Mercenaries and Adventurers

The militia camp was not too far from the bandit's lair, but the way there was all uphill, which was quite exhausting.

The bandits were not idle yesterday, they were indeed determined to fight to the end. Outside the entrance of the cave, many obstacles were placed to resist the shooting of crossbows.

Crow Knight asked the militiamen to stop where the bandit weapons were thrown, because the terrain was not good, and there were not many places where the militiamen could spread out, so Crow Knight asked the spear militiamen of 20 people in each team, Launch attack waves according to the team.

Each militiaman carried two bags of fifteen crossbow bolts, a total of thirty, which was enough to fire a wave of crossbow bolts.

Keir followed Crow Knight to the front, and the militiamen in the back either cut down the trees on the mountain, or cleared the snow on the road, or could only wait for their rotation to play.

The first wave of militiamen dispersed, first standing in the distance, shooting from below at random, so that the bandits hiding behind the resistance could not attack.

Immediately afterwards, the fast-moving clerks and assistants in the camp sent over the first large wooden shield.

With the help of this thing, the militiamen on the front line will not have to hide in a safe place with a bad shooting angle. They can place this large wooden shield with supports in the middle of the hillside leading to the bandit's lair, and hide behind the large wooden shield. The militia can safely fire on the chord, which greatly expands the possibility of shooting on the frontal battlefield.

As time went by, the large wooden shields provided in the rear camp became more and more, basically allowing an entire team of twenty spear militiamen to hide behind the wooden shields and shoot.

"Keir, you go to the front. The bandits probably can't accept the feeling of being beaten like this. They probably sent people to rush to the wooden shield and fight with the militiamen." Knight Crowe instructed Kiel to go to support the militiamen in close combat.

"Besides, the militiamen of the first team are running out of crossbow arrows. They have been shooting for most of the morning. Although they failed to kill one or two people, at least they have stabilized the front line."

Kiel picked up his spear and ran to the front line. At the same time, Knight Crowe's order rang out loud and clear: "The first team retreats from the left one by one. The second team is in a hurry. It's time for you to go up."

The first group of militiamen who had been shooting nervously all morning ran back quickly, while the second group of militiamen who had been waiting for a long time passed by the first group of militiamen.

The bandits, who were hiding behind the densely packed obstacles filled with crossbow arrows, immediately saw the right moment and rushed out howling with excitement.

The leading bandits naturally saw the opportunity for the militiamen to exchange. As long as they moved or burned the large wooden shields that provided the militiamen with shooting defense, they could make the militiamen's work all morning in vain.

Moreover, close combat with the militiamen is already the only way the bandits think can defeat these large numbers of militiamen. When it comes to killing people, these bandits don't find it difficult at all.

Kiel, who came to the front line one step earlier, was ready to fight. As long as he delayed the bandits, the militiamen who arrived soon would be able to stabilize their positions and shoot and kill the bandits who rushed out one by one.

But it was not the second team of militiamen who were coming to win the battle first.

"The third team, jump over our wooden shield and shoot at will!" Knight Crowe had been prepared, and the third team of militiamen was far away, and the entire team of 20 people lined up neatly, and shot the crossbow arrows in their hands roughly in the direction of the bandits. .

Whoosh whoosh.

A crossbow arrow cut through the air and flew over Kiel's head, scaring Kiel to squat down quickly. He didn't want to be shot in the back by his own crossbow arrows.

"Damn it!"

"ah!"

Some bandits who rushed out of the obstacle were shot. After all, it was a volley of twenty people, and there were always bandits with bad luck and militiamen with good luck showing themselves.

After a wave of arrows rained, the bandit narrowed the distance and hid on the other side of the big wooden shield. Kiel stepped out and slashed the bandit hiding on the other side of the wooden shield along his shoulder and neck with a heavy slash with the double-edged spear in his hand.

Kiel took two steps back, while using his gun blade to injure the bandit more heavily, while drawing out his weapon, and before another bandit who was also hiding behind the wooden shield charged up, he gave way to the other bandit's weapon, and stabbed the bandit in the stomach .

He was hit behind him, but Kiel didn't feel any pain, just a slight shock in his body.

