The Polotsk people had never really fought against the Ross cavalry, and the last skirmish was nothing. Now they finally realized that they had encountered an incredibly powerful enemy.
What is fighting? Proclaw thinks that fighting is a fight between warriors. As a result, the enemy is so arrogant that he only shoots arrows.
His head was buzzing, and there was an arrow stuck in the wooden shield tied to his left arm. This arrow was exactly the same as the one captured before, which proved that the enemy was the previous horse bandit.
Now, the horse bandits are coming again.
"The spearmen responded to the challenge and stabbed their horses!" He shouted with all his strength, but was long ago covered up by the horrified shouts of the soldiers.
The soldiers of Polotsk were defending instinctively. They spontaneously gathered together and used shields as walls to defend themselves. They could only protect themselves and had no time to care about their injured companions. The wailing of the injured only exacerbated the chaos on the battlefield.
The Russian cavalry came from two wings again, the horses galloped, and the riders shot arrows sideways. One raid was three companies of arrows, and then they retreated to their original position.
Especially the warriors holding crossbows fired heavy arrows at close range, and the short and thick arrows completely penetrated the shields, killing the warriors behind who were deeply hit by the arrows.
After only two rounds, the Polotsk army did not know what to do and could only continue to "superimpose". They kept shrinking. The people in front squeezed the people inside out of fear, and the people inside were actually pressed so hard that they could not breathe. The soldiers rushed over.
Don't want to be on the periphery and get shot, a stampede is happening.
After a short rest, the third round of cavalry attacks came again. The same Parthian tactics, the same helpless gathering of the Polotsk people.
The arrows hit the wooden shield like many rye ears growing out, and the chicken-feather armor-piercing arrows were stuck everywhere. The arrows cut through the wooden shield and hit the soldier's side, and penetrated the soldier's eyes and neck through the gap. The red spray paint
The Polotsk soldiers, who were gushing ferociously and witnessing the misery of their comrades, could only further use their shields to help each other's torso and face, and in this way they lost even more chance to resist.
Of course, even for the Russian cavalry, the frequent use of Parthian tactics consumes a lot of horsepower. Based on the experience of past wars, it is necessary to take a good rest after doing this six times. Then do it six times!
So, the fourth round of attacks came again!
Although it is a small-scale conflict, the battlefield is like a small group of lions running freely in the African grasslands. At least the wildebeests will resist vigorously, and the beaten Polotsk army has been gathering helplessly.
"They are too weak." Quetzal was very speechless and suggested Fisk: "I saw you sent a large number of soldiers to wear armor. Do you still want to stick to your desperate strategy? Why not let your men rush in once to resolve the battle."
"No need." Fisk stared intently with an iron face, "Do it again and make them collapse and run away."
"So you will fight back and flee from the enemy later?"
"Then chase him. I changed my mind!"
This is often the case. Once the battle begins, it is almost impossible to progress as the initiator expected. Even if Fisk wants to be merciful, he and his brothers have long been red-blooded, and their thoughts as warriors have been fully awakened.
The last round of cavalry shooting began, and the cavalry quickly passed by after causing some damage.
At this moment, the war horse was already holding its head high and panting heavily, and its horsepower was greatly consumed by the constant turning back and charging, so the seventh round was completely suspended.
"Everyone stop!" Fisk shouted again and ordered: "Remove the bow! Draw the sword!"
All the cavalrymen turned their horses, knowing that this was the final pursuit. Upon seeing this, the Pechenegs who were traveling with them also drew their swords or picked up battle axes.
Fisk was not in a hurry to attack immediately. He checked his troops and noticed that there should be no losses on his side. Indeed, he did not give the enemy a chance to counterattack, so of course he had no casualties on his side.
It was a surprise to both sides that the battle turned out like this. Fisk really didn't expect that the enemy was so weak, while Proclaw was completely confused and didn't know what to do.
The obviously exhausted cavalry still firmly controlled the initiative on the battlefield, and those Polotsk people were also suffering from fear while being equally exhausted. They longed for a chance to escape, and all their eyes looked through.
Watch the movements of the Russians with a wooden shield filled with arrows.
