Chapter 170: Defeat in the first battle

The vast army of mercenaries began their crusade against the goblins, and they were followed by a supply convoy of specialized caravans, loaded with not only the food needed for the mission, but also a lot of military supplies, such as bows and arrows and bed crossbows. When Hu Bin asked Her Majesty to sell her a batch of military supplies, the queen readily agreed, not only supporting a lot of long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows, but also disassembling a few bed crossbows installed on the city wall and moving them to Hu Bin. If it weren't for Hu Bin's urgent stop, the group of Luo Han soldiers would have almost taken off their armor and sold it to Hu Bin. Luo Han's side wished that Hu Bin would collect more ordnance, because Hu Bin directly traded with them with supplies.

Hu Bin, who secretly suffered a loss, didn't care, it was impossible for these military aids to be sold to non-governmental organizations in peacetime, and Hu Bin was also stained with Sauron's light to get so much forbidden equipment, with these things, Hu Bin's confidence in this expedition was a lot. With the document signed by the queen herself, Hu Bin's brigade of course reached the border unhindered, and then Hu Bin led the people to the misty mountains in the northwest, and ran towards the destination of this trip, Moria.

Almost all of the benefits he received from Grimmar before were used for this expedition, and Hu Bin, who had experienced the world of warbands, understood that war was fought with money, so he did not hesitate to invest in this operation. This is also the first time that Hu Bin has commanded a large army of 5,000 people, although most of the legions are poorly disciplined mercenaries, but driven by interests, sometimes mercenaries are better than regular troops.

Seven days later, the group arrived at the entrance of the Moriath mine, and Hu Bin ordered the group to camp outside the entrance, and sent scouts to search for the traces of the Hebrew group, which was nearby. It was soon discovered by the men sent by Hu Bin, and came to Hu Bin's camp in the evening.

"Reed, you can always do things that are unexpected. Aren't you going after Grimmar, how can you have time to form such an army? "Hebrew was already somewhat immune to the good fortune of this magical elf. But I was still frightened by the mercenary army of 5,000 people.

"Great, now we have enough strength to teach those goblins a lesson." Vicky's mind is the purest, and the first thing he thinks about is how to retake the mine, after all, anyone can be annoyed when a dwarf is forcibly interrupted while he is indulging in the pleasure of mining.

"Anyway, a lot has happened during this period, and this army is not as difficult to gather as you think, after all, there will never be a shortage of mercenaries if you have money." Hu Bin said modestly with the appearance of a local tyrant.

"Are these military equipment too?" The wolf lord resentfully took out a crossbow from a truck and gestured at Hu Bin. And in the back of the car was a small bed crossbow.

"Huh! This is a gift from the Kingdom of Lohan, and they insist on selling it to me, and I can't refuse it. Hu Bin said with a cool look, causing the others to roll their eyes together.

"How much does it cost so many people to gather!" Dale saw the bustling camp. I couldn't help but sigh.

"Not much, the task reward will be settled after the mission is over, and now the main expenses are mostly used for bows, crossbows, arrows and food consumption, about 200,000 gold coins." After a rough estimate, Hu Bin gave an astonishing price.

"Two hundred thousand!" Dale's eyes immediately became glazed. Something was constantly muttered in his mouth.

Hu Bin listened carefully and found that Dai'er was talking about how many medicinal materials could be purchased with 200,000 gold coins, how many poisons could be used to configure these materials, and how many enemies could be poisoned by these poisons. Cold sweat instantly burst out of Hu Bin's forehead, and it seemed that Dai'er was going farther and farther on the road of femme fatale.

"I should have discovered the essence of your tyrant. Let's be friends! The wolf said with starry eyes.

"You!"

……

The Hebrews, who had received strong reinforcements, finally regained their confidence, and they had infiltrated the mine many times before, and although they were all expelled in the end, they also touched the terrain in the mine almost perfectly, which helped the mercenaries a lot in their next actions.

The team of 5,000 people, including Hu Bin, was also led for the first time, and the particularity of the mercenaries was not suitable for management with a unified battle formation, which didn't matter in the previous march, but after entering the mine where the goblin army could be encountered at any time, various problems were highlighted.

