Chapter 3: The Empire May Fall, but the Devils Must Die

These guardsmen had never felt their double-breasted, red-bibbed cavalry tunics to be as tight and suffocating as they did at this moment.

None of them understood the significance of raising the royal banner better than they did—it meant that His Highness, the Grand Duke of Beria, was present in person! As long as the royal banner stood, all soldiers of the vassal states under the Beria family's jurisdiction were duty-bound to fight to the death.

As the Third Prince overseeing the Buria Republic, Andrei certainly had the authority to raise the banner.

The gravity of the situation lay in this: while raising the banner could rally broken troops and boost morale, the price was that Andrei could no longer retreat at will. To do so would be to dishonor the Grand Duchy of Beria and, by extension, the entire Lashia Empire.

"Your Highness, please reconsider!" Natalie was frantic. She had struggled with might and main to bring this fool, Andrei, back to safety, and now he was intent on throwing his life away here? Yet, constrained by his status, she could not use harsh words.

Another man, clearly the commander of the guard, was sweating, his mind racing as he searched for the right words: "Your Highness! The First Garrison Regiment of Lanwood has been routed; less than half of the troops have gathered here, and half of those have lost all their equipment. Furthermore, we are severely lacking in anti-armor weapons. We currently only have four 45mm anti-tank guns guarding the station."

Another lieutenant also urged, "Your Highness, this place is too close to Lanwood City—less than three miles as the crow flies. If you raise the royal banner, it will attract the enemy's attention and turn this location into a target for their artillery. For your safety..."

Despite their persistent pleas, Zhang Shan remained unmoved, his mind made up.

Zhang Shan quickly scanned the state of the station.

The scene was one of chaos. At the station, an eight-car train was idling, while fleeing civilians huddled outside the barbed-wire gates, weeping and begging for a chance to board and escape. Inside the gates, besides five or six hundred disheveled Lashia soldiers, there were over five hundred armed herdsmen, though most of them possessed nothing more than sabers.

The only good news was that Zhang Shan spotted the artillery.

In his field of vision, two 45mm anti-tank guns were positioned on small hills to the south of the station. These weren't simple firing positions; they were set in permanent reinforced concrete emplacements with firing ports facing all four cardinal directions. The relatively narrow ports and the half-meter-thick concrete roof provided sufficient cover for the crews.

Zhang Shan pointed his riding crop at the guns: "Don't we have artillery?"

"Your Highness, we only have four guns, but the enemy has at least one full regiment, some auxiliary forces, and in all likelihood, two artillery batteries. Furthermore, the enemy possesses multiple 'Steam Knights.' Our guns surely cannot handle them."

He couldn't fathom what these "Steam Knights" were.

Humanoid robots looked cool, but before Zhang Shan had transmigrated, such things had been utterly shredded by hardcore military enthusiasts.

From a mechanical engineering perspective, building a humanoid robot was far more troublesome than building a tank. Not only were there more components, but assembly was far more complex. Moreover, with so many transmission systems and hydraulic rods, breaking just two would turn such a massive robot into an immobile piece of junk.

Besides, standing a giant robot upright like that—was it afraid of not being an obvious enough target?

Throughout the long history of tank development, there had been no shortage of researchers who removed the turret, leaving only the gun barrel in front, just to minimize the target profile. They called them "assault guns"!

Those Steam Knights didn't seem all that powerful to him!

"Move!" Zhang Shan didn't directly reject his subordinates' advice; instead, he led them to the gun emplacement closest to Lanwood City. "Who has binoculars?"

There was a stir among his men, and someone quickly handed him a pair.

Ugh, a bit worn, but it would have to do.

Through the binoculars, enhanced by the system's light correction and magnification, Zhang Shan clearly saw the appearance of the enemy's Steam Knights.

They were hideous!

The heads were styled after Japanese samurai helmets, known as "Kabuto." Each Steam Knight’s head was different, most faces adorned with intentionally crafted demon masks, and the metal tops featured "tatemono" crests at least half a meter high—the more flamboyant and bizarre, the better.

The critical thing was that Zhang Shan could clearly see the thickness of the Steam Knight's breastplate. Just then, as the "Knight" turned, the system clearly labeled the thickness of a chest plate for him.

Zhang Shan was shocked and blurted out, "That thing's breastplate is only 12 millimeters thick?"

Suddenly, the officers behind him fell deathly silent.