Countless people had grass in their hearts. They wanted to run away but were worried that once they broke away from the cover of the large army, they would become the prey of the Rosmar bandits. They became extremely conservative and stayed in place as if they were scared to death.
He could only helplessly point his spearhead outward.
The Russian cavalry were completely uniform in uniform, and the Pecheneg cavalry all wore iron masks. The final killing was about to begin, although this did not meet the requirements of steppe tactics.
"It's time to go! Russians! Form a wall! Follow me slowly! Pechenegs behind!"
Therefore, the larger number of Russians formed a wall and formed a thin line array. This array was extremely wide but thin. The attackers naturally knew their own strength, but in the eyes of the victim and enemy, it was like a wall that was unstoppable.
The ground is slowly pressing towards itself.
There was still a whooshing sound in the sky, and it was the Pechenegs who were rearguard in the depths and were still firing arrows into the air. Quetzal made what he thought was the appropriate cooperation, feeling that it was inappropriate to launch a fatal surprise attack now, and that he needed to fire arrows to further advance.
Destroy enemy morale.
A wall was coming from the front. If the Polotsk people wanted to resist the wall, they had to be prepared for arrows falling from the sky.
Those who were still resisting were surrounded by many wounded. The wounded were wailing, and the dead were completely limp. It was clear that they were superior in numbers. They had been passively beaten in this battle with no counterattack. Proclaw's mind was a little clearer.
, he called on his brothers to actively defend against the enemy with grief and indignation. Unexpectedly, the morale of the frightened comrades was on the verge of collapse.
Collapse is only a matter of time. All it takes is one trigger and the entire military formation will collapse completely.
The fuse is inevitable.
At first, it was just a soldier who couldn't stand the miserable situation, threw down his broken shield with arrows stuck in it, and ran towards the woodland area north of the river with an ax in his hand.
Like an avalanche, it starts with just a few snowflakes falling, and then the chain reaction quickly evolves into a massive collapse.
The second person, the third person... now there are more than ten people, more than twenty people...
"Boss! They finally fled! Chase them quickly!" a Ross soldier shouted anxiously.
Fisk was waiting for this opportunity. He finally succeeded in inducing the enemy to disintegrate himself. He straightened his arm and turned the steel sword in his hand, shining brightly: "The whole army! Attack! Kill wantonly."
The charge begins!
The Ross cavalry, which is generally armored, can be regarded as a low-end version of heavy cavalry. Led by Fisk himself, the wall gradually turned into a chisel, and it crashed into the fully fled enemy.
Those enemies who were running towards the forest were let go because they wasted time in pursuit. The cavalry was obsessed with dividing and surrounding the enemies, just like cutting through pieces of fresh meat with a dagger, enjoying some and giving up some.
The war horse hit the fleeing people, and the cavalryman holding the sword raised the steel sword over his head in a very elegant way, stabbing the enemy with nothing. After all, this was not a broad-bladed saber, and the slender Ross steel sword was different from all Vikings.
Swords are designed to focus on assassination rather than chopping. Objectively, they are also very suitable for cavalry to kill unarmored targets.
The sword stabbed an enemy, and coupled with the speed of the war horse, the stabbing caused extremely deep wounds, and the person who was struck by the sword was almost certain to die.
They are ruthless killing machines, and the Pecheneg cavalry in the rearguard can see this clearly.
This was the seventh round of the battle. The Ross cavalry tore the Polotsk army apart. Those who had fled into the forest or were running away did not pursue them. The cavalry, which had lost its momentum, targeted the enemies in front of them and fought them.
The cavalry finally turned into a state of fighting independently, and Fisk no longer worried that his cavalry would be killed by the enemies who were actively resisting in the chaos. On the contrary, the enemies in front of him almost lost their fighting spirit, and each one dropped their weapons and huddled up.
The group awaits its fate of death.
Killing a guy who threw away his weapon is not considered bravery. Most of these people will not be killed. This is not because the Ross cavalry suddenly became merciful, but because the brothers intend to capture slaves.
The Russian cavalry wants to capture slaves, and the Polotsk cavalry wants to do the same. What's more, there are obviously female warriors here. Like other members of their race, they have almost given up resistance and are being captured one by one.
