Unknown Knight

On the training ground, two hundred soldiers equipped with shields, spears, and crossbows were demonstrating. They marched and retreated in an orderly manner, with loud slogans, unified attacks, and tacit cooperation. Sometimes they formed a large square formation of two hundred people, sometimes dispersed into four small square formations of fifty people, and sometimes divided into a combat team consisting of a shieldman, a spearman, and a crossbowman.

These shield bearers were specially requested by Resarit some time ago and were hastily made by the territory's craftsmen. They were almost the same as the Rhodok military broad shields, except that there was a small notch in the middle for placing spears. In addition, the shield bearers and spearmen each carried three javelins behind their backs, which could be considered a supplement to long-range attacks.

Finally, everyone reorganized into a large square formation and let out a loud, coordinated roar, and then Resarit came over to report that the drill was over.

Aix thought, this is it, isn't this just the medieval version of the Spanish phalanx? We are facing the elite Kugit cavalry! So he asked Resarit:

"Deputy Commander, our enemies are the elite Kugit cavalry. Shouldn't we have some cavalry support? We, pure infantry, can't defeat the pure cavalry Kugits, right?"

Resarit said to Aix confidently:

"My lord, this is enough. Besides, we cannot gather the protective gear and weapons for 200 cavalrymen in a short time. The current weapons and equipment and the training level of the soldiers are enough for us to capture Shules, my lord. Please come to the war room with the other leaders, and we will learn about the battle plan together."

He led the way and everyone came to the war room. On a large table in the middle of the war room, there was a miniature sand table map of Shules Village. The map was made by Aix some time ago, combining the reconnaissance intelligence reported by Ran Hu and the village terrain described by Kress. Resarit came to the sand table and pointed at the various intersections on the sand table with a thin wooden stick and said:

“Please look, sir. There are three main intersections and five alley entrances in and out of Shules. However, for the convenience of guarding, the Kugit people blocked the five relatively narrow alley entrances with wooden fences, leaving only the three main intersections accessible.

Although this makes it easier for them to defend, it also limits the advantage of their cavalry. We can completely block each major intersection with a shield formation of fifty people, and then gradually advance, clearing each house one by one, and finally advance to the fortress they built there.

According to the latest intelligence, although the outline of the fortress they built has been roughly completed, it does not yet have the combat capability of all-round defense, and the defensive attack facilities have not been placed. As long as we finally surround the fortress, we will basically win. "

After saying this, Resarit looked at the leaders with burning eyes, which meant that they were welcome to come and cause trouble.

Fatis, who had rich experience in cavalry warfare, asked first:

"The Kugits have patrolling cavalry around them, and archers on guard on the towers. It's impossible for you to send soldiers to three major intersections in such a big way, right, Deputy Commander?"

"Yes, Master Fatis, but you forget that wars can't only be fought during the day."

Resarit said confidently.

"Oh, you mean the night raid?"

Aix suddenly realized that it was no wonder. In this era, there were no high-quality troops with strict discipline and unified actions like those in movies and TV dramas. Troops that could march and fight at night not only required strong combat qualities, but also strong physical and disciplinary qualities. These three were indispensable, otherwise it would be impossible to launch a night attack.

Therefore, most generals in this era marched and fought during the day and set up camp to rest at night. It was not that they did not want to rely on night attacks to win, but that their troops could not do so. They might be discovered by the enemy and ambushed, or there might be chaos on the march, or even a sudden panic-stricken camp would cause the troops to scatter.

It's no wonder that Fatis didn't think of it, it's just that his thinking scope was limited by the inherent pattern. Only then did Aix understand why he didn't agree to attack Shules when he told Resarit more than 20 days ago, but now he agreed. Because he had deliberately organized four or five night march trainings during this period, it seems that he came prepared.

That afternoon, a force of nearly 300 people, led by Aix and commanded by Resarit, with assistance from military leaders including Fatis, Bandak, Desevi, Ran Hu, and Liu Tang, left the fortress in an orderly manner.

These are all the elite troops of the fortress, including two hundred combined infantry and nearly one hundred light and heavy cavalry. It can be said that it is not an exaggeration to say that the fortress is now an empty city.

For safety reasons, Aix told Amanti, who was staying behind, not to send the people out of the fortress to work for the next few days, but to let them all work on the construction inside the fortress. He also asked him to temporarily organize a hundred militiamen to serve as a garrison.

When it was almost dark, the troops marched to a forest between Aslum and Shules. This was the first stop on their marching route. Resarit commanded the troops to rest in the forest. They were not allowed to light fires, make noises, or eat dry food.

