"God bless the Catholics, Your Majesty Egil and the Norman kingdom!!" shouted the Norman knights and heavy cavalry as they made their final charge - and then the first array, a total of four hundred hoplites, crashed into the center, in the middle of the heavy infantry line of the 25th Legion of the Eastern Romans. Relying on the extremely hard training in peacetime, the knights deliberately avoided the tip of the opponent's spear and tried to protect themselves as much as possible in the charge. And killed and wounded the enemy as much as possible. Impurbing the enemy with a rifle is one part - ramming, knocking down and trampling the enemy with a war horse is another. In addition, the opponent in order to prevent the cavalry from directly rushing down the array. So the formation is very compact. This arrangement also indirectly increased the casualties of the Eastern Roman heavy infantry.

Of course, this is not to say that the other side is wrong in this arrangement - in fact, in the absence of a phalanx of super-long spears, the use of dense formations is indeed a very good way to counter the charge of heavy cavalry. As long as you rely on a tight formation and do not let the opponent break the line, then the cavalry that has lost its impact will not be the opponent of the more numerous and well-organized infantry in hand-to-hand combat.

It's a pity that this trick only works for ordinary feudal knights - these hoplites who pursue personal honor basically have no habit of attacking a second time. Although they like to have their servants keep a second lance for them. These insane fellows who think that retreat is defeat, that is, cowardice, and that their honor will never allow it, will not retreat after contact with the enemy. Just met the conditions for a dense array against cavalry. The Greeks, on the other hand, also experienced the shortcomings of the feudal knights in the war with the Germanic people in the West. Hence the specially developed tactics of this kind.

This time, however, their opponents were the Normans.

Commanded by the despicable and impudent King Egil, the cunning Norman heavy cavalry. Egil's proudest tactic from the beginning to the beginning was the cavalry band charge tactic. Crushing the opposing infantry array with continuous and batched charges is the specialty of the Norman royal knights and Norman heavy cavalry.

Most of the cavalrymen or knights, after confirming that their rifles had pierced an enemy, let go of their hands, then pulled out their maces or battle axes and slashed at the nearest enemy soldier next to them. With just one blow, and then, regardless of whether it had any effect or not, he quickly turned his horse's head and staggered with the second array galloping behind, then ran behind the third array and charged again.

In this way, a total of 1,200 heavy cavalry without any suspense broke the enemy's first column after a round of charge. Then, after the second round of charge, the enemy's second array was ravaged. In the midst of the scuffle, the commander of the 25th Legion was stunned by a royal knight who slit his throat. The guards holding the Legion banner beside him were also killed in the next moment. The Legion banner was snatched by another royal knight.

During this period, at the beginning of the second round of the heavy cavalry charge, the lancers on both flanks of the legion, as well as the lancers of the other two legions on both flanks of the legion, also tried to rush over to join the battle - but they were met by the attack of the light cavalry of the Norman kingdom.

The nearly 4,000 Norman light cavalry that followed behind the Norman heavy cavalry sequence made good use of the heavy cavalry as a shield and were not harmed by the bows and crossbows of the Greeks. It was only at this time, seeing that the opposing lancers rushed out and blocked in front of the opposing crossbowmen, the hussars and Finnish light cavalry took action and rushed towards the opposing spearmen.

This was followed by a rain of arrows and arrows. The volley of nearly 1,000 professional hussars in the front row with a composite bow instantly destroyed the opponent's lancer formation. Although the cavalrymen leaned on the armor on their bodies, they did not suffer much damage. But the war horse is not good. And in the galloping cavalry, the horse stumbled, and the end result was trampled into meat sauce. This is absolutely true. There is absolutely no way to avoid it. Even if you are a king or an emperor. None of them could stop the galloping horseshoe.

This volley directly disrupted the formation of the opposing lancers. At the same time, these lancers were a little overwhelmed.

Then the two cavalry units collided head-on. Both Finnish light cavalry and professional hussars possess combat effectiveness that is not inferior to ordinary hand-to-hand cavalry. Although slightly inferior to the Eastern Roman lancers in armor. But the scimitar in the hand is more conducive to slashing, and the ferocity of the nomads, as well as their enthusiasm for battle, is not comparable to these ordinary soldiers.

Of course, it's the quantity that counts. The Norman light cavalry was more than four times that of the Eastern Roman lancers. Or maybe that's the root cause of the other person's failure.