Most of the mercenaries are alone, even if they form a mercenary team, they are controlled under ten people, and large mercenary gangs are not allowed to occur in the land of the Luohan Kingdom. First of all, a few small teams of mercenaries who are more cooperatively coordinated were separately proposed, and they were equipped with crossbows as strikers to explore the route, while the others readjusted their positions according to the weapons they were good at.

The mercenaries who were proficient in the use of bows and arrows were arranged at the back of the team to form a long-range support force, and Hu Bin also arranged for the Icilian rangers to command these people, while the other mercenaries who were not good at bows and arrows were arranged in three echelons to advance slowly, leaving enough depth between the teams according to the formation used by the coalition forces during the battle of the alliance in Hu Bin's memory.

The Kingdom of Luohan is famous for its cavalry, and the mercenaries in the territory generally have skilled riding skills, but there are not too many qualified archers, seeing the archer formation that even five hundred people can't get together, Hu Bin felt a big head, and had to issue all the crossbows to the mercenaries of the second and third echelons, in order to expect them to make up for some shortcomings in long-range firepower.

Hu Bin's preparation was actually not sufficient, but until now, he couldn't help it, it seemed that the run-in problem of the team was about to be solved in actual combat, and he could only hope that the first wave of goblin attacks was not large.

"Boss, the brother in front has spotted the goblin patrol and is already fighting them, shall we speed it up?" Gurion is an experienced old mercenary, who is very popular with the mercenaries because of his qualifications and personality, and Hu Bin also gave the old mercenary a certain command authority, allowing him to handle the affairs of the first echelon.

"No, let the strikers come back, let's find a better terrain to defend on the spot." Hu Bin knew that so many people would definitely be noticed by the goblins when they entered the mine, so instead of spending effort to find these little monsters, it was better to find a good terrain and wait for them to take the initiative to attack.

"Okay!" Gurion said helplessly. Of course, he also knew that there were many hidden dangers in this newly integrated team, and he wanted to use a small victory to improve morale and cultivate cooperation between mercenaries.

"The patron is a little too careful, after all, the goblin is a race with weak individual strength. As long as the number is not too large, your own side can strike first. Gurion complained to himself. Then he passed the order down according to Hu Bin's instructions.

It turned out how correct Hu Bin's caution was, and the goblins who received the invasion alarm immediately poured out, and the huge number surprised the mercenaries in the forward, but fortunately they retreated to a place not far from the large army early, otherwise they would inevitably have to come to a life-and-death speed. Gurion was also taken aback by the news that the Strikers had brought back, and according to them, the Goblins had reached nearly 10,000 troops in their first sortie. There are still a lot of reinforcements coming here.

"Array, array." Gurion shouted at the mercenaries urgently, he still had a little military literacy, and knew that if the first echelon could not withstand the attack. Then the whole team will be affected, and when the time comes, it will be a small matter to lose your life in this place.

The good news is that the terrain the mercenaries are in their favor, with the narrow junctions ahead limiting the Goblins' attacks, and the straight tunnels allowing them to avoid attacks from the flanks and rear. With the support of their own archers, the mercenaries believed that it would be easy to withstand the 18,000 weak goblin warriors.

But the truth is often much more brutal than expected, and when the army of chirping goblins rushes at them with their teeth and claws, the mercenaries realize that they are not only underestimating the madness of the goblins, but also overestimating the state of their own side. Many of the first-line mercenaries subconsciously trembled and retreated. And their actions drove many people in the vicinity who thought the same way, and the originally neat formation was about to collapse immediately, and no matter how Gurion shouted, it was useless.

Fortunately, Hu Bin found out the situation ahead, and immediately ordered the archers to release a round of arrows, due to the height of the mine, it was impossible to increase the range with projectiles, the effect of this salvo was not significant, many arrows hit the rocks on the top of the mine, and only a few caused damage to the goblins in the process of falling, causing them to scream.

However, this round of arrows greatly encouraged the mercenaries in front of them, and they remembered that they had a group of archers behind them, and the enemy in front of them was nothing more than a small and weak goblin, although there were many of them.

