Chapter 293
Chapter 293.
In the wilderness of the border area of the Duke’s territory, the Arda army under Schroeder’s command and the Duke’s army faced each other from afar.
He ordered all the troops to form a tight formation and stand in wait, and deployed two-thirds of the artillery on the nearby high ground, once the enemy army entered the effective range, they would immediately open fire to disrupt the opponent’s deployment, the Alda army’s numbers were far less than the opponent, they could not allow the opponent to get too close with their attacking formations.
“The enemy will not move, I will not move, wait for the troops in the rear to arrive before sending an attack.”
Schroeder gathered all the officers and settled on a strategy as above.
On the opposite side of them, mercenary captain Fergus was also sizing up his opponent from afar.
He tsked while looking at them, “Quick change of formation, neat and tidy army, but just by looking at this stance it exceeds those so-called [armies] of yours in the Northwest Bay by a large margin, no wonder you’re in awe.”
Next to him, Emerson let out a bitter laugh, “Captain Fergus, it’s better to cut the sarcasm and think about how to deal with this army in front of you.”
Fergus grinned, “It’s no use just having a nice looking stance, it’s still hard work that counts on the battlefield after all.”
He waved his hand, “Follow the predetermined plan.”
……
“Cavalry! Enemy cavalry is galloping towards us!”
An officer with binoculars shouted anxiously, this was the first time the 2nd and 3rd battalions were thrown into a frontal battle against the Duke’s army, and there was a lot of tension up and down the ranks.
Schroeder ordered, “Don’t panic, inform the artillery to fire and delay the opponent’s march. Infantry! Form squares to meet the enemy!”
With his order, the two infantry battalions quickly formed a large hollow square.
Rumbling sounds rang out as the artillery on the hillside and near the square opened fire, blasting the rapidly approaching cavalry with crossfire.
The Kent family cavalry, who had suffered a loss, learned their lesson this time, and instead of storming in dense formation, they spread out wide from each other, which reduced the hit rate of the solid artillery shells.
However, the casualties caused by the shelling were still considerable, and there were still quite a few men or horses injured by the jumping and rolling shells.
The cavalry quickly approached the squares, and the soldiers in the squares facing the enemy opened fire immediately. For a while, shouts, open fire, and screams were intertwined on the smoke-filled battlefield.
“Wait until you enter 50 meters before firing! You bastards!”
The commander of the Baildin Battalion – Baron Andrew – hated the soldiers who ventured to open fire with his whip.
The enemy cavalry had just approached, and this bunch of firearms rookies were nervously pulling the triggers, although the bullets had more than enough power at this distance, but the hits were still all about faith.
Byrdeen battalion’s first shooting results are limited, Andrew twisted his head to look at the other side of the second battalion, in front of them fell in front of the number of the enemy than their own front a lot more, the heart is so depressed.
These guys have disgraced themselves too much, too much for Earl Garnard, too much for Bairdine.
The cavalry of the Duke’s army arrived one after another, some knights, relying on their own men and horses clad in armor, carrying lances to stab at the square formation, many soldiers were stabbed by the lances and flew away, although equipped with the breastplate produced by the Northwest Industry, the lances didn’t poke into the flesh, but under such a force, they would have to be seriously injured if they didn’t die.
The crackling of muskets in the square continued to ring out, and there were constantly cavalrymen approaching the square who planted themselves on the ground, never able to get up again. The Duke’s army used a loose formation to approach Arda’s army, although it reduced the probability of being hit, it also made the power of the impact greatly reduced.
The cavalry impact did not achieve any commendable results, Fergus and Emerson’s faces were ironic, and many of the officers around them who were facing Alda’s army for the first time were dumbfounded, in their impression, a single charge of this number of infantry squares would have collapsed.
“Surely this is no ordinary army!” The expression on the mercenary captain’s face grew more and more grave, arrogance was arrogance, but at the bottom of his heart he never belittled any enemy, otherwise he would have been eliminated long ago in his brutal fighting career.
He looked towards the distant hillside, hoping that everything would go well there.
……
“Where’s the artillery …… artillery? Why aren’t they ringing?”
The cavalry onslaught and harassment continued for nearly an hour before withdrawing to their starting positions, and the Arda army resumed its line formation.
Schroeder’s taut nerves loosened a little, yet his heart immediately lifted again – the artillery on the hillside hadn’t moved for a long time, and a sense of foreboding bubbled up in his heart.
Unfortunately, the premonition became a reality as a group of men ran down the hillside, and he immediately ordered his troops to meet them.
Things were already obvious, Schroeder was shocked and furious, outrageous, there were two platoons guarding the artillery position, with the help of the elevated terrain and powerful firepower, what kind of enemy could attack it?
“Lord Schroeder, the position …… position …… is lost.”
An artillery officer reported to him with a red face and incomparable shame.
“Tim! Where’s Tim? Stand out for me!”
The old knight burst into a rage and looked around shouting the name of the commander of the artillery position, how dare he retreat without his orders, there were clearly so many more running down, the person responsible must be put on the spot.
The key is that nearly 20 guns were still left in the position and given to the enemy.
An officer bravely answered in a small voice: “Captain …… Captain he led the men to break the rear personally, and has been sacrificed ……”
Schroeder was silent, it was not good for him to be angry at the sacrificed men. Moreover, artillery is a relatively precious technical soldier, Tim made such a decision must also have this consideration.
After some inquiries, the general understanding of what happened. Just as the artillery on the hillside was concentrating on bombarding the cavalry, another army of the enemy silently touched the vicinity of the heights with the cover of the woods and thatch.
“It was the longbowmen, it must have been right, hard, accurate, and fast firing; many of the men were hit by the arrows, and the infantry guarding the position were at once silenced.”
“You have loose bullets, why don’t you use them at such a close distance?”
No one answered Schroeder’s question.
“You! Say!”
The old knight pointed at one of the lieutenants, and his power-filled roar scared the nearby soldiers.
The lieutenant reflexively puffed out his chest and replied loudly, “Reporting to the chief! We didn’t expect a large number of longbowmen to come and didn’t carry enough loose bullets up to the high ground according to regulations.”
Schroeder was speechless for a while, while the 1st and 3rd battalions were out there fighting in blood, the 2nd and 4th battalions stayed behind in Arda and Bairdine for guard duty, and the relative ease of their lives had made them slack off.
It was necessary to find time to clean up the military discipline, but the most important thing now was to bring back more artillery positions, firearms were the biggest dependence of Arda’s army, they could not just fall into the hands of the enemy.
Fortunately, when the artillerymen retreated, they brought back the horses and the gunpowder, so the enemy had no way to immediately pull away the artillery, nor could they obtain samples of the gunpowder to go back and analyze.
(End of chapter)