Chapter 45: Death
The Vikings were arguably some of the most formidable samurai of their time, and after receiving the order to charge, the Vikings quickly formed a classic column charge formation around several chiefs and began to charge at a distance that did not make sense at all. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoGenerally speaking, it is acceptable for infantry to charge from one hundred to one hundred and fifty meters, but this time the Vikings started the all-out charge directly from three hundred meters. It's no wonder that Carolan saw it and directly exclaimed that Maozi was against the sky, isn't the most famous charge in history the 300-meter limit charge of Maozi's gray cattle.
Although the Vikings hired by the Orton family this time were a little disobedient, their war quality was beyond doubt. In the face of the Klose family's bow and arrow suppression, and the central phalanx was in full array, the Vikings adopted the column charge to break through the flank. While deepening its depth and infinitely strengthening its frontal endurance, the infantry phalanx also made itself extremely cumbersome, especially if the flanks were severely damaged, or the terrain was not suitable for the phalanx to spread, the infantry phalanx would be devastated. The Macedonians used their freedom and blood to stage a textbook for everyone after them at the Battle of Peterna, and the phalanx collapsed.
When the Vikings approached their central phalanx, the Klose army reacted immediately. The right flank of the Klose family immediately moved closer to the direction of the central phalanx, and the two flanks of the Klose family army were all led by elite warriors, and the experienced Herman would never give his weakness to unreliable troops. It seems that Heinrich has made up his mind and is ready to rely on the quality of his subordinates to forcibly resist a wave of Orton's onslaught, and then consider counterattacking. Although Heinrich usually had a violent personality and was extremely aggressive in swordsmanship, he was indeed an unscrupulous defender on the battlefield.
At the same time, Herman seemed not satisfied with Heinrich's response, waved his hand and beckoned a guard to come over and whisper a few words, and then told him to step back. After a while, Caroline noticed that a cavalry team of Herman's side had left the main formation and rushed straight towards the Vikings, as if Herman was planning to take advantage of the Vikings' detachment from the main army to clear them out.
"Damn it! Get those Italians up to speed! With so much money from us, it's time for you to help. As soon as Richard saw the cavalry of the Klose family, he knew Herman's plan, he was actually cheated by the Vikings, he didn't expect the Vikings to start charging so far away, and they broke away from the main formation, and the brave mercenary group couldn't keep up with the speed of the Vikings' charge.
Originally, Richard just wanted to use the personal combat power of the Vikings to attract the attention of Heinrich and Herman, according to Richard's thoughts, this group of Vikings could at least disrupt the Klose family's position, and it would be better if the Klose family could force the reserves around Herman. As long as a gap can be opened, even if there is no way to crush the Klose family's army, as long as this group of Vikings holds on until the Orton family's reinforcements arrive, they can force the Klose family and the Orton family to fight a war of attrition on the gap, then the Orton family can use their numerical advantage to snowball, and finally drag down the Klose family and pick the final fruits of victory.
But all of Richard's wishful thinking was shattered by the unexpected distance of the Vikings' charge, and the Vikings who broke away from the main camp were a group of moving honors in front of the cavalry of the Klose family. In particular, the Vikings' column charge made them extremely vulnerable to cavalry interception, and what worried Richard even more was that if the Klose family eliminated this group of Vikings without any losses, then the morale of the Klose family army would be even higher, which was not good news for the Orton family.
“。。 Damn Nordic barbarians. Richard knew that even if he sent a herald to stop the Vikings or inform the brave mercenary group at this time, it would be too late, after lowering his head and thinking for a while, Richard found that he still couldn't sit back and watch himself lose such a large group of warriors in a short time after the battle, so he looked back at the group of black-armored warriors behind him, and hesitated for a moment before speaking: "Lord Andy, anyway, this group of pirates is our allies, if they are eliminated so quickly, it will directly lead to the exposure of the flanks, See if you lead your men to help them. "I don't know why Richard had a little flattery on his face when he talked to this so-called Lord Andy, but if Herman was there, he would know why, this Andy is a well-known warmonger in Lorraine, and it is said that the biggest sponsor behind him is the Duke of Lorraine, but I didn't expect him to appear here today.
