Knight and Wand

Chapter 128: Battle of Longka III (Fighting)

Through the remains of the wooden wall where the embers were still extinguished, Canis looked at the Longka line in the distance and narrowed his eyes.

The enemy's long and narrow formation that could be seen through at a glance exposed Longka's inferior military strength.

Although the rugged battlefield created by the enemy has greatly restricted the deployment of their troops during the attack, the fact that their troops far outnumber those of the enemy still allows them to make their formation longer, thicker, and tighter than that of the enemy.

Glancing over the topography within the wooden wall, he considered the woodland to the south.

Then he looked towards the north bank of the river.

On the northeastern bank, one could see from afar that two hundred men led by old Knight Heinkel had begun directing the militia to cut down trees and were building a pontoon bridge in an attempt to cross the river.

From the south? Or from the north?

Canis withdrew his gaze, made a decision, and gave orders to the herald behind him.

The attendant took note of it carefully, then rode out of the team on horseback, and blew the whistle only when he got close to the target flag.

The infantry sergeant who was marching leisurely heard the whistle sound coming quickly to the side of the swallowtail flag of the army formation, and hurriedly turned his head to look.

The knight attendant in charge of delivering the message slowed down his pace and shouted a military order: "Sergeant Rosen! Lord Canis orders your troops to move to the left wing as soon as possible to assist Sergeant Askof's phalanx, and flank the enemy's northernmost end after the attack. The archer squad will accompany you to cover you."

"Yes, sir!" the sergeant shouted in response, and immediately turned around and shouted to his troops to turn around.

The soldiers of Wolfenhall paused, turned their formation, and trotted to the left wing of the army, forming a line parallel to the phalanx of Askof, with the archers of the Wolf family following closely behind.

Canis was overlooking the overall situation from the back row. The first row of troops consisted of two Wofenhall infantry phalanxes led by Rosen and Askof, which served as the main force of the first wave of attack on the left wing.

To the right of the central army are three phalanxes of conscripted soldiers with varying numbers of people. They avoid the enemy's arrow towers and are used to contain and consume the enemy's forces on the southern section of the line. The extra people can also complete the encirclement.

Behind the line of conscripts, separated by a gap in the marching procession, are two phalanxes of Wolfenhall soldiers commanded by Knight Yom. Depending on the situation, they will choose to support other phalanxes or outflank the enemy line after the battle begins.

After the servants completed their mission and returned to the queue, the entire Wolf Leader's army completed the final adjustments before the battle.

Canis drew his sword and raised it towards Longka: "Wolves, attack."

The trombone roared.

The dry ground, which had just passed the winter, began to tremble slightly under the footsteps of thousands of people.

The army formation, which was hundreds of meters long, advanced slowly like a rising tide, and the upright spears and halberds looked like moving iron forests.

The armored soldiers of Wolfenhall held their shields high and crossed the filled trenches and the embers that were still burning on the ground amid sporadic arrows.

The heavily armored cavalry, led by the young master of the Wolf family, slowly moved forward with their horses' hooves following the army formation in front.

"The right team shrinks its formation! Re-arrange into four rows!"

Looking at the main enemy force that was crossing the remains of the wooden wall and slowly advancing towards their right wing, Old Brian immediately ordered the Pleyton Phalanx spearmen behind him to strengthen the army formation.

He came to Leon's horse and shouted loudly: "The right wing is only relying on the Pletton squad, which cannot stop the enemy's elite troops that are twice as large as ours. Please give the order as soon as possible."

Leon nodded on horseback and looked at the heavily armored guard beside him: "No need to wait, order the reserve team to support the right wing as soon as possible."

Pavel of the Guards received the order from his lord and immediately blew the horn in his hand.

Soon, a response call came from the east of Longka Camp behind the army.

The muzzles of the war dogs were taken off one after another. The hidden Duwana halberd soldiers followed the direction represented by the rhythm and number of pauses in the bugle calls, and led by the officers, they trotted along the north side of the camp and sped up to the front line.

Leading a group of giant dogs through iron chains, Longka's only elite infantry passed through the narrow space between the camp and the river in the north.

On the other side of the river, the Wolf-led militiamen who were cutting wood to build a bridge immediately spotted this large group of armored soldiers coming out from the dark side of the camp.

However, Sergeant Duwana, who led the team, was not worried about being exposed at the moment.

Looking at the front battlefield where they were about to meet the enemy, the time difference was just right. The main enemy force that was approaching with shields in the distance no longer had the possibility to change its formation and the direction of attack.

As for the other side, it took the militiamen at least a quarter of an hour to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river.

Hearing the orderly rumbling footsteps behind him and the frantic barking of the Duwana war dogs, Leon turned his horse and led the guards to the rear of the Pleyton detachment and made way for the front line.

"Array!!"

Sergeant Duwana stopped in front of the formation and turned back to shout.

After jogging, the halberd soldiers, whose formation was a little messy, immediately reorganized their ranks in a well-trained manner.

The halberd warriors in the front row held up their long shields, and their comrades behind them raised their long poles at an angle, with their halberds tightly arranged in sequence to form a dense forest of sharp blades.

