lerbook #320 - The Orc Hussars suffered a humiliating defeat
#320 - The Orc Hussars suffered a humiliating defeat
“That Cassardal, he's plain-looking, even a bit ugly, but he's reliable when it comes to getting things done. Tell him to feign defeat, and look at him, he does it like it's the real thing.”
Hiding behind a bush, Halwyn licked his chapped lips, a sly smile on his face as he spoke to the attendant officer beside him.
Everywhere, all over the mountains and plains, were the retainers and knights running for their lives, discarding helmets and weapons as they charged left and right on the winding roads and paths.
Behind them were hordes of Orcish Hussars brandishing the Three-Faced God of Terror war banner.
Due to the swampy marshlands of Langsand County in the past, the remaining roads were all winding and twisting.
The retainer knights were like rabbits being chased by hunting dogs, constantly being divided, surrounded, and slaughtered by the beastmen hussars.
But as the retainer knights fell one after another, Halwyn's eyebrows gradually furrowed.
As blood dyed the dirt roads red, the attendant officer could no longer contain his inner doubts.
“Lord Halwyn, it seems, they've truly been defeated.”
“I know,” Halwyn's eyes turned completely gloomy.
He had realized this himself, even without the attendant officer's words.
At the current rate of casualties, these scattered and fleeing retainer knights would be either surrendering or killed before they even reached Azure Blue Valley.
The one fleeing in the very front was Cassardal.
“Prepare a coffin for Cassardal,” Halwyn took a deep breath, drawing the knight's sword that gleamed with a cold light from his waist.
“He's not dead yet.”
“I know.” Halwyn mounted his horse. “Remember, it's because of his mistakes in this battle that I have no choice but to turn the feigned retreat into a real victory, understand?”
“Ah?”
The attendant officer was still in shock and hadn't recovered, but Halwyn had already charged out with two hundred transcendent knights.
Unlike Cassardal, who was a Kushite, Halwyn was a Frankish noble who had migrated here.
After selling all the manors in his old home, his father purchased a manor in Langsand County.
According to the laws of the empire, nobles are not allowed to freely buy and sell territory.
But in practice, there were still nobles who bought and sold land and the people on it under the guise of territorial exchange.
Halwyn's Freyt family came from the Border County of the South Riverlands, a special title equivalent to a military commander in the frontier region.
However, Halwyn's family first went bankrupt due to colonial investments in the Green Dragon Forest, and then they were investigated and dealt with by the then-young Frankish Chancellor Lornzo for selling military weapons and warhorses.
The Frankish King, considering their family's many years of guarding the frontier, gave them a chance, demoting them to ordinary earls and ordering the Freyt family to relocate to Langsand County.
Thousand River Valley was the final destination and retirement home for all failed nobles, but their descendants never admitted defeat.
Halwyn was just like that; he insisted on regaining his former honor, whether in Frank or Laye, he wanted to become the honorable Border Earl once again!
Therefore, even though the orders given by the sand sculpture knight Nidssal were to feign defeat and retreat, he decided to use a victory to wash away his shame.
He even sent Cassardal to attack the village, his purpose was to ambush them here, rather than Nidssal's strategic deception of "encountering the enemy and retreating after failing to defeat them."
After all, when dealing with such peasant rebels, Halwyn didn't want to be too impolite, he could win even with a lance stuck between his butt cheeks.
As for Nidssal's plans and the overall situation, who cares? Anyway, I want to make a name for myself, I want to achieve the first victory against the Salvation Army!
If it really doesn't work out, I'll just push the blame onto the scapegoat Cassardal.
“Recognize the banner of the Freyt family! Follow me and charge!”
The rumble of hooves echoed back and forth in the mountain stream, and at the corner of the valley, a hundred transcendent knights surged out like a tide.
Their mission was originally to feign a counterattack and then run away, giving up large swaths of territory to the Salvation Army.
But now, they would fight for a real victory.
Witnessing that group of transcendent knights sweeping down from the hillside like thunder, Grush felt a tightness in his heart and immediately blew the horn.
The urgent and sharp sound echoed across the battlefield, constantly summoning the 150 Orcish Hussars to retreat.
The hussars seemed to have been overwhelmed by the bloodlust of killing, deaf to the retreat horn.
They gathered in groups, their eyes flashing with bloodthirsty light, actually preparing to launch a charge against those heavy knights.
“I'm talking to you, come back, come back, this is an order!” Grush carried his hammer-mace and chased after the last one, shouting the name of the leading hussar, “Lihhesi, can you come back! Come back!”
“Mr. Grush, what do we do now?” The accompanying military judge chased after him on horseback, his voice swallowed by the wind for the most part.
Looking at the military judge's anxious face, Grush turned his head and glanced, only to see that the hussars were about to clash head-on with the transcendent knights.
He gritted his teeth and turned to roar at the messenger beside him: “Send the signal! Red smoke!”
“Send up the signal flare! Red smoke!” The military judge shouted towards the rear.
