"Deputy Commander, if we go to that place now, we will definitely be targeted by ballistas, why don't we find a way to get close to those ballista carts?" said Squad Leader Leonard. They were now standing about a kilometer away from the East Oguna Empire's river-crossing force, but if they got any closer, they could be targeted by the Imperial Army.

Marcus also said, "Yes, we have all seen that the Church Alliance is retreating, and although the infantry of the Kingdom of Salins distracts the Imperial cavalry of Eastern Oguna, it is impossible for us to approach the commander of the Imperial Army at this time. Of course, he knew Fidel's strategy, but the situation had not yet come out of a very good time - if the two armies were in a massive scuffle, that would be when they would break into the heart of the enemy line!

Fidel noticed the range of the ballista trucks, and they really couldn't go any further now. On the other hand, the armed members of the Church who had begun to regain order began to shout the names of the Father, the Archbishop, and the Pope, and rushed towards the Imperial Army crossing the river with various weapons in their hands. Although some of the soldiers of the Imperial Army had already crossed the river, there were 20,000 Church fighters on this side, so the desperate rush of the Church soldiers became a "mouth" and ate in the direction of the Imperial Army.

There were only a dozen ballista trucks brought by the impact mercenary group, and although each ballista was powerful and extremely deterrent, it was immediately quite powerless in the face of the tide and landslide-like believer soldiers. In the time it took for each ballista to be fired and then loaded with another ballista, the soldiers of the Church Alliance ran a short distance, and it didn't take long for a large number of armed church soldiers to rush to the Imperial Army's river-crossing troops, colliding with the Imperial Heavy Armor soldiers standing in the forefront, and fighting face to face!

The leader of the shock mercenary group, Kionis, immediately ordered all the ballista carts to retreat, at this time the ballista carts were no longer functional, and if they were fired again, they would most likely attack friendly troops. If they didn't withdraw, they would block the advance of the soldiers, so the commander-in-chief Juan also agreed to the mercenaries retreating.

Judging from their direction, these Eastern Oguna Empire troops were not numerically large enough to send reinforcements from the Church League and the Kingdom of Salins. There were more than 70,000 people on the side of the Papal States, and the Eastern Oguna Empire was divided into two groups: the Rivercastle and the reinforcements of the Grimmcor. The army sent by Rivercastle was all cavalry, about a few thousand men, and now all of them were in fierce battle with the infantry of the Kingdom of Sallins. The regular army that came from the east numbered at least 50,000 men, and in addition to the cavalry that had been separated from the two sides, the remaining infantry was about 40,000.

The Imperial army that had crossed the river numbered only a few thousand, most of the crossbowmen, pikemen, and sword and shield soldiers were at the rear of the river, and some soldiers were stationed at the rear of the city pushing siege rams, siege trebuchets and other heavy weapons, and were slowly approaching the riverside battlefield. And the leader of the army that Fid was bent on finding should be in front of the siege troops, behind the crossbowmen. Thinking of this, Fidel immediately told his men to wait until the soldiers of the Church League had successfully crossed the other side of the river before joining them, and then looking for an opportunity to charge straight into the center of the enemy line.

The militants of the Church showed no sign of timidity, and their bravery forced many soldiers of the East Oguna Empire to jump into the deep river to fend off the swarming Church soldiers. The soldiers on both sides huddled together in the river, which was not wide but more than a meter deep, and raised their weapons above each other's shoulders, attacking each other with all their might. However, due to the depth of the water, no one can easily swing their weapons or move their bodies, and everyone is surrounded by the river and must use all their strength to deliver a fatal blow.

And the steel shield wall troops that had already crossed the river were also scattered by the tearing mercenary group led by "Sharp Claw". Most of the mercenaries turned their heads and fled, but "Sharp Claw" had already seen that the ballista cart was just a single powerful unit, and in fact, it could not pose a big threat to the tens of thousands of people in the Church Alliance, so he asked his subordinates to stand aside very early, waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Sure enough, these mercenaries, who were holding particularly sharp weapons in their hands, played a very big role in tearing apart the steel shield wall. Most of their weapons are long and pointed, and they can easily attack the Imperial soldiers behind the bulky shields, and since they do not wear heavy armor and hold shields, the flexible and skillful mercenaries are like fish, constantly harming the Imperial troops behind the shield wall with sharp blades.

Later, some of the mercenary groups of the Church Alliance saw that Rashad had caused many soldiers to rush towards the enemy again, so they gradually slowed down their escape and began to look back to see the situation.

But one of the mercenaries suddenly shouted, "Look over there!"

Following the mercenary's finger, the other thousands of mercenaries who were fleeing all looked to the north, which is the most downstream direction of the river. Bands of Imperial cavalry began to appear in that direction, which had been sent before, and their task was to bypass the river and flank the Church Confederate forces on this side of the river from behind. The Imperial cavalry on the other side was being pinned down by the infantry of the Kingdom of Salins, but the thousands of Imperial cavalry on this side had already rushed over, all carrying their rifles and facing these mercenaries who had fled to the rear of the legion, murderous!

