Chapter 54: Afaryn's Art of War
The Knights of the Ados Army are known as Black Flame, claiming to have the power of black flames, and the ability to turn everything the blade points at into ashes, and it is said that the Black Flame Knights have the strongest combat power in the territory of Ados. The main force of the mountain army is composed of a group of dismounted knights with extraordinary ability and willpower, their nickname is Red Gold, and they have always been the attacking force under Ados. The Infantry Legion is known as Darkwater, and is slightly weaker than the Black Flame Knights and the Chijin Mountain Legion in terms of individual combat effectiveness, but due to their large numbers and low combat costs, they are far more experienced than the Knights and Mountain Legions.
These three legions were established when Ados was still the prime minister of the empire, but later lost political power and was forced to go into the wilderness, and was made a small lord on the edge of the Duke of Windsor's domain. At first, there were only four great undead to follow, but then Gomez took the lead in establishing an infantry legion, then Baronert recruited the knights to create a mountain legion, and then the number of knights in Ados's territory increased, and Leonardo also formed a knight order. The Valkyrie Freya has been Ados's personal guard until Gomez died at the hands of Lu Jingzhi and his soul returned to the Soul Tower in Ados City, and Freya took on the position of the new infantry commander. However, it was precisely because the Battle of the Hill was too great a blow to Ados's infantry legion that all the knights and servants of the infantry legion were annihilated, and this time Freya only had a large number of infantry available, and the only squad of cavalry was also her personal knights and servants.
The first to attack was Baronte's Red Mountain Legion, with many dismounted knights from Ados' realm and from other realms, and even some of the expelled knights from the Duke's territory of Windsor joined the Red Gold Mountain Legion. They were given good enough armor and weapons, and although the share of sustenance was not as high as that of regular knights, it was barely enough for a knight who did not need servants and mounts. Like Leonardo, Baronte had the same style as Leonardo, walking in the front with a heavy armor and a great axe, followed by his hoplites in the first row, also composed of dismounted knights. Behind them were the lightly armored infantry armed with round shields, and then behind the ordinary infantry armed with spears.
Looking at the advancing Ados army, Afaron's brows furrowed. The best way to deal with heavy infantry is a cavalry assault. Heavy armor could be easily pierced with the speed of a war horse with a spear, and the heavy infantry's bulky body could not fight back against the cavalry that came and went. But it was evident that Baronert had thought of this, and he had the pikemen follow in formation, just to wait for his cavalry to attack, and if the cavalry had rushed over, the pikemen could hold up their guns in front of the line as long as the hoplites stopped. But if his own cavalry does not attack, he can only wait for the heavily armored infantry to crush his own defense. It would be better if his cavalry were Leonardo's heavy knights, but the Duke of Winsha has always been limited by the lack of money and insufficient armament expenditure, so he cannot equip the heavy cavalry. With ordinary cavalry armor alone, it is not enough to look in front of the guns that have been propped up.
Afaron's lieutenant's name was Busen, a strong undead knight, but his personality was not very calm, and seeing that the opponent was slowly approaching in formation, he asked Afaron to fight: "Your Excellency, Legion Commander, please let me take the cavalry to cut them down." ”
Hearing Buson say this, Afalon nodded secretly in his heart. If the opposing legion's leader is a knight, or if he doesn't have so many dismounted knights, Afaron is absolutely assured that Busen will fight this battle. Busen is a rough and fine guy, bold but not reckless, and he has learned the art of war with himself for so many years, even if he can't say how skillful he is in the use of the art of war, at least some common sense still knows. But this time it didn't work, the opponent's legion commander was a big undead, in terms of personal combat effectiveness, it was a big cut beyond Busen, and the opponent's heavy infantry had a strength no less than that of a knight, and if it really hedged, it might not be able to kill the opponent at one time.
"I'm here this time, and you're in charge of holding the line. Afaron buckled down his raised mask and added, "If I break through the enemy's spear formation, you will lead the infantry to follow me." ”
Although Busen was a little unwilling, he understood that there was still a certain gap between himself and Baronte, so he answered and galloped to the infantry to prepare for battle.
Afaron tapped the cuirass with his iron gloved left hand to warn the cavalry, then pointed his spear at the enemy and charged first. The other knights saw the legion commander rushing out, and hurried their horses to follow. Everywhere the iron hooves passed, the earth trembled, and the rumbling sound even drowned out the drums of the Ados army.
Seeing that the cavalry on the right flank of the Duke of Windsor was rushing out of battle and coming towards his heavy infantry, Baronte couldn't help but sneer, and thought to himself: "I have heard the name of the warmaster Afaron for a long time, and it seems that the level is average. He obviously brought so many pikemen with him, and he also brought cavalry to attack, isn't this sending him to death? Immediately, the giant axe slammed into the ground and stopped. The hoplites behind him stopped almost at the same time, and their movements were uniform, which showed the high quality of the battle. The formation of the lightly armored infantry was a little disorganized, but it also stopped in time and did not rush to the heavy infantry. The pikemen stepped forward quickly, and raised the spear in his hand. The spears of the Ados Army are longer than those of the Windsor Army, but they are slightly more slender. Even so, it was enough to deal with the cavalry of the Wensha Army, which did not have heavy armor.
