Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste

Although Kallen's military command skills aren't strong, the real combat experience gained from a series of battles is helping her grow rapidly.

After all, even the remarkable figure from the original world who achieved the pinnacle of human military operations started out as just a librarian when they were young.

No one is born with innate skills, but with enough experience and training, anyone with decent talent can be molded into a competent leader.

It must be said that Kallen is growing quickly in this regard, and she is now able to exhibit the qualities expected of a competent leader.

Under Kallen's orders, the Revolutionary Army's strategy against the Steam Knights was to focus on disrupting their logistics and marching routes as much as possible, rather than engaging in direct combat.

Currently, the Steam Knights have just arrived at the New Continent colony, and both their supplies and the state of their Steam Armor are in optimal condition. Even if their supply lines were cut, these Steam Knights could still fight for several hours.

If a group of Steam Knights could engage in combat for several hours, the destruction they could cause would be enough to annihilate an entire army.

Considering the current combat level and soldier quality of the Revolutionary Army, being able to withstand a direct attack from the Steam Knights for half an hour would be considered a miracle.

Therefore, the Revolutionary Army did not intend to challenge the Steam Knights directly; instead, they followed Kallen's instructions to sabotage the railway, blocking the train carrying Steam Knights and accompanying infantry from advancing.

"Knight sir, the railway has been damaged, and we're likely to be delayed here for some time." On the train, the infantry battalion commander accompanying the Steam Knights reported the situation to the squad leader of this group of Steam Knights.

According to the Empire's military system, a Great Knight has the same military command authority as an infantry battalion commander.

Moreover, a Knight Commander undoubtedly has more commanding authority than an infantry battalion commander, especially when the infantry battalion is accompanying the Steam Knights.

So naturally, the military command authority of their team lies in the hands of the squad leader of the Steam Knights.

However, this squad leader showed little interest in command operations and instead pushed all matters onto the infantry battalion commander: "Follow the tactical manual, handle it yourself, don't report everything to me. Inform me when you need us to move out."

This left the infantry battalion commander feeling a bit lost, though having such authority delegated to him could be seen as a good thing. But the strange state of this group of Steam Knights still left him uncertain.

After all, they came to suppress the rebellion, relying heavily on the formidable power of the Steam Knights.

Otherwise, how could a mere infantry battalion suppress a city-wide revolt?

As for command authority, to be honest, there wasn't much point in quarreling over it. It's only an infantry battalion; as long as it's clear who takes command during operations, the day-to-day affairs aren't too significant to contest, it's just about having a voice.

And for an infantry battalion commander to compete with a Knight Commander for a voice? Not to mention the opponent is a Steam Knight, even against a regular Knight, the infantry battalion commander has no standing to contest, as rank always prevails.

So from the start, the infantry battalion commander was prepared to humble himself.

Yet along the way, the state exhibited by the Steam Knight squad they accompanied was truly peculiar.

First, none of them got off the train; no Knight ever exited their dedicated carriage throughout the journey.

While this seemed somewhat unusual to the infantry battalion commander, if they were a team of strictly disciplined Knights or were simply too arrogant to interact with others, it wouldn't be a big deal.

However, the issue was that the Knight Commander, although occasionally appearing, never removed his helmet nor took off his armor.

This seemed a bit abnormal. Even if one were to be vigilant, certainly they wouldn't refrain from removing their helmet, wouldn't they feel stifled?

Moreover, aren't they supposed to be Steam Knights? They should be using Steam Armor during combat, yet they're all wearing old-style Knight armor?

Although it looks like modified Knight armor that can be worn with Steam Armor, it still seems very unusual.

Nevertheless, despite their peculiar behavior, this Steam Knight squad remained the most critical force for suppressing the rebellion and the core of the entire force this time. So no matter what doubts the infantry battalion commander had, he wouldn't voice them openly.

Thus, under the infantry battalion commander's arrangement, the team paused temporarily. The infantry battalion set up a defensive perimeter around the train and dispatched a small group of soldiers to work alongside the train staff in attempting to repair the damaged railway.

In this era, damaging a railway was simple; just pry open the spikes, then pull up the rails.

The crowbar, known as the physics sacred sword, was originally designed for such tasks.

Of course, repairing such damage wasn't difficult either; simply place the rails back in position and refasten them with spikes.

After all, removing the rails was easy, but taking such a long rail away would be quite difficult.

Typically, a rail measures around 25 meters long, with a weight of approximately 30-40 kilograms per meter, meaning one rail weighs nearly a ton.

When building railways, to prevent issues from thermal expansion and contraction, four rails are usually welded together to form a single rail about 100 meters long.

Moving such sizable and heavy objects is already challenging, not to mention transporting them.

Unless using a locomotive and crane, it's impossible to move them solely with human power.

So rail removal usually involves prying the rails off the sleepers and pushing them aside, making the line impassable for a short period. And that's the end of it.

For this reason, repairing it wasn't as challenging as one might think.

The infantry battalion commander wasn't in a hurry about this; aside from letting the soldiers repair it slowly, he pondered the extent of suppression needed for this rebellion.

However, the infantry battalion commander soon abandoned his thoughts.

After all, he was just an infantry battalion commander. Although the Knight Commander delegated day-to-day command authority to him, he couldn't take charge of the rebellion suppression from any angle.

Moreover, the infantry battalion he led was only accompanying the Steam Knights, and the primary forces for suppressing the revolt were the New Continent colonial forces, while they were only assisting.

So indulging in such thoughts was meaningless.

Instead of pondering how to suppress the rebellion, it was more practical to think about quickly repairing the rails and hastening their march.

Of course, while repairing the rails, it was also necessary to keep a vigilant eye for any attacks by the rebels who started the uprising.