King of The Wall

2021-10-15

Chapter 686 Highgarden Defense (11)

Igor noticed before the call for help arrived abnormal.

Adhering to the principle of "balanced battle strength", the bombs of the West Expedition Force are evenly distributed to nine square formations along with the grenadiers: each square has about 100 grenadiers. , each grenadier carried two bombs, and the extra fraction was reserved for Igor's direct line of land-grant troops, while the Unsullied and Westerlands cavalry were simply not equipped.

Contrary to the "limited quantity and slow firing" of artillery, the use of explosives is too convenient. Although the total number is quite large, there are only one in ten people on average. If you start a battle, you will probably run out of it in an instant. In order to avoid unnecessary spillage and waste of firepower, Igor greeted the commanders of the various formations with a pre-battle order: only in the face of cavalry onslaught and critical situations, bombing operations were allowed. .

And just now, in the gap between the two rounds of artillery shells, he heard the roar of the explosive shells coming from the direction of the infantry fighting line.

If it is only one round, it can still be explained that the middle-level commander of a certain phalanx made a misjudgment and put in the emergency bombs in advance, but the crisp sound of the second round third round bombs It meant that the commanders of the other phalanxes followed and ordered bombs to be thrown in - this unequivocally sent a signal that the entire infantry line was under pressure.

But that's weird.

In Igor's pre-war pre-war situation, as long as the infantry phalanx on the western front can confront the enemy's infantry and hold the opponent's offensive without collapse, he will go to other directions on the battlefield. Hit a decisive victory - after removing the two cheats of bombs and artillery, the infantry of both sides belong to the same level, evenly matched opponents, West Expedition Force also has the overall morale bonus of winning streak, and the tie is tied It shouldn't be difficult...

In fact, what Igor is worried about is not that he can't be beaten, but that after the first wave of the opponent's infantry charge is beaten back, his own infantry will chase after him, causing Defensive The Array type disintegrates and even falls into the trap on the opposite side, so it is not allowed to chase after three orders and five applications.

But now, the infantry line can't hold it?

Having doubts, he turned his attention from the south line, which was basically safe, to the west line, and quickly figured out the reason through observation and listening to the report: The Reach people actually pushed the dragon-hunting crossbow to the front. Come!
 …

The tight trapezoid arrangement reduced the West Expedition Force’s external front to the extreme, making it impossible for the Reach Coalition to take advantage of its enormous strength—to be honest, this was not a conventional arrangement The way, the bully is that the Reach people don't have such a high-efficiency killing weapon as the artillery. But now, opponents have put low-profile substitutes into the battlefield!

The giant arrows fired by the Dragon Hunting Crossbow cannot bounce and roll on the ground, and are far inferior to the solid bullets fired by artillery in terms of killing efficiency, and even primordial bombs can crush it. be that as it may, but war is not about whoever brings out their weapons better than whoever wins: formidable power huge artillery, which will be busy against cavalry; and portable and easy-to-use explosives, West Expedition Force and There are only two rounds of reserves.

Two weapons that are better than the dragon-hunting crossbow, one is pinned down and the other cannot last, no wonder the dragon-hunting crossbow great divine prestige.

In order to prevent the formation from loosening and allowing the enemy to take advantage, Igor strictly forbids all units to leave the position to pursue the retreating enemy - such a steady and steady tactic does avoid mistakes, but it also gives the opponent the opportunity to calmly organize the offensive. Opportunity: In the rumbling sound, the first and second rows of infantry quickly retreated, covered in dirt in the smoke, but the active forces in the rear were quickly forced by the swords of nobles and Knights to continue to charge high with banners and shields. .

And in this whole process, the dragon hunting crossbow is always outputting intermittently.

The speed and kinetic energy of the "Dragon Hunting Arrow" are far inferior to the solid bullets of the artillery, but people who are directly hit will never feel that way. This is a very simple truth: it does not need to be larger than the formidable power of the shell, as long as it is enough to penetrate the shield and armor of the infantry, plus a dragon scale, it is qualified! Not to mention, another major advantage of cold weapons is also quickly reflected: the arrow fired by the dragon hunting crossbow is transformed from a standard-sized lance, which is cheap and easy to obtain. Even if it is continuously consumed, there is no need to worry about running out of ammunition. of embarrassment.

While facing the continuous wheel-type attack, the Pao Ze beside and in the back row was still cold and killed by giant arrows from time to time.

Reach people, really stake all on one throw in this fight!

If the Queen arrives on a dragon at this time, swooping down will be a slaughter without any worries, but looking around, how can there be a shadow of a dragon in the cloudless Clearsky? Igor's heart was slightly astringent, and he didn't dare to think too much. He quickly began to mobilize troops to deal with the changing situation.

The artillery position is located in the center of the trapezoid, slightly close to Highgarden, and the western front is above the southern and eastern fronts. Thankfully, he still has a few cards left to play.

Among the nine square formations forming the trapezoidal formation, six square formations line up on the periphery, and three square formations are on standby inside—they are just enough to sneeze with the dragon-hunting crossbow. The Western Front troops who attacked, completed 100% replacement and took turns to rest.

Igor first ordered the three phalanxes on standby to move to the west line, ready to meet and replace; then he moved the last grenadier battallion who stayed by his side as a hole card to the middle of the first and second lines, and let them use the remaining The explosive shells cover the defensive emptiness created by the replacement between the two batches of six square formations; finally, send a letter to the artillery position, so that the commander will separate the half of the artillery in the appropriate position, switch to loading solid shells, and turn to the west - strike The dragon-hunting and crossbow positions that are the main force of the Reach army, even if they are the products of the old era that should be eliminated, if they are allowed to show their prestige, there will be a major event.

