Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 395 - 43 Chariot Formation
Chapter 395: Chapter 43 Chariot Formation
The Herders chose an excellent moment to launch their ambush.
The attack began just as the convoy was passing between two earth mounds at a saddle point.
To bypass the high ground, the long column twisted into an S-shape. The head and tail lost sight of each other and couldn’t watch out for one another.
Accompanied by the sound of bugles, a group of Herder Cavalry burst out from the north-facing slope, plunging straight into the middle of the convoy.
The length of the column, stretching over a kilometer, made communication difficult; Winters at the very front couldn’t see what was happening behind.
Upon realizing something was wrong, Winters immediately rode his horse up the western slope.
The full breadth of the battlefield unfolded before him:
A group of strange cavalry donning mail armor had broken into the middle of the convoy, where the Paratu People were already in disarray;
The chaos spread as swiftly as a wildfire. A few still-courageous militiamen tried to resist only to be robbed of life by arrows and javelins from behind. Everyone was fleeing, and the brave died even quicker;
There weren’t many among the strange cavalry, but they didn’t entangle themselves in the fight, driving the routed soldiers forward and back like seasoned sheepdogs.
“Centurion Montaigne!” Lieutenant Colonel Jeska arrived at the front of the convoy, followed by more than twenty Dusacks.
“Sir!” Winters galloped down from the slope, “The middle is in chaos, the Herders are driving routed soldiers this way.”
The one-eyed lieutenant colonel spat, “Of course they are! Those sons of bitches want to devour us all.”
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“They’re not many; I’ll take some men and charge through! There might be a chance!”
“No! Form the wagons into a circle! We defend right here, gather the troops first.”
Winters panicked, “Half the cargo is gunpowder! If they set fire, it’s all over!”
“If they wanted to set fire, would they wait until now? With just a few dozen Herders, they dare to take us on?” Jeska smirked coldly, “Do you only strike at the waist when fighting a man? The Herders are best at divide-and-conquer; they want to swallow us whole!”
Winters understood the crux and immediately directed the wagons to turn.
Lieutenant Colonel Jeska jumped down from his saddle, “The flag!”
The standard-bearer presented the regimental flag to the lieutenant colonel, who leaped onto a wagon and planted the Paratu cross quadrant flag above it.
“We hold our ground right here!” the one-eyed lieutenant colonel bellowed standing atop the wagon, “Cowards will be executed without mercy.”
The lieutenant colonel made his stance clear, and Winters also fetched the flag of the centurion unit, planting it into a sack on the wagon.
The bugler sounded the assembly call, and nearby militiamen and wagoners swarmed towards the flags.
With two officers as their pillar, the militiamen and wagoners knew what to do. The draft horses were unhitched from wagon after wagon, led into the center of the formation.
The goods on the wagons were unloaded to allow the musketeers to stand upon them.
Under Winters’s bellowing orders, the musketeers frantically loaded their ammunition, and the pikemen began to reform their ranks.
The double-column formation naturally had barriers on the left and right, the wagoners pulled the wagons close together, and the inevitable gaps were temporarily blocked with ropes.
But four-wheeled wagons were difficult to turn, and in the rush, gaps in the front and rear could only be filled with pikemen.
Gradually, panicked wagoners and militiamen who fled were herded to the front ranks, most of them having thrown away their weapons.
The flags waving atop the wagon formation caught their eyes first.
With the savage Herd Barbarians at their heels and the Paratu People’s courage shattered, the sight of safety ahead made them surge towards the wagon fort en masse.
“It’s safe over there!” A wagoner shouted as he ran, “Go to the flag!”
Lieutenant Colonel Jeska saw this and cursed loudly, sprung on his horse, and knocked the leading Paratu person, causing him to spit blood. Then, with a terrifying chop, he sliced half the head off the shouting wagoner.
The remaining Paratu People stood frozen in terror by the one-eyed lieutenant colonel’s brutal actions.
“Those who attack our formation will die!” Dripping with Paratu blood, Jeska roared at the routed soldiers, “Circumvent the wagon fort!”
The lieutenant colonel stood before the formation like a wedge, dividing the panicked Paratu People in two, who then circled from the north and south flanks before entering the wagon fort from the west.
A Herder Cavalry, brandishing a scimitar, chased and slashed his way through until he hit the wagon fort. He stopped about thirty meters away from the wagons, seeming perplexed.
A musketeer on a wagon shakily pressed the firing lever. The gunshot rang out, but the Herder horseman remained unharmed.
The sound of one gun provoked more shots; tense musketeers fired indiscriminately, and even Winters couldn’t stop them.
After a barrage of gunfire, the smoke cleared, and the Herder horseman was still sitting comfortably in the saddle.
The Herder laughed wildly, and his ear-piercing laughter hammered the militiamen’s courage and spirit.
“Laugh at your mother!” Winters, unable to endure it any longer, jumped onto a wagon and shot the Herder horseman dead.
His brain sprayed from the back of his head as he fell stiffly from his horse, dead without understanding why he’d been shot.
A moment of silence within the wagon fort was followed by deafening cheers.
Winters emotionlessly tossed the rifled flintlock to Xial, who gleefully reloaded it.
The weapon was efficient but too expensive and too much trouble to load.
With the wagon fort temporarily secure, Lieutenant Colonel Jeska immediately ordered the preparation of signal smoke. The militiamen began gathering grass, horse dung, dismantled wooden planks from the wagons, and took down gunpowder.
Small cavalry raids on supply lines were a common tactic of the Herders; the Paratu People also had countermeasures. Signal smoke would be relayed through camps along the route, nearby Paratu cavalry would converge on this location… to help take vengeance.
Scattered Herder horsemen charged up to the face of the wagon fort, saw no opportunity, and rode off, going back to continue killing and driving the routed Paratu forces eastward.
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