Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 444 The great alliance moves forward (sixteen)

  [Outside River Valley Village]

  Captain Loshon has been out in the sun for some time, and so has his warhorse. The horse kept hitting the ground with its front hooves, snorting impatiently.

   Aside from a small number of light cavalry that were responsible for covering the battlefield, the main cavalry force of the three-county coalition had been on standby at the threshing ground to the west of Hegu Village since the beginning of the battle.

  The village and the high ground where the village is located protects them from fear of enemy artillery. But the terrain and buildings also limited their vision, preventing them from seeing anything.

   Therefore, for the cavalry of Leiqun County and Bianjiang County, the fierce battles in the two battlefields in the south and the north were nothing but the muffled sound of guns coming from the wind. Makes them anxious and makes them helpless.

  As the battle became intensified, a cavalry squadron from Leiqun County was sent to assist the defense of Hegu Village, and three cavalry squadrons from Bianjiang County also joined the battle one after another.

   But the other three cavalry squadrons in Leiqun County—especially the 1st and 2nd cavalry squadrons, which were regarded as killers, never got permission to attack.

  Captain Luo Song has no idea how long he has waited. Finally, as the coalition's left flank pushed the enemy back to the north bank, a green flag was stretched out of the window on the top floor of the bell tower and fluttered in the wind.

  Captain Luo Song patted his beloved horse on the neck, drew his saber in his hand, and held it high.

The short melody of the advance    was blown, and the officers and non-commissioned officers delivered orders one after another. The resting cavalry returned to their horses, and the companies formed large columns according to the order of charge.

   The squadron that had gone to support the defenders of River Valley Village had also returned and was assigned to the last row of the large column.

   The orders passed down one after another were fed back again and again, and the Leiqun County cavalry was ready, like an arrow on a string, just waiting for the shooter to throw it at the enemy.

  Captain Luosong's saber was swung down from mid-air, and Lieutenant Petofi beside him silently raised his hand to salute the senior.

  Captain Losson watched as nearly half of the Leiqun County cavalry followed Lieutenant Petofi as they left the sortie position one by one.

   Hoofs rumbled, and smoke was rolled up. Lieutenant Petofi did not lead the Leiqun County cavalry directly to the east bank, but moved towards the north.

  To the north of Hegu Village is a large wheat field, which is not suitable for war horses to gallop. Because the wheat straw that has not been completely dehydrated still retains a considerable degree of toughness, it will not only exert a lot of resistance on the running horse, but also may trip the horse.

   Therefore, the light cavalry of the two armies who had fought before chose not to enter the wheat fields, and stayed on the periphery of the farm as much as possible to wander and fight.

  Only those hussars who were in a hurry would step into the wheat fields and escape into the gap between the formations of the two armies.

   In the same way, Lieutenant Petofi's cavalry had to take a long detour. The first group of Leiqun County cavalry to attack first moved northwest along the road, avoiding the corpse-riddled fields of wheat, and then galloped down the unnamed creek from the field between the hills and the farm.

   On both sides of the river valley, the wilderness is open. The movements of the Thundershire cavalry could not escape the eyes of Lieutenant Colonel Warley, the commander of the artillery of the Parliamentary Army.

  Although the cavalry was obscured by the smoke and dust in the sky, Lieutenant Colonel Warley had already deduced that a large group of "rebel" cavalry was detouring towards the north of the battlefield from the smoke and dust itself.

   Quickly assessing the situation of the heavy artillery at hand, Lieutenant Colonel Valle gave an order that surprised the gunners: "Don't avoid refilling the oil to cool down. Double gunpowder, round bullets, shotguns, each one is loaded!"

The gunners, who had just completed a round of shooting and thwarted the "rebel" counter-offensive momentum, were stunned, and turned their attention to Sergeant Suter, the gunner who was running between the gun positions-compared to this arrogant and ignorant man. Lowland boots, the gunners clearly trust the old sergeant who has been leading them.

   "What are you doing standing there stupidly?" The gray-haired Sergeant Suter shouted loudly: "Can't understand the words? Double gunpowder! Round bullets and shotgun bullets! Load each one!"

The    puppet-like gunners came back to life and got back to work immediately.

