eastern european eagle

Chapter 648: Battle with Arabia (Part )
At dawn the next day, the armies of both sides began to line up at a distance of about a mile.

The Romanian army was composed of elite troops from Anatolia and the Balkans, as well as the Jerusalem Army. There were nearly 8 soldiers in total. Moreover, the Jerusalem Army had learned from past battles with the Arabs. There were more than 6000 Druze infantrymen with strong combat effectiveness in the entire army, as well as cavalry from Syria and other regions, with a total of more than 8000 cavalry.

From a distance, the Romanian soldiers looked like small, motionless trees, neatly planted on the ground... This made Hashim even more cautious.

But after a half-hour standoff between the two sides, the Arab generals could not help it and rushed to question him. Because it was already noon and the weather was quite hot, standing for a long time would consume a lot of physical strength of the soldiers. If it continued like this, they would probably be unable to fight and would have to retreat.

Because of everyone's insistence, Hashim ordered an attack, but he did not immediately order the entire army to attack. Instead, he notified the archers to move to the front of the formation. After completing this formation change, he again ordered the archers to move forward and attack the enemy from a distance.

Upon learning of this, Peter ordered the soldiers to prepare for shooting. The archers drew their bows and shot thousands of arrows into the air, which then fell on the Arab archers' array, causing screams to rang out one after another.

The two sides fired arrows at each other within a distance of several dozen meters. Since neither of them had much protection, the casualties caused by the arrows that covered the sky and the sun increased rapidly on both sides.

The Arab archers were not afraid and drew out their specially equipped short blades to fight back, and they even had a slight advantage.

However, Peter was not afraid, because in his opinion, although the army was temporarily at a disadvantage, they could deal with the enemy for a long time. Even if they were all killed in the battle, the enemy's arrows would have been almost consumed by then, and they would not pose much threat to his army. Therefore, he would rather continue the confrontation than quickly issue an order for the entire army to attack. Moreover, he firmly believed that the Arabs' patience might not be as good as his.

The development of events was in line with his expectations. Some Arab generals were already impatient with the long confrontation. They ignored the leader's orders and directly ordered their cavalry to attack the enemy opposite.

Their unauthorized actions naturally led to the other Arab cavalry, so the cavalry at both ends of the Arab army quickly increased their speed and galloped towards the two wings of the Romanian army. Even if Hashim was angry after receiving the news, he had to blow the bugle to attack.

At this time, Romania also issued an order to retreat, and the archers in the army retreated in an orderly manner. This made the Arab cavalry think that the other side was afraid, so they accelerated their advance and led the Arab infantry forward together.

At this time, the Romanian Syrian soldiers also started to move. The cavalrymen squeezed their horses' bellies, shook the reins vigorously, and the horses started to run. They gathered into a powerful force, like a crazy flood, making a deafening roar, and roared towards the Arab cavalry.

The Romanian cavalry rushed to the front in an instant, and the Arab cavalry could not dodge in time and could only charge forward.

The cavalry charge caused the Arab cavalry to not only stop advancing, but also mostly crowded together, with horses neighing and people shouting, in a mess, unable to quickly restore unified command. After the Romanian cavalry fell off their horses and climbed up from the ground, they immediately drew their sabers and slashed at the surrounding enemies and horses, making the scene even more chaotic. "Woo!...Woo!..." At this time, the Romanian attack bugle sounded. The army launched a charge with amazing momentum.

The Arab archers pulled the bowstrings desperately, trying to use arrows to weaken the enemy's charge, but most of the arrows fell on the infantry's shields and caused little damage. So when the two armies collided head-on, it was almost a one-sided situation. The Arab soldiers were struggling to deal with the enemy's attacks. Under the strong pressure, the entire army was forced to retreat slowly.

"Your Majesty, the enemy is about to collapse."

After receiving the good news from the messenger, Peter's expression remained serious: "Pass on my order, and immediately launch an attack on the enemy's flank!"

The attack from the flank became the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the Arab soldiers began to retreat.

Although it would take some time for a small local defeat to affect the seven or eight li long army formation, and perhaps during this period of time the Arab army might have other opportunities, Hashim, who learned of this news, obviously did not have such luck. In this case, the defeat was obviously certain, and he immediately issued the order to "retreat".

When the soldiers heard the trumpet, they immediately turned and fled, and the allied soldiers took advantage of the situation to kill them. The entire battlefield was like a dam bursting, with water rushing in all directions.

At dusk, the Romanian soldiers who had stopped chasing were cleaning up the battlefield, stripping the armor and weapons from the corpses or searching the captives for valuables. The generals gathered in twos and threes, looking at the battlefield full of corpses with joy and discussing the previous battles excitedly.

In this battle, Romania inflicted 4400 casualties and captured 7800 prisoners at the cost of 3500 casualties. The Arab offensive capability was largely lost, and the coastal fortresses surrendered upon hearing the news, leaving the door to Mecca wide open.

In the south, the Romanian naval fleet attacked the important port of Jeddah, completely locking down its already shrinking trade. The Arabs' channels for obtaining food from overseas were blocked, and they could not harvest much in the desert. As time went on, the situation would become worse and worse.

The supplies from Jerusalem were being transported to the front line in an endless stream. After replenishing the supplies, Peter once again issued the order to attack, aiming directly at Mecca.

(End of this chapter)