At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Lorist stood on a watchtower in the middle of the third defensive line, watching the troops of the four principalities in the middle of the opposite side and the armed forces of the Fesabrun family gather under the guidance of the sound of horns and flags. Close up, gradually arrange into a battle formation and enter the position of preparing for field battle.
"Your Highness, they are too slow. It has been more than two hours since lunch and they haven't cleared up the queues and battle formations. You see, our people have all taken a nap." Schwader pointed out A few family soldiers stretching their waists and just waking up under the sentry tower said.
Reddy smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "So Your Highness wants everyone to take the time to take a good rest after lunch. Aren't you opposed to doing that? Do you think it would be too careless? You also said that if the enemy makes a surprise attack, we will If you don’t react well, you will suffer a big loss. Now you see, we took a nap and the enemy hasn’t adjusted their formation yet. It’s true that everyone stood vigilant for more than two hours as you said, so now everyone’s guaranteed to lose energy.”
Schwader said anxiously: "But I said that just in case. If we all got off our horses and rested, the enemy suddenly launched an attack. We are not in a hurry. The distance is only more than 300 meters, and those horsemen will not take a few minutes. can sweep our position. I'm just a little surprised, why don't they attack?"
Lorist laughed: "If we were only facing that old fellow Fesabrun, I wouldn't let everyone get off their horses and rest, that would be too risky. But what we are facing now is the troops of the four central duchies. When we set up a field battle position, even if the rangers of the Fesabrunn family want to attack us, they will be opposed by the four principalities in the middle. Look at the opposite side, the four principalities in the middle clearly deploy their heavy troops in the center, that is Want to use the superiority of force to crush us in one fell swoop to win the final victory.
However, they are an infantry unit, their speed is slow, and they have damaged a lot of troops when they captured the first line of defense. It will take time to readjust. One of them is worried that we will dismount and rest is a trap to lure them to launch a raid rashly. Even if those rangers are allowed to come to make a surprise attack, if it is really a trap, these rangers who launched the raid will definitely be seriously injured. Such a failure before the big battle will seriously bruise Morale, so it is better to be quiet than to move, they will not allow those rangers to come to surprise. Another reason is that they also need time to form their formations. Our dismounting and rest here is also a signal to them. We will not start the decisive battle until they finish setting up the battle formation. Before that, we will not launch an attack to interrupt their formation. process. "
Tiger Ross and Pachiko went up to the rooftop of the sentry tower, and saluted Lorist as a knight.
"How about your left and right wings? Who is the enemy on the opposite side?" Lorist asked.
Tiger Ross glanced at Pachiko, and Pachiko nodded to signal Tiger Ross to answer.
"Your Highness, the enemies we face on the left and right flanks are the same. Judging from the banners, they are the two regiments of the Fisabrun Family's Fifth Frontier Ranger Legion. My side is the 1st and 3rd regiments, and Pachiko's side The second and fourth regiments. But they each brought 20,000 barbarian cavalry. Pachiko and I are both facing an enemy of about 40,000." Tiger Ross replied.
"Twenty-four thousand and five thousand against forty thousand. Although the enemy's strength exceeds yours, they should not focus their main attack on the two wings. The barbarian cavalry is a mob, and they can only fight with the wind. As long as they withstand the first three violent attacks, Once the war entangles them, they can't bear it anymore. With the strength and equipment of our family's Flying Tiger Legion, we can crush them in every aspect.
As for the Fifth Frontier Ranger Legion, according to the information we have received and the confessions of the captives, this is a new legion that has just been formed. It ranks the worst among the armed forces of the Fisabrun family. The only thing to worry about is this Most of the soldiers of the Fifth Frontier Ranger Legion are equipped with long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows. It is said that their most accustomed method of combat is to dismount from horses and line up with long-range bows to carry out long-range attacks. So be careful when you Lancers raid after the war begins. "Lorist said thoughtfully.
"Yes, Your Highness, we will be careful." Tiger Ross said: "But what we are worried about now is the center formation. The enemy has obviously already poured out their nests. Will the strength of the center formation be a little thinner?"
The enemy's left and right wings already have 80,000 troops. It can be seen that the deployment of the opposite center is mainly about 60,000 elite infantry from the four central principalities, supplemented by more than 20,000 reserve troops of the Feisabrun family, which adds up to 80,000 troops. With tens of thousands of horses, already more than double the strength of Lorist's central army, it's no wonder Tiger Ross and Pachiko are a little worried.
