An army of 4,000 Eastern Roman regular heavy infantry, guards, and royal guards advanced in a glaive formation, forming a semi-encirclement and rushing towards the Norman Celts.

Artoria gritted her teeth and ordered a Norman melee hussar to swing his sword, cut off the shaft of the arrow on his back and calf, and turn over a horse that had just been left behind by the Cossacks.

If Artoria had suffered such a big loss, she would have been furious and fight to the death with the enemy, but now Artoria has grown a lot, knowing that the number of enemies is more than ten times that of her own, and she must not fight for a long time.

"Sometimes...... Retreat is also an art! ”

Randy's voice sounded in Artoria's head, and Her Majesty gritted her teeth and shouted, "Stand back!" Retreat all! ”

The Norman and Celtic light cavalry responded with a bang, and all of them prepared to retreat.

But how could Lilianu not be left behind for the success of this operation?

Thousands of Eastern European nomadic cavalry have already blocked Artoria's retreat, but this group of cavalry and the Eastern Romans are not of the same mind at all, and they have no intention of following Lilianu's orders and capturing Artoria alive, let alone taking the Norman Empress as a hostage and negotiating terms with the Norman Empire......

This guy has defeated us before, and we should take the opportunity to kill her to avenge our brother.

The nomadic cavalry shouted and rushed over, and on the flanks and rear of Artoria, thousands of Eastern Roman troops and hundreds of Cossack cavalry were getting closer and closer, and the 5,000-strong army surrounded Artoria's lightly armed cavalry troops, which were less than 500 men, in the middle, seeing that the encirclement was getting smaller and denser.

"Breakout!"

Artoria snorted softly and took the lead, charging towards the most sparsely numbered place on the right flank, with the Norman Celtic light cavalry close behind.

The Eastern Roman soldiers in that place, neither have super-long spears, and the shield wall, which can resist the cavalry charge, is not very numerous, seeing hundreds of cavalry rushing over, they were a little stunned, the javelinmen and the slingers had the courage to have a round of attacks, so that the light cavalry lay down a few, but it could not change the situation at all, and Artoria, who was in a terrible mood at the front, slashed it with a sword, and the sword of victory and contract went directly down from the shoulder of the erection, splitting the person diagonally into two sections, and the internal organs flowed to the ground, and the light cavalry also fought bravely, A blitz rushed up.

"Catch up! Fast! ”

Seeing that the boiled duck flew like this, Lilian was angry to death, the coalition army took the light cavalry as the lead, the infantry was behind, and the lifeless chased up, the Celtic light cavalry fought and retreated, and after killing a group of enemies, he didn't wait for a few steps, and he was caught up again, the speed has not been fast, and Artoria was seriously injured, which will also feel a burst of dizziness, seeing that the number of his men is getting smaller and smaller, and the wound is getting more and more painful, he said secretly:

"Is that the end of it?"

At this time, the situation is already very critical, but it is impossible for her to say such shameless words as I run alone after you break off.

However, the two infantry units of the opposing side, under the command of Lilianu, had already detoured to the two flanks, and as long as they were entangled by the enemy for a while, they could complete the entire encirclement.

The Norman and Celtic cavalry were short of horses, and had lost nearly half of their cavalry in the previous fierce battles, and if they were besieged again, they might all be planted here.

"Your Majesty, take care!"

At the critical moment, the Celts were more loyal, after all, they were Artoria's direct troops, and a cavalry captain gritted his teeth and turned his horse's head and shouted: "Celtic warriors, charge with me and protect Her Majesty from breaking through." ”

Dozens of Celtic light horsemen responded with a bang, turning their horses and charging towards the enemy forces hundreds of times larger.

"Lone will remember Qing and other meritorious deeds! Qing and other parents, wives and children are lonely, and they must be raised well! ”

Artoria shouted, speeding up her horsewhip and moving on.

"Haha! Fellow robes, go with me to death! ”

The dozens of horsemen laughed wildly, brandished their sabers and rushed towards the Eastern Roman army.

"Get around, leave those guys alone, and catch up with the enemy's main forces." Lilianu didn't pay any attention to these sparse cavalry.

"Bow and arrow!"

Lilianu did not take these enemies seriously, so naturally she would not continue to command, and it was the Cossack leaders at the forefront who gave orders.

A round of bows and arrows passed, and the Celtic cavalry on the opposite side tried to bend down as much as possible, protecting their heads with cavalry round shields, but it was still inevitable that half of the cavalry was shot off their horses, and several of them still breathed, I don't know if their arms were broken or their legs were broken, lying on the ground wailing and being shot a few more arrows by the Eastern European coalition forces.

