N-M #264 - They are still moving forward
#264 - They are still moving forward
Originally, the plan was to use the Squire Knights to defeat these peasant rebels and buy some time, but unexpectedly, it turned out to be the Squire Knights being defeated by the peasant rebels, thus buying time.
Fortunately, the charge and subsequent rout of the Squire Knights bought Enrico some time, and the infantry, amidst the chaos, finally managed to form a square formation.
According to the traditional method of suppressing bandits, the peasant soldiers would usually step forward to delay the enemy, holding the line to keep them engaged.
The Squire Knights would repeatedly charge back and forth to weaken the flanks and scatter the enemy's formation, and finally, the Transcendent Knights would break into the enemy ranks, delivering the decisive blow.
But now, with the Squire Knights defeated, the Transcendent Knights clearly sensed that the proportion of transcendent individuals among those pikemen was not low.
“Lord Earl, now that the peasant soldiers have formed their ranks, we should take advantage of their disorganization and attack immediately to crush them,” Bernardo suggested once again.
However, Earl Enrico hesitated once more, recalling the experience of the Squire Knights.
If it were him, would he dare to charge directly into the enemy's formation?
Under the intense gazes of the other knights, Enrico raised his head: “Since when do knights fight for peasant soldiers? Let the peasant soldiers go forward, hold the enemy, and then we'll charge from the side!”
In Victor's view, these absurdly armed peasant troops gradually appeared among the hills.
They held various pitchforks, iron axes, and crude wooden shields, wearing tattered armed clothing.
Victor even saw that many of them were barefoot as their legs moved back and forth.
He seemed to see his former self, except that back then, his face was filled not with numbness and fear, but with anger and excitement.
Leading the armed peasants were the forest rangers from various manors, who stood at the rear in a loose formation.
The forest rangers held longbows, and at the command of the Transcendent Knights, they began to unleash waves of arrows at the Salvation Army.
Longbowmen were undoubtedly a skilled technical unit that required training, but they were just temporarily assembled troops gathered from various manors.
This level of arrow rain was just right for bandits and rebels, but not enough for the Salvation Army.
“Take cover!”
At Victor's command, the soldiers lowered their heads, and the sparse rain of arrows struck their breastplates and helmets with thuds.
The bows they used were relatively weak and failed to penetrate the Salvation Army's breastplates, only creating bloody holes in their thighs and arms.
The dozen or so Salvation Army soldiers who were injured and unable to move did not scream in terror but gritted their teeth and retreated to the rear through the gaps in the formation.
The accompanying quartermasters and medical soldiers quickly stepped forward, helping them toward the field hospital in the rear.
They were still advancing!
The dark mass of formation continued to move forward through the intermittent rain of arrows, with almost no decrease in speed, eventually reaching a distance of about 60 meters.
“Attack, kill them!” Earl Enrico roared angrily, raising the knight's sword in his hand.
But instead of the peasant soldiers' excited response, he was met with a thunderous sound as if from a single voice.
It was as if a long wall of lead passed through the ranks of the peasant soldiers, and some even fell on the legs of the knights behind them.
Hearing the sounds of men and horses falling around him, Earl Enrico was pressed down by the other knights beside him before he could be hit by a stray bullet.
“What's going on? What's going on?” In a panic, his helmet fell to the ground, and Earl Enrico raised his head in disarray, looking blankly at everything before him.
In front of him were armed peasants rolling on the ground in pain, blood covering the ground.
The hard lead passed through their soft bodies, turning their internal organs, bones, and flesh into a mass of paste.
Some peasant soldiers who were only grazed on the cheeks were so terrified that they pushed down everyone around them and staggered backward.
“Raise the shields, raise the shields, raise the shields!”
“Shield wall formation!”
The forest rangers roared loudly, believing that the best way to defend against projectiles was the shield wall formation.
Under the pressure of death, these peasant soldiers actually formed a continuous shield wall with unimaginable efficiency.