As a result, the sortie of the Eastern Roman lancers did not save the collapse of the 25th Legion. Under the attack of the Norman heavy cavalry in the center, the 25th Army of the Eastern Romans quickly collapsed. There was not even a hint of suspense. The infantry of the other two Roman legions next to it did not even have time to come to the rescue. In just forty minutes, the Norman heavy cavalry carried out a total of three wave assaults. Completely chisel through the opponent's infantry array. After that, the remnants of the Eastern Roman soldiers fled in disarray. The lancers were affected by this, and the same collapsed. The battle was successful, and then the horn of retreat was heard. Egil felt sorry for these cavalrymen and did not want them to participate in a war of attrition.

In this way, the hoplites calmly retreated, returned to the camp to unload their armor and began to rest - such a high-intensity battle, although it was very short. However, the physical exertion is still very high. For a short time, these heavy cavalry were no longer useful. In fact, in Egil's plan, after the first round of powerful charges to cut through the opponent's middle, the heavy cavalry could rest. Because of the complex terrain on the eastern side of Bologna's wall, except for the relatively flat middle of the battlefield, which is suitable for cavalry charges, the left flank is a large area of bushes and occasional small woods, while the right flank is hilly and hilly, as mentioned before. Neither left nor right was suitable for cavalry charges. And the heavy cavalry because the speed is too slow. So they don't even need to take prisoners. All you need is light cavalry.

, while the right flank was while the light cavalry retreated to the sides of the Norman front. Waiting for further orders, "What the hell is going on?!When did those Germans have cavalry with such strong combat effectiveness?!What tactics did they use?!Why had they never heard of it before?!"Seeing that one of his legions was so simply ravaged by the barbarians' heavy cavalry, and then crushed, which seriously affected the morale and formation integrity of his own army, Epirus, the commander-in-chief who commanded the four legions of Eastern Rome this time, suddenly turned red. He asked loudly to his generals' guards.

Of course, there is absolutely no one to answer his question.

Speaking of which, now in the case of successive victories in the Eastern Romans, the Eastern Roman army has also begun to permeate the Eastern Roman army with blind optimism and arrogance. Think that their country and army are simply bunkers. Neither the heretic barbarians nor the heretical Germanic barbarians are no opponents. As a result, the Empire paid very little attention to intelligence work. There was also a general contempt for the Norman army, believing that "barbarians are not barbarians." That's it. Can you still play with flowers?!"

Thus, in today's day, the Roman army must have to pay a heavy lesson for its pride...... Seeing the opponent's first array rapidly moving forward, the crossbowmen with crossbows in their hands, and the longbowmen with longbows further behind, shot a rain of arrows after running into range, shooting the Eastern Roman lancers who were ready to attack the Norman infantry into a sieve. At the same time, the warrior of the dead, armed with a two-handed battle axe, roared and began to charge—Epirus was in a hurry, and his side would surely be defeated this time. Remembering the horrific torture inflicted on his own emperor, Basil II, on his defeated generals. Epirus fought a cold war. It would be happier to decide that you would die in battle.

"No, not yet. There's hope—"

Epirus forced himself to put this unlucky thought behind him, and then ordered his own legions to advance at full speed to fill the gap left by the collapse of the 25th Legion, a total of four Roman legions, arranged in a T-shape by Epirus. In front were three corps marching in unison, while in the back were corps under their own command, as reserves. It's just that Epirus didn't expect it. It's just over an hour since the start of the war, and my reserve team is about to come in handy...... The tide of battle was moving in a direction that was favorable to Norman. The hoplite phalanx of Eastern Rome was crumbling after being baptized by the longbow and crossbow, and the charge of the duel warriors, especially in the middle, despite Epirus' orders. But the front was still dented inward, and there was a danger of tearing it apart...... "slightly, a little...... No, it should be said, this is too weak, isn't it? Even if there are fewer cavalry, and the overall number is a little less, it shouldn't be so weak—is the Eastern Rome just an empty shell of a strong man in the middle?!" Egil watched as his Norman professional soldiers defeated the Roman heavy infantry. I was a little surprised to say something like this.

"It seems that the previous arrangement was a bit redundant...... "Egil muttered quietly.

And when the fierce battle on the frontal battlefield was in full swing, on the right flank of the frontal battlefield, the Burgundians also began to gain the upper hand in the battle of the Venetian legions......

(To be continued)