Chapter 352: A War Without Martial Ethics (Part 9)
Three thousand cavalrymen were besieged from all directions by more than fourteen thousand infinitely resurrected undead on the city streets without any room for tactical detours... Not to mention that the Scarlet Flame Serpent Legion was just private soldiers raised by local lords, even if they were replaced by three thousand Fiery Sun Knights, they would have no choice but to sigh helplessly.
To make matters worse, because they were fighting on their home turf and in their own city, and because they were in a hurry to save their iron rice bowl, the officers of the Red Flame Snake did not separate the front and rear teams, nor did they send out light cavalry scouts to guard the surroundings. As a result, all the members were trapped together, and there was not even a messenger to deliver messages.
With all the bad situations piled up, when the cavalry of the Red Flame Snake Legion was gradually dragged away by the black hands of the undead because they were exhausted from dealing with the situation, the National Guard, who had just entered the central city, still knew nothing about the Red Flame Snake's situation...
Although the National Garrison of Dutata City is fully organized, its treatment is definitely not as good as that of the Red Flame Snake. After all, one is a standing army directly under the kingdom, and most of its officers are appointed by the Rhine royal family; the other is a direct descendant... As a lord, even children know which side Ezekiel will favor.
The total number of officers and soldiers in the Red Flame Snake Corps was over 4,000, all of them cavalry (some of them had not been transferred back to defend the city in time); the total number of soldiers in the National Garrison Corps was less than 3,000, and most of them were infantry...
The chief officer of the National Garrison, Major Habakak Kirk, did not feel too much resentment towards being treated unfairly by his lord. Upon learning that the undead had occupied the central city, he loyally arranged for the defense of the city gates and rushed back to rescue them.
The reason for this is that the position of the National Garrison is already quite awkward...it obeys the Rhine royal family, but has to rely on local lords to pay its salaries; it would be unlucky for anyone to maintain a standing force where even the officers cannot be deployed at will.
Major Kirk was a very contented man. Compared with the former Lord of Innadri, Earl Ezekiel was already very generous - the National Garrison of Innadri had long since been reduced to a club of senior citizens who could only guard the gate and collect city taxes.
When the enemy was at the gates of the city, Adela III would rather send people to capture young and strong men than send these useless soldiers, whose average age was 50 and whose fighting ability was worse than that of farmers, to the battlefield.
After entering the inner city gate, Major Kirk was not as jumpy as the officers of the Red Flame Snake who wanted to drive away the undead when they saw them; this old officer, who was about the same age as Wagner Pitt and was about to retire in a few years, ignored the undead that appeared from time to time and resolutely led his men straight to the central avenue where the City Lord's Mansion was located.
"The Tarantan Undead seem to be more interested in capturing prisoners alive rather than killing them. Even if the Lord's Mansion has been captured, the Earl and his family should be able to survive... As long as we can capture the Earl before Innadri's living troops enter the city, there will still be a chance for negotiation."
While on the road, Major Kirk calmly analyzed the current situation.
The advantage of defending the city was destroyed by the Undead landing in the central city, and it was no longer possible to repel the Innadri people.
The defeat of Ezekiel's family was already a foregone conclusion.
But there is a difference between whether Count Ezekiel surrendered as a prisoner or resisted to the last step as a free man before being forced to surrender.
In the former case, Count Ezekiel would most likely be thrown into prison for several months like the third generation of the Bartles family, his property would be divided up by other families, and finally he would be exiled miserably; if it was the latter, at least Count Ezekiel could still keep the dignity of a great nobleman. Although the family business run by generations would inevitably be robbed, at least he could take more property and find another place to settle down.
After all, having received military pay from the Ezekiel family for decades, Major Kirk still hoped to give back as much as possible.
The major, who was silently thinking about repaying the favor, did not realize that... as his army advanced toward the central avenue in a steady formation with light cavalry raiding the formation, heavy cavalry clearing the way, and heavy infantry marching in the center, the number of undead that appeared from time to time on both sides of South Street was increasing...
The current time is 11:00 a.m. in the other world, which is 7:00 p.m. on Earth.
Many players have just finished having dinner with their families, washing dishes, or just dealt with their parents’ urging to get married, and have just come online.
Players are definitely interested in such lucrative activities as large-scale battlefields. Many players who have just logged in are teleported here and run to the central avenue following the calls of their friends and allies...
And then, I couldn’t squeeze in.
After all, the Central Avenue was just a relatively wide street that could accommodate six carriages abreast. Even if the sidewalks on both sides were included, after forcing three thousand cavalrymen and more than ten thousand players into the street, it was already as crowded as a can. There was really no way for anyone else to enter...
After capturing prisoners, players in the battle have to resist the urge to grab their equipment and drag them into the alley before taking action, because they really can't do anything on the spot.
Unable to benefit from the group of fully-armored elite monsters, players who arrive late can only look for other red-named monsters even though they are very regretful.
The player who came to South Street to look for red-named monsters was surprised to see a large area of densely packed red names when he used his identification skills. He was so excited that his voice changed: "Holy crap! Another batch of fully armored elite monsters appeared?!"
This exciting news spread quickly through private chat windows of friends and the blood alliance channels of various blood alliances.
Soon, several large and small player teams that didn't catch up with the super group rushed to South Street from all directions...
The players in the first and second tests were basically all on the central avenue, and the players in the third test have not been in the game long enough, so there are no great players with enough appeal yet.
These players who have long been jealous of the large groups making fortunes on Central Avenue do not have the patience to slowly recruit people to form a large group and haggle for a long time over how to distribute the spoils.
