Chapter Twenty-Six: Take the Initiative
Three days later, in the wilderness of Tulka City, Hu Bin met the Saiga Khan who suppressed the bandits, and participated in a safari-style battle, Hu Bin met the Saiga Khan and sent a letter from the Sultan, telling him his plan.
"Ah, Lord Reed, is this your plan? Well, it's very feasible, to be honest I don't object to this plan, but you underestimate the strength of the Svadia kingdom too much. It's no wonder that you're coming back from overseas and don't know the country yet, Hakim should know about it, but he may have his own considerations, so let me tell you about it. The kingdom of Svadia had three powers, King Haraus occupied the west, Prince Harungus held the south, and Marshal Klagus guarded the important places in the central part of the continent, and the other lords were under these three commands. Some time ago, the main force attacking the southern Rhodok was the imperial leader King Harauth and the radical leader Harongos, which is why many nobles were eager to stop the war after Lord Harungus was captured, and that madman was the real main battle faction. And because Svadia is surrounded by enemies, conservatives have a very good market in the country, and Marshal Kraggs, the leader of the most powerful family in the central region, has naturally become the head of the conservatives. That person is really difficult to deal with, after this war with Nord, he has been guarding my door at his doorstep, if I attack there, King Harauth may end the battle with Nord as soon as possible to support the east, regardless of his previous suspicions, but it may not be, who knows, this is the joy of fate. But with Salander's troops, maybe we'll take advantage of it, I haven't seen the walls of Drehem in a few years, and I really miss it. I will gather the clan at once, thank you for bringing such an important letter, and forgive me for not being able to entertain you. ”
Hu Bin completed the mission of transmitting the message, went to Tulga City to visit the mayor, left the funds to build a dyeing workshop on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce Alliance, and exchanged the following information with Gerry, who was still in the wild, and then returned to Shariz to report and prepare for war with the Svadia Kingdom.
On November 5th, there was a rare light snowfall in Salander, and the Governor of Sharez even counted it in the city's history. Today, however, something even bigger happened, as the legion of 11 lords of Salander was ready to go, and about the same number of Kugit legions were hovering around Lana City, and the two countries launched an invasion of the kingdom of Svadia at the same time.
"It's been a day since the war letter was issued, let's get ready to go." The Sultan of Hakim gave the order to set off, and then the command was transferred to the marshal, and the party hurried to the center of the continent.
A day later, several lords broke away from their large forces to reconnoiter the nearby enemy military deployment, while others waited for Kugit to attack first.
"Saiga, that anxious son won't wait for us." Hakim Sultan said lightly. This time, Salander only dispatched less than 700 troops, and the main strategic idea was robbery, taking advantage of the fact that Swadia had no time to deploy defenses and harvest the wealth of the village, Hu Bin was eager to prepare for a robbery match with the Salander lords who came with him.
Sure enough, reconnaissance from the front showed that the Kujit had approached the city of Drehem, and a large number of Swadia troops were pinned down in the city. A small group of Kugit troops had already begun to loot a village, and it was the numbered men of the Kugit camp who had robbed the village with one person, and the others scattered to keep on guard, ready to give up the loot at any time to preserve their strength.
Hu Bin was very envious of this kind of teamwork, but it was obvious that the benefits of this model were much smaller, and Hu Bin, who wanted to open up, followed the large army for a while to bypass the border fortress Fort Rendi, and then dispersed under the order of the marshal to attack on his own.
As night fell, Hu Bin continued to go west, this time his target was Norma Village, which was far away from the battlefield, and he couldn't tell why he chose such a remote village to raid at that time, but since it had been chosen, it was necessary to cooperate with the marshal's grand strategy. At half past two in the middle of the night, Hu Bin's army drove away the awakened villagers, and then left the burning village at eight o'clock in the morning. Later, Hu Bin, who went north, recalled the marshal's strategy, reconnoitred near the two villages of Bigren and Chade, and if possible, raided a village to test the reaction of the surrounding enemies, so as to ensure that the situation in the western part of Drehem City was under the control of his own reconnaissance. Hu Bin successfully harvested Biglen Village, but he couldn't even believe it. Continuing north, Chad was also plundered by Hu Bin, but Hu Bin finally ushered in the first lord to come to the rescue.
