Chapter 373: Preparing for Field Battle

A rough wooden raft fell down and became a wooden bridge across a three-meter-wide trench. www.biquge.info A centurion of the Duchy of Handla, wearing a black iron helmet with iron armor and a bunch of white feathers stuck in his helmet, waved his sword and shouted: "Quick, hurry up and push the second trench cart over!"

A black shadow was like lightning, and with a "whoosh" sound from far to near, the centurion's body flew up, and the crossbow arrows shot from the watchtower took him three or four meters away, and the centurion who fell to the ground struggled to touch the tail shaft of the crossbow arrow that penetrated his chest, but as soon as he struggled, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and then rolled his eyes and died......

The death of the centurion caused a stir in the hundred-man squad under his command, but immediately another centurion rushed over, he was not as brave as the previous centurion and dared to stand by the trench, but hid behind a shield cart made of logs, shouted and cursed loudly, and finally quieted the hundred-man squad pushing several trench carts and continued to push the trench cart forward. At the same time, the centurion commanded his hundred-man longbow squad to launch a hanging fire at the three watchtowers in front.

This was the second offensive and defensive battle in the southern provinces, which took place on the fourth day of July in the year 1778 in the Galinthia calendar, a month after the first offensive and defensive battle in the southern provinces. In the past month, the Fisabrun family forces and the reinforcements of the four central principalities cut down several nearby mountains and forests, built a large number of offensive equipment and two-wheeled shield vehicles to defend against crossbow arrows, and after being fully prepared and well-rested, they launched another attack on the family forces of the four alliances of the Northlands commanded by Lorist.

From the defensive position of the large battalion where the Rock Legion is located to the relatively flat and wide space on the left for more than ten miles, there are beacon fires and wolf smoke, swords and shadows, horns, shouts of killing, and war drums everywhere.

Looking down from the heights, the elite infantry of the four central principalities are like waves at high tide, surging up one after another, and the watchtowers are like reefs in the waves, still standing in the face of repeated impacts. The crossbow bolts fired from all the attacked towers struck blood flowers one after another in the surging crowd......

But in the past month, the troops of the four central principalities have prepared a large number of siege equipment, and dealing with these guard towers is simply a knife to kill chickens, one by one the trench carts were pushed to the side of the trenches and put down the wooden rows, and the trenches lost the role of blocking the attack, and the two-wheeled shield cars built of logs covered the attacking soldiers until they reached the bottom of the watchtower, and the soldiers wielding huge axes split the thick wooden doors that entered and exited the watchtower, and soon the battle began in the watchtower. There were even wooden siege trucks that were pushed under the watchtower, and after two or three clicks, the watchtower was dug out of a large hole, and the soldiers guarding the watchtower were forced to rush out, and the attacking enemy started a life-and-death struggle, and fell one by one......

It was the grass barbarian cavalry that attacked the defensive position of the Rock Legion's battalion, but the 20,000 grass barbarians who launched the attack all dismounted and turned into infantry, and they also pushed the trench carts, log two-wheeled shield carts and wooden siege vehicles under the escort of the third frontier ranger regiment of the Fisabrun family and started the attack, but their cooperation was not as dexterous as the infantry of the four central principalities, and it took more than two hours to attack three times, except for five trench carts on the three trenches in the front, leaving two or three thousand corpses, and there was no progress.

Lorist stood on a mound in the middle of the camp, and watched as the barbarian infantry in front of the camp's defensive position once again left one or two hundred corpses and retreated. But his face was gloomy. There is not a trace of joy in repelling the enemy. Because Lorist has just received a report that the forty-seven guard towers at the forefront of the flat land on the left side have either been captured and collapsed and started a fire or fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the family soldiers guarding the forty-seven guard towers are basically all killed, and three trenches have been dug around the guard towers to surround the guard towers, so that the soldiers guarding the guard towers have no way to evacuate, and can only choose to die with the enemy.

It's just a cocoon, the watchtower tactics have a good restraint effect on light cavalry, but it has little effect on the infantry who are good at attacking fortifications, especially the enemy also has rich experience in attacking fortifications and is good at making all kinds of siege equipment, and they are also willing to pay a large price for casualties, so when the enemy has the advantage of troops, they can be pushed over, these soldiers guarding the watchtower are almost the turtles in the urn, and they can only fight to the death with the enemy to try to get enough.

