In the end, Freya silently obeyed William's orders. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Info suppressed the thirst of her men and left the army behind. Freya is confused about her future...... Probably in a short time, she won't be in the mood to do things.

In this way, William's White Legion and the Crusader forces continued on their way. At the same time, the Novgorod army was also moving forward. After two days of marching, the two sides met in the wilderness west of Novgorod.

And then, it's a battle of course. The two sides began to line up their armies in a tacit understanding. There is no messenger. No speeches, no war letters. At the beginning, the nomadic cavalry attached to Novgorod wanted to launch a surprise attack while the Goths were not gaining a foothold.

Before that, however, they were attacked by William's chasseurs armed with long-barreled rifles, which had been simply machined to create primitive rifling, and the firing range and accuracy had been greatly improved, of course, these rifles were not rifled in a spiral, but in a straight line. Because the latter is much easier to make-

However, even such a simple straight rifled rifling rifle was very expensive. Moreover, because the rifling will be rubbed by the lead bullet during use, and it will be filled by the fine chips dropped by the lead bullet. Therefore, the life span is much lower than that of ordinary smoothbore guns.

Therefore, at present, the armies of the vast majority of countries refuse to use this kind of rifle that is too short in life and troublesome to maintain. Only a very small number of nobles who are looking for curiosities like to get two of these things for hunting.

However, as a man who can invest in military affairs at any cost, William does not care about these things - in fact, when he established the new Circassian army, he considered using rifles as standard equipment...... But then, he was frightened by the high price of the rifle. Until now, in the case of the excellent financial situation of the Duchy of Mystia. William dared to add three companies of chasers armed with rifled guns to his White Legion.

As it turned out, these hunters weren't very useful...... Although the range has increased to one hundred and fifty meters, and the accuracy has increased a lot. But it was too much for a man to resist a charge of a few thousand cavalry with the firing of more than 300 hunters - but fortunately. Nor did William pin all his hopes on the Chasseurs.

At the same time that the hunters fired the first round of ammunition, the cavalry regiment and the five three-pounder cavalry guns belonging to the cavalry regiment, as well as the twenty six-pounder rapid infantry guns belonging to the artillery regiment, were in place. In the case that the opponent is only one hundred and fifty meters away from his own position. The artillery commander decisively chose to use shotguns - followed by a dense and deadly barrage of steel barrages that blasted out in the shortest possible time - and with the enemy cavalry less than a hundred metres from the Crusader position, the enemy advance was beaten into a sieve with men and horses - and the offensive momentum of the nomadic cavalry was thus dampened.

High-speed buckshots, large-area shotguns completely crushed the advance of the nomadic cavalry. The barbarians' light horses, strong bows and scimitars were all dregs, and then the cavalry units of the company, through the gap between the artillery and the hunters, attacked them.

Most of these were Gothic White Legion cavalry, and their individual horsemanship and martial arts were no match for the nomadic light cavalry. However, after several months of intensive training, their array training has been basically completed. The cavalry wall array, the dense cavalry array, is a great weapon for civilized cavalry to fight against nomadic light cavalry. The loose array of nomadic cavalry, in this case had to face more than two well-made scimitars-

To make matters worse, William generously equipped his cavalry with steel cuirass, as well as sharp steel sabers. The miracle of large-scale metal smelting in the industrial age dwarfs the nomadic cavalry who usually has an iron pot as a treasure.

With the formation, high-quality weapons and equipment, coupled with the fact that the shooting of the chasseurs and artillery units just now, greatly damaged the morale of the nomadic cavalry. William's cavalry regiment overwhelmed the second line of Slavic nomadic cavalry in the shortest possible time.

"No more. These useless barbarians -- shoot the guns! Hurry up and shoot the guns!"

In the rear of the battlefield, the Slavi commander gave orders loudly and angrily. Under his command, the artillery positions of the Slavic army were busy. The artillerymen aimed at the cavalry, which was in the midst of a fierce battle, and began to fire indiscriminately.

There was absolutely no one in the Slavic army to stop this commander. It's like the Goths looked down on the Slavits. The Slavites also regarded all the nomadic peoples of the Cuman-Chincha steppes east of the Great Frontier as uncivilized barbarians. They don't care if these barbarians live or die. If the death of 4,000 barbarians could be exchanged for victory in this war, then the Slavites would not hesitate.

That's it. Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the artillery group behind them, the casualties of the nomadic cavalry rose sharply. The leaders of the nomads who were attached to Novgorod all cursed, turned their horses, and retreated with their cavalry.

