I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 193: Vanguard Battle (Part )
The enemy is very elite.

When the old lame captain saw the enemies who fired two rows of guns, quickly fixed their bayonets, and crowded together with their bayonets facing outwards, he felt a little angry and embarrassed.

Those country bumpkins are really all equipped with flintlock rifles!

These guys actually know how to use bayonet formations for defense. It seems they are not the mob we imagined.

The warhorse was galloping at high speed, and there was not much time and space for the old lame captain to think. Seeing that the enemy was only a few dozen steps away from him and he could see the other's nervous face, the captain quickly pulled out his flintlock.

Following behind, the scattered dragoons who were charging were all doing the same thing... This was the standard tactic of the Minissian dragoons. When they encountered enemy infantry in a group formation, they would first attack with muskets.

The explosions of flintlock rifles merged into one at a distance of fifty steps, and the whistling of lead bullets tearing through the air was mixed with people's screams.

The Minissian dragoons were very accurate in their shooting skills. Even when galloping at high speed, most of the lead bullets they fired at a distance of fifty meters fell within the phalanx of the flintlock musketeers.

After the gunshots, two of the musketeers standing outside the square rushed forward silently, while more of them covered their hands or grabbed their thighs and wailed on the spot.

The breastplates on the musketeers were still very reliable, and only two unlucky ones were killed directly.

After the musket fire, the dragoons also rushed to the front of the phalanx.

The old lame captain running in the front controlled the warhorse under his crotch, making it make a sharp turn in front of the front row of bayonets that were about to come like a wave of steel wheat, and pass by from the side. His saber drew a cold light in the air, and the tip of the knife just brushed past the outermost cluster of bayonets, making a tinkling sound.

The other twenty or so dragoons followed suit. They followed the captain closely, sweeping past the enemy's flank like a gust of wind. The clash of sabers and bayonets echoed, sparks flying. Leveraging their speed and agility, the dragoons constantly sought openings around the enemy's perimeter, intimidating the infantrymen in formation.

Unless it is heavy cavalry specifically designed to break through the formation, it is foolish for cavalry to charge into a large infantry formation at any time.

The main way cavalry fought infantry was to launch an attack, intimidate the infantry, and make them collapse and flee, and then rush over and stab them in the back with swords and spears.

If the infantry does not collapse, then use the "peeling tactic", which is a classic tactic used by cavalry to deal with dense infantry formations, and this is the tactic used by the dragoons now.

Players are also aware of this tactic. Will they give Dragoon a chance to use it?
will not!

"Shoot!"

Home Alone shouted, he pulled out a flintlock pistol from his waist and pulled the trigger at the cavalry that flew past him.

The gun sounded and the horse continued to run, but the dragoon on the horse fell headfirst and fell heavily to the ground.

The other nine players standing in the front, like Home Alone, suddenly pulled out their flintlock pistols and fired at the galloping cavalry at close range.

After a burst of uncoordinated gunfire, when the old lame captain and his dragoons ran away, he looked back and his eyes suddenly became bloodshot with anger.

He led his men to charge like this, but actually left behind four people. Together with the two people who were knocked down in the distance before, he had already lost six dragoons!

The old cripple was so angry!
However, no matter how angry he was, he still maintained a certain rationality. He did not turn back to fight these infantrymen, nor would he think of asking them to throw the incendiary bombs they carried on them at the latter.

not worth it.

The dragoon squad, having suffered a great loss, began to move around, bypassing the Home Alone guys who were blocking their way, running in an arc, and rushing towards the side of the shield formation.

Home Alone watched the cavalrymen go away, but he could do nothing... On the battlefield, how could the infantrymen with two legs outrun the cavalrymen with four legs?

This is also the advantage of cavalry, mobility.

Seeing this, Lin Ruoyu, who was in the chariot formation, was also helpless. He could only continue to send a team of musketeers to line up on the side and let the latter bring a tiger squat cannon.

This is the dilemma of the enemy having cavalry but our side has no cavalry, and we can only passively take the beating.

However, before the musketeers arrived, the twenty or so dragoons had already approached the side of the shield cart. The musketeers standing in this area also opened fire at the command of the player's company commander, but because of the obstruction of the shield cart, their shooting was not dense enough and the accuracy was not high.

As a result, none of the dragoons who were charging at high speed in a skirmish formation fell.

