"Cavalry retreat, let the alpha break back!"

The knight of the guard beside Randy hurriedly blew the horn, and when Alpha, who was fighting, heard the horn, he stood up from the horse with his legs in the stirrup, looked around and knew what was happening, and quickly ordered: "Retreat, willing to stay with me." ”

Dozens of Norman royal knights shouted loudly, giving up blocking and dodging, and attacking the enemy in a single way to hold them back, while the Norman heavy cavalry, who heard the sound of the horn, began to withdraw little by little.

The entire Norman army began to advance at the same time, and Randy quickly sent a herald to order the French army to follow suit, and after a round of heavy cavalry attacks, the main infantry forces of the two sides were about to meet.

"Forward? Now? ”

But Philip II, who got Randy's order, was a little hesitant, the Greek heavy cavalry left too deep an impression on him before, whether it was defeating the French heavy cavalry with fewer blows, or almost breaking the Swiss pike's phalanx with a desperate charge, it made Philip II frightened, in Philip II's subconscious, even defense may not be able to prevent, let alone attack.

But at this time, the Norman army of more than 100,000 people had begun to move, and if the French army could not keep up, the coalition front would have such an obvious weakness as being disjointed, and it would be impossible for the other side to be unable to grasp it, so that their own side would be in an extremely disadvantageous position.

"Okay!"

Philip II gritted his teeth and ordered: "The whole army advances, keep up with the footsteps of the Normans." ”

The armies of the two sides are getting closer and closer, and the four Roman legions, two Roman heavy infantry brigades, and two Roman infantry mixed brigades, and six professional Viking warrior thousands, all Viking dueling assault fighters, are about to collide.

"Stop the advance and rest the whole army in place."

When there was still a distance of about 700 meters from the center of the battlefield, the Norman infantry in the second, third, and fourth Norman formations under Randy stopped and began to stand in place to rest, leaving only the 7,000 men in the front row to continue to move forward, and even speed up their pace.

At this moment, the four brigades in the front row of the Eastern Rome also increased their speed, and the two sides got closer and closer, and began to repeat with all their might.

The decisive battle has entered the climax stage!

The flying axes and arrows of the Norman legions, like hail and thunderstorms, fell on the heads of the Eastern Roman army, and no matter how perfectly the opponent raised his shield and defended himself, he would always show flaws and make the Eastern Roman army cry bitterly.

Front......

The charge of the decisive assault warriors made the Roman generals who had fought side by side with the Varangians and spoke highly of them to the silence, who had thought that the impact of those fierce Varangian two-handed axes was unparalleled in the world, but they did not expect to see the surprise infantry surpassing the Varangians today.

The professional legions of the Eastern Romans, the hoplites under the cover of the projection of the auxiliary infantry, still felt very stressed, not to mention the improvised Eastern Roman troops.

They had only leather armor, small shields, and some Eastern Roman soldiers armed with short swords and some maces, and the formation had been shattered by the rain of Norman longbows and arrows, which would have been greatly charged by the Vikings to the death.

Basil II made the mistake of not throwing all his professional troops into the war as Randy did, and putting all the temporarily conscripted troops in reserve. Rather, it is a mix of temporary conscripted troops and professional troops.

Although the heavy cavalry of the Norman Kingdom cannot be compared with the Eastern Roman Empire, and the light cavalry is much smaller than the other side in number, but when it comes to heavy infantry, the Viking army under Randy can be said to be the first infantry organization recognized in Europe, even if it is inferior to the hoplites of the Eastern Romans, let alone these improvised temporary levy legions.

Basil II was extremely surprised, seeing that his main infantry had only been fighting with the enemy for a moment or three, and he was actually pushed to the brink of collapse by the other party.

"The elite Norman infantry, see you today!"

Basil II exclaimed, and then ordered: "Let the three temporary conscription legions of the second array retreat, the three professional legions of the third array advance and take their place, and at the same time the four professional legions of the second array advance to fill the vacancy, and order the whole army not to retreat, and those who retreat will be beheaded regardless of their official position or from any family!" ”

After such adjustments, the Eastern Roman army regained its position in the midst of the uproar, and although the battle loss ratio remained at a very high value, at this rate, it may not be possible to distinguish the winner today.

