abnabooks #337 - Battle of Moncruz (End)
#337 - Battle of Moncruz (End)
“Buzz buzz buzz——”
The spinning axe emitted a sound of tearing through the air, embedding itself in the back armor of an extraordinary knight, a few strands of blood seeping out.
He cried out in pain, glaring fiercely at Myura, who was pursuing and intercepting him.
Myura, however, smiled at him and, with a backhand, sent another arrow, piercing the knight's waist at a tricky angle.
If the knight hadn't narrowly dodged it, that large flying arrow would have almost pierced his kidney.
On the plain of the fortress, two legions of the Salvation Army formed a horizontal line, advancing towards the fortress with orderly steps.
From time to time, the horizontal line would stop, and the Holy Riflemen would adopt a forward-style shooting, taking turns from the second rank to the front rank, sending forty bullets towards the knights attempting to block them.
In front of the fortress, the Boar Knights cooperated with the horizontal line.
They would occasionally rush over to entangle the knights, preventing them from launching short-range side and back charges against the infantry array.
Sometimes, they would come to the edge of the battlefield, driving the knights trying to escape back to the battlefield one by one.
Relying on their skilled horsemanship and battlefield experience, the Boar Knights deftly teased these extraordinary knights.
The Boar Knights had been mercenaries for a long time.
Charging head-on against knights might not be their forte, but when it came to entanglement and interception, they could play with these Iber knights all day.
“So you guys keep calling us Boar Knights, huh!” Myura shouted with extreme pleasure, after accurately shooting through the rear of the knight's warhorse in front of him with an arrow, “Let you taste the boar's bristles!”
Watching Myura gleefully attack the Iber knights, the 15 young knights following Perini showed envious expressions.
Perini was also watching the battlefield.
He silently counted in his heart that an estimated 80 people had fallen in the previous line of defense, including nearly 20 extraordinary knights.
When Helwin set out, they brought 200 extraordinary knights and 300 squire knights, leaving only 50 extraordinary knights and 150 squire knights in the main camp.
In the previous siege, they had been reduced to only 180 extraordinary knights and over 250 squire knights.
Excluding the 80-plus extraordinary knights and 150-plus squire knights following Helwin, and the dozen or so extraordinary knights receiving them around the castle.
Only 90-plus extraordinary knights and a hundred or so squire knights were charging with Perini.
Three rounds of gunfire took away nearly a quarter of the charging extraordinary knights in one go.
Perini or the decree knights, who were more mentally strong, could still hold on.
But for the Iber knights who were pampered and had never fought a tough battle, this question was really beyond their capabilities.
It was already an extraordinary performance forced by pressure that they could withstand the fear and rush to the front line.
After stripping away the heavy armor and the hard shell given to them by the extraordinary, these knights were still just overgrown babies inside.
However, none of this mattered to the disheartened Perini.
At the beginning, when Perini took the young knights to the battlefield, he was preparing to broaden their horizons and earn some military merits.
But the reality told him not to expect these Iber knights to give them, these “unclean ones,” any chance to make a name for themselves.
His primary goal now was to bring these good young men from his friends and relatives out, no matter the cost.
Perini's eyes scanned around, starting to look for an escape route on the battlefield.
…………
Twenty lead bullets swept across the squire knights rushing towards the gap, armor plates and shields shattered and flew, and iron rings and broken swords scattered all over the ground.
Immediately, five or six squire knights screamed and fell to the ground, while the remaining squire knights ran away in horror, fleeing without looking back.
After realizing that friendly forces had arrived, the three legion commanders didn't bother with saving holy power, and all of them roared, "Bombard them!"
In these ten minutes, six hundred Holy Riflemen sent nearly 800 lead bullets towards the night watchmen, armored soldiers, and knights.
Because Zhu Erdan was very cunning and built the second-floor gun platform next to the entrances and gaps on the first floor.
Any knight who wanted to escape from the gap had to be washed by a rain of bullets first.
Reluctantly abandoning his beloved warhorse, Helwin, under the protection of his guards, climbed over the two-meter-high stone wall and fell to the ground in a mess.
Wiping the blood from his cheeks and changing back to a spare horse, Helwin asked the knights, "Where's Perini? How many of us are left?"
"Less than 100 extraordinary knights, about 145 squire knights."
"What's going on? Why are there so few of us?" Helwin asked incredulously, looking at the less than a hundred extraordinary knights around him.
"Some ran away, some disappeared, some are still entangled with those Boar Knights, and some are trying to flank those two squadrons of rebels."
"It's all that Perini's fault, he had to charge at that military formation, and we don't have any cultivators to resist their devil's wind."
"Lord Helwin, it's always those unclean ones who cause trouble, you can't protect them anymore."
Helwin frowned: "I'm asking you, where did Perini go?"
The remaining knights looked at each other: "I don't know."
"Damn it." Helwin cursed, "All knights assemble, we'll go back to the camp to rest first, and come again tomorrow."