But there are still more than a dozen cavalry rushed into the Eastern Roman military formation, brandishing sabers and slashing, although because the number is too small to show the dense formation of hussars, but compared to the steppe nomadic cavalry, these regular light cavalry are still superior in terms of bravery, and the systematic knife skills and riding skills are also better than the steppe nomadic cavalry themselves to find out the wild road, I don't know how many times stronger, the hussars with one enemy three or even more, into the array of nearly a thousand nomadic cavalry.

This cavalry force, which originally consisted of forty men, now has only thirteen left, of which nine are Norman melee hussars, four are Celtic hussars,

"Charge!"

A melee hussar stretched out his hand, quickly wiped his face splashed with blood by the enemy, dodged the scimitar of a nomadic cavalry, raised his shield to block the attack of another nomadic cavalry, but the back was still cut by the third nomadic cavalry, but fortunately, the composite leather armor saved his life and offset most of the attacks, and the opponent's cavalry scimitar only just cut through the composite leather armor and injured a shallow layer of skin.

The hussar was in pain, and then launched a counterattack, and the horse swung a knife at the nomadic cavalry on the right, and at the same time once again blocked the attack of the nomadic cavalry on the left, the knife was fast and ruthless, and the opponent had no time to block and dodge, and was directly cut off by the head.

At the same time, the hussar's left hand shield waved, smashing heavily on the face of the nomadic cavalry on the left, and the huge force directly knocked him off the horse, and the blood-covered hussar stared back and turned around, so frightened that the nomadic cavalry behind him trembled, and did not dare to continue to move forward.

"Charge! Keep charging! Brothers, there's the enemy's flag over there, let's kill it! ”

The hussars shouted loudly, and the other six companions responded as they all rushed towards the Eastern Roman Eagle Banner where Lilianu was.

"Hurry up and kill them, hurry up, are those filthy vagrants idiots? There are a thousand of them, and there are only a few dozen people on the other side, so they can all be penetrated by the other side in the formation, why don't they die? Lilianu yelled angrily.

The hussars' good fortune seemed to have run out, and after another rain of arrows from the Eastern Roman archers, only the last one was covered with arrows, but it seemed that the guy who had not hurt the vital parts could continue to stand, and when the second round of arrows came, the unfortunate lucky man was also shot like a hedgehog and fell to the ground, and the Eastern European coalition was able to move on, and the forty horsemen bought Artoria nearly five minutes.

"Quick! Continue the pursuit, they will not be able to escape. Lilianu ordered.

At this point, the wound seemed to have begun to deteriorate, and although the two sleeves had been torn off and the chest on the calf and back had been briefly bandaged, the faint pain in the wound and the gradual wetting of the wound with blood proved that the situation could not be good if no further reasonable treatment was taken.

The small number of troops in the palace gave Empress Artoria five minutes, but Artoria felt that if she continued like this, she would really die.

"Damn it!"

Artoria took the reins of her horse and stopped, looked around, and saw a place where the vegetation was so thick that it looked like the terrain was steep, and there was only one hill suitable for travel.

"Let's go there and hold on, you guys go out and go to Kyiv to find Randy and tell him I'll wait for him here."

Artoria quickly made the decision to stay on the sidelines, because she had already traveled far to the north, and she didn't know where she was now, how far away from Kyiv was, and what would happen if Randy couldn't find her, he didn't know any of that!

A few hussars nodded and ran in the southeast direction, and Artoria watched them leave, leading the remaining two hundred cavalry, climbing down the foothills to the halfway point of the mountain, and after dismounting, she felt a wave of dizziness, lowered her head and gasped for breath on the hilt of her sword.

"Don't let up!"

After a pause, Artoria shouted: "The enemy will soon catch up, we must be vigilant and arrange our positions first." ”

The hussars quickly moved into action, cutting some grass and trees with their hands and knives to form barricades, and collecting some stones for backup, Artoria stood up for her wounds, and assigned the remaining 214 cavalry to the task, and the soldiers stood in groups at various mountain passes, ate some dry food and water, and sat down on the ground and began to rest, waiting for the enemy to attack.

In fact, the Eastern Roman army arrived soon and soon discovered the hill.

"It's not easy to attack from the back, it's better to attack with fire." An Eastern Roman general beside Lilianu.

"What if I burn to death?"

Lilianu replied nonchalantly, drew her sword and shouted: "Soldiers, attack, the enemy is cornered, victory belongs to us, as long as that woman is captured, the previous promise of this palace is still valid." ”

Money can stir people's hearts, and the Eastern Roman army heard the promise of the crown prince and responded one by one, and thousands of infantry rushed to the top of the mountain.