"Hurry up and capture the prisoners! Then sell them to the Russians to make money!" Quetzal called on his men to get down to business in the language of the grasslands, so some black-haired grassland warriors still dismounted and tied up the frightened enemies with the ready-made cables.
Stop your hands and feet.
The people of the steppe are very particular. They specialize in female warriors from Polotsk, but now it is more appropriate to describe them as "peasant women who have lost their fighting spirit". According to the past trade, if slaves were captured and sold to the north, the Russians would pay a generous price to buy the captives.
Quetzal's second trip north was fruitless because he was in a hurry and did not attack the Smolensk village. Now is a good opportunity to capture prisoners and make extra money.
The act of capturing prisoners was exacerbating the chaos, and the Ross cavalry, caught in the chaos, had no time to take care of their comrades.
Fisk's sword was dripping with blood. He looked left and right and noticed that there were still some brave warriors relying on their carriages to resist.
Carriage? Those ponies look too silly.
The Ross cavalry were circling around the group of enemies. The enemies kept poking at them with their spears. The orphans poked the air, just to scare the cavalry who kept wandering.
The cavalrymen holding swords pinned him to death. Some people kept holding back their arrows and fired arrows close to their faces, constantly consuming the enemy's strength.
At this moment, Proclaw, the leader of Polotsk, was among them. He had a chance to escape in the chaos, but because he could not afford the shame, he decided to stick here. He was mentally prepared to die in battle, and at one point he planned to make a loud noise.
Attracting the attention of the cavalry, he was thinking of killing an enemy before death, but the Russians did not give him a chance to fight alone.
The soldiers guarding him were all wearing chain mail, and by coincidence they were all wearing leopard skins.
It is true that loyalty is shown in times of adversity. The soldiers who were raised in daily life are now resisting desperately. The clothes of these people are completely different from those peasant soldiers. Fisk realizes that he has probably caught a big fish. Of course, it is very unreasonable to expect the enemy to surrender in a chaotic battle.
Reality. Even if the enemy's military commander is discovered and killed, there will be no mercy because an agent has already arranged it.
The pointed armor-piercing arrows made the limited chain mail of the Polotsk people still meaningless. The soldiers were shot and killed. Proclaw watched his cronies continue to die, and he had nothing to do.
He knew that he had been defeated. There didn't seem to be many cavalry running around in front of him. The Polotsk army, which was clearly outnumbered, collapsed without any decent resistance.
He saw with his own eyes that a village leader was killed. The deceased was a member of the main war faction. Such a death was a well-deserved death.
Proclaw has always been entangled in this war. The situation in front of him was not his original intention. However, he was coerced by public opinion. He could only lead the people to the battlefield. If the war was defeated, the people would be responsible for their own choices. Proclaw could quibble.
This is the fault of one's own people, so what's the point? What qualifications does a surviving leader of a perished village alliance have to survive?
Continuing to sit and wait for death is like a wild boar being tied up and waiting to be bled, although the warriors covered in wild boar hides are killed in large numbers in the cavalry attacks.
Proclaw risked his life: "Brothers! Fight with them! If you want to die, fight to the death!" After that, he simply squeezed out of the human wall that protected him, raised his Viking sword and was about to fight the cavalry.
The broad-bladed Viking sword is a derivative of the Roman sword. Its broad-bladed shape was very sensitive to the Russian cavalry, not to mention that Proclaw himself dressed like a serious Viking.
Of course he is not a Viking, rather he is imitating the Danish settlers from the Gulf of Riga.
Fisk saw it so clearly that he really thought he might be fighting a group of Danish mercenaries.
"You are Danes? Stop! I don't have to kill you!" At this moment, Fisk persuaded him to surrender in Norse, but the other party was really a Dane and was probably not willing to surrender in humiliation.
The reply to these words actually came from Slavic. The speaker's words were very vague, and his tone was probably swearing.
Open your mouth and then curse back? No need to.
Looking at the battlefield, all the enemies with good legs and feet had escaped. There were corpses all over the battlefield by the river. The cavalry were still cruising around to take care of their wounds. Those prairie people with black hair and masks were actively capturing prisoners. Fisk mobilized more than a dozen brothers to launch an attack.
