When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 823: Battle of Marunpo (IV)
The cold wind in the early morning was still biting. Count Dreta stood on a high place early in the morning, looking at the Thousand River Valley Army positions in the distance.

He was ready to launch a new offensive, but the scene before him made him rub his eyes hard.

The black and red flags were fluttering, and footsteps made a neat rustling sound on the snow.

The flag representing the Holy Grail Cavalry marched beside the black and red flags. It was about five hundred Holy Gun Cavalry.

Of course, as Jeanne's direct cavalry, they have their own name, just like the Holy Armor Guards in the Guards - the Holy Grail Musketeers.

But no matter how the Qianhegu army deployed their troops and changed their formations, one thing was certain -

The Qianhe Valley Army actually took the initiative to line up and walk out of the camp?

"Are they crazy?" a knight whispered in disbelief.

"They want to fight us in a field battle?" Another noble frowned. "One thousand people fighting against eight thousand people in a field battle is a way to seek death."

But Dreta did not order an attack immediately. His eyes calmly swept across the enemy formation.

"No, no, more than a thousand," he whispered.

While observing the enemy's formation and listening to the scout's report, Dreta's heart beat faster and faster as he counted: "No less than six horizontal formations... 3,000 people! Where did the other 2,000 come from?"

According to his calculations, there should be about two thousand men in the camp, but only about one thousand of them could fight in the field.

Now there are 3,000 people. Could it be that their reinforcements have arrived? Did something go wrong with Lord Laffer?

In the sunlight, a few wisps of steam rose from Dreta's head, as if smoke was coming out of his head.

Quickly deducing various possibilities in his mind, he immediately called in scouts: "Go confirm the situation on other battlefields, especially the defense conditions of other villages."

The spy left quickly, and he himself stood on the mound, looking up at the battlefield in the distance.

In the remaining snow, patches of yellow-brown land appeared like bald spots.

Rows of troops arranged in long and narrow horizontal formations were slowly moving towards them, silent and determined.

A moment later, the spy who delivered the message via flag signal reported: "There is nothing unusual in the other camps."

"Your Excellency!" Baron Macherov said anxiously, "Their numbers are far less than ours, only 3,000, while we have 8,000!

No matter what tricks they play, we have twice as many troops as them, and the advantage is mine!"

Dreta took a deep breath and thought for a moment.

The enemy's behavior is very unusual. Logically, they should not abandon the fortress defense...

But no matter what the opponent's plan is, judging from the comparison of troop strength alone, the Leia army still has an absolute advantage.

If we don't attack now, it will give the people of Qianhe Valley time to adjust their tactics.

If their reinforcements really arrived, I would become a joke.

After thinking it over, Count Dreta showed a ferocious expression on his face: "Gather the troops and attack!"

…………

The Malenbo battlefield is about five kilometers deep and the entire terrain is a gentle slope.

To the west is a winding tributary, to the north are hills and forests, and to the southeast is the camp of the Thousand River Valley Army.

The entire battlefield was not rugged, and the ground had not yet thawed, so it seemed to be of good hardness to the artillery.

Passing through the cold east wind, the rangers of both sides have already started the first round of confrontation at the edge of the battlefield.

As the rangers and the lookouts obtained information, pieces of intelligence were also summarized in Victor's hands.

The 8,000-strong Leia Army has assembled and deployed horizontally.

Deretta is a professional but still flexible.

He divided the troops into three routes according to traditional tactics: left, center and right, but flexibly changed the large square of 2000 people into a small square of 40X20.

And he had some clever ideas. He deliberately lengthened the distance between the front and the back to make the rectangular array look like a square array.

But this can only fool your own people, don't fool Victor - he has a telescope and can tell at a glance.

With this arrangement, it would not be easy to be surrounded from the side when facing the Salvation Army.

The middle route was commanded by Count Dreta himself, consisting of three small squares of 800 men, 400 of the Count's personal guards, and a team of 300 Imperial Knights. The left and right routes each had two small squares of 800 men, and the right route also had five teams of 200 extraordinary knights.

In addition, there were two 200-man ranger teams fighting outside, harassing the Black Champion from time to time.

The entire Leia army formation was like a giant steel python, ready for battle.

The infantry phalanxes held their spears erected densely, and the knights, riding on their war horses, stared at the Black Champion in front of them with both indifference and excitement.

Unlike the Leia Army, although the Black Champions led by Victor took the initiative to go out of the camp to fight, they still firmly controlled the camp and did not completely leave the fortifications.

Under the cover of the camp, Victor prepared to adopt a rotation combat method.

That is, whenever one troop became tired from fighting, it could immediately withdraw to the earthen ramparts to rest, while another troop would emerge from the rear to replace the defense line.

This would allow Galar to take advantage of the width of his formation, much like Horn did in the Battle of Pavia.

As for the military formation, facing the enemy's attacks from multiple directions, they still deployed the classic front four and back three camps.

The first four can just about match up against seven small square formations of 800 men, so the Holy Gunners will probably have to fight in close combat.

But fortunately, there are still the Crusaders to help. If it really doesn’t work, let these Crusaders take over.

Before the bugle sounded, Victor indeed encountered the first attack of Leia's army.

As expected, Knight Leia took the potion and launched a reckless charge before everyone else.

This has almost become a must-see program when the Saviors fight Leia's army, and some people even opened the betting.

A squad of two hundred country knights on the right launched the charge first.

Although they were also wearing armor, their equipment was much simpler than that of the Imperial Knights.

Most of the men were only wearing chain mail and iron helmets, and their horses had no armor at all.

They were very confident and felt that this charge would be able to scare off the Qianhe Valley Army.

The war horses began to speed up, their iron hooves roared, and cold mud splashed.

However, the Qianhe Valley Army remained motionless.

The spear monks bent their knees slightly, while the holy gun monks began to draw their strings.

Looking at the thin black layer of black champions' horizontal formation, the confidence of many country knights was rapidly decreasing with the distance.

"What's going on? Why aren't they moving?"

The speed of horses and the number of front-row chargers also decreased when the knights rushed to the front of the formation.

The feeling of uneasiness even overwhelmed the excitement after drinking the potion.

The next moment, a horn sounded.

"Meet the enemy!"

"Praise the Holy Wind!"

As the lead bullets crackled onto the knights, the speed of the charge suddenly slowed down.

The Holy Grail Cavalry suddenly urged their horses to collide head-on with the charging Country Knights.

The sound of metal colliding and screams intertwined together.

Blood splattered, horses were torn apart by sharp blades, and knights were thrown into the air or shot at close range during combat.

The country knights thought they would be able to easily defeat the infantry formation as usual, but they met a real opponent.

This is not a farmer who can be bullied by them.

With just one volley and charge, even the cavalry melee did not last long, and the formation of the country knights was completely defeated.

Knight Leia in the army roared angrily, but could only watch his own cavalry being torn to pieces.

"Stupid!" Count Dreta's eyes were gloomy. "The knights are not allowed to advance without my order. They can fire at most ten times in a battle. Use the infantry first!"

"Uuuuuu——"

(End of this chapter)