Chapter 70 The Battle of Butua 2
Chapter 70 The Battle of Butua 2
“O Father in heaven!”
Angelo and the others who stayed in place were dumbfounded, less than half an hour into the battle, two of their four teams were routed, and in shock, they forgot to send archers to reinforce them.
They could not see what weapons the other side used at this distance, according to the description of the people who came back to ask for help, the Aldans used a powerful “fire crossbow”, only to see a flash of fire, there will be countless projectiles toward them, the power is ridiculously high, those who did not wear any protection militia will be killed if they are next to it, and if they touch it, they will be injured.
As soon as the soldier who called for help finished speaking, the lords saw another group of people fall from the front line, and the soldiers fled to the surrounding area, then the third square formation was “opened” several big holes, and they watched the whole team collapsed in an instant.
Now the most miserable is Baildin’s second square formation, the front troops collapsed, the troops behind also collapsed, they are alone in the middle, continue to move forward, it is unlikely that they will also end up in the same situation, if you retreat, but did not receive the order of the lord, a time from the commanding knights to the following soldiers are caught in a tangle.
The knight commanding the fourth square saw that the people in front of him were hesitant, so he also stopped advancing and stood in place to watch.
According to Paul’s original plan, the first square should be completely crushed by the spearmen after a wave of flanking fire from the musket company, but now the people have almost run away before the charge, he instructed Bryce not to chase the defeated soldiers, he did not want to be too far away from each unit, in case they were outflanked by the other side’s cavalry penetration, it would be troublesome.
Paul then ordered all the troops to move forward as a whole, marching drums were beaten, two battalions and one company stepped on the drums slowly forward.
……
Ebout’s face turned green, “It can’t go on like this!”
Angelo said anxiously, “Let’s gather all the knights and militia and break them in one charge!”
The two barons were shocked and begged bitterly.
“My lord, please think carefully! What we’ve brought this time is almost the entire labor force in our territory.”
“If they all die here, there will be no one to work in our territory, and the old, young, women and children will all starve to death!”
The Arda people’s terrifying weapons had already scared them, in their perception, only legendary evil magic could have such mischievous power.
Small lords like them, the population in their territory was not much, this time, they brought all the young and strong men they could conscript, firstly to please the two viscounts, and secondly to be able to snatch more things and share more loot when they hit the Alda territory.
Look at the two viscounts before full of confidence, originally thought it was an armed parade, within a few days will be able to end, and will not delay the agricultural work in the field, who would like to not yet set out to touch a big nail.
Angelo was furious: “To hell with the territory! Fuck the old and the young and the women and the children! Don’t forget what we did to old Garnard, this isn’t a normal inter-lord dispute! If Graiman wins, do you think you can just pay him a fortune and be done with it? Do you think you’ll be able to continue as lords in peace? We’ll all go to jail, we’ll all be hanged, we’ll all be stripped of our property!”
He grimaced as he terrorized the two small lords, “Your families will be reduced to slaves, and your wives and daughters will be wantonly toyed with by Greymane, but by that time you’ll already be hanging from the gallows.”
The two barons were stunned by the horrific scene described by Angelo and fell silent.
Ebout, on the other hand, had a few moments of calmness, “Seeing the effectiveness of the other side’s weapons, charging head-on will inevitably end in another destruction!”
Angelo was furious: “Then what do you say?”
He was long on politics, and knew just a little bit in military affairs, don’t look at him just now vocally intimidating the two barons, in fact, his heart is now in a state of disarray.
Before the war, he was full of confidence, but after the war, he realized that the other party was pretending to be a tiger, and the feeling of falling from the clouds was not pleasant.
Aibut said to the soldier who had just asked for help, “Ride a horse and tell the people in the remaining two teams to try to spread out a bit, don’t crowd so densely.”
His heart deeply chagrined, the opponent’s weapon should be similar to a bow and arrow, if he hadn’t used such a dense formation when advancing earlier, he wouldn’t have been instantly killed by so many people. In order to defend against cavalry impacts, as well as to create a greater density of weapon attacks on the same frontal width, the infantry were very close together between left and right, front and back, which precisely enhanced the killing effect of the Arda army’s firearms.
He hated the knight commanding the army in front of him, “Gleiman has no cavalry, and there are more of us than them, what’s the point of lining up so closely?”
It was useless to be annoyed now, he said to the other three lords, “Send the archers over to follow behind to suppress their long-range weapons, let the men in front spread out to pester the Arda people and attract their attention, I will lead all the knights to charge from the right side around to their rear!”
The crowd agreed, ordering all the knights around them to rally and follow Ebout’s charge, and the heralds ran forward to convey the new orders.
The gathering of the knights was much quicker, and in no time at all they were in an attack formation, urging their mounts to run.
During weekdays, the knights of several neighboring territories would gather together from time to time to hold martial arts competitions or group hunts. The purpose of the competitions was to improve their individual martial arts skills through mutual sparring, while the hunts were meant to improve the knights’ team combat abilities.
Although this way of refining the group combat ability is not as good as those who stay together for years and years to train the regular knights, but in the northwest of this countryside, once they are gathered is a powerful force.
With the help of the cover of the infantry that remained on the battlefield, Ebute led the knights to make a big turn and ran towards the back of Alda’s army’s formation from the right.
……
There was a change in the Bairdings’ formation, and the knight in charge of the command shouted, “All spread out, all spread out! The opposing side’s weapons won’t be able to hit you when you spread out.”
The soldiers pulled away from each other in a chaotic manner, and the two squares gradually joined together into a formation that could not be described as any kind of shape, and from afar, it looked like a large number of people standing there sparsely.
This also brought difficulties in command, when the knights ordered to move on, many of them simply couldn’t hear it and stood frozen in place at a loss.
On Alda’s side, the musket company and artillery company once again fired, but the effect wasn’t ideal, firstly because the distance was too far away, and secondly because the opponent’s formation had become loose, the hit rate plummeted, but it still caused the enemy to panic once more.
Paul ordered, “It’s time to put our spearmen on the field, inform the artillery company to fire two rounds with loose bullets, then the two battalions will charge together to crush them.”
Since the artillery’s solid rounds were ineffective against the enemy’s loose formations, it was time to switch to loose rounds to increase the killing area.
At this time, a soldier spotted the enemy knights who were presumptuously charging from the side and rear, and hastily sent out an alert.
A staff officer exclaimed in slight alarm, “Lord Earl, the other side’s knights have circled around behind us!”
Paulo was shocked, he was so focused on the infantry in front of him that he didn’t realize that the other side’s knights had circled around and touched up from behind.
“Back two platoons, turn backward! Be ready to defend against the onslaught!”
Luckily, he realized in time that there was still a whole bunch of enemy infantry in front of him, and he wasn’t going to put up a hollow square formation.
Another order went down to the artillery: “Quickly! Have the artillery turn their guns around and blast the enemy knights approaching us!”
When the artillery received Paul’s new order, they had just finished loading their loose shells ……
Isn’t it a bit of an exaggeration for an earldom to put together 2,000 green men? I simulated the battle last night with the Epic War Simulator, and while two thousand doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s a lot of people in the black at a glance.
(End of chapter)