Chapter 10: The third battle in Krakow, the frontal battlefield

When the Norman Hussars fought more with less and suppressed the coalition light cavalry and could not move, on the other end of the battlefield, the Celtic soldiers also launched an attack on the coalition's positions.

Similarly, the Celtics did not, as the other party imagined, invested a large number of troops directly attacking. In fact, after the Battle of Paris that year, Artoria abandoned this style of play after being defeated by Joan of Arc because of such a tactic.

Artoria ordered her to form an array of large numbers of longbowmen from the Welsh woodlands, as well as heavy shield spearmen equipped with heavy chain armor, holding oval-shaped shields and two and a half meters long spears, and slowly advance. The heavy infantry and archers formed a formation, and the shield spearmen formed four columns of shield walls. The longbowmen hid behind the shield wall, and a total of 20,000 Celtic soldiers moved forward at a slow but extremely firm pace. Then, they stopped outside the range of the opponent's crossbow.

"Have our projection troops reached range?"

Seeing the other party choosing such a tactic, Princess Liliannu stood on the hill in the middle and thought to herself, "It's going to be bad", and immediately asked the nearest warrior holding a compound bow.

"Sorry, Your Highness, but the enemy is too far away. We can't reach them." The archer replied.

"It's really damn... the English longbow..." His Highness the Princess snorted twice and muttered: If this continues, her army will be passively beaten because of insufficient range, causing morale to be depressed. However, if the front is pushed forward, then the army under her command will not be able to use these hilly terrain to defend. At the same time, the army will advance forward, which will inevitably cause chaos in the formation. What should we do if the enemy attacks at this time?

At this moment, His Highness Princess seemed to see the pale skin and cold-faced woman smiling at her - this is a provocation. His Highness Princess would never allow this situation to happen.

"The whole army - advance. Guard preparation"

In the end, His Royal Highness made up his mind to move forward, responding to the other party's provocation head-on, and at the same time ordered her private soldiers, the so-called guards - troops composed of gladiators, from the elite warriors she excavated, to prepare in order to deal with the other party's raid.

However, after seeing the opponent's actions, Artoria on the opposite side still did not order the charge immediately, but ordered: "The longbower shoots, shoots five rounds at the fastest speed, and uses the armor-breaking cone arrow."

Celtic longbowmen are quite different from Norman longbowmen. Norman's longbowmen are equipped with light chain armor, round shields, and long swords to prepare for melee combat. In fact, Norman's longbowmen are indeed in contact with bows and arrows and will do some progressive killing training. In the Battle of Budapest that year, after the ammunition is exhausted, Norman longbows did draw their swords to fight...

But the Celtic longbowmen are different. The Celtic longbowmen are not equipped with chain armor, shields, and long swords - only a small number of longbowmen are equipped with daggers, hand axes and other weapons for melee combat. But this is just the personal behavior of the soldiers. The military does not have such regulations.

In other words, these longbowmen are used for long-range attacks, and are only used for long-range attacks. Their equipment only includes longbows and arrows. The money saved can be used to equip other Celtic soldiers...

After entering the range, Celtic's longbow troops blew the bow and arrow, and kept firing at the Eastern Roman army. The three regular heavy infantry brigades were fine. The tortoise shell formations could defend the projection weapons to the greatest extent. Although there would be unlucky ghosts in the south being shot by the flowing arrows that passed through the shield gap, they would soon be filled by the Roman heavy infantry behind him to maintain the neatness of the front line. The heavy chain armor and helmets on their bodies could also protect their bodies to the greatest extent. Therefore, under the dense rain of arrows of Celtic longbowers, the casualties of the Eastern Roman heavy infantry were not very large.

But behind them, the light infantry, hammer soldiers and dagger soldiers of the Eastern Roman garrison army who were shot and hit by arrows falling from the sky were not so lucky. These temporary recruited peasant soldiers were poorly equipped. The only small amount of leather armor and light chain armor could not help them, effectively defending the armor-breaking cone arrows shot from the longbow.

——Because the Eastern Roman army was lined up with heavy infantry, so they were targeted, and the longbowers who believed that the Eastern Roman army was such an elite heavy infantry made a wrong judgment, and all used more lethal but more expensive armor-breaking arrows. Of course, this further aggravated the casualties of the Eastern Roman recruitment of peasant soldiers and secondary troops.

