The loud noise of guns and artillery was deafening - the Circassian soldiers at the front of the array felt only pain in their eardrums for a moment. There was a humming sound—and at the same time, the smoke from muskets and cannons filled the air, obscuring the view.

Just as the soldiers were stunned, the company commanders beside them shouted: "Squat!

Despite the fact that the body is very uncomfortable. But at the same time, the Circassian soldiers still crouched down like machines. It's like the results of their training on the training ground with whips, sticks, the instructors' scolding, and boot kicks. While crouching, they raised the muskets with bayonets in their hands at forty-five degrees, forming a snow-bright bayonet to resist the horses.

At the same time, the musketeers of the second row pulled the trigger, and then half-crouched, and stretched their bayonet muskets out of the gap between the soldiers in the first row. After that, there is the third row. They did not squat, remained standing, and stretched their bayonet guns over the heads of the second row of soldiers - a wall of bayonets consisting of three columns of infantry was completed immediately.

At the same time, the enemy cavalry and centaur warriors they faced had already suffered the greatest casualties.

Death, death, death, death, and death. The lead projectile twisted and deformed as it ground on the armor, and then rolled desperately inside the victim's body—a rain of dead metal from the artillery, which knocked out honeycomb-like bullet holes for nomadic warriors and centaurs. The screams were all in front of the positions of Hereford's new army.

Corpses, corpses, then corpses. The death rain of metal formed a formidable barrier in front of the position.

Corpses are piled up, and warriors who seem to be invincible are no different from trash on the battlefield. As I said before, killing has never been easier than it is today.

"However, it is only a barrier, not an absolutely insurmountable line of death. ”

Thinking of this, William couldn't help but sigh - "You can't shoot continuously, you can't maintain the density of fire while maintaining the continuity of firepower...... What a bastard. ”

- Yes, yes. And so it was - in the first round of shooting, the new Circassian army killed a thousand, fifteen hundred. Even more nomads with centaur warriors. In the face of such a record. The follow-up army of Sarida Khan could no longer, or rather, did not dare to move forward. Even the most courageous centaur warriors would not dare to take a step forward in the face of such a horrific slaughterhouse.

The centaurs and nomadic warriors who survived the salvo were either insane, silly, or terrified. Wailing "Ahh At the same time, more than 2,000 cavalry and centaur warriors of the follow-up troops did not dare to move forward. They were also frightened.

"Victorious. William finally breathed a sigh of relief—but at the same time, there was alarm in his heart.

At this moment, he is not dealing with the traditional army of nomads and centaurs. If it were the cavalry of the same new army as him, the result would be absolutely different for a moment - the new, the same mechanical cavalry would never retreat when the forward force was completely annihilated. They will continue to attack forward. And at the same time that the war horse was afraid of Xueliang's bayonet and did not dare to move forward, he poked the war horse's abdomen fiercely with the spurs on his boots. Let the warhorse crash headlong against the bayonet wall in intense pain.

In this way, what awaits the new Circassian army is not a big victory. It was a bitter hand-to-hand combat - the shortcomings of the Circassian army's inadequacy in melee combat would be exposed in the face of armored and condescending cavalry - after all, they did not receive much training and actual combat experience.

"I was very lucky that my first opponent was a centaur. This thought suddenly appeared in William's mind.

"Damn it—" At the same time, on the other side of the new Circassian army, Sarida Khan's face also became gloomy - one of the greatest uses of cavalry units was to confront the enemy's infantry units, and to crush the infantry arrays with a powerful onslaught. And in the case of the cavalry unit losing this meaning, it cannot appear as a main force, or it can no longer exist.

"Luckily...... We still have a chance -- kill all the soldiers who have escaped and come back! Send another 5,000-man team, 3,000-strong troops to contain them head-on, and two thousand-strong troops to make a detour left and right, and first break the opponent's cavalry!"

After deploying the left flank, Sarida Khan immediately ordered:

"The Forces nouvelles are advancing. ”

With his order, the new Slavian army, which acted as the main force of the front, began to advance slowly. It is basically the same as Duke Otto's mercenary troops, and is dominated by a phalanx composed of ultra-long spears and arquebuses. Interspersed with light infantry artillery......

Maybe a little less experience, a little less morale. However, in terms of training and regularity, the Slavic Forces were superior to the mercenary units.

"Finally...... Can't stand it anymore?" Seeing that the opposing soldiers began to advance, Duke Otto immediately ordered, and the main force of the mercenaries of the Chinese army stopped their actions and began to arrange artillery. At the same time, the artillery of the new Slavic army also stopped moving and began to be arranged.

