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Chapter 1356 Formation under the Pyramid
"What's that?" A knight on his horse could already see the pyramids and the walls of Cairo.

The other soldiers in the expeditionary army also saw the top of the pyramid as high as a hill in the distance. There was a commotion in the crowd, and they stopped to watch. Almost none of them had seen the pyramid.

"Get ready for formation! We are not here for sightseeing this time, the enemy will appear soon!" Sun Chuanting commanded the soldiers to start formation in front.

Cairo is the capital of the Egyptian province, and the enemy will definitely concentrate their forces in Cairo. At this time, the pyramids and the city walls of Cairo are seen, which means that the expedition to Egypt will soon begin.

The people of Venice and the Papal State are also reorganizing their troops. They realize that they have penetrated deep into the hinterland of Egypt. If they lose this battle, it will be very difficult to escape.If they fail, they will be hunted down by Mamluk cavalry for hundreds of miles.

The 16000 expeditionary force formed a formation outside Cairo, where the pyramids could be seen, and they were divided into nine phalanxes according to their respective strengths.

The infantry led by Sun Chuanting, the British militia, and the Maltese knights were in the middle, forming a large square formation.

The troops of the Papal States formed two phalanxes, the Sicilian army formed two phalanxes, and the Venetians formed four phalanxes, for a total of eight phalanxes.The phalanx of the Papal States and the Sicilian army was deployed in two staggered columns on the left flank of the large phalanx, near the Nile River, with a total of 5000 people.The Venetian phalanx was also deployed in two staggered columns on the right wing of the large phalanx, with a total of 7000 people, and they were under far greater pressure than the left wing.

Although the large square in the middle has only 4000 people, because it uses a hollow square, one large square looks about the same size as the four small squares on the left and right wings.

The expeditionary force hastily deployed their respective phalanxes, and several commanders gathered in the middle of the large phalanxes, discussing the surrounding terrain and possible situations.

"It stands to reason that we should have encountered the defenders of the other party before we arrived in Cairo, but they have not shown up until now, which means that they are still gathering troops. Now that we have arrived here, whether they are ready or not, they will come out to meet us World War I. The fortifications of Cairo City are still in the backward mode of the Middle Ages, which means that as long as we defeat their main force in the battle, there will be no problem in taking Cairo City."

"They may not attack our formation from the center, but they will attack the right wing from the front. Konar, your Venetian phalanx must withstand it. If they attack from the right wing, our central phalanx will move forward. , their flanks will be exposed to the blows of our phalanx."

"With our ships on the Nile, it is unlikely they would have attacked the left flank, otherwise they would have faced shelling from our ships' artillery."

According to the deployment of each phalanx, Sun Chuanting drew a simple formation diagram on the ground: "Where are your artillery deployed?"

"We put it here, here, and here..." Konar marked the position of the artillery on his phalanx.

The key to victory this time lies in the use of artillery. When the enemy's cavalry appears, the artillery will cause a huge psychological blow to the enemy.

The shallow water fleet on the Nile anchored and was commanded by Capello, a veteran of the Venetian navy.As for Sun Xu, he stayed in Alexandria. Galleons and armored ships were inconvenient to enter the Nile River, and they had to prevent the remnant fleet of the Ottoman Empire from gathering again.

"Get ready for battle. They rely on the Nile for transportation in Cairo. There will definitely be a river fleet." Capello ordered.

They brought a dozen shallow water gunboats to provide logistics for the troops.

Everyone is nervously preparing for the battle.The scorching sun hung in the air, and almost all the soldiers had sweat on their foreheads.

Hannah stood in the middle of the hollow square, she stayed with the knights of the Knights Hospitaller, and beside her was a war horse.

When the situation is unfavorable, their cavalry squad will burst out of the phalanx like a thunderbolt to turn the tide of the battle.

It's just that when the heavy cavalry of the Knights Hospitalier is really going to be used, it shows that the situation is already very bad.

"Relax, during the previous Crusades, our ancestors fought on this land just like us. Wait and follow me, go forward bravely, don't stop, or you will be surrounded by enemies ’” Castella said.

His steed was armored, but he had not put on his armor to preserve his strength.

"I'll fight hard!" Hannah said.

The artillery group composed of more than a dozen soldiers pushed the artillery into the phalanx, and the large hollow phalanx was facing the column in the direction of Cairo, revealing eight light field guns.

"Two machine guns are placed in these two positions, forming a crossfire, and the remaining two machine guns are placed on the wings."

The soldiers of the machine gun team pushed the two machine guns forward.

The front of the hollow phalanx with the strongest firepower was deployed with eight light field guns and two hand-cranked Gatling machine guns.

Sun Chuanting brought insufficient infantry, so every two Chinese soldiers were paired with a British militiaman and a Maltese soldier. The weapons used ranged from Dreiser rifles to arquebus guns, and the firepower formed was sufficient.

The Venetian soldiers who were entrusted with important tasks used 32 light artillery deployed in their phalanx. In contrast, their arquebuses were not very reliable. They relied on heavy artillery to attack and Greek spearmen to defend.

"What kind of artillery is this that looks similar to artillery? Why have you never seen it before?"

This is the first time that hand-cranked machine guns have appeared on the Mediterranean battlefield. Before the expedition came here, the four machine guns were covered with canvas like field artillery, so that everyone thought they were just ordinary artillery.

But when the battle was about to begin, the machine gun revealed its ferocious face from under the canvas.

The British officer, who had never seen the machine gun hidden in the ironclad ammunition depot, noticed this strange weapon and asked Sun Chuanting about it.

"This kind of thing is not a cannon, but a machine gun. It is equivalent to connecting several muskets in parallel. It is more effective against cavalry than artillery. A machine gun is equivalent to dozens or even hundreds of infantry." Sun Chuanting said naturally.

"Machine gun? A firearm more useful than artillery?" Earl Stratford couldn't believe it. "We'll see how powerful it is later."

"The Mamluk cavalry has appeared!"

Suddenly, a sentinel standing on the high ground shouted.

Everyone looked straight ahead, only to see the outline of the pyramids and Cairo on the horizon were replaced by densely packed troops.

Egyptian pashas and Mamluk nobles led their elite Egyptian legions to appear!

(End of this chapter)