Chapter 92 Stormtrooper Youth Version

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Morin emptied the drum magazine of his Artillery P08 into the depths of the trench in one burst, the gunfire echoing in the confined space.

The stopping power of the 9mm Parabellum round was often criticized; sometimes it failed to quickly incapacitate a target upon impact.

But the greatest advantage of the pistol in Morin’s hand was its sheer capacity for bullets.

The six Kingdom Army soldiers in this section of the trench had no time to react to what was happening before they were riddled by the dense rain of fire, collapsing one by one.

Having cleared the six enemies in front of him, Morin didn’t pause. He immediately squatted down and swiftly replaced the P08’s drum magazine with a fresh 32-round one.

Just then, two violent explosions—”Boom! Boom!”—erupted not far in front of him. These were the grenades thrown by the assault team members who had followed him across.

The blasts took out several more enemy soldiers who were attempting to fire in their direction.

“Company Commander!”

A Corporal charged forward, crouching low, following the smoke wall that had not yet completely dissipated. The rest of the assault team followed behind him.

They dropped to the ground next to Morin. Seeing the enemies scattered in the trench and then looking at Morin, who was squatting and reloading, they were all speechless.

The scene of their Company Commander suddenly vanishing and then reappearing out of thin air in the enemy position had been too shocking.

Can the battle really be fought this way?

“Don’t just stand there! Clear this section of the trench! Watch the corners on both sides!”

Morin ignored the shock on their faces and issued the command immediately.

“Yes, sir!”

The assault team members instantly snapped back to attention. They split into two groups and began attacking along the trench toward both flanks.

“Grenade!”

One assault soldier roared, following the drill manual. He pulled the pin and fiercely threw a spherical hand grenade around the corner to the left.

After the explosion, several assault team members immediately rushed around the corner. The P08 pistols and Gew.98 rifles opened fire simultaneously, completely eliminating the machine gun team that had been stunned by the shelling and was hiding around the corner.

Morin also stood up and followed the other group, advancing to the right.

As he walked, he quickly surveyed the trench.

This thing is too rudimentary.

The trench was essentially a replica of the early trenches used during the Franco-Prussian War—or the ‘Saxo-Gaulish War’ in this world.

It was only deep enough to reach an adult’s chest. Soldiers mostly leaned diagonally against the dirt slope to fire outward, rather than being able to stand completely inside as in a modern trench.

This design offered virtually no protection against artillery shelling.

Furthermore, it was far less flexible for soldiers to change firing stances compared to a trench designed for standing fire.

“No wonder these guys were completely dazed after one round of shelling,” Morin thought to himself.

The assault team’s clearing speed was incredibly fast. The Kingdom Army defenders, already shell-shocked and disoriented by fifteen minutes of artillery fire, simply couldn’t mount any effective resistance in such a short time after Morin led the team into the trench.

After all, even a creeping barrage and infantry-artillery coordination didn’t typically result in the enemy rushing into your face the second the shells landed…

Many hadn’t even fully recovered from the shock of the bombardment before they were sent to meet their Maker by grenades and bullets.

After clearing the enemies in the trench for dozens of meters on both flanks, Morin immediately halted the team.

“That’s enough! Don’t waste time here!” He pointed toward the town. “We’re pushing inward! Straight for the castle!”

A Corporal hesitated: “Company Commander, shouldn’t we wait for the main force? There are still many enemies in this trench.”

“Leave the rest for the 1st and 2nd Platoons!”

Morin said decisively: “We must seize control of that castle, that hard nut to crack, before the enemy realizes what’s happening! If their main force retreats and consolidates inside the castle, we’ll have to use lives to fill the breach to take it!”

In the war games he had played before his transmigration, terrain like that hard-to-assault castle was an attacker’s nightmare, a veritable ‘mass grave.’

The attacking side often had to pay an extreme price to breach it—and that was in a game where players could respawn.

In reality, there were no respawns. A high casualty and fatality rate would directly lead to a drop in morale, even a full-scale collapse.

Hearing Morin’s explanation, the assault team members dropped their doubts.

“Follow the Company Commander!” “Charge!”

Morin stopped talking, was the first to vault out of the trench, and ran toward the interior of the town.

Led by Morin, the assault team quickly broke away from the main trench line and moved swiftly toward the castle, hugging the low adobe houses on the town’s outskirts.

The moment the assault team rushed into the town, they ran right into a squad of Kingdom Army soldiers coming from inside the town to reinforce the front line on a narrow street.

Both sides froze upon seeing each other at the street corner.

“Enemy attack!”

A Kingdom Army officer shrieked, raising the revolver in his hand. Morin also instinctively raised his pistol and fired.

“Bang!” “Bang!”

Two shots rang out, but the outcomes were starkly different.

The Kingdom Army officer watched his bullet strike the lead Saxon officer’s body, only to burst into a cloud of blue sparks and harmlessly ricochet away.

Meanwhile, two blooms of blood blossomed on his own chest.