"Don't retreat, you cowards, raise your weapons and hold your ground, you're just facing a bunch of goblins, and I'm ashamed of your cowardice." Gurion's roar finally reached the ears of the mercenaries, and the mercenaries in the first echelon quickly regrouped their formations with red faces, and waited for the goblin army to approach with various weapons in annoyance.

As the goblins approached, Hu Bin finally saw their appearance clearly. The long ears have the charm of fairy ears, but unfortunately the dirty fuzz and chips on them make them unsightly. Beneath the big eyes is a large mouth that grins all the way to the cheeks, fangs inside indicate that the goblins are not docile vegetarians, and a crazy face is full of the Creator's mistakes and irresponsibility. The short body is connected to the slender limbs, and the thin torso is like a malnourished large baby, in Hu Bin's words, the word "war five scum" to describe the goblin is already a high evaluation.

However, despite the fact that these little monsters wear rudimentary armor and even carry only a fig leaf, and most of the weapons in their hands are iron pickaxes, wooden sticks, and stones, their sheer numbers and insane fighting spirit are still very dangerous for the human mercenaries who are somewhat armed.

The second round of arrow rain was ordered to be launched by Hu Bin without hesitation, and in the face of the tide of enemies, Hu Bin did not hesitate to put all the available conventional combat power in his hands into battle, anyway, for the goblins under the IQ, means and tactics are a kind of redundancy.

The goblins, who finally entered the effective range, did not escape the baptism of the rain of arrows this time, and the screams instantly came from the goblin strikers who rushed to the front, but soon these sounds were cut off, and the goblins who were not afraid of death stepped on the bodies of the wounded and continued to rush to the position of the expeditionary force without hesitation. The mercenaries were also cut off by the terrible sight in front of them, because they finally realized the horror of goblins, and they were as cruel as beasts to their enemies and companions, which was why the Sapient Races were reluctant to recognize them as one of them.

Gurion correctly judged the situation. He wasn't surprised to see that long-range attacks couldn't suppress enemies, and although goblins were timid and easy to bully when they existed alone, once they formed a scale, they would activate a racial stunt similar to madness. And when they are driven by the Goblin King behind them, the effect of this special will be multiplied. No one knew that the old mercenary had hunted the Goblin King during his previous adventures. Although he failed in the end, escaping from the siege of many goblins can already show the extraordinary things about the old mercenary, and now that he is old, the experience he has accumulated before will not be lost.

"Form a dense formation, withstand the first wave of impact and they are not afraid, their weapons are not lethal, the first three platoons give up their defenses and charge forward." Gurion's order reached the ears of the mercenaries. But no one rushed out as ordered, which made Gurion feel helpless, so he had to stop insisting and let the mercenaries stand still.

It's not that the mercenaries don't want to follow orders. But this order is really incredible, in the face of the ferocious and crazy Goblin Sea, he actually ordered the front row to charge, isn't Gurion still afraid that the defensive front is not weak enough.

If Hu Bin was here, he would definitely slap his thigh and shout that he had picked up the treasure, and Gurion's order was actually very correct. When facing enemy charges. The best way to do this is, of course, to maintain a defensive formation and then defend against the counter-attack, but this is for an army of the same quality. In the face of an enemy as weak as the Goblin, you only need to send the forward to boldly hedge forward to disperse the opponent's sharp energy, so that the power of the charge will not all explode on the soldiers in the front row. Wait until the spirit of the charge has been exhausted. The soldiers in the back only need to push forward a little to meet the fighters who rush back and re-establish the defensive line.

But the mercenaries had already missed the opportunity, and the goblin army crashed into the mercenaries in the first row in a blink of an eye, and then was forced into the enemy's defense by their companions behind them. In a flash, the mercenaries of the first echelon fell into a bitter battle, although the impact of the goblins was not strong, but the mercenaries were not specialized shield warriors. Although the goblins fell as soon as Pu fought, more goblins directly overwhelmed the defense.

Looking at the collapse of the front line, Hu Bin sighed, although he didn't have much hope for the team combat ability of these mercenaries, but the formation of being scattered by the goblins in a single shot still made him a little hard to believe. The second echelon had already had to go into battle to rescue the first echelon, and the original plan of rotational combat was directly disrupted.