"It's okay." Lorist smiled and shook his head: "I've transferred Ovekis's Thunderbolt Slingers and Terman's Raging Bear Knights to hide behind, and I'm about to give our enemies a shot at the start of the field battle." Surprise. No matter how many enemies are about to lose, there is nothing to be afraid of. But you should pay attention to your left and right wings. Once the enemy is defeated, you don't need to chase after them. Let the Pegasus Corps of the Felim family chase the enemy. They are light cavalry. And you will lead the Flying Tiger Corps to penetrate from the left and right ribs to the middle. This time, our main target is the elite infantry of the four central duchies. As long as we can annihilate most of the infantry, that old guy Fesabrun will not be able to jump up. Got it, do you understand?"
"Understood, Your Highness." Tiger Rose and Pachiko straightened their chests.
"Okay then, go back and command the troops. The formation of the battle array on the other side is almost complete. The battle is about to start. Pay attention when you go into battle, and protect yourself while doing meritorious service."
"Yes, thank you Your Highness."
There was a burst of whimpering and a long-pitched horn sounded, and then the rumbling drums sounded across the ground like thunder from the opposite battle formation. Looking from the sentry tower, the flags of the battle formation on the opposite side are waving, bursts of cheers, and the sound of slogans is spread...
Lorist cheered up: "It's finally started, Schwarder, what time is it?"
Shi Huade ran down and ran back quickly: "Your Highness, it's a quarter past three."
"Blow the horn, put the whole army on alert, and wait for the enemy to attack."
No messengers came to read the book of war, and no knights came out to challenge. The elite infantry of the four principalities in the middle and the armed forces of the Fesabrun family rested in the battle formation for less than half an hour before launching the attack directly. Countless two-wheeled shield carts built of logs formed a three-row line and were pushed to the front and rolled towards the third line of defense where Lorist was.
"Your Highness, we can order the Thunderbolt slingshot camp to launch stone balls, and the range is enough now." Schwader said, looking at the wave-like log shield vehicles.
"Don't worry, they've just started to set off, and it won't be too late to launch the catapult after they cross the center line. I've already ordered Ovekis to do the calculation of the range and azimuth. In ten minutes or so, you can wave that black flag to signal." That's enough." Lorist said confidently, "Also, order Sulemos to be ready to meet the enemy, his heavy armor is the first line of defense in our center."
Sulemos is the family knight of the Duke of Kenmes, and his grudge rank is gold one star. It is said that he used to be a slave gladiator in the kingdom of Haneyabada. At that time, Kenmes was still a viscount. His father went to the slave kingdom to watch a bloody gladiator because of business. He became interested and paid a big price to redeem him. Sulemos, who was freed, became a knight of the Kenmes family due to gratitude, and was also the commander of the heavy armored regiment of the Kenmes family who was transferred to the southern province this time.
The infantry formations of the four principalities in the middle of the country who initiated the attack seemed aggressive, but the speed of the attack was not very fast. It was not easy to push the log shield carts in the first three rows to reach the third defensive line. A distance of 300 meters, and these log shield carts are made roughly, and even the two wheels are hardly round, and some of them are even different in size. It has only been pushed for 50 or 60 meters, and it is already a bit The log shield car couldn't bear it anymore, and several cars had problems and collapsed.
Lorist estimated that it would take about ten minutes, but it took nearly half an hour for the log shield cars in the first row to barely approach the center line. At this time, several battle formations following these log shield cars They stopped, they were all longbowmen, and now they had reached the range of the lob, and they were about to launch long-range lob shots at the family armed forces of the four northern alliances lined up on the third defensive front.
"Order Thunderbolt Slingers to launch stone balls to destroy the log shield vehicles in front, order Malek's chariot Steel Crossbow Corps to raise the range of fire, focus on attacking the battle formation of longbowmen, order Sulemus' heavy armored corps to do long-range defense !" Lorist quickly issued three orders, and Schwader and Reddy rushed to the edge of the watchtower's roof, and began to wave the flag to issue orders.
When the first batch of densely packed 500 stone balls flew into the sky and fell towards the infantry formations of the attacking Central Four Principalities, all the people who didn't know what it was were just watching these huge stone balls falling from the sky, smashing down...
These two-wheeled shield vehicles built of logs can block the shooting of the steel crossbow, but they can't stop the huge stone balls falling from the sky these days. Dozens of log shield vehicles were directly smashed to pieces by these stone balls, even worse. What happened was that a huge stone ball hit a log shield cart. Not only did the log shield crack, but even the two-wheeled cart was thrown into the air. Eight meters away, by the way, over a dozen unlucky ones were knocked over.
These are still the huge stone balls that hit the log shield vehicle, and more stone balls that missed fell to the ground, bounced up again, and rolled towards the neatly arranged infantry formations. For a while, the area where the stones were thrown was in chaos, and no one could stop these huge stone balls that were spinning in a straight line. No matter what was in front of them, as long as they were hit by these stone balls, the soldiers who touched them would suffer bad luck, either dead or injured. , the more than a dozen battle formations in the middle were howling together...
