pdf-ebookys #160 - Jeanne came and killed them all
#160 - Jeanne came and killed them all
In less than five minutes, six knights rushed out of the armory, followed by ten night watch guards responsible for cleaning the battlefield.
The night watch guards jogged, carrying hook spears, while the extraordinary knights, led by Holins, spurred their horses onward.
The sound of horses' hooves caused candlelight to appear in the houses on both sides of the street, and some windows were opened, peering out.
Seeing that it was the knight lords charging, they closed their windows again, probably thinking it was some ignorant little thief or stupid bandit.
The night wind swirled around Holins's thick beard. Crouching on his horse, he used the moonlight to clearly see the formation of this group of people.
"Holins, something doesn't feel right," a knight shouted to him from behind.
These thirty infantrymen were indeed strange, Holins felt it too.
These infantrymen stood side by side at the intersection, with both sides blocked by the houses next to the road, so Holins could not charge from the sides.
But the short spears or iron-headed hammers they held were too short. Even without a side charge, even if they charged head-on, they would not have a good way to stop them.
What made him most strange was that when he increased his horse speed from a trot to a fast charge, the thirty infantrymen did not panic as he had expected.
They were divided into three rows. The first row of 10 people knelt on the ground, the second row of 10 people leaned forward in a bow stance, and the third row of 10 people stood upright.
Unanimously, they placed the short spears in their armpits, held the wooden handle with their right hands, and placed their left hands at the junction of the iron trumpet and the wooden handle.
What are they doing? Do those mere short spears want to stop the charge of six knights?
Perhaps they are scared silly?
Das could not think too much, he was approaching these vagrant soldiers and was about to engage in battle.
The sound of horses' hooves was like a rapid drumbeat, becoming clearer and faster, fifty yards, forty yards, thirty yards...
"Don't move, nobody move." Das roared, even after many battles, some of the holy gunners' bodies were still swaying slightly.
Closer, closer, the faces under the moonlight gradually became clear, until their hideous features were revealed in Das's eyes.
"Praise the Holy Spirit!"
Das roared, as if to shout away the fear in his heart.
After issuing the command to fire the spring-loaded arquebus, the thirty holy gunners immediately pulled out the spring keys on the arquebus boxes.
In the spring box, the elastic potential energy transformed by mana was converted into the kinetic energy of the gears in less than a millisecond.
The gears collided with the firing lever rack, splashing countless sparks, and the airflow surged in the pressure balance hole and the gun barrel.
Pushed by the gears, the firing lever that burst out shrieked.
In the roar of the firing lever rubbing against the gun barrel, nearly five hundred iron sand and pebble bullets the size of fingernails burst out.
At a distance of twenty yards, this range was the peak value of the shotgun's power. The storm composed of buckshot instantly enveloped the six knights.
The sound of popcorn exploding continuously filled everyone's ears.
The barrage like a wall swept across the six knights. Their proud armor shattered and exploded in the continuous impact, and dozens of iron sands drilled into their flesh and internal organs, constantly stirring.
Their proud extraordinary bodies became their most terrible curse.
Iron filings and pebbles flowed in the blood vessels, and some even shot into the lungs, liver, gallbladder, and kidneys, and some even drilled directly into the heart and even the spine.
The horses were also screaming, and almost instantly, there were more than a dozen tiny blood holes in its body.
Two of the six knights died immediately, and the other four fell to the ground seriously injured, wailing under the weight of their injured horses.
The previous thunder seemed to be still in my ears, drowning out all the wind and words.
The soldiers' family members who were secretly watching from the windows could hardly believe their eyes.
Six extraordinary knights, those are six extraordinary knights!
Just, just died like that?
By the Mountain Goat, the short hairs really have a staff that can emit lightning!
"Quick, quick, quick, raise the drawbridge!" The armed peasant soldier captain on duty was so anxious that he stuttered.
The soldiers at the drawbridge hesitated: "Our people and relatives are still outside. I see they are quite far away, or should we let our people come back first?"
"I'll return your head! Raise the drawbridge!" Kicking away the soldier next to the drawbridge, the armed peasant guard captain personally turned the winch and began to raise the drawbridge.
Rusty metal began to rub, and dust and manure clods squeezed on the drawbridge rolled into the water, and then another sound of horses' hooves sounded.
"Is it the knight lords?" The armed farmers shouted towards the night watch guard on the watchtower, and the captain slowed down the movement in his hands.
The night watch guard's face changed drastically, and he waved his hand towards the militia captain with great amplitude: "It's cavalry, it's their cavalry, coming towards us."