Although Sergeant   Sutter faithfully obeyed the order, his heart was as full of unease and doubt as the gunners.

  The old gunner walked quickly to Lieutenant Colonel Vale, and wanted to struggle for the last time. He suppressed his voice and said to the lieutenant colonel in a low voice, "Sir, these cannons..."

   "Needless to say, sergeant." Lieutenant Colonel Valet politely but indifferently quelled his subordinate's doubts: "These cannons are under the supervision of Marshal Ned personally. Although they are old, they can be trusted."

   Sergeant Suter's words were all blocked, he raised his hand in a bitter salute, turned around and was about to leave.

   Lieutenant Colonel Valet stopped the old gunner. The sound of hoofs on the other side made the gunners tremble, and even the dullest people realized that the "rebel" cavalry had been dispatched, but Lieutenant Colonel Valle didn't seem panicked.

  Valley asked the old gunner with great interest: "You have always been in charge of these heavy guns?"

   "Yes." Sutter didn't understand why the young officer in front of him - compared to Souter - asked these questions: "Heavy artillery, and some long artillery and wall artillery."

   "You've taken good care of them, and this battle is over, and you'll be rewarded handsomely." Vale didn't realize it, and his words grew louder: "How long have you been running these cannons?"

  Sute twitched the corner of his mouth stiffly, but the rich reward promised by the officer himself did not make the veteran feel any joy.

   He was silent for a moment, then said in a hoarse voice, "I've been serving them since the day they were cast."

   After saying that, the veteran straightened his body, raised his hands respectfully, and saluted, turned and walked towards the gun emplacement.

   This time, it was Lieutenant Colonel Varley's turn to be stunned. It took a while for the lieutenant colonel to realize that he was fortunate enough to meet a real veteran of a previous era.

   But Lieutenant Colonel Warley was too late to call back the veteran to ask carefully, and he didn't even have the time to sigh.

  Because the "rebel" cavalry had already bypassed the battle zone north of River Valley Village, crossed the unnamed creek from the lower reaches, and killed the east bank.

   Standing in the artillery position and overlooking the north, the rebel cavalry was like an unstoppable torrent, cutting off the river in the middle.

  Echelon after echelon, they ran in an orderly manner, and the broken terrain on both sides of the river could not disturb their formation.

  The light cavalry deployed on the periphery of the parliamentary army line, not to mention the spearhead of the rebel cavalry, could not even delay the rebel cavalry a little.

  Lieutenant Colonel Vallei saw it all: booties, bright knee-length coats, hats and helmets decorated with huge feathers, superb riding skills and fearlessness...

   You can't go wrong, those are by no means the herders and farmers who were called up on a whim. Lieutenant Colonel Valet was convinced that the new force that the enemy commander had just thrown into the battlefield was the real Palatine cavalry that was well-known in the republics.

Lieutenant Colonel   Vary couldn't help but turn to look at the River Valley Village Church, where the personal flag symbolizing the commander-in-chief of the enemy still stood proudly on the bell tower.

"Send Lieutenant Werzee's brigade to return to defense! Send the reserve team to dispatch!" Lieutenant Colonel Valet suppressed the admiration and regret in his heart, and ordered sharply: "Just follow the previous training formation. , execute on the spot!"

  The parliamentary army infantry brigade, which was waiting in front of the artillery position, was ordered to turn around and move closer to the position of the artillery.

   In the previous battle, even if the right-wing front was pushed back to the east bank, the infantry brigade sitting in the rear showed no sign of going into battle. However, as soon as they received the order of Lieutenant Colonel Valle, they immediately acted.

There was also a rapid drumbeat behind the mound where the artillery positions of the parliamentary army were located. A large army flag and six centenarian flags swayed up from the ridgeline, and another parliamentary army infantry brigade, which was deployed on the reverse **** of the mound, was no longer there. Hide your tracks and enter the battlefield with great fanfare.

   At this moment, the battlefield north of Hegu Village was virtually divided into two.

On the    earth mound, nearly a thousand infantrymen from the two battalions of the parliamentary army stumbled and changed their formations, forming a formation at the artillery position.

