Got caught up.
Perhaps due to the cold weather, many people feel their hands are shaking.
The overwhelming disparity in strength, the motionless carriage, and the despair of being unable to escape.
But when the situation is unfavorable, you should think calmly and sort out clues to deal with it.
They had indeed bypassed that force, bypassing the encirclement of the samurai force through the old paths known by the witches and the clues provided by Acheng who defected to their side. Even if the traveling speed is slowed down due to weather, the initial distance advantage is still not easy to equal.
Keep this in mind before observing——
The more than 20 people who attacked first were lightly-armed troops who were on horseback and abandoned all equipment except weapons. The follow-up troops that appeared in sight at this moment were a group of more than 70 horse archers.
The colorful armor, the long and slender bow, and the panting war horses tied with ropes.
The breath of the panting horses' muzzles in the cold rain formed a mist surrounding the entire cavalry unit.
The answer becomes clear:
They abandoned the infantry, spurred their horses forward, and separated a small group of light troops to try to intercept in front.
Whether it was due to the pursuit of glory or pragmatic tactics, we don't know, but it is a basic fact that we can judge that hundreds of densely packed Ashigaru disappeared and only more than 70 cavalry were pursuing them.
The huge gap in strength still existed, but compared with the four to five hundred men, the forced march of more than 70 exhausted cavalry made the hope of victory no longer zero.
With a strength gap of more than 3 times, all available tools must be used to have a chance of survival.
The field of vision sweeps around, and the terrain is like a staircase.
Below the half-slope with a height of about 3 meters is a dirt road that is not particularly spacious and can only be passed by a horse-drawn carriage, and further down is a low depression between the two peaks.
The lagging giant carriage was carried by the ghost warriors who worked together and tilted it over, using the thick side panels as a cover.
The available soldiers are limited, and the witches who have lost their charms only have the most basic self-protection ability - it is okay for them to hold weapons to deal with bandits, but they will be killed in a very short time when facing fully armed samurai.
There are 11 ghosts, 4 of whom were born in Rigar and can be considered as combatants, 4 samurai of the Qingtian family, two ashigaru of the Qingtian family, and Cheng who defected.
22 versus 70.
The gap in numbers can only be made up with higher individual combat effectiveness and tactics.
Days of heavy rain caused the water to accumulate in the depressions with twisted trees, which looked like a swamp. The depth was unknown. Under the dark sky, huge cold raindrops fell little by little - but the warriors of the directly-governed prefectures who entered the range remained silent. The ground stretched out the bow and nocked the arrow.
Acheng, who was shaking all over and looking pale, poked his head out from behind the carriage, wanting to explain loudly to his former superior. He may be thinking that there are people who have been deceived like him, and will turn against them as long as they know the existence of the witches. But before she could finish saying the word "miko", Sakura pulled her back.
Then more than ten arrows fell down and were nailed to the wooden planks of the carriage.
Limited by his own knowledge level, even if he heard the sound of firing, he did not know that those Laman mercenaries were using heavy weapons specially designed to deal with the ghosts.
These warriors knew who the enemy was, maybe not exactly how many, but at least what units they were dealing with - and Henry planned to take advantage of this.
For the first time in history, the ghost warriors understood the concept of concealment. For them, who always like to use their physique and strength to run rampant, dodging these insignificant arrows is a non-existent concept. But as the leader, Teruyuki asked them to obey the sage's words, so they had nothing to say.
He lowered his body and used the carriage to cover his body. Heavy rain, dense forests, and poor visibility under dark skies made it difficult for the other party to accurately determine their whereabouts and number of people.
"咻咻咻——" Another wave of sparse arrows flew, still only a dozen or so.
"They can't form a formation." The samurai leader judged this.
As a type of cavalry, the preferred combat method of the Kazuto Samurai is very different from that of the Rigal Knights - their tactics are mostly based on shooting in circles. Once the enemy infantry shows signs of encirclement, they will immediately use the high mobility of the horses to distance themselves. .
After breaking the opponent's formation and consuming physical energy, he can draw the sword from his waist and carry out a melee attack.
But this kind of fighting method requires maneuvering space to move around, and even in places that are accessible in all directions, a narrow but straight dirt road like this one is obviously not the most ideal terrain. This resulted in that only the person at the front could draw a bow and draw an arrow, while the warriors at the back were blocked from shooting by their teammates.
They have the determination to train and fight, and there is no sloppiness in attacking and shooting, but these warriors from the directly governed states are still novices who have not been on the battlefield for a long time.
There are limitations to the technique of conducting drills on a flat training ground with good visibility on a clear sunny day.
