243 Frantic retrea

19th July 1574

"Everyone, respond with fire! Front units, crawl to the back!"

With this new tactic of the enemy turning out to be insanely effective against the type of warfare that I hoped to lead here, I had no other choice but to start retreating my troops out of the harm's way. After all, it didn't matter how great my weapons were if I didn't have living people that could wield them for me!

"Next line, advance and fire!"

As if my orders didn't manage to reach the ears of the enemy officer, or maybe because he couldn't be bothered with my reaction to his own moves, rather than altering his tactic to face against this new approach of mine, he continued to push his men forward in small leaps, giving only short windows between each salvo during which my men could actually retreat rather than hugging the earth in hopes of avoiding the bullets.

At this point, the natural topography of the area came into the equation, forcing me to realise that I didn't prepare for this fight as much as I could. Even with the entire marketplace completely locked away from the rest of the world, with its backside protected by the wide flow of the local river, and the circular border fully maintained and fortified with concrete and hard barricades, it was still vulnerable to any form of an artillery attack.

While I could hope that those damned enemies of mine didn't bring any artillery pieces along with them, with how it was only a hope of mine rather than a concrete guess based on their movements, I had to tread carefully, tracking the possibility of their long-distance retaliation at any given moment.

"Sir, they are overwhelming us! We need to start the free fire!"

Before long, my lane started to erode slowly. With the small casualties mounting up, it was only a matter of time before my line would be broken, putting us at the mercy of the consecutive volleys from the enemy side, topped up with the incoming cavalry attack, that still lingered at the top of my mind.

"I guess we don't have any other choice. All men, organised retreat!"

Retreat. An order that most of the hetmans (generals) of the commonwealth would consider something shameful ever to issue, while the ones that actually achieved something on the battlefield before, always considered as just yet another military manoeuvre. 

After all, moving back at the predestined defensive location sounded far better than telling my men to save their assess and run behind another set of covers!

"Next line, advance and fire!"

"Rear units, fire at will!"

As much as this entire retreat was something that was but a part of the greater plan, in order to implement it into the real-life situation successfully, I had to create a window of opportunity for my men, if I didn't want them to just die to a few more hails of bullets from the Ostros troops!

BOOM!

TRATATATA!

"EVERYONE, RETREAT! IN JUMPS!"

There was no way that all of my men would manage to move through the entire open field that separated them from the safety of the marketplace walls in one go. If they even dared to attempt doing so, I would just let all or at least, most of my men experience what shooting in the back means!

And that's where the other order of the two that I issued back in the city came into play.

When retreating, one's army drops everything they are doing in order to move to another, easier to defend the position. Yet by retreating in jumps, they would make use of the inevitable gaps in the enemy salvos, to move forward just a few meters at a time, hugging the earth whenever an enemy volley would approach them, shooting at the enemy back while standing up, rushing a few more meters towards the safety and repeating the entire process over and over again!

"Drop the scheme, give chase!"

With how the last battle with Ostros troops only employed my first army alone, I hoped that by using them as the advance force, I could trick the enemy into thinking that it was my entire strength, with just a few of new recruits keeping the fort back in the marketplace. 

That's also why I wasn't surprised when the enemy decided to drop their unusually effective tactic and start chasing after my men!

"Rear units, stalling fire, front units, keep running!"

Standing in the perfect middle between the two waves of my retreating soldiers, I had to keep tabs on everything that was going on. While most of the people in my position would rather choose to command over the entire battle from behind the safety of the concrete fortifications, I knew that with how little training those troops of mine had, unless I was willing to put myself in the harm's way just for the sake of reinforcing their morale, then this fight would be lost from the very beginning!

"Sir, the enemies entered their lethal range! The cavalry is closing in; we need to hurry!"

As magical as the effects of this organised retreat were, there still was a time limit for how long I could implement this strange tactic. With the threat of the cavalry charge looming o0vevr my troops, I could only gnash my teeth while issuing another command.

"Everyone, the time is up! RUN!"

As if a new spirit entered the bodies of my exhausted men, people that were feigning weakness and tiredness so far, suddenly sprung back up into action, dropping strange, small packages wherever they were at the moment of me issuing the order, and madly jumping towards the safety of the fortifications!

"CHARGE!"