Below the    earth mound, the parliamentary army troops retreating to the east bank are fighting fiercely with the "rebel" left wing troops who launched the counterattack.

  The rebel left-flank unit, which had been advancing with the victory, encountered a head-on attack from the heavy artillery of the parliamentary army.

A round of cannonballs at a distance of 500 meters smashed the dense formation of the rebel troops into blood, especially the phalanx guarding the silver border flag. Lieutenant Colonel Varley specially assigned them four cannons in the best condition. .

  The old-fashioned cannon in the hands of the parliamentary army has many shortcomings, but the shortcomings never include power. Loaded with tailor-made cannonballs, these heavy artillery can rain death from half a kilometer away. They are forged to smash walls, but if given the chance, they can also unleash devastating lethality in the field.

   However, the left wing of the rebels held on tenaciously. Although the artillery bombardment thwarted their counterattack, they quickly regrouped and swooped towards the east bank while their artillery reloaded.

  The bottom of the earth mound was once again shrouded in morning fog-like gunpowder smoke. The smoke is not thick, but it makes everything in it become shadowy.

  Flakes of red flames burst out from the gray-white mist, like lightning piercing through a cloud, briefly lighting up the mist.

The drums of    marching came from behind the smoke wall, and a new round of phalanx battle was about to start.

   Colonel Sarnell had already noticed a sign of the collapse of the right flank of the parliamentary army—the two infantry battalions in front of River Valley Village had broken away from the central army and were quickly approaching the friendly army under the soil.

   And all the "rebel" cavalry that detoured from the lower reaches have already crossed the nameless creek.

   Lieutenant Petofi drew his saber and pointed at the artillery position on the mound. The rolling iron stream did not hesitate at all, and rushed to the artillery position where the shadows flickered in the distance.

   On the mound, Lieutenant Colonel Valey watched with half admiration and half regret at the heroic appearance of the cavalry charge of Palatine:

  Through different footwork, the dense large columns spread the layers between the marches, instead of waiting awkwardly until the previous team started, and the latter team started again, like their Interprovincial and Veneta counterparts.

   This made them come much faster than Lieutenant Colonel Warley expected. By the time Lieutenant Colonel Warley could clearly see the saber in the opponent's hand, the two infantry battalions of the Parliamentary Army defending the artillery position had not yet completed the formation change.

   Now, at the top of the mound where the artillery positions are located, two "phalanxes" that are much larger than the infantry phalanx of the brigade have begun to take shape.

   The parliamentary infantry guarding the artillery position was not on the periphery of the position, but lined up inside the artillery position.

  The artillery and the infantry were integrated, eight heavy artillery pieces were embedded in the four corners of the two squares, and the gunners and ammunition were wrapped in the center of the squares.

  The soldiers of the two parliamentary battalions defending the artillery position were not familiar with this new phalanx tactics improved by the Interprovincial Army.

   Forced by the situation and limited time, they only practiced a few formation changes under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Valet.

  This new phalanx should not be used with heavy artillery, but with light artillery.

  Because the heavy artillery is too large, the distance between the gun positions is also much larger than that of the light artillery to facilitate the operation of the gunner.

   In order to leave space for the gunner and the ammunition carriage, and at the same time to incorporate the scattered heavy artillery into the phalanx, the originally compact phalanx had to be further hollowed out, increasing the area of ​​the phalanx and thinning the depth of each side of the phalanx.

   At this moment, the "rebel" cavalry was close at hand, and many parliamentary army infantry guarding the artillery positions were still frantically looking for their positions.

   Hearing the deafening sound of horse hooves and the hoarse roars of his officers and sergeants, Lieutenant Colonel Warley had no reason to think of the old gunner named Suter.

   A peculiar idea popped up in the lieutenant colonel's mind: "The phalanx versus the cavalry, the war of sovereignty has repeated itself. Are the soldiers of the old marshal, as they are now, afraid of the arrival of the imperial cavalry, while looking forward to the arrival of the imperial cavalry."

"The Platoon cavalry is indeed the best in the Inland Sea." Vale stared intently at the rebel cavalry galloping on horseback, and whispered in a voice that only he could hear: "But what we've been studying over the years...is the tactics of infantry against cavalry. what."