He also sent ten of his most elite scouts, led by Ran Hu, to conduct reconnaissance outside Shules.

Two hours later, Ran Hu led the scouts to report: Shules had withdrawn the outer patrol scouts, closed the village gate, and all members returned to the village to rest.

Resarit commanded everyone to continue moving forward. After about another three hours, the troops arrived at a dense forest about 150 meters away from the village of Shules.

Resarit let the troops go into the forest to rest and eat dry food.

It was already late at night. After the troops had eaten their rations and taken a short rest, Resarit ordered the infantry to advance slowly and silently in formation, and had the cavalry go around to the other two main exits, ready to block the enemy's entry and exit at any time.

When they were still nearly fifty meters away from the village, the infantry formation was discovered by the enemy sentry on the arrow tower. With a "bang", an arrow hit the broad shields of the front row, and then the alarm gong on the arrow tower sounded loudly.

Without any further hesitation, everyone roared and rushed towards the village gate fifty meters away.

At the same time, Resarit divided into two groups of fifty people each to block the other two major intersections, and ordered the light cavalry to circle around the village and shoot at the enemies on high ground to cover the infantry array and stop the scattered enemies from escaping.

The sentries on the arrow towers tried to block the attack from high above, but were shot by the sharpshooters organized by Desevi in ​​several rounds, and they fell from their height like hedgehogs.

Soon the three major intersections were blocked, and the simple wooden fences and chevaux de frise were pulled aside by the heavy cavalry with lassoes. At Resarit's command, the combined infantry began to advance.

When the three combined infantry lines completely blocked the three intersections, the Kugit people finally reacted from their shock. Unwilling to accept defeat, they organized dozens of cavalry to charge in an attempt to break through the infantry formation.

However, the intersection was only more than ten meters wide, so there were less than ten cavalrymen rushing forward. The horses were also frightened by the torches thrown by the soldiers. Only four or five horses were able to rush forward. Facing the three or four layers of thick formations and dense spears, they were in vain and were soon shot dead in front of the formation.

According to the steps of the pre-rehearsal, every time the infantry array advanced to a house, they would break into the house and send three to four teams into the house to clear out the Kugits and rescue the captured Vigers. After confirming that it was safe, they would continue to advance.

The entire Shules Village was not large, and the three groups of troops advanced very quickly. When the sky in the east just began to turn pale, they had already arrived in front of the unfinished fortress and surrounded the entire fortress.

Aix looked at the fortress from afar. It was a Kugit-style fortress, with the main structure made of rammed earth and wood. The advantage was that it was easy to obtain materials and fast to build. The disadvantage was that this fortress was only usable in the arid grassland, because no matter how strong the rammed earth was, it could not withstand rain erosion.

Aix thought to himself, don't the Kugits know that the Kingdom of Vaegir is wetter and rainier than their grasslands? A fortress built like this would be eroded by rain in a few years at most. Could it be that they built this fortress as a temporary structure? Then the Kugits might launch a large-scale attack on Vaegir soon, no more than two or three years at most.

After coming to this conclusion, Aix couldn't help but feel fortunate. Fortunately, he had to pull out this nail today, otherwise there might be endless troubles in the future.

Aix first asked Ran Hu to shout in the Kugit language to surrender to the fort, but what he got in return was a sharp rain of arrows. It might be that the commander Nayan inside was unwilling to give up and was determined to lead the remaining dozens of Kugits to resist to the end.

There was no need to waste time. Aix had his soldiers search the village, find three relatively thick logs, sharpen one end of an axe to use as battering rams, and under the cover of broad shields, carry them to the section of the city wall with the least shooting holes and the weakest defense, and begin to destroy the wall.

The newly rammed city wall had not yet dried out and had not yet reached its optimal hardness, and large chunks of it soon began to fall off and break. The horrified Kugits sent all the archers they could here.

But Resarit was well prepared. Fifty or sixty elite archers, armed with high-quality yew wood bows and imitation Rhodok military crossbows, concentrated their firepower to suppress the enemy reinforcements.

There were originally very few shooting positions on the walls of the fort, and the reinforcements of the Kugit archers were crowded together on the two-meter-wide wall. They did not cause much damage to the soldiers who were destroying the wall below, but instead caused many of them to be shot and killed by Aix's concentrated fire.

Soon, with the efforts of the three battering rams, the first crack appeared on the wall. The terrified Kugits fled from this section of the wall. After another half an hour of hard ramming, there was a loud "whoosh" and a gap of five or six meters was collapsed in this section of the wall.

The soldiers, organized into combat teams from previous drills, rushed up the collapsed slope, yelling, and into the dock, where they began a bloody massacre.