There are gains and losses, which is why Lin Ruoyu asked Home Alone to lead the team out to form a battle array. The shield car protected the Extreme Battle Corps and also limited the firepower density of the musketeers.

They took out palm-sized glass bottles from their saddle bags, unscrewed the lids, and then swung them at the shield carts.

More than twenty palm-sized glass bottles landed at different points due to the different strength, angles and speeds of the cavalry's throwing.

Some hit the shield cart, some flew over and landed in the crowd, and some fell outside.

Some glass bottles hit hard objects and broke on the spot, with flames bursting out. There were also a dozen bottles that fell on the ground and did not break. Instead, after waiting for a while, high-temperature flames sprayed out from the bottle mouths, and then burned the bottle bodies themselves and exploded into a large ball of fire.

Amid the crisp sound of Molotov cocktails shattering, soldiers nearby could smell the pungent odor of turpentine and sulfur mixed together.

These incendiaries, modified from alchemists' formulas, did not explode immediately after coming into contact with the air... The dragoons deliberately wrapped a linen rope soaked in potassium nitrate around the mouth of the bottle. Only when the bottle body was broken and the fuse came into contact with the phosphorus powder in the bottle would it ignite.

“Sizzle…”

In the gushing flames, blue-white flames rose from the iron surfaces of the three shield vehicles, and the high temperature caused the protective paint to curl and peel off.

Some musketeers and sword and shield soldiers who had no time to dodge "danced" and screamed in the flames, instantly disrupting the formation and making it impossible for the volleys of guns behind the shield carts to fire, causing chaos on the side of the shield formation.

After doing all this, the dragoons did not take the opportunity to charge. Instead, they turned their horses' heads and galloped in the other direction.

The reason was very simple. The little devil who had been detoured was now leading his men back. If they didn't run away, they would be trapped in the dilemma of being attacked from both front and back.

At the same time, the five cannons of the dragoons in the front were finally calibrated and officially opened fire on the shield formation. Amidst the dull sound of artillery, five apple-sized shells whizzed towards them.

The moment the first shot hit the central shield car, the oak planks wrapped in iron sheets let out a teeth-grinding groan, and the wet sand hidden in the interlayer gushed out from the cracks... This was a design by the player craftsmen, using a flowing sand layer to absorb the impact force.

After penetrating the outer layer of quicksand, the shell's kinetic energy was greatly reduced, and it eventually became lodged in the second layer of rammed earth, like a walnut stuck in a cake. The sword and shield soldiers standing behind the shield cart were frightened half to death by the bombardment, but they were only slightly startled.

The left wing shield car was hit, and the iron shell twisted and curled amid sparks, revealing the cross support frame inside which was modified from railroad sleepers.

The third shell showed the real horror. It drew dazzling sparks on the inclined surface of the shield cart, and then ricocheted. It passed over the three soldiers behind the shield cart like a stone skipping on water, smashing one's head, collapsing another's shoulder, and finally landing on one's thigh, breaking it in half.

The fourth shell landed in front of the shield car, creating two small holes in the ground, while the fifth shell flew high over everyone's heads and landed farther away.

The damage caused by these five shells to the entire shield formation was not as serious as the damage caused by the Molotov cocktails thrown by the twenty or so dragoons who approached, but it succeeded in frightening the sword and shield soldiers and musketeers behind the shield carts, and the originally neat formation began to loosen.

"grass!"

As soon as Lin Ruoyu saw the appearance of the soldiers behind the shield cart, he knew that morale had dropped.

This is one of the reasons why artillery is revered as the god of war.

"Fire, fire the tiger crouching cannons, double charge, and fire at the enemy cavalry!"

Because the Ultramarines Chapter is only level two, there are not many artillery pieces that can be purchased, only three Tiger Crouching Cannons, and the more advanced long-barreled field guns have not yet been unlocked.

Originally, Lin Ruoyu wanted to keep three cannons and wait until the dragoons approached before firing, relying on the advantage of surprise to maximize the killing effect.

The three tiger squat cannons that were originally hidden behind the shield car formation were quickly pushed to the front of the formation. The gunners nervously loaded gunpowder and projectiles, and then, at the waving of the flag bearer's small flag, three puffs of smoke were sprayed in front of the shield formation.