The ten dog trainers on the right loosened the iron chains around their right arms.

The roaring giant dogs felt their necks loosen, and instinctively ran towards the figure approaching from afar, dragging the soldiers so hard that they almost lost their balance, but then they were pulled back into the team by their master's shouting.

Leon pulled the reins slightly, moving the horse under him slightly away from the roaring beast.

The giant dog's barking was not only terrifying, it also made the warhorse under him feel slightly uneasy and restless.

Following the Wolf-led Army Formation, Canis bypassed the barricades and obstacles removed by the soldiers and looked at the changes taking place on the north side of the Longka Line.

Although he was surprised that the other side actually had a team of elite soldiers who seemed to be well-equipped, he felt that it would not affect the overall situation.

Obviously, the military strength of Rosen and Askofo still retains a huge advantage over the enemy's halberdiers and armed militia formations in the northern section.

Besides, behind the first line, he still has the two main forces of the Yom Knights.

Kanis looked towards the left wing and nodded with satisfaction. His own archers had finally reached the range to retaliate.
From the high arrow tower on Longka's side, bursts of arrows flew towards the rear of the Lang family's army.

But this time, the Wolf Leader archers refused to retreat and faced Longka's arrows with superior range. After paying the price of several casualties, they rushed to the range with the army formation, pulled the bowstrings mercilessly, and retaliated against the enemy fortifications that they hated so much.

whoosh-

Thump! Thump! Thump! The messy flying arrows fell on Longka's archery like raindrops.

There was a sound of arrows entering flesh, and a Longka archer was hit in the face by an arrow and fell down whimpering.

He was quickly pulled away from the window by his comrades. He kept covering the wound on his jaw, struggling in pain, but unable to speak.

Puff! Another archer who was a little slower in reaction was shot in the chest. He didn't even have the strength to scream. He just twisted and twitched a few times on the floor at the top of the tower before he lost his movement.
The casualties continue to mount.

After several teammates were killed or injured in succession, facing more than twice the number of arrows, the Longka archers finally hid in the bunker and dared not show their heads again.

Looking up at the top of the arrow tower, no more arrows were flying out, but Leon did not blame his archers.

Once the enemy is determined to suppress the arrow tower, the difference in numbers will be difficult to make up.

His gaze fell back to the front, and the enemy was less than a hundred meters away. He could not see the line of archers behind them, but Leon knew that after suppressing his own archers, the rain of arrows thrown by the enemy would reach the front before the infantry's attack.

Cool old Brian gave orders calmly.

The soldiers in the first row of all the armies held up large shields and long spears, while the warriors in the back row stood shoulder to shoulder to build a wall of shields to protect their heads. The sharp spear heads and long poles stretched out from the gaps to the front of the formation like hedgehogs.

Almost within a few breaths after the defensive formation was set up, the Pleyton phalanx was hit by a wave of arrows, but the arrowheads hit the outside of the shield wall with a clanging sound, and the soldiers who had been prepared did not suffer any casualties for the time being.

Old Brian did not dare to delay and quickly rushed from behind the front line to the central Selva infantry formation.

Seeing that the enemy's sparse rain of arrows could only suppress the right wing, he shouted and ordered the soldiers in the two rows behind Selva to quietly pick up the javelins on the ground under the cover of the front row of soldiers.

With the high vision from his horse, Brian kept his eyes on the enemies heading towards the formation south of the central army. Although they were numerous, they were only armed with spears and swords and their formation was scattered.
Eighty meters.
Seventy meters.
Sixty meters.
Leon lowered the lance in his right hand, and steadied the reins with his left hand which was holding the kite shield, looking at the wolf-led army that was advancing slowly, as if they were very close, but had not yet launched a charge.

Fifty meters.
Forty meters.
With his extraordinary eyesight, Leon was able to see the ferocious expressions under the helmets of the Wofenhall soldiers.

And finally, the sound of trumpets broke out in the enemy's army.

"Kill them all--!!!" The wolf-led sergeant beside the battle flag raised his sword and roared.

The upright spears and lances collided with crackling sounds and fell like raindrops on the front row. The soldiers of the Wolf Family marched with dense and rumbling footsteps, trampling the ground, shouting battle cries of slaughter and threatening howls, and rushed towards the enemy line like waves.

Although a large group of conscripts on their right wing were a little slow, they all, led by the commander-in-chief's sergeants, rushed towards the enemy with weapons in hand, howling and screaming.

Thirty meters.
Twenty meters.
That’s enough, within twenty meters, this is the maximum range that the Selvans can reach after short-term training.

"Selva! Throw the spear!!!"

Old Brian roared in a booming voice.

The Selva infantrymen in the rear row of the center army, who had been prepared in advance, followed their past training. They pushed their legs against the gently sloping ground, turned their waists, and threw their weapons diagonally upwards with all their might.

It was like a gust of wind, blowing over the front row of shield soldiers.

More than forty densely packed javelins whizzed past the front of the formation, and then fell down with gravity, like a rainstorm, bringing death to the crowd of conscripted soldiers who were charging hard.

Before they could even react to the terror that was coming, sharp iron spears pierced through the running militiamen with a hissing sound.

