The bright sunshine fell from the middle of the sky, illuminating the ant colonies not far apart on the earth. They were two small and huge legions. The refreshing long wind blew from the sky to the earth, blowing away the rising smoke and dust, and brought the roar and shouts of the legions.
The Mexican warriors wear bright cotton and leather armor, hold shiny war clubs and bronze spears, and have the indispensable wooden shields and shields tied to their left arms. They formed a tight formation and roared loudly, imitating the roar of eagles and tigers. From time to time, the samurai captain carrying a small flag would lead the team members, knocking on the wooden shields neatly, shouting in unison, and intimidating the enemies ahead.
The captains of the Temple Legion are even more eye-catching. These fanatical tattooed warriors stood in front of the battle, raising skull-shaped musical instruments and blowing blood-curdling death whistles. The low whistle passed by, like a howling ghost wind passing by. The Chapala militiamen on the opposite side suddenly became quieter, and their morale dropped significantly.
In the center, surrounded by warriors, was a quickly constructed wooden platform. At the four corners of the wooden platform are bodyguard warriors holding large shields, firmly guarding the commander in the center. In the center, Shulot was dressed in the fine uniform of a commander, wearing a heavy feather crown, carrying a four-meter-high black wolf flag, and holding an exquisite spear flag, standing solemnly on a high platform. He is at the most conspicuous height, carrying the tallest umbrella canopy, so that all warriors can clearly see him. This is where the military spirit of the army lies!
Beside him were several heralds on standby, holding various small flags. Behind him was a military band with war drums and wooden gongs, horns and conch horns in their hands, and bone whistles and bronze whistles in their mouths. They are always on call, turning military orders into music of different types and rhythms. Military orders don’t need to be sweet, they just need to ring in all directions!
Shulot stood a few meters high with a firm and dignified expression. He stared at the Chapala Corps several miles away, quickly assessed the military situation, and imprinted the situation in his heart.
The enemy troops were fully deployed, with square and round formations stationed in place, arranged in a rough line. The size of the Chapala Legion is around 30,000, and the number of warriors is around 10,000. Among the opponent's military formations, the most obvious one is the four warrior phalanx. There is a formation on each side of the left and right wings. The warriors on the left are wearing sky blue uniforms and are slightly more in number. The warriors on the right are wearing silver and white uniforms and are slightly less in number.
Shulot observed carefully that the warriors on the left wing had more bronze spears and were in a more organized formation. They were shouting loudly at this time.
"The left wing is more elite. It seems that the enemy forces are more focused on the left!"
The young commander nodded slightly and made a mental note. Immediately, he looked at the enemy's samurai army.
Chapala's warrior army was divided into two formations, front and rear, with approximately the same number of people. Wearing patterned battle clothes, they were neatly gathered together like feathers. Shulot looked from a distance and saw that the Chinese army had more warriors in the front and fewer guards in the rear. It looked like a bird with a big head and a big belly. At the head of the bird was a tall commander's battle flag!
The battle flag is located high on the hill, and its position is extremely eye-catching. The flying flag is embroidered with the gorgeous long feathers of the quetzal bird. The personal guard who was familiar with Tarasco immediately stepped forward and whispered a few words. The young commander nodded calmly and smiled slightly.
"The prince's commanding banner! Chapala's feathers, we meet again! Congratulations on your promotion, I have prepared a new gift for you!"
Thinking of this, Shulot turned his head with a smile and looked at the two pine cannons behind him. The barrel has been loaded, the muzzle is sealed with cotton, and the fuse is extended long. The surrounding gunners carried fire and were also ready.
The young commander made an estimate in his mind. There are about 10,000 enemy warriors, and the number of people in the four square formations is around 2,000 or 3,000, which is enough for flexible command. Then, his eyes shifted left and right, and his pupils shrank slightly.
Surrounding the hill where the enemy was commanding were two groups of bow-wielding militiamen occupying the terrain, each numbering about two thousand. The militiamen gathered into a rough square formation, nervously checking the bows and arrows in their hands, which should have been effectively trained.
Shulot took a closer look at the tiny figures and the wooden bows that were as tall as half a man, and then he felt relieved. Most of these Chapala militia archers have Tlaxcala wooden bows, and a few have simple hunting bows. The threat to the warriors' cotton armor is usually only within thirty steps. And even if they occupy a favorable location, the effective killing range is only more than forty steps, unless their archery skills are extraordinary.
The Chapala Legion has a warrior phalanx as its core, surrounded by large groups of militiamen and war supervisors scattered in groups. Led by village leaders, Chapala's militia gathered in villages. Wearing civilian clothes, they held high stone spears and hammers, mixed with ropes for throwing stones, and formed a loose formation. At this moment, the militiamen were shouting loudly and chaotically, fighting against the terrifying whistle of the death whistle. It seemed that their morale was good, but the specific number was difficult to identify.