That is, taking advantage of this gap, William and Commander Slavi seized the time to arrange their troops. After the cavalry of both sides withdrew to their respective positions, the commanders of both sides secretly cried out that it was a pity - the other side had already lined up the array. There is no more chance to launch a raid.

After suffering the losses of their own people, the nomadic cavalry no longer had the slightest desire to participate in the war. The remaining two or three thousand cavalry were scattered on the left and right flanks of the Slavic army, and it seemed that they would not take the initiative to attack again for a short time.

Remove these cavalry. The strength of the armies of the two sides was not much different. It's all around sixteen thousand. The Slavians were a little more numerous, but they did not play a role in the outcome of the whole war.

Because of the lack of troops. And the commanders on both sides wanted a quick solution. Therefore, the two sides had a tacit understanding and coincidentally chose to line up in two formations instead of the traditional three-column formation. And all the artillery was deployed on the front line.

In the middle of William's army were his descendants, three infantry regiments of the White Legion, armed with cuirassiers and flintlock muskets, and an artillery regiment with forty guns. This was flanked by nearly 5,000 soldiers, with 3,000 mercenaries and a dozen artillery pieces each. The remaining cavalry regiments of the White Legion, as well as the two cavalry regiments pieced together by the mercenary troops, and the remaining more than 3,000 infantrymen, were listed in the second line.

In contrast, there were tens of thousands of Slavic mercenaries and aristocratic armies. Numerally a little more than William's army. And the number of artillery is also slightly more. The overall combat power seems to maintain an advantage.

What is more worrying is the second array of the Slavic army. Commander Slavi, put all the City Guards who were not very combat-ready and would have been troublesome if they died. This is almost equivalent to the other party completely abandoning the second array. And then get rid of the nomadic troops they had just offended. In fact, the Slavic Legion could only use 12,000 soldiers from the first array.

"A little bit...... However, if after the first array wins...... Then the outcome of this war is decided...... I hope so. Commander Slavi was secretly worried—but after carefully observing the array of the Crusaders, he smiled again—

He shouted to the officers to his left and right, "Look, the commander of the other side is really a rookie with little experience. There were so many musketeers organized, but there was no spearmen to cover them! And the array in the middle of the opponent was too thin. It seems that the middle lane is the most likely part of the breakthrough.

"It was William's White Army. It is said that he was newly recruited in Polotsk. It has only been three months since it became an army. Three months ago, they were just civilians who had just laid down their hoes. Beside the commander, someone playfully said, "It looks like we're going to win." The breakthrough is also in the middle. ”

"Then there's nothing to be afraid of. Commander Slavi nodded, then said with a sense of pride, "Defeat them, then." Then capture that arrogant and arrogant nobleman's son alive, and fall in the face of his father, Duke Otto!"

At the command of the commanders of the two sides, under the drumbeat of the military musicians, the soldiers of both sides braved the artillery bombardment of the other side and slowly marched forward to the beat of the drums -- the discipline and combat effectiveness of the modern army were undoubtedly revealed at this moment. At every moment, when artillery shells blasted a bloody alley in their array, the soldiers on both sides were still as calm as they were.

"A little bit...... But there should be no problem. If something happens...... "At this moment, William also regretted that he was too thin in the middle - in order to make the most of the firepower, he arranged his array too long to make it easier to drop firepower. However, the downside of this is that Hisaishi makes the array unstable. At the same time, the recruits in Polotsk wavered a little - William made the mistake of empiricism at this moment.

Before that, he did take soldiers who had been training for several months to fight. But once the opponents were bandits and mercenaries. At the same time, he had time to arrange breastworks and trenches on the battlefield to organize defenses. After that, the battle with Tartaria took place inside the fortress. Fortifications, defenses, and artillery give the soldiers confidence. Invisibly increased morale.

And in the later stages of the battle, the recruits have already been honed into veterans. Its combat effectiveness and morale have been greatly enhanced.

But this time was different, this time, as soon as the Polotsks went into battle, they had to face tens of thousands of enemy soldiers. Their morale was not comparable to that of the new soldiers of the Duchy of Mystia.

"But it doesn't matter, the quality of our army's muskets is much higher than that of the other side. At this point, our army has the upper hand. ”

That is, while William was thinking about this problem, the distance between the two armies was already less than two hundred meters. William's soldiers stopped. Wait for the other person to get closer, and then shoot the first round of bullets.