The 'adding oil' tactic.
It is a very high-level tactic.
It often makes the opposing commander use a smoke screen of illusion due to a lack of battlefield intuition, making the opponent believe that with just a little more effort, they can break through, defeat, or annihilate the enemy. However, the opponent usually hides fresh forces, slowly adding them to the battle to wear down the enemy, whether in terms of war numbers, will to fight, or logistical supplies. This is a very cruel tactic.
The prerequisites for using this tactic are: having more troops and units than the enemy, not being discovered by the enemy, achieving a quick victory, and finally, being more iron-blooded than the enemy, unafraid of troop sacrifices.
This tactic is extremely terrifying for common soldiers; it's an iron-blooded tactic that treats people as less than human. Anyone below a centurion is expendable cannon fodder. Precisely because of this, this plan requires deceiving both friendly and enemy forces, otherwise, a mutiny would immediately occur.
This is also a tactic that only those with great courage, decisiveness, and battlefield intuition can, and dare to, use.
Jeanne is using exactly this now.
Watching the enemy's third echelon merge with the second echelon and begin their attack, she no longer hesitated. Unfurling her banner, she pointed at the enemy formation and ordered the buglers to sound the charge, committing her entire army.
Jeanne's audacity greatly surprised Kayal, but it also made him secretly shake his head.
He had initially thought the rebel leader was so bold that he might be a promising talent, but now it seemed somewhat misguided. From his vantage point, he could clearly see that the King of Scotland still had trump cards and reserves that had not been deployed. Wouldn't this move force the King of Scotland to go all out? The rebels, with no cards left in their hand… were doomed to lose!
Kayal shook his head and sighed. He had thought the opponent would use the 'adding oil' tactic, but he hadn't expected them, being young, to be so impatient, actually planning to devour these twenty thousand light cavalry at once. While their plan was good, they underestimated the enemy too much.
The King of Scotland's forces numbered around eighty thousand, not all of them knights. Knights accounted for sixty thousand, and the remaining twenty thousand were infantry, or so-called militiamen. Of course, compared to those poorly dressed commoners, these militiamen were fully equipped with helmets, armor, and greaves.
However, if twenty thousand knights were lost, the King of Scotland would have very few cards left to resist the invasion of Camelot. Even if he could annihilate these rebels, he would be powerless against an invasion from Camelot. This could not happen under any circumstances. To resist Camelot in the future, the King of Scotland had to make an all-or-nothing gamble, intending not only to break the encirclement of the twenty thousand knights but also to completely annihilate these rebels. After all, the enemy had no reserves left, so what was there to fear?
So, with a grand wave of the King of Scotland's hand, how could the remaining forty thousand cavalry still hold back?
Grouped by standard-bearers, they surged towards their increasingly dwindling comrades, who numbered only fifteen thousand and were currently besieged. Their intention was not only to relieve their comrades' predicament but also to instantly crush these commoners, these rebellious dogs!
Let these dogs know that the dignity of the nobility is inviolable! Let these dogs know that the King's authority is inviolable! The honor of the Knights is inviolable! Only blood could make them remember their lesson!
Just as the first row of cavalry, holding their lances and wearing cruel smiles, continuously approached the terrified, pale-faced commoners, a dense mass of people appeared in a forest hundreds of kilometers behind the rebel main camp.
This crowd continuously poured out from the woods, stopping only after several hundred meters. With Kayal's calculating ability, he quickly estimated the number of people in just a few seconds... "This is impossible! One hundred and fifty thousand people! Have all the men of Scotland come?!" Kayal exclaimed in shock, but everyone was so engrossed in the tide of people that they couldn't hear Kayal's words.
Kayal absolutely refused to believe it. He had absolute confidence in his calculating ability and a clear understanding of the situation within Scotland. Scotland's total population was 1.5 million, with sixty percent residing near the royal city. In other words, the rebel army could only utilize a population of around five to six hundred thousand who would be willing to follow them. Most people were deeply entrenched in their perception of the King of Scotland's true nature; the majority of those who followed the rebels were young people.
But even among young people, there were women and children. Excluding women and children, the rebel army could only field about one hundred thousand people.
Currently, about sixty thousand troops, all militiamen, had already appeared on the field. The true elite, fifteen hundred heavy infantry, had not yet moved. But even so, it was close to seventy thousand people. Who were these extra people? Where did they come from!
Three points of light appeared around Kayal, flying directly downwards.
A moment later, Kayal breathed a sigh of relief and said to the people around him, "Don't be afraid. This is just a feint. These people are old, weak, women, and children, holding wooden sticks and clubs. Except for the first two rows, which are able-bodied adults, about ten thousand of them, the rest are old people and children."
Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. If these more than one hundred thousand people were all able-bodied men, armed with weapons, and considering the forces already engaged, it would indeed be difficult for Camelot's cavalry to annihilate them.
Now that they knew the enemy's true strength, looking at this battle, there was no longer any problem. Annihilating them was just a matter of time!
Just as Kayal and the others breathed a sigh of relief, this dense mass of people gave the King of Scotland an indescribable mental pressure. Looking at that sea of heads, the King of Scotland gasped.
Due to the existence of the nobility, he understood his subjects less than Kayal did. He didn't need to know where this group of people came from; he only knew that these people were his enemies!
Although the more than fifty thousand knights (who had suffered considerable losses during the recent breakthrough battle) were close to completely slaughtering the poor farmers, if they were surrounded by these one hundred thousand enemies, even if those fifty thousand knights could break out, very few would remain. And then there were the approaching Camelot Knights... How should he respond?
Just as the King of Scotland hesitated, wondering whether he should order the knights to retreat, an earth-shattering sound of bagpipes suddenly erupted from the enemy's camp. It was the sound of at least fifty or a hundred bagpipes playing in unison.
As if a signal, a group of burly men, riding clumsy horses and almost like infantry mounted on horseback, suddenly rushed out from the dense forest behind the King of Scotland.
Wielding long spears and without any banners, they charged towards the King of Scotland's position...