The last three days of sprint! My generation is five watches today! Book friends vote!!!——

The reason why Egil had to arrange his army in such a way to defend and counterattack. But it was because he was also a little afraid of the other party's cavalry - although at this moment, Egil had gained a lot of land in Pomerania, and Prussia and Livonia had also opened up many new fields, so that they could replenish and expand their royal knights, recruit more heavy cavalry and more other armies. But far water can't quench the thirst of the near. If you want these armies to go south and participate in this campaign, even if you advance by land and water, without hindrance, it will take three months at the earliest. Egil couldn't wait.

And since I can't wait for this batch of reinforcements. Egir counted the number of cavalry under his command, including light cavalry and heavy cavalry, the regular cavalry was only 4,000, and among the temporarily conscripted army, there were also some irregular cavalry militia, feudal knights and knights. But it won't add up to more than two thousand. The number of cavalry in the French army should be between 1,000 and 2,000. In other words, the entire coalition army of 190,000 people sounds very scary. But if you count carefully, the number of cavalry is only seven or eight thousand. There were about 3,000 heavy cavalry.

In reality, though, Egil still has a cavalry unit to follow. Even in recent times, the Hungarian rangers selected from various nomadic tribes in Hungary have a total of about five thousand. It's just a little worse in terms of equipment. Except for a small number of wealthy heads, there is almost no armor. The armament is not very strong, there is no shield in melee combat, only a scimitar, and the long-range angular bow is a short compound bow with insufficient range and power, rather than a short compound bow with the sharp weapon of the archers.

But it's better than nothing.

Looking at the Greeks on the other side, although there were many losses in the previous war with the Italians, and even in terms of overall numbers, they were 20,000 fewer than the allied army - but they couldn't stand up to the cavalry. The ironclad holy cavalry has been repeatedly subjected to fierce battles, but there are still more than 3,000 of the 5,000 iron cavalry. And the Guards Cavalry Legion is even more incredible, 10,000 Guards Heavy Cavalry, which suffered little loss in the previous war, still has more than 8,000 horsemen left, and the Eastern Roman lancers of each legion add up to four or five thousand, and the Latin cavalry of the Latin Legion - to put it bluntly, the Ranger Knights, who were seriously injured in the previous war, but there are still nearly 1,000 horsemen.

And the pagan cavalry from Asia Minor, Crimea, and even North Africa added up to about this number. The newly added Hungarian Vadarel Archers were about the same number as the Hungarian Rangers under Egil's command. But all of them were equipped with better equipment from the new master's bounty, elaborate chain mail, short compound bows, cavalry round shields, and even more sophisticated scimitars, which the commanders even had gems of various sizes. The scabbard has an intricate pattern that looks more like a work of art than a weapon.

In other words, the total number of cavalry of the Greeks was a little more than 20,000, and the heavy cavalry was about 16,000, which was five times that of Egil.

Five times as much......

What a scary number......

In this way, Egil hopes to be able to use a defensive counterattack, relying on a strong infantry line to wear down the opponent's cavalry strength, and then counterattack further.

Of course, there was one last small link in Egil's strategy—the only high ground on the far left flank, as mentioned earlier.

"Charge, take the heights, then garrison there! Reinforcements will be there soon!"

This was the order given by Egil to his light cavalry on the left flank. A total of more than 3,000 professional hussars, as well as Finnish light cavalry, rushed towards the unnamed heights. At the same time, on the opposite side, Basil II issued a similar order.

"Grab it! and then use it as a springboard to charge or project...... Quick, archers!"

As a result, half of the archers under the command of the other party divided into half and also rushed towards the nameless heights.

"Kill those wretches!"

Then, as if they were in agreement, the light cavalry of both sides suddenly turned their horses' heads and rushed towards each other instead.

- Seize the high ground - Capture the high ground requires defeating the opponent - then charge at the opponent while they are charging at the high ground.

In this way, under this logic, the light cavalry of both sides made the same choice! Kill all the enemy!

Such a change of events was naturally very surprising in the eyes of the commanders of both sides—but the bloodshot cavalrymen in the front row couldn't care so much. They put their bows and arrows together. Immediately after letting go, there was a tooth-chattering buzz. The double anti-light cavalry fired a volley of locust feather arrows each, and then a scream was heard—some of those who had been shot directly fell to the ground, and some of their legs were still hanging from the stirrups, and they were dragged all the way. Of course, they were not the worst - the worst were the soldiers who fell to the ground after their horses were shot.

For light cavalry, speed is life! No one will slow down to help their allies on the ground. This is the battlefield, the brutal battlefield!

The soldiers who fell to the ground were trampled by ten thousand horses, and they were trampled to pieces. And the most painful and terrible cries came from their mouths.

