Without speed, these light cavalry of the eight-nation prince coalition forces are no different from the lambs to be slaughtered in front of the experienced Ukrainian Cossacks. What's more, the number of Cossack cavalry still has an absolute advantage.
As a result, the remaining more than 2,000 coalition light cavalry were quickly defeated by the Cossacks and fled in all directions. At this time, the black-shirted knights finally caught up with the plate-armored knights with the advantage of light equipment.
But this time, Durm gave a very different order:
"Shoot the horse! Shoot the horse!" In order to win, Durm didn't care about the preciousness of those war horses.
Generally speaking, in this era, a good knight war horse could be sold for dozens or hundreds of gold coins. Therefore, in battle, war horses are very precious trophy. In previous confrontations, the black-shirt knights would rather shoot knights with small targets than shoot war horses.
But now it is different. At such a critical moment, victory is the only pursuit. For smoothbore guns with low hit rate, shooting enemy war horses is easier to block the enemy.
So, this time, the black-shirted knights directly aimed at the much larger targeted war horses shooting...
"Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-" A carbine sound followed, followed by a "Yu-Yu-" war horse wailing.
"What?" Baron Cross, who was leading the charge of the coalition's plate knights, was shocked. Because this kind of behavior of hitting horses and not hitting people is too rare in Europe.
Because most European nobles are poor people who are indebted to countless debts. Therefore, they attach great importance to wealth. War horses are undoubtedly one of the top wealth second only to land. For ordinary poor nobles, they would rather kill the other knights than let the war horses be hurt. Because if they captured a group of war horses, they would make a fortune. Just as when Marin started his family, he relied on capturing thousands of war horses from French knights, and suddenly became rich and had the capital to recruit soldiers and buy horses.
Therefore, in the eyes of Baron Cross, the black-shirt knights' behavior of shooting war horses is simply rebellious and much different from ordinary people.
But he didn't know that Marin was a Chinese soul and had recited Tang poetry since he was a child. The sentence "Shoot the horse first when shooting people, capture the thief first to capture the king" was really impressed. Therefore, when training the Black-shirt Knight before, Marin proposed this tactic.
Of course, Marin also considered the precious issue of war horses. Therefore, he once issued an order - generally speaking, not to hit people, after all, war horses are precious spoils. However, if the situation is urgent, killing horses will be given priority...
Now, it is such an "emergency" moment. In order to ensure that the third legion with sparse formations will not be broken by the opponent's knights, the black-shirted knight directly started the emergency mode and gave priority to killing horses.
A war horse that falls to death is different from a knight being knocked off the horse. A knight who is dropped will not affect the cavalry's charge. On the contrary, a fallen knight will be trampled on by a comrade's war horse.
However, the war horses were so big. Even if they fell to death, they were still a small mountain of meat. Therefore, after a group of war horses of coalition knights fell to death, they not only fell off the knights on the horses, but also created roadblocks for the war horses behind them... In particular, the war horses specially used by European knights were all tall horses. Even if they fell to the ground, they were still a big pile... Moreover, these knights were wearing hard horse armor, which was a very strong "roadblock" and were difficult to level...
Then, in order to avoid these small meat-like roadblocks, the charge speed of the coalition knights was significantly slowed down. At the same time, most of the unlucky coalition knights who were thrown off their horses were unable to avoid the trampling of their comrades' horses.
Even if they were wearing plate armor, the total weight of the war horses carrying knights and heavy armor was nearly one ton. Such a heavy combat unit, even if each hooves weighed only one quarter of their weight, could still hurt the knights wearing plate armor...
Moreover, the Black-shirt Knights have more than one carbine in their hands - they have 5...
At the same time, in order to increase accuracy, and the coalition knights were rushing forward, these bold black-shirted knights rode their horses directly up and opened fire in a very close place, greatly increasing their hit rate...
When the five rounds of shooting were completed, more than two thousand coalition soldiers fell halfway, and the charge speed was slowed down by the frequent fallen war horses.
Although these five rounds of shooting did not completely wipe out the coalition's plate armor knights, it also greatly hindered their charge. The plate armor knights were originally slow to charge, but after being disturbed like this, their speed was even slower.
Then, this gave the Third Legion enough time to deal with it...
...
"Stop the charge! Get close! Go closer!" Steindorf yelled loudly on the battlefield with a horn. His messengers (heroes specially selected) also yelled:
"The commander of the legion has an order to stop charging and move closer to the middle! Go closer to the middle!"
