Chapter 601

Chapter 601: The Arab Battle Formation

On the battlefield, the armies assembled.

Huo Qiguang gathered 4,000 infantry, combined with Luo Ji’s beastman army.

After merging the two forces, the total strength exceeded 7,000 troops.

In reality, the combat power of this army was far greater than that of an ordinary 7,000-strong force.

This was because every single beastman could generally fight 2 or even 3 human soldiers on their own.

This level of strength was clearly enough to help Huo Qiguang reclaim his cities.

Looking at the massive beastman army outside the city.

The Arab standing atop the opposing city wall immediately changed expression.

Earlier, he had withdrawn decisively.

Naturally, he had no idea what kind of reinforcements Huo Qiguang was getting.

But now, with a single glance, he saw that it was a beastman army.

At that moment, his mentality visibly collapsed.

After unleashing a string of curses, he decisively activated his own reinforcement request authority.

Facing a beastman army was extremely troublesome.

Very few people enjoyed fighting beastmen.

Calling in reinforcements this time would not be easy.

It required time, and a bit of luck.

However, the besieging army outside the city clearly would not wait for him.

As the horn of attack sounded.

Following the usual siege tactics.

The three-bow ballistae detached from the formation and were pushed forward.

It was worth mentioning that now that Huo Qiguang had reached the Black Iron tier, his ballistae had also been upgraded to three-bow ballistae.

Luo Ji had directly brought 10 of them into this battle.

Huo Qiguang, due to early losses, had only managed to hastily gather 5.

Even so, a formation of 15 three-bow ballistae was already terrifying enough.

At the very least, it scared the Arab on the wall so badly that he shrank back toward the stairway of the city wall.

The Arab wanted to counterattack.

But with the disparity in numbers and firepower right there.

He had no room to resist.

He barely even dared to expose himself, fearing he would be caught in that terrifying barrage.

That kind of death would have been far too unjust.

Five rounds of volleys later, under the bombardment of 15 three-bow ballistae.

The defensive siege weapons deployed on the enemy’s wall were almost completely destroyed amid a series of thunderous explosions.

During this time, however, Luo Ji felt a bit awkward.

Because 3 of his three-bow ballistae suffered minor malfunctions.

Fortunately, the problem was not serious.

With repairs by the goblin engineers.

After about 10 minutes, they were back in the siege battle.

Wiping away sweat that did not actually exist on his forehead.

Luo Ji figured he should get used to this sort of thing sooner rather than later.

By the way, Huo Qiguang seemed not to notice the difference between goblins and beastmen.

After all, both races looked rather bizarre.

Combined with the preconceived notion that “Luo Ji is a beastman civilization,” Huo Qiguang subconsciously lumped the goblins in with the beastmen.

For Luo Ji, this was clearly a good thing.

Exposing less information and keeping more trump cards was always beneficial.

After destroying the enemy’s defensive weapons, the 15 three-bow ballistae decisively shifted their fire to the city gate.

Once the gate was breached.

Their army could advance and charge straight into the city in one push.

The Arab clearly realized Luo Ji’s intentions.

Though unwilling, given the current situation, he could only sally out to meet them.

Otherwise, once the city gate was blasted open.

As the defending side, he would be at an extreme disadvantage.

The opening of the city gate did not make Luo Ji’s side stop firing.

At this point, would Huo Qiguang really care about a single gate?

Of course not.

He would seize every opportunity to build an advantage and suppress the enemy’s forces.

However, the enemy commander was also a seasoned veteran and not someone to be underestimated.

He cleverly used the city gate to block a full volley.

Then, taking advantage of the three-bow ballistae reloading their heavy bolts, he decisively led his troops out of the city.

At the front, unsurprisingly, were massive war elephants leading the charge.

According to Huo Qiguang, the enemy had deployed 30 war elephants in this invasion.

Over the previous few days, he had already used three-bow ballistae to kill 7 of them during the city defense.

That left 23 remaining.

This vanguard formation was still extremely imposing.

The scale of the world battlefield was clearly on a different level.

At this moment, Luo Ji finally understood why Huo Qiguang had been beaten to the point of requesting aid.

Camel troops countering his cavalry was one reason.

And these massive war elephant units clearly played a significant role as well.

Behind the war elephants were infantry armed with long spears.

However, these infantry wore no armor at all.

Their bodies were wrapped in nothing but filthy rags.

They looked just like beggars.

Yet their numbers were enormous.

Densely packed, there were at least 2,000 to 3,000 of them by estimation.

According to Huo Qiguang, these were Arab slave soldiers.

Because of their low cost and large numbers.

They were usually used by the Arabs as vanguard troops.

To put it bluntly, they were cannon fodder.

Used to exhaust the enemy’s stamina.

The regular troops were still behind them.

Sure enough, the units that emerged next looked far more proper.

Large numbers of sword-and-shield infantry wearing leather armor and carrying red shields.

As well as large numbers of archers.

Meanwhile, the heavily armored camel cavalry was placed at the very rear.

As thoughts raced, the enemy had already sounded the horn of attack.

Their formation began advancing.

Judging the timing, the 15 three-bow ballistae still had time for one more volley.

At this moment, Luo Ji and Huo Qiguang wordlessly chose to use it to eliminate the enemy’s war elephants.

In the end, a war elephant’s sheer mass could only go so far.

No matter how thick the hide or tough the flesh, it could not withstand the heavy bolts of a three-bow ballista.

At the rear of the enemy formation, there was a lavishly decorated war elephant clad in armor.

Without a doubt, that was the Arab player’s mount.

At this moment, listening to the tragic cries of the war elephants ahead.

The Arab player’s face had nearly turned green with rage.

War elephants were precious strategic units for them.

Every single loss made his heart ache for a long time.

However, casualties in war were unavoidable.

At times like this, all he could do was grit his teeth and endure it.

“Sound the horn. Advance.”

The stirring horn echoed across the battlefield.

Luo Ji and Huo Qiguang quickly signaled for the three-bow ballistae to withdraw.

In this battle, considering that the enemy had war elephants and camel troops.

Against these thick-skinned and tough units, Luo Ji had not brought scatter bolts.

After a single volley from the 500 goblin crossbowmen.

Both armies quickly entered a phase of mutual suppression with waves of arrows.

Then, another horn sounded from the enemy side.

Almost the moment the horn echoed.

The dozen or so war elephants opening the way at the front of the enemy formation let out loud trumpeting cries at the same time.

Then, they launched a full-speed charge straight at their formation.