When the Swiss Guards at the forefront paid a lot of casualties, but still couldn't stop the minotaur, Cardinal Heard sighed, turned around, and looked at Andrew, who was covered in sweat and trembling, clenched his fists tightly, and his nails had pierced into the flesh and blood was flowing, but he didn't know it.

"With a crossbow! With a crossbow! ”

After saying this, Cardinal Heard seemed to be ten years old in an instant, and the leaders of the two city-states of northern Italy beside him looked at him in disbelief, as if they did not know him.

"What do you say? With a crossbow? But although the other party is a heretic, he is also a Christian, so do we really want to do this? ”

Although he had wanted to do this for a long time, Andrew suddenly felt a lot of pressure to be so public, and to disobey the papal decree in front of the cardinals of the Papal States.

"I remember that the Pope said that it was a war with the Christians, and that a large number of crossbow arrows were not allowed, but I have also heard that the Greeks had a similar rule that the Minotaur mercenaries could only be used in wars with the infidels, and that the other side broke the rules first, so God will forgive us for our sins, Amen!"

With that, the cardinal closed his eyes and touched the silver cross on his chest.

With the cardinal's assurance, a large number of giant shield crossbowmen who have been in a semi-soy sauce state since the beginning of the war finally have something to do, they raise the crossbow arrows in their hands, the trajectory of the crossbow is generally flat fire, and it cannot be used when there are their own soldiers in front of them, but now it is different, those minotaurs are much higher than ordinary soldiers, and the crossbowmen can easily aim at them, and they don't have to worry about hitting their own soldiers.

"Aim for their heads! Then you're their weakness, wind up! First quarter! ”

Thousands of giant shield crossbowmen fired a salvo, although many people missed, and even injured their allies by mistake, but most of the crossbow arrows were shot at the head of the minotaur, although the skulls of these minotaur monsters were very hard, but the power of the heavy crossbow in the hands of the giant shield crossbowmen was not covered, dozens of minotaurs in the front row wailed, covered their heads and fell, the pressure on the front line was suddenly light, the Italian coalition hurriedly organized a counterattack, and the minotaur was afraid of the enemy's crossbowmen, so they did not dare to step forward.

"Kill those damn humans! Kill them! ”

The Minotaur roared, charging with a group of minotaurs who were unusually tall, second only to himself, and they bent down and put their horns and the strongest skull in front of them, and spread their hooves at the Italians, and ran as fast as they could, knocking down all the enemies, allies, soldiers, horses, and stones and trees, stumps and broken arms that stood in their way.

"Shoot! Shoot fast! Shoot the monsters. The commander of the Giant Shield Crossbowmen watched the monsters get closer and closer, his voice trembled, and he swallowed his saliva and shouted in a hoarse voice.

The giant shield crossbowmen also felt a lot of pressure, and under such tremendous pressure, they reloaded and fired twice as fast as usual.

If these minotaurs are as hard as iron and stone in other places, then their skulls and horns are like steel, and most of the crossbow arrows will be bounced off, and a few crossbow arrows will not be able to pierce the scalp of the opponent.

"Attention everyone, I've got an idea! Let's wind up first, but don't fire yet, and when they get ahead of us, if they get up and attack, our chance is here. ”

"What if they continue to charge?"

"We fought for Jesus Christ, and we will go to heaven!" The commander said.

Such an answer is naturally frowned upon by most people, but there is no better way in this case, those guys do seem to be coming for themselves, so it is better to be a dead horse and a live horse.

Next, the Italian soldiers were pleasantly surprised to find that this group of bull-headed monsters was not able to charge all the time, and after a period of time, the other party would stop panting, and then straighten up, whenever this time, these guys would enjoy the treatment of hundreds of crossbow arrows to gather fire, but there were still some giant shield crossbowmen rushing in front of them.

"The Virgin Mary!"

The Whisperer, the commander of the Giant Shield Crossbowmen, was almost filled with fear as he saw the galloping beast getting closer and closer, and the plan he had said before had almost been forgotten from his mind.

