The artillery moves out as soon as the order is received. The light guns, dragged only by one horse, moved quicker and were more easily coordinated.
After a certain distance the heavy guns, carried by multiple horses, were far behind the light guns. This, however, was not a surprise. The brigadier general ordered them to advance as fast as possible before they moved out of sight.
The cavalry moved out sooner and were faster, so they were probably already passing the hill the artillery is supposed to be perched on top of.
Heikan Morisu was a soldier who was currently riding his horse which was dragging a light artillery gun behind him. He had short black hair, brown eyes and average looks. He wore a dark green uniform standard to the entire army.
He was nervous but kept a calm look. This was his first deployment after all. In the distance he spotted a man riding on a horse going in the opposite direction towards them. When he got close enough, he stopped and so did all of the light guns. The man began speaking to the commander nicknamed Cannonhead.
Haiken overheard a few words. Something about an army, calvary and an ambush.
The man spoke quickly and he was clearly nervous. After a moment Cannonhead started moving forward on his horse once again and the man sped past them, still going into the opposite direction.
"Well shall make an ambush of our own. We'll take out light guns and hide them in that tree line."
The man points to his right where there's a thick forest on a hill so small the incline is barely noticeable. There's a big open field between the forest and the road which they have to cross.
As they moved forward the men peeled off one by one and went to the tree line. Heikan had to wait a moment, because he was in the middle of the formation.
When he arrives, another man runs up to his gun and helps him set it up. He detaches it from the horse and Haiken takes it a small distance from the gun before hopping off. He walks back to the gun and the two push it forward and position it.
Boxes with ammunition and gunpowder are placed next to each gun. The infantry, which serves as protection in case the enemy gets too close, stand in-between each gun. For every gun, in this case twenty, there's four soldiers.
After everything was set up and the gun was loaded Haiken grabbed the slow match and sat down next to the gun. They waited in complete silence. Haiken felt like he would fall asleep from boredom before faint sounds started echoing in the distance. They grew louder and louder before a large enemy force moved across the road, unaware of the guns.
He stood up and got ready to fire. This is suicide. If we fire, what's to stop them from advancing and overrunning us? We then lose the battle and the guns.
After a tense silence, when the front of the enemy force has passed, Cannonhead's order is heard loud and clear. "FIRE!"
The powder is ignited and the loud cracks of more than a dozen light guns are heard. The air is filled with tiny balls that rush towards the unsuspecting enemy force. The infantry moved forward through the smoke and took up defensive positions.
Cannonhead attacked what he hoped was the middle of the force. He thought that the middle would be more relaxed than the front of the formation. The white smoke covered Haiken's view as he quickly got to reloading his gun. However, before he could reload Cannonhead ran up to his gun and yelled to load a round shot. Cannonhead then moved past them to tell the others.
"Round shot…" He muttered before quickly grabbing a cannon ball. The other man, who was responsible for loading the gunpowder, looked at Haiken with a confused look when he saw he loaded a cannon ball.
After a second, he quickly ran towards the slow match before arrows started raining, some getting caught in the tree branches above their heads.
They were too far away. Haiken thinks to himself, taking cover. He manages to see that the enemy soldiers are already running at their positions. The infantry fire at the enemy before walking back behind the guns. Haiken's view is obscured by the smoke released from the gun after it fires once again, followed by all of the other guns.
The two of them load the gun with a cannon ball once again while arrows stick into the ground all around them. The infantry bravely walks forward, quickly fires at the enemy and retreats. A loud crack echoes from all of the guns at give or take at the same time.
Haiken can't see through the smoke, so he runs through it to see. The enemy is close, close enough for a grapeshot. The muskets are fired as he runs back and grabs a bunch of tiny metal balls, loading them into the cannon. He starts yelling grapeshot over and over, hoping that someone might realize and stop using cannon balls.
"Where the hell is Cannonhead?!" Haiken yells. He knew that the enemy was close enough. Cannonhead was fast and decisive, so why wasn't he here?
The guns are fired over and over again, perfectly synchronized with the infantry. As Haiken loads the gun he sees the enemy run through the smoke and start attacking. Haiken takes out his pistol and runs behind his gun. The infantry is doing a good job at shooting or stabbing the enemy with their bayonets. Haiken shoots who he can as fast as he can. He quickly reloads and fires over and over again.
The last shot is fired before everything stops. Distant gunshots are heard, some louder and some quieter. Haiken also notices the arrows have stopped. The smoke has cleared up enough for him to see the enemy force retreating. They are taking grapeshots from the heavy artillery, which is stationed in the middle of the road and fanning out to the sides. The cannons and infantry are perfectly synchronized.
After every shot the men move the guns forwards just a little bit. Haiken stares at the spectacle for a moment before rushing back for a cannon ball. "Round shot! Round shot!"
When he goes to put the solid ball of metal into the cannon he realizes there is no gunpowder. The infantry was at the very least trained on how to load ammunition into the cannons. This meant that some of the men abandoned their duties as a defender and helped with reloading the guns. The gun crews that were short on manpower reloaded only the gunpowder and fired the guns at random intervals.
Haiken knows that if the other man hasn't returned, he's either dead or dying but he can't let that stop him. Some guns stay silent, everyone operating them killed with no one to replace them.
After the enemy is pushed back beyond the light gun's range Haiken stops firing, followed by every other gun. He goes up to one of the men sitting on the ground.
"Where's Cannonhead?"
"...Dead, killed by an arrow." The man who was sitting on the ground responded. Haiken looked around and saw the dead body of the man who used to load the gunpowder. He walks back to his horse and unties it from the tree, leading it back to the gun.
The others do the same as they start getting ready to return to the city for medical care and reinforcements. They move out at the same time, but the commander of the heavy guns doesn't let them go just yet.
"We need these light guns." He spoke. Looking at the men with an expression that looked more pleading than commanding.
"Sir, we lost too many men, some guns can't be operated because of it." One of the soldiers tells the commander. He thinks for a moment.
"Send your wounded back to the city, my men can replace your losses only if you who are left will join me."
"I'll come. I have a working gun and I am not injured." Haiken Morisu spoke first out of the men, his voice gave away that he was tired.
"Me too." Another man spoke. Then another joined and another. Losses were replaced by men from the heavy artillery. All twenty light guns were dragging behind the heavy guns, slowly advancing.
When the enemy was too far away, they switched to round shots, and the light guns were set up. The heavy gun fired a few more times before the light guns were pushed in front of them. They were lighter and easier to push but still had some catching up to do. The infantry ran forward and created two rows not too far behind the retreating enemy.
The first row fired, dropped down to reload while the second row ran forward, fired, dropped down and reloaded. The now second row ran up and fired at the enemy while the row behind them reloaded.
Behind the infantry, the light guns were being pushed forward by at least five men each, quickly getting them in range for a grapeshot.
The problem was that there were fewer light guns and they even had less firepower, but it should be enough to reach the hill. Haiken Morisu was currently pushing the gun forward and after what felt like forever, they finally stopped and loaded a grapeshot. Haiken couldn't reload nearly as fast, feeling like his arms might fall off.
He saw the faces of his enemies as the infantry dispersed. Their faces were filled with terror as the bad peeled away to show something worse. Haiken's last thought before the light guns fired was why were they retreating so slowly.
The light guns fired and small steel balls were sent flying through the air, shredding through the enemy. Shortly after smaller bullets from the muskets hit the enemy again. 150 of them. There were fifty heavy guns and for every gun there were five soldiers with muskets. Combine that with the remaining fifty-ish soldiers that were supposed to defend the light guns you get three hundred soldiers.