Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 393 Rolling Up the Beaded Curtain
Sure enough, the enemy did not let this loosely organized militia unit go!

Alfred and his colleagues organized a defense, with French soldiers forming two loose circular wagon formations using supply wagons. More than 6,000 men relied on these wagon formations for defense.

The remaining Allied troops also reacted, with junior officers shouting and shoving the soldiers around them, placing the spearmen on the outside and the rest of the soldiers on the inside.

Some people instinctively obeyed, clumsily jabbing the ends of their spears into the mud, the tips pointing outwards. But many more, like a flock of frightened sheep, spun around in place or blindly pushed backwards, their formation in complete disarray.

Within minutes, countless Viking rangers charged to the front lines, running back and forth around the militia formation. They wore standard black cloth armor and rode slender, powerful steppe horses, continuously hurling arrows at the militia.

A piercing whistling sound tore through the air as arrows rained down, embedding themselves in shields, mud, and bodies. The militia gradually fell into disarray.

"Hold your ground!" The junior officers' voices grew increasingly hoarse. "Archers, return fire!"

The allied archers, positioned inside the formation, could only fire projectiles, but they lacked unified command. Relying on their individual instincts, the archers aimed and drew their bows in mid-air, with most arrows missing their mark.

Before long, the ground began to tremble more violently, and more cavalry arrived.

From June onwards, the vast majority of battles were sieges, and Vig's cavalry suffered very few losses. After receiving reinforcements from home, their cavalry numbers increased.

This time, he brought a total of 2,500 rangers, 5,000 heavy cavalry, and 4,000 mounted infantry.

The army set out from Florence, followed the ancient Roman roads, crossed the Apennine Mountains from south to north, and rested briefly in Bologna.

After that, Vig did not head directly north, but deliberately took a long detour:
Heading northwest to Parma, they crossed the Po River via a pontoon bridge in the middle reaches and then rushed northeast to outflank the Balkan coalition forces from the rear.

After a long march of hundreds of kilometers, the rangers were in relatively good condition, while the heavy cavalry and mounted infantry were in relatively poor condition, with 40% of them having broken away from the ranks.

Therefore, when Vig arrived at the battlefield, he was only able to deploy two thousand rangers, three thousand heavy cavalry, and two thousand five hundred mounted infantry.

He went to the hills on the west side of the battlefield to observe the movements of the Allied forces.

"The flag of Bald Charles, and the flags of Croatia, Slavonia, and other countries, wow, the flag of Venice too? Interesting, it seems this group has been assembled."

The most heavily fortified were naturally the remnants of the Franks, who were positioned in the middle of the marching column, forming two circular wagon formations that supported each other.

The allied forces on the left and right flanks were in disarray, and the armies of the various kingdoms huddled together, forming many irregular circular gun formations. Two thousand rangers repeatedly harassed the allied forces' formations, forcing them to stop in place.

After observing for half a minute, Vig made the coalition forces on the northernmost side of the battlefield his first target.

Soon, all 2,500 mounted and infantrymen dismounted and headed to the north side of the battlefield. 1,000 of them were spearmen, and the remaining 1,500 were Welsh longbowmen.

Once within range, the longbowmen halted and began hurling arrows at the circular musket array ahead.

The longbowmen fired twenty arrows in succession, throwing the circular gun formation into chaos. Some militiamen tried to rush out and fight to the death, while the rest retreated.

Just then, the heavy cavalry moved out, trotting silently without shouting, slowly increasing their speed. When the distance closed to thirty paces, the warhorses reached their maximum speed, the heavy cavalrymen leveled their lances, and rammed into the loose formation.

In an instant, the militiamen in the front ranks were stabbed down by lances and knocked over by galloping horses. After the lances broke, the heavy cavalrymen drew longswords or chain hammers from their saddles and slashed left and right, mercilessly slaughtering the fleeing soldiers. Witnessing this carnage, the remaining militiamen collapsed on the spot. They threw down their weapons and turned to flee. Cavalrymen were everywhere on the west, north, and east sides, and the routed soldiers could only jostle and flee south.

After running dozens of steps, the routed soldiers reached the friendly forces' gun emplacement and rushed into the emplacement without regard for anything else, causing the friendly forces' formation to loosen and making them easily broken by the heavy cavalry.

Next, these routed soldiers, surrounded by cavalry, continued to surge south, disrupting one formation after another.

Finally, tens of thousands of fleeing soldiers rushed to the central army. Alfred was furious with these fools and ordered his men to shoot arrows at the fleeing soldiers, forcing them to bypass the chariot formation.

On the western hill, Vig sighed softly, "Ah, they finally realized what's happening."

He quickly changed the flag signals, instructing the cavalry to temporarily ignore the two Frankish wagon formations and continue south, attacking the allied formations in the south in the same manner.

In just half an hour, the Viking cavalry swept from north to south, breaking through most of the enemy formations. Looking out, the plains were filled with running figures. Vig felt incredibly exhilarated; he finally understood what it was like to defeat a large number of infantry with a small number of cavalry.

The tactic of "rolling up the beaded curtain" was prevalent in the Sui and Tang dynasties. It was invented by Yang Shuang, the Prince of Wei of the Sui Dynasty. It was applicable when one's own side had a small number of elite cavalry and was attacking a large number of poorly organized infantry.

Vig thought for a moment and quickly wrote a sentence in his notebook: "The key is to drive away the fleeing soldiers, not to annihilate them. Remember to keep the cavalry in a state of pressure so that the fleeing soldiers will charge into the enemy's formation and eventually cause a chain reaction of collapse."

Suddenly, Leif whispered a warning: "Uncle, the Franks are running away!"

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the collapse of the Allied forces, the remnants of the French army rallied together and quickly retreated in the northeast direction.

Vig observed the battlefield and found that the rangers had long since scattered, and the heavy cavalry were similarly disorganized, busy chasing down the fleeing Balkan militia. Lacking a well-organized cavalry force, he was forced to send out mounted infantry.

As night fell, the French army had only four thousand men left. They escaped the pursuit of the mounted infantry and fled desperately until they came to a mudflat.

"Quickly, light all the torches!"

Once the flames were lit, Bald Charles ordered his soldiers to shout towards the sea, which quickly attracted a Venetian fishing boat.

The fishermen on the boat shouted, "How did you stray from the ancient Roman road?"

Bald Charlie: "The allied forces have been ambushed by cavalry, and only we are left. For the sake of our shared faith, let's quickly call for help!"

Two hours later, Venetian merchant ships began to arrive one after another. The French troops endured sporadic harassment and boarded the ships in an orderly manner to evacuate.

In this battle, the forces assembled by the Balkan states were completely annihilated, and the two thousand Venetian militia were also wiped out, along with the Doge of Venice being captured.

Having regained control of the Po Plain, Vig began to consider his next strategic move.

"Attack Rome. Or, emulate Hannibal's tactics, bypass Rome, plunder southern Italy, and force Basil to fight. Wait, perhaps there's another option."

(End of this chapter)