But the beast actually stopped in front of him, and it was almost like the other guys who stood in his way, and his internal organs were ruptured and blood was spitting.

The Minotaur Patriarch stood up and roared, with a crossbow bolt stuck in the center of his left eye, and the commander finally mustered up the courage to raise the bolt in his hand and shoot it, and hit the target.

"Ah!!h

Seeing the minotaur roaring in pain, the crossbowman commander breathed a sigh of relief and at the same time lost his strength, and threw the heavy crossbow to the ground with a shake of his hand, hitting his instep and throbbing him in pain, but he suddenly found himself missing, and suddenly rose into the air.

"You've hurt me! Bastard! ”

Minotaur, the minotaur patriarch with a crossbow bolt in one eye, opened his mouth and said to him, his fangs proving that the beast was not a peaceful vegetarian.

"You're a mongrel!" The commander got the courage out of nowhere, pointing at the Minotaur and scolding.

The minotaur roared and opened its mouth as big as a basin, shoved the commander's upper body into it, and tore him in half.

The war continued, but the Italians could no longer organize an attack, and even their defense became very difficult, the strongest guard of the Papal States of 3,000 people, under the fierce attack of the Minotaur, the formation was disrupted, and then it was divided and surrounded by several times or even dozens of times the Eastern Roman army, these 3,000 men and horses were isolated from the main Italian army, although they resisted hard and fought back desperately, but after all, they could not get rid of the fate of defeat.

The 1st Minotaur Wing also suffered heavy casualties, a total of more than 400 minotaurs killed, more than 300 minotaurs wounded, more than half of them were seriously injured, although the Minotaur's recovery ability is amazing, but considering the medical level of this era, I am afraid that the casualty figure will be greatly increased.

But this is no longer in the way, after the defeat of the most elite Papal Guard, the Minotaur's mission has been completed, and the next victory and glory of victory belong to the Greeks.

The Greeks began to counterattack, which is very ridiculous to say, and both sides threw almost all their elites into the frontal battlefield.

The Italian heavy cavalry, the ironclad paladiers, the Guards cavalry, the Latin cavalry, the Crusader Knights, the Papal Guard, the Swiss Guard, the Eastern Roman Guards, the Minotaur Wing, these various and random ones, enough to be proud of the elite, were thrown into the frontal battle, and were exhausted in a meat grinder-like war, but in the end it was the two wings that decided the outcome of the battle, not the front.

Wings......

After a brief period of confusion, the Greeks regrouped their large cavalry.

These cavalry were not elite, but the Eastern Roman lancers common in the legions, those lightweight, not strong in combat, were organized by hundreds of thousands, and with each charge, little by little, the Italian flanks were weakened.

The Italians also tried to defend themselves against their attacks, and their spearmen gathered in dense phalanxes, and sent archers and crossbowmen to shoot at them, but the Eastern Roman cavalry was so numerous that after defeating one group, another group would soon come, and each charge of them would greatly weaken the Italians' forces, leaving them physically and mentally exhausted, and the formation would be scattered.

Later, the Germanic barbarian mercenaries, as well as the Latin legions, and the two-handed swordsmen of the Aramano from the German region, attacked the Italians again, and these powerful barbarian armies further weakened the Italian defenses, and then the pride of the Eastern Rome heavy infantry phalanx continued to attack in turn.

The front began to retreat little by little, and the Italians had come to realize that their end might have come, and these people began to panic, fear, drop their weapons and their companions and begin to flee.

"Don't quit! No refund! We're going to fight to the death! Jesus Christ looks at you, Italians, are you going to be cowards all your life? ”

The front-line army was defeated one after another, and gradually became a rout, and the governor of Genoa, Andrew, shouted loudly, and at the same time killed dozens of deserters with his guards, but such a meager effort was simply not enough to save the situation of the war, and the Italians who fled more and more, countless, even if the bishops, governors, and nobles of the Papal States shouted hard, no matter how hard they slaughtered, no matter how much they promised benefits, no matter how much they boosted morale, they did not want to return to that bloody battlefield.