Then, most of the veterans of the Third Legion, the infantrymen, obediently stopped charging and moved closer to the middle...
"The spearman is in front! Squat on the ground, insert the spear tail into the soil, and move forward 45 degrees!" Steindorf continued to yell.
Then, his loud voices shouted repeatedly:
"The spearman is in front! Squat on the ground, insert the spear tail into the soil, and move forward 45 degrees incline!"
"The spearman is in front! Squat on the ground, insert the spear tail into the soil, and move forward 45 degrees incline!"
...
The spearmen in the front row quickly did as they did, and they squatted down and inserted the end of the spear into the soil. The spear head was 45 diagonally upward and forward.
The tail of the spear is inserted into the soil. In this way, when the enemy knights hit, the powerful impact force will be transmitted to the earth by the spear without hurting the spearman himself. As for why they squat down, it is because the level of the plate-armored knight's cavalry is high. If they stand up, they are easily stabbed by the cavalry. When squatting down, it greatly increases the difficulty of the opponent's cavalry and increases the survival rate...
...
Just after the Third Legion completed its formation, the remaining thousand remaining members of the Allied Plate Armor Knights rushed to the front of the Third Legion. However, after the previous delay, the Third Legion is no longer the original loose formation. Now, the Allied Knights encountered "a wall", a wall of death composed of spears...
Of course, this "death" is not aimed at the knight, but at the war horse...
The spearheads of these 45-degree forward spears cannot poke the knight sitting high on the horse's back, and they just face the chest of the war horse...
Although the war horses are also worn with horse armor, the protective power of the horse armor is not as good as that of the plate armor. Because if the horse armor is made into plate armor, the movement and running of the war horse will be inconvenient. Therefore, the horse armor of the war horse is often similar to armor or mail, rather than a whole piece of plate armor.
Therefore, when the coalition knights hit, many war horses were pierced on their chests, making waves of wail. Even if the war horse that had been stabbed with iron armor hit the spear that was inserted into the ground at the end, even if the spear was broken, it would not feel good. The key is that it had to stop...
In this way, the fierce charge of the coalition knights was blocked by this spear formation that the Swiss were good at...
Moreover, the spearmen in the back row are not vegetarians. Seeing that some spears in the front row failed to hurt the enemy's war horses, the spearmen in the back row immediately pushed forward and used a spear several meters long to rush forward, which was unprotected by the war horse's front legs...
At this moment, the war horses couldn't stand it anymore. Generally speaking, in order not to affect the horse's running, the four legs of the war horse are not covered with armor. Otherwise, the legs of the war horse would be difficult to move.
Now, the war horses were stopped by the spear formation, and the two front legs of the war horses were exposed in front of the spearmen. Therefore, the spearmen in the front row stabbed the two legs of the war horses that were not pierced through the chest without hesitation. Under such an attack, the war horses were immediately frightened. Some war horses were stabbed behind the legs and turned over...
Whether it was the war horse that was pierced through the chest before or the war horse that was pierced into the front leg later, the knights on their horses were thrown off by the painful war horses and landed on the ground...
When Steindorf saw it, he immediately shouted:
"Warhammer Team, come on! Kill them!"
Then, a group of soldiers holding migrant workers' decoration hammers rushed to the front of the formation from the side and beat the coalition knights who had just fallen off the horse and were a little dizzy. Moreover, these people were very thief and specialized in hitting the limbs of the knights with hammers. Even if the knights were not killed and their limbs were beaten, they would not recover their combat effectiveness within a certain period of time... Occasionally, a few knights who stood up to resist were quickly smashed down...
After fierce confrontation, more than a thousand coalition knights rushed to the front of the Third Legion, only three or four hundred people were left as intact. But at this time, they had no fighting spirit. Because they could not break through the spear formation in front of them.
In addition, the 2000 black-shirt knights who had run away to load ammunition also surrounded them and pointed the loaded carbine in their hands at them...
"Surrender and not kill!" Durm shouted.
Then, all the black-shirt knights shouted:
"Surrender and not kill!"
Seeing that if he did not surrender, he might be shot and killed on the spot. Baron Cross had no choice but to lead the remaining three or four hundred intact coalition knights to surrender:
"I surrender, I ask for the treatment of aristocrats!"
Durm nodded:
"No problem, follow the rules!"
Chapter completed!