   The "rebel" cavalry came from the north, so the musketeers of the two battalions were concentrated inside the phalanx on the north side. They had already set up their muskets and aimed at the enemy through the gap between the spearmen in the front row.

   Lieutenant Colonel Valle dismounted from his horse, walked among the soldiers, and personally took the ignition stick of the cannon in the northwest corner.

   His roar was as loud as a bell, and even faintly suppressed the sound of horses' hoofs: "No one is allowed to open fire without an order! Those who leave without permission, those who are timid in battle! Law enforcement on the spot!"

   The Leiqun County cavalry of the first charge echelon had already entered the charging distance, but the sight in front of them made the second lieutenant of Leiqun County, who was leading the team, at a loss.

   A 2nd Lieutenant never expected his men to smash the enemy formation—that's not something a saber-wielding light cavalry can do.

   His mission was to destroy the artillery. His mission was to force the enemy artillery to abandon the artillery and retreat into the phalanx. His cavalry all had spikes and mallets, and he was ready to nail down the enemy artillery.

  The enemy's never-before-seen formation incorporated artillery into the phalanx, protected by forest-like spears.

   made the second lieutenant not know where to start, but he had no time to think. The second echelon of charge was just behind him, either charging or turning to leave the battlefield.

   The young second lieutenant gritted his teeth and raised his saber—even if he couldn’t break through the enemy lines, he still wanted to attract enemy firepower to his comrades in the subsequent charge echelon.

   The trumpeter beside the second lieutenant immediately blew the charge horn, and the Leiqun County cavalry of the first charge echelon rushed forward to the artillery positions that were waiting.

   At this moment, the heavy artillery of the Grand Council Army roared.

Lieutenant Colonel   Vary only felt that his chest was smashed by an iron pipe filled with lead. The deafening roar made Lieutenant Colonel and all the soldiers next to the artillery dizzy, and more than one soldier was shocked and let go of his weapon.

Lieutenant Colonel   Valley felt heat gushing out of one ear canal, and he didn't care to find out the injury. He roared and ordered: "Artillery! Fire! The musketeers remain on standby!"

   Another artillery piece in the northeast corner of the large phalanx opened fire.

  According to Lieutenant Colonel Valet's order, the gunners of the Parliamentary Army loaded both solid and shotgun shells into their gun chambers.

  When the double gunpowder was ignited, the solid iron **** were wrapped in dozens of lead, and from the east and west ends of the phalanx, they swept crosswise towards the charging "rebel" cavalry.

  Flesh and blood splattered with the shells, and a dozen people disappeared from the horses in an instant.

   A poor warhorse that was hit directly by a solid bullet was cut in half from the side of the chest by a thirty-two pound iron ball. The other war horses that lost their riders were pushed by inertia to run a few steps, and they also fell to the ground one after another, blood pouring out from the horrible holes in their bodies.

The first charge echelon of the    Leiqun County Cavalry suffered heavy losses, and the second lieutenant who led the team was killed on the spot.

  The cavalry who survived by chance no longer had the will to rush into the phalanx, as if the river water was diverted by a boulder, it circled both sides of the position to make room for the second echelon.

   However, their doom was not over, as they passed the sides of the artillery position, the other six artillery pieces of the enemy deployed on the sides of the position also opened fire.

  More than a dozen cavalrymen in the first echelon were shot and fell off their horses. The remaining cavalrymen were completely disorganized. They gave up their flanking of the enemy's position and retreated to the position where they had crossed the river.

Lieutenant Colonel    Warley had just used artillery fire to repel the first wave of the "rebel" cavalry charge, and the second wave had already followed.

   This time, Lieutenant Colonel Varley ordered the musketeers to open fire and used platoons to repel the second wave of the "rebels" charge.

   However, when the cavalry of the second wave of the "Rebels" charged rounded the sides of the phalanx, the rebel cavalry of the third charging echelon was already close at hand.

The    artillery was being loaded, and the poor musketeers assigned to the two battalions defending the artillery position had already fired a round.