"Of course, I will take my men to form a new left, please rest assured." That Andy replied very respectfully, and did not despise Richard because of Richard's somewhat flattering expression, after all, Richard's flattering expression was actually made to show the Duke of Lorraine behind him, if he was carried away by this superficial thing and couldn't figure out his status, then he would probably die in his bed tonight. With that, Andy waved his hand and personally led the hundreds of warriors who had been standing silently behind him to leave Richard's side, and chased after the Vikings, who wanted to reposition themselves before they were completely wiped out to prevent accidents. After all, it's not just the Orton family who wants to break down the central phalanx of the Klose family from the flank, if there is any flaw on the side of the Orton family, presumably the heavy cavalry of the Klose family who have been watching from behind will definitely not mind sending all the Orton family to heaven with the weapons in their hands.
When Andy led his distinctive black-armored army to appear on the battlefield, the insiders in the audience area discussed it one after another, knowing that this was the last hole card prepared by several behind-the-scenes manipulators for the Orton family, I didn't expect to see it so soon.
You must know that in this era, the command of the army is actually a very difficult thing, and the commander's orders cannot be conveyed to the soldiers and even officers at the bottom, so he can only give a preliminary order to the commanders of each army, and then let these commanders carry out these orders according to their own experience, and when they implement the orders, they completely rely on those middle-level officers. Just like Richard ordered the Vikings to charge, then orders such as how to charge and what to do after the charge were almost entirely up to the Vikings to decide, and Richard could hardly interfere with them anymore. So like the ancient Chinese hundreds of thousands of wars required by the number of low-level officers is simply astronomical, and Andy is an excellent officer, he can always do the right thing at the right time, plus the men he brought today are almost all his soldiers, so in a way this force is more terrible than the most elite guards of the Orton family.
"Richard, that shit, sent Andy, who your father contacted him, so quickly!" Eberhard of Bavaria roared under his breath when he saw Andy's appearance, and it was not a good sign that the Orton family had exposed their last hole cards before the war had officially begun.
You must know that the Duke of Bavaria actually planned to let his most elite mountain Dalmatian hoplites support the Orton family, but was stopped by Leding, who persuaded the Duke of Bavaria on the grounds that such a blatant support for the Orton family would destroy the current somewhat détente relationship with Henry the Bird Catcher, after all, the center of gravity of Bavaria is now in Italy. Arnulf, who was persuaded by Ledin, helped the Orton family contact Andy, after all, Lorraine and Bavaria were hardcore allies in a way, against Henry's allies. ("Nonsense, what if you send out Bavarians in case someone recognizes Calvin, then you won't have to hunt down Calvin all over the world.") That's what Reading actually thought at the time... )
"Richard is right to do this, the Vikings are probably not going to survive, sending Andy to stabilize the position is the wisest choice, and only Andy has the ability to reorganize the army to block the Klose family after the collapse of the left flank." Ledin, who had already had other arrangements, unhurriedly explained to Richard that he had always been like this, always saying good things about others behind his back, as if he had never had any jealousy or hatred; I don't know if Leiding has noticed that when he said this, the faces of several men dressed as nobles who were also standing beside the Duke of Bavaria instantly improved a lot, and their eyes became a lot closer when they looked at Leiding.
"Rest assured, the duel has just begun." Arnulf waved his hand to stop his son, who was still about to say something, and then motioned for everyone to continue watching the duel.
By this time, the Vikings who were charging had already hit the right flank of the Klose family, and the Viking leader who was charging at the head was very lucky and did not die in the way of the charge. He roared and threw out a short axe in his hand and hit the shield of a Klose family soldier, and then he pulled out a new axe from his waist again, and rushed directly to the front of the Klose family army, jumped up directly and stepped on the shield in front of the Klose family army soldiers, jumped into the formation of the Klose family's army, and slashed two soldiers fiercely before being killed by the Klose family's soldiers.
The death of this Viking leader is a matter of an instant, and other Viking warriors want to learn the movements of this leader and jump into the formation, but how can the soldiers of the Klose family who have suffered a loss let this kind of trapeze thing happen again, with the command of an officer of the Klose family, the soldiers on the right wing of the Klose family army shouted in unison and erected their shields shoulder to shoulder and marched a few steps in the direction of the Vikings rushing from them, so that those Vikings who wanted to play the trick of stepping on the shield like their own leader were directly tragic, They crashed directly into the shields of the Klose family soldiers, and then they were stabbed by the short swords that suddenly appeared in the gaps in the shields, and fell to the ground with a wail, and then were trampled into the mud.
Fierce hand-to-hand combat began.