"It's a smell from hell! It's so pungent that it's hard to describe in other words, but anyone who smells it will never forget it. We didn't know what it was, and no one knew that disaster would happen the next moment! God, that scene was terrible, terrible! All people are in the fire of Satan, and their hearts are filled with fear and despair. It was at this time that the Mongols charged, like satanic demons from hell, and no one had the courage to resist them. We can only run away without honor......"

Many years later, King Rudolf of Switzerland, who participated in and survived the Battle of Vistula. Feng. This is how Habsburg described to his children and grandchildren the battle that he will never forget.

The smell of hell – in fact, the strange smell of light crude oil mixed with a variety of flammable and explosive substances. Before the arrival of the Crusaders, the Mongols poured hundreds of thousands of catties of "Roman fire" on this wasteland covered with dry grass. Now the Christian warriors stood on top of the "Roman fire", and they smelled the smell of death.

"What does it smell like? It smells weird. Louis IX also noticed the strange smell and asked the knight beside him in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, this is the smell of death." A noble knight said, "Many people will die today, so the god of death has come early and is ready to harvest life." ”

Louis IX drew a cross on his chest and said in a melancholy tone: "May the deceased rest in peace, and may God forgive the sins of every deceased and allow their souls to ascend to heaven." Amen! ”

"Amen!" The knights of Louis IX followed their king to make crosses, and no one realized that it was actually themselves who were about to be killed by death.

At this time, the knights had roughly sorted out the formation, but in fact, there was no formation, that is, a large group of knights, heavy cavalry and light cavalry followed their respective bosses and lined up on the battlefield in turn. Then, when Louis IX gave the order, he swarmed up. Initiate the "Pig Sprint".

The kind of wall charge that later generations couldn't fight. The wall charge of later European cavalry was roughly an evolved version of the knight. Not only should the level of tactical training be greatly improved, but also tall and strong war horses that have been artificially bred for many years - when the heavy cavalry with spears can run faster than the steppe light cavalry with bows and arrows, it will naturally be the end of the steppe light cavalry.

But at the moment, the knights of Europa don't have such good horses to ride. As a result, Louis IX issued an order that later military historians considered to have ruined the last hope of victory for the Crusaders on the Vistula River.

"Now, all dismount and stand by." Louis IX wanted the knights' mounts to regain their strength before delivering a decisive assault. In fact, this was just a pre-Knight Rush convention. The cavalry of the Eastern steppe will also "charge strength", otherwise the horses will not be able to run, what else can you do with this beast?

Just when Louis IX asked the knights to dismount and rest, behind the Mongol cavalry who dismounted and shot arrows, more than 300 torsion stones were already in place. These weapons were crafted by the Banner Slaves (Semu craftsmen) who accompanied Kublai Khan's army and were specially designed to fire "Roman fire". A large number of clay pots, wrapped in layers of cotton cloth and sealed with wax, were carefully transported to the launch site. In the past two or three months, these "Roman fires" have been a nightmare for the officers and men of the Mongolian Firearms Association! There were more than a dozen accidents with casualties alone, and hundreds of Eight Banner soldiers lost their lives in a daze before they became masters. Liu Yuanli, the commander of the Eight Banners and Red Flags, was ordered to command this "stone machine artillery", which is really heartbreaking these days. Now it's finally time to throw all these hot potatoes out – if the results are as good as expected. A duke can be sealed with his eyes closed, and he may even get a county king. Thinking of this, his face tightened a little, this was the last and most critical time, so many "Roman fires" were piled up together, and one was inattentively lit on his own position, and the fun was great. If you don't get burned to death, you will be beheaded by the order of Kublai Khan.

"Vice-Commander. All gun emplacements are ready! "The co-leader of the Red Flag Firearms Association, and a general of Liu Yuanli's clan, walked quickly. Report it out loud.

"Good!" Liu Yuanli nodded, and his gaze swept to the three hundred neatly arranged stone machines. These stone-hairers could throw a ten-pound clay pot 200 paces away - thankfully the Europa crusaders were stupid and had a detour. If they were holding a position supported by artillery, no one would dare to come up with so many damn "Roman fire". If this thing had been hit by a cannonball, it would have exploded!

"Ignition!" Liu Yuanli's voice trembled slightly, "Tell the brothers to be careful." Be careful! ”

At the sound of the order, the gunners at each emplacement took out the fire folds and carefully lit the fire rope - a cotton yarn with some "Roman fire" stained on the wax seal.

"Fat!"

