Chapter 223: The Battle of Decisions
When Alexander led the Balkan hunters into the enemy's artillery position, a piece of artillery was jolting into the rammed ditch.
The smoke and dust were filled, and the main gunner cursed and shouted to the deputies to clear and reset the gun as soon as possible.
At this moment, the Balkans, who rushed out of the smoke, swung their terrible sabers at them.
The artillerymen did not know that the troops protecting them had been shattered by the Balkan rampage.
It was on this occasion that Alexander was able to surprise them with a huntsman with only a few dozen people.
The power of artillery lies in its ability to kill enemies from a distance, but this does not mean that those who use it can also fight.
The ferocity of the Balkans was on full display at this moment, and they did not even give those who tried to surrender a chance, although Alexander was keen to stop their killing, but in such a rapidly changing battlefield, it was probably the only means of insurance.
Even centuries later, skilled artillerymen were still considered talented, but it was clearly too late to recruit them.
Seeing the Castilian gunner, who had fallen on a cannon, blood flowing down the cannon to the ground, Alexander began to wonder if it was better to establish some specialized military division at the University of Bologna as soon as possible.
For example, there are courses and even specialized courses in cavalry and artillery subjects, because with the increasing scale of war, the general military discipline is no longer suitable for the changes of war.
Of course, these thoughts were only fleeting on the battlefield, and he didn't know if he would one day inadvertently produce a great artillery ensign.
The Catalans in the distance cheered, furious by the casualties inflicted by the previous continuous shelling.
Now the enemy inexplicably stopped the shelling, and saw that his own men had occupied the enemy's artillery positions, which made the Catalans let out a cathartic roar.
Groups of Catalan mercenaries immediately rushed in the direction of the artillery positions, cheering loudly at the Balkans when they were far away, and the disdain for these Eastern barbarians, which had previously turned into admiration and gratitude for their comrades.
At the same time, the Balkan hunting guards, divided into several groups, also quickly concentrated in the direction of the artillery positions.
Many of them were injured in this rush, and many were not able to return.
But the chaos caused by the successive onslaughts on the left flank of Castile was more than enough to offset the cost of casualties.
So when Don de Klyar's troops appeared not far from a piece of high ground that had been ordered by the Catalans, he saw a group of remnants of soldiers running towards him because of the chaos.
"The Sicilians took away the artillery?"
Don De Klear asked a squad officer standing in front of his horse gasping for breath.
Before the squad officer could report the passage, a rumbling cannon burst from the direction of the high ground.
Knight Don de Kliar looked in surprise in the direction of the cannon fire, and then heard a dull whistling.
A cannonball landed far away in a bush to his left.
A cloud of smoke immediately rose over the smashed branches.
Then there was another whistling from nowhere, and another cannonball flew over the team's heads, disappearing into a puddle of dirt.
These two shells, which had no aim at all and were purely indiscriminate fire, gave the knight Don de Kliard chills.
By this time he had already believed that the artillery had been taken by the enemy, and it was clear that the Sicilians were using the captured artillery to shoot at them.
Luckily, it seems that there were no skilled gunners among the enemy, otherwise they would have faced heavy casualties.
"Take the artillery back," Knight Don de Kgliar ordered his men, "seeing that they have not inflicted any more casualties on us, recapture or destroy them altogether." ”
The knight Don de Kgliar said as he first urged his horse to the high ground already occupied by the enemy.
The Sicilians broke down the left flank, which was a very bad situation, but Don de Kliard was confident that he could salvage the situation before it became more critical.
The Sicilians had obviously suffered heavy casualties during the attack, so it might be possible to crush the Sicilians' right flank if they were driven back before the enemy had time to organize another attack.
Knight Don De Kgliar is an adventurous man who believes in attacking in exchange for an advantage on the battlefield, but he is not reckless, and always knows when to be bold and when to be steady.
It was because Gonzalo knew him that he was sent to the left.
This was not just to save the precarious Left Front, but to hope that he would be able to seize the opportunity and fight back.
