Murad could not understand how a mere 10,000 French troops had managed to seal off an entire five-kilometer-wide front.
Left with no choice, he ordered the cavalry to form up and attack the nearest French infantry.
The moment the French Hussars spotted the enemy approaching, the Hot Air Balloon in the sky sent a warning to the 14th Infantry Regiment.
The French infantry, originally arranged in two narrow Horizontal Formations, immediately began changing formation.
Within minutes, 2,500 soldiers had transformed into two Hollow Square Formations about 400 meters apart.
A reinforcement force of more than a thousand French Cuirassiers and Hussars also rushed over at once.
Yes, this was how Massena controlled such a broad battlefield front.
Nine thousand French infantrymen were divided into five Horizontal Formations, with 500 meters between each. Cavalry linked the formations together, giving the entire line a width of 5.5 kilometers. This compressed all the Mamluk forces into the strip of land between the Nile River and a small desert.
Of course, the prerequisite for this tactic was keeping track of the enemy's movements at all times, then swiftly concentrating nearby troops to block them.
The instant Murad's cavalry saw the Hollow Square Formations, more than half their morale vanished.
Though there appeared to be a large gap between the two squares, they did not dare slip through it. That would mean being riddled like sieves by dense fire from both sides.
And if the enemy cavalry came up to harass them halfway through, their entire army could be wiped out.
Murad made a probing charge, but before the French Hussars even appeared, he hurriedly pulled back and turned north.
West of Embaba Village, over ten thousand Halqa Infantry watched the "loose and ragged" French army draw steadily closer. Nervously, they raised their Matchlock Guns.