He let go of the handle of the gun with his right hand, touched the long sword on his left waist, turned around and pulled it out, clang! He fought with a bandit who came from behind.

The bandit didn't expect that his sneak attack would be useless, so he had to do it with a real knife.

But it didn't excite him for long, Kiel glanced at the second group of militiamen on the right, clamped the spear to his waist with one hand, and then retreated a few steps with a long sword swing.

Immediately afterwards, the bandit who was about to kill Kiel, who was retreating, was half-run away, and the militiamen who squatted on the ground and raised their crossbows shot into a honeycomb.

The crossbow arrow pierced through the bandit's leather jacket, nailing his arms and body together through flesh and blood.

Kiel shook off the bandit pierced by the long spear, quickly retracted the sword with his right hand, and stabbed out with the gun again, stabbing the wounded bandit to death.

Several militiamen ran to the big wooden shield behind Kiel, put down their spears, picked up their wound crossbows and started shooting.

"Come on a few people, come up with me!" Keel yelled.

Four militiamen came to him with their spears in hand, and the five of them stood in a tight row, leveled their spears and spears, and charged obliquely at the bandits who were about to push the big wooden shield down the mountain.

Kiel's spear was much shorter than the spears of the militiamen, so it was the militiamen who stabbed the bandits first. It's just that their impact speed is not fast. Bandits with some combat experience either dodge or brandish their weapons, deflecting the spear points of the militiamen.

But Kiel had expected it, he himself was one step ahead of the militiamen, and aimed his spear directly at a bandit who was about to rush over. He raised the gun against the ground and directly scratched one of the bandit's legs.

Next to it, the militiamen's spears had no effect, so they raised and lowered their respective spears, and used the sharp tips of the spears to continuously rise and fall to attack the bandits who wanted to approach.

Moreover, when these heavy spears hit when they are rising and falling, it is not a light attack.

When Kiel injured a bandit, he immediately lifted up the spear and smashed it down. Compared with the spear tip of the militiamen, which only had a small amount of metal, Kiel's double-edged spear has a sharp, long and wide blade.

As it was raised and lowered, Kiel accurately manipulated the gun blade to split the leather cap on the bandit's head and shattered the bandit's parietal bone.

I don't know if the bandit is dead or not, but seeing the bandit roll his eyes and fall to the ground softly, Kiel no longer cares about him, just roared, swung his spear left and right, and forced back three people who wanted to approach. robbers.

Immediately afterwards, the previous training of the militiamen took effect. The four militiamen retreated two steps, and then the four of them yelled to attack the bandit together. The sharp points of the four spears all stabbed the bandit Four big holes were pierced in the bandit's body. As the militiamen shouted again and retreated, a lot of blood continued to flow from the wound on the bandit's body.

Seeing this, the remaining two bandits turned around and ran away, but then five or six militiamen behind the big wooden shield shot one of them down with a crossbow, and the other got an arrow in his leg, and fled back screaming and jumping on one foot. Behind the obstruction on the bandit's side.

The five of Kiel and the others took down the big wooden shield, and immediately the second team of militiamen came over and erected the big wooden shield that was overthrown and destroyed by the bandits.

The bandits cut off the wooden stick supporting the wooden shield, so a militiaman had to squat down to prop up the large wooden shield.

Leading the people, Kiel immediately rushed to another large wooden shield that was on fire.

The bandits brought a bottle of strong wine they did not know where they got it, poured it on the big wooden shield, and then lit a fire, and the flames immediately burned blazingly.

The five of Keir rushed over and aimed directly at the bandits who wanted to escape.

This time, the four militiamen gained a little experience. They no longer tried to disperse and attack all the bandits, but two people aimed at one person and stabbed the bandits together at the same time. If the bandits wanted to open the spear of one militiaman, the other spear would pierce him, so this time, several militiamen still achieved a little victory.

Kiel then caught up, stabbed a bandit in the face with a single shot, killed the bandit directly, and then drove away the other bandits with a long gun.

Seeing that the big wooden shields had already been lit, and that Kiel and the others were coming to expel them, the remaining bandits stopped thinking about supporting other bandits, and turned around and ran towards the place they came from.

