Chapter 316: Battle of the Andalusian Plains (2/2)

Despite these orders, more rounds fired off until a point where roughly half of the soldiers still had loaded weapons, forcing them into a dangerous position. While the other half began reloading their guns as fast as they could, the Iberian troops had finally reached the front lines of the army.

In doing so, they rushed straight into a volley unleashed by the half of the soldiers who had contained their shot. While this volley was effective in devastating the enemy lines, it did not have nearly as significant an effect as possible.

As such, the Pikemen took their place and began to battle with the enemy. However, as the battle waged on the Granadan army started to suffer losses. There were too many Iberians for their army to handle effectively.

It would be another story if the soldiers had maintained the proper discipline and fired when they were commanded. However, the reality was a different story, and roughly 5,000 arkebusiers had missed their targets during the initial chaos of the battle. Before long, the pikemen could no longer contain the Iberian infantry, and they began to break ranks, and flee the battlefield.

Cutting down the Moorish soldiers with fantical hatred, the Catholic forces began screaming in their native tongue a series of battle cries that sent chills down the Granadan armies spines.

”Death to all Moors! God wills it!” ”Granada must burn!”

Before long, the Granadan lines began to crumble, and the soldiers started to route. Though General Ziyad attempted to rally his forces behind him, the effort was in vain; Arnulf grabbed the man by the soldier and gazed into his dark eyes with a stern expression.

”The battle is lost; give the order to retreat, or we will die here!”

Ziyad clenched his teeth and fists in fury as he witnessed his army break ranks and flee the battlefield. However, there was nothing to do about it now; as such, he followed Arnulf's advice.

”Retreat! All units fall back!”

As the few remaining Granadan soldiers heard this, they slung their Arkebuses over their shoulders and began to retreat from the advancing army. On the other side of the battlefield, the Calatrava Commander was eager to pursue the enemy and give them no quarter. As he was just about to give the command to annihilate the enemy, he felt a firm hand grip the armor on his shoulder.

As such, the man turned around to see the true mastermind behind this attack; it was a Duke under the employ of the King of Castille; the man glared at the Crusader Commander before shaking his head.

”Let them go...”

When the Crusader heard these words, he was outraged and immediately protested.

”But your Grace! If we do not pursue them, they will regroup and become an even greater threat to our existence!”

However, the Duke remained unconvinced and simply gazed toward the direction that all of the Granadan soldiers were fleeing.

”If we pursue them, we may be walking into a trap. I would rather have them regroup and crush them again than march my men to a meaningless death. You should be thankful; without my advice, this victory would not have been possible...”

After saying this, the Duke released his grip over the Crusader and strode his horse forward, commanding all Iberian soldiers to stop.

”Halt! We shall go no further! Scavenge the enemy's weapons! We shall bring some of these back to Castille so that we may figure out how they function. As for the rest, arm yourselves with them, and become acquainted in their use. The Granadans no longer have an authority on advanced armaments!”

With these words said, the Catholic Iberian soldiers began to cheer. They had accomplished a great victory here on this day, and with it, acquired the means to reverse engineer the Arkebuse; perhaps such a thing would turn the tides of war in their favor. After all, the resurrection of Al Andalus was something the Catholics could not allow to take place.

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