When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 567 The advantage is mine!

A few black swallows jumped from the blue sky into the mud, lowered their heads and picked left and right in the grass, then picked up the yellow mud stuck with weeds in their beaks and flew towards their own nests.

Its long wings stirred the air and almost collided with the red and blue butterflies circling around the flowers.

The warm and hot sun is overhead. It's a perfect day to lie in the yard and bask in the sun.

But at this moment, the soldiers in helmets and armor felt their heads extremely hot.

Under the sun, more than seven thousand elite mercenary infantry were marching in the midday sun.

Occasionally they looked up and saw groups of light cavalry fighting in the fields and woods in the distance.

The high-topped boat-shaped helmets in the style of a windmill gleamed silver, absorbing the heat of the sun and turning the infantrymen's heads into stew pots.

Just during the march, the boat-shaped helmets made these elite mercenaries from the Windmill Land sweat like streams, leaving clearly visible marks on their withered faces.

Unlike the round-brimmed helmets that Horn and his colleagues often wear, these boat-shaped helmets have curled-up ends, a bit like paper hats folded into small boats.

In order to distinguish between friend and foe, mercenaries who are wealthy enough will buy feathers of different colors and insert them on their helmets.

Looking around while riding on horseback, on the earth of alternating ochre and turquoise, a sea of ​​colorful feathers rose and fell with the footsteps of the soldiers.

This kind of feathers are collectively called feathers in the empire.

However, the infantrymen only had two or three feathers at most, each about the length of a palm.

The long feathers and tassels on the knights' helmets sometimes dragged down to their backs.

Prince Kongdai's feathers today are relatively simple, only about 30 centimeters.

But the armor on his body was exquisitely carved and gilded, including the neck armor, shoulder armor, arm armor, body armor, skirt armor... he even wore gloves on his hands.

This suit of armor is already thick, and it is also decorated with gold and brass.

One could feel its weight from the lifeless, drooling face of the warhorse under him.

The white-hot fireball in the sky was emitting tremendous heat, but the prince seemed not to feel it. He asked Erad beside him with a normal expression, "Have you found out the position of Shorthair?"

"Five miles away, Your Highness, you are right. These farmers really walked out of the chariot formation and are ready to confront us head-on." Elad looked solemn. "I saw that they have about twelve to sixteen squadrons, more than a thousand cavalry, including the wild army and wizards from Black Snake Bay, probably more than ten thousand."

"Black Snake Bay has been very active recently." A flash of ferocity flashed across Prince Kongdai's face.

Elad nodded and said, "The Church is too busy lately. If we launch a major crackdown in two years, they will behave themselves."

Almost every few decades, the Empire would gather its forces to encircle and suppress Black Snake Bay to prevent the secret party from growing stronger.

But they were unable to completely wipe out the secret party, and could only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

The sound of hurried horse hooves wrapped in dust came from afar. Lacunio, who had returned from a personal scout, was riding a horse. When he saw Prince Condé, he frowned and said, "Charles, I think the terrain of the short-haired formation is not very good."

"It's not good, so what? Is it possible that we don't have to fight? The ferry and the bridge are burned. If we wait for Melia to mention it, it will be more difficult to fight than before." Prince Kongdai's iron gloves soothed the mane of the warhorse under his crotch.

Lacuno thought for a moment, but could only helplessly realize that Prince Condé was right.

After the enemy occupied the important river transportation stronghold of Detention Wharf, no matter how we fought, the enemy would be able to transfer its troops faster than we could.

If they did not try to cross the river but took a detour, any further delay would inevitably lead to Horn and Meliati joining forces.

The area around the Ham River is basically of this terrain, so it is better to attack early than late.

Therefore, even if we know that the terrain is unfavorable, we have to fight.

"You guys, go scout the surroundings to see if there are any ambushes." Prince Kong Dai shouted to his attendants, "Pass the order down. When we get to the village ahead, the infantry will take a rest, poop or pee, or drink water and eat quickly. We will set off in half an hour."

Upon hearing that they could rest and that the war was about to begin, the entire army became much more disciplined.

After they accelerated their march to the village, they began to handle miscellaneous tasks and prepare weapons under the leadership of commanders at all levels in preparation for the upcoming battle.

Sitting under the shade of a tree, Prince Condé drank beer and ate his rations, but he carefully calculated his own capital.

There were more than 4 elite mercenary groups, over 1300 guards and sergeants, 500 men in four imperial companies, and more than defected knights and mercenary knights.

Unlike the retinue knights that Enrico brought with him, Prince Conde's subordinates are all elite and extraordinary knights of certain ranks.

Even the work that should be done by the squire knights was handed over to higher-ranking squire knights.

In terms of military strength alone, Prince Condé is weaker than the Salvation Army.