The militiamen who had already captured the shooting position tried to shoot at the bandits, but were forced back by the weapons thrown by other bandits hiding behind the shelter, and had to retreat behind the big wooden shield to resist.

Kiel and the militiamen dodged the weapons thrown at them, regardless of the large wooden shield that was lit, and rushed to the next place, trying to kill more bandits.

The bandits at the last two large wooden shields were suppressed by other militiamen who designed bows and crossbows from a distance and couldn't destroy the wooden shields, so they slipped back to the original place immediately after Kiel rushed over with his men.

In this way, the militiamen who fired from behind caught up and occupied the big wooden shield, maintaining the state before changing teams.

Seeing that the front line was stable, Kiel was summoned by Knight Crowe and returned to his side.

"Good job." Crow Knight praised Kiel.

"Sorry, I still let the bandits burn a large wooden shield." Keel took out a rough cloth and wiped the blood and hair stained on the spear blade.

"It's okay, on the contrary, after you and the militiamen fought hard, we only lost a large wooden shield that can be made soon, while the bandits lost several people. Haha. It will not be a problem to push the front line another fifty meters in the afternoon "Crow Knight is very satisfied with the performance of the militiamen, and Keir's performance is completely within his expectations.

Just now Kiel defeated a few bandits by himself, but this is because the bandits don't know much about his activities. After the bandits are on guard against him, it will be very difficult for Kiel to perform well.

But it doesn't matter, for Crow Knight, if the battle is not a knight-level fighter involved, then the bravery of one or two people on the battlefield is not very important.

Soon, a newly made large wooden shield was sent from the camp behind, which made everything the bandits did just now look ridiculous. From here Kiel could hear the frustrated curses of the bandits as they saw the new wooden shields.

"Kiel, look, isn't all this very interesting. The battle is actually very interesting, the enemy's cursing and pleading, a moment of false victory and desperate defeat. All of this, except on the battlefield, is hard to see anywhere else. If you want to be a brave warrior, then you have to learn to understand and enjoy fighting." Knight Crowe patted Kiel's helmet and said.

Kiel nodded, trying to understand some of the fun of fighting between people, otherwise, the battlefield is really too boring.

Different from the battle that most people imagined, the progress of the battle that Kiel saw was not very fast. It was basically a stalemate and slow advancement between the two sides, and then there was a sudden fierce confrontation.

He could barely see that Knight Crowe had been avoiding large-scale close combat between the militiamen and the bandits. The reason is clear when you think about it. Compared with the militiamen, the bandits have the advantage of having brutal experience in traditional close combat, so the militiamen must avoid close combat with the bandits on a large scale.

But small-scale close combat is fine. Firstly, the militia has an advantage in numbers. Although the width of the battlefield is not enough to deploy two spear militias, but by replacing the front-line militia many times, Crow Knight can let the front-line fighters on their side, Always ensure the best fighting condition.

The bandits seem to be inexperienced. Their team formation is mainly composed of bandit leaders. The bandit leader on the front line has only so many people under him, unless he retreats and lets other leaders lead people over. Otherwise, the ones who have been fighting with Kiel and the others have always been those bandits.

From the dawn of the morning, those bandits had been on the front line of the battlefield. By this time in the afternoon, the long hours of fighting and tension had made these bandits not only tired, but also mentally very fragile.

Not only is the fighting technique declining rapidly, but also the will to fight is running out.

The second point is that Knight Crowe boldly let Kiel fight on the front line. He is like a firefighter. Once there is a bandit rushing over, Kiel will rush up immediately, using armor and spears to hinder or block the bandit team rushing down, and then another team behind the front line will cross the front line , covering the rear of the shooting bandits, intercepting the bandits who are rushing and those who want to retreat.

And the militiamen behind the big wooden shields lined up one by one will rub Kiel and shoot the unprotected bandits, striving for a lot of killing bandits.

In this way, many small-scale melee battles by the bandits were resolved by the Knights of Crowe.

And one or two times, when Kiel didn't realize it, the bandits wanted to rush towards the militia, but the experienced knight Crowe saw the bandits' intentions first, and he would immediately adjust his response. For the few militia teams that came down, let them come forward and line up the bows and crossbows densely.