Shulot made a rough estimate, coupled with the scouts' reports, and he had a rough idea. On the left and right of the Chapala warrior phalanx, there were about 4,000 close combat militiamen on each side. In front of the warriors were four thousand slingers and four thousand close combat militiamen. After adding the 4,000 archers in the rear formation, the number is around 20,000. As for the figures farther back in the military formation, those figures that were far away and flickering vaguely should be logistics civilians without weapons.
After seeing the enemy's arrangement clearly, the young commander no longer hesitated, quickly waved the flag and issued the order. The Mexican Legion also adjusted slightly and fully expanded.
Under the banner of the Black Wolf, there are three thousand shooting regiments composed of longbow guards, archer warriors, and temple crossbowmen, plus four hundred jaguar warriors guarding the left and right, as the coach's personal troops. The main force of the samurai militiamen lined up in front, forming five square formations side by side.
The central army consists of 3,500 holy city warriors with high morale and strict organization. The leader is Orosh, who is roaring and lecturing. On the left and right wings are four thousand spear legions on each side. The pikemen were silent, forming a strict and dense phalanx of pikes, pointing their spears diagonally forward. The left wing was given to "Monkey" Kuluka, and the right wing was given to Ezpan, who was temporarily recalled. On the outside, the outer edges of the two wings were handed over to the warrior legions of the western city-states, with two thousand people on each side. They held shields and clubs, shouted loudly, and looked quite elite.
For this battle, Shulot gathered the largest force and recruited as many warriors as possible. Four thousand western city-state legions were drawn from the river mouth fortress and urgently transported by the navy. He did not dare to leave the task of fighting against enemy warriors to these noble private soldiers, so he asked them to deal with Chapala's militia. Facing weak enemies, these city-state warriors can always give full play to their fighting power.
Behind the main phalanx are three thousand religious legions on standby. The divine warriors and the temple guards stood facing each other and whispered prayers at the same time. The praises of the main god echoed in the army, making the warriors calm and motivated to fight. These three thousand fanatical religious warriors are sharp daggers. Once thrust out with force, they will sink into the enemy's body and cannot be taken back again.
Shulot personally told the two generals to put three thousand religious legions in the rear for assault at critical moments. Next to the religious legion, there are two "god-given" weapons, wooden cannons that can produce thunderous noises. Tao Tribulus could not perform stably and was not suitable for the ever-changing field battles, so the young man brought these two "big firecrackers".
It's said to be a wooden cannon, but it actually looks like an oversized shotgun. They can kill commoners within eighty steps, cotton armor within forty steps, and elite warriors with wooden shields and leather armor within twenty steps. They can only fire one or two rounds in a quarter of an hour. However, the wooden cannon's shotgun has a larger shooting range and can cover a distance of several steps to the left and right. At the same time, for the enemy encountered for the first time, the huge roar is an absolute blow to morale, like the arrival of a myth!
In order to prepare the warriors from various states, Shulot held a grand sacrificial ceremony before the army set off. The wooden cannon, as a weapon given by the Lord God, was engraved with abstract patterns of the God and made its debut under the attention of everyone. Then, amidst the majestic roar, the warriors were shocked in their hearts and bowed to the thunder god's weapon together. Under the leadership of the priests, they used the fastest speed to transform their fear of the unknown into devotion to the gods and accepted the existence of new weapons.
At this moment, the religious legions are guarding these two God-given weapons as if guarding their fanatical beliefs!
Shulot looked around. There were more than 13,000 warriors, 8,000 spear corps, and two wooden cannons. This was the Mexica army in his hands! He nodded with satisfaction, waved the gorgeous war flag, and the thunderous war drums beat immediately. The Mexica warriors lowered their sticks, and the pikemen raised their spears high. They marched slowly and neatly towards the enemy on the opposite side.
On the hill opposite, the prince's flag was flying high. "Feather" Peng Guali stared at the black wolf flag opposite and made up his mind. He wanted to wash away the shame of fleeing without a fight and seize the enemy marshal's flag to prove to all the Chapala nobles:
"I, 'Feather' Penguali, am a true warrior! A commander who can achieve victory! I am also the well-deserved king of the Tarasco people!"
Peng Guali held the magic staff in his hand tightly, and then waved it forward vigorously. There was a cold light in his eyes. The enemy had a longbow with an advantage in range, so let the militiamen consume all the arrows!
The battle flag of the attack was pointed forward, and the gongs and drums of the attack were sounded. Four thousand Tarasco stone-throwing militiamen lined up in a loose formation and quickly moved toward the Mexican army. Then, they stood fifty steps away, twirling the ropes in their hands, bursting out with chaotic shouts, and throwing stones that roared into the sky into the dense military formation.
Facing the incoming lightly-armed slingers, Shulot frowned. He commanded the army to pause, pressed down the warriors who wanted to charge, and maintained an orderly formation. Immediately, he shouted loudly and ordered "raise your shield to defend", and the herald quickly raised the flag, ran and shouted.