Almost as soon as the arquebus was lit, the gunner, who commanded a stone-starting machine, shouted and pulled the trigger with the axe in his hand (or cut the rope with the axe in case it got stuck). And then there was a rattle of "canopies" - not a salvo, of course. This thing is too dangerous, no one dares to let it stay on the stone machine for even a moment!

"Pull the rope!" All the gunners shouted again, and ordered their subordinates to pull the ropes and wind the stone-hairing machine. Prepare for the second projectile - according to Liu Yuanli's order, each stone machine must complete ten projectiles, and after the battle, they can retreat, and everyone has merit, and how the next battle is fought has nothing to do with them.

"It's okay, it's okay, I didn't burn my own people's ......" Liu Yuanli saw that all the stone machines were still there after completing a round of salvos, and hurriedly wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and there were words in his mouth, "Taiyi God blesses, Sakyamuni blesses, Taishang Laojun blesses, God blesses, Changsheng Heaven blesses, and all the gods and grandfathers bless ......"

"What is this doing? Why are there torsion cannons? ”

When Liu Yuanli prayed to the gods and Buddhas in the sky, a group of crusader knights also noticed hundreds of smoking things flying in the sky. Nobody took it seriously - they had all seen torsion stones, and they had seen torsion stones fired incendiary bombs. But this thing doesn't have much power in the field...... There are 80,000 crusaders here, how many people can be burned by a few hundred incendiary bombs?

"Stupid barbarian......" Louis IX also stood on the ground, holding the reins in his hand, looking at the "incendiary bomb" falling from the sky and just shook his head, just about to say something sarcastic, an incendiary bomb had already landed on the dry grass more than ten steps away from him, and shattered with a bang, and then there was a "boom", a huge dazzling fireball burst into flames, and then the surrounding barren grassland also burst into flames, and in a blink of an eye, it spread to the feet of Louis IX!

"Hurry up, protect the king!"

"Extinguish the fire, extinguish the fire!"

"Oh God! What is it? ”

"Fire Fire Fire ......"

"Get out of here!"

"Nozomi Yoyo ......"

"Horses! Horse! The horse was frightened......"

As three hundred clay pots filled with "Roman fire" smashed into the wilderness, the sky-high fire burst into flames uncontrollably. And it was out of control, and the fire spread at an incredible speed. The entire central part of the crusader front was overwhelmed in the blink of an eye by a raging fire.

Of course, so many crusaders would not have been burned to death by hundreds of thousands of pounds of "Roman fire" scattered on the wasteland. "Roman fire" is not an atomic bomb after all, and it is impossible to kill tens of thousands of people at once. But the blaze that raged into the sky caused chaos that was difficult to contain. People shouted and neighed, and there was a mess. The formation, which was not neat in the first place, was now completely crumbling, and everywhere there were people or horses whose clothes and hair were set on fire by the fire. People are okay, they still know how to roll on the ground to extinguish the fire on their bodies, and if there are any companions who are on fire to help put out the fire, and they also know to exit the fire.

But the horses on the battlefield are terrible, horses are not stupid and bold animals, they are completely frightened crazy when they are suddenly in the fire, whether or not someone pulls their reins, whether the fire has burned them or not, these four-legged beasts just scream and run away in panic. Once these tens of thousands of horses galloped in panic, the crusader front would be completely chaotic. It was not only the French knights who were in the flames, but also the Italian crossbowmen, German knights, and knights of the Knights who were in front of and left in front of them, all of whom were now disrupted by this group of panicked crazy horses.

In particular, the Italian crossbowmen and Hungarian light cavalry, who were on the front line and were shooting at the Mongols with crossbows and compound bows, were rushed by the startled horses that suddenly poured out from behind, and the formation was completely scattered - the Italian crossbowmen did not all use crossbows, and there were some pikemen in the formation who were responsible for defending against the cavalry. When shooting arrows, you should also set up a formation to prevent the enemy's cavalry from risking death. Now it's a complete mess of the startled horses rushing from behind.

And this temporary chaos is exactly what the Mongols on the opposite side have been waiting for for a long time! Kublai Khan would not have believed that he could burn nearly 100,000 crusaders with hundreds of thousands of catties of "Roman fire". All he wanted was a big mess for the Crusaders.

Thirty thousand Mongol cavalrymen in leather armor and fish scale armor and spears armed had already formed three huge chisel formations. With the sound of a terrible horn, the charge of the Mongol cavalry began! The crusader's nightmare begins!

This is the beginning of the dark age of Europa...... (To be continued......)