The soldiers who had received a short break but were still exhausted by the promises that Blue Fairy and Thomas did not have, and who were still exhausted, gradually recovered some of their morale.

Nearly 5,000 crossbowmen marched rapidly to the southeast, while the wounded, along with more than 3,000 dwarven slaves, were left to Maria and thirty Crusaders.

Strictly speaking, these crossbowmen equipped with repeater bows can no longer be called long-range shooters in the traditional sense, because the effective range of the repeater bow is only 30 meters, and the best shooting distance is 20 meters, but it can shoot quickly and continuously, and there is no need to take the arrow from the arrow magazine for each arrow fired to pull the string, there is no fire interval, this flexible and fast attack class can actually play a better role in close combat.

After heavy rain, these crossbowmen must re-string, because the string made of cow tendon and deer tendon will be relaxed when wet, so when it rains or when the water is over, the bowstring will be temporarily removed, wrapped in layers of oilcloth, and then re-installed when it is in a dry environment, which is the necessary maintenance common sense of all archers and crossbowmen for their weapons.

The crossbowmen led by Thomas have fallen behind and no battle dwarves to fight with them, so this army must adapt to its new tactics, not only to maintain long-range suppression, but also to have its own protection capabilities, which is undoubtedly a new challenge and test for Thomas, the cavalry commander.

Two hours later, 3,000 crossbowmen lurked in the dense forest on both sides of the road more than 2,000 meters long, waiting for the enemy to throw themselves into the net. Thomas arranged for another 1,000 men to outflank the enemy's rear on the ground, and another 1,000 men to act as mobile troops, waiting for reinforcements at any time.

The enemy's baggage has more than 300 ox carts, and the length of the team is more than 5,000 meters, Thomas cannot attack all at the same time, but concentrates his forces to attack the 2,000 centaurs and 2,000 dwarven baggage troops, so that the enemy loses the ability to resist, as for those dwarf slaves, Thomas has long regarded them as his trophies.

Thomas immediately stood in the middle of the road with Xiao Baiyun, waiting for the arrival of the enemy......

The centaur walking in the front spotted Thomas and immediately sent a team of more than 20 people to rush over, but the convoy did not mean to stop moving forward, and still moved slowly.

Although the speed of these centaurs is fast, they are dwarfed by the faster Little White Cloud. Thomas carried his rifle on his horse, ignoring the enemy's outnumberedness, and directly broke through the encirclement of the centaur squad, and the men and horses cooperated, killing the centaurs one by one like cutting melons, breaking through the encirclement of this squad, and then rushed directly to the baggage convoy that was still moving forward in front, leaving the centaur team that surrounded him behind.

Before they could react, the heavy army suddenly found that countless crossbowmen appeared on both sides of them, shooting dense arrows at them.

"Woo~~"

"Enemy attack!!"

……

The battle dwarves immediately took cover for their heavy wagons, while the centaurs threw short spears at the crossbowmen on either side, the heavy wagons could not cover their massive bodies, and the only way to do so was to fight back and break through. But most of the short spears didn't have time to strike, and the centaurs fell to the ground one after another.

The crossbowmen strictly enforced Thomas's military order, that is, the first magazine of ten arrows must be fired in half a minute, so that the enemy did not even have a chance to react. The centaurs, who were tall and had no armor to protect them, were killed and wounded by the first round of shooters, and fled to the dense forest on both sides, knowing that only by entering the dense forest could they escape.

The battle was much simpler than Thomas had imagined, and his initial fear that the crossbowmen were unfit for close combat now seemed superfluous, and the crossbowmen themselves knew better than Thomas, the commander of the cavalry, how to use their weapons to the fullest.

After the first arrow box was fired, the centaurs in front of the convoy were killed, and the rest, some broke through into the dense forest, and some were still struggling to resist in place.

The crossbowmen who quickly installed the second arrow box turned into sporadic free fire, and those battle dwarves who relied on baggage vehicles as cover did not even dare to show their heads, they originally wanted to wait until the centaurs were entangled with the enemy, and after the arrow rain passed, they would come out to fight the enemy hand-to-hand, but the arrow rain never disappeared, and the centaurs' speed advantage was not brought into play, and the battle was basically over.

Thomas ambushed the front half of the baggage convoy, as well as many centaurs and battle dwarves who were not in the ambush circle, and when he realized that the situation was not right, he immediately gave up on reinforcing the front, left the baggage and dwarf slaves, and fled to the rear, and the thousand crossbowmen who had been waiting for him had long been followed became their nightmare, and after leaving a large number of corpses, the few remnants disappeared into the jungle.

Striking at the front half and deterring the second half, Thomas adopted such a strategy when the forces were not enough to completely encircle the enemy.

The centaurs in the first half of the convoy were almost all killed, but the dwarven warriors suffered very few casualties and became Thomas's prisoners, along with 3,000 dwarven slaves.

The hand-to-hand battle soon subsided, and Thomas was left to deal with the headaches.

There were more than 300 vehicles, one-third of which were catapults, one-third were ballistas, and dozens of truckloads of food, and the rest were dozens of truckloads of war materials, including weapons and equipment, armor, and medicines, and what excited Thomas the most was eight carts full of arrows, with more than 100,000 arrows. These arrow-repeater archers are not suitable for use, but the longbows of Phantom Archers and Elven Archers are just right.