I still don't have enough experience, the tactics of using hot weapons in the era of cold weapons are not applicable, and no matter how strong the steel crossbow is, it can't penetrate the shield car built of logs. If the shield built of logs relies on manpower, then it can be cracked by concentrating the steel crossbow for fire, but the enemy has no way to install the shield built of logs on the two-wheeled vehicle, and even if there is a support point, even if the shooting is broken, it will not affect the people hiding behind. Coupled with the trench carts, the enemy has no shooting angle as long as the crossbow is close to the watchtower, and the watchtower guards have to fight the enemy in close combat.

"Will Tiger Ross still hold on?" asked Lorlist.

"Your Highness, Lord Ross is still holding on, but when he led a regiment of lancers to support the front line of the first watchtower, he was covered by the enemy's longbowmen, and many ......were wounded," replied the courier.

"How so? Didn't the chariot crossbow fight back?"

"Your Highness, the chariot steel crossbow can't come forward, and it is blocked by the trench behind the third line of defense, and the range is not enough. Lord Ross also led the lancers through the first line of defense, and when they crossed the junctions of the trenches, they were grouped together before they were shot by the enemy longbowmen...... "said the messenger.

Lorist wanted to slap himself in the face, but it was obviously his own fault again, and he arranged three guard tower defense lines on the left side of the flat land for more than ten miles, the first and second lines were separated by more than 200 meters, and the third and second lines were separated by more than 300 meters. The problem was that the first and second line of defense were dug around the watchtowers and between the watchtowers, and they had to turn around for a long time if they wanted to pass through, thinking that they could stop the enemy's attack, but the enemy used trench carts to make the trenches useless. These trenches did not make it more difficult for the enemy, but now they became a nuisance to hinder the reinforcement front on their side.

Alas, I thought that I had used the guard tower tactics to restrain the play of the light cavalry of the Fisabrun family, and everyone applauded, so when I ordered the trench to be dug, no one raised any objections, and now I know that I have made a big mistake. No, Lorist couldn't stay still here in the camp, and turned to El and ordered: "Send someone to inform Bodfinger, I'll go to the left wing of the battlefield Ross to have a look, let him hold the camp, by the way, the military flag here is not moving, don't go with me in your guard battalion to avoid too much movement, just let Reddy bring a squadron to follow me." Also, order the Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion of Ovicis and the Knights of the Furious Bear of Telman to move covertly to the left flank and stand by, since the Central Four Duchy are so desperate for that old fellow of Fisabrun, then leave their lives there. ”

"Yes, Your Highness. El turned to confess, and the three guards galloped down the mound.

"El, if these brutes in front of the camp suddenly attack desperately, you can make Bodfinger gradually retreat and give up the defensive positions in front, as long as you can hold the camp. And if the battle situation is urgent, you can take the guard battalion into battle on your own, understand?" Just as he was about to turn his horse away, Lorist remembered something again, and said a few words to Ell again, before galloping away with Schward, Reddy, and a hundred guards to the left flank.

"Your Highness, why are you here?" Tiger Rose had a bloodstained bandage wrapped around his left shoulder.

"What's going on?" asked Lorlist, concerned.

Tiger Rose laughed embarrassedly: "I rushed too fast, and I was shot by the longbowmen, and I didn't notice it, but I was hit by an armor-piercing cone arrow in the shoulder, but fortunately, the shoulder armor was strong, and it only opened a small opening, which hurt the flesh and skin, so it's okay." ”

"Is it really okay? Have you been poisoned, has the pharmacist seen it?"

"I've seen it, and I poured a bottle of antidote, and the injuries have been dealt with, and it won't affect my battle, you see ......" Tiger Rose also pretended to be relaxed and waved his left hand: "Your Highness, don't worry about my little injury, it's really fine." ”

Lorist nodded and turned to look ahead, by which time the battlefield had calmed down.

"Your Highness, the enemy is resting, although they have captured forty-seven watchtowers in the forefront of the first line of defense, their casualties are not low, I estimate that they are more than ten thousand. The soldiers guarding our guard towers are basically exchanging one for two or three, and it's not a loss. Tiger Ross hurriedly introduced the battle situation.

