Empire Rising: Spain

The Bam Sultan ultimately chose to retreat.

A large number of native troops swarmed back in retreat, with no remaining order, appearing extremely chaotic.

Giotto certainly wouldn’t let such a good opportunity slip by, and at the first sign of the natives intending to retreat, he ordered the army to attack, aiming to completely disrupt the enemy’s deployment.

There is skill involved in attacking; if one attacks blindly, these natives might give up on retreating and steadfastly defend their positions on the mountaintop, fighting to the death with the Spanish Army.

Although the final result of such an action would undoubtedly be a victory for the Spanish Army, it would waste more time, and there would be more casualties among the troops.

If a conservative attack strategy is adopted, leaving the natives some space to retreat, they would become completely confused as they rush to withdraw, allowing the Spanish Army to easily reap the lives of the disordered forces.

If luck is a bit on their side and another army from the east can occupy Fuban before these natives retreat there, then the Spanish Army can launch a double-front assault, completely annihilating these natives.

Even if the other army cannot capture Fuban in a short time, it can still prevent this large native force from returning to Fuban, shattering the natives’ morale.

When the Spanish Army launched its attack, the retreat of the natives on the mountain became even more frantic. The Bam Sultan initially intended to organize a counterattack, but he suddenly realized that the army was no longer obeying his commands.

In this chaotic situation, the soldiers couldn’t hear the Sultan’s orders. Even if they could hear, they might not be willing to execute them.

Seeing the overwhelming Spanish Army charging up the mountain, an unspoken thought arose in the natives’ minds: retreating still offered a chance at survival, while staying meant certain death.

Compared to the chaotic natives, the Spanish Colonial troops were remarkably orderly.

The soldiers steadily and firmly captured each position, executing each native soldier within the positions with their rifles.

In just two and a half hours, the Spanish soldiers had occupied the front mountain areas, and all that could be seen were natives lying on the ground, their life or death unknown.

On the other side of the mountain, about several thousand natives were fleeing continuously to the north.

Since these natives were already out of range of the Spanish Army’s weapons, Giotto decided not to pursue them further.

These thousands of natives could no longer alter the course of the battle; what the Spanish Army needed to do was quickly conquer the capital of the Bam Kingdom, Fuban, and fully occupy the entire Bam Kingdom.

As for the native forces, once the Bam Sultan finally escaped to the vicinity of Fuban, the foremost troops brought him bad news—their capital, Fuban, had already been captured by the Spanish Army.

This bad news immediately unsettled the already shaky morale of the native troops and plunged the Bam Sultan, who had just shown a smile, back into despair.

With Spanish pursuers behind them and the city ahead already captured by the Spanish Army, the thousands of surviving native soldiers were now caught in a pincer attack from north and south, with no hope of surviving.

After a moment of despair, the Bam Sultan recalled that the Spanish main force was fighting him in the south, so how could they have forces attacking his capital?

Even if there were troops attacking his capital, they must be a small contingent and shouldn’t have many numbers.

With this thought, a glimmer of hope appeared in the Sultan’s eyes. Without hesitation, he immediately issued an order: ”The main enemy force is behind us; only a small contingent has occupied Fuban.

We will take back our city; the Spaniards before us are just a small group and cannot withstand our attack.”

Hearing the Sultan’s words, a glimmer of hope also appeared in the eyes of the native soldiers.

They had seen with their own eyes how the Spanish Army slaughtered their compatriots. The city in front of them wasn’t just the capital of the Kingdom but also where their families resided.

If they could not retake the city, their families’ situation was unimaginable.

Therefore, whether for the Sultan or their families, they had to reclaim the city to have a sliver of hope for survival.

Under the Sultan’s orders, thousands of natives quickly launched an attack on Fuban without resting for long, and a few reluctant natives were forced into the attack under the threat from the Sultan’s loyal forces.

Although the most elite Firearms Battalion under the Sultan was completely annihilated, as the leader of the whole Kingdom, the Sultan still commanded other loyal forces, including cosigning troops willing to fight under him.

Under the threat of these cosigners, neither soldiers under the Sultan nor those under other tribal leaders dared to harbor thoughts of resistance.

The Sultan’s cosigners, though small in number, were also equipped with firearms. They would not treat native soldiers kindly, and any deserter would be shot immediately, more ruthlessly than the Spaniards slaughtering the natives.

Under pressure from the cosigners, thousands of native soldiers launched a grand attack on Fuban.

At Fuban, over 6000 Spanish soldiers were already in defensive readiness.

While Giotto led the Colonial Division in direct confrontation with the native forces, a 6000-man force comprised of three Colonial Defense Corps had long since launched an assault on the Bam Kingdom from the east.