Before the main forces of the two sides could fight, the artillery of both sides had already begun to exchange fire. With a loud roar, huge lead cannonballs slammed into the opposing array with super-fast ejection speeds. Unexpectedly, there were blood alleys in the opponent's phalanx.

Wherever the shells went, stumps and arms were severed, and flesh and blood were sprayed everywhere. Blood, shredded flesh and bones splattered on the bodies of the soldiers around them, on their faces, and even on the sides of their mouths.

But it didn't move.

The soldiers, as always, calm and unmoving. Indifferent to the tragic situation that happened around him. At the same time, the squad was reorganized amid the loud shouts of the officers, the empty spaces left by the dead were filled again, the formation was regrouped, and then the advance continued.

This is true both for the Coalition mercenary forces and for the Slavic Army. Ignoring death, they walked on their feet, and continued to march to the beat of the drum—gradually. Artillery on both sides could not fire. Because the infantry on both sides had gone too far. The trajectory of a direct-aim gun is not high enough, and it is not accurate enough. If you fire again, you will be even less likely to hit an enemy than you are to hit your own people.

In such a situation, it is the turn of the infantry units to fight.

Spears, muskets - of course, spears are the main force. A very small number of musketeers were hit in the front row, and after one round of firing, they retreated to the junction of the phalanxes.

Originally, these musketeers were meant to reinforce the four weaker corners of the pikemen. But in the case of such infantry phalanxes that could cover each other. The role of the musketeers as a cover was not so necessary. Therefore, on the battlefield of such a large-scale operation, the musketeers only played the role of covering the gaps and carrying out auxiliary firepower projection.

The absolute main force on the battlefield is still the super-long pikemen of both sides.

In the sound of drums and bugles. Infantry phalanxes slowly approached their enemies. When the distance between the two sides was about fifteen meters, the phalanx of both sides slowed down at the same time, and then lowered the spear on his shoulder, the tip of which was flat at the front end.

The extra-long spear, which was five meters or even longer, immediately formed a wall of spear tips. The two sides moved forward slowly, slowly, and then thrust - in the face of a density of spears of this density, the soldiers on both sides could barely dodge.

The only thing that can provide defense is the armor they wear.

In this regard, the coalition mercenary forces have the absolute upper hand. At least the first two columns of infantry were armoured, which was unmatched by the Slavians - the vast majority of the Slavic soldiers were only equipped with leather armor.

So, at the very first moment of the confrontation, the Slavites suffered heavy losses. The soldiers in the front row were all stabbed to pieces by multiple extra-long spears.

Under the dense array, the corpse of a single dead person will not fall lightly, but will be carried by others to continue to stand, or even move forward.

But the Slavians died too much, too quickly. They're a swarm, a bunch of dead like that, so dense arrays can't help.

Then, after the first few rows of soldiers were killed, the Slavian phalanx revealed their fragile and unprepared rear rows. And the morale and will to fight of these soldiers in the back row is even worse.

Only about half an hour after the start of the battle, the first array of the new Slavic army was already showing its decline. Salida Khan frowned.

At the same time, the fighting situation on the right flank was slightly better. The centaurs and nomadic cavalry had steadily suppressed their numbers and combat effectiveness, inferior to their coalition cavalry units. It's just that it's hard to get better results.

On the left, the situation is largely the same as on the right. The centaur warriors and nomadic cavalry who had broken through head-on were abandoned, leaving behind an infantry unit that pinned down the new Circassian army in the front. The other two thousand-man detachments rushed towards the flanks of the infantry units of the Forces nouvelles. It was engaged in a fierce battle with two cavalry battalions on both flanks.

"Is it the cavalry that gives the enemy the upper hand, and the infantry that our army has the upper hand...... If this continues, our army, having lost its cavalry units, will still be reduced to the point of being slaughtered......" Duke Otto observed the battlefield and came to this conclusion:

"Although our side has a certain advantage in overall combat power, the disadvantage in mobility is more than enough to offset this insignificant advantage. In this case, what needs to be done is...... Riding on foot?"

Thinking of this, Duke Otto immediately changed his tactics:

"Order the main forces to suspend their advance. The third array split into three infantry regiments and deployed on the right flank, while the cavalry on the right flank was ordered to retreat behind the infantry to rest.

Almost at the same time, on the left flank of the battlefield, William saw a similar problem. Of course, his tactic was not to split the third array. Instead, the third array was added to the left and right flanks of his main force. Replace the three-column array with two formations. While growing the array, the suppressed cavalry was withdrawn. R1148