The morale of the whole army was high, and the previous fatigue and complaints were washed away by a great victory.

Thomas immediately sent Butterfly to convey the good news to Higg, and asked Blue Fairy to lead the team to clean up the battlefield, and he needed to find a place where he could hide these hundreds of supply vehicles.

……

The first to get information about this battle was not Higg, but the druids outside Korqin who were closer and waiting for reinforcements. Seeing more than a dozen remnants of soldiers who came to report the news, Stephen, the commander of the army, was furious and annoyed, and the only choice in front of him was to make a desperate bet and take the city with all his might to make up for it. Without logistics, his army was only enough to last two days, and he had to capture Horqin within two days.

Corincha didn't know what was happening, and watched as the black army steadily advanced towards his city, but he didn't see catapults or ballistas, but Corincha was not happy at all. He didn't know if he would be able to hold the city in the face of a shortage of troops and supplies. As long as it is after tonight, even if the city is lost, he can be regarded as having fulfilled the commander's order.

Stephen doesn't seem to have a better way, it's still yesterday's siege tactics, but this time he invested all his troops, attacking in echelons in turn, and the three city walls in the east, west, and south, regardless of the main attack and feints, all invested the same troops, and did not give the defending side any respite.

Centaur warriors, the equivalent of cavalry, also entered the fray, risking being shot and throwing short spears upwards under the walls, albeit with little success, at least to keep the phantom shooters from shooting. When the phalanx of dwarven warriors escorted the elven archers into range, they gave up their protection of the elven archers and quickly followed the deadwood warriors to the bottom of the city walls, scrambling to climb the ladder. The elven archers, who had lost the dwarven protective phalanx, also quickly rushed under the city walls and fired at the phantom archers.

The enemy is crazy! This was the unanimous conclusion of Corincha and the defenders of the city. All targets are exposed to the Phantom Shooter's range, and it appears that the enemy commander will trade corpses for cities. The ruthless druids themselves do not go to war, but are out of range of the Phantom Shooter, summoning Deadwood Warriors, and every time Deadwood Warriors fall, they summon again until their magic runs out. The centaurs, the dwarven warriors, and the elven archers, to them, were nothing more than slaves, tools, machines, beasts without thoughts.

The phantom archers on the city wall were injured one by one by one with arrows, but the elven archers under the city fell one by one, the phantom archers had the wall battlements as cover, and they could kill the elven archers with one blow, and the number of elven archers under the city was several times that of the phantom archers, looking up and shooting, and it was the ultimate range, unless it was to shoot the head of the phantom archer, it was generally difficult to be directly killed, but the elf archers and the harassment of centaurs throwing short spears turned out to be evenly matched.

The dwarven warriors were much more embarrassed to deal with the enemies who ascended the city from the cloud ladder, because there was less suppression and help from the phantom archers, and the other side had countless dwarves to join the battle, and the dwarven warriors defending the city were gradually at a disadvantage. Deadwood warriors and battle dwarves were constantly falling down ladders from the stones thrown by the dwarven warriors on the walls, but the more deadwood warriors and battle dwarves climbed up, it looked like the walls would soon fall away.

Colin Cha used the last four hundred phantom archers to suppress the opposing city-climbing troops, and then climbed to the roof of the high gatehouse at the south gate himself, shouting: "All the gates have been blocked, there is no way out, the city is alive, the city is ruined!" ”

As he spoke, he did not hesitate to shoot the opponent's arrows towards him, bent his bow and arrows, and fired three arrows in unison, and the three deadwood warriors who were on the ladder immediately fell down and could not stand up again. The two guards on the left and right hurriedly stepped forward and dragged Kolincha, trying to pull him off the roof of the gatehouse, but they were immediately stopped by Corincha, and the guards immediately surrounded him, Kolincha was furious, and kicked one of the guards off the gatehouse with one kick, and fell heavily on the city wall, but the other guard in front of him had been hit by an arrow and fell, spitting blood from his mouth, and died of exhaustion.

Unmoved, Corinth bent his bow and arrows again, and fired three arrows in unison, roaring towards the other three deadwood warriors. With a pop, an arrow pierced through the leather and plunged into Corincha's left shoulder.

Without hesitation, Corincha pulled out the arrow, and blood immediately spurted out of the arrow's wound. Withstanding the pain, he slammed the bloody arrow to the bowstring and shot it where it had flown from......

At the moment of life and death, the soldiers defending the city saw that their generals were taking the lead, and the bloody eruption, and the phantom archers who fell to the ground and were injured struggled to stand up, returned to the battle position, and shot arrows with bows; Many phantom archers, whose arsenals were already empty, took out their daggers and joined the hand-to-hand combat groups around them; Many battle dwarves were entangled by the deadwood warriors who climbed the walls, but they fought hard to repay the deadwood warriors and fell off the walls together......

The enemy is crazy, and he is crazy......

Korincha, who was hit by three arrows, fell from the top of the city gate to the city wall, a mouthful of blood spurted out, and then struggled to stand up, drew his sword, and staggered towards the blurred enemy figure in front of him......

A tragic battle seems to be gradually coming to an end as night falls......