Unknown Knight

Before the army of Lord Ghalib recovered from the shock, the army led by Aix in front of them changed their previous panic, lit more and more torches, and then formed a tight formation to press forward.

"Woo-"

A horn sounded giving orders, and soon after, the sound of bowstrings clicking could be heard in the darkness, followed by bursts of wailing from the army of Lord Ghalib.

Arrows were shot at from all four directions. The army of Lord Ghalib, which was already weaker than the battle array, was unable to organize an effective defense and suffered heavy losses in a short time.

They had been so high-spirited and courageous just now, but were suddenly stunned and thrown into chaos. They were unable to organize an effective counterattack and instead fled back and forth in fear, pushing and shoving each other.

Seeing the enemy's morale collapse, Aix gave the order to attack without hesitation, and the army pressed towards the Memphis army.

Such a rapid attack and defense made many people unable to react. When they saw the army of Aix coming, the nobles and some brave men among the enemy actually wanted to organize a resistance. However, these enemies gathered in groups were like bright lights in the dark night. There were special stone-throwing soldiers who used flaming oil tanks to attack them, followed by a dense rain of arrows, which immediately made them fall down from standing.

Soon, the overwhelming arrows caused the entire Memphis army to fall into great panic, and also shattered their last fighting spirit. No enemy dared to resist anymore, and they began to flee desperately in fear.

These panicked Memphis troops, numbering nearly 10,000, suffered serious trampling in the relatively crowded valley, killing many people. Desperate wails rose one after another, which stimulated them to rush backwards like a huge wave. Even the array that Zeb had prepared in advance for encirclement in the rear could not stop the momentum of this huge wave, and they were soon torn open by them, fighting their way out of the formation and escaping.

Upon seeing this, Aix ordered his soldiers to chase the enemy for more than ten miles in one breath, and killed and captured five or six hundred people. When he saw that the enemy was running farther and farther and he could not catch up with them, he ordered his men to blow the horn and withdraw.

There was nothing they could do about it. They had been attacking the city for a whole day and had been running for most of the night with their baggage. In terms of physical strength, they were no match for the Memphis army. Moreover, Aix wanted everyone to save their energy to rescue the camp outside Berbera.

This ambush was a strategy that Aix came up with in a hurry. He knew that the Lord of Ghalib would not allow him to lead his troops back to support the camp, so he calculated the time node based on the terrain along the way and the current weather, and made such a plan.

He first sent Bestur to lead a thousand elite troops to return to the camp outside Berbera to provide support, to ensure that the camp was defended before the main force he led arrived.

Then he sent Jeb with two thousand troops, most of whom were archers. They ambushed in advance on the riverbanks on both sides of the old course of the Black Water River, waiting for Aix to lure the enemy.

Aix led the remaining 5,000 troops and retreated slowly in formation. After dark, he used torches to confuse the enemy, giving the impression that the defeated soldiers were retreating in a hurry, and finally lured the enemy into an ambush.

In general, the whole strategy seems unremarkable, but it has many prerequisites. Not only the timing must be well calculated, the overall quality of the army must be very high, and strict discipline is the most basic condition. In addition, the commander-in-chief is required to have a comprehensive grasp of the morale, physical strength, combat capabilities, etc. of the troops under his command in order to make reasonable use of all conditions and ultimately achieve victory.

And Aix and the army he led just happened to have all these. If someone else were in charge, or if the army under his command lacked any of the prerequisites, the result would have been a devastating defeat with heavy losses.

When the pursuing army had almost returned, Aix ordered his men to escort the prisoners while taking turns to rest and eat some dry food. Everyone had consumed a lot of physical energy in this battle and needed a little recovery. Once they returned to the outskirts of Berbera, they would have to fight another battle.

As the pursuing troops returned with the prisoners, a rough estimate showed that the ambush had killed more than 300 enemies, most of whom were shot with bows and crossbows, and the rest were trampled to death or killed in sporadic pursuits. In addition, more than 300 prisoners were captured, and most of them did not suffer much damage, except for about 30 who were seriously injured and died soon after.

Their own losses were also not small, with nearly sixty casualties. Most of these casualties were killed when Zeb was trying to block the enemy from the rear and were killed by the enemy when they were fighting desperately to break through the formation. Aix's original intention was to intercept as many enemies as possible so that they could be annihilated or captured, but he didn't expect that their ability in melee combat was so strong that they tore a hole and escaped.

This loss, which should have been avoided, also taught Aix a lesson. In future operations, unless it was necessary and he had an absolute advantage, he would no longer adopt the tactic of encirclement and annihilation, because this was truly a strategy of killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of his own. The principle that the enemy must be surrounded before their destruction is truly a wise saying left by our ancestors!

The army rested for nearly an hour, and then Aix organized the troops to advance towards the city of Berbera. Although they were marching in the dark, now that there were no pursuers, the process seemed much smoother. By dawn, they had arrived near the Berbera camp.

However, unlike what Aix had imagined, the Berbera camp was not attacked by the Humamu city lord's army at this moment. According to Bestur who came to report from the camp, in the second half of the night, the Humamu city lord's army, which had been attacking the camp fiercely, suddenly stopped the attack and quickly withdrew into the city, as if they had received some news. At that time, a small part of the enemy had already broken into the camp, leaving Niza and Bestur puzzled.

This unusual behavior also attracted the attention of Aix, not only because he ran all the way back to save a lonely man. After defeating the army of Lord Ghalib, although Aix took a short rest, he also sent out patrols for reconnaissance. Lord Ghalib would not bypass them to send someone to inform Lord Humamu.

Since the victory of the Lord of Humamu City was in sight, this retreat was very suspicious. Aix was very confused and even suspected that there were people in his army who were secretly colluding with the enemy. After all, there were only two or three thousand people in his army who were truly reliable, and most of the rest were recruited locally. The composition was very complicated. Although they had all undergone political review, there was no guarantee that there would be people with ulterior motives among them.

However, his doubts were soon answered. That afternoon, Aix, who was resting with his eyes closed in the big tent, was awakened by a shout. He saw Bestur running into the tent excitedly carrying something.