Lord Dirina was annoyed, as one of the core figures of the main battle faction, he was supposed to be active on the front line against the Nords, but everything was wiped out in that failed raid, and all his mobile forces were lost in that village. It's all because those cowards didn't keep up with themselves, they only knew how to act on the periphery, and when they came to their rescue, it was better to expect that group of conservatives to take the initiative to attack.
The battle situation on the Eastern Front is very serious, not to mention the old power of Kujitt, it is simply unacceptable not to touch it a few times a year, but even the vultures in the desert have the courage to come, is it possible that Svadia has decayed so much that they smell rot?
That little rookie, I heard that he is the heir of the Reed family, he has only been a lord for less than two months, and he dares to come here to spread wild, if it weren't for Prince Harongos's strict order not to act rashly, he would have given that kid who doesn't know the height of the sky a little bit of color. Who knew that he was not satisfied with robbing two villages in a row, it was simply unreasonable, didn't his elders teach him to do what he could.
It's been a whole day, and the refugees from a nearby village have long begged him to attack, but for the sake of that damn plan, he had to stay here and wait. Fortunately, God favors, the kid ran in front of him and shook it with all his might, and swaggered into the village, I just passively engaged, well, just deal with the prince's questioning.
When Hu Bin found out about the enemy, he immediately gave up looting and rallying troops, but he was still blocked in the village, although the number was only more than 70, but the elite was not a few. Hu Bin carefully used the buildings in the village to block the intersection with dismounted cavalry and infantry and erect spears. The archers and sentries had already found their shooting positions, and Hu Bin stood on the roof of the hut with a bow to observe the enemy.
The crooked main roads of the village and town were not conducive to cavalry charges, but the thick waistcoat gave the Swadia heavy cavalry and knights more protection in the melee, after all, many attacks could not reach them on horseback. They crossed the river in front of the village with great speed, and were shot in the chest by Hu Bin on the way, but the thick armor did not kill the knight on the spot, but the others carefully erected their cavalry shields.
Hu Bin, who was secretly startling the snakes, simply let them in, and he found the infantry and crossbowmen who were slowly advancing, which made Hu Bin frown, and a large group of peasants rushed over desperately, blocking the front of the regular army, with their cover, it was very difficult to shoot the infantry behind. The shooter next to him had already begun to release the first round of arrows, and Hu Bin couldn't hesitate, and a sharp arrow took the life of the leading farmer.
The mixed forces of cavalry and Hu Bin's infantry were already mixed together, but several of the Svadian knights were armed with maces, and the light infantry in the front row were slightly wounded by the onslaught of the horses, and then the hammers came. The sound of broken shields had not yet subsided, and the sound of swords grinding meat mixed with the neighing of horses being stabbed by spears. Hu Bin took another ill-protected heavy cavalryman, and a crossbow arrow also landed on the head of the archer beside him, and the hapless soldier died without a sound.
Hu Bin, who was furious, saw the dismounted lord of Dilinna leading the infantry with a siege crossbow to force up, but his own formation was torn apart by the heavy cavalry, and the crossbowmen could already suppress the light infantry, and the situation was getting worse and worse. Seeing that the light infantry were wounded and killed by the cavalry one by one, the archers in the rear were already desperately supporting the front line, but they were still a drop in the bucket in the face of the heavily armored enemy. Hu Bin sighed and took out one of the hole cards he dared to face the opposing legion: shouting.
"Crusader Legion Charge." The crusade flag erected on the high place was very eye-catching, all Hu Bin's subordinates roared, and launched a counterattack with all their might, the fanatical light infantry and infantry cavalry pulled the Swadia cavalry off their horses with the enemy's sharp blades, and then a group of people surrounded a few fallen horses and slashed wildly, and the cavalry team of more than a dozen people was lost in a moment.
But with the delay of the cavalry, the lord of Dirina had already pressed with the infantry. He could only watch his elite being overwhelmed by a group of madmen, and Lord Dirinna's heart ached. The peasants were completely stunned by the desperate way of fighting because they rushed forward, and before they could wave the long-handled sickle in their hands, they were completely damaged in the opponent's counter-charge, and the infantry of the two sides fell into an interspersed melee, and the long-range troops of both sides did not dare to shoot at will, so they could only play with their peers.