However, people always ignore the significant impact of environmental factors, thinking that they can ignore all these factors as long as they refine their skills to the extreme.
The overwhelming experience gap manifests itself in the form of rigid thinking in actual combat.
"Divide into two teams, spread out, use short spears or corpses. Make a forward throw." When Henry gave the order, going against the instinct when the troops were greatly outnumbered and dividing the troops into smaller ones, the warriors of the direct-administered state The third wave of futile arrows hit the carriage floor again.
The text describes it very long, but the actual time is only a few minutes.
The warriors from the prefectures, who only followed the traditional routine of riding horses and crowding people, trying to kill with bows and arrows, braved the pouring rain and drew their bows for the fourth time. Teruyuki, who exchanged supplies from behind the carriage, led four ghost warriors. They struggled to throw their only short spears.
Two of the infantry spears that whizzed out missed, while the other three fell into the dense cavalry team, piercing two people and one horse.
The warriors of the directly-governed prefectures, with blood splattered and friendly forces suffering casualties, were in chaos for a while. Seizing this opportunity, the other six ghosts and three Rigals including Mira, Joshua and Galeva joined forces with Lao Qiao and Yajiro. Two samurai quickly climbed up the slope from the side.
Just a few dozen meters away, just a dozen seconds of chaos.
Inexperienced commanders, perhaps eager for glory, deserted the infantry.
The larger size of the horses could have provided them with stronger impact capabilities and maneuverability, but they were too crowded to move on the narrow terrain.
When the leading samurai finally reacted and asked them to spread out their formation, the arrows fired by Narumi and Ogami, who poked their heads out of the carriage, announced the beginning of Henry's side's counterattack.
"Seize--" The heavy arrow pierced deeply into the armor with a sound. Although it was not fatal, it was enough to cause pain and anger. The first reaction of the well-trained warriors when they were attacked was to fight back immediately. They shot the first Four rounds of arrows, and after another futile "snatch--" sound struck the wooden planks of the carriage, the tall ghost warriors glowed with a blood-red light all over their bodies.
Several deep pits appeared out of thin air on the soft mud. The five ghosts led by Teruyue jumped directly over the carriage and jumped about ten meters away, landing heavily in the open space between the samurai and the carriage.
Mud splashed, and before these warriors could react, they jumped up again.
"Abandon the bow and draw the sword!" "Disperse the formation!" The dozen or so samurai who were able to shoot at the front had no chance to shoot again. They struggled to pull out their swords, but they immediately became transformed in front of the ghosts and gods who were far stronger than themselves in physique and strength. The rag bag holding the bloody thread flew out.
The more than fifty warriors still holding bows and arrows in the rear were in a mess, and the terrain crowded with friendly troops made it difficult for them to shoot. It was at this time that the sage and other Qingtian family warriors who were the follow-up troops and Another detachment that flanked the enemy joined the battlefield.
The warm corpses of those who had just died in battle were thrown as projectiles at the warriors from the prefectures whose attention was drawn to the front, and then the ghost warriors wearing heavy armor brutally dug into the warriors' queue from the side.
The thick hardwood blunt weapon was swung, and the heavy ghost clan's special sword was slashed, splitting the entire army into two from the middle.
"Spread out, spread out." The inexperienced warriors from the directly-governed prefectures finally reacted, but half of the high ground had been occupied by the enemy. Many of them ran towards the depression in desperation, and ended up directly connecting with others. The horse sank into the water.
They were well-equipped and well-trained, but they failed to make the most of it.
The sage gave them no room to express themselves.
His tactics were unremarkable, just simple diversion and side flanking, but his judgment and execution timing were extremely good and he achieved amazing results.
There is never any advanced technology.
Just the basic techniques to perform perfectly under pressure.
This is a huge difference in actual combat experience.
In the dim sky, Kramer flashed his sword again. The eyes were still open angrily under the helmet decorated with an ornate helmet called Zentachi, but all it could do was fall into the mud in the pouring rain.
"The general is dead!!" The moment he killed the general, the already unstable morale fell to the bottom.
"Retreat, retreat!! Restart!" The thirty or so cavalry at the end of the narrow road actually still have something to do. Although the ghosts are strong, their numbers are limited. Forcibly rushing into the middle of the team will cut off the samurai's troops, but they will also Surrounded from front to back. The three Rigals and the two samurai who assisted them were just mortal bodies. If these people attacked in waves, not to mention mortals, even ghosts and gods wearing heavy armor would still be found to have weak points, seriously injured or even killed. ——But they no longer have the option of melee combat.