If the bandits dared to rush down, he would dare to let the bandits lose half of their people on the road. In this way, he would lose at most half of the spear militiamen on his side, while the bandits would have to bear the burden of being killed by a large number of people when they attacked and retreated. Casualties caused by intensive crossbow strikes.

There will be no bandits who want to be shot dead by crossbow arrows in vain on the way to the impact. Bandits are not militiamen. They can bear to be killed in close combat, but they are not as good as others, but they can't accept being forced to attack by the leader, and then they are in vain. The dead on the way to this kind of thing.

Knight Crowe saw through the limitations of the bandit gang's identity, so the two large-scale attacks that forced the bandits back without a fight completely shattered the bandit's arrogance.

The advance of the militia has been going on.

Once a row of large wooden shields is erected, another row of staggered large wooden shields behind will be lifted by the militiamen, and then moved forward little by little. At the beginning, the bandits wanted to throw torches to burn these large wooden shields, but if they shrank behind obstacles, they were still not allowed. If you lean out your body and throw a torch, you will be shot to death with a bow and crossbow by the militiamen who have been waiting for a long time.

In this way, on the contrary, the torches used by the militiamen first burned down the shelter where the bandits were hiding.

Knight Crowe first saw that the number of large wooden shields reached eight, so he stopped the work of continuing to make large wooden shields at the camp, and let them start making torches instead.

With eight large shields on the front line, the militiamen advanced much faster, and soon reached the distance from which they could throw torches from the low places to the bandit shelter above.

Then, behind the first row of shields on the front line, the militiamen stopped using bows and crossbows, but started throwing torches, trying to burn the shelters where the bandits were hiding from the bows and crossbows.

Once a bandit wants to attack the torch-throwing militia leaning out, or the crossbow militia with shields in the back row, they will shoot that person into a sieve.

Soon, as dozens of torches were thrown out, all kinds of wooden boxes covered by the bandits were burned. The bandits, choked by the heat and smoke, couldn't stay, so they had to abandon this line of defense, turned around and fled to a higher place behind. A line of defense.

After Knight Crowe saw the bandits retreating, he immediately dispatched an elite melee militia headed by Kiel, and quickly rushed forward to extinguish the burning shelter.

It's not that these shelters are useful, the main reason is that these shelters are densely nailed with the crossbow arrows shot by the militiamen today.

These small crossbow arrows with wooden poles and iron heads cannot be manufactured by the militia camp, and can only be repaired in small quantities, so it is very important to recover these shot crossbow arrows.

None of Kiel and the others were holding a large pool of cold snow. As soon as they got the order of the knight, they rushed over and sprinkled the snow on the torches and various burning wooden boxes and shelters~www.readwn.com ~Then the militia behind carried the big wooden shields and quickly moved forward to occupy this area.

Arriving here, Knight Crowe looked at the sky. It was already afternoon, and it was getting dark in the mountains, so today's battle came to an end. Then it's time to consolidate the process.

The idle militiamen had cut down many surrounding trees that blocked the road. At this time, these trees were made into campfires, filling the front line of the battlefield, and they would be lit when it got dark.

On the one hand, it can provide lighting at night, so that the militiamen can see the actions of the bandits clearly. Second, it can form a flame barrier that hinders bandits from raiding at night.

If it is not arranged in this way, the bandits will definitely try to raid their side on a large scale after the night arrives, and regain the positions lost during the day.

But Knight Crowe could have used this to set a trap, causing heavy losses to the bandits and speeding up the battle. However, he considered that he still had a layer of experience and ability to train the militiamen to attack fortifications after clearing the bandit's lair this time, so he gave up his plan to set up an ambush at night.

He directly asked the militiamen to prepare two consecutive campfires, and when night came, they would light these campfires to completely block the not very wide front of the battlefield. Dispel any plans of the bandits to fight at night.

Of course, it is impossible to go straight, and people can also go to other places with more difficult terrain, but at night, it is impossible for many people to move together neatly. A few people can come out along the steep hillside, but these few people can't do much.

It's okay to escape by yourself, but it's impossible to use it to make trouble for the militiamen.

Knight Crowe had already set up a siege, and those bandits who escaped at night would not really be able to escape, but would only die under his arrangements.