Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 444 The Great Alliance Marches Forward (Seventeen)

What are heavy assault cavalry?

The best armor, the best warhorses, and the best warriors.

However, these three items were too expensive, so heavy shock cavalry were regarded as a relic of an old era, whether in a war-torn empire or an alliance enjoying thirty years of peace.

With the introduction of swift horses, half-body armor, and scimitars into the army, only Palatine, out of tradition, still maintained a small number of heavily armored shock cavalry among the republics—a fact known only to Lieutenant Colonel Chris Varley.

But the lieutenant colonel also knew something else—the heavy shock cavalry of the First Republic of Palatine had long been wiped out in the Great Wilderness War and the Civil War.

Varley, Sanel, Chloe... none of the parliamentary army commanders could have predicted that the "rebels" would, at this time and place, unprecedentedly deploy such a cavalry force.

Rolling thunder swept across the battlefield, and in Lieutenant Colonel Valery's view, a cavalry officer in gleaming armor suddenly burst out of the smoke on the south bank, galloped onto the charred broken bridge, and leaped at the end of the bridge.

As the warhorse's hind hooves left the ground, the last remaining structure of the wooden bridge on the west bank finally gave way and collapsed with a crash. The cavalry officer's warhorse stretched out its four hooves and landed steadily on the east bank.

The Allied infantrymen who witnessed this scene erupted in thunderous cheers. The appearance of the cavalry officer was just the beginning. Hundreds of cavalrymen, also clad in armor and holding long spears, followed closely behind the cavalry officer and filed out of the smoke screen.

They rode their nimble, spirited horses down the low cliffs on the west bank, and with the momentum they gained, they surged onto the riverbank on the east bank.

Cavalrymen kept falling off their horses during the ascent and descent, their fates unknown, but the cavalrymen behind them did not hesitate at all when they jumped off the low cliff.

Upon catching a glimpse of the astonishingly long lances in the hands of the cavalrymen, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Varley nearly ground his teeth to powder.

Although those unfamiliar cavalrymen did not ride heavy horses, and although they were only equipped with half-body armor and three-quarter armor, they were undoubtedly an extinct heavy shock cavalry force that relied on devastating impact to fight and was regarded as having the ability to deliver a decisive blow. Moreover, they were a shock cavalry force specifically designed to deal with infantry phalanxes!

"Turn the cannons around!" Lieutenant Colonel Valery waved his arms, attempting a final stand: "Turn the cannons around!"

In fact, there was no need for the lieutenant colonel to give the order. The moment the old artillery commander, Sut, spotted the "rebel" heavy cavalry, he immediately called for the gunners to turn their guns around.

However, the parliamentary army's eight old-fashioned cannons had no turning mechanism at all, and the only way to "turn around" was to pry the gun carriages little by little with thick wooden stakes.

The gunners, their shoulders pressed against the wooden stakes, their faces flushed a deep purplish-red, strained with all their might, yet they could only move the cannons inch by inch.

When repelling the first four charges of the "rebels," all the cannons on the artillery positions were turned north—towards the direction of the enemy cavalry attack. All the musketeers and most of the halberdiers were also concentrated in the large square formation to the north.

When the "rebels" finally revealed their trump card, the southern flank, which was bearing the brunt of the attack, was found to have not a single gun or cannon capable of engaging them.

Near the broken bridge, the council musketeers who had just retreated from the west bank scattered and fled. The officers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of Thundercrest County, who had just been reprimanded by Colonel Bod, saw the county cavalry attack and led their soldiers into the river, shouting as they followed the cavalry to attack the east bank.

The "rebel" cavalry, which had crossed the river bend, completely ignored the fleeing parliamentary musketeers. The first detachment to cross the river, like a boning knife, skillfully passed through the gap between the parliamentary left flank and the center, and pounced on the artillery positions on the hill.

"It's over." Lieutenant Colonel Varley's rationality ruthlessly delivered his verdict.

"Damn it!" Colonel Sanel's expression changed, his previous composure vanished, and he shouted sharply, "Sound the horn! Get the cavalry on their horses!"

