Marquis Kurman was giving chase when he suddenly heard a cheer erupt from the soldiers around him that puzzled him. He then noticed something amiss: the pursuers on either side seemed to teleport closer, and the dozens of cavalrymen who were almost upon them suddenly slowed down!
Marquis Kurman sensed something was wrong, but he quickly weighed the situation. Based on his experience, he was not afraid of these cavalrymen. Even if they were surrounded, he was confident that he could break through the encirclement of these scattered soldiers. This confidence was not only in his own command of the cavalry, but also in the cavalry that followed him.
Despite being outnumbered and having just suffered losses, these few hundred cavalrymen, being elite warriors, were still no match for the poorly equipped cavalrymen in the shadows and thorns.
After all, just because someone is riding a horse doesn't make them a cavalryman.
"Quickly crush the cavalry in front, then everyone turn left and attack those rookies chasing us with their wagons!" Marquis Kurman quickly gave the order, and the cavalry swiftly deployed into attack formation, charging at the dozens of cavalrymen directly in front of them.
At that moment, these shadowy thorns had no doubt that they could defeat the few dozen cavalrymen before them. Then, during their charge, they saw the banner, and suddenly the enemy's forces seemed to have doubled in size.
However, given the absolute difference in strength, this doubled number of opponents is almost negligible.
Marquis Kurman remained confident, but what he didn't know was that the other party was even more confident than him at that moment.
Yun Zhe saw the rising smoke from afar. Always prepared for the worst, Yun Zhe urged his soldiers to quickly move towards their main camp while simultaneously considering how to gather the remaining troops and disengage from the battle. Then, Yun Zhe witnessed the scene of cavalry chasing each other.
Before seeing Yun Zhe's banner, Morrison already knew what kind of cavalrymen were serving alongside Marquis Kurman, but he didn't say it aloud. However, when those cavalrymen were about to charge, he did consider giving up, surrendering, or even converting. But when he saw Yun Zhe's banner, his mind cleared. No matter how bad the battle went, hope had appeared.
Yun Zhe had already figured out what Morrison's group was up to. His dilemma was that, besides the few hundred cavalrymen they had surrounded, there were about two thousand more cavalrymen on the outer perimeter, forming a similar encirclement. Morrison's cavalry was now bait to hold back the few hundred enemy cavalrymen, but weren't those same few hundred enemy cavalrymen also bait to hold back theirs?
However, he didn't have time to think things through. The enemy had already rushed into the range of their crossbows, and a battle was inevitable. Yun Zhe could only order, "Change to a flank formation, maintain distance, and move to the left!" The reason for moving to the left was that Yun Zhe noticed that there were significantly fewer enemy cavalry on the left than on the right, which might be the best direction for a breakout.
The Shadow Thorns were extremely elite, but their primary means of attack wasn't bows and crossbows, but close-quarters combat. Yun Zhe's side, on the other hand, relied almost entirely on mounted crossbows for their kills. Therefore, the Shadow Thorns quickly experienced the pain and helplessness of being kited. They also had bows and arrows, but their accuracy was abysmal. Meanwhile, the enemy's crossbows seemed to have eyes; several volleys had already claimed thirty to fifty riders.
To make matters worse, in addition to the crossbow bolts coming from the front, they were also being fired from both sides behind them. It was clear that the enemy didn't want to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but rather wanted to wear them down with crossbow bolts.
Marquis Kurman quickly realized the situation, but his attempts to direct his soldiers to either side were thwarted by the enemy's skillful maneuvering. This only temporarily reduced the amount of firepower from one side. Seeing his troops fall after several struggles, nearly a hundred men already dead, without even touching the enemy, Marquis Kurman decisively ordered a halt after a volley of crossbow bolts.
The enemy cavalry roared past, seemingly with no intention of stopping their attack, and quickly fled forward.
Behind Kurman, the other Belvadoran cavalrymen caught up. Having witnessed Kurman's tragic fate, and realizing they probably couldn't have handled it any better, they no longer felt inclined to mock him. After all, they were much like Kurman's cavalry—good at close combat, but far inferior in long-range archery.
But if we just go back like this, wouldn't it be difficult to explain to our superiors?
The Belvedere cavalry commanders exchanged glances, all waiting for Kurman to speak.
"Chase them! We have the numerical advantage, so let's shoot them with arrows and wear them down sooner or later!" Marquis Kurman now understood that the enemy was merely using their advantage to wear them down. But this was precisely because they were outnumbered and at a disadvantage. In fact, he still had more than three thousand cavalrymen, while the enemy only had a few hundred. No matter what, the advantage was on their side. If they gave up and returned to camp now, they would be laughed at to death by the others.
"Kill those carriages first, then shoot the horses!" Kurman shouted as he charged off on horseback.
The cavalry chase resumed on the plains. This time, however, the pursuers no longer sought a decisive kill by splitting their forces to encircle the enemy; instead, they used their numerical advantage to wear them down from a distance with arrows.
“Indeed, we are not good with bows and crossbows, but with hundreds or thousands of crossbow bolts, where can you escape to?” Kurman thought to himself as he tightened the reins and chased after them with all his might.
After changing their strategy, Belvaldo's pursuit efficiency increased several times over. They quickly shot down the horses of the dozens of wagons, forcing them to stop. Although several hundred soldiers jumped out, they were no match for the cavalry. Kurman left a squad of cavalry to surround them, then continued to lead the remaining two thousand cavalry in pursuit of Yun Zhe and his group.
After several volleys of arrows, although the accuracy was poor, just as Kurman had predicted, the sheer number of arrows, even with a low hit rate, inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. However, to Kurman's dismay, their arrows soon ran out. Although they had already shot down more than half of the enemy soldiers, continuing the pursuit seemed like an unwise decision.
"At least we've surrounded several hundred infantrymen, so we can at least give ourselves a satisfactory answer." Thinking this, Kurman ordered a halt to the pursuit and led his troops back to encircle and annihilate the several hundred infantrymen who had fallen off the wagon.
When Kurman returned, he found that the cavalry had simply formed a large circle and did not seem to be attacking.
"What's going on?!" Seeing this scene of surrounding without attacking, Kurman couldn't help but feel angry. A few hundred men could be taken down in one round of charging, so why is it so complicated?
"Sir, their crossbows are powerful, we dare not approach!" Belvaldo's cavalry captain hurriedly explained upon hearing Kurman's angry voice.
Kurman narrowed his eyes, scanning the situation within the encirclement. A dozen or so carriages lay rammed together, with figures moving near each carriage, and figures also flashing among the undulating ditches and gullies around them.
However, it is clear that they all used carriages as their base of operations, so it is obvious that the carriages not only carried people, but also a lot of goods.
Kurman snorted coldly, glancing at the setting sun. He twisted his whip in his hand. Finally, he gave the order, "Set them on fire! Burn them!"
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