"Infantry advance! Crossbowmen advance! ”

The flags waved, the horns blew rhythmically, and the halberders and crossbowmen at the front of the line began to advance, and the troops on both flanks began to march towards their designated positions.

On the other side, Rhodok's phalanx was also fully deployed, and the crossbowmen went to the front of the troops to wind the crossbow arrows. Behind them, Rhodok's spearmen were smashing stakes diagonally into the ground with hammers to prevent cavalry charges.

The remaining cavalry of Rhodok's army was also concentrated by Count Mateas and evacuated from the frontal battlefield, and Byron did not know where they had been mobilized, but the purpose was nothing more than to launch a surprise attack or prevent a surprise attack.

On the frontal battlefield, Byron engaged the lumberjacks and half of the mercenary infantry, along with the crossbowmen. However, since almost no halberdiers carry shields, the most stressful are the Rhodok spearmen who set foot on the battlefield for the first time, and the Swadian light infantry and mercenaries with kite-shaped shields.

The Rhodok spearmen, who had only joined the army last month, restrained their fears as much as they could, their shields held alof, and marched slowly at the urging of the officers behind them. The crossbowmen and halberdiers standing behind them were more relaxed, they were just as afraid of death, but after so many battles, they had a little confidence in themselves, and they felt that they would survive until the end of the battle.

The distance between the two sides was more than 200 meters, a distance that even a large catapult could not reach, so all the troops on Byron's side were advancing, and only the wagons responsible for carrying supplies remained in place.

Suno's main force went to attack the right flank of the Rhodok army, and they didn't trust Byron very much, so they concentrated their troops so as not to be pulled by Byron as cannon fodder. And Fatis took Byron's main force to the left flank of Rhodok, and they would launch a fierce attack, and Rolf could take this opportunity to take advantage of the cavalry force to detour back behind Rhodok's army.

Byron's troops were not large enough to support a multi-front battle, so he had to move quickly, to demoralize the militia drawn by Count Mateas, and let the rout break their formation.

Byron's troops continued to advance, and when the frontal forces of the two sides were close to 100 meters, Rhodok's crossbowmen stepped up to the front and fired a wave of fire. The shots were scattered, the arrows were still wooden. It can be seen that this is just a temptation.

This tentative attack was carried out only once, and when Byron got within reach of the crossbowmen that they could aim at, they were fired at them with real iron bolts. The Rhodok crossbowmen took turns firing in five rows, striking at the advancing infantry phalanx.

In the face of a rain of arrows, the Rhodok spearmen who had been recruited by Byron almost stopped. Although they were holding broad shields, their steps were uneven, so there were many casualties in the rain of arrows.

However, this will not have much impact on the morale of the Byron troops, because even the spearmen themselves understand that they are nothing more than miscellaneous soldiers who consume the combat power of the opposing troops, and it is one of their tasks to consume the opponent's arrows.

The engineer of the Peony mercenary had also pushed the catapult and the ballista into the right position at this time, the crossbow string was tightened, the hemp rope was dragged, and the heavy stones flew by inertia to the Rhodok infantry cluster in the distance with the rapid rise of the wooden pole.

Seeing the heavy stones growing in their field of vision, the Rhodok crossbowmen, who had been raising their crossbow arrows and preparing to shoot, were so frightened that they hurriedly retreated. No sooner had they stepped back to the spearmen behind them than a few stones had already smashed into the ground where they had stood, creating a shallow crater in the ground and shattering rubble flying everywhere.

However, more stones flew into the queue of spearmen in the back rows, because the crossbowmen's hasty retreat had left them too late to escape, so they could only raise their shields to try to protect themselves, and then watch the stones break their broad shields and feel the pain of broken tendons.

Heavy crossbow arrows that had been set on fire at the tip also burst out like thunder, piercing through wooden shields and cotton chainmail in the confusion, sticking heavily armed spearmen into the ground, or slicing through the bodies of many people in succession by inertia, inflicting fatal damage on them.

Rhodok's ballistae responded with a response, shooting arm-thick heavy bolts at the Lumberjacks and Peony mercenaries who were still moving forward, and occasionally firing a few arrows at the opposing Ballista and Engineers. However, their attack did not last long, and they were hit by the catapult of the Peony mercenary, and were forced to withdraw to the rear of the troops, losing the ability to strike the heavy weapons of the Peony mercenary.

The distance between the two forces was getting shorter and shorter, and the crossbowmen on the Peony mercenary's side also stood in front of the group and fired several rounds at each other. Because the distance between the two sides was less than 30 meters at this time, the accuracy of these crossbow arrows was very high, and the power was also amazing. Half of the Rhodok soldiers in the front row fell, and there were multiple gaps in the phalanx.

However, to the surprise of the Rhodok officers in charge, the other party did not take advantage of this opportunity to attack, but stopped more than ten meters away.

"Are they getting in formation?"

Those officers couldn't help but think so.

However, the sound of rapidly approaching horses' hooves and tall cavalry figures quickly resolved their doubts, and the lumberjacks and peony mercenaries turned sideways to make way for four passages, from which four groups of heavily armored cavalry on unarmored horses lined up, holding javelins and some terracotta tiles or wooden jars.

"Array! Hurry up! Queue up behind the rejection horse! ”

"Raise your spear! Raise all your guns and stop the cavalry! ”

Seeing the rapidly approaching cavalry, Officer Rhodok immediately reacted to what would happen if the current chaotic formation was attacked by the cavalry, and hurriedly ordered the troops to quickly set up a spear formation. However, due to the influence of the previous Swadian heavy cavalry charge, they temporarily ignored the style of weapons in the hands of the opposing cavalry and the speed of these cavalry were not enough to form enough impact at such a distance, which can be regarded as a misleading thinking.

Count Mateas, who commanded the battle behind the troops, observed this, but there was not enough time for him to give the order.

The cavalry had already rushed in front of the phalanx of Rhodok's spears, and threw out the tamales that had already ignited the gunpowder, and then immediately turned their horses to the sides of the phalanx.

Once again, the power of the gunpowder weapons was on display, and the oversized torleys rose in a black mist over the shield walls, and the fragments and pieces of iron doped with the gunpowder flew out, cutting the cheeks and exposed skin of the Rhodok soldiers, stuck between the muscles.

The cavalry's javelins also came in large numbers, suppressing the spearmen even more.

The impact and debris dislodged many of the spearmen from their original positions, causing the phalanx to loosen once again, and the lumberjack soldiers took advantage of the moment to raise their halberds and rush over, past the horses that held back the cavalry, and engaged the phalanx of spearmen.

The previous cavalry stopped on either side of their own troops after throwing, and the heavily armored cavalry dismounted, picked up two-handed swords and extended war hammers, handed their horses to the care of their attendants, and formed a heavy cavalry force on foot to attack the opposite phalanx.