Warlord: King of All Clans

Unfortunately, the seemingly flimsy militia shield formation did not collapse at the first charge as Harold had hoped.

Those who were selected by Hekou Town to be trained as Sword and Shield Militia were originally the strongest among the young and strong refugees.

Moreover, these two months of full meals and hard training have also doubled their physical fitness and combat skills.

The refugees in the three major settlements in Hewan County all had thick porridge or wheat cakes in the morning, cassava flour in the evening, and a bowl of meat soup every three to five days.

However, the refugees who joined the militia had dinner with the regular army one hour earlier than ordinary refugees every day, and they were given an extra portion of meat.

If there are drills and training sessions, the daily meals will be changed to three meals a day.

Most of their training content is not one-on-one combat to demonstrate personal bravery. This kind of one-on-one combat only appears as entertainment in their spare time.

More than half of the training content for sword and shield recruits is shield formation training.

Every time the militia trained in shield formation, Ivan would arrange a team of veterans to act as opponents.

If the militia shield formation can sustain the impact of the veterans for one minute, they will receive an additional military training subsidy!

At the beginning of the shield formation training for the new recruits, let alone letting a team of veterans charge for a minute, it only takes one veteran from Hewan to find the most vulnerable area of ​​the shield formation and kick it directly to create a gap in the shield formation.

But two months later, many militia teams had received military training subsidies.

The bandits swarmed in with strange cries and roars, and when they crashed into the militia's shield formation, it was as if they had hit a wall.

Although these bandits were brave and could kill civilians as easily as cutting melons and vegetables, and their physical fitness was also among the best among ordinary people, they were still slightly weaker than the members of the militia.

Imagine a group of lean men with an average weight of less than 120 kilograms, charging together under the weight of javelins and arrows, and crashing into a group of strong men with an average weight of more than 160 kilograms, standing in horse stance and stacking fish-scale shield walls...

The swords and axes made dull chopping sounds when they landed on the heavy shields, but the militiamen holding the shields did not feel it was too strenuous.

The fish-scale shield wall, which originated from the Empire's heavily armored elite infantry corps, can disperse most of the impact force to the stacked shields, reducing the burden on individual soldiers.

The more courageous and experienced bandits obviously understood that swords and knives could not break this kind of shield formation.

They raised their shields and rammed into the opponent's shield wall, trying to break down the shield formation.

Unfortunately, this only caused the militiamen in the front row to stagger and take half a step back.

However, this movement was immediately blocked by the militiamen behind them, who directly used their shoulders to support the backs of the militiamen in the front row to prevent them from retreating further.

The two sides pressed each other and entered the wrestling stage, and the people in the front row were squeezed to the point of being unable to breathe.

Some of the dead soldiers were still supported by both sides and stood in place, without even a chance to lie down.

The militia is obviously better at dealing with this situation.

The sword-and-shield militiamen who had managed to steady themselves from the charge of the bandits immediately freed their hands and skillfully stabbed out from above or below the round shield with their one-handed swords or javelins.

After feeling the opponent's fragile body through the weapon, he subconsciously turned his wrist, twisted it around, and then pulled it out.

Almost in an instant, before any of the bandits in the front row fell to the ground, a large pile of intestines and internal organs appeared on the ground.

Fresh, hot organs and blood were splattered at the foot of the front line, making the ground slippery and muddy, making it almost impossible to stand.

Some militiamen who were good at throwing javelins or had lower quality were placed in the back row. In addition to helping the front row stabilize the formation, they also took the opportunity to throw heavy javelins crazily.

Or he could simply raise the javelin and hit the bandit in the face and neck while he was clinging to the shield, separated from his companions.

The militia squad leaders of several teams were all veterans of Hewan. Compared with the fierce fighting of their comrades, they seemed to be just paddling.

They placed one hand on the back of their teammates' shoulders to provide support, while observing the situation of the shield formation and occasionally lending a helping hand.

Only when the militiamen in the front row fell to the ground dead or wounded, and the militiamen in the back row were still nervous and dazed, would they yell and push the militiamen in their hands forward, or simply fill the gap themselves.

The battle lasted only two minutes, from the time the bandits hit the shield to the time they turned around and fled.

Within two minutes, a large number of bandits in the front row were stabbed to death. The bandits in the back row pushed the bodies of the bandits in the front row and struggled forward, but to no avail. Instead, they were accurately shot by the crossbowmen around them, resulting in countless casualties.

The fighting capacity of these rear-row bandits is even weaker. Many of them were honest farmers half a year ago, but even now, they cannot use the weapons in their hands properly.

As the militia on the flanks gradually surrounded and connected with the sword and shield militia in the front, the remaining bandits completely lost their fighting spirit and turned around to flee.

Harold, who was in charge of supervising the battle, and several bandit leaders also realized that the situation was hopeless, and turned their horses around without waiting for their men to escape.

The bandit leader and the noble lord were surprisingly similar on the battlefield.

Hide at the back when charging and be at the front when escaping.

And they all have horses.

Ordinary bandits or soldiers could not outrun the war horses at all, so they could only follow behind and eat dust, and serve as meat targets for the main general.

The Sword and Shield Militia were exhausted and suffered many casualties, so Ivan did not order a pursuit.

Only the militia crossbowmen were still holding their crossbows, trying their best to shoot the fleeing bandits.

But Harold was also a character. After he ran out of the range of the militia crossbowmen, he slowed down and waited for his men to catch up.

Although the bandit group suffered a great defeat, some were hunted down and beheaded, some knelt and surrendered, and some fled into the wilderness in panic, but there were still some who followed him.

A person cannot survive for long in the wilderness, but if he can gather dozens of subordinates, then he still has a chance to make a comeback.

He ran for a while, stopped and looked back, wanting to scold his men in order to save his face after the defeat.

A sharp arrow whizzed in and pierced his neck. The sharp arrowhead and more than half of the arrow shaft came out from the other end of his neck.

Leo came out from all directions with fifty Riverbend infantrymen and fifty Wildfolk hunters.

His archery skills are now quite good. He can hit the target every time within fifty meters and can easily hit the target within a hundred meters. He has become a qualified wild hunter.

The continuous physical strengthening after his extraordinary awakening has enabled him to easily pull a two-hundred-pound yew longbow and shoot a bag of heavy arrows without feeling any effort.

These regular soldiers had been lying in ambush for a long time, and their physical strength was far inferior to that of the bandits who had run to death.

Some of the River Bend infantry, carrying sixty or seventy pounds of weapons and equipment, were able to catch up with the lightly armed bandits.

The wild hunters are even more outrageous. The complex terrain of the mountains and forests is like a fish in water for them.

Some wild hunters with superb archery skills can even draw their bows and arrows based on the sound alone, and hit fleeing targets dozens of meters away through dense leaves and bushes.

As they chased and shot at the fleeing bandits, they shouted, "Surrender your weapons and we won't kill you!"

Seeing their companions die one by one, the remaining bandits could no longer hold on and knelt down in surrender.