On the roof of the church bell tower, Colonel Bode gripped the window frame tightly, his eyes fixed on the earthen mound across the river without blinking.

The piercing bugle calls, the flying bullets, the flashes of gunfire, the soldiers' faces contorted with terror... countless scenes of the battlefield are frozen into a single picture, as if a long time has passed, yet it also seems like only a blink of an eye.

As time flowed on, the Leiqun County cavalry, wielding long spears and clad in plate armor, had already stormed into the square formation on the south side of the artillery position.

Meanwhile, below the earthen mound and along the riverbank, the Leiqun County heavy cavalry, who had crossed the river later, had already formed their charge formation. Led by Captain Loson, they launched their sixth assault on the "puppet government army's" artillery positions.

The Parliamentarian army has also discovered a fatal rift between its right flank and the central army. The southernmost phalanx of the Parliamentarian right flank and the central army phalanx supporting the right flank are trying their best to move closer to each other, desperately trying to prevent the "rebel" cavalry from breaking through their lines for the second time.

"Form ranks! Go through!" Losang took the lead, riding alone to guide the entire charging echelon.

The captain personally commanded the more than 160 cavalrymen of the assault echelon, who gathered their formation as they charged, and broke through the enemy's battle line again through a gap of less than 20 meters between the two square formations before the enemy could close the gate.

As the Redfield cavalry swept past the enemy phalanx, the spears of the "fake government" soldiers could almost scrape their feathers and their horses' tails.

The shouts of orders rose and fell, and plumes of smoke billowed from the Parliamentarian army's formations as musketeers opened fire on the passing "rebel" cavalry.

The two sides were too close to even aim. With each shot, a Thundercrow County cavalryman fell from his horse.

The cavalrymen of Leiqun County all ducked over their horses' necks to avoid the danger, which enraged Captain Loson.

"Stand tall!" Loson roared like thunder. "Those are bullets! Not dung! Stand up straight!" The distance from the riverbank to the hill was less than a mile, covered in an instant. Having shaken off the Council's infantry phalanx, nothing could stop the advance of the Thundercrow County heavy cavalry.

The light cavalry who initiated the charge had already taken the brunt of the enemy's fiercest firepower, and the heavy cavalry detachments that charged in the previous wave had already relinquished their positions on the battlefield.

When he was less than 150 meters from the enemy's artillery position, Losang lowered his lance.

The bugle call sounded immediately, and the heavy cavalry of Leiqun County no longer tried to control their speed. Instead, they mercilessly stabbed their horses in the flanks, leveled their lances, and roared as they charged toward the already swaying enemy.

Outside the parliamentary artillery positions, there were dead warhorses and mutilated human corpses everywhere, their intestines and bones intertwined, like tripwires made of flesh and blood.

As Loson strained to keep his lance level, he used his knees to control his horse as it leaped over the corpses.

According to the standards of the Allied Army, the pikemen in the phalanx were issued extra-long pikes that were five meters long.

The specially made lance in Loson's hand was a meter longer than the extra-long lances issued to the infantry.

This meant that the lance in his hand was extremely difficult to control, and Rosson had to grip the horse's belly tightly with his legs to barely maintain his balance.

This also means that his lance will pierce the enemy's chest before the tip of the enemy's spear pierces his warhorse.

The square formation on the south side of the artillery position had been nearly destroyed by the previous charge of the Thundercrow County cavalry. The originally near-parallelogram "hollow square formation" was also being squeezed into a triangle during the continuous retreat.

The cannon, located at the southwest corner of the position, was exposed outside the square formation, and a parliamentary officer with a blood-covered face was trying to reorganize the soldiers who still had weapons in his hands.

Loson spurred his horse over the gun carriage and wheels, and after a moment's hesitation, he charged toward the council officer whose face was covered in blood.

Everything happened too fast; the lieutenant had no time to dodge and was sent flying with a scream. With a cracking sound, the spear in Losong's hand also broke in two.

At the same time, other heavy cavalry from Thunder Group also charged towards the enemy.

