I'm not a lord

Chapter 144 The Collision of Iron and Blood

After sending the messenger away, Lin En began to arrange the formation in advance and lit two thick smoke signals in the camp.

Five hundred infantrymen were deployed facing south, with archers in front and infantrymen in the back, a small number of cavalry on both wings, and only one hundred reserve soldiers left in the rear to monitor the defenders inside the city wall.

Lin En did not foresee that the enemy would attack from the south, but because he only left the enemy with one attack direction, the south.

Throughout the long course of history, wars involving head-on confrontations with well-organized formations actually account for only a very small number of them.

The emergence of this kind of war requires the coordination of many conditions.

The most important thing, of course, is the will of both armies to engage in a strategic decisive battle.

In addition, the cooperation of many factors such as terrain and weather is also required.

In order to lure the enemy into a head-on confrontation with him, Lin En had made many arrangements in advance.

The first thing is to attack the enemy where he must rescue.

The Baron of Green Lake, who was trapped in the castle, was a member of the White River Alliance and had to be rescued by the enemy.

The second is the limited battlefield.

To the west of Lynn Camp is the Green Lake Castle, to the east is the local village, and to the south is the natural Green Water River.

The coalition forces were coming from the south, and they couldn't make a big detour and attack him from the north. This would expose their flanks in front of the enemy, a typical military taboo.

The Green Water River is narrow and shallow, so it is not difficult for cavalry to cross this terrain.

In addition, Lynn also interrogated the envoys to obtain intelligence and found out the weak points of the coalition forces' disagreements.

Through bluffing and divisive tactics, he was able to make the commander of the coalition forces, Baron Chixi, anxious and irritable.

Once people start to get anxious, they tend to have problems with judgment.

He knew the internal situation of the coalition forces very well, but the coalition forces knew nothing about him and still thought he was the count's second son Roman.

At the same time, the coalition forces also misjudged his military strength, thinking that he only had more than a hundred elite soldiers and the rest were all conscripts.

The asymmetry in intelligence was Lin En's biggest confidence in launching this war.

At the same time, Lao Si, who was stationed at the eastern dock, had also noticed the signal fire.

He immediately gathered his troops and marched south across the Green Water River, marching along the river bank as quickly as possible to block the two narrow forest paths connecting to the Chixi Territory in the south.

This was also Lin En's advance arrangement.

The entire Green Lake Territory is the pocket formation he has set up for the coalition forces, and he is determined to capture this cavalry unit in one fell swoop!
Now, Lin En heard the powerful horn sound coming from the south. The enemy had already taken the bait and was just waiting for him to lift the rod and catch the fish.

Baron Chixi completed the assembly of his troops at five o'clock in the afternoon.

There are only more than 200 people in total, so the speed of assembly is naturally quite fast. Most of the reconnaissance light cavalry also have to participate in the attack.

Although the coalition forces are small in number, they are difficult to command.

Baron Chixi was indeed a graduate of the Marsh Duke's Court University. He could see at a glance that as a mere baron, he would not be able to enforce strict command in this army.

After all, this army came from four different baronies (although there were fewer knights from Green Lake Barony, there were still a few of them), and none of them were willing to submit to the other.

Baron Chixi was able to become the leader of the alliance thanks to the other two barons being too old to go to the battlefield in person.

But these two old guys still sent a few senior feudal knights over, making it impossible for Baron Chixi, the leader of the alliance, to win the support of the people.

The only viable tactic for this army is to charge forward blindly. Any attempt to make sophisticated on-the-spot commands will only throw the army into chaos.

On the flat ground outside the village, Baron Chixi rode on a tall black horse, looked around at the soldiers of the coalition forces, and made the final pre-war mobilization.

He drew his sword, raised his arm and shouted:

"Everyone, the enemy is just five kilometers to our north. The sun will set in an hour. Defeat them, and we can enjoy a sumptuous dinner in the castle before the sunset fades!"

"Oh!"

The knights and squires also drew their swords and shouted loudly. War was almost the only possibility for them to achieve a class breakthrough.

The two territories in the north were like the most tempting white and tender virgins, waiting for their ruthless ravage.

The only obstacle standing in their way was an army that looked weak.

With our powerful strength, crushing the enemy is as easy as stepping on an ant.

In their minds, armored cavalry is the undisputed king of the battlefield.

When faced with cavalry, conscripts without horses could only wait to be killed or flee in all directions.

When they rode all the way to a kilometer away from the south bank of the Green Water River and saw the simple infantry formation of the enemy in the north, this sense of superiority reached its peak.

What second son of the Earl? He is obviously a bumpkin who has never seen the world.

What era is this? You still want to use infantry formations to fight against cavalry.

