Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 789 If you don't study theology properly, life will be full of magic, and everyone will be a witch.
As the infantry lines faced collapse, the Polish-Lithuanian cavalry in the rear finally could no longer remain idle. Some cavalry units began to advance, setting out from the open side to attempt to attack the artillery positions, while simultaneously flanking from that side to intercept the Ming cavalry vanguard that was engaged in battle with the infantry.

However, before they arrived, Tang Sai'er had already timed her departure perfectly and led her men away from the battlefield. By the time the enemy arrived, only devastation remained.

The infantry could no longer hold the line, so they began to drive the remaining men toward the artillery positions, trying to suppress their firepower and prevent them from firing with impunity.

A large number of cavalrymen converged from other directions, pursuing Tang Sai'er and her group. They probably finally realized that the firepower of this wave of opponents was far more exaggerated than the Purple Horde army they had encountered before. The infantry line collapsed much faster than expected, rendering previous tactics ineffective. If they allowed the infantry to be routed, they would then be subjected to artillery fire.

However, Tang Sai'er had already made preparations for this. After the allied cavalry charged over, Lili and Ge Lai, who were already waiting, went to meet them.

Neither side immediately clashed, nor did they back down despite facing the enemy. Both vanguards simultaneously turned right and began a rapid maneuver, attempting to find openings in the opponent's flanks and rear to attack.

In contrast, the Polish-Lithuanian army was more skilled in mounted archery and thus continuously fired arrows. On the other hand, the Ming army's cavalry under Lê Lợi were hastily recruited and trained locally by Tông Sêr, and were not very familiar with mounted martial arts and archery; some were not even riding warhorses. Therefore, they were at a disadvantage and could only raise their shields to protect themselves from the rain of arrows, but many of their mounts were still hit by arrows and fell, throwing their riders off as well.

The Polish-Lithuanian cavalry laughed loudly at them, and when they realized that few of them could fight back with their bows and arrows, Glei in the ranks couldn't help but take off his bow and reach for the arrows.

"Hey, don't be a show-off!" Li Li quickly turned around and reminded him.

Before he could finish speaking, Grae drew three arrows from his quiver. He held one between his thumb and nocked it, while the other two were held between his fingers. After a quick aim, he fired one arrow, and a nearby Lithuanian cavalryman fell from his horse. He immediately nocked a second arrow and shot down an officer carrying a flag; then, in the same manner, he struck a pursuing enemy squarely in the face.

“Look, I wasn’t showing off, they were.” He fired three arrows in an instant, then turned to Lili and said, “I think it’s because we haven’t burned their city in a long time that these Slavs are getting cocky again.”

"What's wrong with you today? The Third Miss was so excited, and you got excited too..." Li Li was quite speechless.

However, Grae, having finally gotten a chance to shine, wasn't about to let it slip away. His hands moved incessantly, firing over a dozen shots in quick succession. Almost every time he fired, an unlucky soul was killed. The surviving enemies quickly retreated. The distance between the two sides widened once more.

From Tang Sai'er, who had just returned to the assembly point and was changing horses, to the ordinary soldiers beside her, everyone's attention was focused on him. This pleased Gray greatly, and he even began to run towards the enemy cavalry's path, trying to drive them away by himself. However, the enemy had also noticed him, and in an instant, all the nearby allied riders began to concentrate their fire on him, arrows flying like locusts, which startled Gray himself, and he quickly ran back to his unit.

Taking advantage of this moment, Li Li did not choose to avoid the enemy, but completely ignored them. While the enemy was diverting cavalry to reinforce the front line, leaving their lines somewhat incomplete, he led his men on a frantic advance. Only when they reached near the forest did they slow down. They were now close to the location where the enemy cavalry had set out earlier.

Because they were positioned too far forward, the enemy forces that hadn't yet moved out noticed them and surrounded them. Faced with a large number of enemies, Li Li immediately ordered everyone to dismount, form ranks on the spot, and exchange fire with the enemy.

