Chapter 456: The Collapse of the Mercenary Groups
Just as the group of n.o.ble alliance army were already tired from the day’s march and were relaxing during their rest, their attention was still attracted. The 1,000 elite desert bandits charged at them abruptly!
A surprise attack or a sneak attack were the tactical attack that took advantage of people’s unpreparedness, which was why it was also called an ambush.
And it was a night ambush.
Therefore, when Rolf led the charge, the mercenaries in the tents were still in a daze.
They were on guard, because they knew that more than half of the allies patrolling outside had disappeared. However, when the sudden charge began, they were still stunned for a few seconds. Only when the ground beneath them began to shake did they understand what had happened.
There was large troop of cavalries charging at them!
But so what if they were aware that they were being attacked?
A distance of 300 meters was a distance that heavy cavalries could enter their full charging status.
For light cavalries, they had already entered their charging status and began to run recklessly. They made use of the speed and inertia of their scimitars and spears to transform into the most terrifying killing machine!
And in the eyes of the cavalries, this 300-meter distance was only a few seconds!
“Kill!” Rolf raised his machete high, his face full of malevolence.
The warhorse under him galloped rapidly, taking the lead. It flew directly over the three-meter distance to the pile of tents. The machetes in his hands did not need to be hacked. They were placed parallel to his body. Each and every one of the mercenaries had yet to recover from their shock. As the blade stabbed their bodies, a bone-deep wound was instantly cut open due to the inertia.
However, before all the mercenaries could react to this sudden attack, the desert bandits charged forward like a flood. They followed Rolf and completely rushed into the pile of tents, wantonly hacking and stabbing with scimitars and spears.
The neighing and wailing of horses sounded at the same time. The smell of fresh blood and feces and urine filled the air.
The slaughter continued!
In the outermost tent, the mercenaries did not even get up.
Because the extremely fast desert horses had already used their hooves to stomp those unlucky fellows who were still resting on the outermost tent to death. The trampling of the horseshoes of charging horses was no less than the smas.h.i.+ng of a heavy hammer!
Moreover, with over a hundred horseshoes cras.h.i.+ng down, they were charging with an extremely lethal force.
Even iron could be flattened, not to mention the human’s flesh.
A pile of meat paste oozed out from the tent, but it was trampled by more horseshoes.
Elite desert bandit charged back and forth in the tent, rampaging and charging. The mercenaries who had yet to organize themselves tasted the bitter fruit of the ambush, which was to be slaughtered like lambs!
These mercenaries were not familiar with each other. Some even drew their swords at their allies in order to escape.
It was normal for them to kill each other.
They even charged into the main camp of the village!
That was the core of this group of mercenaries.
However, it was all protected by the private army of the n.o.ble families. They did not allow these lowly mercenaries to get close at all!
The regular infantrymen wearing mail armor and holding long spears. They formed a phalanx of long spears on the streets of the village. The sharp spears did not care whether they were allies or not. As long as someone dared to get close, they would mercilessly stab them.
The faces of the n.o.ble families behind them were grim. For their own safety, they would not allow these mercenaries to enter.
This was because the mercenaries were already in chaos.
They had lost their rationality.
They could even draw their swords and kill their own allies just to live for a short while.
If these mercenaries charged into the village and saw that the n.o.ble was still looking at all of this, the mercenaries who had gone mad would probably be exasperated and cause an even bigger conflict.
This was definitely something that could happen. There had been many times in history, and the n.o.ble understood this very well.
The madness brought by the lower cla.s.s.
This was especially true during the riots!
Mercenaries were not kind people. When there was no lord to hire them, it was common for them to be part-time bandits. In other words, they were bandits, and there was no separation between the two!
However, the situation became more and more tense.
The n.o.ble could not allow the terrified mercenaries to enter the village.
The mercenaries who were being ma.s.sacred did not have the courage to fight back. Instead, they were more skilled at killing their allies and fighting for their own chance of survival.
They were killing each other. They even began to form groups of two or three to kill the n.o.ble infantrymen in the village.
However, their sharp and dense spearheads made no mercenary dare to cause trouble.
However, in just a short ten minutes, at least 800 + mercenaries were completely turned into corpses. Nearly 3,000 + mercenaries had wounds of varying degrees of severity on their bodies.
A small portion of them were done by the elite desert bandit.
Most of them were caused by themselves by killing each other.
As for Rolf and his light cavalries, they did not suffer much resistance at all.
Other than a few people who were injured by the mercenaries and fought back, almost 99% of the elite desert bandits did not suffer any casualties. After wantonly trampling on the tents of the mercenaries on the outside and turning everything upside down, they chose to retreat.
This was a surprise attack, and the mercenaries were caught unprepared.
It could not be too long.
Because during this period of time, many mercenaries who found themselves in a dangerous situation began to band together.
After all, most of the mercenaries’ tents weren’t damaged too much. After the initial chaos pa.s.sed, each of the mercenary captains shouted to organize his subordinates and began to prepare for battle.
This left the elite desert bandit who weren’t good at close combat with no good ideas.
Retreating was the best choice.
Rolf naturally would not hesitate. He was the best commander of the light cavalries.
When the ambush was encountered a difficulty, he directly gave the order to retreat. He led the elite desert bandit soldiers and left in a flash. They disappeared into the vast plains in the night and soon disappeared without a trace.
Not long after they left, the chaos outside the village gradually subsided.
The n.o.ble’s regular army regained control of order.
After killing some of the mercenaries who took advantage of the chaos, the n.o.ble alliance army regained their calm.
However, everyone understood that this sudden attack had torn apart their seemingly huge advantage in numbers. Due to mutual distrust and greed in everyone’s hearts, this advantage had turned into a huge disadvantage.
If it was the regular army, they would have long gathered together and formed their own formations to defend against the sneak attack.
Although they would also suffer casualties, it would not be this huge.
A 30-thousand-man army were almost crushed by 1,000 cavalries.
It was ridiculous. However, it also proved that most of the n.o.ble alliance army was a motley crew!
Of course, this was related to the lack of defense of the n.o.ble alliance army, but if it was an elite army, how could they let Rolf’s night attack succeed? Without any excuses or reasons, this was a serious failure, it severely crushed the morale of the allied army right before the attack of Stone Pa.s.s.