The knight Don de Klear did seize an opportunity, and he saw that the enemy did not seem to have many troops to occupy the artillery positions.
With the exception of a few light cavalry, which seemed to be moving quickly but should not be difficult to deal with, most of the enemy was advancing towards the northern part of the highlands.
"The attempt of the Duke of Rome Thesia is not small," the knight of Don de Kliar, who saw the situation clearly, was secretly surprised by the appetite of his opponent, "he was making the Catalans advance to our rear. ”
"My lord, is that duke threatening our rear and forcing us to retreat?" An officer asked, puzzled.
"No, he's not trying to force us to retreat," Knight Don De Kliar took a deep breath, "he's going to annihilate us here." ”
Don De Kgliar snorted in his nose, and although he didn't think he was the usual duke, he was surprised by the ambitions of the other party.
With equal numbers, the Sicilians wanted to annihilate the largest group of Castilian armies in the south in one fell swoop.
This made the knight Don de Kliard unsurprisingly surprised by the ambition of the brother and sister.
"Attack on artillery positions."
The knight gave the order, and although he saw the Sicilian's intentions, his task was only to retake the left flank and launch a counterattack when he had the chance, and as for the decision on the Sicilian army, it was Gonzalo's business.
The knight Don de Kgliar was the first to charge towards the artillery position, and what he had to do was to drive the hussars away, and then completely destroy the artillery before they posed a threat to the central front.
Finally the light cavalry, he was not worried that they might entangle for too long to attract the Catalans.
He was confident that he would drive those light cavalry out of position before the Catalans arrived.
The knights of Don de Klear were followed by his heavily armored cavalry, which, though not knights, were equally heavily armoured, and such cavalry was intimidating when charged.
To the surprise of the knights of Don de Kgliar and his cavalry, the light cavalry did not seem to intend to flee in the face of their fierce attack.
They actually lined up in two columns.
Seeing this, the knight of Don De Klear let out a cry, but he was not angry but respectful.
It was clear that the enemy was ready to engage them head-on, and he couldn't help but respect these brave hussars.
It was only when they were about to get closer that he noticed something strange about the enemy's array.
When the seemingly parallel horizontal team approached, it was realized that it was actually divided into two teams, the left and right with the middle as the boundary, and all the cavalry were almost half on their sides, and they raised their muskets at the same time.
"Ready, put~"
There was a command from the queue that had already been memorized, but which had always made the Balkans not so accustomed to it.
It's just that Alexander insisted that the Balkans must understand these Italian commands.
In fact, it was not only the Balkans, but even more than the Roman-Thecian army, and as the scale of the war grew, Alexander was gradually planning to require that the military lingua franca of all the armies of the future "Alexander's Empire" must be under this Florentine Italian standard.
The mounted guns used by the Balkans were conceived by Alexander, developed by Zhisa himself, and then designed and produced by the Agri Arsenal.
This type of mounted rifle was not widely used, either in the Roman or Sicilian armies.
Sophia, on the other hand, was more widespread in her new Wallachian army because of her dragoons.
The design of the short barrel and long handle allowed the light cavalry to use their weapons more comfortably and accurately, and in order to exert the power of a one-time shot, this mounted rifle was made with great effort in terms of craftsmanship and materials.
The result was a more robust barrel for the mounted guns, which was also more suitable for shooting shotguns.
When the first row of Balkan cavalry fired a projectile that quickly moved to the sides, the Balkans behind raised their muskets.
However, the previous companions are different, they are not using ordinary projectiles, but bullets specially prepared for large-area damage at close range.
The shotguns wrapped in cardboard shells spread out like a rain of iron at the moment they were fired.
Before he could see the fallen partner who had been shot by the first row of ammunition, the bullets from the second row were already coming at him.
The clanging sound of the bullets hitting the armor this time was terrifying, but it was clear that the bullets were much less powerful than before.
It's just that this didn't make the cavalry feel happy, because the target of the oncoming rain of bullets was not only them, but also the war horses under them.