It is not easy to remove the array from the hills and re-arrange it. Even an army like Eastern Rome, which is always famous for its "civilization" and "neatness", took a lot of effort. During this period, the Celtic long archers completed five rounds of shooting, with a total of 5,000 long archers throwing more than 20,000 arrows in an instant, and it fell on the heads of the Eastern Rome army like a heavy rain. The damage caused may not be much. However, the deterrence was full, which panicked the peasant soldiers and secondary troops of Eastern Rome, and the formation became even more chaotic.

And just after that, Artoria finally ordered.

"Observation, Lightning Infantry"

The benefits of following the Norman army completely and conveying orders with voices are obvious. The guards of Artoria's command blew the trumpet, signaling the so-called lightning infantry to start the attack.

The so-called lightning infantry are assault infantry in the Celtic army, equipped with two-handed swords, chain composite armor, and Norman-style helmets, tall warriors from Ireland or Scotland. Their armor has first-class defense. The swords in their hands can cut human bodies and leather armor. When facing enemy heavy infantry, they will raise the swords flat, like an awl or a spear, to achieve the effect of breaking armor.

The lightning infantry of a total of 3,000 people was the sharpest saber in Artoria's hands. At this moment, the Hussars in her hands were fighting against the coalition nomadic cavalry, and the Celtic knights and heavy cavalrymen under her were also fighting against the coalition heavy cavalry. Then, on the front, the task of breaking the enemy's front would be handed over to these two-handed swordsmen with powerful impact.

After that, the array of longbowers and heavy spearmen on the front of Celtic quickly opened. The soldiers gathered together to form a denser array, and gave up the road ahead, leaving several gaps in the blink of an eye. Then, lightning infantrymen wearing red dragon emblem coats and holding swordsmanship swarmed out and launched an attack on the Eastern Roman army, which was still hundreds of meters away.

These two-handed swordsmen started to walk quickly, and then trotted, and their speed became faster and faster. When they were about five meters away from the Eastern Roman heavy infantry arranged as shield walls, they roared in shock, and their speed increased to the maximum, and they launched a charge.

"Stay steady, don't be afraid of them."

The centurions in Eastern Rome shouted like this, and at the same time, the light infantry between the heavy infantry brigades - those javelins and stone throwers - launched the attack first. They threw stone bullets with stone ropes and threw javelins with all their strength. However, those light javelins and stone bullets polished into round shapes rarely have any effect - the composite armor of the plate chains, which were finely processed by the dwarf craftsmen, are quite reliable, unless they are hit in the face. Otherwise, this level of attack can only make the infantry pause at most. It is like someone pushing them in front. Some people may fall down. But the cotton lining of the plate chains can prevent them from falling and hurting them. As long as they get up and pat the soil on their bodies, they can continue to rush forward.

Of course, there are some more tragic guys who were hit in the face. I saw a lightning infantry who had just been hit by two stone bullets and had a large piece of armor on his chest slowed down, and then he was ready to continue charging forward. As a result, a javelin was inserted into his left cheek, and the head of the gun was down, stabbing the throat and the artery. There was a "splash" sound, and the artery blood of the soldier who had just finished warming up suddenly spurted Lao Gao. The soldier shouted above and pulled out the javelin. Then he felt dizzy. His body was too bleeding too fast and felt very cold. Then he fell to the ground, his body twitching and twitching...

Those who were hit by stone bullets were better - some had their front teeth knocked off, some had their nose bridge bones collapsed, and some had their eyes exploded. These were all seriously injured and lost their combat effectiveness. But at least they could leave their lives. After treatment, there was a possibility of returning to the battlefield. Of course, some guys had their foreheads cracked directly, and red and white flowed all over the ground...

After a little setback, most of the lightning infantry rushed over. They raised their swords in their hands high, and then chopped the panicked Roman projectile infantry's heads to pieces. And those hammer soldiers and short sword soldiers were not their opponents. The Irish and Scottish style swords were very fiercely cut off their weapons and bodies. They opened their intestines and broke their belly and shattered them - after all, these weapons were more suitable than tomahawks than to cut human bodies.

On the other side, the Eastern Roman heavy infantry formed into shield walls were slightly better. As they watched the lightning infantry rushed over, they also stabbed their spears from the shields and the distance between the shields...

Chapter 10: The third battle in Krakow, the frontal battlefield
Chapter completed!