At the Creil front line, the embers of artillery fire had not yet fully dissipated.
Morin was directing his soldiers to gather the troops, tally casualties, and treat the wounded.
Although the battle was won, his mood was far from relaxed.
The reason was that, after this battle, the Instruction Assault Battalion suffered 45 dead, 61 heavily wounded evacuated, and 284 lightly wounded.
This casualty figure was actually far lower than his worst pre-battle estimate.
When formulating that insane plan, he had mentally prepared for over half the battalion to be casualties, with the death toll potentially reaching triple digits.
After all, they were the vanguard, enduring the fiercest counterattack at the narrowest breakthrough point.
To gain a decisive victory at such a cost was, from a military perspective, absolutely a brilliant triumph.
But…
Morin looked at the young bodies being carried out of the mud by their comrades nearby, covered with greatcoats.
Watching the wounded, who were groaning in pain on makeshift stretchers, he could only forcibly divert his attention.
It was just then that a liaison officer from the First Army Group Headquarters, escorted by a few soldiers, traversed the shell-cratered and corpse-strewn ground and hurried over.
“Captain Friedrich Morin! We meet again!”
Morin looked up, and seeing the familiar face and the rank on the man’s shoulder, his heart immediately sank.
It was that tactful, well-connected fellow again.
If it were just to convey routine operational orders, the headquarters could have simply sent two dispatch riders.
But now, they had sent a field-grade liaison officer directly to the front line, which had just concluded fierce fighting and where danger was still present.
This could only mean one thing: the order to be conveyed was definitely not simple.
“Ah, has something happened?” Morin stood up, straightening his uniform.
“Captain Morin, General Mackensen has new orders for you!”
The liaison officer saluted him, then pulled a sealed order from his file bag.
Morin took the order, broke the seal, and quickly scanned the contents.
When he saw the contents of the order, even with his psychological preparation, the corner of his eye twitched.
The order was simple:
The Imperial Guards First Instruction Assault Battalion is ordered to immediately move toward the railway line on the right flank of the Creil Line, link up with Armored Train ‘Odin’ upon its arrival, and serve as its vanguard and escort force, launching a rapid thrust along the railway line toward the outskirts of Paris, clearing the way for the Army Group’s main offensive.
“…”
Morin held the thin piece of paper, momentarily speechless. Not even the prospect of an Armored Train excited him.
“Fine, fine, this is how we’re going to play, huh? The prize pool is still accumulating, is it?“
Although General Mackensen was protective in other matters, he showed no sentimentality whatsoever when it came to operations.
This was practically treating him and his Instruction Assault Battalion like workhorses!
Having just crawled out of a bloody battle, before even having a hot meal, they were immediately thrown into another, even more dangerous and frantic assault mission.
“Captain, is there a problem?” the liaison officer asked cautiously, looking at Morin’s somewhat strained expression.
“A problem? Of course, there are a few ‘small problems’…”
Although Morin was cursing inwardly, he knew he had no right to refuse the order.
Taking a deep breath and forcibly suppressing his emotions, he said in a low voice:
“Sir, my troops have just finished a high-intensity battle. The men are exhausted, and ammunition consumption has been huge. We need time for rest and resupply!”
“I apologize, Captain.”
The liaison officer’s face showed a trace of regret, even though he had little to do with the formulation of the order.
“The situation is urgent, and we genuinely couldn’t allocate time for your unit to rest. However, General Mackensen mentioned before my departure that the Armored Train ‘Odin’ is carrying a large amount of supplies, including ammunition, medicine, and newly manufactured automatic weapons. Your unit can resupply directly on the train.”
“Additionally,” the liaison officer added, “Grand Master Leonia von Fortis of the Teutonic Knights will lead her Armored Knight unit to operate alongside you.”
Hearing this, what more could Morin say?
The logistics problem was solved, and heavy armored units would provide synergy. The headquarters had considered everything they possibly could.
All that remained was to execute the order.
“I understand.”
Morin folded the order, handed it to Kleist beside him, and snapped to attention, saluting the liaison officer.
“The Imperial Guards First Instruction Assault Battalion accepts the order!”
“Very well, thank you for your service, Captain Morin,” the liaison officer returned the salute, relieved.
Morin wasted no more words, turning to Manstein and Kleist and ordering loudly:
“You heard the command. Pass on my order! The entire battalion will immediately cease resting and assemble for emergency mobilization! Our target is the railway line three kilometers to the east!”
“Also, send messengers to notify the vehicle convoy and the artillery battalion in the rear to follow us immediately!”
