"Javelin preparation—"

Closer, closer. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Seeing that the enemy was becoming more and more clear, gradually changing from a small dot like an ant to a long object the size of a finger, Lefèvre had nervously raised his right hand that clenched the javelin.

This is not the first time Lefèvre has been on the battlefield, and it is not the first time Lefèvre has killed people, but no matter how many times he goes to the battlefield, as long as he is a normal person, he will feel afraid.

War, this is a life-devouring beast, no matter how many souls are in front of it, it can swallow it without difficulty.

"Aim first! After throwing! Don't waste javelins! ”

It must not be wasted.

The javelins they are equipped with can be divided into two types, one is the light javelin, which is basically a sharpened long stick, which has no great lethality, and is used to deal with cannon fodder; But the other is the heavy javelin, which is designed to deal with cavalry and hoplites.

Inherited from the Roman Empire after the reform of Marius, the heavy javelin is 1.21 meters long, weighs 2-4 kilograms, and the tip is all made of fine iron, which has a good armor-piercing ability, and can be used as a spear once the enemy is close.

It is a pity that they took only five of these heavy javelins.

It's not a question of price, the lords of Europa are stingy with everything, they are extremely generous with war, the peasants are still using wooden hoes or even hands to plow the fields in the fields, and the lord's arsenal is a pile of long swords with rust.

However, the heavy javelin is simply too heavy.

Javelin cavalry is light cavalry, and the most important thing for light cavalry is mobility, five heavy javelins are almost equal in weight to one chain mail; And in war, even the most extravagant and death-fearing knight can only wear two pieces of chain mail at most.

If you can't lift your hands no matter how many times you wear them, it's not a defense or a death.

And the Javelin, it faced about the same dilemma as the knights.

If there are too few javelins, it will not be able to kill and injure the enemy in large numbers, but if the number of javelins is too large and the horsepower cannot keep up, the speed cannot be raised, and the javelin cavalry is useless.

So why not use a bow ride?

Because javelins are easier to make than bows and arrows, and are easier to train.

Taking the English longbow as an example, it takes seven years to make a qualified English longbow, and the training of a longbow player must also be raised from a young age, and there are hard requirements for height and shoulder width.

It is so difficult to train an archer standing on land, let alone an archer on horse; In fact, even the Mongols, who claimed to be all soldiers, were able to come up with more than 50,000 archers in their heyday, not to mention the fact that the territory was heavily divided and the territory was all small pieces of European lords.

Therefore, the use of javelin cavalry is not only helpless, but also an affordable choice.

Moreover, only for this era, the Javelin cavalry worked not bad.

"Thirty steps - throw!"

From ants to fingers, and then from fingers to arms, the enemy's figure became clearer and clearer, Lefèvre no longer hesitated, and at the sound of an order, dozens of javelins rose into the air.

Then there was the sound of the wind screeching and whistling.

The 4-kilogram javelin, based on the horse's power and the horse's throwing power, pierced the air and never returned, and then threw herself into her arms under the traction of Mother Earth.

Of course, if you accidentally injure one or two unlucky eggs halfway, the real iron-headed javelin will definitely not mind.

"Ten left at the end! The others continue to chase the enemy with me! ”

Passing through the ranks of the peasant conscripts like a whirlwind, Lefèvre did not even look at the poor ants, but gave a loud command, and then continued the charge without looking back.

The rest of the standard riders had learned the same thing, except for a few guys at the end of the line, who complained about slowing down, and raised the javelin of death in their hands again.

"Lord Duke, the enemy is catching up!"

Despite the previous defeat and the abandonment of his men, the Duke's decades-old prestige is still there, and his cavalry are still willing to fight for the Duke - but it is probably impossible to make them as fearless as before.

The Duke of Brittany, though, was destined to disappoint them.

"Go and stop them and let me escape!"

？？？

This is not our duke!

Because the horses had been running all the time, and the wind was too loud, several horsemen riding around the duke suspected that there was something wrong with their ears, and showed a look of disbelief.

"Hurry! So, what are you waiting for! Stop them and let me escape! I promise you that if you are captured, I will redeem you after the battle, and if you die in battle, your fiefdom will be inherited by your sons! So now, go and stop them for me right away! ”

If it weren't for the horses, the Duke would have jumped up.

It is often said that only when death is present can a person be revealed.

And now, the Duke of Brittany finally revealed his true colors, like a balloon with a broken mouth, when all those blown-out courages were gone, and all that was left was ugly timidity.

But the Duke of Brittany didn't feel anything wrong at all.

He's a duke, he shouldn't have died in this kind of place!

Do not think that the Duke is confused, in fact the Duke's head is now very bright—between Saint-Malo and the city of Nantes, the cavalry can reach in a day; And the duke had already walked for a day with the cavalry and conscripted peasant soldiers, and even if he took a long detour in the middle, he had already walked at least half of the way.

As long as he got rid of these standard horses, he rode alone and hid in the jungle, one man's goal was much smaller than a group of people, and his familiarity with the terrain allowed him to take a shortcut and return to Nantesburg before the standard horse could catch up with him!

After that, whether he asked the Count of Brest for help, or surrendered to King Louis VII of France, he could even go to the Pope...... If the Pope is too far away, he can go to the archbishop and let the archbishop intercede; There are many ways to end this war without going to the battlefield, and he doesn't have to waste his life here at all!

As for these cavalrymen, they spent so much money to support you for a thousand days, just to wait for the moment when you will die for me.

The logic is correct, but it doesn't care about human feelings.