Several officers began whispering to Natalie.

"Our own Steam Knights have at least 20 millimeters of armor on their thinnest frontal sections."

"No wonder I thought the enemy 'knights' looked too small, like little beanbags."

Zhang Shan suddenly interjected, "What is the main body of those 'knights' made of?"

Natalie was stunned for a moment, then remembered that His Highness was famously unlearned. To spare him any embarrassment, she quickly explained, "Steam Knights are typically built with hollow steel skeletons, paired with sacred wood like the Holy Vine to simulate human muscles. The pipes within these muscles are filled with holy water to generate divine steam as a propellant, and they are only completed after being blessed by the Patriarch."

Zhang Shan: ???

Wait! Why did I understand every word when you said them separately, but the moment you put them together, I have no idea what you're talking about?

Never mind, forget it.

After Natalie's quick explanation, Zhang Shan at least understood that as long as their shells could penetrate the enemy's armor, they would likely inflict fatal damage.

"So, does anyone else have any objections?" Zhang Shan swept his sharp gaze over the broken soldiers.

"Your Highness, raising the royal banner is your right!" The captain finally seemed to yield.

No, it shouldn't be called yielding. Perhaps it was a man's ambition for merit prodding him, making him want to see how much substance truly lay beneath the playboy exterior of Andrei, a scion of the old imperial aristocracy.

"Whoosh—"

The royal banner representing the Grand Duke of Beria was raised.

On the white flag with gold trim, the classic Lashia double-headed gold eagle totem sat above, while the ice bear pattern representing Beria sat below.

Standing three stories high, this great flag represented the supreme will of the Beria family, one of the empire's seven electors.

As soldiers and civilians of the Buria Republic, which was governed by the Beria family, they were predictably stirred upon seeing the banner.

"Your Highness?"

"His Highness Andrei is here?"

"This is the 'fight to the death' royal banner!"

"Thank goodness! The Beria family has not abandoned us."

The civilians, who had been in total disarray, quickly quieted down. The wandering herdsmen suddenly found their backbone. They rode over on restless horses, brandishing all sorts of makeshift weapons—sabers, shovels, and wooden clubs.

The appearance of Prince Andrei caused the previously routed soldiers of the First Garrison Regiment to begin reforming their ranks, their faces full of shame.

Before long, Zhang Shan appeared on the hillside, riding a towering horse.

The neighing of the great black horse acted like an invisible whip, striking the faces of the soldiers and herdsmen, causing their cheeks to burn and their heads to drop in shame.

"Lift your heads!" Zhang Shan's stern roar lashed at their hearts, forcing them to look up and gaze at the infamous playboy noble.

Andrei's rotten reputation had long spread through every street and alley of Lanwood.

People often said that if a young lady's name was whispered in the morning, Andrei's black horse could be seen outside her door by the afternoon.

The incompetence of the garrison regiment was equally legendary. Aside from corruption and extortion, nobody knew what they were good for.

Perhaps only Andrei's twenty-man guard had any real combat capability.

Yet, it was this very same disreputable prince who had raised the royal banner in such a moment of crisis.

This left everyone with complex emotions.

"The shameless Yamato people have attacked without a declaration of war, crossing our borders, destroying our cities, and ravaging our women! And we have no Steam Knights, not even a single tank. Are we just going to tuck our tails and run like curs?"

With these simple words, Zhang Shan easily stirred the nearly thousand soldiers and herdsmen into a frenzy, like a herd of enraged bulls. They breathed heavily, their fists clenched.

They called out in a cacophony:

"Your Highness! This is our home, of course we're willing to die for it! But we can't beat the enemy's tanks!"

"My daughter is still in the city. For her, I, Bagen, don't care if I lose my life. But can Your Highness help us take out those big monsters?"

"You can't expect us to fight tanks with sabers, can you?"

Zhang Shan pulled his gaze back and looked into the distance: "I will take responsibility for the enemy's Steam Knights and tanks. As for the rest..."

"Leave them to us! If we don't kill those invaders, Your Highness can hang my head at the city gates!" The man named Bagen yelled, using his saber to slice a bloody mark across his own face.

Hmm, a tough one.

"Very well. You and you—once the Steam Knights fall, take your men and charge into the city." Zhang Shan turned his head. "You're Bagen, right? Take three hundred riders and pursue the enemy once they leave the city."

"This... very well!" Bagen gritted his teeth and agreed.