But this was just the beginning. Countless black shadows descended again with an ominous "whoosh" sound. Along the gap of the smashed log shield cart, the crossbow bolts fired by the Chariot Steel Crossbow Corps directly shot those who survived the stone The ball was swept away by unsteady soldiers. Corpses piled up like mountains, blood flowed like rivers, it was horrible.
Although this was just a small gap in the long front, the infantry formations of the entire Central Four Principalities became a little hesitant as if they had been hit head-on. Those areas that were not hit by the huge stone ball The soldiers pushing the log shield cart looked up at the sky, not only them, but even the soldiers in the infantry formation who followed behind also focused on the sky.
They were not disappointed, densely packed huge stone balls appeared again in the sky, and the soldiers who had confirmed the area where the stone balls landed suddenly became confused. They also collapsed. They screamed and ran around. Several centurions who came up to stop them were even pushed to the ground by them, and then dozens of pairs of feet stepped on it without hesitation...
"Hmm... what's that?" Grand Duke Feisabrun stood on a guard tower in the middle of the second defensive line with his eyes protruding, watching in surprise that the infantry formation on the front line was turned into a pot of porridge by the huge stone balls falling from the sky.
"I once heard that when the Norton family conquered the Kingdom of Antinac and ousted Queen Kerry, they used a device capable of throwing huge stones to capture those castles and fortresses along the way, which seemed to be called a catapult. Those stone balls were thrown here should be the role of those catapults." Grand Duke Sabaji replied with a serious face.
"Then what should we do now?" Grand Duke Handela was very anxious, and the first ones to be smashed were his principality's elite.
"Blow the retreat number, let's retreat first and wait until we figure out a way to deal with these catapults before launching an attack." Grand Duke Faker on the side suggested.
"No!" Grand Duke Feisabrun said anxiously: "You see that the front is going to be chaotic. If you blow the retreat horn to ensure the collapse of the Chinese army, the enemy will definitely pursue you. You are all infantry. Two legs can't run with their four legs. I think it is better to blow the charge and attack in an all-round way to kill the dead, our troops are superior and the losses are not too big, and there is still hope for victory in an all-out attack!"
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Grand Duke Handela looked anxiously: "Look at the front now that even the battle formation can't be maintained, is it possible to launch a full-scale attack? Now that there are still more than half of the battle formation behind, we should quickly Retreat and reorganize. The enemy will not launch a pursuit because of superior forces... "
Just when several grand dukes were arguing endlessly about whether to advance or retreat, the situation on the front line has become more and more out of hand. Without most of the log shield vehicles, the chariot steel crossbow corps commanded by Malek has already shown the infantry battle formations of the four principalities in the central part what a steel crossbow storm is. Thousands of people fought, and the soldiers of the principality fell under the crossbow arrows.
Facing the huge stone balls and the storm-like crossbow arrows falling from the sky, the dozen or so infantry formations in the middle collapsed. The soldiers threw away their weapons and turned around to flee. Even the infantry formations in the rear began to become restless. … .
"Blow the horn and order the Knights of the Angry Bears to attack, followed by the heavy armored regiment of the Kenmes family, order Malek's chariot steel crossbowmen to come forward to respond, and order Ovikis' thunderbolt slingshot battalion to move forward and launch the largest Throw stones and attack at a range to block the enemy's retreat." Lorist gave the order again.
The attack of the Angry Bear Knights led by Terman accelerated the collapse of the infantry battle formation of the four principalities in the central part. The heavy knights entered the retreating infantry like tigers like sheep. But the enemy reacted very quickly, and the Fesabrun family's reserve corps quickly rushed up and entangled with the Angry Bear Knights to cover the infantry's retreat.
Lorist is very anxious. If most of the infantry of the four principalities in the central part are withdrawn, the outcome of this war is still uncertain. Even if he has the upper hand now, as long as the enemy regroups the withdrawn soldiers and puts them on the battlefield, then the enemy will occupy the battlefield. The superior force is very likely to reverse the situation. The most urgent task is to completely defeat the enemy. It would be great if the guard battalion was by his side, and he would directly lead the guard battalion into battle.
"Prepare the horses, let's go to battle." Lorist said, now a point of combat power is a point of combat power.
As soon as I got off the sentry tower and got on my mount, I heard the thunderous cheers on the battlefield.
"Your Highness, we have won, we have won!" Schwader roared excitedly.
Lorist looked up, but there were battle flags of the Flying Tiger regiments on the left and right flanks. Tiger Ross and Pachiko lived up to Lorist's expectations and were leading the Lancers to attack the enemy's rear from both sides. road.
Lorist smiled and said: "Yes, we have won, blow the trumpet, and attack with the whole army!"
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