togophonebook #261 - They charged towards the rising sun, as if they had made up their minds.
#261 - They charged towards the rising sun, as if they had made up their minds.
Upon receiving Hoen's order, Jeanne quickly selected three cavalry brigades, totaling thirty cuirassier arquebusiers, and dispatched them in three directions towards the town of Grey Furnace.
Wearing only cuirasses and without carrying a large amount of weaponry and baggage, Jeanne and her men were tactically positioned as shock cavalry, yet able to perform some of the duties of projectile cavalry – reconnaissance.
According to Knight Colleber's battlefield experience, when marching, it was best to have five or six horses abreast, in rows of five.
On narrow roads, it was best to maintain three horses abreast.
Based on Colleber's numerous battlefield practice experiments, Hoen finally understood that the "distance only a knight can feel" that Colleber spoke of was three cubits (0.9 meters) between rows and six cubits (1.8 meters) between files.
The distance between each cavalry marching formation was the distance an officer could travel back and forth in a short amount of time.
Due to differences in roads, weather, and terrain, Hoen was temporarily unable to standardize this data and had to rely on cavalry officers to judge it themselves.
The organization of mounted battle monks was very different from that of foot battle monks.
The three cavalry divisions only had 150 men but had the same configuration as a legion.
Including a blacksmith responsible for repairing weapons and shoeing horses, an accountant responsible for looking after the horses and paying wages, a provost marshal responsible for counting battle merits and supervising the battle, as well as trumpeters, standard-bearers, and several orderlies.
The legion commander of the Holy Grail Cavalry Regiment was Jeanne, and the adjutant was Colleber, who had previously pledged allegiance.
The eleven cavalrymen quickly made contact with local Holy Father Society informants in the wilderness and, with the help of guides, began to map the surrounding area.
During this time, there were certainly small outposts of a dozen or so men, which were quickly eliminated one by one by the rapidly moving cavalry squads in order to scout out information and terrain.
The faint light of dawn sprang from behind the mountains, and Jeanne shielded her eyes, gazing towards Jeanne d'Arc Fortress.
Behind her, the cuirassiers were finishing off the heavily wounded guards lying on the ground, grumbling about the issued arming swords being difficult to use.
After all, cavalry swords were mainly for dragging and slashing damage, while arming swords were too short and the weight was not suitable.
They would have to find a way to change to a new weapon in the future.
From February 20th, when Mayotte Town was seized, to the morning of February 22nd, a full day had passed.
From the current situation, Grey Furnace Town noticed that several of their outposts had disappeared, but they only sent people to take a look and then there was no follow-up.
It seemed that they regarded Jeanne and the others as bandits robbing nearby or passing smugglers.
Jeanne d'Arc Fortress was even more unaware of what had happened, their attention was entirely focused on the power struggle in Rapid Current City to the west and the wrangling with Knight Wang Xian.
"Saintess," a cavalry officer reined in his horse and stopped in front of Jeanne, "Everything is disguised, we can continue forward."
After packing their bags, the cavalrymen mounted their horses, but suddenly, everyone's movements stopped.
In the morning sun, the 11 cuirassier arquebusiers in front of the outpost saw a knight squad appear behind the hill.
The twelve transcendent knights arrogantly raised their heads, but also looked blankly at these knights in black armor.
"Ah, it's the Salvation Army!" a young knight shouted, "The one on the far left is a farmer from my manor, I remember he joined the Salvation Army."
"I thought I was catching bandits, but unexpectedly it's short hairs!" the leading knight's beard trembled with laughter.
Eleven cavalrymen with incomplete armor, wouldn't this be easy to handle?
"Charge!"
"Your Highness, damn it, they recognized us, what should we do?"
There was no time to run at this short distance, Jeanne shouted: "Send a signal arrow to notify the other nearby cavalry brigades, we'll meet the enemy first!"
At the command, the cuirassiers quickly formed a triangular charge formation, raised the pre-wound spring-loaded arquebuses, and charged towards the knights.
Cavalry spring-loaded arquebuses were not much different from infantry spring-loaded arquebuses, except that they used lighter materials, shortened firing rods, and changed to more robust pawls, which would only loosen after an hour.
"Shortened quick step!" Jeanne shouted the order.
The shortened quick step was a type of quick step, using the front and rear legs on the diagonal to support the weight, with the hind hooves landing tangent to the rear of the front hooves, with a small and stable stride.
"Aim!"
Ten 20mm Cannit type cavalry guns were raised at the same time, aimed at the knights charging in front.
"Fire!"
The tooth-aching sound of metal twisting came, and the young knight felt a stream of blood spraying onto his arm, seeping into his armor.
What's going on? What happened? Why did the companions next to him suddenly fall to the ground?
Before he could figure it out, another group of things, like locusts, swept past the young knight's side.
