Chapter Forty-Eight: The Bronze Mask

The Wikibians collapsed. ()

They began to retreat slowly along a gentle slope in an attempt to reduce the losses caused by the cavalry onslaught, but due to their sheer numerical inferiority, the Wikiians were not spared the fate of being defeated. The infantry would be very vulnerable when they lost their formation, and their only chance of survival was to flee into the forest before they were completely surrounded, in which case the Swadians' advantage over the cavalry would be lost.

The Vecchians could even organize several counter-offensives to defuse the Swadians' pursuit.

However, it was clear that the Swadians would not give the Wikibians this opportunity, and the reason why the cavalry were late to the battlefield was because they chose to travel farther north and west, in order to encircle the Wikibians as much as possible before they retreated, so it was very difficult for the Wikibians to retreat into the forest under heavy surroundment.

The onslaught of the cavalry made the Vicchian soldiers no longer as calm as they had been at the beginning, and soon several groups of spearmen with dozens of men broke away from the main formation and hurried towards the forest.

Some of the wandering Svadian scouts around did not recruit cavalry to kill these scattered enemies, because the scouts knew that at this time, they wanted to give the Wikiians hope, and every Wiki soldier had to make a plan to escape, in which case the Wikibians' formation would completely break up, and it would become a real rout.

At that time, the opportunity for the cavalry and stragglers to show their skills will come. The main casualties in a battle are in this kind of rout, the fleeing army is completely unable to stop decent resistance, and can only form a chaotic formation of hundreds or even dozens of people, through which they will be divided and surrounded by the enemy in all directions, and finally be overwhelmed by the tidal wave of armor and steel swords.

The first group of Wikibians fled into the forest.

Even my father could see that there was already a commotion in the Wikibians' formation. However, some of the officers on horseback in Vecchia were still shouting hoarsely, and the soldiers slowly moved towards the forest. Unlike the soldiers, the officers knew very well that once the rout was formed, except for a few who had a chance to escape, most people would inevitably have a tragic end--- which may be worth a try for the soldiers, but for the officers it was no different from death.

Another group of Vykia soldiers escaped in the middle of the gap in the Swadiaans. The Swadians seemed to be making the final adjustments, and the gap was tickling the patience of the soldiers of Vecchia. The Swadians are using the sword of death and the hope of survival to break the will of the Wikibians to hold the line little by little.

The Wikibians were becoming more and more oppressive, and the Swadian cavalry was divided into teams of 200 men, taking turns to attack the Wikibians. The cavalry rained down like a landslide, with each assault injuring more than a dozen Vecchians wounded or even killed, while many more fell into disarray, leaving a gap that had just been filled by officers and soldiers, and the next wave of cavalry followed.

The Vecchians were also experienced in close combat, and the more than sixty javelinmen quickly formed a formation and threw javelins at the gathered Swadians. These javelinmen usually carried six or seven light javelins with them, and there were very few left, but the short period of intensive javelin projection caused confusion for the Swadians, and these javelins were thrown with such ferocity that a little thinner armor could pierce the flesh.

A group of Swadian spearmen, under the cover of the shieldmen, prepared to approach the weakly armored javelinmen, but they silently retreated and disappeared into the main line of the Wikirians.

Prince Fiedred's cavalry was well-trained, and they nimbly weaved through each other, then dizzily formed a powerful charge and headed straight for the Wikis. The cavalry teams divided into several groups were like several iron fists, hitting the large array of Vekia soldiers without stopping.

Eventually, several Vekia officers began to shout, and the Vekia soldiers ran towards the gap to the west like a school of shiny fish breaking out of their nets.

The Swadians near the gap made a little stop, and these murderous Wikibians were released--- and at the moment of fleeing, the Wikibians were close to fanaticism.

The Vekia soldiers divided into several groups and covered each other and headed west.

Some Wikibian hoplites began to discard their heavy armor and helmets: while the Swadians were well-armoured, the Wikibians were still attractive. The armor of the Vycchian people is a direct inheritance of the legacy of the Callard era, made of layers of scales, and some of the well-made armor is connected with thousands of shiny metal pieces on top of a armor, this kind of armor is simple to wear, only one squire can be put on calmly, and the body movement is quite flexible.

And the weapons of the Vykia people are also sought-after things, the snow subway of Wikia is the best material in the entire continent, and the most elite guards in the Salander Mamluk are the ones who choose Wiki iron to make special weapons for themselves.

Now these things are discarded everywhere on the ground, and Wikibians also know that although these things are good, if they drag themselves down and are killed, then these things lose all value, after all, life is the most important thing.