“Fire! Fire!”

Morin completely ignored the officer’s shot; his Mage Armor could easily deflect such small-caliber pistol rounds.

While roaring commands, he quickly adjusted his aim and continued to fire at the chaotic group of enemies behind the officer.

The assault team members following him instinctively ducked behind the nearest cover or dropped to the ground the moment they engaged.

The ten Artillery P08 pistols instantly unleashed a terrifying volume of fire.

A dense rain of bullets swept across the street corner. The Kingdom Army soldiers, armed with bolt-action rifles, were struck down screaming before they could even rack the bolt after firing their first shot.

The P08 might be no match for a bolt-action rifle at several hundred meters.

But once the fight moved into the town, and the engagement distance was reduced to dozens of meters or less, the P08’s 32-round drum magazine instantly gave it a fire superiority.

At close range, a semi-automatic beats a bolt-action any day!

Coupled with a barrage of grenades leading the way, this 20-man assault team’s firepower far exceeded that of an equal number of enemies.

“Grenades to clear the way!”

Morin emptied half a drum magazine again, kicked open the wooden door of a nearby civilian house, and darted inside for cover.

Most of the town’s residents had already left after the Kingdom Army garrisoned here, leaving only a small number who were forced to stay behind to perform chores, look after horses, and do laundry.

So, when the fighting broke out, there were no civilians to be seen; the stage was left entirely to the combatants…

Several assault team members followed Morin’s lead, charging inside, pulling the pins on their grenades, and throwing them haphazardly across the street.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The explosions sent the remaining Kingdom Army soldiers on the street flying.

“Clear!”

Morin peeked out from behind the door. After confirming there were no standing enemies on the street, he led the team out again.

“Finish off anyone still moving on the ground! Then keep moving! Watch the windows and rooftops on both sides!”

Relying on the Mage Armor he wore, Morin fought with reckless abandon.

He often intentionally rushed out from behind cover alone to draw enemy fire.

Baiting, baby!

The Kingdom Army soldiers hiding behind windows or on rooftops, seeing a single enemy charging out so boldly, would instinctively focus their fire.

They would then despairingly discover that every bullet that struck the Saxon officer exploded into a flash of blue sparks, failing to cause any damage.

Someone quickly realized that this was seemingly a Mage.

But he didn’t seem like the Mages they had in mind?

And while they were in shock or confusion, scrambling to rack the bolt for a second shot.

The assault soldiers armed with P08s would pop out from various corners, drowning them in a dense, continuous spray of fire.

The assault team members armed with Gew.98 rifles focused on eliminating stragglers who were further away or hiding behind cover.

The entire assault team operated like a finely tuned killing machine, efficiently clearing every pocket of resistance within the town under Morin’s leadership.

Meanwhile, on the outer defensive line of the town.

The first echelon of the 1st Company, led by 1st Platoon Leader Kahn and 2nd Platoon Leader Barrack, was preparing to assault the enemy trenches.

“Machine gun! Suppress that firing point opposite us with machine gun fire!”

Kahn lay on the edge of the Assault Initiation Parallel Trench, observing the front through binoculars, shouting orders.

At both ends of the trench, the two MG08 heavy machine guns roared with a heavy, powerful sound.

A chain of scorching bullets flew toward a Kingdom Army machine gun position a hundred meters away that was still attempting to return fire.

However, the opposing machine gunner had just started firing when his head was shattered by the suppressing fire.

The assistant gunner leaped forward to take over, but the moment he touched the machine gun’s grip, a bloom of blood erupted on his chest.

Under the interlocking fire suppression of the two MG08s, no one dared to take over that machine gun position, and the firing ceased.

“1st Platoon! Charge with me!”

Kahn, seeing this, also copied Morin’s ‘leading by example’ style, being the first to leap out of the trench.

“2nd Platoon! Follow up, and maintain covering fire!”

Barrack also shouted orders, directing his soldiers to follow, providing suppressive fire for the 1st Platoon from the flank.

The entire 1st Company, after the initial nervousness and confusion, quickly regained the rhythm they had practiced in training.

The 160-man main assault force of the two platoons spread out into a long skirmish line on the gentle slope.

The veterans who had survived the street fighting in Seville, like Sergeant Bowman, now served as the linchpin for their respective squads.

“Spread out! Don’t bunch up!”

“Squads move as a group! Bounding overwatch! Did you forget what the Company Commander taught you?”

“Don’t charge in a straight line! Find cover! Use the shell craters and ruins!”

Under the roar of the veterans, the new recruits, carrying their inner fear, awkwardly executed the tactical assault movements.

Since the two most crucial enemy machine guns on this defense line had been neutralized, the 1st Company’s advance was unusually smooth. They quickly cleared the remaining resistance on the outer defense line.

Following this, led by the three new Platoon Leaders, the troops began to advance into the interior of the town, officially entering the street fighting phase.

(End of this Chapter)

You can support the translator and get advanced chapter by join his patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/caleredhair