What are the consequences of being broken up by the enemy, the mercenaries on the front line are now feeling very deeply. Each of the mercenaries there was besieged by five to seven goblins, and although these short warriors were not strong in attack, they were able to play with a hammer in the east and a stick in the west. There are also some creative goblins who ride directly on the necks of their companions, and use their rudimentary weapons to try to hit the mercenaries directly in the head, but these non-mainstream creatures are all killed by the mercenaries as a priority target.

The casualty rate of the mercenaries began to rise, and most of them died not under the weapons of the goblins, but from the sinister tricks such as picking their noses and gouging out their eyes, and it was difficult for the mercenaries to find space to swing their weapons under the siege of the goblins, and it was difficult to get back up once they were pushed down.

The erodive situation was still not alleviated after the addition of the second echelon, and the mercenaries who had lost the space to retreat desperately squeezed back, but instead plunged the second echelon supporting them into chaos. The angry Hu Bin had to issue an order to retreat, and asked the archers to shoot a rain of arrows without interruption to achieve the purpose of hindering the goblins, and as for the last three echelons, Hu Bin would not be sent out anyway.

The mercenaries behaved even more unbearably on the way to retreat, not so much fighting and retreating, but fleeing in embarrassment, if Hu Bin hadn't ordered the archers to aim their arrows straight ahead, these guys would have even panicked and directly broke up the last line of defense formed by the third echelon.

Of course, the withdrawn mercenaries did not challenge Hu Bin's last patience, and their reason told them that if they really dared to attack the last line of defense from the front, Hu Bin would definitely give the order to release the arrows without hesitation. In the end, the mercenaries, who fled for their lives, retreated to the rear through the gaps deliberately left on both sides of the defensive line.

"Hold the defensive formation and retreat, let's get out of the mine first." Hu Bin endured his anger and gave this order, he had had enough of the performance of this group of miscellaneous mercenaries, how much he missed those soldiers in the warband world at this time, although the number was a little smaller, but the command was like an arm. Hu Bin even felt that if he was given two hundred heroic knights, he could even wipe out this mercenary army of 5,000 people.

On the way to withdraw from the mine, the army was pursued by the goblins persistently, but fortunately, this time the mercenaries finally did not break away desperately, although the third echelon of defense was opened by the goblins several times, but the mercenaries who fled to the first two echelons of the back quickly made up for it, and finally let Hu Bin take the team out of the mine.

The goblins shouted at the mercenaries at the entrance to the mine for a while before returning to the mine, leaving behind a group of dejected defeated dogs.

The number of casualties was quickly counted, and the results were shocking. One-third of the 1,500 mercenary fighters in the first echelon were killed in direct battles, and most of the rest were wounded, and 200 of them were seriously injured and incapacitated. The 2,000 men of the second echelon suffered less than 50 casualties because of the timely retreat. Although the third echelon composed of the strongest 1,000 mercenaries was responsible for the work of breaking off, it did not lose too many manpower under the effective command and cooperation, and the data of 200 casualties was barely enough.

No one knows the number of dead and wounded goblins, but for their huge number, it is just a drizzle, and in summary, the most lethal to the enemy is actually the archers who shoot arrows in soy sauce in the back, and the three echelons of 4500 mercenaries are not as good as 500 people.

The casualty rate of nearly one-fifth made everyone feel relatable, and the commander of the first echelon, Gurion, directly resigned from his post and wanted to come to the third echelon as a soldier, but Hu Bin refused. No one is to blame for this defeat, the mercenaries subconsciously chose what they thought was the most correct approach in the battle, but they forgot that the previous kite flying tactics were not suitable for the battle of the large army, and they were defeated by the instinct that they relied on to survive in the past.

The defeat in the first battle dealt a heavy blow to the enthusiasm of the mercenaries, and the next morning, Hu Bin found that 200 mercenaries had taken advantage of the night to say goodbye. Hu Bin, who felt that the situation was a little out of control, finally realized that if he didn't do something, the army that had been gathered at a great cost would be dispersed.