Unknown Knight

Chapter 411 Falling short of success

Inside the broken gate of the village, the enemy and our side were fighting like a tug of war. The wood was a living person, and the sawdust was bright red blood.

Aix's army is good at formation, and the shield formation is particularly effective for close combat. Moreover, the front shields of Aix's shield formation are all covered with iron. The more densely populated the place is, the more advantageous it is to fight. Therefore, Ran Hu gave a death order to guard the gate of the village at all costs.

On the other hand, although the Kugit army was not good at infantry combat and suffered a lot of losses in the formation, it was obvious that Saiga Khan was well prepared. Their front row responsible for breaking the formation were all strong elites. They wore fish-scale iron armor with high defense and relatively flexible. It was difficult for the array weapons of the Aix army to hurt them.

Moreover, the weapons held by these formation-breaking soldiers are also unusual. They all use blunt instruments that are not easily damaged, such as six-petal iron hammers, iron bone flowers, heavy scepters, and even large wooden hammers made of iron birch.

These blunt weapons caused great damage to Aix's array infantry. Even if they were coordinated with a tight shield formation, they could be easily broken by these weapons. Some of the stronger ones could even break the arm of a shield-holding array infantry with just one blow from a hammer.

Fortunately, array infantry usually have many drills for this kind of situation. In war, once a shield bearer in the front row is injured or exhausted, the shield bearer in the back row will promptly step forward to replace him, allowing the front row to retreat to the back row to rest and heal.

The battle between the two sides was very fierce, and the stalemate lasted for a long time in the village gate. The shield bearers on the side of Lord Aix were replaced several times. Although not many people died, there were many injured.

The Kugits on the opposite side were even worse. Although they were well-equipped, they relied on their brave melee fighting style and inevitably suffered heavy losses in front of the organized, rhythmic and orderly array infantry. With casualties exceeding a hundred, they still failed to break through the array in front of them.

However, relying on their large numbers, they launched continuous rotation attacks in waves, always suppressing the soldiers of Lord Aix, making the more than 200 infantrymen in the array exhausted and showing signs of being unable to hold on.

Ran Hu, who was commanding the battle personally on the scene, saw this situation and knew that he could not hold on any longer. If he could not maintain the formation, all of these two hundred soldiers might have to die here. This loss was something he could not afford, so he hurriedly ordered the soldiers in the formation to break contact and begin to slowly retreat while maintaining the formation.

But the Kugits were not stupid. With so many casualties, how could they let go of their exhausted prey? Each of them was like a chicken with its blood pumped up. They howled and rushed forward to stick to the soldiers of Lord Aix, swinging their hammers with a whirring sound.

Upon seeing this, Ran Hu immediately gave orders, asking the sharpshooters who had been prepared on the hillside bunker to fire at high speed, using a rain of arrows to hold the enemy position. At the same time, the soldiers in the back row of the array threw dozens of small incendiary oil tanks that had been prepared at the enemy, forming a wall of fire in the area where the two armies came into contact, which barely stopped the Kugit attack.

Upon seeing this, the soldiers under Aix withdrew their formation without any instructions and ran towards the gate of the second checkpoint.

Many Kugits wanted to make meritorious deeds, and some even risked breaking through the firewall in order to chase and kill the enemy.

At this time, the catapults on the hillside seized the opportunity and started to attack. A fierce fire oil tank fell down and exploded directly in the crowd of Kugits, killing and burning more than 20 people. Only then did the momentum of the Kugit charge stop, and the array infantry retreated safely to the second checkpoint.

Although some manpower was lost, the first checkpoint was captured, proving that the tortoise shell ramming tactic was effective, and Saiga Khan could still accept this amount of casualties.

He ordered the soldiers to push the remaining four tortoise-shell battering rams into the first checkpoint, and replaced the Kugit heavy armored soldiers who were responsible for breaking the formation in front with a new group of soldiers to continue the attack on the second checkpoint.

However, Ran Hu had been prepared. He had dug dozens of pits of varying depths on the road to the second checkpoint, which seriously delayed the already clumsy tortoise-shell ramming car. The bunkers on the hillside fired a few incendiary oil tanks from time to time. Until dark, the Kugit people had not captured the second checkpoint and had to withdraw to the first checkpoint to garrison.

This made Saiga Khan extremely angry, and he ordered the Kugit soldiers to form a shield formation and repair the road to the second checkpoint overnight.

The next morning, Saiga Khan could not wait to order an attack on the second checkpoint.

The Kugits mainly attack with cavalry. The quick response of cavalry makes Saiga Khan realize the importance of timeliness. There are not many soldiers in Sajche Fort right now, and it is a good opportunity to capture this place. Once Aix sends a large number of reinforcements, it will be difficult to capture it.

With the experience and lessons learned from the previous day, the Kugits attacked the second checkpoint much more smoothly. It took only half a day to break through the checkpoint gate.

Ran Hu also knew that relying solely on array infantry to resist would not be of much use. After all, the number difference between the enemy and us was too great, and if we were not careful, the blocking soldiers would be trapped. So he did not send array infantry to block the attack, but directly withdrew the soldiers into the castle.

However, more effort was put into clearing the road leading to the castle, and there were so many obstacles and pitfalls that the Kugits who were clearing them cursed endlessly. The rest of the day was wasted on road construction, and they had to worry about flaming oil and stone bombs falling on their heads from time to time. Until it was completely dark, the Kugits had not reached the wall of the castle.

On the third day, also before dawn, the Kugits began to attack the Sajche Fort.

Saiga Khan was full of confidence. Based on the experience of the previous two days of siege, he was confident that he could capture Sageche Fort today. He even began to imagine in his mind the scene of retaking Sageche Fort, going down the mountain and taking down Kudan City in one fell swoop.

His idea was good, but before the four tortoise-shell chariots had traveled halfway to Fort Sageche, a cavalry messenger rushed into his tent in a panic, bringing him shocking news.

It turned out that just two days ago, the newly appointed Sultan Niza of Sharize, the royal city of Sarand, personally led an army of 2,000 to capture the important city of Harma in the south of the Khanate.

The new Sultan sent out his troops from Vyyeha Castle and first conquered Uruzdak Castle, the southernmost castle of the Khanate. Then he marched north and quickly occupied the important city of Harma.

When Saiga Khan attacked the Sagechi Fortress, almost all the elite troops from all over the Khergit Khanate were withdrawn, and the only troops left to defend the city of Harma were a few hundred ordinary soldiers who did not even have leather armor. The army of Niza Sultan was well-equipped and well-trained, and it took the city of Harma without much effort.

The Sarandes are currently attacking towards Lana City. It is estimated that before that, they will first clear the strongholds around Lana City, capture nearby Ahun Castle and other places, and then take over Lana City.

This news exploded in Saiga Khan's tent at that time. You must know that the territories controlled by the Tojunayan family are all in the north of the Khanate, and they will not respond to Saiga Khan's order to attack Sagechi Fort. More than half of the troops attacking Sagechi Fort were recruited from Kharma and Lana in the south of the Khanate.

Now, not only had they failed to capture Fort Sajiche and had lost their hometown, the Danayans in the southern part of the big tent could no longer hold back and clamored to withdraw their troops and return to their territory.