plumnovel #574 - Holy Gun Cavalry
#574 - Holy Gun Cavalry
The Edict Legion was living up to its name.
They formed three 90-man triangular formations, connected by more than 20 knights patrolling the periphery, and the three triangular assault formations formed a large assault formation.
In their eyes, the scattered horse archers were like little babies with their bare bottoms exposed.
Mural led the horse archers in constant circling and volleying, but just as they were halfway through a turn, they heard a earth-shattering roar: "Edict Legion! Charge with me!"
In the blink of an eye, lances and knightly swords cut Mural's horse archers in two.
"Run, retreat!" Mural was submerged in the crowded horse archers, his voice spreading by word of mouth among the attendants and cavalry squad leaders.
"Hmph, want to escape? Just what I wanted." Edmund, who was charging, sneered and chased after the horse archers' rear.
This tactic was very common, mainly using routed light cavalry to charge into the enemy's cavalry formation, and then taking advantage of the chaos to kill.
Arrows flew overhead, and occasionally one or two hit the weak spots in the armor or vital points, which could indeed shoot down a few unlucky knights, but the remaining knights didn't care even if their backs were full of arrows.
Four hundred meters, three hundred and fifty meters, three hundred meters... the horse archers slowed down, and the enemy's cavalry formation was right in front of them.
"Quick step, charge!" Edmund put his lance under his arm and shouted loudly, while Gallien on the other side was also on standby, ready to charge towards the Savior Army infantry on the hill at any moment.
The horses' hooves were rapid, the leaves were shaking, and the distance of three hundred meters, with horse archers in front of them, meant their acceleration was definitely not as fast as theirs.
Edmund looked at the surging dome helmet in front of him, and the joy in his heart was indescribable.
But just as he was complacent, his eyes suddenly blurred, and the horse archers suddenly dispersed to both sides in a seemingly chaotic but orderly manner.
Obviously, the feigned retreat just now was for Edmund's benefit, but under Mural's exquisite command and training, these horse archers acted too realistically.
These Norse horse archers were also mercenaries, and no one knew "retreat" better than them.
Edmund was still inexperienced and eager to win. He didn't react to this common Noorn feigned retreat tactic, and was tricked without being careful.
After clearing the way, what came head-on were the Holy Arquebusiers led by Jeanne.
As the creator of the Holy Arquebusiers, Jeanne's main imaginary enemy was the Imperial Knights, so her tactics were an evolution aimed at the Imperial Knights.
Following Horn's idea of "don't treat the clockwork arquebus as a crossbow, but as an invisible ten-meter lance," Jeanne reorganized and refined the tactics of the Holy Arquebusiers.
Her first requirement was to form neat horizontal formations of three to five rows according to the terrain when charging, so that the clockwork arquebus could exert its maximum power.
Secondly, it was not allowed to use horse archer-type circling shooting, but to charge straight into the enemy formation like lancers for close combat.
The first two rows could only fire when they could see the whites of the enemy's eyes or feathers, and then draw out their mace or rapier to charge.
The third row was not allowed to fire, but in close combat, they would occasionally pull it out and shoot at close range.
And Edmund was the lucky one to taste the new tactics first.
"Volley fire! Praise the Holy Wind!"
Pulling out the clockwork arquebus from their boots, the front row of Holy Arquebusiers pulled the trigger one after another.
The pressure balance hole made a sharp whistling sound, sucking in all the dust stirred up by the horses' hooves in front.
The firing pin pushed the lead bullet forward erratically in the barrel.
Then it pierced the air, pierced the armor, and burrowed into the knights' flesh like a poisonous insect.
The blood was squeezed out, thrown outward from both sides of its round body, and a blood arrow shot out on the knight's body.
More than a dozen banner knights charging at the front fell in response, and the Edict Legion's formation instantly became somewhat chaotic.
Before they could react, a delicate shout with an echo rang out.
Blazing lightning spread like wings on both sides of Jeanne, quickly passing over the knights' horses.
Four or five warhorses on both sides convulsed and fell at the same time, throwing the knights on their backs to the ground.
The Holy Arquebusiers on the rear immediately broke into the gap, and the heavy mace slammed on the heads of the fallen knights, and the bursting blood even spurted out from the eye seams and armor seams.
Slender hooves trampled chaotically in this small area, and countless smoke and dust rose, mixed with the crisp sounds of rapiers piercing the knights' armor and lances knocking away the Holy Arquebusiers.
Screams, horse neighs, and the thumping sound of human bodies falling to the ground rose and fell one after another.
In the rising smoke and dust, you could often see holes appearing one by one, which was the trajectory of the lead bullets penetrating the smoke and dust.
What followed was a knight's painful scream.
At a distance where they could engage in close combat, even if Jeanne and the others used a 1.2-meter light clockwork arquebus, it was enough to break through the armor of the Edict Knights.
The Edict Knights didn't have the money to replace their white crystal steel armor, and only installed white crystal steel inner plates in front of their hearts.
Jeanne and other Holy Arquebusiers first bypassed them, and then turned back to use the carbine on their backs at a distance of four or five meters.
What they couldn't accept the most was that because the horses of Thousand River Valley were relatively short compared to the horses of the Edict Legion, these Holy Arquebusiers prioritized attacking the warhorses.
There were at least five or six warhorses that fell to the ground because their necks were pierced by rapiers.
Edmund swept away a Holy Arquebusier with his lance, knocking him off his horse. He turned his head and saw two Holy Arquebusiers aiming their carbines at him in the distance.
