achieved merely by swarming elite legions with superior numbers.

Now that the troop counts were equal, and even though the British Empire had sent mobilized soldiers who had never seen battle, Marshal Gertrud felt his superiority in artillery and cavalry would far outclass these so-called Germanic Guards. With the Germanic forces possessing less than half the British artillery count and virtually zero cavalry, Marshal Gertrud engaged Amasga’s guards in a massive battle involving 200,000 men in Bodi Province.

However, the outcome left the upper echelons of both the British and Franconian Empires in shock. Amasga’s battle-hardened, fanatically nationalistic army utterly decimated the well-equipped British levies. With fewer than 10,000 casualties, the Germanic Republic achieved a decisive victory, far surpassing the pyrrhic results of the Franconian wars. Observers were left to wonder: was the British Empire too weak, or the Franconian Empire too strong? These feudal powers simply could not grasp the potency of nationalism, even in its watered-down form.

Thus, Amasga’s Germanic Guards captured tens of thousands of superior flintlock muskets, and Amasga’s personal prestige reached its zenith on the Istria Peninsula. The autonomous noble factions, recognizing the shift in power, wisely surrendered their rights and lands to retire as wealthy gentlemen. The Germanic Republic used this victory to rearm and replenish 100,000 Germanic Guards, all equipped with flintlock muskets and bayonets. The bayonet charges, which had played a pivotal role in the battle, left a deep impression on Amasga, who subsequently standardized the equipment of his entire army to flintlocks and bayonets.

This battle also opened the eyes of monarchs across the Europa continent to the true power of the flintlock-bayonet combination. Following the trend initiated by General Paris, both the British Empire and the battered Franconian Empire scrambled to reorganize their forces with this new equipment.

Tragically, before the Franconian Empire could establish the framework of its new army, disaster struck. The long-dormant Dwarf Empire suddenly launched an offensive. A 200,000-strong Dwarf army, fully equipped with flintlock muskets, bayonets, and 12-pounder cannons firing new types of explosive shells, caught the Franconian Empire completely off guard. The already weakened empire, after a brief, desperate struggle, was annihilated by a Dwarf force that surpassed them in numbers, equipment, and morale. Driven by a thirst for vengeance, the Dwarf Empire uprooted the Franconian military aristocracy, whose ancestors had been the vanguard of the human forces during the original destruction of the Dwarf Empire.

The few remaining cuirassiers were decimated by the concentrated artillery fire of the Dwarf commander, Marshal Aegris. The devastating explosive shells turned the final elite force of the Franconian Empire—men who died shouting their final battle cries—into scrap metal. The Dwarf Empire, which had been closely monitoring continental warfare and possessed an advanced technological system, proved with its first strike what the most powerful army of the era truly looked like. Line formations, deep-row volley fire, bayonet charges, and concentrated artillery use were all at the cutting edge of contemporary tactics. Combined with advanced shell technology, they raised the lethality of warfare to a new level. The Franconian military aristocrats fought with grit, most dying in the midst of their charges, but in an era of total firearm dominance, the old reliance on the courage of cavalry charges was no longer viable. Cavalry could no longer perform independent charges; without the support of infantry and artillery, even the bravest horsemen could not withstand the baptism of steel and shot.

Upon witnessing the Franconian catastrophe, Grand Master Orleans Warhammer of the Holy Knights immediately disbanded the obsolete infantry of the Divine Kingdom and fully committed to creating a new force equipped with flintlock muskets and bayonets. Supported by an advanced domestic railway system, the Dwarf Empire quickly replenished the supplies consumed in the destruction of the Franconian Empire. Seemingly unwilling to grant the British Empire any respite, they left 50,000 men to occupy the fallen Franconian territories and, led by Marshal Aegris, drove the remaining 120,000 troops into the British Empire’s continental territory of Phonippo.

The Dwarf Empire had lost over 30,000 troops during the conquest of the Franconian Empire. Because their population was not as abundant as that of the humans, and in order to defend their homeland, they did not replenish their numbers. The Dwarf Emperor believed that, man for man, they were sufficient to crush the main British legions. The collapse of the Dwarf Empire in ages past had been largely due to a lack of manpower, which forced their retreat; even at that final hour, their technological prowess had led all other races, which was the only reason they had managed to survive until today. Over centuries of reproduction, they had finally amassed 300,000 troops. 100,000 remained as a home guard, while the remaining 200,000 were committed to the hegemony of the Europa continent. By annexing the powerful Franconian state, they displayed the ambition and dominance of a former continental overlord.

After entering the Phonippo region, the 120,000-strong Dwarf army coordinated with dozens of Dwarf battleships, led by several smoke-belching ironclads, to launch a surprise attack on the British Empire’s main fleet stationed in continental ports. Following a monumental naval battle, the more than 200 British warships of various sizes were completely destroyed. The Dwarf navy suffered heavily as well, losing an ironclad and nearly all of their wooden-hulled vessels. Despite the heavy losses, the Dwarf Empire had seized total command of the English Channel.

The main naval strength of the British Empire was nearly wiped out. For years, they had kept their primary fleet stationed in Phonippo to intimidate the nations of the Europa continent; now, their foundation was gone. The remaining wooden ships on the British mainland, having witnessed the terror of the ironclads, dared not engage in further naval combat and were forced to focus on the desperate development of their own new ironclad warships. Until such vessels were completed, they dared not issue another challenge.

After cutting off the British logistics in Phonippo, the Dwarf Empire engaged in a protracted war of attrition against the 120,000-strong British main legion that had been tasked with guarding against the Divine Kingdom. The Grand Master of the Holy Knights, unwilling to remain idle, constantly harassed the British forces. After months of attrition, the British main legion, suffering from a lack of supplies and low morale, engaged the Dwarf army in a decisive battle on the plains.

The outcome was inevitable: the British main legion was annihilated. At the cost of over 20,000 men, the Dwarf Empire wiped out a force that was considered the absolute elite of the British mainland. The Dwarf Empire had exploited a narrow window of opportunity, destroying these elite units—which were still using the obsolete Maurice square formation—before the British could complete their rearmament and tactical adjustments. This was precisely why the Dwarf Empire had been willing to endure such heavy losses to seize Phonippo early; had the British Empire been given time to recover and build a new-style army, those vast, fertile plains would not have been so easily taken.

Following these successive conquests, the Dwarf legions, having suffered significant losses, halted their expansion. After a series of major wars, the nations of the Europa continent were left exhausted. The only faction that had not suffered significant losses, the Elven Empire, continued to play cat-and-mouse with guerrilla fighters in the mountains. However, under the methodical, step-by-step blockade of Colonel Gist, the harassment by the guerrillas grew weaker by the day. Within a year, the Elven Empire, finally unshackled, would be ready to sound the horn of invasion once more.

As the strength of the non-human factions grew, Paris, Amasga, and the leaders of the Divine Kingdom gathered at the negotiating table. Seeing the human-dominated powers waning, they realized they could no longer afford internal conflict. The three leaders temporarily set aside their past grievances—primarily the feud between Paris and the Holy Knights—with Amasga acting as the mediator. Under the pressure of the non-human threat, the three parties formed a defensive alliance, publicly declaring themselves the Tripartite Alliance. With the human forces on the Europa continent united, they instantly transformed from the weakest party into the strongest. Amidst mutual suspicion, the Europa continent entered a rare and hard-won period of peace.