king of ros

Chapter 363 Severe Offensive
The Polotsk offensive was fierce.

While the coalition soldiers were still coming out of the camp to assemble, and only a part of the troops had completed their formation, they launched an attack.

The barbarians from various Baltic tribes formed the first step of the attack. These barbarians wore ragged clothes, looted helmets, and patchwork armor. You could even see styles from hundreds of years ago on them.

These things are the most unwanted part of the Polotsk armory. They are basically too old, but they are still suitable for the barbarians. They used to wear fur and wooden armor.

The barbarian battle group advances in units of tribes, and the impact formation presents a triangle with impact.

On the side of the coalition forces, the first battalion to organize the defense was the Smolensk militia as the core, as well as the militia auxiliary troops from small towns and rural areas.

The Smolensk people defended a shallow creek, which was so shallow that it barely submerged the calf. Usually, neither side paid much attention to this creek, but the coalition forces often came here to fetch water .

But now, this place will become a battlefield for fighting.

The barbarians ran into the Smolensk shield wall without hesitation, and these soldiers who had just woken up from their sleep were caught off guard immediately. Veshatta kept boosting morale and let the people stand firm, while his Calm also really boosts morale.

However, Veshatta's heart is not as calm as it looks on the surface. He got up in the first second out of the habit of an old soldier, and then organized the Smolensk militia. The Polotsk army, he is really a bit of a drummer.

The Baltics slashed at the Russ with all kinds of shoddy weapons, and each blow could achieve the effect of a tetanus blade. However, it was not easy to cut through the shield and armor under the fighting between the shield and the wall.

Arrows fell mercilessly among the crowd, and they all came from Polotsk archers. Many coalition soldiers fell under the ruthless artillery fire, but many Baltic barbarians also fell.

Many people did not die, but wailed in the blood, and some were drowned by the water that barely covered their calves.

Vseslav had no mercy for these barbarians, and even applauded the coalition forces for killing them.

He bought these barbarian beasts with prestige and gold and silver. When they left the Polotsk army, they would naturally continue to be enemies of Polotsk, so killing these guys today is equivalent to killing Tomorrow's rebels, the coalition forces are helping him instead.

From this point of view, this is also the reason why so many Baltic tribes were summoned by the witch prince.

Whether it wins or loses in this battle, the Principality of Polotsk will suffer a great loss in strength, and it is better to consume as much as possible for future enemies.

However, the Polo people were not angry at the arrows coming from behind, because there were more Ross people who fell, and their attack was smoother.

Death is the norm in the forest, and they have long been used to it.

These barbarians all wanted to be the first to break through the Ross defense line. Before the war, the chiefs drew a bunch of big cakes for them, which made their blood boil, and they all wanted to be the first warriors.

Under the desperate attack of the barbarians, the shield wall of the Smolensk people and various miscellaneous troops was quickly broken, and then the battle turned into a melee that the Russian militia didn't like the most.

During the melee, the head of the Smolensk guard was beheaded by the Baltics, which seriously damaged the morale of the Smolensk militia and began to retreat unconsciously.

All of this was really too sudden. These people were not prepared for the battle, and they faced such a violent surprise attack. It is really normal for such a situation to happen.

The Smolensk people dropped their weapons, withdrew from the creek, and left behind a lot of corpses. The only thing Veshatta could do was to command the troops to fight and retreat, so as not to let this place become a pure collapse.

The barbarians cheered and continued to attack. They were excited about the sweetness they got now. They believed that as long as they continued to attack, the Ross people would definitely be finished.

But at this moment, more militiamen arrived at the front line, and they made way for the retreating troops in an orderly manner. Since they had lost morale, they went to the back to recover.

Looking at the equipment of these people, they are militiamen from Kyiv. The neighbors in the neighborhood stood firmly together, marching under the command of the chief executive of their respective blocks, and entered the battlefield with the pride of Kyiv.

"Forward! Forward! For the glory of Kyiv! Let the Polotsk bastards die!"

Yaropolk rode his horse and shouted among the militia, and his brother Mstislav followed him as the standard-bearer, his chain mail glowing silver under the torches and the faintly rising sun.

The Grand Duke's son standing in front of the battle line undoubtedly boosted morale. The Kyiv militiamen advanced more quickly and firmly. They all wanted to gain glory for their respective neighborhoods, so they rushed faster than anyone else.

Although some princes of Rurik were not good at politics, none of them were good at battle, because in Ross, without the skill of war, it was almost equivalent to giving up power.