"Stay in position!" Lieutenant Colonel Valle's shout was now the strongest voice on the battlefield. At this moment, he could only hope that the diluted phalanx walls could withstand the next round of attack from the rebel cavalry: "Long live the alliance. !"

  The third charge echelon of the Leiqun cavalry was led by Lieutenant Petofi himself. Seeing his subordinates killed by shotgun platoons made him furious, but the rage did not take away the lieutenant's sanity.

   "Follow me! Attack the northwest corner of the puppet formation!" The lieutenant turned his head and shouted at the messenger behind him: "Tell Lieutenant Kovizar of the fourth echelon and let him hit the northeast corner!"

   On the battlefield of River Valley Village at the moment, the officers on both sides of the war knew each other's tactics very well.

   But Lieutenant Petofi was sure that he had seen in the book the hollow, thin-skinned, odd formation with artillery deployed at the four corners.

However, I haven't seen it in the book, so it doesn't hinder the lieutenant's immediate judgment. The lieutenant is keenly aware that the enemy's formation is too large, and the number of columns of spearmen is far less than that of the conventional phalanx; the four corners of the enemy's formation have the strongest firepower , but also the weakest position.

   turned his troops to Petofi at the northwest corner of the artillery position, and saw Lieutenant Colonel Varley in the uniform of a colonel among the spearmen in brown coats.

   noticed that the color of the school officer's uniform was different from that of the Platoon military uniform, and Petofi figured it all out in an instant, and his eyes suddenly turned blood red.

   "Lianman!" Pei Duofei roared like thunder, facing the spear forest, regardless of the figure in the school officer's uniform: "Death!"

The    cannon took up too much space, leaving gaps in the arrangement of the spearmen. Pei Duofei swung his saber from side to side, knocked off the spear tips that were in front of him, and jumped up on his horse.

  The warhorse flew over the head of the gunner who was lying on the ground in fright, and slammed into the phalanx fiercely. When it landed, it broke the tibias and chests of several parliamentary soldiers who could not dodge.

  Lieutenant Colonel Vallei never expected that someone would actually dare to rush into the phalanx—and he was actually rushed in by the opponent.

   Lieutenant Colonel rushed to his side in embarrassment, dodging the saber in the opponent's hand dangerously and dangerously, and crawled towards the inside of the phalanx with his hands and feet.

   It was just this coming and going, and Petofi would no longer have the chance to kill the enemy commander.

   The halberdists and sword and shield players who stayed behind in the phalanx quickly posted up and surrounded the "rebels" who had broken into the phalanx.

Lieutenant Colonel Varley, who fled to the other end of the phalanx, turned his head to look at the lieutenant who almost slashed his head with a knife. Before he knew it, the clothes on his back were soaked with cold sweat. He climbed onto the cannon and was half angry at the young junior. Half-frightened, he asked, "You bastard! Aren't you afraid of death?!"

   However, Petofi could no longer hear what the lieutenant colonel was shouting. He cursed loudly, and slashed with his saber in a frenzy. The cavalry under Petofi also took advantage of the confusion caused by the lieutenant and rushed into the phalanx one after another.

   At the same time, the Leiqun County cavalry of the fourth charge echelon had already rushed to the high ground.

   "Lieutenant Petofi has broken the formation!" Lieutenant Kovizar saw the senior who was surrounded by blood and was fighting in blood, and he was immediately furious. He took the lead and rushed to the northeast corner of the enemy's formation: "Kill! Kill!"

  The cavalry of the Thunder Army roared, and followed Lieutenant Kovizar into the sparse spear forest in the northeast corner of the phalanx.

   The hand-to-hand combat started, the cavalry slashed the infantry, the infantry assassinated the cavalry, no one cared whether the other party was a Paratus or not, everyone just wanted to use all means to kill the other party.

   The push rod turns into a hammer, and the saber can break half of the shoulder with one slash from top to bottom. The cavalrymen who were dragged off their horses would be killed immediately, and the infantrymen who fell to the ground were also trampled by horses' hooves and screamed by their own people.

   Someone's intestines were stepped out, but no one cared what they stepped on.

   The tragic fight left Colonel Varley's face ashen and his lips purplish-purple—he was the first time he had seen such a scene.

