amaotonovel Chapter 635: First Battle Victory
Chapter 635: First Battle Victory
"Lord Commander, the enemy's crossbow bolts are too powerful; we can't break through at all," a soldier with a blood-covered face shouted, his eyes filled with despair.
Not only him, but all the hundreds of Swift Guards were gripped by panic.
The commander realized the situation was dire, but they were already deep within the attack range of the Wu Kingdom's army and had missed their best chance to escape.
"Brothers, follow me!"
The Swift Guard was, after all, an elite legion of the Asian Kingdom. As a commander of a thousand, he had long been prepared to die, but he did not expect this day to come a little too soon.
He raised his spear high, squeezed his thighs tightly against the horse's belly, and the warhorse let out a neigh and began a frenzied charge.
puff!
A cold, long sword struck the commander squarely between the eyebrows, and blood trickled down his forehead.
"Charge! Charge!"
The commander, his eyes wide open, slid off his horse, still striking a charging pose before dying.
The hundreds of cavalrymen behind him also perished under a hail of arrows.
"Was that previous volley of arrows a deliberate show of weakness? To lull the Swift Guards into a false sense of security, thus causing heavy casualties?"
Bai Tiantian coldly surveyed everything before her, a slight smile playing on her lips: "Unfortunately, my Great Ye Dynasty has an army of 300,000. Can you possibly kill them all?"
This wasn't Bai Tiantian being arrogant; by using a thousand men to uncover the Wu Kingdom's army's trump cards, they didn't lose out at all.
His goal was to destroy the entire Wu Kingdom; how could there be no casualties?
It was simply a lesson for these soldiers who had never suffered a defeat.
"A thousand elite cavalrymen of the Daye Dynasty were wiped out just like that?" Pang Xingji said in disbelief.
As a commander of a thousand men, Pang Xingji had naturally heard of the reputation of the Swift Guard.
He even learned a lot from the other party and wanted to create a swift guard team belonging to the city lord of Jiangcheng.
Unfortunately, the warhorses had limited stamina, and the city lord's private army could never match the speed of the Swift Guards.
It is nothing short of a miracle that the Wu Kingdom army has killed a thousand Swift Guard cavalrymen without losing a single soldier.
"General, I am willing to lead three thousand elite troops to wipe out the enemy." The commander of the Swift Guard requested permission to go into battle.
He was the head of the Swift Guard, and watching a thousand elite soldiers being killed was like a knife to his heart.
Although it was because they underestimated the enemy, it also proved that the enemy was treacherous and cunning.
He wished he could tear his enemy to pieces to quell his inner resentment.
Beneath the armor, Bai Tiantian's expression was calm, her eyes as still as a deep well.
Perhaps in other people's eyes the Swift Guards are elite troops, but in Bai Tiantian's eyes, they are just an ordinary team.
If we can take advantage of their anger and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop, it might not be a bad thing. Even if we fail again, at most we will only lose one Swift Guard.
Bai Tiantian nodded, but remained silent.
After receiving the order, the commander of the Swift Guard personally led his troops in a mighty charge towards the Wu Kingdom's garrison.
This time, the Swift Guards learned their lesson and attacked at top speed from the start, thus reducing the number of times the enemy could kill them with arrows.
"Loose the arrows! Fire in a dense barrage!" Lin Ping shouted, aiming his arrows at the enemy in the front row.
The so-called dense firing means that all crossbow bolts are aimed at the same spot. Although it is somewhat wasteful, it is extremely lethal, similar to precision shooting.
shhhhhh!
A dense rain of arrows pressed down on the Swift Guards like dark clouds, then fell like a torrential downpour.
After a volley of arrows, all the soldiers in the front row of the Swift Guard were killed. Almost every one of them had dozens of arrows stuck in their bodies, and their deaths were gruesome.
Thousands of crossbow bolts killed only a few dozen people, which seems like a huge loss, but in reality, it was not.
After the first rank of cavalrymen fell from their horses, the Swift Guards' formation immediately fell into chaos, with the rear rank warhorses crashing directly into the rear rank warhorses.
The Swift Guards moved at extreme speed, and due to the immense inertia, soldiers who couldn't hold onto the reins fell off their horses one after another, with countless dying under their hooves.
"Release again! Scatter!" Lin Ping continued to issue commands.
In contrast to dense firing, scattering fire releases thousands of crossbow bolts indiscriminately, forming a sparse net.
This shooting method cannot kill specific individuals, but it can kill many more people.
Almost every arrow could take a person's head, and thousands of Swift Guards died tragically.
After two volleys of arrows, nearly half of the Swift Guards had been killed or wounded, and their once-uniform formation had become chaotic.
"I'm so angry!" the commander of the Swift Guard muttered to himself.
Having spent his life on the battlefield, he had never suffered such humiliation, and he was completely unable to use his full abilities.
He knew he was doomed to defeat, and that the defeat would be utterly devastating.
"I'll fight you to the death!" Commander Wei took the lead, charging through the hail of arrows.
Even if he was defeated, he would still kill a few enemies, otherwise he would have no face to meet his brothers in the afterlife.
More than a thousand cavalrymen, united in their hatred of the enemy, charged straight into the Wu Kingdom's garrison.
"Hahaha, crossbowmen who get close are just sitting ducks!" The commander of the Swift Guard laughed heartily.
Although their numbers were less than a thousand, their spears and lances were still sharp.
Dealing with these ranged crossbowmen is like slicing cabbage; it might even turn the tide of battle.
"defense!"
At Lin Ping's command, the dozens of people in the front row raised the shields placed at their feet, instantly forming an impenetrable wall.
"A few pieces of scrap metal think they can stop the hooves of my Swift Guard?" The commander of the guard sneered; his warhorse could even leap over the heads of his enemies.
"prick!"
When the enemy got close enough, the second rank of soldiers easily pierced the enemy's horse's belly with their sharp spears.
After the discussion and the sudden attack, dozens more enemies fell from their horses.
"You think you can stop the Swift Guards' attack with just these few dozen spears?"
The closer they got to the enemy, the more confident Commander Wei became.
In his mind, the formation of the Wu Kingdom's garrison was nothing out of the ordinary.
The formation consisted of shield bearers in the first row, spearmen in the second row, and crossbowmen in the rest.
At the beginning of the battle, the crossbowmen unleashed a barrage of attacks, and the shield bearers were able to hold them off for a while as the enemy charged. At the same time, the spearmen launched a thrust attack.
But after the first round of thrusts, they could only wait to die, since the spears of the soldiers in the back row were not enough to thrust into the first row.
Even if the spears of the soldiers in the rear were lengthened, there would still be a limit; a spear shaft of two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) would definitely be the limit of an ordinary person's strength.
"Stab again!"
Just as the commander of the Swift Guard was feeling pleased with himself, the soldiers of the third rank thrust out their spears.
Next, the soldiers in the fourth, fifth, and all the way up to the tenth rank all thrust out their spears.
The soldiers in the back row placed their spears on the shoulders of the soldiers in the front row, saving most of their strength, and they could even drag the ten-zhang-long spear shafts.
Spears surged forth like porcupine thorns, and hundreds of enemies fell from their horses and died tragically. Even the commander's armor was pierced, his body riddled with holes, and blood flowed continuously.
"I am not... I am not reconciled..." Commander Wei died with his eyes wide open in disbelief.
Three thousand elite soldiers failed to kill a single enemy. This was a humiliating battle, and also the last.