Can you bear it? Then you can form a battle array?
Has the lord of the crown territory now fallen so low as to start using infantry?

No wonder he has been suppressed by the Duke since last year!
In the afterglow of the setting sun, this group of the most elite traditional knights in the White River Basin lined up and launched an attack.

Lin En saw clearly that the enemy army was divided into two rows, front and back, when they were still one kilometer away from their own army.

The total number of enemy cavalry was over 250, with about 150 in the vanguard.

These 150 riders were all knight squires or high-ranking conscripts in plain clothes. They rode inferior war horses and carried crossbows and a small number of heavy crossbows. They stopped their horses when they were 200 meters away from the army formation and began to attempt long-range attacks.

This was a tactic commonly used by feudal knights when facing infantry formations.

Use servants or mercenary crossbowmen who cannot charge at high speed to clear the way, attack the enemy with long-range weapons, and try to shake the enemy formation.

Once the enemy's formation is shaken, the elite knights hiding behind will charge at the fastest speed and crush the enemy completely.

This tactic has always been effective when dealing with conscripts.

The conscripts could form a decent formation after a short period of training, but they had no money to buy armor and would often panic when facing crossbows, causing their formation to become loose.

What will greet them will be a relentless charge of armored knights.

Lin En laughed. The enemy actually used crossbows to fight against longbows. Isn't this just showing off one's skills in front of an expert?

Although the longbow has many disadvantages, such as low hit rate, high dependence on the archer's proficiency, and easy deformation of the human body after long-term use.
But there is only one thing that the longbow can crush the crossbow, and that is range!

The longbow can increase its range through projectiles, but the crossbow and steel crossbow are only suitable for flat shooting due to their structural problems, and their inherent range is at a disadvantage.

"Archers, prepare, shoot!"

Following Lin En's order, the two hundred barbarian archers at the front of the formation calmly drew their bows and arrows and fired the first round of arrows in a projectile manner.

At the same time, the enemy's crossbowmen had just dismounted. They were marching towards the army on foot, holding crossbows and small shields, and had not yet shot the first arrow.

Swish swish swish
As the rain of arrows fell, bursts of wailing suddenly rang out across the black field.

These knights and squires were caught off guard, and even though they quickly raised their shields to protect their bodies, seven or eight of them were still hit by arrows.

Although the arrows of the barbarian archers could not penetrate the helmet shaped like an iron pot, nor could they penetrate the thick wooden shield covered with animal skins, their hit rate was quite touching.

But Lynn has a lot of archers under his command!

A full two hundred barbarian archers are enough to launch a saturation attack on this battlefield.

As long as the arrow can hit the body, there is a chance that it can penetrate the mail and armor and cause effective damage.

"longbow?!"

Baron Chixi, observing the enemy from behind, cried out in surprise, drawing a chorus of exclamations from behind him. This weapon was popular in a few southern countries, but no lord in the north would deploy it on the battlefield.

The main reason is that there are not enough longbowmen.

Bows and arrows are only effective after years of training, and they must be used in large numbers to be effective on the battlefield.

Unlike the crossbow, it is easy to learn and has high lethality. Even old farmers can use it. Many castles deliberately leave holes for crossbow shooting when they are built.

However, the lords in the north strictly prohibited serfs from hunting with bows and arrows. They themselves basically used crossbows for hunting, and the same was true on the battlefield.

Therefore, the longbow lacks a suitable habitat in the North and is an absolute rarity.

However, he did not expect that the second son of the Earl on the opposite side could actually produce three-digit longbowmen, and they looked very real, not just for show to scare people.

Erlin, the most senior knight in the Heron Territory, said sternly, "Send them back. Crossbows can't beat longbows in a duel."

"They might be mercenaries recruited from the Crown Territory or the Southern Territory, cunning fellows." Gabe, the old knight from the River Marsh Territory, analyzed with a frown.

At this moment, a second round of arrows was fired from the opposite army, and several more crossbow-wielding attendants fell in the field.

Although Baron Chixi disliked these two old men, he had no choice but to follow their advice at this moment.

Lynn could hear a short horn sound from the south, and then the servants and conscripts armed with crossbows quickly jumped on their horses and retreated from the battlefield in disgrace, leaving only a dozen wounded men wailing in the fields.

"That's it?"

Little Soward stood not far from Linn, commanding the barbarian archers. When he saw the enemy retreat, his originally tense face couldn't help but relax, and a disdainful smile appeared on his face.

Including him, most of the soldiers were experiencing this kind of "large-scale" battle for the first time today, and they were inevitably nervous.

Seeing that the enemy couldn't even withstand two rounds of arrow rain, the more than 500 soldiers in the army couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

But Lin En shouted, "Don't relax, the next round of attack is coming soon!"

