635 A raving army Part 2 (2/2)

Badge in Azure Deathstate 59920K 2022-07-23

The clatter of horses' hooves could be heard from afar. The warhorses of the Holy See's army were fitted with metal horseshoes, unlike Saleen's army which used materials from magic beasts. The clanging from the metal horseshoes was raucous, it could be heard from a great distance away. Thousands of warhorses were running at the same time, it was as though the earth was emitting thunder.

These were the vanguards from Holy See, usually, there would be three-thousand cavalrymen. Of the three-thousand cavalrymen, there were one-hundred heavy cavalrymen who were clad in holy armor. This type of armor was extremely lightweight, suitable to be put on for a long time.

The remaining cavalrymen were mostly light cavalrymen, their combat method was to fire bows, while their main weapon was the Tanggulasi scimitar. The heavy cavalrymen needed to work with the auxiliary troops as their equipment was transported by the large chariots, they usually followed the main body. It was the same case for the infantrymen. Tanggulasi had many places for rearing horses, so even the infantrymen could travel on inferior horses.

This time around, many soldiers participated in the expedition. The pope's order was very insistent. On average, each expeditionary soldier had one horse. Other than the infantrymen who traveled in chariots, each cavalryman was allocated two warhorses.

Before entering Phoenix the Holy See's army had lost a massive number of warhorses. Due to their high traveling speed, many warhorses died because of exhaustion. Only a place like the Holy See would disseminate orders which were hated by their military.

The expeditionary army replenished their warhorses in Loulan before continuing on the journey. In the battle with Lex's army they lost another huge quantity of warhorses again. No matter how powerful the holy masters were, they could not save the soldiers and horses altogether. Many warhorses died because of ineffective treatment.

Be that as it may, this colossal army still managed to cover over one hundred miles per day. If this army was made up of only cavalrymen then this speed was extremely slow, but this was a mixed army where infantrymen consisted two-thirds of the total manpower.

These people only had one agenda; Metatrin City. The pope's order was very simple, to go there and destroy the city.

It was actually very risky for one-thousand people to wait by the roadside to ambush three-thousand cavalrymen. Only one-hundred of the cavalrymen possessed holy armor, the rest were clad in light armor. There were not many holy masters who would be the targets the crossbowmen were looking for either.

The vanguards of Tanggulasi's cavalrymen charged into this mountain road, their speed was maintained around twenty miles an hour. The horses' physical strength could still be sustained at this speed, but if the speed was raised to sixty miles an hour, only a skeletal warhorse could sprint at this speed for a long duration. Even if a skeletal warhorse was used it would get crippled after running at sixty miles an hour for a long time.

When the first two-hundred cavalrymen were about to enter the ambush area, the commander of the ninth emblem group did not give the attack order. He instead allowed these two-hundred cavalrymen to pass through. Very soon, the main body swarmed into this tapered passageway. At this point in time, the trusted soldiers of the commander blew their war horns.

”Fire!”

Two-hundred arrows pierced through the air. No matter what, the soldiers of the sixth camp had undergone a few months of training. Their main training subjects did not include close combat, all efforts were focused on honing their arrow formation in battle.

Three seconds later, the second wave of arrows was fired. Another three seconds later, the third wave of arrows was launched.

For the first two-hundred people, the sixth camp had used the large crossbows. They caused over one-hundred enemies to tumble over, but handheld crossbows were used for the enemies at the back which had less of an effect. Those over one-hundred enemies had to be dead. Those who got struck by the handheld crossbows would not end up intact even if they had received treatment from the holy masters though.

The largest magnitude of lethality came from falling off the warhorses because these people would be trampled by the warhorses coming from behind.

”Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

”In the forest!”

The Holy See's cavalrymen began to be flustered, but their commanders began barking orders at them. The cavalrymen at the rear wielded circular shields to block their bodies, then they charged into the forest. The forest was not very dense, but it would not allow a warhorse to gallop through it either. The moment the cavalrymen entered the forest, they immediately leaped off their horses. Wielding their scimitars in one hand and a shield in the other they started surrounding the Qin people who had ambushed them.

Awaiting them was the offensive by the crossbows. Even though the range of a handheld crossbow was short, a location like this forest was the battlefield where a handheld crossbow could unleash its might. In an army deployed for field battle, their handheld crossbows could not do burst shots. Their lethality was much stronger than a consecutive-fire crossbow.

Since the Tanggulasi cavalrymen were holding circular shields, they could not protect their whole body. The soldiers from the sixth camp fired arrows at their lower body. The battle zone only spanned for dozens of yards and these dozens of yards caused an immense casualty rate for the Tanggulasi people.

The first wave of attacks from the large crossbows took out over one-hundred cavalrymen, while the next wave of offensive by the handheld crossbows injured more than five-hundred cavalrymen.

”Retreat, retreat!” The commander of the ninth emblem group bellowed. His trusted soldiers immediately blew a different rhythm using their war horns.

The Tanggulasi people dashed into the forest in a raving fashion, they still had the upper hand in terms of numbers. The vanguards and the rear army could arrive here in at most two hours, or even in an hour. As long as the Tanggulasi people pestered their enemy, then one-thousand of Saleen's soldiers would be wiped out.

Ignoring all injuries, the Tanggulasi people approached the crossbowmen, causing the two emblem group commanders to immediately have the notion of escaping. Before setting off, Saleen had instructed the ten emblem group commanders to lessen the number of casualties while helping the soldiers to be familiarized with the battlefield and lead the soldiers back to Metatrin City.

Without the holy masters, the enemy's idiotic way of combat would result in all three-thousand cavalrymen getting killed. The presence of holy masters only resulted in at most one-hundred people dying while the rest could be saved though. This situation would perpetuate if the battle continued, the cavalrymen would use the circular shields to protect their vital organs and use their number advantage to get closer to their enemies. Saleen's soldiers did not even have the opportunity to use their cutlasses to kill the Tanggulasi people who had fallen to the ground.