In the final impact, more than a dozen people who were resisting were knocked down directly. Then the Ross warriors who were circling in circles dismounted their horses one after another, transformed into sword and shield bearers, used their shields to stun the enemies covered in leopard skins, killed those who struggled to resist, and put them into unconsciousness.
, tied up obediently.
With only one hundred and fifty cavalry, they killed the enemy with superior strength and were defeated. The battlefield was littered with corpses, and a large number of prisoners with their hands tied were constantly gathered into a pile. They hugged each other and were angrily pointed at by steel-armed crossbows.
.They were trembling, because those who tried to take advantage of the chaos to escape were brutally shot. The prisoners saw this and did not dare to escape again.
The cavalry captured the small ponies. The Pechenegs felt that these miniature horses were too strange, and they kept petting them out of curiosity. The supplies transported by the small carriages were completely captured, and the food contained in them greatly boosted morale.
Quetzal was busy sweeping the battlefield. He hoped to find valuable things from the dead bodies everywhere, preferably some silver coins. How could a group of farmers have a large amount of silver coins, but the prairie people found a lot of hand axes and scythes. They didn't know much about the huge amount of silver coins.
The use of the sickle, based on its shape, is estimated to be used by the enemy to kill the cavalry. Fortunately, the cavalry did not suffer any losses. The hand axes were all accepted. This valuable thing was collected by Quetzal with concentration.
As for the Ross cavalry, they were all veterans of many battles and had no idea what trophies they could find. The enemy was too poor and was not even qualified to be plundered by the wealthy Ross veterans.
Only those guys wearing leopard skins.
The Russians also went south this time. They realized that there was something called a leopard in the world when they detained the envoy Lambart. Lambart's name comes from a leopard. This naming method is strange and Fisk has no right to accuse him of it.
After all, Fisker was meant to be a big fish.
The fur of the European leopard is relatively fine, large in area, and has mottled patterns all over its body.
Tribes belonging to the West Slavic ethnic group often encounter European bison, European leopards, and wild boars in their living environment. This is different from the East Slavic people who often encounter brown bears and white bears. It is quite natural to worship ferocious beasts.
The Lodsk people were immigrants from ancient Poland from the Vistula River. Leopards were also active in their living area, so it was fitting for Proclaw to decorate himself with leopard skins.
Of course, the Polotsk chief was not dead, or perhaps it was because he had a Viking-style iron helmet on his head, a leopard skin on his shoulders, and a Viking sword in his hand. After all, this guy was a senior officer. Killing him hastily was not in line with the Ross cavalry.
In the interest of the people, Fisker also wanted these guys to provide some more meaningful information.
Proclaw was knocked unconscious and captured alive. Also captured were as many as ten "leopard skin guards" with similar equipment.
Even though Fiske couldn't tell whether these unusually dressed people were mercenaries or senior personnel of the Polotsk Army, he was certain that they were not ordinary people.
He gave a special order: "You stare at these guys, you are not allowed to take off your clothes, wait until they wake up and tell me!"
"Obey." More than a dozen soldiers responsible for holding on took the order.
Afterwards, Fisk rode his mount to patrol the messy battlefield. Maybe the battle with the Polotsk people ended inexplicably in this way. If so, Polotsk had no defense. How could it be possible to conquer them?
Not just following the trend?
A bold idea came into being - quickly conquer Polotsk, support agent Lambart, and report to the king.
Based on this idea, Fisk hurriedly issued a merciful order, that is, ordering soldiers not to kill prisoners. All prisoners were gathered together, and those who were slightly injured were taken away together. Only those who were fatally injured and bleeding could not be treated with additional wounds.
To end their suffering. According to the fact that there were a large number of female soldiers in the defeated Polotsk army, he additionally ordered the young and energetic soldiers not to be rude to them, just like driving cattle and sheep, he drove them to one place and stopped doing anything.
thing.
The end of the persecution after the war was all for the convenience of controlling Polotsk in the future. Fisk was just imitating the methods of King Rurik of Rus.