It's just that this mountain bag is not big as I said before, thousands of troops can't be used at all, and there is a ditch in front of it, which is not easy to pass, and the other two sides are steep slopes of at least seventy degrees, which cannot be climbed at all, and the other side is where Artoria is located, which can be walked, but there are trees to cover it, and it is overgrown with weeds, so it is impossible to go fast.

There was only one beast road on the mountain, and Artoria's army had taken this road before, which was relatively wide, even the cavalry could barely walk, but it was the focus of the Celtic army's defense, which had long been blocked by heavy branches, and there were hundreds of Norman Celtic soldiers with stone bows and crossbows waiting for the Eastern Roman soldiers to attack.

There are a few other passes where you can go up the mountain, but it is more steep and steep than that animal path, a few places are okay, there are a few places that require the ability of a rock climber, and if you are not careful, you will fall, and it is not possible to have no bones, but it is certain that it will be torn apart.

But this will be for the sake of the heavy reward promised by Her Royal Highness Princess Lilianu, in order to become a master, in order to marry a hundred concubines, and drink the wine exported by Norman all day long, the Eastern Roman soldiers and steppe nomads have long been unable to care so much.

To be honest, this kind of densely wooded mountainous terrain is difficult to attack, and easy to say.

It is difficult because the terrain here is dangerous, the roads are narrow, and it is difficult for large regiments to deploy.

Easy, because today is September 28, 1104, the autumn of the authentic, since Randy sent troops to Eastern Europe, there has not been a drop of rain in the sky, it is very dry, all the grass and trees are yellow and can't be withered, there is no moisture in the vegetation all over the mountains, a little spark can be lit, if the fire attack, not to mention the two hundred or so people of Artoria, even if it is ten times more, it will still be burned into charcoal.

But Lilianu didn't dare to attack at all!

Therefore, the Eastern Roman soldiers and the Eastern European nomads could only add their lives to it!

More than 5,000 soldiers, if it is a decisive battle on the plains, a round of bows and arrows will go up, and the heavy cavalry will rush out, and the two hundred people of Artoria are estimated to be all dead, but now they are attacking the mountains, and it is not easy to attack on the back.

Lilianu was also well-versed in the art of war, and soon divided the infantry cluster into several parts.

One part of the stragglers, another part of the light infantry, another part of the hoplites and her personal guards.

First of all, let the stragglers swim bravely to consume the opponent's physical strength and ammunition, and then let the irregular militia such as light infantry wear down the opponent's vital strength, and finally let the main force attack and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.

As for the nomads who ride horses all day long, and all of them become turnip legs, forget it, this group of people is estimated to die half of them if they climb a mountain.

But Lilianu's calculations went wrong!

The stragglers, who were armed with farm implements and sticks and all kinds of scimitars, sabers, swords, short swords, and other weapons taken from the dead people, rushed up the mountain with their hands and feet after the soldiers who had been temporarily recruited or scattered, and at this time these guys who did not have scabbards and scabbards to collect their weapons found it extremely difficult.

Those with shields or two-handed swords and other two-handed weapons are even more miserable, one by one are scared half to death, this kind of mountain is rare in the Eastern European steppe, basically no one will come, belongs to the kind of people who are not welcomed, so the vast majority of these are from Eastern European nomads, or feudal lords of the soldiers, have no experience in mountain warfare, and their hearts are clumsy.

In addition, there are passes and Normans who cut down trees first to block the way, and if you want to advance, you have to move these things away, so these soldiers are very slow, clumsy, and look very ridiculous, and even some idiots are climbing, the weapons in their hands accidentally fall, and wipe off a layer of the scalp of the person behind.

"Wait until they're close before you fight!" Artoria ignored the pain in her body and forced herself to cheer up.

The Norman soldiers responded violently, among the two hundred men, there were only about thirty light archers and twenty Celtic light cavalry, and after the previous fierce battle, the average arrow of the archers was only about ten, and the Celtic light cavalry only had ten javelins, but all of them were concentrated in the hands of a captain with the best javelin skills in peacetime.

All the large and small stones that had been collected before were distributed to them, and those stones were as small as goose eggs and as large as watermelons, in short, they were all things that could kill people.

Everyone waited until the enemy attacked, and then according to Artoria's order, put in and then fight, those stragglers bravely climbed up, but halfway up to look up, a large number of stones smashed over the head and face, he was in the front of the brain missing a string of the second fool, originally thought that he could get the first work, did not expect that he had to die faster This reason, stunned, the brain was smashed out of a big hole, and the body fell backwards.

As a result, the guy behind him was unlucky, and the weight of the stone and the corpse pressed on his body, and he was also smashed, and if he fell from this height, he would be seriously injured if he did not die.

(End of chapter)