He subconsciously shrank his head, and a ball of sparks burst out on his helmet.
A lead bullet was bounced off by the arc-shaped helmet, and the huge impact caused Edmund's head to jerk back.
He desperately grabbed the reins, and Edmund hurriedly stabbed the warhorse's ribs with his spurs, away from these Holy Arquebusiers. He pointed at Jeanne, who was surrounded by lightning in the distance, with his lance in anger: "Witch! You are too despicable!"
However, the battle of cavalry is always very short. Most of the time, they will not stop and fight on horseback like infantry.
After a charge, following Jeanne's Holy Grail battle flag, the remaining 200 Holy Arquebusiers disengaged one after another, passed through the Edict Legion led by Edmund, and rushed out from behind them.
According to the traditional cavalry battle rules, at this time, they should carry out a continuous figure-8 circling charge. The knights on both sides must continuously charge according to the "8" trajectory, colliding at the intersection.
When the two sides are the furthest apart, it is generally the slowest speed. This is what Jeanne knows best.
The golden finch battle flag representing Prince Condé waved, and Edmund came to a position sufficient to launch another charge.
His eyes stared at Jeanne turning in the distance like a hawk. These despicable guys were not easy to deal with.
They were able to fight the Edict Legion to a nearly one-for-one exchange ratio,
While his body rose and fell with the horse's back, he instructed the attendants on both sides: "Assemble, triangular formation, lie down when close..."
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"Ah—" A scream interrupted Edmund's order. He raised his head in astonishment, but saw a dark long line flying from a distance.
Damn it, it's the volley fire of the clockwork arquebusiers!
Where did they come from?!
"Lie down!" Edmund shouted hoarsely, and was then pressed on the horse's back by an attendant knight. At a distance of sixty or seventy meters, lead bullets collided on these fresh bodies one after another.
In the bursting armor plates and flesh, at least twenty knights fell off their horses.
Jeanne had expected that Edmund would prepare to carry out a figure-8 charge with her like a traditional knight. How could she let him succeed?
As early as before the war, she had transferred two fifty-man teams of Holy Arquebusiers, put on the robes of the Guardian Army over their armor, and waited for the Edict Legion to be hooked.
At this moment, Edmund didn't even have time to be angry. He pushed away the attendant knight and stood up on the stirrups: "Assemble, assemble, the devil wind has passed, the witch is coming."
But how could the knights who had just been attacked by lead bullets recover so quickly? The Edict Knights could quickly assemble, but some of the banner knights and attendant knights were still running while hugging their horse's necks.
"For freedom! Long live Thousand River Valley!"
The chaotic Edict Legion collided head-on with Jeanne's Holy Arquebusiers, and what came head-on was another volley fire.
The earth-shattering shouts came, and the blazing white light once again illuminated the front row. The two sides crossed each other, and from time to time knights fell backwards from their horses.
"Retreat, retreat quickly, let Gallien come to meet us!"
Edmund retreated while shrinking his head to avoid the lead bullets, rushing towards Gallien on one side.
The Norse horse archers and Kush knights on both sides immediately stuck to them, and the Holy Arquebusiers were about to chase, but were angrily called back by Jeanne.
Their clockwork arquebuses were basically used up, and they needed to re-cock and reload. The matter of chasing and killing the remnants should be left to the Kush knights and Norse horse archers.
The horses' hooves stepped over the knights groaning on the ground, and the Holy Arquebusiers woke up as if from a dream. They still couldn't believe it.
They had actually defeated the Edict Legion head-on in a cavalry battle, inflicting nearly a hundred casualties on the Edict Legion led by Edmund with an exchange ratio of almost one-for-one.
Although they cleverly borrowed the clockwork arquebusiers of the infantry regiment on the side, this was still a victory!
Under Gallien's response, the Kush knights slowly retreated, and by the way, they used close combat weapons to clean up those prince banner knights who fell off their horses on the battlefield.
Taking off his dented helmet, Edmund stood in front of Lacunio with his head bowed in shame.
At this moment, Lacunio's face was as deep as water. He discovered an important problem. They didn't seem to be a match for the Savior Army in cavalry and infantry.
In other words, given the current situation and terrain, it should be the prince's side that should be fighting defensively.
"Wayne, I didn't grind your bones to ashes, really... really... alas—" Lacunio's anger subsided halfway, but he extinguished the fire in disappointment. "Tell the soldiers to notify Charles, we have already lost this battle. Retreat ten miles first, reorganize the team and continue to fight."
What else could he do? Wayne gave him a chance, and the sorcerer Horn seized this opportunity firmly. He couldn't blame others.
"Yes, Your Excellency."
An attendant knight responded and ran out of the team, galloping towards the river beach. Lacunio turned his head, still preparing to comfort Edmund.
But he saw that the attendant who had just run down ran back with a look of horror.
"Why are you back?" A bad feeling rose in Lacunio's heart.
The knight said incoherently: "The prince sent a message that His Highness needs five high-level monks, and summoned Elrad to come. Elrad temporarily takes over Alford's Third Edict Legion!"
"What happened to Alford?" Edmund's voice trembled slightly.
"Legion Captain Alford charged too far forward and was entangled by blood-sucking vines and savage sword and shield soldiers. The short hairs used the eagle arquebus to fire a connecting rod bullet, which just hit Legion Captain Alford's neck. Although he was rescued, Legion Captain Alford is already seriously injured and dying!"