If the first abandonment can still be regarded as an accident, it was just an unintentional mistake of the Duke, and it was not the Duke's original intention, then what is this second abandonment?

Another accident?

Not even a little room for fantasy, the Duke of Brittany personally tore the last vestiges of his cavalry's imagination of him.

Eventually, the cavalry nodded.

"Do as you order, Lord Duke."

The friends who were expecting the cavalry to turn against the water can now disperse, whether it is out of status or duty, these cavalrymen cannot be against the water - but, as said before, at this moment they will not turn against the water only because of their status and duty.

They were vassals of the duke, and they were obliged to fight for the duke, but this obligation did not include sacrificing their lives. This means that they will resist Lefèvre, but if the form deteriorates, they will easily surrender.

Anyway, not killing cavalry was a common rule in the Middle Ages, and as long as a ransom was paid, they would still go back and forth from wherever they went.

"Turn the horse's head! Let's go fight them! Let these French people take a closer look, the men of Brittany have never been easy to bully! ”

“…… Trouble. ”

Seeing that the morale of the Bretons on the other side was suddenly high, Lefèvre couldn't help but frown.

This trouble, of course, is not the law of not killing cavalry just mentioned; In fact, this law only says that the cavalry captured after the war is not killed, and as for the war, it is naturally the destiny of each peace.

The trouble Lefèvre was referring to was that he was about to have to engage in a grapple with the Breton cavalry.

The standard cavalry was a light cavalry, mostly wearing leather armor that was easy to move, while the Breton cavalry was a heavy cavalry, wearing chain mail, and using light cavalry to charge the heavy cavalry head-on, which was undoubtedly suicide.

Therefore, it is only possible to grappling.

This also means that the cooked duck flies.

"Damn it! Coward! Coward! Maggots! ”

At that time, looking at the figure of the Duke of Brittany riding under the cover of the cavalry, Lefèvre was so angry that he almost opened his mouth to scold his mother.

"All out of the way! The enemy's horses can't hold out, we have a big advantage! Shoot the horse first, then the man! Be careful not to hurt your allies! ”

The credit in hand ran, although very unwilling, but Lefèvre has not yet reached the point of madness, and the bright blades of the Breton cavalry on the side also show their presence all the time; At the end of the day, riding with a hundred bids to fight for a seventy heavy ride is a very risky thing in itself.

If it weren't for the fact that the enemy was a remnant of the army, and the inference that there was something wrong with the horse, Lefèvre's confidence would have increased, and he would not have run out as openly as he had just now.

The standard cavalry against the heavy cavalry, it is similar to the archers against the heavy cavalry, they are all wandering, harassing, and shooting.

However, unlike archers, heavy javelins are much more powerful.

If you shoot a horse with a bow and arrow, if you don't hit the vital point, it doesn't matter how many of them are on your horse, but if you shoot a horse with a heavy javelin, even if it only rubs a little, it is a deep blood groove.

Therefore, the form is more disadvantageous for heavy riding.

Of course, the Heavy Riders can also rely on their superb riding skills to avoid the Riders' throws, after all, the Riders have a limited number of javelins, and they don't actually aim very accurately - but the real disadvantage for the Heavy Riders is their own condition.

This is the jungle, not the plains!

On the plains, heavy riders can gallop to their heart's content, but in the jungle, if you run fast, you have to worry about not accidentally getting hung off the horse by tree branches!

This disadvantage is shared by both sides, but because of the weight and inertia, it is far more difficult for the heavy rider to turn than the standard rider. The standard riders had plenty of leeway to exhaust the horsepower of the heavy riders and then force them to surrender.

The whole scene is like a group of sharks hunting whales.

Obviously, the whale has enough strength to even knock a shark to the ground with the current set off by its tail alone, but it just can't touch the shark, and can only watch itself being bitten, blood flowing out, and losing the strength to fight little by little.

Of course, the situation is not so one-sided, and Lefèvre's standard cavalry also has many who were approached by heavy cavalry charges and then knocked to the ground by a sword because of bad luck or poor riding skills. But it is undeniable that with the passage of time, the advantage is indeed tilting in Lefèvre's side little by little.

"Surrender! We surrender! ”

The not fierce chase lasted for a short time, and the Breton cavalry, who had suffered more than a dozen casualties, had already raised their hands and surrendered - saying that they had suffered more than a dozen casualties, but in fact most of them were only wounded, and they were not serious injuries.

However, as mentioned before, with the duke abandoned twice, the Breton cavalry was no longer willing to die for the duke, and now that the duke had fled without a trace, the cavalry who felt that they had completed their mission were naturally unwilling to fight anymore.

“…… Collect the troops! ”

Lefèvre, who was still thinking about the ducks flying away, did not have a good face for the Brittany cavalry who surrendered, but they didn't mind, in addition to confiscating their weapons, the standard cavalry didn't even let them get off the horses - everyone is a cavalryman, a person with status, maybe they can meet again in the future, what are they doing so embarrassingly.

Besides, the cavalry also has the insistence of the cavalry, and since it has surrendered, it will not be repeated.

"A few of you, go and inform His Royal Highness Prince Magnus."

After taking a few deep breaths, Lefèvre, who felt that he had calmed down, said to the scout beside him after collecting the deserters.

"Let's just say that I failed to live up to his expectations and failed to capture the Duke of Brittany, but I have routed the last force of the Duke's side, and am now rushing to the city of Nantes to prepare for the siege of Fort Nantes, hoping that he will come to the aid as soon as possible."

ps: I didn't update it yesterday, but I'll make up another chapter in the afternoon.