"It's not that simple." Randy snorted lightly, seeing that his battle line was solid, the Viking warriors in front of him were fighting bravely, and the large reserve team behind was ready to fill the vacancy at any time, the longbowmen opened their bows and arrows, and the arrows flew like a plague of locusts, so that there was nowhere to hide, and he couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

"The hoplites assembled on the right flank and prepared to charge."

After the previous fierce battle, the heavy cavalry deployed on the right flank of his side lost a lot, but not to mention the thousands of heavy cavalry on the left flank did not move, plus the temporarily recruited nobles and feudal knights, Randy was still able to make up nearly three thousand heavy cavalry, which was Randy's biggest reliance, and it was also the best weapon used to fight back against the enemy, but after giving such an order, Randy turned his eyes to the left flank and couldn't help frowning.

The nameless heights on the left flank, after receiving reinforcements from three thousand-man professional Viking warriors, their own front was also stabilized, a total of more than 6,000 Norman warriors were condescending, making the opponent's army unable to succeed, and the crossbowmen gradually resumed long-range shooting with the passage of the front, making the Norman rain of arrows more dense, and this nameless heights has become one of the best strongholds of the Norman army.

But it's not this that worries Randy, it's his French allies.

Basil II is worthy of being a battle-hardened general, and he can see that the Norman army is not easy to mess with, so he spent his mind on the French, before he sent tens of thousands of heavy cavalry to charge, there are two thoughts, if you can charge once, you will defeat the opponent all, naturally it is best, but if you can't, you can also rely on this kind of fierce attack, test the depth of the opponent's army's combat power.

As a result, the Normans fought bravely in front of the Greek cavalry and suffered numerous casualties, while the French also repelled the Greek cavalry with Swiss pikemen, but the appearance of the French improvised peasant soldiers who cowered was also seen by Basil II.

Basil II saw this as a breakthrough and sent nearly 4,000 cavalry archers to charge at him. The re-dispatch of the opposing cavalry made Philip II hurriedly order the army to stop advancing and prepare a defensive formation.

On the other side, the commander of the projection infantry, Duke Edward of Aquitaine, also ordered the French projection infantry to prepare for the attack.

Among the many commanders, only Duke Charles was very dissatisfied, but now the French hoplites have suffered heavy losses and have lost the ability to attack independently, in addition to the Swiss mercenaries under his command, although they can attack the enemy infantry, but in the face of cavalry, they are more suitable for defense, and the other two French nobles do not want to attack, and Duke Charles naturally cannot move.

But this time, their opponent was not a force breakthrough and a surprising defense against heavy cavalry, but a faster, more cunning light cavalry with more diverse attack methods.

The Scythian cavalry aside, but the Vadarel archers were a real elite.

The Hungarians were fierce and good at war, and after the overall enhancement of weapons and equipment, they were even three points stronger than the Hungarian cavalry in the heyday of Hungary.

The speed of the Hungarian war horse itself was very fast, and after advancing at full speed, it came to the range of the compound bow almost in the blink of an eye, and these archers fired a volley at the French, the armor rate of the French army was not high, only about 1/4 of the Swiss pikemen were equipped with the plate chain composite armor that was snatched from the Venetians, and the remaining four thousand to five thousand French hoplite sergeants were equipped with chain mail, and the rest were some rich nobles, or merchants, who could be self-sufficient in armor, and the rest were recruited, Not even the ability to equip leather armor.

Such a defense will naturally suffer heavy losses under the opponent's strong long-range attack.

Although the French projection troops fought back under the command of Edward, they still could not withstand the dexterous and erratic tactics of these archers, and the number of French projection troops was not large, and the equipment was not very good, only less than 800 people were equipped with longbows, so it was difficult to withstand the impact of the other side.

"Let's take the initiative! These cavalry archers were not very powerful, and even if the super-long spear phalanx wavered during the march, they would not be able to break through the phalanx. ”

Seeing that he couldn't fight back after being beaten like this, Duke Charles suggested.

"No, look!"

At this time, Philip II could not care about the grievances with Burgundy, and Duke Charles followed the other party's fingers and found that in the corner of the enemy army, a group of Eastern Roman lancers had gathered at some point.

"See? If we rush forward at this time, this group of heavy cavalry will be able to charge us. ”

"What then? Is it just passively beaten? "Duke Charles is unwilling.

"Bear with me, anyway, these archers can only play a harassing role, and they can't decide the key to victory or defeat."

Randy sensed the plight of his allies and ordered the Norman crossbowmen on the nameless heights to aid in the attack and help the French drive away the pesky fly-like archers.

