1010 Baiting the Enemy Part 2 (1/2)

Sufonso was in his prime, developing some ambition after advancing into the ranks of golden grand swordmaster. Warriors were unlike mages, but after becoming a golden grand swordmaster, they would be able to live two to three hundred years. He deemed it to be a waste of his capabilities if he was unable to do anything grand with the extra two hundred years that he had earned.

The Sikeqinyan cavalry moved like floodwaters, gushing at the demon army's turf. The cavalry battalion suffered few casualties. The warhorse, rode by over 100,000 cavalry units, was of magic beast levels, and was also the true elite force of Sikeqinya.

Common cavalries were only capable of building up speed when charging from behind; the warhorses needed meticulous care when not used in war.

Yet, the battalion of Sikeqinyan cavalry was capable of high speed pursuit after charging in and the warhorses suffered next to no reduction in speed. The triangular formation quickly turned into a flat one. The riders fired their crossbows and killed quite a number of demons.

Sufonso charged outside Yaoyang City with his troops because he did not see any problem with the demon army's defeat, deciding to attack Ceylon City right then and there.

He was familiar enough with Ceylon City to know that there were few to no natural hazards in the city's terrain getting in his way.

The demon army retreated very quickly to the mountains. The regular Sikeqinyan army was unable to control the massive groups of mercenaries, and had no choice but to dispatch two of the most elite groups to pursue them in the mountains, but did not order them to duke it out with the demon army. The mercenaries' main objective was to blockade the way out of the mountain, preventing the demons from attacking Yaoyang City after they recuperated.

The Sikeqinyan commander was very careful, having 20,000 starting construction work outside the mountains, while being supported by Yaoyang City, to prevent the demons from retaliating. The longer it took to get the construction done, the more comprehensive the installation of large scale equipment became. Even if the demon army was to be a force to be reckoned with, it would be impossible to simply assault them.

The 140,000 remaining charged into Ceylon City-controlled territories through the narrow mountain pass, encountering the new recruits that Saleen dispatched.

The camp of the new recruits consisted only of about 5,000 units and were the force nearest to Yaoyang City. The general leading the force saw the huge Sikeqinyan army before them was made up of veterans from Daliang City. He knew right away that taking such a huge force head on was not an option. They were not able to pretend that they were trying to resist the enemy.

The over 5,000-strong army retreated. A fort sat about 30 miles behind their camp.

Saleen's arrangements were intricate, all of which hinged on the rate the demon army was defeated. If they were defeated too slowly, the 5,000 new recruits would have escaped too early and the Sikeqinyans would not have been able to find them. The Sikeqinyan heavy cavalry ditched their armor and maintained only the most basic gear for their warhorses in order to maintain combat capacity.

The force taking the lead was a mercenary group consisting of over a thousand light cavalry units. The light cavalry units were not very fast, as they all rode horses with emphasis on long distance endurance, enabling them to march for over a hundred miles.

Light cavalries often had meager damage potential and their greatest use was simply to tail scattered enemies or to injure infantry units with bows and arrows from the flanks. However, Saleen's 5,000 new recruits simply ran without fighting, thus enabling the light cavalry to pursue them easily, shooting arrows from behind.

The 5,000 new recruits packed simple gear and their rear was all carts and carriages. When they turned and ran, the Sikeqinyan main forces had yet to arrive. More than half of the troops got into the carriages and prepped the crossbows, while most of the remaining half got onto horses and retreated to the fort along lesser-known paths.

There were fewer than 1,000 troops who ran with their own legs. When the light cavalry was within sight, the new recruits were yelled at by their superiors and retaliated haphazardly with the crossbows on the carriages. The resulting battle looked rather funny.

The Sikeqinyan light cavalry did not have formidable combat capacity and their arrows flew around without actual targets. Saleen's new recruits all wore paper armor. While the armor seemed to be useless, it actually excelled in protection against arrows, even though it was extremely weak against attacks from heavy weapons, such as battle axes and spears.

The light cavalry pursued from behind and killed fewer than 100 recruits, while they suffered around 200 casualties from bolts being fired from the carriages. The weapons Saleen issued the new recruits were very common, the only ones capable of dealing great damage being the crossbow bolts. Saleen never expected that despite the shabby gear he gave the new recruits, they still proved superior to the ones used by the low level Sikeqinyan mercenaries.

A cavalry force pursued infantry units and ended up suffering greater losses. That would be quite a joke in Cloudflow.

The generals from the Principality of Bitterwater, who led the new recruits, instead thought the situation was a grim one. If things were to continue, the Sikeqinyans might have been frightened and it would have screwed up the plan. Their master had ordered them to bait the enemy deep into their territory! That could not have been done if the group of good-for-nothing infantry units actually managed to repel attacks from the enemy cavalry.

The generals from the Principality of Bitterwater shouted orders to their subordinates to have the new recruits attack more sluggishly and began dropping caltrops along the way. Massive numbers of caltrops quickly filled up the path. The caltrops, which should have been made from iron, were all made of copper.

The Sikeqinyan light cavalry's horses were not even wearing horseshoes. The pursuing cavalry had no choice but to slow down or to move alongside the path. The large forces behind waited for the troops at the front to clear up the obstacle while two squads of mercenaries went around the wide path and pursued the new recruits riding inferior horses. Those two squads were able to catch up with the new recruits and the resulting battle ended up killing over 200 of the new recruits. The surviving ones hurried their horses and ran for the fort.