Now, the enemy's situation is somewhat awkward.

They didn't actually expect the infantry to eliminate the artillery; this operation was essentially just to make the cannon fodder serve their last purpose. Jessica's side had already prepared a countermeasure, sending the first platoon of infantry forward to block the remaining Allied infantry.

Thanks to the actions of Le Li and his men, the Ming army's lines had now expanded diagonally, extending a long strip along their right flank. The Polish-Lithuanian cavalry, who had been searching for a breakthrough, immediately rushed to this side, attempting to cut off communication between their various units. However, other cavalry units also followed Le Li, arriving to provide support.

While the Ming cavalry appeared numerous, their quality varied greatly. Units like the "Mongol Camp" and the regular cavalry of the various southern commanderies were quite skilled. Because the Wu Prince's household was more organized and structured than other noble families, these professional soldiers were frequently organized into joint training exercises by the guards and garrisons. Therefore, their battlefield combat capabilities were actually stronger than those of the knights under other major lords.

However, in Bohemia, both the Wu army and the Taborist forces attracted mostly lower-class people. In Europe, the composition of the army was closely related to social class—somewhat similar to the Spring and Autumn Period.

Therefore, a common characteristic among them was that their number of professional cavalry was not very large. The Wu Prince's Palace operated in Tyrol and Bavaria, and the local German knights were quite familiar with them, so their situation was somewhat better. The situation in Prokop was even more dire. Combined, both sides had far fewer cavalry than the Poles.

The largest proportion of the "cavalry" here were hastily recruited by Tang Sai'er. She used every four-legged creature capable of carrying people as a mount; and anything that could be ridden was used as cavalry. In this way, she replenished nearly ten thousand men along the way. However, the others remained uneasy about whether these men could actually be effective. Based on European military experience, even when citizens and peasants sometimes defeated a lord's professional army, it was primarily through terrain and infantry tactics. Even the Swiss, who repeatedly crushed the Habsburgs, relied on foot combat; they had never heard of anyone defeating noble knights simply by riding a horse or even a mule.

However, Tang Sai'er was very confident about this. She insisted that cavalry battles did not necessarily have to be fought on horseback, nor did they necessarily have to be a contest of mounted combat skills with the enemy. Military strategy emphasizes leveraging the situation and taking advantage of it, deploying the right troops to the right place at the right time. Do what is most advantageous, without getting bogged down in specific methods and techniques.

Since she began training the cavalry, she hadn't organized much training in horsemanship and combat skills—in her opinion, since real combat was imminent, a few days of last-minute cramming wouldn't be very useful, and it was better to save time and practice what was more practical.

Therefore, she taught everyone to recite her set of incantations every day, memorizing the directions of the Six Ding and Six Jia, as well as various transformation incantations for Yu the Great, the Jade Maiden, the Five Emperors, and so on. The soldiers felt very strange, as if they were reciting scriptures or chanting incantations, and began to suspect that this was some kind of heretical magic from the East. Especially among the Hussites, who had a strong religious atmosphere and believed that they were acting on behalf of the Father and correcting the corrupt practices of the church, many people openly questioned that something was wrong with the situation. Some even went to Zhu Wenkui to report that this witch was using mysterious magic in the army of their Presbyterian Kingdom, and that it could not be ignored.

The first to argue with them were not the Hussite priest who had close ties with Zhu Wenkui and knew about the Prince's Palace, but the two young girls named Jeanne.

Neither of them were professional clergy, and their relevant experience was not very extensive, but they had both received formal theological education and had some basic understanding of the concepts.