Because it was a flat terrain, Lorist had three towers connected to each other, and although the elite infantry of the four central principalities captured these forty-seven towers, the casualties they themselves paid were very large. Lorist looked into the distance with a telescope, and could see the infantry of the four central principalities busily cleaning up the battlefield, carrying the corpses of their dead soldiers into wagons and transporting them to the rear. There were also some soldiers resting, and several brigades brought up from the rear were overhauling the offensive equipment, and if you listened closely, you could hear the faint sound of repairing log shields.

Looking up at the position of the sun in the sky, it is still about ten to eleven o'clock in the morning, it is likely that the enemy will attack after lunch, the plan of the four central principalities should be to break through the defensive line of the guard towers in this flat land, take advantage of the advantage of the strength of the army to occupy this place, and then let the frontier rangers of the Fisabrun family go around to the rear of the large camp from here to harass and guerrilla, forcing Lorist to have to withdraw from the southern province.

"Order, the guards in the second line of defense tower packed up their steel crossbows and immediately withdrew from the guard tower. Lorist commanded.

Tiger Rose was shocked: "Your Highness, no, there are guards from the watchtower, and if the four principalities in the central part want to conquer our three lines of defense, at least they will lose more than half of their troops, and at that time, although we sacrificed more than 10,000 guards of the watchtower in these three lines, we can easily clean up the remaining enemies......"

Lorist shook his head: "Our family soldiers shouldn't fight with the enemy like this, even if it's one to ten, I feel like it's too much of a loss." And when they have conquered our three lines of defense, I believe that the frontier rangers and reserve legions of the Fisabrun family will be on the field, and the enemy will never leave us with the opportunity to pack up and take revenge on the infantry of the four central principalities. Once those rangers penetrate into our rear through this loophole, then we lose the initiative on the entire battlefield. Withdrawing from the watchtower does not mean that we will not fight, in fact we are giving up our advantage by guarding the watchtower......"

"Advantage?" Tiger Rose blinked in confusion: "Your Highness, what is our advantage?"

Lorist laughed: "Although our forces are smaller than the enemy, but our advantage is offensive and field battles, you won't forget, right? Look at the distance between here and the second line of defense, a total of three hundred and forty meters, this flat land is more than ten miles long, enough to put more than 100,000 horses." On this side, we are in a line along the watchtower of the third line of defense, and the enemy must engage in a field battle with us if he wants to break through this line. Give up the watchtower on the second line of defense, then the enemy will want to rely on the victory and the superiority of troops to start a field battle with us, hehe, as for the field battle, who are we afraid of?"

Lorlist's plan was very simple, the two golden knights of Tiger Ross and Pachco each led a Flying Tiger Regiment and a Pegasus Regiment of the Philim family, a total of 50,000 horses and horses to set up battle formations on the left and right flanks, while Malek's chariot steel crossbow regiment and the light cavalry regiment, one of the two corps sent by Count Shahin, and the heavy infantry regiment sent by the Kenmax family as the center, nearly 40,000 people. Lay down a line-shaped battle formation. The strength of the four alliances of the Northlands preparing for the field battle was about 90,000, plus the light infantry regiment of Count Shaheen guarding the watchtower in the third line of defense and the guard soldiers of the watchtower in front of the second line of defense, the total strength was about 100,000.

The retreat of the guards of the watchtowers on the second line of defense soon alarmed the enemy, who were resting on the first line of defense, and they quickly rushed over after discovering that the guards had abandoned the watchtowers, occupied the empty watchtowers, and let out bursts of cheers, and it was evident that the capture of the second line of defense had greatly boosted the morale of the enemy. However, they also soon saw the family forces of the four alliances of the Northland in front of them in a field formation on the third line of defense, so the cheers gradually subsided. Perhaps they have realized that while a brutal battle has been avoided, a bloodier field battle awaits them.......

Soon the enemy reacted, the enemy who occupied the second line of defense first began to use the guard tower to make a posture to prevent sneak attacks, and then a large number of soldiers with various tools came up and began to fill the trenches on the second line of defense, and then the shield carts made of logs were pushed to the front and arranged in a line, and finally the infantry brigades moved forward in the situation of the battle formation.

"It seems that the enemy is preparing to fight with us in the field, but when they adjust, it is estimated that it will take a few hours, blow the rest trumpet, let everyone relax and rest, and be responsible for the logistics of the heavy buried pot rebellion, so that everyone can have a good meal, and raise enough spirit and strength to prepare for the afternoon fight. Lorist commanded.

"Yes, Your Highness. ”

...... (To be continued.) )