Victory! Victory!

The north wind was blowing, and Louis IX was on his horse, and all he heard in his ears was good news. The Mongol rangers seemed to be taken by surprise, and it seems that they did not expect the Europa to have light cavalry as good as they did. Now they are completely stunned, and the Mongolian rangers in the north of the Mongol army have been completely suppressed!

It was going so smoothly that even Louis IX, who firmly believed that God would be on his side, did not expect it at all!

The northern flank of the Mongol army had completely lost its cover, and nearly 100,000 Christian warriors crossed the Vistula singing hymns. It must have been the pious singing of the crowd that moved Jesus, who was performing miracles!

Now it only takes for these nearly 100,000 Christian warriors to move behind the Mongol army to drive all the infidels who do not believe in God into the icy Vistula River.

Louis IX kept making crosses on his chest, and the crusaders around him prayed silently in their hearts, no matter how evil they were in the past, and how many things they had done to their conscience and to God. But now that their sins have been atoned for, they are the holiest warriors of Christ, so they all believe that God is behind them.

Morale was rising almost as far as the eye could see, and most of them continued to sing "The Lord is Our Strength," a high-pitched song that reached to the sky, as if it could be transmitted directly to Jesus. Inside the ears of Christ.

The Lord is watching us from heaven! The Lord will fight with us!

All Christian warriors now believe in this! Both knights on horseback and crossbowmen on foot quickened their pace. I want to finish this detour as soon as possible, and then give the enemy a fatal blow!

An army of nearly 100,000 men. Thus they marched at the speed of a rapid march driven by faith rather than military orders. If you really let these warriors, inspired by the Christian faith to the point of fanaticism, rush into the ranks of Kublai Khan's army and engage in hand-to-hand combat. It's really hard to say whether this battle will be won or lost!

Chief of the Teutonic Order, Hannon. Feng. Sangerhausen, later St. Sangerhausen, who was now at the forefront of the warriors of Christ (of course, there were Hungarian hussars before him, but they were more than mentioned compared to the future saints), and he was still singing, as if he had gained mystical power from the chants, and his strength was inexhaustible.

And he believed that he was invulnerable - don't think that only the Boxers in China would believe in invulnerability. These very high-class knights of Europa believe in this too! Otherwise, they wouldn't have spent a lot of money on any "holy relics". Sangerhausen was the chief of the Teutonic Order, and of course he was very rich and could buy the best "relics".

Now he had five chests hanging on his chain mail, and part of the Shroud of Christ; a wooden pole with a holy spear; There was a rotten piece of wood taken from the Holy Cross; There is a salted fish marinated by St. Peter's own hands (more than a thousand years of salted fish); There are wooden hairpins used by the Virgin Mary. These and the Lord Jesus. Christ-related objects have mysterious powers, so many pieces hanging on his body, let alone the bows and arrows of the Mongols, even if he pulls a cannon, he will definitely not be able to kill him.

At this time, several Hungarian light cavalry rode up and galloped over, and when they saw this old man covered in bits and pieces, they knew that he was a big man, so they reported loudly in Magyar language: "Sir." A large army of Mongols appeared ahead, more than 10,000 people, and was arrayed. ”

Someone in the Teutonic Order who could understand Magyar followed the Grand Master. Immediately translated the other party's words into German.

"More than ten thousand!?" Sangerhausen took a breath. His expression suddenly became solemn. 10,000 is not much, and it can't stop 100,000 Christian warriors. But it is likely that the Mongols sent more than 10,000 troops. Because there are thousands of people in a hurry, it is impossible for a few Hungarian hussars to count ten thousand people. It is likely that they saw only a portion of the Mongols.

"The Mongols reacted quickly enough!" The chief of the Teutonic Knights muttered.

"Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief. No matter how quickly the Mongols reacted, they didn't have time to complete the turn of the great army, and you listen. A high-ranking knight of the Teutonic Order reminded loudly.

Sangerhausen pricked up his ears and listened. There was a faint roar of cannons and shouts of slaughter - the fierce battle continued, and it was quite fierce! Of course. The Mongols had at least 150,000 troops east of the Vistula, and it was impossible for so many people to change formation in a short period of time, and it would take several hours just to convey orders.

So time is clearly on the side of the Crusaders!