Some were stabbed through the body, disemboweled, and died instantly.

Some were stabbed to the point of falling backwards, covering their hideous wounds and crying and screaming, feeling cramps all over their bodies and enduring tremendous pain, struggling before death.

"No, cough, cough, no." The choking conscript had his eyes unfocused as if he was trying to wake up from a nightmare.

"Ahhh, Mother! Ahhh, it hurts." The militiaman who was forcibly brought here covered the spear that pierced his abdomen and cried to himself with tears streaming down his face.

Blood gushed out from his hideous wound uncontrollably, and the iron smell instantly filled the ground beneath his feet.

Penetrated limbs, broken heads, and bursts of mournful cries. The Wolf Leader's soldiers saw that more than twenty people in the front line had fallen under the unexpected spear attack.

It was as if a gap was cleared in the queue, and the fastest few people in the charge were lucky enough to escape.

But facing the wall of spears that were raised and lowered one after another in the army formation in front of them, they heard the horrific screams behind them, felt the hair on their backs stand on end, and in an instant they completely lost the courage that had burst out after the previous howling.

Stopping ten meters before the Selva army formation, these conscripts hesitated and looked back at the team that had not caught up with them. Without their companions behind them, they dared not move forward an inch.

However, the conscripts in the rear queue slowed down in the face of the dead and wounded.

Some militiamen who had already been frightened by the Longka archers during the previous filling operation no longer dared to face this horrific battlefield scene. They turned around and escaped from the team from the side, running wildly towards the woods in the south.

The leading deserter immediately caused a chain reaction of morale collapse.

"Kill all who flee! Kill all who flee!" However, no matter how the commander-in-chief's leading soldiers shouted, they could not stop these conscripted soldiers from fleeing.

Killing two fleeing soldiers in succession was still in vain. Seeing that the team's defeat was irreversible and even suffered a cold counterattack from several deserters, the commander-in-chief's wolf-led soldiers had to retreat to the infantry main camp of Knight Yom in the rear.

The Wolfenhall platoon, which was supporting the rear, did not care about the defeat of the militia platoon in front.

They charged forward with their guns raised and their feet rumbling almost at the same time. Countless boots trampled over the dead and wounded, completely filling the front line left by the fleeing soldiers.

The Selva Front, which had no chance to launch a second round of javelins, was forced to collide with the enemy's real main force.

The fierce Wolfenhall soldiers showed no fear of the spear formation in front of them. Relying on their shields and armor, they formed a neat formation and went straight into the enemy's battle, with their forests of spears colliding with each other.

Deafening shouts of killing followed, and the two armies continued to hit and stab with their spears.

From time to time, long blades would penetrate the gaps in the shield wall and pierce into the array, bringing out scarlet blood.

The scattered Wolf Leader and Selva soldiers fell down amid countless screams of pain.

The thickly-armored sword and shield soldiers on standby on both sides of Wolfenhall's third row marched forward and bypassed the crowd. They looked for opportunities to get close to the shield wall in the gaps between the dense spear fighting in front of the formation, attacking and testing any possible flaws in the enemy's formation.

On both sides of the fiercely fighting central army, the left and right wings that had come into contact with them earlier had already been caught up in a brutal and bloody fight amid roars and screams, with soldiers from both sides falling down continuously.
Far away in the woods on the south side, a crow stood on a branch and shook its head, its eyes silently reflecting the humans in the distance who were intertwined like an ant colony.

The bird, symbolizing bad luck, waits with joy.

Waiting for those brutal creatures to finish playing this earth-shaking beautiful music.

According to my vague memory, whenever I encounter such a beautiful thing, there will be an endless feast afterwards.

Suddenly, there was a vibration coming from the woods below, and the crows were startled and flew away from the branches with flapping wings.

Then, under the cover of the forest, Sir Redo circled around to the woods at the southern end, stopped his horse, and looked at the battlefield through the dense treetops with solemn eyes.

A detachment of Wolf Leader's conscripted spearmen was attempting to outflank the left wing of their own army.

Behind them, another well-equipped detachment of Woffenhall soldiers began to move south.

This is a good opportunity.

Lei Duo believed that if he had a cavalry unit of even thirty or forty people, he would definitely rush out of the woods and attack the enemy's flank at this moment.

But turning around, he looked at the ten cavalrymen who were gathered together behind him.

Sir Redo turned his head again and looked far to the northwest, where there was a phalanx of heavy cavalry led by more than fifty wolf riders with wolf flags flying, waiting behind the formation.

He couldn't help but sigh with a heavy heart.

Including himself, there were only eleven cavalrymen, and there was even a delicate little girl. Although after observation, he knew that the girl's martial arts were indeed very good.

But the gap in numbers was too great. The Wolf Lord's heavy cavalry were no pushovers. Once exposed, the mere dozen of them would be completely overwhelmed by the enemy's iron hooves. Ten people were too few. They could not confront an army that was fifteen times their size. Even if they wanted to fight against a larger force with a smaller one, they could not be directly targeted by the enemy's cavalry units, as that would be courting death.

The right fighter jet is still far from appearing.

(End of this chapter)