The armies on both sides were shaken. The first drop of blood in this campaign has already been shed. Remind the soldiers on both sides that this is the battlefield.

At this moment, the Greek light cavalry on the opposite side was preparing for the second round of shooting, but unexpectedly, in the Norman army on the opposite side, the Finnish light cavalry directly began to charge with all their strength - these cavalry who are not proficient in horse archery skills are one of the mixed light cavalry tactics that Egil thought!

The speed of the cavalry is bound to be reduced, and it is impossible to draw the sword when the bow and arrow are halfway done! Even if the bow and arrow are hurriedly dropped, and then the sword is drawn and unsheathed, it will not be too late to block - the Secynian cavalry and the Vadareel cavalry on the opposite side take it for granted, and regard the Norman light cavalry tactics as their own. Both sides will fire two rounds of feather arrows before charging, but they didn't expect the other party to suddenly charge at this time!

In their eagerness, the Greek hussars could no longer take aim, or even fully open their bowstrings, and fired arrows directly at the swarming Finnish hussars—the power of such feathered arrows can be imagined. Even some of the Finnish hussars, who had not been hit to the vital point, carried several arrow shafts with them as if nothing had happened! The stinging sensation only aroused the fierce nature of these Northland cavalrymen even more!

At the same time, behind the Finnish hussars, the professional hussars spread their bows, adjusted the angle, and threw the feather arrow - the arrow track arced around the heads of the Finnish hussars in front of them, and landed above the Greeks, giving these barbarian hussars who did not like to wear helmets an unforgettable lesson in the first place!

After the second round of feather arrows weakened the enemy's formation again, he wore light leather armor, a boat-shaped steel helmet, a scimitar in his hand shining with cold light, and an extremely hideous complexion, like a demon. The speed of the Norman improved war horse under the crotch was originally a little faster than that of ordinary war horses, and the full sprint - in front of the two armies, it only took a few breaths to come to the front, and then the knife fell in hand, and the heads fell to the ground. The Greek hussars were killed on their backs, and the front almost collapsed!

In this way, in the first round of the confrontation, in the course of the light cavalry of the two sides, the Normans played a little trick to gain the upper hand, and the Finnish light cavalry did not hesitate and continued to quickly intersperse in the opponent's array. At the same time, behind them, the professional hussars also gave up their bows and arrows, drew their scimitars and began to charge!

It was like two steel sieves intertwined with each other! The light cavalry of the two armies interspersed with each other, and the long knives in their hands kept waving, blocking, dodging, and killing the enemy! Thousands of cavalry of the two armies killed each other in the enemy array. Not a bad one. One no less. After turning the horse's head, he saw that the ground where the two sides were originally charging had been covered with a layer of human corpses, and the flesh and blood were blurred, which made people feel frightened. In one round, both sides lost nearly half of their men! The air was filled with a strong smell of blood, which was disgusting.

However, the light cavalry, all of whom were from nomadic tribes, had no fear at all. They yelled excitedly, telling that they had just killed a few enemies. Some horsemen with great horsemanship and agility even took the heads of their enemies and hung their hair in their saddles to show off their military exploits.

"Go on!Go on!Kill them all!!"

With such a frenzied roar from the leaders or officers of both sides, the second round began......

"These nomads ...... Barbarian. Egil put down the monocular in his hand and muttered a little helplessly. Speaking of which, Egil did rely on the formidable fighting power of these nomads. But inwardly, I was also uneasy about their barbarism and bloodthirstiness. All civilized kingdoms may have similar thoughts when using barbarian mercenaries.

Standing on top of the watchtower, which had been erected fifteen days earlier, Egil set his sights on the frontal battlefield again. Immediately after that, his face suddenly became solemn: "The whole army is on alert! The heavy cavalry of the Greeks is coming! The crossbowmen are ready to shoot!"

As the clash broke out between the light cavalry on the far left of both sides, the heavy cavalry of the Greeks on the opposite side also shook the ground and appeared in front of the coalition army with heavy hooves. In the first charge, the Greeks took out nearly 10,000 men—more than half of the heavy cavalry. Intent to crush the coalition forces in one fell swoop!

"Do everything you can, use all your strength to deal with them at the outset!, and never give them a chance to fight back!!" Basil II shouted hoarsely, also standing on the tower that had been erected before......

At this moment, the Norman crossbowmen who were at the forefront of the coalition army were highly nervous. The crossbow in their hands had been pulled apart. With the sound of "Kara Kala", the crossbow arrows of fine iron arrows were wound, and the crossbows were raised flat and aimed at the front.

"Steady!Wait for the enemy to come into range before shooting!If you encounter the Ironclad Paladines, get closer!" the crossbowmen commanded in a loud voice......

(To be continued.) [