"Ah——"
The knight who fell this time let out a deafening scream, falling directly from his horse to the ground.
The young knight blankly rode his warhorse, twisting half of his body, watching his companions struggling on the ground behind him.
What exactly happened?
Turning his head, the young knight was suddenly stunned, and in his vision, he saw a black dot.
The whistling sound was so clear as if it were right next to his ear.
The black dot was getting bigger and bigger, as if it was within reach.
Is this what knocked down the two noble knights? Maybe he could reach out and grab it?
"Yahoo!"
"Squeak——"
The young knight's body, which was lying on the horse's back and holding the reins, suddenly straightened.
About half a second later, his right hand suddenly stretched out, grabbed at the air in front of him, and then fell diagonally from the horse's back.
His foot was stuck in the stirrup, and the galloping warhorse dragged the corpse, leaving a long trail of blood on the yellow ground.
"Damn it, only hit three after firing three rounds of volleys, what kind of dog shit did the Holy Casting Department make."
"Who's talking nonsense!" Jeanne's voice spread to the ten cavalrymen behind her, "Change to arming swords, melee charge."
Hearing Jeanne's command, the cuirassiers curled up their bodies as much as possible without affecting their control of the horses, like ripe humpback shrimp.
Their chins were almost touching the horse's mane, revealing only half of their faces in the flying horses.
Holding the arming sword and extending it diagonally forward, with the back of the hand facing up and the tip of the sword facing forward, aiming at the knights who were holding lances with their heads held high.
The probability of the knights' lances hitting the cuirassiers was greatly reduced in this shrimp head man posture.
The drooping hair beside her cheeks was blown by the wind, the tips of Jeanne's hair turned a faint gold, and the jumping current made the horse's hair stand on end.
The warhorse under her seat looked back at Jeanne in horror, as if asking "What are you doing?"
"Good radish, don't be afraid, don't be afraid." Gently comforting the horse, Jeanne's posture on the horse changed from sitting to half-squatting.
The lightning she aimed at was not the transcendent knights wearing plate armor, but the unarmored warhorses under their seats.
After this period of training, Jeanne's lightning magic was approaching the old artillery witches, and she could accurately control the landing point of lightning in a short distance.
This is the gold content of the electric welding training method!
"Become a sacrifice to the dream of the kingdom of heaven!"
The girl's roar was almost a roaring lioness, and the next second, the surging lightning flew out.
White light, all over the sky of white light.
The knights involuntarily closed their eyes tightly, and a numb feeling came from the soles of their feet.
A neighing sound rang out, rushing through the electric light, and four warhorses rolled their eyes neatly and fell headlong.
The knights on horseback flew into the air, hanging in mid-air with their heads heavy and their feet light, waving their arms randomly like drowning people, trying to grab something.
But this was a flat ground, without even a shrub, only rubble and rock fragments all over the ground.
They could only watch the ground in front of them getting closer and closer, and the sharp stones aiming at the crotch guards getting clearer and clearer.
"Gua, don't come over!"
"Clang——Sizzle!"
In the rising dust, they fell to the ground, prostrating themselves, and slid on their prostate for a while before stopping.
The violent impact made the three knights who fell dizzy.
They limped, covered their crotches, and stood up swaying with their arms shrunk, and saw the cuirassiers holding hammer spears turning back.
"Wait, I'm a knight, catching me can be exchanged for ransom..."
The spiked hammer head hit the helmet, and with the blessing of horse speed, the entire face armor was smashed in, and red, white, and gray liquids spurted out from the cracks.
The warhorse flew past, and the knight's corpse fell heavily to the ground.
"Nerves." Shaking off the blood on the warhammer, Jeanne snorted coldly, "Kill you, take your manor, the ransom is also mine."
After disposing of these knights, Jeanne raised her head.
She thought that the remaining 5 knights would follow the figure-eight swirling tactics that Colleber said and return to charge again.
But they didn't, but as if they had made some kind of decision, they disappeared behind the hills along the charging direction, facing the morning sun.
"Saintess." Colleber returned from behind the hill, panting, "They gave the horses potions, we can't catch up with them."
"It's good to intercept 7, besides, we still have prisoners, it's a success to be able to interrogate information." Jeanne shook her head, bypassing the knight who was stuck by the stirrup and unable to escape, "How many fellow believers were killed or injured?"
"Two dead and three injured, all stabbed and injured by lances."
"It's still a bit difficult to face knights head-on."
Picking up the iconic battle flag, Jeanne shook it open, "It's already the 22nd, we've rested almost enough, it's time to go to war, let's take a walk around the surrounding countryside and announce our return."
In the spring breeze, the battle flag embroidered with the Holy Grail fluttered once again on the land of Jeanne d'Arc Fortress.