Duke Valder's face darkened even more. If killing the cavalry the first time was to boost morale, then killing the wounded the second time was a habit of Salin's army.
Most armies wouldn't do that, because it would incite the enemy to fight to the death.
Salin's army didn't care about that at all. There were soldiers who specialized in such things, and they were coordinated. Clearly, they had undergone strict training. If those heavy-armored cavalrymen didn't have specific weapons, it would be very difficult to immediately break through their armor and kill them.
"Should we stop them?" Duke Valder asked Tiffany.
"Why should we?" Tiffany asked curiously.
Duke Valder was speechless. Tiffany was a level-eight Magic Shooter. These soldiers didn't mean anything to her. It was even more stupid to ask a mage if they should kill the captives.
Because those who offended mages didn't end well.
"Balder, we have more intense battles ahead of us. What are you thinking about now?" Stephanie said to Balder in a lecturing tone.
Balder suddenly came to a realization. The ambush this time was definitely not a coincidence. Something had happened in Phoenix. It wasn't the work of one or two nobles to gather tens of thousands of troops and more than three thousand cavalry.
Valder had always been a war hawk in the House of Commons. He didn't like the Phoenix people. He also knew a lot about the situation in Phoenix. Hearing Stephanie's words, he immediately thought of the cause of the incident.
The scattered cavalry was chased by the royal swordsmen. The arrows shot out of the crossbows had orange flames. This was real magic equipment, unique to the royal swordsmen. The cone-shaped arrowheads pierced the armor. The orange flames immediately drilled into the armor and burned fiercely.
People who practiced swordsmanship had a high pain tolerance, but the burning of magic flames was different from kerosene. It went straight into the bones.
The Phoenix cavalry screamed and fell off their horses. Without the help of mages, they wouldn't have survived.
The sixth battalion had suffered losses in the battle with the Phoenix cavalry. The royal swordsmen chased after them. It was a massacre. The cavalrymen who were being chased hurriedly drew their bows and turned around to shoot. However, they were heavily armored cavalrymen, so their shooting ability was dozens of times worse than that of light cavalrymen. These short bows were only weapons that they would occasionally use. The arrows shot out, hitting the armors of the Royal Swordsman Battalion soldiers and bouncing off.
When Balder saw this scene, his heart immediately stirred up a storm. He had never seen the Royal Swordsman Battalion in battle. Seeing it today reminded him of his own private army.
Dukes could raise more than a thousand private soldiers. These private soldiers were all trusted aides of the nobles and were extremely valiant. But compared to the imperial swordsman camp, the difference was obvious.
After a short battle, except for the Phoenix Cavalry in the north, the rest of the cavalry were annihilated by the soldiers of the Sixth Battalion and the Royal Swordsmen Battalion. The cavalrymen in the north didn't know what happened here, but they lost more than 200 men in the battle. Realizing the difference in weapons, the cavalrymen turned north and circled back to their infantry positions.
The cavalry on the southern side had lost more than half of their men after being attacked by the heavy infantry of the Sixth Battalion. Just as they were about to escape, the cavalry of the Sixth Battalion rushed up and completely surrounded them. The cavalry that had lost their speed had no advantage against the long weapons of the infantry. He could only rely on his own bravery to fight.
But at this moment, the southern shield formation slowly moved forward, and the 6th Battalion infantry took advantage of the enemy cavalry's loss of speed to press forward.
The remaining 400 cavalrymen were surrounded. At this time, the infantry's crossbowmen and archers began to shoot accurately. They took out their treasured alchemy arrows and shot down the heavily armored cavalrymen one by one.
The number of crossbows in the Sixth Battalion was more than a reasonable proportion of an army. The 100 large carriages and more than 200 small carriages were almost all equipped with crossbows. Supplies were scarce. The Sixth Battalion had originally planned to resupply on the spot after entering Phoenix. But the Phoenix people who attacked the ambassadors didn't have accurate intelligence. They only thought that the target had at most 5,000 soldiers. So, the 20,000 people in Star City were all mobilized to annihilate the ambassadors.
If the Phoenix army approached from behind and forced the ambassadors to Martian City, there were still 50,000 soldiers in front of them. If they attacked from both sides, the ambassadors would suffer great losses.
In reality, Phoenix's army in the north was not considered elite. There were 70,000 soldiers, and the core strength was only about 10,000. Most of them were concentrated in Mars City, and they wanted to remove Rex's spy from Phoenix.
The tactical error caused the Phoenix rebel army to suffer heavy losses. Of the 3,000 cavalrymen, less than 500 managed to return. Naturally, the effect of the infantry's charge was greatly reduced. The infantry of the Sixth Battalion retreated to the shield formation and readied their crossbows.
Ordinary crossbows were very demanding on the soldiers' physical strength. If a soldier could shoot 24 arrows in a row, he would be considered an elite. Salin didn't have high expectations for his soldiers. Training the crossbowmen required a lot of time. But he had gloves designed by magicians that could increase the number of times the soldiers could shoot.
