chsdbacks #263 - Three quarters of the cavalry's combat power is mental strength.
#263 - Three quarters of the cavalry's combat power is mental strength.
Standing on top of the carriage, Horn held a telescope, pinching it with three fingers, closing his left eye and bringing his right eye to the eyepiece, looking into the distance.
About three hundred meters away, in the narrow open space between the low hills, woods, and lake, the squire knights ran back and forth, anxiously waving their whips to drive the armed peasant soldiers.
The sudden appearance in the field of vision, and the Savior Army advancing in neat formation, gave them an unexpected surprise.
A real surprise, this saved them so much road to travel.
Putting down the telescope, Horn caressed its brass body with a sigh.
This telescope was actually polished by Hilov as a gift for Horn's expedition.
It has to be said, the Empire is outrageous. This crucial military technology of telescopes has been invented for more than twenty years, yet it has only been circulated on a small scale within the astrologers.
Handing the telescope to Jeshka, Horn asked him with a puzzled expression, "What are they doing?"
"Hiss, they should, maybe, be forming a formation?" Jeshka asked with an uncertain tone.
"You're asking me?"
"Then they are forming a formation." Jeshka reluctantly returned the telescope to Horn. "Your Grace, I suggest an immediate rapid attack. We can march quickly and use speed to our advantage."
"Madland, take note. I am issuing the following orders: Black Hat First, Second, and Fourth Legions advance rapidly to engage, be sure to block them. The Second Guards Legion and the Black Hat Sixth Legion bypass the low hills and ambush and intercept them from the rear."
"Your Grace, there's something I don't understand." Madland, with a charcoal pencil between his fingers, asked with a serious expression.
"Speak."
"How do you spell the 'order' in 'issuing the following orders'?"
"..." After a half-second of silence, Horn turned to Armand beside him and solemnly instructed, "Armand, take note. I am issuing the following orders..."
While Horn was racking his brains teaching Madland how to spell the word "order," Count Enrico on the other side was shouting synonyms of "order."
"Order! Order! Maintain order!"
Looking at the armed peasant soldiers blocking his charge, Enrico even regretted not listening to Bernardo.
Who would have thought that this army composed of farmers would run so fast.
The originally planned engagement location was supposed to be a depression more than a mile ahead, but they encountered them in this narrow battlefield.
But regret is useless, he can only continue to frantically direct the chaotic peasant soldiers to clear the way.
"Woo——"
"Dong dong dong——"
The sound of horns and drums sounded simultaneously, and even mixed with the sound of neat footsteps in the drums.
Climbing onto a large rock on a nearby low slope, Bernardo widened his eyes and stared intently at the three horizontal formations in front of him.
If it weren't for the swaying corners of their clothes and the shaking gun barrels, he would have thought it was a giant black cloth moving forward.
They wore uniform black clothes, used spears of uniform length, and made uniform movements, as if they were a group of puppets manipulated by a puppeteer.
But the speed of these puppets was too fast. You should know that the normal marching speed of infantry is thirty meters per minute.
And they have to stop from time to time to reorganize the team, otherwise they will be out of step with friendly forces or even teammates.
But not only did they not get out of step with their teammates, they even maintained a basically consistent distance from friendly forces.
"Lord." Standing on the big rock, Bernardo shouted at Enrico without coming down, "The enemy is less than 200 meters away from us."
"Instead of running away, they are actively approaching?" Count Enrico scratched his cheek. Can't these peasant rebels tell who the big and small kings are?
That's not right, how is it so fast?
He looked at the armed peasant infantry still forming their formation and fell into contemplation.
He remembered that it had only been three minutes, right? Was it three minutes?
Their rapid approach was probably to defeat these armed peasant infantry and block them in this narrow place.
Enrico admitted that he underestimated the Savior Army, but these petty tricks, did they think he hadn't experienced them?
"Tell the squire knights to charge first and drive them away. Don't pursue, we will pursue ourselves." After thinking for a moment, Enrico quickly made a decision.
He was surprised, but that was it. If they didn't run fast, how could they escape the pursuit of the Edict Company again and again? It was normal.
But no matter how fast they ran, they wouldn't need them to take action. The squire knights would just charge lightly and they would fall on their own.
Many times, Enrico had used this method to lead squire knights and transcendent knights to crush the formations of barbarians and bandits.
"By order of the Count, we launch a charge to drive away these farmers!" The temporary captain of the squire knights shouted.
"Assemble!"
Soon, two hundred squire knights formed nine rough-edged triangular charge formations that looked very much like hexagons.
"Charge!"
Without much nonsense, the nine cavalry triangular formations charged towards the three Savior Army legions in three directions.
The first to engage the enemy was the Black Hat First Legion. In this inverted V-shaped advancing formation, it was the one at the front.