If it were an ordinary army, they might rush to see these rare things, but these Swadia soldiers were the elite troops who had just defeated the Kujits. Although there are still superiors and inferiorities in this army, as an entire army, this Swadiya has a terrible level of equipment and combat qualities. The proudest thing for the Svadias is that they can camp at the edge of the orchard, and when they change their guards, there is not a single branch of fruit. This discipline is one of the most feared weapons of the Svadias.

Now, in the face of the small temptation of the Wikibians, the Swadians did not appear in the slightest confusion of looting. The Swadians cautiously adjusted their front, forcing the Vecchians to the west like hounds driving sheep.

Prince Fidred's cavalry drew their nimble sabers, and these cavalry continued to terrorize the Vicchians. The roaring impact of the cavalry often discourages even the bravest warriors.

After the onslaught, some of the Wikibian soldiers broke away from their camp. For these soldiers, returning to their home camp has the best chance of survival, but that safe forest seems so tempting, and there are constantly soldiers who know that they will die if they leave their home camp on the battlefield, but they will still choose to gamble for the chance of survival.

Eventually, there was a wave of Wikibian discipline that stretched to the limit and then collapsed.

The group of more than 300 Vecchian soldiers, most of them pikemen and axemen, whose weapons were only advantageous in the phalanx--- had become a heavy burden, began to rush westward without a fatal rush. They dropped their long-handled weapons along the way, and instead drew only small hand axes or short knives to save their lives.

The forest is not far away, full of wild flowers, killing all four wilds.

Occasionally, there was a rain of arrows thrown from the Swadia in the sky, and these archers had been trained for a long time to project dozens of arrows into a radius of tens of meters.

The Vykia soldiers routed a group of Swadian halberders who tried to stop them, and then scattered them through the exit like water from a gardener's kettle, their formation completely lost.

Knowing that the feast had begun, the Swadian cavalry whizzed away in squads of dozens of men on their own, and the Wikirian infantry were often knocked to the ground by the cavalry behind them, and then either trampled into bloody mud or decapitated by sabers.

The rest of the Wikibians reacted in two very different ways when they were provoked, with some WikiAsian soldiers fleeing after believing that the first wave had attracted enough attention; Another group of Wikibian soldiers decided that they had to stabilize their formation in order to escape. By this time, the Wikibians had gradually left the 3rd Regiment to the east, and fought and retreated, leaving corpses and seriously wounded soldiers along the way.

After the military formation, there were Swadia servants who followed as soon as possible, rescued the soldiers who seemed to be saved, and then mended the Wikibians who were not dead. There were some ownerless horses that went on a rampage in panic, slipped and fell on the ground lubricated by human blood and entrails.

Once again, the cavalry struck, and the final blow shattered the faith of the Wikibians. The Wikibians have completely disregarded the security of the flanks and backs, to the west, to the west, to the west.

When my father was leading a few light cavalry to kill Vicchia's lone soldiers, he suddenly noticed that the cavalry were not in a hurry to catch up, as if they had already made arrangements.

"Let the Wikibians escape?" Father wondered, and then rode around to the three Vikian spearmen, who pointed his sword at them, looking down at them on his horse.

The three Wikibians looked at each other, then dropped their spears and fell to their knees, signaling surrender.

Several Swadian soldiers stepped up and lifted the helmets of the three, and an enraged Swadian soldier severed the left arm of the Wiki on the left with a single sword.

"Soldiers, they have surrendered", the father reminded.

The soldier looked at his father with cloudy eyes, then nodded. The few remaining Swadia soldiers swarmed up and subdued the Wikibians.

There are so many Wikibians, if they were allowed to escape, they would be able to reorganize a few hundred people in the forest in half an hour.

At this time, my father understood the reason for the cavalry's peace of mind, and in the forest, dozens of battle flags were faintly exposed.

With the sound of a clear horn, a tide of dazzling armor appeared in the forest, and countless cavalry with bright armor appeared from the forest.

Prince Frederick's Knights burst out of the forest due west.

It must have been a tragic day for Wikibians.

Prince Fidred's cavalry sliced through the fat like a sharp knife, cutting the already loose ranks of the Wikibians to pieces.

The Wikibians were already unable to care for each other after being divided, and they were distracted on the battlefield, some of them were killed by the Swadiaans, but dozens or hundreds of Wiki squads continued to flee into the woods.

The main battlefield gradually moved from this plain to the woods, and as the trees deepened, the fighting gradually subsided.

By the time the sun set onto the battlefield, the Wikibians had been cleansed.

In the battle, the Swadians lost more than three hundred and forty people, of which one hundred and forty were killed, the rest were wounded to varying degrees, and the seriously wounded, if not dead, could not fight in the short term. Among them, more than 160 people were from the Third Regiment, which was an extremely remarkable number, and made the reputation of the Third Regiment very famous overnight.