The messenger quickly lit the smoke bomb and loaded it into a Riek Mark I signal gun.
As the trigger was pulled, a streak of blood-red smoke streaked across the sky, lingering for a long time.
On the other side of the mountains and forests, a column of emerald-green smoke also rose up, echoing it from afar.
When Grush finally rushed to the front line, the Orcish Hussars were almost about to engage in close combat with the transcendent knights.
Grush, who had regained command, knew that a head-on collision would be tantamount to courting death, he waved his hammer-mace and roared hoarsely: “Rotate to the right, quickly! Those who disobey will face the wrath of Hogo!”
Hearing this, the hussars finally began to reluctantly carry out the order, and then Grush saw a scene that made him despair.
The hussars did turn their horses around, but some did indeed turn to the right, while others turned to the left!
Amidst the sounds of collisions, the horses neighed and fell, or threw their riders off their backs.
Despite their agility and balance, the beastmen suddenly split into two groups like butterflies flitting through flowers, one group rotating to the left and the other to the right.
But behind their horses' tails were seven or eight companions who had fallen off their horses after colliding, clutching their thighs and arms and wailing.
Looking at those hussars who were in disarray, Halwyn almost laughed out loud.
He really didn't understand why they had to carry out the so-called lure-the-enemy-deep strategy when facing such enemies.
Sure enough, the knights north of Golden River Township had not experienced the ordeal of the Black Serpent Bay Bloodbath, their martial virtues and purity were too low.
“Stretching gallop! Raise lances! Charge!”
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Close, finally close, the left and right groups of hussars did not bypass each other, but instead launched a pincer attack on their own.
The moment the silver flood and the gray flood collided, the sound of lances exploding was incessant, wood chips flying everywhere, even able to pierce people's skin.
More than a dozen hussars in the first row failed to dodge this attack, watching helplessly as the lances extended, piercing through leather armor and padded armor straight into the heart.
A dozen corpses fell from their horses, and through the blood holes in their chests, the damaged, sticky heart filled with blue-purple blood vessels was revealed.
“Clang!”
The huge shock transmitted to his hand made the hussar's eyes widen, almost causing him to drop his saber.
However, on the armor of the Ibe Knight who flew past, there was only a white mark as deep as a hair.
After the first round of charge, all one hundred transcendent knights survived, while only one hundred and twenty-five of the one hundred and fifty Orcish Hussars remained.
If it weren't for the beastmen's innate talents, equivalent to a permanent "Khan Potion," the casualties would have been even greater.
The beastmen looked at the notched knives in their hands, and then looked at each other's faces stained with blood.
“Run!” This time, they knew to run without Grush giving the order.
But it was a bit late, Halwyn wasn't prepared to let them off the hook.
“Chase after them! Kill them all the way to Sour Gourd Town!”
Using a handkerchief to wipe the crimson blood off his blade, Halwyn's body trembled slightly with excitement.
Following behind the hussars, the transcendent knights grinned as they discarded their broken lances, drew their knight's swords, and charged towards the hussars.
“Damn devils!”
“Ahhh—”
“My back hurts so much, damn it, I can feel my spine!”
The knight's sword was like the Grim Reaper's scythe, each swing causing an Orcish Hussar to fall.
Occasionally, one or two desperate hussars would charge back, waving their scimitars like a whirling dervish, but still unable to break through the transcendent knights' armor.
The scimitars slashed out a string of sparks on the armor, while the knights' casual sword strikes resulted in wounds that were deep enough to see bone.
With a horizontal sweep of the sword, half a skull and two beast ears flew up, Halwyn disgustedly wiping the brains off his sword on the corpse's collar.
Without the support and coordination of the Holy Musket Company and the Salvation Army infantry, they became almost the same as ordinary mortal light cavalry.
The previous retainer knights ran back again, beginning to help their knight masters divide and surround, driving the prey together like a hunt.
“These rebels have pretty high morale.”
From Halwyn's perspective, the light cavalry should have retreated at this point, but none of the hussars had surrendered so far.
Even while fleeing, under the command of that officer with the hammer-mace, they had vaguely formed a formation again.
But what could that do? My knights are invincible!
“Lord Halwyn, are we still chasing?” A Kushite knight quickened his pace and squeezed up.
Halwyn glanced sideways at the knight, not even saying a word, just raising his chin and continuing to charge forward.
Amidst the surrounding chuckles, the Kushite knight's face turned slightly red, he gritted his teeth and nodded towards Halwyn: “Then I'll retreat.”
“Mm.” Halwyn answered in a muffled voice, not knowing if it was from his nose or his throat.
The black-haired Kushite knight slowed his horse, his hand gripping the reins so tightly that he almost drew blood from his palm.
Clearly, you are the stinky outsiders! And yet you can flaunt your power over us!
Looking at Halwyn's back, the knight suddenly turned his head to look to the side.
Above the five-meter-high pleated earth mound, what was that corner of a black and red banner that he saw?