Fierce hand-to-hand combat inevitably appeared in this slightly narrow alleyway, and the three guards swept down a group of enemies with their stunning sword winds, and the battlefield was briefly silenced, and then the louder fighting voices covered everything.
"Seventh", Hu Bin knocked down a marksman, less than ten arrows, the casualties on both sides have reached a limit, but Hu Bin's army has the characteristics of fighting to the death and not retreating, and they would rather die than bite off a piece of the opponent's flesh with high morale
Lord Dirina cut down the hired riders in front of him, and found that the soldiers beside him no longer shouted, most of them hid behind their shields to resist the frenzied swings from the opposite side, and the Lord Dilinna, who had the intention of retreating, ordered the infantry to retreat in an orderly manner, ready to regroup their formation. Hu Binna would let them leave like this, decisively ordered the troops to pursue, and then shot an arrow on the gauntlets of the opposite lord, frightening the lord of Dirina to quickly shrink behind the shield.
Hu Bin wanted to stand up and give him a few arrows from the other side, but a round of crossbow bolts that came at him in an instant made him discourage the idea of coming out, and the Swadia crossbowmen, who had wounded many brothers, hated this enemy with accurate archery. In desperation, Hu Bin got on his horse and ordered several guards to find the horses left by the heavy cavalry, and then went together to outflank the crossbowmen on the opposite side and play the game of cavalry cutting light armor crispy.
The two sides had no formation tactics to speak of, and the outnumbered Swadia side was still relying on its own well-equipped to resist desperately, but as Hu Bin and the others rushed into the crossbowman crowd and brought a storm of blades, the enemy's resistance was easily broken. The soldiers in the back began to flee, being chased by Hu Bin's cavalry, and the resistance in the front row fell in the encirclement of several times the enemy, and finally completely wiped out the enemy, but unfortunately, the lord of Dilinna fled in the chaos.
Hu Bin completed the chase and continued the robbery, and by the way, he counted the battle damage. The infantry suffered heavy losses, and the fragile cotton armor could not protect their bodies in the melee, and their casualties were accelerated by the fanatical substitution of attack and defense, and in the end, only 2 senior light infantry and 7 light infantry were injured and saved, and the new recruits were used as cannon fodder and lost. The armor of the infantry cavalry is slightly better, but the battle under the horse is not the old business after all, the mercenary riders lost 2 people, both of which were cut down by the lord of Dirinna, and the thin body of the caravan guards made them only 2 seriously wounded, and the Salander riders were more suitable for foot combat due to light infantry background, and only 1 was seriously wounded and died. Archers and Sentinels killed only 6 guerrilla rookie shooters in the duel shot.
The most brilliant in this battle are the 9 hired swordsmen, who have been ignored by Hu Bin for a long time because of their lack of means to deal with cavalry, but the mercenaries who wear chain armor and hold one-handed swords and shields, and walk on the line of life and death all the year round, obviously have a considerable advantage in personal strength, and they all survived in the melee, which made Hu Bin's eyes shine and found hope to make up for the weakness of Salander's infantry.
After the First World War, only 55 members of the regiment remained, more than half of them died, and most of the remaining soldiers were wounded. Hu Bin finished the plunder and retreated to the southeast, his task had been overfulfilled, although the loss was a bit large, but Hu Bin was acceptable, after all, the regiment wiped out an elite lord legion.
The wealth of the three villages has also been securely pocketed, and although 20% of the money has to be paid as compensation to the lords who hold back the enemy, they still earn it this time. The surviving soldiers have been greatly improved, most of them can be promoted, and Hu Bin's available combat power is a little more, but next time you have to be careful, your own troops can't kill more than half of them every time.
Hu Bin was very surprised to find that Ted was holding a pile of gold coins and asked for more food, only to know that this lucky guy had picked up the steel shield of Lord Dirinna, and he didn't need this shield as a two-handed man, so he exchanged some dinar with Fenrir, ready to find Hu Bin to spend some food on the loot. Hu Bin sighed that this foodie was really foolish, and he sent him away with a meal.