Chapter 75: Attack and Meet the Enemy
After looking at the map, Leon began to arrange defense.
"Anson, take all the militiamen to the village entrance to set up defenses. You should have become familiar with the battle formations in the past few months. Make good use of all the buildings. They were all built by you and your men, so you know exactly how to use them!"
"Yes, sir!"
Anson is no longer the weakling who could only hide behind Sarama.
Although his martial arts skills had not improved much, he had experienced bloody battles in the border camp and witnessed major battles in the Sava River Fort, so he was no longer unfamiliar with the battlefield.
"Leslie, pull all the carriages to the entrance of the village and set up a three-row formation."
"Yes, sir! But what is our strategy?" Leslie asked.
Every caravan would use chariot arrays to resist bandits, and setting up chariot arrays was indeed something Leslie was good at, but she didn't know how Leon planned to let her and Anson fight the enemy.
"Your tactics are to guard the entrance of the village and shoot arrows at the enemy when you see them! If the enemy gets close, burn the wagons and retreat, and continue shooting arrows when you retreat to the rear of the wagon formation!"
"that's all?"
"that's all!"
Leslie sighed. This tactic was indeed simple and easy to understand, but wasn't it a little too simple?
Of course, Li Ang deliberately simplified the tactics. Without a reliable commander, overly complicated instructions would affect the performance. Besides, it was not certain whether this tactic would be useful.
Klose, the charge captain, is experienced, but he only knows how to charge into battle, and his brain is all about brawn.
"Klose! Bring the stormtroopers and follow me." Leon put the map in his pocket.
"My Lord, what is our plan?"
Klose was a little worried as the number gap was too big .
"The two of us will take the others and attack! Let's kill a few dozen enemies first and see what happens!" Leon put horse armor on Alice and said lightly while tying the belt.
"ah?"
Klose was a little confused. The others, that's 40 people? Klose still knows how to count this...
Forty people took the initiative to attack thousands of people? Has the lord become a little arrogant after getting rich?
"Brothers, follow me!"
The lord put on his helmet, his face obscured by a ferocious giant helmet - this was a newly purchased one, and the original helmet was given to Raphael.
He was no longer wearing chain mail, but a set of half-body armor that focused on protecting vital parts, which was a type of light plate armor.
On his side were the Mettenheim Stormtroopers.
Behind him were thirty heavily armed archers.
Of course, Leon had to take the initiative to attack - since those bandits had been chasing Lisadilan all the way, they must be equally exhausted now, and it is very likely that they were out of sync.
It's a pity that I don't have any cavalry...
If there was a cavalry team of dozens of people, Li Ang would even bring out all his troops to meet the attack.
With Summer leading the way, they saw the group of bandits from afar less than half an hour after leaving the village.
There are about eight or nine hundred people, less than what Lisadiran said. It is estimated that some people have fallen behind.
Just as Li Ang expected, these enemies had been chasing for dozens of miles and were obviously extremely tired. They were probably preparing to rest by the river.
Most of the bandits were sitting on the ground by the river, but they did not set up camp. It was obvious that they were taking a temporary rest, probably waiting for those who had fallen behind. They would take action again soon.
This group of bandits could not be called an army at all - they were equipped with all kinds of equipment, from cloth, leather to iron, and were sitting there in a mess.
Maybe they were really too tired, so they didn't even send out scouts, and there was no alert at all in the surroundings - of course, it might also be that they thought they had more numbers and felt there was no need to be alert.
"A mob has no advantages except its numbers."
Li Ang lay in the grove nearby and watched carefully, then gave his evaluation.
Klose nodded beside him. When he saw these bandits, he understood why the lord took the initiative to attack - it seemed that these bandits did not know how to manage their physical strength properly.
In fact, the enemy still has some elite troops, including seven or eight on horseback. They look like knights and are well-equipped.
They were probably the ones who asked the bandits to stop here to rest.
They were riding their horses and shouting at the bandits; their curses could be heard from afar; it looked like this group of rabble was difficult to control.
In addition, there were about a hundred well-organized-looking infantrymen sitting alone on one side. These should be elite soldiers and they were not with the large group of bandits.
"Klose, you guys lie in ambush here and don't move. I'll go and lure them in. Wait until they chase you in before you take action..."
Li Ang gave instructions and quietly led the archers out of the woods and moved closer to the river.
"Shoot!" Li Ang led the archers to secretly gather near the group of bandits. He raised his arms high and shot a wave of arrows into the group of bandits, causing a miserable howl.
Then the lord turned around and ran away with thirty archers.
The archers' archery skills were not very good, but they still knocked down more than ten bandits who were resting by the river because they were caught off guard.
Several knights shouted and cursed loudly and began to give orders.
The group of elite infantrymen were the first to react. When they discovered Li Ang's small group of dozens, they immediately stood up and began to approach with their shields raised.
But the bandits were very unrestrained. They rushed over howling.
Leon looked back and saw two knights chasing after him, so he raised his Eagle Strike Bow and turned around to shoot an arrow.
Reflexive archery on horseback is the fighting method of the grassland people.
The arrow was shot more than a hundred meters away, but it still accurately hit a knight's forehead, and the knight fell off his horse with a clang.
The lord grinned - it was pure luck, his horse archery skills had not yet reached the level of rapid shooting and hitting whatever he pointed at, and he did not expect to hit the head, so being able to hit the knight was already an above-average performance.
But the other knight was obviously frightened by this terrifying long-range headshot. He slowed down, turned back and called out, and then a large group of bandits rushed up and started chasing him, and a random stream of arrows began to be fired at Leon.
They were too far away, and Li Ang and his men kept running back. The wooden bows in the bandits' hands could hardly cause any damage to the well-armored heavy archers, and the thirty archers ran into the woods in a flash.
Although "Don't enter the woods" is a rule of thumb that should be followed in most cases, the bandits were numerous and powerful, so they naturally wouldn't care about a small forest at the moment. A group of people quickly rushed in with loud shouts.
Leon himself did not enter the woods. He rode his horse around the woods, shooting an arrow from time to time - he was luring those heavy infantry single-handedly.
Seeing this situation, the knight wisely ordered the infantry not to pursue Leon, but to keep on guard outside the woods.
This is what an army should look like. They should not lose their composure even when being harassed. This knight seems to be an experienced warrior.
Leon shot an arrow at him, but the knight blocked it with his shield. Then several crossbow arrows from the infantry formation shot at Leon.
This kind of shooting match was not cost-effective, so the lord had to ride Alice around the woods and disappear from the sight of these people.
However, although the leading knight was very alert, the bandits suffered a loss and seemed difficult to control. A large group of them rushed into the woods shouting and said they would tear the person who shot the arrow into pieces...
However, not long after they entered the woods, a group of strong men suddenly jumped out from behind the big trees, followed by a large and neat array of sword lights!
The mottled sunlight in the woods made a dozen or so strong figures appear dark. The swords in their hands flickered, and the powerful attack was hard to resist .
After a few rounds of sword flashes, no less than twenty bandits were cut into more than forty pieces and fell in the woods, with screams and cries ringing out.
"Walk!"