These mercenaries, who had fled halfway, were naturally so frightened that their legs were weak. Now that there is such a large number of cavalry rushing in front of them, and behind them is the river area in the middle of the melee, it is really a dilemma.

"Let's go back and join the fend off the river crossers!" said a mercenary, who didn't want to face the Imperial cavalry.

"Won't you be caught in the flanks by the Imperial cavalry when you go back?!" One of the mercenaries immediately thought of bread with meat foam, and if they went back to support the Church soldiers now, they would most likely become meat foam between the breads.

"Then what should we do? You can't let us resist these cavalry, right?!" This mercenary only escaped from the pile of dead corpses a few days ago, and today he didn't want to run into the Imperial cavalry again anyway, and now he was thinking about his mother at home, and his mouth began to want to shout "Mom".

Just when these mercenaries with no gods and no masters were in a panic, another group of infantry from the Kingdom of Salins also appeared in the direction of Crafeld City! The number of these infantry was only about 10,000, which was one-third of the number of infantry that had appeared on the opposite side of the river bank before, but as soon as these infantry with long thick shields in their hands appeared, those mercenaries who could not flee and could not defend immediately raised their arms and shouted. In this way, the two groups of mercenary regiments and the kingdom's infantry have become flanked left and right, and no matter how brave the imperial cavalry is, it is impossible to defeat so many people.

However, some of the mercenaries wisely retreated a lot, because they knew that the Imperial cavalry would definitely attack the enemy before they stopped, and of course they didn't want to be the target of the charge themselves - just leave the iron hooves to the mercenaries in front of them and the infantry of the Kingdom of Sallins.

The infantry of the Kingdom of Sallins was commanded by Cheddy, and their formation was exactly the same as that commanded by the white-haired general on the other side of the riverbank, and it was clear that these infantry had already learned how to deal with the onslaught of cavalry - maintaining formation and lowering their center of gravity to protect their bodies was the most appropriate way. As long as the force of the shock has passed, the cavalry loses the advantage in hand-to-hand combat, and the priority attack on the horse's legs is also a very effective way.

On the other hand, the cavalry on the other side of the river bank had already lost some of the cavalry that had rushed into the infantry phalanx, and at this time they were also hovering in front of the phalanx, not daring to rush rashly towards the enemy formation.

One of the cavalry captains said to his lieutenants: "They can't go straight like this anymore, they have to think of a way!"

"Captain, why don't we throw the javelins first!" the captain's lieutenant suggested.

The cavalry of the East Oguna Empire took out cavalry javelins with a length of nearly one meter from their backs and aimed them at the infantry phalanx that was slowly approaching. At the command of the cavalry captain, all the Imperial cavalry threw their javelins and flew towards the infantry with thick shields in their hands. But when the infantry saw the javelins coming, they drew close together, and then, with their thick shields raised above their heads, half-crouched down to block the javelin attacks that rained down.

Except for a few infantry who were a little slower to react and unlucky, most of the javelins were stuck in the thick shield's body, which could not stop the Kingdom of Salins from approaching step by step.

"What to do? No effect!" complained the captain's deputy. The cavalry captain regretted not learning how to use a bow and arrow on a horse—the Oguna Empire was famous for its heavy cavalry, and the extremely fast light cavalry was also very sharp, but it was only the cavalry of a certain part of the western part of the Oguna Empire that used to use a horse bow. The Imperial cavalry who wielded the bow rode unarmoured horses, and never carried a high-impact, cumbersome lance. They mainly used horse bows and the lightest knight's sword as weapons, and wandering, seducing, and riding as their best means of dealing with bulky enemies.

Of course, these advantages could not be reflected in the Empire's assault heavy cavalry, so now they had no way to face the rock-steady infantry of the Kingdom of Sallins, one battalion at a time.

There is no advantage in close combat, and there is no advantage in long-range attacks, and the cavalry captain is really helpless. He looked back at the other Imperial soldiers in the distance, but the commander-in-chief, Juan, had no intention of sending reinforcements.

"No matter, let's withdraw in the direction of the river castle first, there is still 'thundering' there to help us," the cavalry captain ordered all the cavalry around him to temporarily withdraw in the direction of the south castle, making way for the passage on the river bank, "If these kingdom infantry dare to chase us, they will definitely be destroyed!"

"And what if they go in the direction of the Chinese army?"

"Hmph! That's the price that the fat man himself has to pay, and he didn't even send a single army to help us!"

Guillermo, the white-haired general of the Kingdom of Salis, saw the retreat of the imperial cavalry to the south, and he thought about it for a while and decided to temporarily guard this place and not continue to advance.