The first row squatted down and raised their shields, the second row stood up and raised their shields, and the third row placed their round shields on their foreheads from behind.
But today, they were wrong. Simple wooden shields could not withstand the rapidly approaching lead. Instead, the dense formation made the lead's killing efficiency even higher.
“Praise the Holy Wind!”
Under the manipulation of the great Holy Father's hand, the sacred gears made a creaking sound, and endless holy wind poured in from the vents, turning into a roaring thunder.
Another long wall of lead passed through the formation, and this time, at least nearly a hundred people fell.
The shield wall, which even strong barbarians had once found difficult to break through, collapsed after a volley of gunfire.
“Devils, they are devils!”
“They are sticks that spit out lightning!”
“It's the short-haired devils' lightning sticks, everyone, retreat quickly!”
The failure of the Squire Knights, the instant loss of over 10% of their forces, the piercing screams, the pungent smell of decaying organs, and the blood mist that dyed their vision red.
The peasant soldiers were all mad. They no longer cared about the Transcendent Knights behind them and fled madly to the rear.
The Transcendent Knights were caught off guard and were immediately scattered into seven or eight small knight teams of ten or so people.
“Cowards, despicable cowards, you damned farmers, get back to the battlefield!”
No matter how hard Enrico whipped his horse, he could not stop the tide of people from surging backward.
There were only ten or so knights around him, and the fields were filled with fleeing armed peasants.
Earl Enrico, as the commander, actually stood still at this critical moment, standing there at a loss.
This was completely different from the arena and the southern battlefield.
“Lord, my lord.” Bernardo, holding his crooked brimmed helmet, walked against the tide for a long time before squeezing to Enrico's side, “Quickly gather everyone, otherwise, we will be…”
“Bang, bang, bang!” The familiar gunfire rang out again, and at the same time, there was the neighing of warhorses falling.
The Black Hat Army's Fourth Corps, marching at high speed, had already rushed to the front.
In this narrow terrain, seven or eight Transcendent Knights were swept away by the fleeing soldiers, and they could only watch as the Salvation Army raised their holy muskets and fired lead bullets.
“No——”
Before Enrico's cry could stop, he saw a white light coming from the corner of his eye.
On the other side, Jeanne, like a Valkyrie, waved the battle flag and drove lightning through the Transcendent Knights.
Four or five Transcendent Knights fell from their horses, and the other cuirassiers behind Jeanne took out their cavalry carbines and began to shoot.
In a short time, nearly twenty knights had fallen from their horses, and at least thirty Transcendent Knights had secretly disappeared into the fleeing soldiers.
Earl Enrico felt for the first time what it meant for an army to collapse like a mountain.
The front army was squeezed, and the rear army was squeezed by the Guards Second Corps and the Black Hat Army Sixth Corps, which had bypassed the hillside.
The infantry could only run up the hillside, and the knights going up the hillside meant slowing down and becoming targets, standing in the crowd and becoming targets for the rapidly approaching Salvation Army.
Damn it, why did they start the war in this area? Were the Squire Knights all pigs?
“It's okay, it's okay.” Earl Enrico gripped his long sword tightly, comforting himself, “These fleeing soldiers will eventually leave this area, we can still gather and charge, we have a chance.”
“Lord Earl, we really should leave.” Bernardo tugged on the reins of Earl Enrico's warhorse, “Didn't you hear a burst of thunder coming from behind? They have the help of devils!”
“No, I won't leave. This is the knight, this is the glory of the nobility.”
“Lord, you must think carefully. Dying in their hands means dying in the hands of commoners.” Bernardo slowly revealed the truth that had never been spoken in the arena, “They will not accept the family's ransom. Duke Danner is an example.”
Enrico's body stiffened for a moment. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and the cowardice that had been covered up by the so-called family glory and noble status surged into his heart.
“Go, let's go!”
When Enrico's flag retreated backward, the situation completely collapsed.
The Black Hat First Corps began to move, raised their spears, and began to clean up the battlefield.
As for the rest of the corps——
They were still advancing!