"Yes, sir." These knights immediately called their friends and gathered those scattered knights, reforming their ranks.
The previous gunshot wound on his stomach throbbed again, Helwin impatiently picked at his ears, this time he was clearly very close to victory.
"...Kush...people..."
Helwin raised his chin, looking at the Boar Knights who were blocking the scattered squire knights, and asked the people around him, "What are they shouting?"
"It seems to be saying... Kush people don't fight Kush people?"
"Naive." Helwin shook his head, looking at the Salvation Army legions approaching step by step, and then looking at the remnants of his defeated soldiers, whose morale and courage were completely broken.
They had indeed lost this battle, but it didn't matter.
Once they returned to the camp to recuperate, there would be another battle.
They couldn't hide in the fortress forever, and as long as they dared to go out, it would be their death.
Helwin roughly understood that this group of rebels was relying on the devilish means of quickly building fortresses, preparing to advance the fortresses step by step.
As long as they could defeat them early in the construction of the fortress or when they went out, it would be fine.
This time he was too hasty, and he shouldn't have attacked when he saw they had a fortress.
Remembering the lesson, he could definitely use it next time!
"Is everyone here?"
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"Everyone's here! Lord Helwin." Perini, who had gathered according to the order, nodded to Helwin expressionlessly.
Faced with the current situation, they were weak and alone, and they still had to rely on the power of a large group of knights charging to break through the Boar Knights' blockade.
"Don't take it to heart, Perini, the previous failure was just a coincidence."
Helwin didn't blame Perini too much, he knew that even if he was in Perini's position, his first reaction would definitely be to take advantage of the unstable footing and rush in.
In addition, he would have to take the blame after returning, if he let him run away in advance, where would he find a second scapegoat?
This failure couldn't be his fault, right?
Even if he was wrong, he had to be given a chance to correct it, and Perini was the price of correction.
"Your Excellency, a large cloud of dust has appeared in the southeast direction, it seems that people from the main camp are coming to meet us."
"Oh?" Helwin was stunned for a moment, "They reacted quite quickly, find a few knights to guide them, don't let them run head-on into the Salvation Army."
"Yes, sir!"
Under the knights' transmission, an extraordinary knight unloaded his plate armor and took the lead with five squire knights, rushing towards the direction of the smoke.
Seeing a large number of cavalry approaching from the southeast, the Boar Knights immediately changed from a scattered formation to a concentrated formation.
The leading extraordinary knight galloped towards the smoke, stepping on cheerful hooves.
Helwin felt something was wrong, the knights were running slower and slower.
Then in the blink of an eye, he turned around abruptly, waving in this direction while turning back.
An ominous premonition and a crisp gunshot sounded at the same time.
Helwin watched helplessly as those knights trembled all over as if electrocuted, and then slid off their horses with blood all over their backs.
Passing over the dead bodies on the ground, hundreds of Holy Rifle cavalry appeared in everyone's sight like a flash flood.
The Holy Grail battle flag representing the Saintess was fluttering in the wind.
Jeanne, the Saintess who was charging at the front, still had two heads hanging on both sides of her saddle, the adjutant and Helwin's butler who stayed behind in the main camp respectively.
Helwin was hard-controlled for a full three seconds before he reacted from his stunned state.
The southeast was blocked by the Holy Rifle cavalry, the southwest was blocked by the Salvation Army infantry, and the northwest was blocked by the Moncrus Fortress.
They were surrounded, and the only escape direction was the Papal State territory in the northeast.
But wouldn't that be a free gift to the legion stationed in Sour Gourd Town? Going deep into enemy territory would only be a slow death.
Not only Helwin, but all the knights reacted, and they looked at each other in panic.
Even the stupidest person understood at this time that they were surrounded, and it was still a standard besiege with one side open.
Taking a deep breath, Helwin looked at these remaining knights: "You have seen the current situation, our only way out is to fight to the death, all of you are brave and noble knights, at this time we only have unity..."
Helwin's passionate pre-war speech was not heard by many people, and the knights' attention was attracted by the shouts of the Holy Rifle cavalry and the Boar Knights.
"Kush people don't fight Kush people!"
"We only kill Temple Knights! Surrender your weapons and we'll accept ransom!"
"Whoever catches a Temple Knight, we'll let them leave directly!"
"The Saintess vows to prove that Kush people don't fight Kush people! Hand over your weapons, surrender and we won't kill!"
Enrico, the Earl who had been doing hard labor for three months under Jeanne's custody, shouted with a crying voice: "Family, the Holy Army asked me to bring you a message, Kush people don't fight Kush people!"
In these shouts, a boundary gradually emerged between Kush descendants, those with Kush ancestry, and ordinary Iber knights.
Surrounding Helwin were only the panicked Temple Knights, who held their weapons and watched all the greedy and cruel eyes vigilantly.
"It's over!" After realizing the situation on the scene, Helwin's face was paler than paper.
His passionate speech turned into a low mumble: "It's over! It's completely over!"