   The situation at the moment is like two cotton yarns desperately trying to tear each other, no one knows which side will be snapped first, and no one knows which side will be defeated.

Next to Lieutenant Colonel   , a small drummer from the Great Parliamentary Army held his drumstick tightly with his fingers, and stood stiffly on all fours. His lips were bitten out of blood unconsciously, but he still stared blankly at the tragic scene in front of him.

   "What are you standing for?" Lieutenant Colonel Valle shouted: "Drumming!"

   The little drummer woke up from a dream and immediately began to play the drums. He had forgotten all the tunes and melody, and just thumped the snare drum.

"Go! Go to Lieutenant Verozi! Let him bring his halberd hand to support us!" Vale picked up another messenger who fell on the ground, and shoved the latter who was still stunned: "go!"

The    messenger saluted, hurriedly squeezed out of the human wall, and ran to the large phalanx at the other end of the artillery position.

"Sergeant Souter! Sergeant Conoy!" Lieutenant Colonel Varley couldn't care whether the sergeant named was still alive, and he called out whose name he could remember: "Quickly besiege the rebel leader. !"

  Valley, who regained his composure, immediately found that the rebel cavalry had more energy, but lacked stamina.

   "Killed one, two, three...dead." Vale pursed his lips while observing, counting in his heart: "killed one, two...dead."

The    artillery officer's mental model made Valet accustomed to quantifying everything he saw. There are nearly 1,000 soldiers in the Grand Council Army defending the artillery positions. According to the current exchange ratio, the balance of victory will definitely lead to itself.

   As long as you can stick to it.

   As long as you can keep going...

  Valley suddenly felt that something was wrong. He couldn't tell what was wrong, but he just felt like a light on his back.

   But he didn't need to rack his brains, because he quickly learned what "wrong".

  Suddenly, the deafening sound of hoofs resounded across the battlefield again—the fifth wave of the Palatine cavalry charged.

   "How could there be only four charges?" Lieutenant Colonel Vale thought to himself, "The number of these cavalrymen in front of me is not the same."

   But the lieutenant colonel was not in a hurry. He could withstand the first four charges, and he was confident that he could withstand the fifth charge.

   However, what he saw next when he turned around made Lieutenant Colonel Chris Valey's artillery bloodless:

  A heavy cavalry boarded the east bank from the side of the burning broken bridge, traversed the chaotic battlefield, and charged straight towards the artillery position.

  The silver armor shone brightly, and the red feathers fluttered in the wind.

   The fifth charge came not from the north, but from the west. Those heavy cavalry were not good at detouring over long distances, so they took the shortest charge route.

   And each of them carried an extra-long lance that they had never seen before.

   [Orz]

   [Sorry, Orz]

   [Next to normal update frequency]

   [Additional note: The tactics used by Lieutenant Colonel Varley are not the [Hollow Square] of later generations. An important prerequisite for the hollow square tactics is that the line infantry is both a spearman and a musketeer. The infantry of the PikeShot era did not yet have such capabilities]

   [But just like a plane doesn't have two wings at the beginning, and an aircraft carrier doesn't have an angled deck at the beginning, the perfection of tactics has a process of exploration]

[Lieutenant Colonel Valet's "new phalanx" is also a process of exploration. In the process of phalanx tactics development, some people have really tried to arrange artillery in the four corners of the phalanx and bring them into the protection range of the spearmen to prevent The artillery was destroyed or captured by the enemy cavalry] [But in the oil paintings and prints that we have seen in later generations, most of the military commanders still chose to arrange the artillery outside the phalanx. Why? ]

[First, the range of fire is limited; second, it affects the defense capability of the phalanx; third, the smoke from artillery fire hinders soldiers from fighting (a great impact); fourth, heavy artillery cannot follow the infantry; and fifth, this Book friends will know in the next chapter] [Although there are various inconveniences, this tactic is also useful under certain conditions]

   [Last week, the work at work was not as busy as before, but some personal affairs (review) took up time. Last weekend, I wanted to start writing again, but I sat down and edited and rewritten more than 1,000 words in one day. Another week passed until today]

   [I'm so useless, I'm sorry everyone. Apologies again, Orz]

   (end of this chapter)