Wadbury was not a fool. The last time the Lombard army failed at the South Pass Army Castle, he knew that the dangerous wall could not be easily broken, so he changed the focus of his attack.
In order to attract the attention of the defenders as much as possible, Wadbury sent a team carrying a large number of siege equipment to take turns storming the South Pass. On the one hand, this could create a fog of war, and on the other hand, even if the Welsh army could not be confused, it would be possible to actually capture the South Pass.
And Wadbury's trump card is a special team of one hundred and twenty carefully selected people. This team is the best of Wadbury's elite, and they are all brave warriors that he trained on the battlefields of Provence.
They almost all had light armor and short weapons such as crossbows, long swords, knives, axes, chains and hammers. Except for about twenty mules and horses carrying food and baggage, there were also horses and livestock.
Half a month ago, before Wadbury's army attacked Nanguan Fort for the first time, this team secretly ran to the west, made a large circle and penetrated into the mountains under the guidance of several old hunters.
More than a hundred people have been wandering in the deep mountains and forests for half a month. They have also tried to attack the trails that are convenient for attack. However, under the personal command of Odo, the peasants and soldiers of the reserve regiment blocked almost all the roads in the south.
Humbling around, more than a hundred people finally found this location.
They were really surprised when they found human traces in the canyon, so they stopped for a moment.
But the outpost reported that there was just an ordinary mining field in the canyon, and most of the miners had fled, so the Lombard army advanced directly towards the mining area.
After being suffocated in the mountains for half a month, they were almost on the verge of madness. Now they had to kill all the miners just to vent their anger, not to mention that they couldn't let those guys run back alive to report the news.
The sentry sent by Spencer had just returned to warn, and the ghost that rushed out of the mountain had already appeared at the corner of the canyon, just one charge away from the mining area.
The enemy stopped a hundred steps outside the mining fence. It seemed that they did not pay attention to the miners in the mining fence who had not had time to escape.
Without waiting for a break, an officer wearing mail and carrying a long sword strode forward. He had no intention of persuading him to surrender. He did not need prisoners today.
Raised his hand and waved, "Archer."
About twenty soldiers wearing hooded short robes and holding bows and arrows walked from the rear to the front, unfurling their bows and nocking arrows.
· Swish swish swish~~~
More than twenty arrows flew into the sky, drawing a famous arc and ran towards the fence a hundred steps away...
On the other side, when the enemy archers had just come out, Spencer had ordered everyone to squat down and hold their heads and hide behind the temporary low wall of ore piled behind the fence.
Spencer is not a combat commander, but he has been with the army for a long time, and he has learned some basic military skills.
The enemy had no intention of wasting arrows in front of this group of lowly miners, so after only three rounds of shooting, the archers got out of the way.
Eighty or ninety bull-eyed Lombard soldiers rushed towards the civilians holding broken spears and rusty swords at the gate of the mining area.
Inside the fence gate of the mining area, Spencer, who came out from under the low wall and was commanding from the center, swallowed hard. The guards in front of him and the miners who had just become soldiers turned back to look at him nervously from time to time.
"Archers!" Three of the guards carried bows and arrows, and there were also two free miners among the miners who carried homemade hunting bows.
The five archers heard Spencer's order, pulled out an arrow from the arrow stuck on the ground in front of them, put on the bowstring, raised their hand to draw the string, and aimed at the figure rushing towards the fence.
A miner's archer was too nervous, his hand holding the title shook, and a light arrow twisted the shaft and flew over the fence, drifting towards the enemy.
The power of a hunting bow is too weak. Usually, it is barely enough to shoot a pheasant, hare or something like that from twenty or thirty paces away. But when it comes to shooting a person in armor from fifty or sixty paces, the effect is too much.
So when the light arrow flew into the charging enemy formation and hit an enemy soldier wearing leather armor, he didn't even slow down. The arrow hung under the armor and he continued to charge with the enemy soldier shaking.
"Fire the arrow!" When the enemy was only thirty steps away from the fence, Spencer's hand struck down.
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Following the guy who shot by mistake just now, he hurriedly set up a second arrow and rushed towards the enemy's formation following the wind.
Five arrows were shot into the crowd from a distance of about thirty paces, and it was difficult to miss them.
So two enemy soldiers were knocked down by arrows, rolled down and were drowned by those who came after them.
"The archers fired freely. The short spears came forward, the swords took over, and the rest of the people acted according to the situation."
The miners were not soldiers after all, and Spencer could only command them in the simplest way.
The first to bear the brunt behind the fence were six guards and six veterans who were war slaves. They tilted the short spears in their hands forward, and their bodies sank slightly to make a thrust.
In the gaps between the twelve "main battle forces" are six strong men armed with single swords and short swords and axes. They hold their weapons tightly with both hands, ready to support the spearmen around them at any time.
Then, a dozen miners holding various "weapons" seemed to be advancing and retreating, looking at the approaching enemy. If it weren't for the fence, they might have escaped by now.
Behind them are Spencer and the remaining six miners. The fence of the entire mining area is very long. Although the enemy is currently rushing towards the gate, if they cannot keep it together for a while, the enemies will disperse and attack other areas, so Spencer has specially reserved a mobile force to respond at any time.
Thirty steps only take a moment.
The fierce Lombards stared angrily, waving their swords and slashing at the fence. They planned to cut down the fence piled with firewood sticks.
They never expected that the lowly miners behind the fence would actually dare to stab them with the short spears in their hands.
After the first guard thrust his winged iron spear into the Lombard soldier who was wildly hacking at the fence posts with his long sword, a dozen "elites" also desperately thrust out the short spears in their hands.
The strong men taking up positions beside them also kept slapping their swords against the swords and hammers that tried to attack the thrusting spearmen.
This was a strange battle. The superior Lombards underestimated the enemy. They gave up long-range killing with their bows and crossbows, and broke through the seemingly fragile fence.
On the disadvantaged side, six guards and six veterans who were war slaves held the battle, and they were forced to stand at the gate of the fence, facing off against an enemy that was several times their size.
Across a fence, the only thing that can really work are the dozen or so short spears, but the enemy soldiers are numerous and all are elite.
After four people were stabbed, more than a dozen short spears were almost smashed and cut off by the enemy troops outside the fence, and the reinforced fence gate was also crumbling and had several pieces broken, leaving a gaping hole two people wide.
Three Lombards rushed in through the breach.
Less than ten minutes, hand-to-hand fighting began inside the fence...