"It's over!" Seeing this, Andrew closed his eyes in despair.

In the end, after the Greek army completely killed the 3,000 Papal States troops in the front, the frontal troops that were able to free up their hands once again organized thousands of cavalry charging clusters, ironclad paladiers, Latin cavalry, Guards cavalry, Byzantine lancers, and all kinds of hoplite cavalry with spears or spears, charging at the Italian legions all over the mountains.

In the end, there were less than 8,000 Italians who remained in place and still insisted on fighting, and after a day of hard fighting, all kinds of attacks, exhausted physical and mental exhaustion, unable to find their respective commanders, unable to arrange a decent formation, and even unable to hold their weapons steadily, they still chose to fight.

The head of the Italian army was the last at first, boosting the morale of the soldiers, making a final roar in a hoarse voice.

"Enough! Italians, I am with you, fighting against an army that is several times larger than us, they are well equipped, well-trained, and even have the help of legendary monsters, but we still repel them again and again, and even have the upper hand for a time, I am proud of you! ”

Cardinal Hilde likewise shouted: "You will go to heaven, and I assure you that each and every one of you is the best warrior of Jesus Christ, that the Father loves you, that Jesus Christ loves you, that all the angels and saints of the world love you, and that you have a clear conscience." ”

"I'm with you!"

Not far away, the Eastern Roman cavalry began to charge......

————————————

"What do you say? That minotaur went down and bit off half of that guy's body? ”

"The Papal States has taken out all the troops at the bottom of the box? Didn't run away from the last one? ”

"The Italian army was almost completely wiped out?"

"Werther injured an arm, Heard broke a leg, and Andrew died."

"Who is Maffeo?"

Reinforcements didn't arrive at all, and in fact they didn't have time to arrive.

Randy's Norman Legion is almost three hundred kilometers away from the battlefield, and even the rangers' reconnaissance distance can't get there, but none of this prevents Randy's spies from sending these messages.

Randy really didn't expect the Italian army to be so able to fight, and in the end, the 8,000 Italian troops were almost wiped out, but at the last moment, Witt and Heard both desperately escaped, and Andrew finally fulfilled his promise and died with them.

As for Maffeo...... This trickster didn't know when the Eastern Romans attacked, and he didn't even make it to the end.

The Eastern Roman army also suffered heavy losses, two professional legions were disabled, three temporarily conscripted legions were almost completely wiped out, the ironclad paladier legion and the Guards cavalry legion also suffered heavy losses, a Germanic legion and a Latin legion also suffered heavy casualties, as the last trump card, the Imperial Forest Army was reduced by 285 men, and the first wing of the Minotaur suffered most of the casualties, adding up to the total loss of more than 60,000 troops in the Eastern Roman legion.

The total number of Eastern Roman armies was only over 200,000!

Eighteen professional legions, ten provisional conscription legions, two mercenary legions, the Guards Cavalry Legion, the Iron Paladinary Legion, seven Royal Guards brigades, and three Minotaur wings.

An army of 220,000 people went around Hungary with a loss of no more than 1/10, but in this battle it lost 40,000!

In addition, because of the loss of the army's establishment, the wear and tear of morale, and the depreciation of weapons, it is difficult to say whether this army can have 1/2 of the combat effectiveness of its heyday.

"Italians and those rabble, you have really worked hard, your deeds have not been in vain, I will avenge you."

King Randy, who looked at peace and well, walked out of his tent and looked at his henchmen indifferently.

"As you must already know, the Italians have been defeated, and although they fought bravely, they were still no match for the Greeks."

Speaking of which, Randy paused, "They're winning!" The Italians have fought hard, and now it is our turn, Norman warriors, and now I give the order to go at full speed to the south, and I dare not guarantee that those Greeks will be struck by the great casualties, and by the shadow of the Catholics, and therefore retreat into their own territory, so that we must catch up with them as fast as we can, entangle them, and crush them, otherwise the greatest glory in the battle against heresy belongs to the Italians, and they will enjoy the blessings of the whole Catholic world. ”

(End of chapter)