The Norman crossbowmen concentrated their firepower and condescendingly threw a rain of arrows at the enemy archers, whose crossbows were much more powerful than the French shortbows and shoddy hunting crossbows, and the archers soon suffered heavy casualties.

"Order the archers to retreat, send a professional legion to that high ground, and have the Trabizon archers prepare rockets and shoot them." Seeing that his calculations had been cracked, Basil II sent a large number of troops into battle.

Another legion entered the Nameless Heights, and the pressure on the Norman army increased suddenly.

Norman crossbowmen gave up aiding the French army and concentrated on helping their own Norman army in defense.

At the same time, the Trabizon archers, contaminated with Greek fire fuel, fired a large number of rockets, although the direct damage was very limited, but as the flames spread, the Norman soldiers' sense of crisis gradually increased.

"The light cavalry prepares, send three thousand troops to aid the nameless heights, and two thousand troops and the light cavalry to rendezvous." Randy ordered the light cavalry who had been standing next to the French army to prepare, and at the same time threw the last of his light cavalry forces into the battlefield.

With both sides once again throwing in large numbers of troops, the entire left flank of the battlefield, around this nameless height, the two sides engaged in a fierce battle, with the hatred of destroying their homes and countries, the Hungarian rangers, who had endured for a long time, just went into battle, and rushed to the Vadareel archers and the flanks of the Eastern Roman professional legions.

The Vadarel archers looked at the cavalry who were dressed in the traditional costumes of the Huns or Magyars, holding rudimentary equipment, shouting the local dialects of all parts of Hungary, and rushing towards them with great momentum.

In the end, when the light cavalry of the two sides was halfway through, one of the Vadarel archers was stunned for a few seconds, and saw that there was actually a younger brother on the opposite side who had disappeared for a long time, and his brother also recognized himself, the scimitar that killed countless people, could not be cut down no matter what.

The elder brother who was recruited by the Greeks into the Vadarel Archers, and the younger brother who joined the Hungarian Rangers attached to the coalition army, the two brothers were separated for more than a year, but they did not expect to meet in this situation, and both sides were a little speechless.

Seeing that his younger brother was angry and crying, when his brother's heart softened, he thought: "That's it, this head will be given to the third child of my family, and he is also a captain, and most of them can be used as military merits." ”

With a click, the scimitar in his hand fell to the ground, closing his eyes and waiting to die.

As an elder brother, he put on this picture, and when the younger brother naturally saw it, he suddenly felt that his heart was like a knife, his parents died early, and his eldest brother took a few of his own lives, and his eldest brother was famous in several nearby tribes, and his own sword and equestrian skills were taught by his eldest brother, and he naturally knew that he was not an opponent in his heart, and he had the heart of death when he rushed up just now, but he didn't expect that this would be the result in the end.

"Come on! Cut me! Cut it by the neck! Just like I taught you! The elder brother waited for a few seconds, and felt that the younger brother did not move, so he shouted.

"Ah......h

At the same time, the nameless heights of the left flank, the battle entered a white-hot state in advance.

In mid-August, when the vegetation is in full bloom, although it is not as good as autumn, it is better to burn when the vegetation withers and the water disappears.

The Trebizond archers wield powerful compound bows, which are as lethal as the longbows.

However, instead of using triangular pyramid-headed arrows, they are lighter, more aerodynamic flying arrows, which have a better range than longbows, but are less lethal, and of course, the opponents do not expect these to kill the enemy, but to burn the Greek fire smeared on them.

Although the Norman army on the nameless heights is condescending, but because the other side uses special arrows, it can still shoot up, among the 170,000 troops of the Eastern Romans, there are more than 8,000 Trebizond archers, more than 5,000 scattered in the front of the army as projection troops, to assist the front of the Eastern Roman heavy infantry, the remaining 3,000 people are all concentrated around the nameless heights, seven consecutive salvos on the top of the mountain, it consumes more than 20,000 rockets, and uses up half of the rocket stock of the Eastern Roman army.

The vegetation on the nameless plateau was also plagued by this, and the Eastern Roman army took advantage of the situation to cover the past, and the Norman army could no longer resist and retreated.

The Greek soldiers could not stay long because of the fire, and the heights had lost their usefulness as the mountains were set on fire, the air was filled with the foul smell of burnt leather and fur, and the poisonous smoke was filled.

(End of chapter)