The next day, Harry personally led the army to approach Antioch. Alfonso obviously did not intend to hide in the city, but decided to go out of the city to boost morale. Of course, the fact that the city wall had not been repaired was also a very important factor.

On the coalition side, the red and yellow family coat of arms flag of Aragon, the fleur-de-lis flag of the Valois Dynasty of France, and the double-headed eagle flag of Byzantium were flapping in the wind. There were many priests holding crosses to boost morale, except for Byzantium.

Each of the soldiers has a musket, and other soldiers have different equipment.

On both sides were some mercenary cavalry recruited from Poland, lightly armored. The Italian mercenaries were fully armored, similar to French soldiers. The king's direct troops mostly had standard weapons and were in the center. Therefore, the central army was also full of spears.

A little later, the crossbowmen are also ready, and at the end are the archers. The musketeers are between the infantry and the cavalry. They are not many in number and are mainly Byzantines.

Harry's troops are different here. The most conspicuous thing is the crescent flags everywhere, mostly with green background. Although the Mamluk nobles are corrupt, the soldiers at the lower level have undergone long-term training and have extremely high military literacy and stature.

Strong, riding a world-famous Arabian horse, equipped with a spear, a strong bow, a Damascus scimitar and a shield. Most of them are heavy armored cavalry. They have strong protection but are not heavy. They are mainly forged.

technical reasons.

Thanks to the fanatical translation of documents from various countries in the former Japanese world, the knowledge reserves of the Arabs are considered cutting-edge in this era, especially forging technology. Damascus steel is also called Utz steel, which is recorded in documents from various countries.

The forged Damascus scimitar is extremely sharp. It is said that someone once used a Damascus scimitar to split a cow in half, which shows how powerful it is.

Harry and Alfonso came to the front of the formation and started shouting from a distance,

"I beg you to return to Naples and leave Catona to me. I am willing to give up Cyprus."

Harry first made the conditions, but Alfonso would definitely not agree to it just like that. He had to fight a battle first to see the strength of the Mamluks before Alfonso could make concessions.

"It's no use talking, infidels, let's start a war."

Harry narrowed his eyes helplessly, but the matter had come to this and he could no longer give in.

"Well, you'll regret it."

The two of them returned to the army and began combat deployment.

"Bernard, Ferdinando, get ready. Once the battle begins, you two will command the front line."

When the two sides engage in battle, the command at the rear will definitely not be able to do it, so usually a commander will be temporarily appointed on the front line. As for why Alfonso doesn't step forward, the old man is struggling to get up and down, and he still lets others kill the enemy?

The two sides slowly approached. In fact, the Mamluk cavalry preferred to be on the defensive. After the enemy approached, they fired a volley to scatter the enemy's array, and then charged. But the enemy is not stupid, so why should you wait where you are?

Shall we charge? Anyway, Alfonso is not in a hurry to defeat Harry now, so there is no need to forcefully catch up.

When the distance was about the same, both sides stopped with a tacit understanding. The Mamluks fired their bows and arrows first. After a burst of bowstring sound, an overwhelming barrage of arrows flew towards the coalition.

However, with a burst of flags, the shield soldiers next to the crossbowmen and musketeers raised their shields one after another. The thick square shield blocked most of the arrows, and only a few unlucky ones were shot through the gaps.

middle,

After the Mamluks fired their arrows, the coalition's crossbowmen also began to show off their power. In addition to the arrows, among the coalition's troops, there was also a loud sound, which was the sound of muskets.

Although muskets are much cheaper, their lethality is not much worse than that of crossbows, and slightly stronger than ordinary bows. The Mamluks had never seen firearms before, and they were shocked when they heard them at first, but then they

, they found that the damage of this weapon was not much worse than that of a crossbow, so they felt relieved.

Unless the technology tree of this kind of long-range attack far exceeds the opponent's, or the tactics surpass the opponent's by an era, otherwise this is not the decisive factor. The final outcome is to fight close to the opponent.

In close combat, the Mamluks' scimitar was too advantageous. The sharp scimitar sliced ​​through the armor, and blood spurted out from the blood groove, causing heavy casualties to the coalition forces.

But the coalition's bravery and fearlessness also left a deep impression on the Mamluks, especially when the opponent's chants sounded, they would pounce on them like madmen, with almost no fear of death.

There was almost no difference between the two sides in terms of victory or defeat. They fought from morning to afternoon and each suffered thousands of casualties before withdrawing their troops and starting to clean up the battlefield.

Constantine finished cleaning the blood on his body and put on a new piece of clothing. The original piece of clothing was completely unwearable. It was not only soaked with blood, but also had several large holes.

After doing all this, Constantine came to the war room. Several others had also arrived here early. Except for Alfonso, they all had scars and had just been bandaged.

"Hey, everyone, things are getting tricky."

Seeing the scars on several people, Alfonso couldn't help but sigh. The bravery and exquisite skills of the Mamluks exceeded his expectations.

"But the opponents are not all Mamluks," Constantine added,

"Have you noticed that the other side obviously has some teams with poor equipment and unstable arrays?"

That's right. If they were all such strong troops, there would be no need to fight. In fact, some of the troops were servants of the Mamluks. The core Mamluks were equivalent to the Central Army, and their combat power was naturally strong. Ordinary

The soldiers are of average quality and cannot be said to be very strong.

"But we have no way to find a breakthrough from there. The other party obviously does not regard these people as the main force, but only assists in the battle. Even if all these people are eliminated, I am afraid it will not shake the other party's military morale."

After listening to Constantine's analysis, Alfonso thought for a while, shook his head, and then said,

"If this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on for long."

Everyone was speechless for a moment. When they saw a few people, they were speechless. With a few people, Alfonso went to the wounded soldiers camp. As soon as he entered the door, he asked about the situation of the wounded soldiers.

"The situation is not good, sir. There are very few wounded soldiers, and most of them may not be able to continue fighting." The person in charge looked regretful. He was a priest, so he was quite sad about the loss of life.

"How could this happen?" Alfonso was shocked. The death rate in the cold weapon era was not so high. Maybe most of them died in the wounded barracks. There were still relatively few people who died directly on the battlefield. The injury rate was relatively high.

It's high, after all, a random arrow may hurt you.

"Most of the injured soldiers' limbs are not intact, either their hands or feet are broken. With our medical conditions, it is difficult to cure them. Even if they are cured, they will not be able to go to the battlefield."

Alfonso could hardly believe it. It was not until he saw several wounded soldiers wailing with flat wounds that he gradually accepted the reality.

"I know, try your best."

Alfonso was in a complicated mood, and he was also in a bad mood with several others. After leaving the wounded soldiers camp, several people were walking and chatting.

"Is there a way to get the forging technology for this Damascus steel?"

"This kind of knife is not difficult to get, but this technology..."

Constantine knew something about this. In his royal collection, there was a Damascus scimitar. The steel used for this knife actually came from ancient India. Because it was cast in Damascus, it was called the Damascus scimitar by Europeans. The steel used for forging scimitars is called Utz steel, which is a very famous steel and has been recorded in ancient my country.
Chapter completed!