By the time the day was a little brighter, the drizzle had already begun to fall.

This had a slight impact on the large Norman crossbow force under Egil's command. And Egil looked at Yasè, and estimated that as time went by, this rain would get heavier and heavier, but from another point of view, this rain was even more of a disaster for the Lithuanians who had already relied on the archers. The damage to them should be much greater than that of their own.

Thinking about it a little like this, Egil's heart is balanced. muttered in a low voice: "Well, well, after all, it's fair, although it's a war thing." ”

And so the war began in earnest.

And Egil made a pact with the girls in the house that he would return within two hours. That's why you have to work hard. Therefore, at the beginning, the Norman army began a general attack, with a total of 70,000 troops divided into three routes, with 30,000 troops on the front and 20,000 troops on both flanks.

While Egil would like to see a quick victory, on second thought, this is also a good opportunity to train his troops. The effectiveness of one's own military reform can be seen from this war. Therefore, although the cavalry can completely defeat the opponent. But Egil opted for a more precise, more standard, or a more cumbersome general-purpose array.

The crossbowmen were in front, the Norman infantry and Norman assault infantry formed a phalanx in three lines, the longbowmen were interspersed between the second and first formations, and the heavy and light cavalry formations were scattered on both flanks in a standard battle formation. There is no whistle, and the intention is clear. Simple, and versatile xìng strong.

At the rear, the last array was formed by the Norman Praetorian Guards, like a miniature version of the main array. The Praetorian Heavy Infantry formed four phalanxes of five hundred men, while the Praetorian Assault Infantry and Praetorian Spearmen formed a five-hundred-man formation with a total of five hundred Assault Infantry deployed. The other five hundred men were deployed on the two flanks of the phalanx, interspersed with Praetorian longbowmen, and the Praetorian Knights on the two flanks of the infantry. Of course, Egil didn't actually want the army to come forward and fight. They are the general reserve, the last reserve, the final and most reliable force to lay the foundation for victory, or to save the tide of war at the most critical moment.

And in this war, with the Lithuanians, Egil could not see at all where they were needed.

Then, in an atmosphere of slaughter, in the drizzling rain, Egil, who was standing on the watchtower, waved his hand. Then the ten knights of the Guards beside him began to blow their horns. Long, long syllables that blow out a whole breath of your lungs. Forty knights of the Guard, who were deployed around the watchtower, in front of them, left and right, and a little farther away, also began to blow their horns. This was followed by twenty-five knights of the guards deployed on the left and right flanks of the army, a total of one hundred knights of the guards, sounding the horn one after another, with only one long syllable, and only one meaning, an all-out attack.

With such a voice, the Norman army, which was weak, only more than 10,000 Lithuanians surrounded on three sides, began to advance. And the opposite Lithuanian face sè iron blue. Seeing that the other party is walking neatly... With the pace of one, the phalanx is moving forward like a knife-cut tofu block. And these tens of thousands of troops, plus because of the bad light in the yīn day, they couldn't see too far in advance. The army of 70,000 surrounded on three sides seemed to be endless. It makes Lithuanians feel unusually cold. Many Lithuanians subconsciously want to go back.

The formation became a little messy for a moment.

"Steady! They don't have as many people as they seem! It's just a bluff! Hold your ground! Hold your ground to survive!! Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania shouted hoarsely, although it was already at the end of the road. But it is very difficult to get such a hero to admit defeat. Until now. Vytautas was afraid of the old and thought that he had the ability to defy the sky. Can resist the attack of the Norman army.

It's just that Vytautas shouts like this, not too many Lithuanians believe. After all, people prefer to trust their own eyes. And their eyes told them that the Norman army was huge. You can't see the edge. In this comparison, what Vytautas said, Bacheng and the middle-aged man who was on the wall, wearing sunglasses and drooling, said: "Don't be afraid, uncle is a good person." "Same. The credibility is quite low.

But maybe it's to comfort yourself and cheer yourself up. After Vytautas shouted this, the other Lithuanians shouted to each other: "There are not many of them! Just pretending to look like a lot! Don't be afraid!! In this way, I used a method similar to self-hypnosis to reassure myself.