The roar of the double-charged Tiger Crouching Cannon was duller and shorter than that of the Imperial Bronze Cannon, as if a giant beast was crushing an iron walnut in its throat, which was extremely shocking. At the same time, the three gun muzzles spewed out not solid bullets, but 700 thumb-sized lead bullets.

This is a precision bullet that players cast using a mold and then carefully polished. In tests, it is slightly more lethal than irregular lead bullets.

Two hundred meters away, the dragoons were riding their horses and advancing slowly. Colonel Thackeray, holding his saber and wearing armor decorated with gorgeous tassels, had no intention of launching an attack. Both the artillery bombardment and the slow advance of the dragoons were intended to cover the retreat of the old lame captain.

However, when the sound of artillery fire rang out from the opposite shield formation, Colonel Thackeray realized that he had underestimated the enemy. He could not help but curse, but it was too late to change what happened next.

Amid the crackling sound of falling lead bullets and the grass that was like boiling water, the dragoon formation that was marching slowly and quickly suddenly twisted and deformed. The five war horses in the front seemed to have hit an invisible sickle, and the expensive silk horse clothes were torn into pieces two hundred meters away. The mane fragments mixed with blood and flesh flew backwards like raindrops.

There was a tinkling sound coming from many dragoons in the formation, which was the noise made by lead bullets hitting their breastplates and helmets.

Some people just fell back and were fine, but some dragoons fell off their horses. In a short while, people and horses fell to the ground, creating a chaotic scene of falling.

"Retreat, retreat!"

Colonel Thackeray was shocked. He shouted orders and pulled his horse's head at the same time. He was the first to flee backwards. The other dragoons followed closely behind him, dragging the wounded and dead back quickly.

The artillery crew in the rear stopped firing and hurriedly drove their pack horses over, pulled up the gun carriage sleeves, and retreated.

Seeing this, Lin Ruoyu also ordered the crew of the Tiger Crouching Cannon to stop firing to prevent the enemy from figuring out the performance of their artillery.

After escaping one kilometer away, Colonel Thackeray, still in fear, asked the dragoons to stop and check the casualties of the team.

A few minutes later, the adjutant ran to Colonel Thackeray with a grim expression, his voice colder than the night wind.

"Sir, we suffered twenty-five casualties, twelve of whom died on the spot, eight were slightly injured, and five will probably not survive the night."

"(vulgar Minisian swear word) fucking redneck!"

Colonel Thackeray angrily stuck his sword into the mud. He was heartbroken to see so many dragoons lost before the battle even officially started.

Just at this moment, the old lame captain who had gone out to investigate the shield formation came back with his men. He rode his horse in front of Colonel Thackeray, and after getting off his horse, he almost fell down because he had lost a leg.

"Captain, what's the situation?"

"Not good."

The old lame captain wiped the blood off his face and spat on the ground.

"The opposing team should be composed of a small number of experienced officers and new recruits. They are the ace infantry under Prince Chris. Most of the team is composed of musketeers equipped with flintlock rifles, with a small number of sword and shield soldiers.

Without those shield carts, we should be able to defeat them within two hours with multiple attacks, but with the shield carts, this time will be extended to at least five hours."

"Five hours..."

Colonel Thackeray looked up at the shield formation and shook his head.

"This is taking too long. By the time we defeat these enemies, Prince Chris's main force in the mountains will have already left the narrow pass, leaving us no chance to exploit."

After hearing this, the old lame captain pondered for a moment and then gave a suggestion.

"We can take a detour. Although these enemies have blocked the main road, we can still bypass them with our mobility..."

"I would have done this if they had no artillery... However, they do have, albeit light field guns."

For the dragoon battalion, an infantry cluster without artillery is like a turtle. Although it has a hard shell, it can be disassembled. At most, it will take some time.

But when there are infantry clusters with light artillery, it becomes a problem. They turn from turtles into hedgehogs, and if you get close to them, you will easily be stabbed and covered in blood.

Colonel Thackeray took a deep breath and made a decision.

"Immediately send someone back to the camp to find the general and convey the following news: Our troops have encountered stubborn resistance from elite enemy infantry. The enemy's main force is gathering in the Lishan area. However, our reconnaissance is limited and we are unable to obtain detailed intelligence. Therefore, reinforcements are urgently needed."

(End of this chapter)