On the right flank of the Creil Line, the double-track railway line leading toward Paris survived the artillery fire, winding into the distance like a black scar.
The reason the Gauls didn’t have time to destroy the railway was simple: they needed the railway themselves for their retreat.
Since the main Gaulish defenders on the Creil Line had been completely routed, the Instruction Assault Battalion’s movement was remarkably smooth.
Morin and his troops encountered almost no organized resistance and easily secured this critical section of the railway.
Standing beneath a destroyed railway signal tower, Morin observed the situation ahead using binoculars.
He could even see the fading thick smoke trailing from a distant steam locomotive.
“Send a few reconnaissance teams in trucks to advance along the railway,” Morin said to Manstein, lowering his binoculars.
“Focus on checking the roadbed and the rails for any explosives or damage the Gauls might have left during their retreat.”
“Yes, Battalion Commander,” Manstein immediately went to arrange it.
Before long, several trucks roared to life, carrying fully armed soldiers, and cautiously drove forward along the tracks.
Just then, a heavy engine roar came from the side and rear.
Morin looked back and saw twenty ‘Siegfried Type 1’ Armored Knights, painted with the insignia of the Teutonic Knights, advancing toward them with heavy steps.
The lead Armored Knight, sporting a unique red crest on its head, was the personal mount of the Teutonic Knights Grand Master, Leonia von Fortis.
The twenty huge steel giants stopped not far from Morin. Leonia opened the frontal armor, leaped down from the meter-high cockpit, and landed steadily on the ground.
She was wearing the Teutonic Knights’ combat knight suit, outlining her tall and athletic figure.
Her golden hair was tied up in a high ponytail. Though her face was smudged with gunpowder smoke, her blue eyes were as sharp and bright as cold jewels.
“Captain Morin,” she said, walking up to Morin, a hint of approval in her voice. “You and your troops did well today. It seems what you said in the headquarters two days ago wasn’t just talk.”
“Your Excellency Grand Master is too kind.”
Morin saluted her. Although Leonia’s military rank was General, everyone usually addressed her as ‘Grand Master,’ and she preferred that title.
“If you and your Knights hadn’t held off the Gaulish Armored Knights on the front, we couldn’t have succeeded so smoothly.”
“That is the duty of the Teutonic Knights.”
Leonia’s answer was concise. She glanced at the gathering Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers, then looked at the railway line in the distance.
“It seems our next mission will be with that ‘big guy.'”
The ‘big guy’ she referred to was, naturally, the approaching Armored Train ‘Odin’.
“You know about the Armored Train?” Morin asked, somewhat curiously.
“Of course. And it’s not like an ordinary Armored Train…”
Just as the two were talking, a long, loud whistle sounded from the distant horizon.
“Woo—”
Immediately after, the ground began to tremble slightly.
Everyone instinctively looked toward the direction of the sound.
At the end of the railway line, a massive and grotesque steel creation appeared.
Its size was so enormous that it seemed to dwarf the surrounding landscape upon its appearance.
Thick armor covered the entire body, dotted with menacing turrets and firing ports, resembling a steel behemoth that had stepped out of an industrial-age myth.
Unlike the old-fashioned, smoke-belching steam Armored Trains in Morin’s memory, this leviathan moved without plumes of black smoke rising skyward, suggesting it used a more advanced power source.
When the heavy Armored Train finally slowed to a stop on the track where the Instruction Assault Battalion was positioned, the overwhelming sense of sheer industrial power made every soldier present involuntarily hold their breath.
“My goodness,” a few Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers murmured to themselves, “Is that thing… really an Armored Train?”
“Wait, it looks different from the ones we’ve seen before.”
“The cannon barrels on top seem much thicker?”
“And where did its smokestack go?”
Morin was equally shocked by the sight before him.
Although he hadn’t seen a real Armored Train, let alone the ‘Odin,’ he knew Armored Trains shouldn’t be small.
But when this steel behemoth stopped right in front of him, the emotion of being awestruck by industrial aesthetics was something that imagination could not replicate.
The ‘Odin,’ at least in appearance, was already quite different from the old-style Armored Trains in Morin’s memory.
Or rather, it was no longer just a train; it was a mobile fortress on rails.
“Screech—”
With a harsh braking sound, the ‘Odin’ finally came to a complete halt.
The armored door of the command carriage in the middle of the train opened, and an officer in a Saxon Army Colonel’s uniform jumped down from the carriage.
The novel has already been fully translated up to the last updated chapter. You can access it on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair