Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 654 The captain is dead, the captain is dead!
The situation quickly turned into a more chaotic one. Guo Kang and Zhu Wenkui's worst-case plans were soon put into practice.

The second battalion's formation was not tight. In order to place large firearms, there were a lot of open spaces between the two fronts and on the flanks of the formation. Now, this kind of space gave the Mamluk cavalry better room to play.

Guo Kang had no choice but to put all three Ross Centurions who had been rotated in, and asked the First Centurion to be ready to come and provide backup at any time.

However, in this way, the pressure on the two veteran centurions fighting against the enemy infantry would immediately increase - they had to continue to fight against the still large number of enemy infantry in front of them without any protection behind them. Guo Kang only dared to entrust this task to the servants and veterans in these two centurions.

But at the same time, the enemy was also increasing its strength. More armored cavalry rushed in, and some people dismounted and swiftly pushed down the cannons and removed the obstacles blocking the road. The hundreds of new troops still couldn't fill the gap and were soon scattered again.

Guo Kang felt as if he was back in the battlefield of Dadu, with enemies charging everywhere and Russians running around everywhere. Although he was more prepared, the number of enemies had also increased greatly. He didn't know why he was always besieged...

But now, complaining is useless. Guo Kang's guards and Zhu Wenkui's guards have also been involved in the battle, guarding the flag and drum of the brigade.

Guo Kang looked to both sides and found that the Night Watch Brigade was still standing still. It was not clear whether the enemy elite attacked them at the same time, but judging from the density of the enemy flags, there did not seem to be too many people there. The flags of the Moria Brigade on the right had begun to retreat, and it seemed that they were also under great pressure.

Their hesitation also gave the enemy an opportunity. In the rear, more Mamluks immediately gathered and attacked the junction of the two brigades again. Guo Kang saw more flags that he had never seen before, and this time, they did not continue to shoot, but rushed directly through the gap. The Roman army on both sides could not withstand so many enemies and were forced to retreat. The entire formation of the legion was finally broken through, and the enemy's infantry and cavalry also joined together.

There was a cheer from the enemy. The Mamluk cavalry immediately began to retreat, letting the infantry take over the work of encircling and dividing, while they retreated to the open area behind, probably to reorganize. A large number of Egyptian infantry rushed in, trying to continue squeezing the two battalions and expanding the breakthrough.

As a result, the two battalions on the far left were completely separated from the main force.

The first to be affected were the previously defeated Russians. They were panicked and had no idea where to go. They instinctively fled to where their own people were the most numerous, so they all ran to the right where the main force of the legion was. But the enemy's infiltration cut off their escape route. Some were blocked halfway and could not get through, while others were surrounded by the incoming Egyptian infantry and could not take care of either side.

At this time, Father Ivan also chased after them. He beat and scolded them all the way and gathered a group of fleeing soldiers. Seeing this, he immediately warned everyone that running away now would only lead to death faster. Only by fighting the enemy desperately can there be hope of survival. Now, everyone must quickly gather together to prevent being defeated one by one by the Egyptians; they must also find a way to get the trapped brothers out.

Under his call, everyone calmed down. Moreover, after everyone calmed down, they found that the ones blocking the road were not the scary armored cavalry just now, but the Egyptian infantry again.

Although these Egyptians were now taking advantage of their victory and were full of confidence, they had fought each other before. Even these new Russian soldiers knew their background. Therefore, the fear of the crowd was also dissipated a lot, and they immediately started to fight, ready to teach the Egyptians who were taking advantage of the power of others a lesson, so that they would remember who won the battle.

The Egyptian infantry had hoped to pursue the victory, but they did not expect that these defeated soldiers suddenly became energetic and actually charged against them. Seeing someone coming to help, the trapped Russians also began to fight desperately and rushed towards the direction of the cross.

As a result, a large number of Egyptian infantrymen were still trying to attack deep into the enemy's territory when they were suddenly attacked from the sides and even from behind. For a moment, their formation was in chaos. Some Egyptians who were caught in the crossfire immediately felt something was wrong and began to retreat instinctively, not daring to attack anymore.

Guo Kang also noticed this and quickly turned to Idris and asked, "Can you speak Egyptian?"

"Yes! They usually speak Arabic..."

"Okay, don't worry about the language, just shout at them and say this is a trap and we've been fooled." Guo Kang ordered immediately.

"Okay!" Idris hesitated, as if he was not sure whether this would work, but he shouted immediately anyway.

After hearing this, the Mamluks around looked over here. However, after a moment of confusion, they did not take it seriously and continued to fight. Some people even shot arrows in this direction, forcing Guo Kang and his men to hide again. And those elite soldiers who were fully armored and only had their eyes exposed did not even hear his shouts.

But not far away, the chaotic Egyptian infantry were not so calm. They were already a little shaken, and these shouts gave them enough reason. So, no one knew who took the lead, and the Egyptian infantry began to run back, retreating faster than they had rushed over.

Father Ivan and others gathered the scattered soldiers and began to attack the location of the flag.

The sudden retreat of the enemy did not have much effect on the battlefield situation. Due to the sudden attack by the enemy's main force, Guo Kang's troops were seriously insufficient. In addition to the losses caused by the continuous fighting, everyone had to hold together to resist. There was simply not enough manpower to expand the front line, let alone regain control of that side.

On the other hand, even if they were divided by the enemy, it would not be a problem for a while. Under the Roman military system, each battalion was actually a complete combat unit, and even carried some of its own ammunition and supplies, so it would be no problem to fight at least two battles.

However, this accident still gave everyone a lot of confidence. Not only the Russians, but also Guo Kang himself, gained a lot of courage.

"Should we go over there and join Lao Yang?" Zhu Wenkui asked, "Their defenses are better."

"We are now stuck in the middle of two fronts. If we leave, the enemy cavalry will be able to move freely. Both sides will be attacked by the enemy with all their strength." Guo Kang shook his head, thought for a while, and understood:
"Don't worry. This time, we don't have to hold out as long as we did in Dadu. We don't have to defeat these enemies by ourselves. The higher-ups must be mobilizing troops. Let's hold out for another half an hour."

"Half an hour..." Zhu Wenkui also hesitated for a moment, but finally gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! Grandma, no matter how hard it is, it can be worse than what my great grandfather suffered when he was surrounded! Let's fight!"

Guo Kang nodded.

He asked Ma Wanjun to wave the flag and call the scattered Russians to gather together, then picked up a spear and prepared to help. Zhu Wenkui and Ma Wanjun quickly stopped him and asked him to wait.

The battle outside was already intense, and the 100-man team, the last reserve, also joined the battle. Some Mamluk armored cavalry had already rushed to the deepest part of the front line and engaged them. The veteran soldiers from Henan, still holding axes and iron rods, hit the horses' heads and chopped off their legs. They were very skilled in coordinating and specialized in attacking the mounts. In a short while, they knocked down a large number of enemies. The Mamluks not only failed to make a breakthrough, but were clearly at a disadvantage. For a moment, they were even a little stunned.

Seeing that they could not make a final breakthrough, the enemy was obviously getting anxious. Guo Kang saw that many Mamluks had also jumped off their horses, formed a tighter formation, and marched towards the positions that were still resisting.

Captain Jessica still had the most enemies. But they had gotten into the rhythm, constantly hitting the enemy with flails and sledgehammers. The musketeers behind the carts also kept reloading, and then fired almost at the enemy. The Mamluks in the back row also took out bows and muskets, and shot at them, making holes in the wooden planks. But no one succeeded in climbing up the fortifications.

Master Hans and his dozen apprentices stood in a row, each holding a big sword, forming a sparse but extremely strong fence to block the enemy. Many of Old Hans' sword skills were specially designed to deal with heavily armored enemies. Facing many approaching enemy troops, he became more and more excited, shouting "You can't pass here!" and wielding his sword. He killed several Mamluks who rushed up. For a while, although the enemy gathered a lot of people, they were unable to make a breakthrough.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Guo Kang quickly asked everyone else to gather together, stacked up the overturned boxes, and asked the new recruit Ross to carry the wounded over. He also gathered the remaining muskets and started loading them himself.

At this time, several Ross soldiers carried a man and ran straight to him. The leader shouted as he ran: "Boss! The captain is dead, the captain is dead!"

"Stop shouting! Why are you panicking?" Guo Kang scolded hurriedly.

A few people threw away the person they were carrying and said, "Boss, what should we do?"