There can be no doubt that the Kyiv militia quickly held back the Baltic onslaught, which depended on nothing more than suddenness, and once this was resolved, the onslaught would soon be disintegrated.

And the arrows in the sky are not easy to use at this moment, because the Kyiv people have perfect protection and formation, and the arrows are either inserted into the shield or bounce off the armor and helmet.

The Polo people fell under this round of arrows. Seeing this, the Polotsk archers immediately stopped shooting arrows, adjusted the shooting trajectory, and focused on tilting the ammunition to the rear of the Kyiv militia instead of Where the two armies clash.

Fights are everywhere on the wide front, and occasionally aggressive teams launch assaults on the local front. After all, the battlefield is so large that the commanders below must act on their own. These local battles can occasionally achieve results, and occasionally they will be used by the enemy, but In most cases, it is still a stalemate between shields.

Neither side has ever fought a battle of this scale, so everyone is following old experience, each unit continues to act on its own, and cooperates with neighboring units to find all breakthroughs.

And if there is a problem with the coordination, resulting in uneven fronts, then the enemy will often take advantage of these loopholes to carry out assaults, but both sides have more than one front, and the troops behind will block the enemy's advance.

As the battle line stabilized, the barbarians naturally fell into a disadvantage. They could not compare with the Kyiv militia in terms of equipment and organization, and their cooperation was even more messy, making it difficult to break through the shield wall of the Rus.

The shock was nothing more than a brute force, and as the Grand Duke of Kyiv joined his own soldiers, the failure of the Baltic people has become a matter of time.

It's just that the Polo people are just a bait thrown by Polotsk.

"Assault on Yaroslavich's left flank! Break up their formation!"

Stepan roared, and he led the Norse vassals and mercenaries to attack the left flank of the coalition army.

The left flank is defended by the Chernigov militia, but due to the slow build-up of the Chernigov militia, currently only a small number of Chernigov militia have reached the established position to hold on.

Naturally, this small number of militiamen were quickly overwhelmed by Stepan's troops, and they couldn't even stop the enemy's advance.

Seeing this scene, Izyaslav couldn't help but feel extremely anxious, what is Svyatoslav doing!Wasn't he always good at war?
And no matter how Izyaslav complained, the Chernihiv militia still failed to reach their positions on a large scale. If this continues, the Polotsk people will attack the Kyiv people's flanks!

But it was at this moment that a group of infantry rushed over to contain the North Army's assault, and this team was the Moscow militia and Novgorod militia of Rostislav.

After a fierce shield push, the battle turned into a shield-wall fight again. Swords, axes and spears clashed on shields and armor. The Polotsk people organized several armored elite attacks, but they were all defeated Their shield wall dissipated the kinetic energy and blocked it.

"Citizens of Novgorod, let others see our martial arts! We can't embarrass our hometown!"

Gavrila commanded the militia, and he fought bravely on the front line, serving as a benchmark to inspire people to fight.

The Novgorod militia was also hit the hardest, because they were the first batch of blocking troops, and the reason why they became the first batch was because the Novgorodians wanted to show their fighting power to their new princes , As a result, he was the first to bear the brunt unexpectedly.

The Norse vassals desperately rushed to the shield wall of Novgorod. They hooked the shield with long axes, then pulled the shield down violently, and then slashed.

But the Novgorod people resisted. These 1000 people are the elite of Novgorod, and their ability to resist damage is not ordinary.

In the prior deployment of the army, Rostislav's team belonged to the general reserve team, but now the prince of Moscow saw that the right wing (for the Polotsk people, the left wing) was in danger of being broken through, so he naturally simply threw in soldiers.

The impact of Stepan's team was fierce, but the Novgorod militia was not weak, and the Moscow militia also arrived immediately. None of the militia in the great city of Ross was weak.

They set up their shields firmly to block the violent Nordic-style offensive. Even if the shields were cut and sawdust flew across, even if their comrades kept falling down, they firmly defended their positions and resolved the assaults one after another.

And then the Chernigov militia finally arrived, they entered the battlefield in an orderly manner, and immediately began to encircle Stepan's department.

It's a pity that Stepan's army is not so easy to defeat even in the face of a superior enemy. The Polotsknos vassal group represented by Stepan has always been extremely powerful. The fundamentals of settling down, so the battle turned into a stalemate for a while, just like the battle of the Chinese army.

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(End of this chapter)