This kind of shotgun was originally intended to deal with the mounts of cavalry with heavy armor.
Unless it was a knight with men and horses completely wrapped in armor, the horses of ordinary cavalry were the best targets for this kind of shotgun.
Knight Don De Kliar listened to the sound of bullets and the painful neighing of the cavalry mounts beside him, and he was really angry at this moment.
For a knight, targeting a war horse is intolerable, but the enemy on the opposite side does not seem to lie in these.
And he now found that the enemy's cavalry was firing from a distance as it detoured to his flanks.
Unable to stop, the knight Don de Kgliar, realizing that he could not afford to be delayed by the entanglement of the enemy's light cavalry, still rushed desperately in the direction of the artillery position, trying to rush there and destroy the artillery in one fell swoop before the enemy inflicted more casualties.
But the Balkans apparently did not want to give him this opportunity, and they kept shooting in the distance, and although they were not as fast as the bow and arrow, the muskets were much more powerful, and they inflicted great casualties on the knights of Don de Klyar.
However, after some entanglement, he finally broke out of the enemy's encirclement, and the artillery position was in front of him.
Knight Don De Kgliar gasped hard, he raised his arm, which was already a little sore, and urged his men forward to follow.
It's just that he wasn't used to hearing the cheers of his men because of this encouragement, but a burst of panic and dazed shouts.
Knight Don De Kgliar suddenly realized something, and he turned his head sharply to look to the side, and then his eyes flashed with surprise and a hint of despair.
Catalans, have appeared on their flanks.
By this time Knight Don de Klyar knew that there was no point in destroying the artillery positions, and that his troops had been surrounded as the last hope of saving the left flank line.
Although the left wing was critical, Gonzalo's attention was always in the center.
He found that the Sicilian attack had suddenly become more violent, and that many parts of the front were almost overwhelmed.
However, this did not cause him to panic, on the contrary, Gonzalo showed the first light-hearted smile since the start of the battle.
He knew that the Queen of Sicily could not hold on, and at such a time, the two sides were fighting over who could hold on.
And the fact that the Sicilian army took the initiative to attack at this time meant that they were already at the end of their power.
Looking at the empty grass around him, Gonzalo couldn't help but touch his nose.
In fact, his situation is not much better than that of his opponent, both sides have already invested in the last reserves, and at this time, it can be said that they have reached the point of exhaustion.
Gonzalo sighed in his heart that he wanted to meet the Queen of Sicily.
Although he had seen the queen before, he had no impression of it, and now he had a strong curiosity about the queen.
No general in his experience had ever been able to force him to such a point on the battlefield, and although it was always believed that it was Alexander, who actually commanded the Sicilians, the queen's performance was enough to make Gonzalo feel incredulous.
"Who would have thought that a woman could do this?"
Gonzalo laughed at the aid of his opponent or sarcastically, and looked to the left flank.
The artillery had not moved for a long time, which made him slightly worried, although he believed that the knight of Don de Queliard could stabilize the flank, but the artillery had not fired for so long It seemed somewhat abnormal.
Gonzalo's heart had always been tugged at the movements of the left flank, and he knew that the real battlefield was on the front, and as long as he could defeat the elite troops of the Queen of Sicily on the front, even if he won on the left flank, it would no longer mean much to the Sicilians.
But if the left flank was routed by the enemy before the defeat of the frontal Sicilian army, then the fate of the Castilian army became dangerous.
He trusted Don de Kleal Gonzalo, a knight who liked to dress up, was a rare military talent, especially since he was good at the perseverance of others in such a rapidly changing battle, which was sometimes more valuable than combat skills.
But now that the artillery fire on the left flank has stopped for so long, it is likely that the enemy has either occupied the artillery positions or that their own army has destroyed the artillery.
But what about Don De Kliar, why is there no news yet?
A vague uneasiness cast a shadow over Gonzalo's otherwise relaxed heart, and looking at the soldiers on both sides of the battlefield who were so tired that they could barely move their steps, Gonzalo pondered for a moment and gave an order to the flag bearer next to him.
