Chapter 263: Three-quarters of the Cavalry’s Combat Strength is Mental Strength

Standing on the roof of the carriage, Horn held the telescope in his hand, pinched it with three fingers, closed his left eye, put his right eye on the tube, and looked into the distance.

About three hundred meters away, in the narrow open space between the low hills, woods and lake, the squire knights ran back and forth, anxiously waving their whips to drive away the armed peasant soldiers.

The Savior Army that suddenly appeared in their field of vision and marched in neat formation gave them an unexpected surprise.

It’s really a surprise. It saves us a lot of distance.

Putting down the telescope, Horn stroked its brass barrel with admiration.

This telescope was actually polished by Shilov as a gift for Horn before he went to war.

I have to say, the empire was really outrageous. The telescope, a key military technology, had been invented for more than 20 years, but it was only circulated in a small circle among astrologers.

Handing the telescope to Jeshka, Horn asked him puzzledly: "What are they doing?"

"Hiss, maybe they are forming a battle array?" Jeshka asked with an uncertain tone.

"You ask me?"

"That's the battle formation." Jieshka reluctantly returned the telescope to Horn. "Your Majesty, I suggest that we attack immediately and quickly. We can march quickly and defeat the slow with the fast."

"Madeleine, remember this. I have given the following orders. The First, Second, and Fourth Legions of the Black Hats will advance quickly to engage in battle and make sure to block them. The Second Legion of the Guards and the Sixth Legion of the Black Hats will bypass the hill and ambush them from the rear."

"Your Majesty, there is one thing I don't understand." With the charcoal pencil between his fingers, Madeleine asked seriously.

"explain."

"How do you spell the 'command' in 'give the following orders'?"

"..." After a half-second of silence, Horn turned to Armand and said seriously, "Armand, remember, I give the following orders..."

While Horn was struggling to teach Madeleine how to spell the word "command", Count Enrico was shouting out synonyms for "command".

"Order! Order! Keep order!"

Looking at the armed peasant soldiers blocking his way to charge, Enrico even felt a little regretful that he should have listened to Bernardo.

Who would have thought that this army of farmers could run so fast.

The originally scheduled place of engagement should have been a depression more than a mile ahead, but they met it in this narrow battlefield.

But there was no use regretting, he could only continue to anxiously command the messy peasant soldiers to clear the road.

"Woo——"

"Boom boom boom——"

The sound of horns and drums rang out at the same time, and there was even the sound of orderly footsteps mixed in with the drum beats.

After climbing onto a large rock on a low slope, Bernardo opened his eyes wide and stared at the three horizontal formations in front of him.

If it weren't for the swaying corners of the clothes and the shaking of the gun barrel, he would have thought it was a huge black cloth moving forward.

They were dressed in uniform black clothes, holding spears of the same length, and performing uniform movements, like a group of puppets being controlled by a puppeteer.

But the speed of this group of puppets advancing was too fast. You should know that the normal advancing speed of infantry is 30 meters per minute.

Even so, we have to stop and reorganize from time to time, otherwise we will be out of touch with friendly forces or even teammates.

But not only will they not be out of touch with their teammates, they will even maintain basically the same distance from friendly forces.

"My Lord." Standing on the big rock, Bernardo shouted to Enrico without having time to come down, "The enemy is less than 200 meters away from us."

"Instead of running away, you actively approach them?" Count Enrico scratched his cheek. Could it be that this group of peasant rebels couldn't tell who was the big and small king?
That’s not right, how could it be so fast?
He looked at the armed peasant infantrymen who were still lining up and fell into deep thought.

He remembered that it was only three minutes, right? Three minutes?
They were approaching so quickly, probably hoping to defeat these armed peasant infantrymen and trap them in this small space.

Enrico admitted that he had underestimated the Saviors, but did he think he had never experienced such trivial things before?
"Tell the squire knights to charge first and drive them away. Don't chase them. We will chase them ourselves." After thinking for a moment, Enrico made a quick decision.

Although he was surprised, it was normal that he could not escape the pursuit of the Imperial Order Company repeatedly if he did not run fast.

But no matter how fast they ran, they didn't have to do anything. The squire knights just had to push them lightly and they would fall down on their own.

How many times had Enrico led his squire knights and extraordinary knights to break through the formations of barbarians and bandits?

"The Earl orders us to charge and drive away these farmers!" shouted the temporary captain of the squire knights.

"Assemble!"

Soon, the two hundred squire knights formed nine rough-edged triangular charging squares that looked like hexagons.

"charge!"

Without much nonsense, the nine cavalry triangles charged towards the three Salvation Army legions in three directions.

