My soldiers are all Fourth Calamities!

13. A person of low status has little influence.

Unsurprisingly, in this temporary command post consisting of five company commanders, only Rochester objected to the charge tactic.

Rochester naturally explained his reasons for objecting: "In modern warfare, offensive means far outweigh defensive methods. Offense is an extremely costly affair, not to mention that the enemy has canned goods, knights, and machine guns in numbers several times greater than ours."

"Before the advent of rapid-fire weapons, charging was advantageous at certain times. For the defenders, if they could not rely on a certain point and instead maintained a wide front, it was very easy for the attackers to break through at a certain point."

"The Vistula forces we fought against on the western front in Zhytomyr weren't as well-equipped as we'd imagined, making it difficult for them to form a crossfire network, but here..."

Rochester pointed to the map and to their current location, at the border between Belarus and Ukraine, with the main force of the Western Army Group to the north, while the main force of their Southern Army Group was still in the rear.

"As expected, the enemy's main force is certainly engaged in battle with the Western Army Group, while the troops surrounded at 'Krosten' are most likely their regular or elite troops."

"Company Commander Rochester, this has been the case in previous wars; it's decades of experience," a company commander said, stubbing out his cigarette after hearing Rochester's words. "Furthermore, Company Commander Rochester, the enemy's main force was annihilated by us in Warsaw months ago. There won't be any troops much stronger than those on the western front in Zhytomyr."

"If it won't happen, then why are we being pushed back?"

"this..."

As it turns out, officers still rely on experience, which is a continuation of the tactics they used during their development, and it is not enough to change without sufficiently profound lessons.

Although Rochester did not attend military school, as a military game enthusiast, he still has some tactical evaluation and understanding.

The infantry units themselves had poor firepower, and their attacks mainly relied on the pre-arranged firepower of machine guns and artillery. In the end, they used rifle fire combined with bayonet charges to mop up the remaining enemy.

Once the infantry launches an assault, the artillery responsible for direct fire is often forced to cease fire to avoid friendly fire, thus creating a mechanical cycle of "artillery barrage - infantry charge".

Cavalry would roam around the flanks and rear of the infantry, undertaking tasks such as flanking maneuvers, flank protection, or serving as reserves to seize opportunities to expand the gains of the battle.

But they currently have neither artillery nor cavalry, so an attack would only make them new targets.

At the outset of that "war to end all wars," infantry combat formations mostly adopted dense skirmish lines, with individual soldiers spaced only one or two steps apart.

Three to seven soldiers, under the command of a sergeant, form the most basic skirmish group. Each group expands horizontally from this base, eventually forming a skirmish line two to three hundred meters wide at the company level.

If an attack is organized in units like regiments and battalions, two to three companies are usually deployed in the front line, while the remaining company and platoon units are organized into columns, with most serving as support echelons and a small portion reserved as reserves. Infantry artillery is dispersed and assigned to various battalions to provide direct fire support.

When an attack is launched, usually under the orders of the regimental or battalion commanders, a round of fire preparation is carried out first, and then the entire company-level skirmish line rushes toward the target in a continuous brisk pace or even running manner.

If the attack is thwarted, the troops will halt on the spot, switch to fire support, and wait for the direct-fire artillery to advance and provide support.

However, real combat has proven that small and medium caliber grenades are ineffective at killing infantrymen hidden deep in trenches, and shotgun shells are even less effective.

On the contrary, the defending side relied on obstacles such as barbed wire to inflict devastating casualties on the dense skirmish lines of the charge with machine guns and artillery. Even with simple, shallow, point-based defenses, the attacking side was often unable to break through.

In addition, direct-fire artillery not only has poor cross-country mobility, making it difficult to keep up with the pace of infantry attacks, but is also easily exposed to enemy fire and unable to engage in firefights with enemy troops behind fortifications and bunkers.

In conclusion, even if it is a charge, the conditions for a charge are not met.

The only tactic they can currently employ is to outflank and cut off the supply lines of the besieging forces. Any method will do, except for a massive human wave charge.

Forming a commando team is also an option, but as for the equipment needed for the commando team, Rochester will have to see if he can get some from the reputation shop.

Despite Rochester’s many words, the company commanders did not seem inclined to listen to his opinions.

In addition, they all believed that the flanking maneuver was too difficult.

"Commander Rochester, as long as you carry out the anti-canned goods mission well, that's enough. Since you're so worried about the enemy's firing positions, then all the firing positions are yours."

"Defense and offense are not the same," Rochester replied.

"Commander Sokolov sent you here to handle the canned goods, not to give orders," a company commander said. "After all, we were all officers before you, and we have far more combat experience than you."

Rochester wanted to say something, but since they had already said so much, there was no way he could change their minds no matter what he said.

In the end, he only left one sentence: "I'll go and take the troops to that village to take a look."

"Be careful, Company Commander Rochester."

"Yes."

Rochester returned to his unit's location and quickly assigned new missions to the players.

[Immediate Mission: Reconnoiter the Village Ahead]

[Reward: Merit Points [20]]

Rochester temporarily assigned the new recruits to the "Army of Righteousness," leaving only the "Army of Benevolence," composed of ten players.

For players, their reconnaissance and stealth abilities are far superior to those of the soldiers in this world.

It's not that their skills are particularly superior, but rather that they have a minimap that clearly shows the enemy's situation.

In a quarter of an hour, the team was assembled, and while Rochester was adjusting the map, he discovered that the map could be continuously displayed on the side of his view – a real-time map, the strongest aid for small-scale battles.

The players were all very excited and began to follow Rochester toward the village.

As he got closer, Rochester also discovered a new ability of the map: he could see some information on the minimap, which he had just discovered.

A thought arose.

The information of the yellow dot on the map was then marked.

[Civilian Unit: Ilyich]

Near this yellow dot, there are many red dots, but the information they all contain is a string of question marks—[???].

Why didn't it show up when we were at the camp? Does it only show up during a mission?

Rochester recalled the first time he was given the mission; he was only concerned with surviving and hadn't paid much attention.

In other words, as long as he has a field of vision, he can know the enemy's specific deployment?!

This ability is practically made for a commander.

Suppressing his joy, he looked at the red dot on the map that was constantly approaching the "civilian unit".

...

...

...

Inside the village.

At noon, the early summer sun bathed the quiet village.

An old man named Ilyich got out of bed, but as soon as he stood up, he fell ill—his back ached and his legs felt as heavy as iron. His son had died in the war, his wife had died in a massacre that spread unfortunately, and his brother had gone to look for his family and had disappeared without a trace.

The entire farm work fell on his shoulders.

He trudged back and forth in the mill, moving his aged body with difficulty.