"Flag forward."
"Your Excellency?"
Several of the attendants looked at Gonzalo in surprise.
They were all experienced soldiers, and they had also seen that the Sicilian offensive was in fact the last struggle.
Just hold on, maybe just for a short moment in the end, and the victory will be completely theirs.
However, at this time, Gonzalo not only ordered the initiative to attack, but even ordered the military flag to move forward, which surprised his men.
"It has to be done quickly."
Gonzalo muttered to himself in a whisper that only he could hear, and he didn't know why he couldn't wait for a moment.
And a faint shadow of uneasiness in my heart gradually shrouded in.
As soon as she saw the Castilian banner move forward, she was desperate for a moment.
She actually knew better than Gonzalo what was going on in her army at this time.
That tight string is already showing signs of breaking, and even if the enemy can hold on for a little longer, she doesn't know when her people may be defeated because they have exhausted their last will.
All she hopes for now is to hold on a little longer, even if only for a little longer.
But seeing that the Castilians began to fight back, Josha's heart gradually sank.
How long can it last? She asked herself secretly.
She noticed that the entourage around her had begun to quietly make various preparations for retreat.
After all, they are now on enemy soil, and in the event of a rout, they must consider the possibility of being attacked and hostile by the enemy population on the way back.
So when necessary, the queen must act anonymously, and even retreat in disguise.
In that case, it is necessary to make all kinds of preparations in advance.
Jisha sighed softly, she is not such a stubborn person, when the situation on the battlefield is not good, she will not blindly make sacrifices, at this time she should think about how to lead her army to safely withdraw from the enemy's territory.
Only before that, she had to make sure that her brother could retreat as safely as she did.
"Go tell my brother that he wants him back," Josha instructed his cronies, and then lowered his voice and said, "Tell him to leave the Catalans alone, I just want him to come back safely on his own." ”
The entourage looked at the queen deeply, of course not many people knew about the strange relationship between the two siblings, but as the queen's closest subordinates, they could still faintly see something.
The cronie nodded wordlessly to show that he understood, and he turned over and jumped on his mount, ready to venture around the battle line to find the duke.
But just as the man's mount hadn't taken a few steps, the sound of a cannonball landing on the ground made him look back.
Then the 2nd, the 3rd.
Even to the uninitiated, it can be seen from the landing point of those shells that it was clearly the result of blind fire without a target.
But even though the shells posed little of a threat, the officers around him suddenly refreshed themselves from their already desperate dullness.
"Wait a minute!"
Jisha was the first to react, she turned around and called out to her follower who had not yet run away, and then stared at the battlefield with a short breath.
It was true that the shells didn't hit any targets, but that wasn't the point.
The important thing is that the shells fell behind the Castilian army, and the artillery positions of the Sicilians could not reach there.
So where did these shells come from?
She clenched the hilt of the sword at her waist, and at this moment she felt that the blood in her whole body seemed to be boiling.
Gonzalo also noticed the shells.
In fact, one of the shells landed almost near where he was before, and if he was still standing there, he might have been stopped.
Gonzalo didn't rejoice in his luck, and instead of Josha, he felt a sudden chill in his heart.
If the first shell was just a fluke, then when the next one fell, Gonzalo already knew what was happening.
His face suddenly became extremely ugly, and before the people around him could speak, he had already ordered urgently: "Order the cavalry reinforcements on the right flank!" Leave their enemies alone, reinforce the left flank! ”
Even if he tried to stay calm, watching the instantaneous change in the general's mood made the people around Gonzalo realize that the situation might have changed.
They immediately gave orders one after another, and there was a faint confusion for a while.
At the same time, Jisha, who had been keeping an eye on the changes in the front, finally let out a short but excited whisper, her gaze quickly swept over the line, and then began to give orders:
"Order the left flank to attack, give me the cavalry of the Castilians to bite to the death, and order the kingdom's army to advance!"
Speaking of this, Ji Sha took a deep breath: "Order the Wang family grenadier regiment to launch an assault!" ”
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