At a huge disadvantage and being rushed by a powerful enemy force, the instinct of a warrior as a cavalry archer is to keep the distance in order to use bows and arrows.
This is the advantage of cavalry. Compared with infantry, their superior mobility allows them to use this technique to reorganize their formations to carry out unilateral attacks on mortal infantry.
But what they faced were ghosts and gods wearing thick armor that even Rigal-style lances could not penetrate.
The more than 30 cavalry at the rear who had distanced themselves tried to turn around and shoot, but the ghosts had already entered the intercepted samurai forward from behind. The worry that the arrows would hurt one's own people, coupled with the cold and the morale on the verge of collapse, made the bows and arrows that only a dozen people could use even less efficient.
Hesitation caused them to change their targets and try to shoot the five mortals who seemed to have better success, but the large shield in Galeva's hand successfully blocked all the attacks.
The behavior, which was like escaping from the battlefield, immediately changed the number of troops fighting at the scene from 22 to 70 to 22 to 30 - and the latter number was still declining rapidly.
11 Oni warriors can compete with more than a hundred ashigaru on the frontal battlefield.
The narrow road was flanked from both sides, and the dozen or so warriors in the middle could only watch helplessly as the friendly troops in front and behind were torn apart by brute force unimaginable to humans.
The high-quality Xinyuezhou sword was broken and shattered, the bright armor was twisted and deformed, there was blood, screams, and the wail of a horse with a broken hoof.
They witnessed all this but were unable to do anything because the swords could not reach them and the bows and arrows could not accurately aim at the weak points in the chaos.
It's not like there's nothing that can be done.
But in their thinking, there is nothing they can do.
They are well-trained warriors, but like most other Crescent Continent warriors, they are extremely lacking in actual combat experience. When faced with the ever-changing actual combat situation, if you don't have a quick and informal mind to make full use of the strict and textbook approach, and you still cling to the "rules" when death is imminent, skills and honor will become a trap. The noose around his own neck.
In the end, we lost in experience.
The fighting intuition and decision-making ability of the ghost warriors who have experienced hundreds of battles are simply not comparable to those of these first-time warriors.
Courage turned to anger, anger turned to fear, fear turned to despair.
A few skin injuries were the biggest result these warriors from the directly-governed states could achieve. The battle only lasted for more than ten minutes. Because this situation did not exist in training, all the warriors from the directly-governed states were slow to react and could not even maintain a good formation to resist. It is difficult for opponents to do it.
The heat radiated from the dead bodies everywhere formed a mist in the air, and the strengthening runes gradually dimmed. When the side effects began to appear, the ghost warriors also gasped.
But they controlled not to show their fatigue.
Nearly 10 state warriors who fell into the water in a panic and were all injured finally drowned after a struggle. Their bodies floated on the cold water surface of the depression and were caught by twisted hooks on the riverside trees, making slight ripples.
Panting, exhausted, and morale at rock bottom. But the remaining samurai warriors in the directly governed states still decided to uphold their honor.
"Crunt against traitors and rebels!!!" They shouted slogans of honor, threw away their bows, drew out their sabers, and charged.
What is the great cause that drives these people forward, the sage does not know.
He doesn't care either.
When swordsmen meet, it is not suitable for long conversations, not to mention that Kazuo is generally arrogant and stubborn.
It is better to die with honor than to live in vain.
This kind of aesthetics in the samurai spirit will probably be difficult for the mercenaries to understand in their lifetime. When you give up the pursuit of victory by any means, you even want to die beautifully than win.
You will most likely lose.
The remaining thirty or so warriors from the directly-governed states failed to get their glory after all.
This battle, which was supposed to be a huge disadvantage for Henry's side, finally came to an end in an extremely ironic scene - the soil loosened by heavy rains in recent days, coupled with the trampling of horses and the violent activities of the ghost warriors fighting, in the 30s Under the shock of Samurai Yu's forceful charge, which again drove the tired horses, a crack first appeared on the fragile dirt road, and then a large half-slope poured down toward the watery depression below with a loud "rumbling" sound.
The screams of humans and the neighing of horses were covered by the earth-shattering sound.
Half of the foot of the mountain, mixed with various shrubs, trees and weeds, washed down and piled up, forming a cliff with a drop of about 6 meters just a few meters in front of the group of people.
The sky that was originally covered by the evergreen broad-leaved forest suddenly opened up. Under the huge gap, the brightly colored soil was mixed with various things, but there was no trace of the samurai army anymore.
Blood soaked the earth, broken weapons and deformed armor embedded in the mud.
Exhaustion and pain linger in the hearts of the survivors.
They won and that's all that matters right now.
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