But in terms of individual combat effectiveness, excluding the influence of weapons and equipment, the demons are far inferior. Although they lost five companies of the Imperial Order before, with the ability of the Imperial Order Knights, many more escaped or recovered from serious injuries than ordinary knights.

So although there are only 4 imperial knights, Prince Conde has 437 imperial knights under his command.

With so many Imperial Knights, even on the Kush River front, they could easily fight against any ogre warlords they encountered, not to mention him, a half-step grand knight.

When it comes to deploying troops, he is not afraid of Horn, and in a one-on-one fight, he is even stronger than that monster.

In short, the advantage is mine!
Prince Kongdai viciously stuffed several pieces of half-cooked roasted monster meat into his mouth and chewed it vigorously. He was completely unaware of the blood mixed with grease that dripped from his mouth.

Several attendants nearby subconsciously moved away. His Royal Highness's eating habits have been getting worse and worse recently, and his scarlet teeth are just like those of a wild beast.

After resting for half an hour, the entire army set out again.

Next to the deserted houses are farmlands that were forced to be abandoned in the spring.

Rows of scattered boat helmets were moving, and cloth shoes and straw sandals trampled the weeds in the farmland into pieces.

Countryside fences were torn down, leftover pigs and sheep were carried away, and berry bushes in the shade of trees were trampled and bent.

Hundreds of swallowtail flags were winding like a long dragon. The knights, fully armored from head to soles of feet, were bouncing along with their horses' backs. The sunlight could not reach an inch of their skin.

The scent of flowers and the stench of wolf smoke irritated the monks' noses. They sat on horse-drawn carts, carefully using their bodies to protect the shaky holy oil bottles placed in the straw.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, Prince Condé and his army of nearly 10,000 finally arrived at the battlefield - a river beach called Cheese Bay.

Prince Condé didn’t understand why this place was called Cheese Bay. Could it be that it was rich in cheese?

But after seeing it with his own eyes, he had to admit that the name was indeed very vivid.

Behind the bushes and sparse trees, streams and ditches cut through the riverbank on both sides.

The entire river beach is oriented from north to south, and the terrain gradually rises from west to east. The river beach on the westernmost side is covered with sand and gravel, while the high ground on the easternmost side is flat and open.

But the problem lies in the transition area from the river beach to the plain. It is not a gentle slope, but a dozen or so earthen mounds about 10 meters high from low to high.

The mounds have both connected parts and separated undulating parts, just like the densely packed and intertwined holes in cheese.

The flat mounds are covered with fluffy green grass and irises, and together with the hollow depressions and corridors, they really look like a piece of moldy cheese.

"I told you the terrain wasn't very good." Lacunio rode beside Prince Condé, his eyes furrowed as he stared at the helmets in front of him that were shimmering with the river water.

Nearly a hundred black and red flags were flying, and soldiers in black stood on the mound in an extremely neat horizontal formation.

The twelve legions of the Salvation Army were divided into groups of two, parallel to the Ham River, arranged in two rows, staggered and overlapping, and occupied the high ground of the mound in advance.

The distance between the front and back rows was only thirty or forty meters, which was considered quite close, because the distance they had to walk from the back row of mounds to the front row of mounds was more than thirty or forty meters.

On one of the steepest mounds, one can see catapults and fireball crossbows being assembled, and in the depression one can also see the sword and shield men of the Black Snake Bay moving around.

"Are we still attacking?" Captain Alphos of the Third Command Company looked at the mound in front of him, lowered his head and asked softly.

Prince Kongdai's eyelids trembled: "Why don't you attack? Are you afraid?"

"No worries." Alphos answered immediately, "It's just that the terrain is difficult. I don't know..."

The prince turned his horse and looked at the battlefield for a while. He sneered and drew the knight's sword from his waist:
"Alphos, take the knights to the high ground on the left wing to hold the line. Don't charge yet."

"Yes, Your Highness!" After kissing the tip of the sword, Alphos immediately led the Imperial Company to rush towards the left wing high ground, where the Holy Gun Cavalry was lined up.

"Priest Agata, take the monks and follow Alphos."

"Yes, Your Highness." Dozens of monks, with holy water grenades and holy oil bottles hanging on ropes around their waists, trotted towards the left wing high ground.

Prince Conde turned his gaze to Griffin and Sternberg and said, "You two, listen carefully to what I am going to say next. Whoever fights well in this battle will be given Stonewall Town and the surrounding estates."

Griffin and Stenberg's breathing quickened.

“In this battle, you will be the vanguard, leading the Death Squad and the Eagle Squad to go around to the side, force them to turn, and consume their physical strength and magic power.

Remember, you must shorten their battle line and reduce the wind force of their clockwork guns, so that the knights will have a chance to take advantage of it, do you understand?"

"Understood, Your Majesty!"

The two infantry leaders immediately half-knelt and touched their chests to listen to the order.

(End of this chapter)