Battle is not a game of strategy. The observation of the situation on the Western Front and the formulation of countermeasures have been so quick and decisive that several minutes have passed since the end of the order—South of the battlefield, Garlan The elite cavalry led by Tyrell completed the attack on the southeast corner of the trapezoid, and the second round cannonballs of the artillery positions had also been fired.

The battle didn't unfold exactly as Igor imagined: he knew that the cavalry would be over as soon as the cavalry charge was exhausted, and Garland, who had the identity of the Knight, was naturally more aware that in order to avoid falling into the enemy's line and couldn't pull it out, he would be annihilated. When the tragedy happened, he cunningly chose: not to go straight to the direction of the central army, but like a sea eagle skimming the surface of the water to fish, he slanted past the edge of the phalanx at the southeast corner of the Queen's army, and the previous wave of cavalry Draw a similar but deeper curve, insert it from the top edge of the trapezoid, and after a bloody and tragic collision, the non-smooth protrusion of the upper corner of the trapezoid that slightly protrudes outside the semi-circle arc is smashed and collapsed. Before the momentum and kinetic energy were exhausted, it pierced through the hypotenuse of the trapezoid in a thrilling manner - like a rasp, it also took off the skin with oneself as a sacrifice, and gave the nearly one third of the attacked phalanx to the fiercely from the trapezoid." Fell down", completely re-disengaged before the arrival of the nearby Phalanx soldiers and Unsullied, who had been rushed to support him, followed the steps and evacuation routes of the previous wave of feinting troops, and walked away.

The idea and purpose of the oblique piercing tactic is very clear: at the cost of wasting a part of the charge kinetic energy, in exchange for most of it not to be destroyed after the charge, it becomes a consumable.

The ground was full of corpses, a mess, blood dyed red with the nascent grass shoots. This round of close-to-the-flesh reckless struggle is not without tragic. Both sides suffered extremely heavy losses. The legend that the dense infantry phalanx can resist the cavalry charge has been verified here. A single phalanx of more than 2,000 people actually carried two The charge of the elite cavalry that is twice as high as one's own is even superior in terms of exchange ratio when considering the training cost, equipment cost and the value of the horse, but the price is also huge: although the number of casualties is not many, but the broken bones are all over the place. , the entire battle strength of the phalanx has been reduced by more than 1/4/2022. There are more or less casualties from the front to the shield, to the grenadiers and even the archers. The bombs are completely exhausted, and there are not many arrows left. The ability to carry a round of cavalry attacks.

Garlan Tyrell wants to crack the West Expedition Force defense with the Iron Fist and fiercely break it with a stick. He did the first half, but the second half...under the broken first layer shell, was actually an iron plate.

The roar of the artillery sounded again, and the projectiles merged into a barrage of steel and flew towards the third wave of cavalry rushing towards the gap. They were lucky: there was a fierce charge of the second wave of Garland, and they finished the wave. After the rain of bullets, there is no need to face the double complement of bombs and arrows. However, when they were full of hope and ready to pick the fruits of victory, they had one's hair stand on end to find: Facing the remnants of the Queen's army infantry who quickly retreated, a black infantry with black armor and black armor marched slowly but neatly. The pace, silent but bravely greeted them.

Unsullied dares to be tough with all the troops in the world, and the light cavalry with trifling twice as much is nothing difficult, but the fact is that the imagined throwing an egg at a rock never happened: Reach Army third wave cavalry Immediately when he noticed something was wrong, he began to shake and flinch, and instinctively deflected towards a slight contact to try out. After confirming that his opponent was the authentic Unsullied, he simply smeared oil on the soles of his feet and chased after the previous main force in the blink of an eye. The horseshoe print exited the line of fire.

Just after taking a breath, the battlefield situation changed again.

The west-south direction of the battlefield is not the last mobile force dispatched by Garland: more than a thousand mercenary cavalrymen of the Golden Regiment gathered some scouts and scout riders to form a small force. About 2,000 raiding troops with not weak battle strength moved toward the southwest corner of the trapezoid formation—that is, the left wing of the Queen's Western Front. They wanted to take advantage of the short-term advantage created by the dragon-hunting crossbow to try one's luck.

Igor held the three thousand cavalry that Tywin brought from Lanisport in his hand. He planned to send them out to pursue the victory when the main force of Reach cavalry in the south was repulsed, and drove them out of the battlefield to seal the victory, but Even if there is a dangerous situation on the defense, this club can't care too much, and decisively diverts them to the place where they are most needed, and sends them out to meet the fourth mobile enemy.

The oppression and unease finally came to Igor's heart: it was so uncomfortable to be outnumbered, no matter how he arranged the formation, predicting that the opponent would make more operations and solve it perfectly, the opponent only rely on "cards" This advantage is enough to fight him back and forth. Oneself now has only the last two thousand land-grant troops left as personal guards. If the Reach people have cards to play next, he will probably have to play them himself.

"There is a boat!"

The skinchanger, the bird beside him, suddenly stopped being possessed, turned his head and spit out the latest aerial investigation findings.

"On the west side of the river, many boats sailed upstream." Because of the limited vocabulary, the new land grantor Skinchanger's words were dry, "The boat is very big, and there are many people on it. !”

—

(end of this chapter)