"What should we do if our boss dies in battle? Doesn't military discipline say so?" Guo Kang asked speechlessly.

"We got the body back!" the leader said anxiously, "but we forgot about it later!"

"I%…&^$" Guo Kang couldn't help but swear again. In the end, he could only comfort himself that these people had just joined the army and didn't know anything. It was okay if they remembered half of it. He said loudly: "If the captain is gone, let the deputy take over, and then report to the higher-ups; if there is no one to take over, nominate one yourself!"

"Yes!" Several Russians quickly saluted.

"Stop!" Guo Kang saw that he had no time to stop it, so he quickly fell to the side. This time he had experience, and sure enough, as soon as he fell, several arrows flew over his head. The Russians were so scared that they also fell to the ground, and fell to the ground all at once.

However, Guo Kang's fall happened to hit the "corpse" on the ground, causing him to scream. Looking back, he found that it was Deuterocannon Dmitri.

"Isn't he not dead?" Guo Kang said speechlessly.

He checked and found that Dmitri's helmet was dented by the hammer and two ropes were broken, but there was no scratch on his head. It was probably because he was knocked unconscious by the hammer during the fight. He shouted twice more, and Dmitri opened his eyes in a daze. When he saw him, he was startled and woke up immediately.

"Captain!" Dmitri looked startled. "Where have I come from?"

"You were knocked unconscious and they pulled you back." Guo Kang said briefly.

"The fight isn't over yet? Then I'll hurry up." Dmitri saw his broken helmet, reached out to grab it, and was about to stand up.

"You should take a rest first." Guo Kang shook his head and said, "You guys should be careful too. There are a lot of Mamluks outside, shooting arrows from behind. Old Hans and his men are fighting together, so it's hard to shoot them, so they're shooting at us."

"We... Yes, I'm afraid we don't have enough bows and arrows." Deuteronomy Dmitri immediately thought of the difficulty: "And I don't know how to..."

"We still have muskets," a soldier reminded.

"No more, only these few. And you don't know how to use them." Guo Kang immediately shook his head: "Don't even think about it now. You haven't practiced yet, and you want to go to the battlefield. I'm afraid that the first shot will blow off your own fingers."

"It doesn't matter if you don't have a gun. Aren't there plenty of gunpowder over there?" Dmitri reminded.

"That's for the cannons, but now the cannons are outside." Guo Kang pointed and said, "They were all overturned by the Mamluks!"

"It's okay, it can be blown up anyway." Dmitri became excited and stood up immediately without caring about anything else: "I'll go get two barrels!"

Having said that, he ignored Guo Kang's answer and rushed to the back of the cart next to him to ask Zhu Wenkui for gunpowder.

Zhu Wenkui didn't have any container, so he thought about it and then packed a bag of gunpowder, took two bowls, tied them mouth to mouth, and then inserted a piece of rope as a fuse.

After doing a few, he called his men and rushed towards the enemy. A moment later, Guo Kang heard two explosions.

At this moment, the Russians who were resting here became excited instantly. They took out all kinds of messy containers, ran to pack gunpowder, and then threw it at all the places they didn't like. For a while, there were explosions one after another on the battlefield. Guo Kang and Zhu Wenkui also gave up and simply didn't care. Anyway, the gunpowder would be taken away by the enemy if they lost the battle, so it was better to let them throw it away.

However, the power of these improvised explosives was actually very limited and did not kill many enemies. But the explosions of all sizes and the diffuse smoke still caused great trouble to the cavalry. The frightened horses ran around in all directions, and the Mamluks were also thrown into chaos for a while.

At this time, Guo Kang saw a Russian man in front of him who had picked up a medicine barrel used by musketeers. He raised the barrel high and rushed forward while shouting "The big one is coming!" Guo Kang hurriedly tried to stop him.

However, it was too late. The Mamluks fired several arrows in succession, but before falling, the Russians still threw their arrows hard into the enemy's formation.

Amid the excited shouts of the Russians, the medicine barrels exploded, shocking Guo Kang's side. The people in front, including Master Hans and his men, were blown to and fro by the wind and waves. A large number of Mamluks also fell down, and the rest hurriedly retreated.

Guo Kang patted his stuffy ears vigorously, thinking that now was a good time. He waved at Ma Wanjun, shouted, and rushed over.

(End of this chapter)