In the hearts of everyone, the marshal's prestige is supreme and his orders cannot be disobeyed. The warriors raised their wooden shields, lowered their heads wearing rattan helmets, and silently endured the rain of stones. Occasionally, stones would pass through the gaps and hit the warriors' cotton armor, or even their uncovered faces. After two rounds of stone throwing, dozens of warriors were slightly injured, more than a dozen suffered bleeding from their mouths and noses, and several were seriously injured and died.
Shulot waved the command flag again. Three thousand soldiers strung their bows together, raised their crossbows high, and fired arrows at the slingers who were a hundred paces away. In just a few breaths, thousands of arrows rained down with sharp cries, covering the sky, and instantly fell into the militia group on the opposite side.
More than two hundred Tarasco militiamen screamed at the same time, being penetrated by powerful long arrows and nailed to the ground in various strange postures. They only had thin single clothes and were defenseless against the powerful longbows. Once hit by an arrow, you will be seriously injured, and serious injury at this time means death! Driven by fear, the stone-throwing militiamen became more loose and showed vague signs of disintegration.
The young commander kept his flag motionless. Three thousand pro-troops fired one after another, and fired three more rounds. The expensive arrows cut through graceful and ruthless curves, fell into the enemy's formation with a "swish", pierced the bodies of the Chapala militiamen, and bloomed more than four hundred blood-red flowers. The four thousand slingers quickly dispersed and fled to the rear.
Shulot silently counted the enemies left in front of the formation and frowned again. After the first round of shooting, the formation of these militiamen was extremely loose. Four rounds of arrows only killed more than 600 people. And three thousand crossbowmen consumed twelve thousand expensive arrows. Twenty arrows were exchanged for one militiaman. It was a loss-making business no matter what!
The young commander's face was as dark as water. He directed the army to move forward, and the warriors moved slowly. The enemy's war supervising warriors showed no mercy, killing the stone-throwing militiamen who fled first, forcing the militiamen forward again, driving them to continue to harass the Mexica army.
Shulot waved the command flag. Two thousand five hundred longbow warriors stepped directly out of the military formation, and fired arrows accurately towards the front from a distance of forty or fifty steps. The longbow fired flatly is as powerful as a deadly thunder! However, after four rounds, thousands of civilian militiamen at the front were dead, and dozens of Chapala warriors who supervised the battle fell into the dust. Vigorous vitality flows, soaking into the blowing clothes, and the wind is full of blood.
Then, loud gongs and drums sounded, and four hundred elite Jaguar regiments rushed out of the military formation and pounced on the stone-throwing militia whose morale had collapsed. As the war sticks swept across, the militiamen twisted and fell to the ground, and the survivors ran back in fear. The Jaguar warriors skillfully waved their war clubs and drove the remaining two thousand defeated soldiers towards the enemy's warrior formation and towards the enemy's Chinese commander's flag. Within forty or fifty steps from the military formation, the enemy archers on the hill fired arrows at the same time. The defeated soldiers fell instantly, and then, driven by the warriors in the front line, they dispersed to the marching channels on both sides.
In this rapid and merciless arrow rain, several Jaguar warriors were also hit by arrows and fell to the ground, not knowing whether they were alive or dead. Seeing the enemy warriors in the front line approaching, the elite Jaguar battle group stopped trying and turned around to retreat. The enemy warriors only chased him forty or fifty steps, and then, under the protection of the archers, returned to the stable military formation at the bottom of the hill.
Shulot nodded with satisfaction. In the fierce battlefield, only the elite Jaguar warriors can relax and remain calm at all times. Other warriors cannot do this.
Then, he saw the flag on the opposite side waving again, and thousands more militiamen lined up in a loose formation, approaching the Mexica military formation. He observed carefully that the militiamen in the front rows also held extremely threatening wood and stone spears, which were enough to cause damage to the warriors.
The young commander had no choice but to wave his hand again, and the longbow warriors continued to fire a shower of arrows, shooting the enemy militiamen into different shapes. From time to time, militiamen rushed to the front of the formation and threw powerful spears, knocking down the warriors in the front row. The bright red spread from the front of the military formations of both sides until the earth was dyed blood red. The miserable screams before death resounded throughout the world, and then fell silent again.
On the opposite hillock, the "feather" flag fluttered like long feathers, and the warriors' military formation was as stable as a mountain peak. Among the Chapala Legions, dozens of priests lit up the blue sacred fire, ignited the swirling sacred smoke, and danced wildly. They maintained the morale of the army, sang the praises of the moon goddess Haratana, sacrificed batches of militiamen to His kingdom of God, and prayed for the victory bestowed by the goddess!
The rain of arrows from the archers brought dripping blood, and the thrown spears pierced the bodies of the warriors. In the dazzling blood, the commanders of both sides were heartbroken. It wasn't until the long trial ended and the arrows gradually became sparse that the real fierce battle began!