The losses of the Wikibians were much greater, with more than two hundred and seventy killed and another four hundred captured. In other words, the team of more than 1,000 Wikibians lost more than a third of the battle after a battle, which is already ineffective for the entire team.

More than forty of the captives who were seriously wounded were allowed to confess to the priest and then put to death, and the Svadias did not have so much energy to care for them. The rest of the captives were divided among the legions, and the soldiers would engrave inscriptions on the captives' bodies, such as the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment who would cut the number three on the back of the captive's hand, and then cut the mark after the number that they could distinguish.

These captives were taken back to the castle in the rear by the servants and guarded, and they were either sold or sent to the soldier's designated manor for hard labor with the soldier's consent.

Some of the soldiers came from large families in some villages, and the vast lands of the families required sufficient labor, and after each battle, the captured enemy was a very valuable resource. Only a few soldiers would choose to sell their captives, because selling them would make a lot of money, but sending them back to their homeland would give them a lifetime of free labor.

The soldiers of the 3rd Regiment took almost as many prisoners as Prince Fiderick had left, and Prince Frederick was very happy this time, because the 3rd Regiment, which had always been mediocre, performed very well this time.

In his speech after the war, Prince Frederick declared: "This time the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment showed us the bravest qualities. They, with keen judgment and astonishing courage, were the first to strike, which bought time for the deployment of the cavalry regiment, and this great victory convinced us that the reconquest of Zhvadin was just around the corner, and I have heard that the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment were following a young officer named Lagrange. The commander of the 3rd Regiment said that the young officer had accomplished this glorious task under his wise instructions. The 3rd Regiment is a model of unity, let's applaud Lagrange, let's applaud the commander of the 3rd Regiment, let us applaud the brave soldiers of the 3rd Regiment."

The bards in the army soon wrote a moving long poem, "Operation Lagrange", which Prince Frederick brought with him to compose the long poem into the most popular tune that day. This song was widely circulated among the soldiers, and the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment even faintly replaced this song with their military song to replace the previous "We Love Peace".

His father's left shoulder was not lightly injured, and he found that You was unharmed, You checked his father's wound, and then smeared a pungent ointment, and then wrapped a coarse cloth bandage around his father: "It's fine in about a month, but normal activities can be recovered in more than ten days, don't move when recuperating from injuries, don't touch your hands." ”

After treating his father's wounds, You went to treat the soldiers in his father's team. The soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and Sam's longbow squad was wiped out except for him--- they were surrounded by a group of Vekian spearmen when the Vekians suddenly turned around, and when Sam came back with dozens of soldiers to save these comrades, he found that they had been pierced into a hornet's nest.

Eleven of my father's squad of more than 30 people died, three were seriously wounded, and six were slightly injured, and my father's squad was seriously damaged.

You was expressionless, "There is a saying in my homeland, 'To drive people who can't fight to the battlefield is to kill the people', and these people died unjustly." ”

Regarding You's criticism, his father didn't say anything, just nodded, "I'll start teaching them, but the time is too tight, and there may be a war at any time."

Despite the high casualty rate, my father's squad had a brilliant success, with a total of seventeen Wikians killed and the same number wounded, according to the recollections of the squad and testimonies from other officers, while my father himself killed at least two Wikibians, and some of the soldiers who were badly wounded by my father did not know who to count them to.

When the spoils were distributed, the colleagues of the 3rd Regiment showed considerable generosity to their father's courage, and his father received the best set of Vikia armor--- the heavy armor of General Vecchia, known as the 'Chiba Armor'. At the same time, his father was assigned nine pairs of relatively crude Wikia iron armor, as well as eleven spears and two sledgehammers and axes.

Although these armors and weapons are nothing to regular infantry, they are very sophisticated weapons for these skirmishers under my father, and if I have been relying on the armor brought by my father himself, it will be very troublesome and expensive to replace them in the future.

After Lagrange became a battle hero, his father was a little embarrassed because of Sam's problems and did not take the initiative to contact him.

Sam hurt his arm and head this time, and Sam was more worried about what the soon-to-be-promoted Lord Lagrange would do to him than the injury.

After the celebration, Lagrange sent for his father to bring him a well-made Vecchia visor, one of several gifts that Prince Fidré personally gave to Lagrange. After the helmet was strapped, a bronze mask could be pulled off, and the mask had no expression, but it faintly revealed a cold murderous aura.

My father loved the helmet and considered it a treasure.

But a message from Lagrange's messenger made Sam frown:

"Dear Arcadio, if you have nothing else to send, I want to speak with Mr. Sam tonight."