Seeing that the army was gradually stabilizing, Vytautas breathed a sigh of relief, and then thought, "As long as I can hold one game." At that time, the Slavs, who were still in a state of wait-and-see, were not unstoppable with the presence of those Cossack exiles. When the time comes, the two of them will join the fray, and my situation will be much easier. ”

After hypnotizing himself in this way, Vytautas perked up again: "Lithuanian!

Pull yourself together!! ”

And at this moment, those who are still willing to follow Vytautas are either his cronies, or they have decided that Vytautas is dead-headed, or they are guys who have a grudge against the Norman Empire.

These people originally wanted to live and die with the Norman Empire. Although morale was slightly low, and he was frightened by the horror of the Norman army. But the voice of Vytautas spread hundreds, hundreds, thousands...... After this spread throughout the army, the Lithuanians also roared in order to cheer themselves up and dissipate their fears.

Tens of thousands of Lithuanians roared loudly, while the Norman army was silent, still advancing slowly, methodically, and neatly. Such a scene. It's as if a rat with its teeth and claws is provoking a cat lying on the ground and not moving. It's kind of funny.

Anyway, though. The morale of the Lithuanians was slightly boosted, and gradually they also had the determination to resist. Even the silence of the Normans was misunderstood as fear by the other side. Some Lithuanians who were overly optimistic burst out laughing.

"The Normans, but that's it"

But then, after a moment's effort, they couldn't laugh anymore.

An overwhelming storm of bows and crossbows and arrows was fired at the Lithuanians.

It was the result of a combination of 6,000 longbowmen and 4,000 crossbowmen, a total of 10,000 projectile troops, armed with strong bows and crossbows with excellent range and lethality, firing arrows at the Lithuanian positions in a continuous and continuous manner. The Lithuanian people were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.

"Why do they have such a long range?!"

The range of the longbows and crossbows of the Norman army was at least one and a half times that of the Lithuanians. At such a distance, the lethality of the Norman projection unit was indeed reduced slightly. But in the face of the Lithuanians, such a half-toned army is enough.

Lithuanians rarely wore armor, and not even many wore large shields. Most of the Lithuanian army was improvised, peasant soldiers with a mess of weapons, and the regular army was mostly short spearmen with spears in both hands. Even if it is connected to a shield wall, it can't defend against a rain of arrows. And a small number of shields can only protect a small piece, a small round shield that is better than nothing, a large shield such as a tower shield, a kite shield, a kite-shaped shield, and other shields are only equipped by a very small number of mercenaries, or professional samurai.

Thus, under this round of arrows, the Lithuanians suffered heavy losses. Of the Normans' 10,000 projectile troops, the longbowmen drew their bows fifteen times in a row, and shot 90,000 light arrows, because it was too wasteful to use armor-piercing arrows. The giant shield crossbowmen wound five times on average, firing 20,000 arrows. In this first round, the almost slaughter-like performance of 10,000 projection troops was over. Looking at the outermost circle of the Lithuanian camp, at least a thousand, that is, a third to a quarter of the army, died in this terrible rain.

When the Norman projection troops released arrows, it was as if the Lithuanians had seen hell. The sky is like an endless number of arrows, and in my ears are the miserable howls of my comrades who have been hit by the arrows.

I can't tell the difference between southeast and west, front and back, left and right~

I don't even know if I'm alive. And when this nightmare finally stopped, there was a large number of corpses around me, like hedgehogs, with arrows and dead bodies......

The little morale that the Lithuanians had just raised quickly disappeared like snow burning in a red furnace.

The Norman army, led by a rain of arrows with longbows and heavy crossbows, taught the Lithuanians a hard lesson. Immediately after that, the main event was the charge of the knights, the Norman knights equipped with heavy cavalry guns, a full set of mounted horses and full body armor, and the Norman royal knights formed a series of attacks, with a hundred people as a unit, a column of fifty people, lined up in a two-line horizontal formation to perform a bō section charge, an improved type of bō section charge. The two frontal flanks, as well as the two flanks of the two wings, made a total of three thousand hoplites (four thousand according to the regulations of the military reform, but only three thousand were actually armed, and some of them were unreformed Norman heavy cavalry) in thirty centurions. They took turns attacking the Lithuanian formation.........

Such a modified bō charge is smaller, more dexterous, more targeted, and easier to control. Although the power is not as powerful as the wave of terror cavalry with hundreds of people in a row. But the small amount adds up, and the actual damage is greater than the first version of the bō dan charge!.