The 300 alchemy crossbows were dismantled and stored in boxes. The Sixth Battalion's main weapon now was the heavy crossbow. The heavy crossbow had a killing range of 200 meters. A skilled crossbowman could shoot one round in a minute when mounted on a carriage. The Phoenix rebel army ran head-on into the heavy crossbows of the Sixth Battalion.
The 300 heavy crossbows were smaller than the alchemy crossbows. The iron arrows they shot could also reach 200 meters. However, even the worst mercenaries would need less than a minute to cover a distance of 200 meters.
The Phoenix's charge killed more than 400 people in the first round. Because the people in front were not heavily armored infantry, the heavy crossbows could sometimes penetrate the enemy and cause continuous damage.
The Sixth Battalion didn't have foot crossbows. Instead, they used two-handed crossbows. This crossbow had a longer range than a one-handed crossbow. It could reach 100 meters. However, without fixed vehicles, the crossbowmen were more skilled.
At a distance of 100 meters, thousands of iron arrows were shot from behind the 300 vehicles. The Phoenix soldiers raised their small square shields and ran forward desperately. If they didn't get close to the enemy formation, they would all be shot to death.
However, the shooting accuracy of the soldiers of the Sixth Battalion was average. They couldn't aim at the vital points at a distance of 100 meters. The thousands of iron arrows were basically scattered.
The Phoenix infantrymen with broadswords rushed to a distance of more than 50 meters in the blink of an eye. Their losses were similar to the first round of heavy crossbows.
Nearly a thousand men were killed or wounded for a distance of 200 meters. The Phoenix officers were all red-eyed.
The soldiers of the Sixth Battalion were no longer nervous. They saw that the enemy this time was much weaker than the expeditionary army of the Vatican. Those who were wounded by the iron arrows had basically lost their weapons and wouldn't continue forward.
"Get ready to shoot!"
The deputy generals of the various regiments gave their orders. The soldiers put down their crossbows, took out their bows and arrows, and lined up to advance. The arrows were shot from behind the vehicles.
Only then did the commander of the Sixth Battalion believe that his army had gained the upper hand. The enemy's counterattack did not hurt the soldiers at the back of the convoy at all. The enemy's arrows were blocked by the formation of carriages and could only be shot from afar. However, shooting from afar required skill, and the damage would be reduced.
The armor of his army could completely withstand this kind of counterattack.
The cavalry of the Royal Swordsmen retreated. The cavalry of the Sixth Battalion did not attempt to attack the flanks of the enemy infantry. Instead, they retreated. The cavalry hung up their weapons, reloaded the crossbows, and reloaded them.
The killing range of 10 meters could not be underestimated. None of the infantry's long weapons could reach 10 meters. However, there were spears that could reach up to 8 meters. It was a headache for cavalry to encounter such spears, and they could only rely on their individual skills to deal with them. Therefore, using the crossbows to attack the enemy's long weapons would reduce the casualties of the cavalry during the charge.
"Looks like there's no problem." Valder let out a long sigh. He wasn't a general, but he had read a lot of books and was no stranger to the theory of warfare. If he was given a chance and given more training, he would also be a qualified officer.
The Phoenix people had used the cavalry wrongly and allowed them to be killed first. The infantry came too late and lost the possibility of victory. The Sixth Battalion had too many crossbows, to the point that it was unreasonable. However, the number of crossbows ensured that the casualty rate of the Sixth Battalion was very low.
So far, the Sixth Battalion had less than 500 casualties.
Dong … Dong …
The drums sounded in the middle of the army. The Phoenix soldiers had already turned around and tried to attack from the flanks again. The front formation of carriages was difficult to overcome. Everyone had learned Qin Yin's military system and knew how powerful a defensive formation was. If the envoy group did not have so many arrows, the Phoenix rebels would have tried to attack from three sides. However, it was obvious that the number of crossbowmen in the envoy group was terrifying.
The formation of carriages could provide a strong killing force, and the soldiers at the back could shoot at will. Therefore, the Phoenix people had no choice but to go around the front and repeat the cavalry's attack route.
The beating of the war drums continued to change. Hiding behind the chariots, the soldiers of the Sixth Battalion, who had surrounded the area with their shields, quietly changed their weapons. All the crossbows were put away, leaving only a thousand archers, while the rest of the soldiers changed into their own equipment and prepared for close combat.
Valder watched the changes in the battle from the back and couldn't help but ask, "Master Tiffany, if the enemy has large equipment or can control powerful magic beasts, how will the Metatlin army defend?"
He was a little doubtful, the 6th Battalion had indeed gained the upper hand, and would soon expand to victory, but the problem was that this was under the premise that the enemy did not have sufficient equipment. If the enemy had large puppets or magic ballistae, this advantage would not exist.
The commander of the Sixth Battalion saw that the enemy had spread out their formation and was about to attack, so he gave the order.
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