In the oblique light of the sun, the figures in black coats cast translucent black shadows on the ground.
Every soldier's face was filled with a mixture of fear and indifference. The hooves of the horses shook the ground, causing the stones to jump and the grass blades to sway from side to side.
Nearly a hundred squire knights leaned on their horses, waving their specially made hammer-spears, and let out strange "woo-whee" battle cries.
"The entire legion, halt, adjust formation——"
"All spearmen, move closer to the center!"
"All holy riflemen, change to double formation, kneel in front and stand behind to shoot, and enter the formation to avoid after shooting!"
In the continuous sound of commands, the dense sound of footsteps resonated with the sound of hooves.
The first and third rows each took a step to the side not adjacent to the spearmen, and the holy riflemen in the second and fourth rows stepped diagonally forward.
When the holy riflemen raised their spring-loaded rifles, the distance between the two sides was just the maximum killing distance within 70 meters.
"Praise the Holy Wind!"
In the brigade commander's roar, the 40 kneeling spring-loaded rifles and the 40 standing spring-loaded rifles simultaneously spewed out 80 lead bullets.
The sound of popping beans rang out continuously, and the barrage wall composed of lead bullets passed through the charging squire knights in the blink of an eye.
The most⊥new⊥small⊥say⊥in⊥six⊥9⊥⊥book⊥⊥bar⊥⊥first⊥hair!
More than twenty squire knights on the outermost periphery of the triangular formation fell directly from their horses, and even tripped seven or eight teammates behind them.
The huge bloody smell spread to the tip of the nose, and about forty squire knights on the flanks of the charge formation immediately reined in their charging warhorses in shock and suspicion.
After all, the instantaneous casualty rate was 20%. If the knight master wasn't watching from behind, they would probably have run away long ago.
When facing the Secret Party and bandits before, they had never encountered this situation unless they encountered terrible wizards.
Raising the hammer-spear in his hand, the leading knight who was still charging shouted: "Don't be afraid, charge over, they can't fire that devilish thing again."
Fifty meters, the squire knights raised their hammer-spears, ready to smash the heads of these damn Savior Army soldiers.
Forty meters, cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of the squire knights, and the fingers holding the hammer-spears itched.
Thirty meters, seven or eight squire knights turned their directions abruptly, looking at the dense and glittering spears.
Twenty meters, even the bravest of the squire knights started to tremble. In front of them was still a motionless military formation.
Ten meters, the last ten meters, still not collapsing? Still not collapsing? Are you really not collapsing?
"Ah——"
The squire knights collapsed.
In front of the spears, the last twenty or so squire knights collapsed and grabbed the reins, desperately reining in, and even collided with each other when turning.
Amidst the chaos of men and horses falling, finally ten or so squire knights rushed to the side in a disheveled manner.
Before they had time to celebrate their escape from death, the last row of 20 spring-loaded rifles finally fired the Holy Wind.
"Bang——"
"Ah, my intestines are flowing out."
"Eek eek eek..."
When the squire knights who had charged past desperately fled, they left nearly a hundred corpses and wounded in place.
After all, these squire knights usually just bully bandits, the Secret Party, and barbarians. How could their willpower be able to withstand the Savior Army who dared to carry transcendent knights with their bare bodies in the bloody battle of Jeanneburg?
In the stereotype of most Imperials, the charge of knights is often an unstoppable flood that topples everything.
They always apply the knights of the Hundred Years' War era to the present, as if both people and horses are emotionless machines.
In the Hundred Years' War, due to the decentralization of power and the decline of civilization and economy, the level of iron smelting was extremely low.
The knight wars at that time were really wars between knights, because all the infantry were unarmored light armor units, and they collapsed with one charge.
The tradition of treating knights favorably and buying life with ransom was passed down from that era.
During the Hundred Years' War, printing technology developed greatly, breathing techniques spread widely, and the Norn people stole the iron smelting technology of the dwarves by hiding books in their chrysanthemum.
Especially after the Battle of Windmill Land, after the Dunjar phalanx was invented, the old-fashioned cavalry tactics no longer worked.
When cavalry charged infantry formations, they realized that continuing to maintain this speed and direction would break their limbs, and they would even be disgracefully killed by civilians.
This is a problem that cannot be encountered in the arena.
They would subconsciously turn and dodge. Knights who can overcome this with great courage are often at least of the rank of Banner Knight.
These squire knights have not even reached the level of squire knights, let alone directly charge the formation.
Colebo once told Jeanne that three-quarters of the cavalry's combat power is mental strength, relying on an iron will.
War is never more elegant as it develops, but more and more ugly.
"Damn it, damn it, you cowards!" Enrico jumped and cursed, watching helplessly as the black shadows approached them again.