Jeanne and her friends insist that Don Sai's mnemonic is essentially a simplified military manual, packaged with imagery from Eastern astrology and folk tales for easier memorization. If this is considered heresy or witchcraft, then people shouldn't speak at all—for example, in Germany, Tuesday is "Tyr's Day," Thursday is "Sol's Day," and Friday is "Freya's Day." Months also have names like "Janus' Month," "War God's Month," and "Junno's Month." If these are also considered important, then people shouldn't bother memorizing dates…

In fact, the Church already had a unified explanation for these issues, and theologians with systematic education were not particularly surprised by these ancient myths. As for the Seres, it goes without saying. The Diocese of Constantinople had long argued that, as one of the earliest civilized peoples, the Seres had monotheistic beliefs long before the Heavenly Brother. Compared to them, the Mediterranean world was much later; they accepted orthodox faith, possibly even before Moses, although the theologians of the Purple Horde tended not to believe in the Old Testament or the existence of Moses.

However, it's certain that their beliefs are the same as here. They simply use different names and employ methods more suited to local customs for expression and worship. And what Tang Sai'er described undoubtedly doesn't involve any religious issues.

The two women went around explaining the situation to everyone. Some priests also realized what was happening and began to help persuade people not to focus on such trivial matters. Otherwise, even if the intention to apprehend heretics was good, excessive obsession could easily lead to paranoia and implicate innocent people, thus deviating from the requirements of true faith and the teachings of the Heavenly Brother. Some experienced officers, after studying the matter for a period of time, also believed that Tang Sai'er's military theory was actually very sophisticated, far more than just the literal meaning of the formulas, which were merely folk incantations and mythological tales. Therefore, her supporters quickly gained the upper hand, and after a priestly meeting, they decided to accept her tactics.

However, although the ending was still good, Jeanne and her friends had some reservations about the Hussites. They privately told Zhu Wenkui and others that many members of the Hussites, especially the Taborites who were part of the populist faction, were indeed more tenacious and steadfast than the nobles, but they often seemed to be steadfast in the wrong place—their level of education was very limited, and even the priests did not quite understand some basic theological principles. As a result, the more steadfast a person was, the more prone they were to fanaticism, and they were difficult to persuade.

The issues they're grappling with, like this one, aren't actually hard to understand; church theologians have already explained them. But while opposing the church, the Taborians are also rejecting some of the church's theoretical findings. This will inevitably lead to their downfall.

Jeanne and others complained that these people were just too superstitious and ignorant, and instead of studying theology properly, they found magic everywhere in life and saw everyone as a wizard or witch...

Of course, Tang Sai'er didn't care much about these things. She encouraged the girls to study hard, so that they might become goddesses of the God-Worshipping Society like her in the future. Although she herself was theoretically a member of the White Lotus Sect, many things were indeed similar, and perhaps she could teach them.

Little Jeanne remained noncommittal, saying that she had studied with Lama Wang for a long time but hadn't learned anything, so it seemed she wasn't cut out for it and decided to give up. Jeanne from Don Remy, however, was quite interested, calling her "Third Sister" and even "Sister-in-law" every day, insisting that she teach her. Tang Sai'er was quite open-minded, basically answering all her questions. Of course, she couldn't say how well she would learn.

The training of the soldiers was quite successful. Although the training period was short, at least the officers in charge were able to master the formulas through several assessments, remember the routes for changing formations, the timing of infantry and cavalry mounting and dismounting, and even the patterns of conversion between regular and surprise troops. They also remembered the signals given by the commander-in-chief—because the army's signal flags used these directions and corresponding mythological figures from the formulas, making them easy to remember. As for the others, they could play a significant role in this formation simply by following the officers.

After all, this system was extracted from Li Weigong's military strategy and improved upon by many people. It was particularly suitable for peasants to quickly form a rebellion, unleash their maximum potential, and fight against the more professional government troops. For example, the flags of the Ming army's regular army also used mythological images to facilitate memorization and differentiation. It can be said that they all came from the same source and were based on the same set of tactics.

In Europe, the "official armies" of various countries and great lords were far less formal. So even this "downgraded version" was sufficient for temporarily organizing ranks and determining positions.

The previous battles were relatively minor, and it wasn't even clear how this theory could be effective. But this time, with everyone engaging in direct combat, the effects became immediately apparent.

(End of this chapter)