Chapter 76 Deterrence
Outside the grove, Leon's voice came, short and clear - he had been outside watching the enemy's situation.
None of the Mettenheim greatswordsmen spoke. They silently swung their swords to kill the enemies around them, and then silently disappeared into the woods.
They followed behind Klose, pushing aside branches and vines together, and artificially created a dark passage in the woods, as if a giant bear had passed through.
The bandits made too much noise, and in the woods with poor visibility, it was difficult for them to identify the location of Klose and his men.
So, the bandits who rushed in first retreated from the woods after leaving behind more than twenty corpses.
Although they were a mob, they were not fools - they knew that they could not pursue blindly, so they retreated and planned to encircle the enemy.
Therefore, Leon asked Klose and others to leave quickly.
The harassed enemies surrounded the woods and delayed for a while, finding no one, and soon reorganized at the urging of the knights.
But they did not rest on the river bank, but began to march towards Maixiangling.
The leader of this army obviously had experience in battle. He did not get entangled in the harassment of a small force, but directly let this motley crowd charge towards Xiangling from the main road, and let those well-trained infantrymen guard the periphery.
One part of the infantry was at the rear, while the other part was at the front, guarding against possible ambushes in the woods on both sides.
They walked slowly—seemingly cautious.
Li Ang looked up and could already see the smoke signals rising from the sky above Bailu Fort. No wonder these people continued to march even though they knew there was an ambush - they had to cooperate with the offensive from Bailu Fort.
It's a pity that I don't have any horse archers...
The bandits' long-range attack capabilities were not strong, and their defenses were also poor. If he had a team of mounted archers, Leon felt that he could probably kite them to death.
When this battle is over, the entire cavalry unit must be sent out no matter what.
The lord lay in the woods, frowning and thinking.
Most of the enemies were a mob, and the only difficult ones were the knight leader and the infantry, many of whom had heavy crossbows. Moreover, the knights were all dressed the same, so it was difficult to tell who was the real leader.
Leon patted Alice's butt and let the horse run into the woods to hide, and then he also went into the woods on the side of the road.
"Klose, go to the front and wait for my instructions, and prepare to charge..."
Although the enemy was now very careful, Li Ang still found some opportunities.
Marching always stretches the formation. After the enemy entered the road from the open river bank, the team was obviously stretched into a long line - this road had not been completed yet, and although it could accommodate carriages, it was only about three meters wide.
The knights walked in the middle of the team, but there were no reliable elites around them - the infantry were placed at the head and tail.
Li Ang reached into his quiver and pulled out a silver arrow.
These are Risadiran's arrows. There are only two of them , and they are souvenirs of the failed assassination attempt.
In fact, most people are not used to this kind of heavy all-metal arrow. The equipment and martial arts of the Noldor elves are unique, and it is not easy for humans to adapt to them, so Leon did not think of taking the equipment of Risadilan.
However, this arrow can be used in Li Ang's hands, but it is not as accurate as ordinary feather arrows when shooting at moving targets.
"put!"
Leon ordered his archers to fire another volley, but he himself moved forward quickly.
This time, the heavy archers still shot arrows at the bandits in the middle of the team, and then without looking at the results, they retreated into the woods again.
This time no one came to chase them, only a few feather arrows and crossbow bolts were fired back.
In fact, this wave of arrows did not produce good results - the enemy was prepared, and only two bandits with incomplete armor were shot down.
But this wave of harassment stopped the enemies. They held up various shields for defense and carefully looked for traces of the attackers.
And just as they stopped, a silver arrow pierced the head of a knight.
——Leon asked the archers to shoot a wave of arrows just to make the enemy stop so that he could face the stationary target.
"Noldor! These are the arrows of the Noldor!"
"Why are there Noldor here?"
"Everyone defend!"
The effect of this single shot of Noldor arrows far exceeded that of a volley of thirty men, and all the enemies raised their shields and formed a circle.
Those knights were obviously a little panicked - if it was just harassment from a few dozen people, they wouldn't care. They could just send some people to guard against it, and the main force would speed up the attack on Maixiang Territory.
A small number of harassment troops will not actually achieve much results, after all, there are so many of these bandits.
But the arrows of the Noldor are different...
Just as they all raised their shields for defense, another silver arrow pierced through the shield in the hand of another knight and pierced deeply into his neck.
Le Ang has seen the armor-piercing ability of the Noldor arrows, and the Eagle Strike Bow in his hand also has enough kinetic energy to achieve the armor-piercing effect!
Although his weapon could not reach the level of Risadilan, where it could penetrate armor and human bodies and penetrate deeply into the carriage, it could still penetrate an ordinary kite-shaped shield.
Li Ang did not shoot again. Ordinary arrows could not penetrate the shield, and if he shot again, the enemy would most likely discover him.
Two Noldor arrows will already have a good effect.
If the first Noldor arrow only caused a commotion, then the second arrow that broke the shield and took people's lives brought panic - all the knights understood that the 'Noldor' was obviously trying to kill the leading knight!
No one is safe from the armor-piercing arrows of the Noldor!
The only five remaining knights were visibly panicked. They obviously knew how terrible the Noldor's bows and arrows were in this environment surrounded by woods.
The knights immediately dismounted, hid behind their horses, and covered their bodies with shields.
Moreover, several completely different commands sounded at the same time.
“Charge forward!”
“Stand back!”
"Stay where you are and don't move!"
Perhaps each order was reasonable, but it would be troublesome if different orders were issued at the same time - this was a mob, and they lost unified command at this moment.
Just two Noldor arrows still had a deterrent effect on a large army!
The bandits, who were already difficult to control, began to get chaotic. Some moved forward, some retreated, and more just squatted where they were.
Those knights were not stupid. They were just a little flustered by the two Noldor arrows. They reacted immediately after seeing this scene. The leading knight shouted loudly: "Everyone, move forward... Stop them!"
But before he could utter the order, he was forced to change his words - because at this moment, more than a dozen strong men suddenly rushed out of the woods, shouting loudly and pounced on the knights.
These huge two-handed swordsmen raised a cloud of grass and leaves. They formed an arrow-like team and swung their swords like streaks of light.
The bandits who blocked their vision with shields could not stop the shining sword, and the weak defense of only a dozen people was broken by the Mettenheim people almost instantly.
The leading knight dismounted and had no time to dodge. After knocking down an infantryman, Klose had already rushed in front of him.
The greatsword slashed down diagonally with a sound of breaking wind.
The knight was quite skilled and blocked the attack with his shield, but the shield was chopped in half and Klose's powerful strength caused him to stumble back several steps.
But this clever knight made the most correct choice - he threw down his shield, turned around and ran to the front of the troops, leaving Klose behind him to kill the chaotic bandits.
Klose did not chase after him because the guy ran so fast that he could not be caught up with him.
Taking advantage of the brief confusion among this part of the enemy, the Mettenheim Charge wielded their greatswords to clear a small area of bloody flesh. Several knights died under the greatswords, and another knight ran back.
The bandits on both sides finally broke away from each other.