"Send someone to inform His Majesty the King of France and let him march as soon as possible!" The Chief of the Teutonic Knights commanded, "The Knights are ready to begin!" The Teutonic Knights were in the center, the Knights Hospitaller were on the right wing, the Templars were on the left wing, and the Santiago Knights served as reserves. In addition, after the order is deployed, all the knights dismount and prepare their shields, spears, and crossbows. ”

The Teutonic Knights, who had been at war with the Mongols and Rus' for many years, were gradually adapting to their opponents, and they would not charge as headless as they did more than twenty years ago. Moreover, the crossbow also belonged to every knight. Although the rate of fire of the crossbow is not comparable to that of the Mongols' bows and arrows, it is not without the ability to fight back. As long as they could hold on for an hour, and wait for the twenty-five thousand Italian crossbowmen to come up, they had no need to be afraid—although they were all called crossbows, the crossbows in the hands of Italian crossbowmen were much more powerful than those in the hands of knights of the Order.

After giving the order, Sangerhausen urged his men to advance as they deployed. Of the four knights, only the main force of the Teutonic Knights all arrived at the Vistula, and the remaining three knights only came with two or three thousand men. The four knights had a total of about 27,000 men on the Vistula front. However, this number includes all knight retinues. In fact, there were less than 6,000 knights, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry who could go into battle. It was sparsely unfolded in the middle of the march. After unfolding and walking for less than a quarter of an hour, they met the Mongols. The Mongols were all cavalry, spreading out a large frontage, barely visible sides. However, the formation is very loose. The number does not seem to be large, and it may have been a detachment sent to delay the advance of the Crusaders. Seeing the arrival of the crusaders, these Mongols did not attack, but only watched from afar, and appeared to be underconfident.

The chief of the Teutonic Knights shouted at the lieutenants around him: "Send someone to tell King Louis IX that the Mongols have not yet fully reacted." Only a small number of troops protected their flanks, so that he had to come as quickly as possible anyway. Time means victory! ”

……

At this time, if you look down from the air, you can see that the battlefield east of the Vistula River has been divided into two. One is the offensive and defensive battle of the arc-shaped defensive position, and the fierce battle is still being staged, with gunfire, artillery, shouting and screaming, and the Rus' and Lithuanians launched wave after wave of attacks under the cover of muskets and artillery of the Mongolian Han Eight Banners. Although every wave of the offensive was repulsed without exception, the deer and horse rejection on the periphery of the Crusader line had been largely swept away, and the end of the Rus' and Lithuanian offensive was more and more dependent on the Crusader artillery positions. The Crusaders' pikemen and shield-bearers had to leave their positions and launch a counterattack, and a decisive battle began in the smoke-shrouded wilderness, where lives were consumed as if they didn't need money.

Another battlefield is about ten miles north of the arc-shaped defensive position, and the cavalry of both sides is constantly arriving, and an unprecedented cavalry decisive battle is brewing!

"Your Majesty," said Sanghausen, the chief of the Teutonic Knights, galloped before the King of France, "and the Mongols are coming, and now their numbers may have exceeded twenty thousand!" ”

"Only 20,000?" The King of France breathed a sigh of relief, and he had at his disposal forty-five thousand knights, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry (not including the Hungarians), thirty-thousand, Italian crossbowmen (including five thousand who followed the Hungarian light cavalry), and ten thousand Hungarian light cavalry. There are as many as 85,000 soldiers who can go into battle!

"Order all the Hungarians to dismount and act as archers and fight alongside the Italian crossbowmen! Use your bow and arrow to deal with the Mongol heretics first! The King of France ordered loudly, "The knights and heavy cavalry began to line up, and the French were in the middle, and to the left were the Habsburg Legions, the Rhine Legions, and to the right the Saxon Legions, the Bavarian Legions, and the Bohemian Legions in reserve." All knights are not allowed to attack without permission after they are in position, and wait for my orders! ”

The last sentence of the King of France is not nonsense, knights basically rely on brute courage in war, it is common for them not to obey commands, and it is difficult to restrain them with discipline - they are all masters, and some are still the lords of a country (kingdom, principality, earl), and it is not very appropriate to cut off their heads. They could only be commanded by the prestige of the commander-in-chief, but Louis IX was very prestigious, and there were people who were willing to listen to him. But being willing to obey orders does not mean that they can carry them out well. Thirty thousand Italian mercenary crossbowmen and 10,000 Hungarian hussars, under the command of their respective officers, quickly formed formation and began to throw feathered arrows at the Mongols opposite. But tens of thousands of cavalry were still messing up their formations.

At this time, the rear of the Mongol cavalry confronting the Crusaders suddenly drove countless torsion stone generators, which were drawn by horses like cannons, and swung behind the dismounted Mongolian cavalry who shot arrows. At the same time, the knights, who were in formation, smelled a strange smell, so pungent that no one could tell what it was, only that it came from the ground covered with dead grass...... (To be continued......)