As a master of war, Afaron was certainly not stupid enough to use ordinary cavalry to smash pikemen. Stop at a distance of 200 feet from the gun, then hang the spear on the horse, dismount and take the longbow, raise your right hand high, and signal the whole team to abandon the spear and take the bow. It took only two breaths for the entire cavalry to come to a halt, dismount and bend their bows and arrows, waiting for the commander to point out the target. Afalon casually aimed at a pikeman and fired the arrow.
Before Baronte's contemptuous smile could fade, his eyes widened and his mouth widened, bewildered. It wasn't until he saw Afaron shoot down one of his pikemen with an arrow that he shouted, "Infantry! Infantry retreat, heavy armor stepped forward to block the arrow!!" and roared wildly as he rushed to the front of the gun.
But it was too late, and the rain of arrows covered the field of spears with Afaron's arrow, and the pikemen had no ability to resist the arrows, so they could only use their bodies to meet the rain of arrows. Fortunately, they are all undead, and a small arrow wound can't completely incapacitate them. But the arrows carried a huge impact, knocking down most of the infantry, and even nailing them to the ground. Some of them hit the arriving hoplites, unable to penetrate the heavy armor, leaving only a slight scratch.
Seeing that the enemy's pikemen had been shot down, Afaron hung up his longbow again, turned on his horse, took up his spear, took his cavalry in a circle, added up his speed, and charged at the hoplites again.
Knowing this, Baronte ordered the lightly armored infantry to approach the hoplites while drawing their daggers and preparing them to throw, while the hoplites held their shields and prepared them for the assault.
By this time Afaron's cavalry had rushed in front of him, and Baronte's lightly armored infantry threw their short swords at the onrushing enemy cavalry, but they were blocked by the cavalry with their shields. Then the 6-foot-long cavalry spear crashed into the large shield of the heavy infantry and broke one after another, and the shield of the heavy infantry also broke instantly, and the heavy infantry holding the shield was also knocked down by the impact force and could not get up for a while. Without hesitation, Afaron's cavalry threw away their broken spears, replaced them with broadswords, and stretched out diagonally to the lower right, slicing through the bodies of the lightly armored infantry who had been hiding behind the hoplites with the speed of their horses. The light armor could only defend against the short arrows of some cavalry, or serve some slight protection against the infantry, and against the heavy knight's one-handed sword swinging at high speed, it was like butter meets a hot knife, and was cut in half with almost no resistance.
There was no blood sprayed from the undead's bodies, but the crushed flesh flew up and rained down on the knights' faces and bodies. Knowing full well that he could not give Baronte a chance to turn over, after crushing the light armored infantry in a blitz, he led the cavalry in a small circle, turned around and rushed over the flank of the heavy infantry. The knights pierced the heavy infantrymen's visors with their one-handed swords, piercing their skulls, the force of the impact widening the wound and even shattering the skull. Even the undead could not regenerate after such a blow, and wisps of souls headed towards the Soul Gathering Tower in Ados City.
Although the Chijin Mountain Legion suffered heavy losses, Afaron's cavalry was not doing well. Often, when killing a dismounted knight, your own knight will also be harmed. Most of the dismounted knights were wounded, and some were even cut off by their two-handed swords. Baronte's greataxe is undoubtedly the most lethal infantry weapon. Each knight who rushed towards him was swept by the great axe outside of his own range, either knocked into the air or cut off, and Baronert killed more than a dozen knights in a row, but he himself was unharmed.
Afaron restrained his men and quickly disengaged from the battle, for by this time the pikemen and fallen hoplites had slowly risen with the help of their companions, and his results were good enough. Only one-fifth of the cavalry was lost, but more than half of the opponent's heavy infantry and almost all of the light armored infantry were killed, and although the pikemen were not killed, they were all wounded, and most of them lost the ability to fight again.
At this time, Busen also came with an infantry team, and he knew very well his task - to clean up the battlefield. His Excellency the Legion Commander just now gave him a good lesson, and the cavalry should be used like this. If you follow what you just thought, I am afraid that you will suffer heavy losses under the gun. However, all this is over, and the heavy infantry and light armored infantry who have lost more than half of them will inevitably withdraw from the battle, and the broken pikemen will be left for themselves as cannon fodder. And the armor and weapons on the corpses everywhere are indispensable treasures in the army. It seems that after this battle, the Duke of Windsor has made a lot of money.
Was it really as simple as Busen thought?
If you want to know what happens next, let's see the next breakdown.