Seeing that most people had arrived and it seemed that they were ready to fight, many people couldn't wait to rush out, screaming and rushing towards the monster pile.
And then... these guys who were eager to get a piece of the pie were killed by the light cavalry "patrolling" on the outside before they even got close to the heavy armored infantry.
Major Kirk, who calmly commanded the light cavalry to kill the undead, did not stop the main force, and the heavy armored infantry phalanx still advanced firmly towards the central avenue.
The "NPC" was not in a hurry, but the players who had been killed and returned to the nearby resurrection point were in a hurry. They desperately urged the slow players in the team who had not arrived yet, and shouted to people all over the world:
"Thousands of fully armored elite monsters on South Street are so fast!"
"Strange fat man, come quickly!"
"When the big group eats up the first batch of elite monsters and comes to grab them, we won't even have soup to drink! It's all in vain for us to participate in the battlefield activity!"
While urging them, these players did not forget to continue to launch a "heroic charge" into the red-name pile, fearing that if they were out of combat for too long, the monsters would run away or be refreshed by the system...
Thanks to the efforts of this group of players, by the time the players from East Street, West Street and the northern section of Central Avenue all ran over, the National Defense Team had just advanced to the middle section of South Street.
After being repeatedly delayed by the undead for several minutes, Major Kirk gradually realized that something was wrong - there seemed to be more and more undead on the street!
Major Kirk had to allocate a part of his elite infantry to cooperate with the cavalry and crush a group of undead who rushed into the position frantically seeking death. Before he could even catch his breath, he discovered with horror... the roads in front and behind the army were already filled with undead!
What's even more outrageous is that more and more undead keep pouring out of the alley and joining together with the undead that blocked their way forward and retreat!
"How can there be so many?!" Major Kirk could no longer remain calm and cried out in surprise.
Aren't there only about 3,000 Tarantan undead?! The number of undead he saw right now was far more than 3,000, right?
No one could answer the major's question. After the National Guard was completely blocked in front and behind, and players were also in position in the alleys on both sides, this scattered army that had not formed a large group launched a general attack...
Even though they were a large group of scattered players, these independent players knew how to maintain basic order. From time to time, someone in the crowd would shout:
"No PK allowed, kill the BOSS first!"
"Look carefully before you act, don't hurt anyone by mistake! Don't grab the monster!"
"Whoever steals the monster will be killed--!"
Nearly ten thousand undead swarmed towards the less than two thousand garrison soldiers. This overly exciting scene was so shocking that even Major Kirk, who had seen some big scenes, felt his hands and feet go cold, let alone the ordinary soldiers.
And then...Major Kirk witnessed another scene that left him with a lot of question marks.
This scattered army, mainly composed of newbies in the third test, has no experience in fighting against local regular troops, and their experience in hunting monsters and beasts is far less than that of old players. Many of them have given up their skills without even touching the "monster".
In the eyes of the natives, they were just undead spirits rushing towards them with bared fangs and claws. Some charged into deserted places, some brandished small daggers and stabbed at the air, or slashed at the air with strange cries...
Because South Street is slightly narrower than Central Avenue, and the players rushing in were so crowded, many people accidentally used their skills in vain and landed on their companions...
Major Kirk: “……???”
Garrison soldier: “???”
Fortunately, there were groups of fully-armored elite monsters in front of them. Although the players who were accidentally injured were so angry that they shouted curses at others' ancestors, they did not care about infighting at this time. They were relatively united and focused their attack on the red-named monsters.
Major Kirk left a lot of infantry at the outer city gate, and the troops he led in were only one thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. The number of people was less than that of the Red Flame Snake Legion, but the enemies they faced were not much less than that of the Red Flame Snake Legion.
But they were luckier than the Red Flame Snakes because the garrison was mainly composed of heavy infantry, which were the kings of positional warfare on the ground battlefield - even the Undead, which outnumbered them ten times, could not disperse them.
The players who ran headlong into the heavy infantry positions soon experienced their strength - the players in the front row were stabbed into a connected white light by the enemy's roaring spears before their weapons could even reach anyone.
The undead are indeed not afraid of piercing damage, but this piercing damage is only limited to bows, daggers, and swords; there is no way to be immune to the damage from spears that have a larger impact area and are connected into a gun array!
Even if a lucky player manages to dodge the spears thrust out from the gaps in the shield formation, he will still be hacked to death by the sword and shield soldiers outside the shield guard formation.
The players charging at full speed were like snow rushing towards a red-hot iron plate. Every time they touched a layer of the heavy-armored infantry phalanx, they melted away a layer...
Before the fight started, the third-test players who thought their biggest enemy was their own people were almost knocked out by this Iron Turtle Eight Square Formation. They were so angry that they cursed: "What the hell?! This is outrageous! How the hell do we fight this!"
"What kind of sick planner designed this? Tian Ce Cang Yun merged, Iron Turtle BUFF doubled, and gave players a reverse cheat code. Is that okay?!"
There were also military geeks who were fascinated by ancient military affairs and shouted excitedly: "The spear phalanx is awesome! The infantry is awesome! Could the planner be one of ours?"
"Attack the cavalry first! Cavalry are easy to fight, just drag them off their horses!" some smart players shouted.
Many players immediately turned around and rushed towards the cavalry...
Major Kirk also knew about the defeat of the Fiery Sun Order at the hands of the Tarantan Undead, and knew very well what would happen to the cavalry if they were surrounded by a large number of undead in the streets of such a city. He immediately ordered the infantry phalanx to open a passage and move the cavalry into the infantry phalanx to cover it.
The players in the third test who hadn't even had a chance to touch the cavalry's butt were all dumbfounded.
"A mere elite monster can predict the future?!"