The first to encounter the enemy was the Black Hat First Legion. It was the frontmost in this inverted V-shaped advancing formation.

Under the slanting sunlight, the figures in black coats cast translucent shadows on the ground. Every soldier had a look of fear and indifference on his face. The horses' hooves shook the ground, making stones bounce and the grass sway left and right.

Nearly a hundred squire knights lay on horseback, waving specially made hammers and spears, and letting out strange war cries of "Woo-hoo".

"All troops, stop and organize the formation——"

"All spearmen, stay in the middle!"

"All Holy Gunners, double up, kneel in front and stand in the back to shoot, then hide in the square formation after shooting!"

Amid the continuous commands, the dense footsteps and horse hooves resonated.

The first and third rows each took a step to the side not adjacent to the spearmen, while the second and fourth rows of holy musketeers took a step diagonally forward.

When the Holy Gunner raised his clockwork gun, the distance between the two sides was just within the maximum killing distance of 70 meters.

"Praise the Holy Wind!"

Amid the brigade commander's roar, 40 half-kneeling clockwork guns and 40 standing clockwork guns simultaneously fired 80 lead bullets.

The sound of popping beans rang out continuously, and the barrage of lead bullets pierced through the rushing squire knights in the blink of an eye.

More than twenty escort knights at the outermost edge of the triangle formation fell off their horses, and even tripped seven or eight teammates behind them.

A huge bloody smell spread to the nose, and more than forty escort knights on both wings of the charging formation immediately stopped their charging horses in doubt.

After all, the instant casualty rate was 20%. If the Knight Lord hadn't been watching from behind, they would have run away long ago.

In the past, when we fought against the secret party and bandits, we had never encountered such a situation unless we encountered a terrible wizard.

The leading knight raised his hammer and spear and shouted, "Don't be afraid. Charge forward. They can't fire the devil's thing anymore."

Fifty meters away, the squire knights raised their hammers and spears, ready to smash the heads of these damn Saviors.

It was forty meters now. Cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of the squire knights, and the fingers holding their hammers and spears began to itch.

Thirty meters away, seven or eight squire knights looked at the dense and shining spears and suddenly changed direction.

Twenty meters away, even the bravest of the squire knights began to tremble, because the army formation in front of them remained motionless.

Ten meters, the last ten meters, are you still going to collapse? Are you still going to collapse? Are you really still going to collapse?
"what--"

The squire knights collapsed.

In front of the spears, the last twenty or so squire knights desperately grabbed the reins, trying to stop, and even bumped into each other when turning.

Amid the chaos of people and horses, finally a dozen escort knights rushed to the side in a panic.

Before they had time to celebrate their survival, the last row of 20 clockwork guns finally fired their holy winds.

"boom--"

"Ah, my intestines are coming out."

"Ah, ah, ah, ah..."

When the squire knights fled desperately after the charge, they left behind nearly a hundred corpses and wounded.

After all, these squire knights usually bully bandits, secret parties and barbarians. How could their willpower match that of the Savior Army who dared to fight against the extraordinary knights in the bloody battle of Jeanne d'Arc?
In the stereotype of most imperial people, the charge of knights is often like an unstoppable flood that pushes down everything.

They always apply the knights of the pre-Hundred Years' War era to the present, as if both humans and horses were emotionless machines.

During the Hundred Years' War, the level of iron smelting was extremely low due to the fragmentation of political power and the regression of civilization and economy.

The knight war at that time was really a war between knights, because all the infantry were unarmored and lightly armored units, and they would be defeated by a single charge.

The so-called preferential treatment for knights and the tradition of ransom for buying one's life were passed down from that era.

During the Hundred Years' War, printing technology developed greatly, breathing techniques were widely spread, and the Norns used the books collected by the Chrysanthemum tribe to steal the dwarves' iron smelting technology.

Especially in the Battle of Windmill Field, after the invention of the Dunjar Phalanx, the old cavalry tactics were no longer effective.

As the cavalry charged the infantry array, they realized that if they continued at this speed and direction they would lose limbs or even be killed ignominiously by civilians.

This is a problem that you will never encounter in the arena.

They would subconsciously turn and dodge, and the knights who could overcome this with great courage were usually at least at the level of Square Banner Knights.

These squire knights haven't even reached the level of squire knights, let alone directly attacking the formation.

Colebour once told Jeanne that three-quarters of the cavalry's combat effectiveness is mental strength, which relies on an iron will.

War never becomes more elegant as it develops, but rather becomes uglier.

"Damn it, damn it, you cowards!" Enrico jumped to his feet and cursed, watching the black shadow approaching them again.

(End of this chapter)