The horse's hooves passed over a knight's head, and he could clearly see the nails and hay on the horseshoe. Dozens of horses' hooves passed over his head.
He turned his head, but saw forty cavalrymen wielding long knives or wolf's tooth clubs, galloping on the road leading to the armory.
At the front of the cavalry team, a battle flag with a golden holy grail was shining with golden light.
"Charge!" Jeanne roared, holding the battle flag flat in her hand.
The battle flag immediately wrapped into the shape of a spearhead, and the hair on the horse under her seat stood up.
With the flag spear in front, the night watch guards who followed the knights to battle did not hesitate at all, and rolled nimbly to the side of the road, expressing their spirit of irreconcilable hatred with the short-haired thieves with the glare hidden behind the house well.
They arrived at the drawbridge, about sixty yards away. At the current horse speed, it would take about six or seven seconds.
Arrived, almost arrived, Jeanne could see the increasingly clear armory and the slowly rising drawbridge.
Even the scattered grass leaves and rolling gravel on the drawbridge could be seen clearly.
The drawbridge was like an old man getting out of bed, every inch of his body was making a creaking sound, struggling to get up from the bed.
Turning the winch, the militia captain had exhausted all his strength in his life, his face flushed red, and his face seemed to be smiling but not smiling under the distortion of fear.
"Everyone, work hard! Pull together!"
Under the rotation of the winch, in the hopeful eyes of everyone, the drawbridge was pulled up inch by inch, and finally, before Jeanne and the others arrived, it reached an angle of about thirty degrees.
Looking at Jeanne who completely disappeared behind the drawbridge bridge deck, the militia captain breathed a sigh of relief. He took a step back, handed the winch to others, and leaned against the wall, panting loudly.
Then he heard the horse neighing that he would never forget in his life.
"Whinny——"
The moon shone on Jeanne's back. The war horse under her seat leaped high into the air, and the flag spear shining with golden light appeared in their sight again.
Her face was cold, as cold as the Valkyrie flying in Norse mythology.
The horse's hooves landed on the drawbridge, stirring up a cloud of dust.
"Charge!"
The angle of thirty degrees made it easy for Jeanne to charge. Blood had already stained the tip of the spear red in a few seconds.
The armory's drawbridge slowly fell, and Jeanne's figure appeared in front of everyone. She held the spear horizontally, and rivers of blood flowed behind her.
So, the entire armory was nakedly opened to forty riders, to thirty holy gunners, and to tens of thousands of vengeful vagrants.
…………
Under the illumination of the torches, the moonlight was dyed red.
Beside the road of the armory, tens of thousands of vagrants lined up in a long line, holding torches and walking on the road, like a winding fire dragon.
Beside the road, the Black Hat Army and the Guards carried bundles of spears out and placed them horizontally on the roadside, distributing them to the vagrants according to their height and weight.
Every time a vagrant came, a spear joined the team. In the end, the spears almost formed a moving forest.
900 sets of old breastplates and chain mail, although a bit rusty and dirty, could still reflect a blurred firelight, and came into the hands of the vagrant team along with swords, shields and breastplates.
These close combat weapons were mostly distributed to the more ferocious vagrants.
"Not bad." Horn took out a handkerchief and wiped the enemy's blood from Jeanne's white face.
Jeanne was a little disappointed: "3,000 spears, 900 sets of old breastplates, and a few hundred scattered swords and shields, is this the accumulation of Duke Kush's three generations? Is that it?"
"I basically expected it." Horn had already thought about it. According to Danner's situation, how could he not sell some military equipment, "But even if there are only these, it is much better than before."
Now, the Guards Corps and the Black Hat Corps have expanded from the new camp to 1,000 people each.
As for the rest of the people, Horn formed them into groups of ten based on their region, village, and kinship, and they elected their own company commanders and swore not to betray each other.
In this way, the vagrant army and Horn's own new and old camps totaled about 12,000 troops.
Plus the equipment Horn originally brought, almost 5,000 people could have weapons, of which 1,000 people in the old camp had sufficient training and combat power.
For the convenience of command, Horn also gave the entire 12,000 people a new name.
"What's it called?" Jeanne asked curiously.
Horn pointed to the flag in the distance. In the fire, the black and red flags fluttered, and the center of the flag was embroidered with a a character like a pitchfork cross.
"Salvation Army."
Horn pointed to the flag, but looked towards the Joan of Arc Castle, which was also lit up with lights.
At 23:00 on November 10, 1444 of the Imperial Calendar, the Salvation Army was one last mile away from Joan of Arc Castle.