Based on his understanding of these lower-class nobles, they would never give up their offensive just because of a longbow.

Beyond two hundred meters, the longbow's lethality will be negligible.

After the cavalry speeds up, it only takes 20 seconds to complete a 200-meter sprint.

This amount of time is only enough for a longbowman to shoot two or three arrows, which cannot cause much damage to the cavalry charging at high speed and fully armed.

It was just as Lin En expected.

The casualties of a dozen attendants not only failed to undermine the enemy's morale, but instead made them even more arrogant.

When the majestic horn sounded again, the regular knights gathered one kilometer away began to charge.

These people were either barons or landed knights in gorgeous clothes, or relatively wealthy elite attendants.

Only this group of people can afford high-quality war horses that can charge long distances.

The uncultivated, frozen fields were their best acceleration track.

This is the most comfortable distance for feudal cavalry to launch a charge. By gradually accelerating over one kilometer, they can allow their horses to reach maximum speed in the last two hundred meters of the sprint.

The speed of this charge can often exceed 40 kilometers per hour, and the impact force is comparable to that of a high-speed motorcycle.

Even infantrymen wearing mail armor would be shattered to pieces when hit by such an impact force.

But Lin En was not afraid, and neither were the troops under his command.

The arduous training so far has been to deal with such a powerful enemy.

And Lin En would not be stupid enough to let his army face the impact of cavalry.

Although the water level of the Green River is shallow, it can slightly slow down the cavalry's charge.

Not only that, Lin En also took advantage of the cover of night to place hundreds of sharp chevaux de frise stakes in the river in advance.

The slightly frozen river surface is the best cover for these chevaux de frise.

The rumbling sound of horse hooves echoed throughout the fields south of the army formation, and they were advancing towards the army formation at an increasingly faster speed.

At the same time, a commotion was heard from the Green Lake Castle to the west of the army.

Baron Bogdan of Green Lake, who was trapped in the castle, naturally saw the coalition forces launching a charge. He was ready to lead his knights to break out of the castle and attack from both inside and outside.

In the army where Lin En was, most of the soldiers were so nervous that their Adam's apples rolled, and they held the weapons in their hands tightly, as if only these deadly weapons could give them some sense of security.

But Lynn quickly calmed all the soldiers down with his passionate words and solid back.

"Don't panic. Do what you did in training. Look at me. I won't retreat, and no one is allowed to retreat!"

Lin En, wearing plate armor and holding a long spear, stood at the front row of the infantry formation. In front of him were only two rows of savage archers.

With him as an example, the army formation suddenly became solemn and all the soldiers were ready to meet the attack.

As the trembling sound grew louder and louder, Lynn saw the various emblems fluttering on the lances, the colorful robes of the enemy knights, the large clouds of white mist exhaled by the war horses, and the ferocious eyes filled with murderous intent under the enemy helmets.

But Lin En was not panicked at all. He even had enough time to comfort the nervous archer in front of him.

He reached out and gently stroked the archer's trembling shoulders:

"Relax, relax"

At the same time, Lynn was calculating the distance with his naked eyes.

When the enemy cavalry was about to cross the 200-meter dotted line, he shouted:

"shoot!"

"withdraw!"

The barbarian archers drew their bows and shot, but before the arrows hit the ground, they retracted their longbows and quickly retreated to the rear through the gaps in the army formation.

This was a military formation change they had practiced countless times, and it finally came in handy today.

As the barbarian archers retreated, Lin En led the heavy infantry forward, and the front row raised their heavy halberds and pointed them at a forty-five degree angle to the sky.

The four-meter-long spears in the back row were placed horizontally over the shoulders, pointing directly at the enemy cavalry galloping wildly in the formation.

A steel hedgehog suddenly appeared on the flat ground.

When Baron Chixi saw the enemy change their formation, he was terrified, but he was unable to respond.

He and more than a hundred cavalrymen of the coalition forces have completed the final acceleration.

Even if there is hell ahead, they can only charge towards death without hesitation.

"kill!"

Only the brave can win when two men meet on a narrow road. Baron Chixi straightened his lance and shouted the charge slogan, but he was silently reciting the names of his father and mother in his heart.

The knights beside and behind him also straightened their lances and made a final sprint towards the steel jungle with their flesh and blood.

When Baron Chixi crossed the last obstacle, the Green Water River, he suddenly felt the speed of the mount under his crotch drop sharply.

He himself was affected by the huge inertia and flew off the horse and fell forward.

Fortunately, he was a skilled martial artist, and he was able to control his body in the air after dropping his lance, and finally landed on his feet and stood on the solid river bank.

As soon as he raised his head, he was faced with a pair of dark and calm eyes and a long spear falling from the sky.

(End of this chapter)