One moment a Thundercrest cavalryman pinned an enemy to the ground with his specially made lance, the next his own horse was pierced by a dense hail of spears. The horse's corpse, still propelled by the force of the attack, crashed into the ranks of brown-clad soldiers, along with its rider, sweeping down several spearmen.

Without hesitation, Loson abandoned his broken spear, drew his sword, and charged into the gap in the enemy formation. He stepped over two fallen enemies, cleaved half the head of a halberd-wielding soldier with a single stroke, and then thrust his body forward, piercing the heart of another enemy.

With a clang, Loson was struck hard in the back. The armor dispersed the force, but the excruciating pain still made Loson gasp for breath, and the force of the impact nearly knocked him off his saddle.

Loson glared angrily, swung his arm around, turned and slashed back, cleaving the arm of his enemy who was holding the musket upside down and about to smash it down.

Just then, another lead bullet struck Loson's face shield, creating a huge dent in the steel shield, and a piece of broken iron flew into Loson's left eye.

Loson's vision was instantly plunged into darkness, and the excruciating pain and blood rendered his uninjured right eye unable to see.

He didn't know where the enemy was, nor where his men were. He roared like a wild beast caught in a trap, swinging his saber and slashing in all directions.

With a piercing clang of metal, Loson's saber slammed heavily against a metal plate. Without hesitation, he immediately sheathed his sword and swung again.

But then a panting voice came from where the saber had fallen: "Senior! It's me!"

Loson recognized the voice. He forced open his right eye despite the excruciating pain and saw a pair of familiar eyes hidden beneath his helmet. He then turned to look around. Three Thundercrow County cavalrymen were slashing and hacking, desperately trying to hold off the enemy outside.

The other men who had stormed in with him also noticed that the captain was wounded and rushed toward him without hesitation.

A short, sharp melody came from outside the formation—it was the retreat bugle call!
The next wave of attacks is about to begin, and the Thundercrow County cavalry currently engaged in battle must quickly relinquish the battlefield to the next charging echelon.

With a burst of brute force, Loson snapped the buckle and ripped off his helmet, which was already soaked with blood and sweat. He covered his left eye, opened his right, and looked around, raising his sword to point at the weakest point in the enemy formation, the southeast corner.

"Let's go!" Losong shouted through gritted teeth.

At that very moment, an invisible string, carrying a tremendous weight, snapped silently.

The parliamentary soldiers had reached their limit; one soldier in brown dropped his weapon, turned, and ran down the hill.

Immediately afterwards, like a fortress made of sand and gravel being destroyed by a gale, the large square formation on the south side of the Grand Council's artillery position collapsed with a roar.

[Not enough for 4,000 words, sorry, Orz]
[Currently, the primary goal is to ensure daily updates, so I will post whatever I write each day.]
[Some additional notes: Could a lance, longer than a spearman's lance, be a super weapon that would allow cavalry to break through a lance phalanx?][The answer is: No]
[First, it should be noted that the claim that "the winged hussars' lances were specially lengthened to counter infantry phalanxes" is unfounded. This is actually a scene from the Polish film "The Torrent."]
[Polish cavalry lances were approximately 5 meters long, a length that remained largely unchanged. In contrast, the length of infantry lances varied considerably over time, ranging from a maximum of 6 meters to 5 meters, then back to 5 meters, and finally 5 meters. This explains why late 4th-century Polish writers would state that "cavalry lances were longer than infantry lances." However, this statement would not hold true in the 4th century.]
[But were there any attempts in history to use excessively long lances against infantry phalanxes? Of course, there were. Just like the wars between the Successor dynasties, which prompted each Successor kingdom to continuously lengthen their already ridiculously long spears.]
[The extra-long lances used by infantry phalanxes were a product of the limitations of lance length; the continuous lengthening of lances was also due to the continuous lengthening of lances—a spiraling process.] [Ultimately, the infantry lances that rendered lances obsolete also rendered themselves obsolete.]
[PS: Another far-reaching impact of the film "The Flood" is that it transformed the image of the Winged Hussars in the mass media into that of "true winged cavalrymen," but the actual hussars preserved in museums have wings that were actually attached to the saddle.]
(End of this chapter)