Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

The enemy commander made a wrong bet and overestimated his own combat strength, but now it was impossible to withdraw the soldiers. The Romans would definitely pursue the victory, and the soldiers in front and behind would be crowded together, which would easily lead to a rout. So they had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to invest troops in the enemy's central position.

The Romans were not afraid of danger. Under the on-the-spot command of the centurions and the captains, they fought against the barbarian soldiers who were far more numerous than their own. They formed a dense shield wall formation and pushed and bumped against their enemies. From time to time, a dagger-like short sword would pierce from the upper side of the big shield to harvest the lives of the opposing soldiers.

To put it in an entertaining way, the Romans were completely professional in dealing with these barbarians, because their first powerful enemy was the Gauls in northern Italy. Their military equipment was designed to fight this kind of barbarians to a certain extent, not to mention that the Celts on the British Isles were more like the orthodox barbarians than the Gauls, retaining the most barbarian elements, and their production capacity and military technology were relatively low.

One of the secrets of close combat on the cold weapon battlefield is to fight with more people against fewer. The Roman dagger's attack method is mainly stabbing and the formation is very dense. The long sword and axe used by the Celts are mainly slashing. In order to make full use of the weapons in their hands and lack of strict training, there are inevitably gaps between soldiers, and the area is not small.

Often a long sword has to face the stabbing of four or five daggers, and two fists are no match for four hands. Even the tallest and strongest warriors can only die on the spot when facing the daggers that cannot be dodged and pierced into the body. Due to the crowded situation on the cold weapon battlefield, these people are even pushed and shoved after death and will not fall down.

As the battle time gradually lengthened, a lot of bodies of the dead were piled up on the battlefield, most of whom were Celts, and only a few were Romans.

As the battle time lengthened, the disadvantages of the barbarian army's lack of successors gradually became apparent, their physical strength gradually consumed, and their patience and confidence gradually disintegrated. As for the most intense battlefield situation, there is no need to use any strange tactics. The Celts simply couldn't beat the Romans in the purest bloody and direct hand-to-hand combat. Unless something unexpected happened to the Romans' flanks, it would only be a matter of time before they pierced through the Celtic center.

After realizing this, the enemy commander immediately sent the remaining elite troops to the flanks to exert pressure, and at the same time used his own cavalry troops, hoping to quickly penetrate the German auxiliary troops on the Roman flanks, which increased the pressure on the Germans.

The German commander severely reprimanded the soldiers, and personally drew his sword to kill several wavering soldiers, relying on this bloody method to maintain the front line.

Having said that, the situation on the German side is actually that they have an advantage - because many of them are long spear phalanx soldiers.

In this era, the best sword and shield infantry in the Mediterranean world should still be the Roman legionnaires, but even they suffered a lot when they fought against Alexander's cousin, who was nicknamed Alexander's living King Pyrrhus.

Unless Hercules is alive, once the phalanx spearmen are officially deployed, it is not possible to break through by just charging headfirst. Facing the dense phalanx spears like hedgehogs, even the bravest people will be frightened and afraid of being strung together like human skewers, so they will not rush headfirst into them.

The Romans used sword and shield infantry to face the phalanx spears head-on, but the result was a complete and inglorious failure. They could only make a breakthrough by attacking the vassal army on the flanks, not to mention the Celts now.

Although the quality of the German auxiliary army is far inferior to that of Alexander or Pyrrhus's warriors, they can just hold their spears upright, which is enough. The Celtic warriors on the opposite side seem timid and hesitant.

One of the shortcomings of the phalanx infantry is that they are afraid of long-range firepower, and the other is that they are too bulky. Both of these points were solved to a certain extent by Belisarius.

After the exchange of fire in the center, Belisarius moved the scorpion crossbows and most of the archer troops to the two wings to suppress the enemy's archers. Although the pressure on the Romans in the center was greater, it was not a big problem, while the Celtic troops were caught off guard by the increasing number of archers.

Their purpose was not to wear down the Celtic melee troops, but to suppress the Celtic archer troops, which were not many in number, and the effect was very successful. Due to the protection of the bunker, the Celtic side suffered a lot when shooting.

These warriors could not ignore the attacks of the archers in the distance and continue to attack the seemingly fragile long spear phalanx, but turned around and shot at the archer troops attacking them. It can be said that the enemy's hatred and attention were attracted, which allowed the Germanic phalanx spearmen to act as terrain generators with more peace of mind.

In addition, Belisarius did not make any mistakes in the deployment of troops. He fully deployed the phalanx spearmen and then filled the battle line with cleverly arranged German elite sword and shield infantry, which protected the flanks of the phalanx soldiers and gave them enough sense of security and confidence.

The enemy's attack also became somewhat difficult. The local Germans did not have time to receive Roman training to become a typical Roman heavy infantry sword and shield unit, but they were still a Viking sword and shield infantry, and their combat effectiveness was not bad, at least enough to deal with these people.

The phalanx soldiers shortened the width of the battle line, and the enemy's soldiers rushed to the front of the sword and shield infantry in large numbers, and the two sides began hand-to-hand combat.

After more than a hundred years of enthusiastic exchanges, these Germans have gained inner confidence in fighting the Celts. They were once elite noble private soldiers with good training and weapons and equipment. After the two sides engaged in battle, the Germans had a little advantage.

After all, the Germans were the people who drove the Celts to the edge of the land, and relatively speaking, the Germans' combat effectiveness was slightly better.

It was impossible to determine the winner in a short period of time. For these Celts now, not being able to determine the winner was already a gradual failure.

The opponent's commander had a relatively clear understanding and sent out his own cavalry to try to flank the enemy's position.

At this time, another major drawback of the Celts emerged - most of their so-called cavalry were horse-drawn chariots, which could be called living fossils on the battlefield, and the horses were much shorter than those on the mainland, which made them quite disadvantaged against the high-quality German cavalry.

They knew that chariots were heavy and sluggish, and would be a living target when facing flexible cavalry. It was that their breeding level had not kept up, and the horses could not be camels freely, so they could only use horses to pull carts.

At this point in the war, the result was self-evident. Some clear-headed barbarian leaders were quietly preparing to retreat with their men. Although the commander-in-chief of the barbarians knew that the situation was unfavorable, he still gritted his teeth and let the cavalry launch a round of charge, hoping to find a chance to defeat the Germanic cavalry on the opposite side, and then go around the flank of the Romans for a last fight.

If it were the cavalry in the eastern part of the empire who had not been in contact with chariots for a long time, they might be able to win by surprise in this way, but they were now facing the Germans who had fought with them for many years. They knew very well how to deal with the old Celtic chariots. Although the Romans had abandoned the slightly outdated model of chariots in actual combat, they had an almost obsessive enthusiasm for chariot competitions and were relatively familiar with this weapon.

Several teams of cavalry were separated from the Roman army to surround the chariot phalanx. The more agile cavalry easily hung around the chariots, and then used javelins, bows and arrows and other weapons to attack the Celtic horses that were only painted with paint for metaphysical defense.

There is no doubt that these bulky chariots can hardly touch the skilled cavalry of the Germans. Even if a few drivers with excellent driving skills and excellent archers can kill a few scattered cavalry, it will be of no avail. The German cavalry is roughly estimated to have hundreds of cavalry. On the contrary, any chariot team with resistance will be given special attention and be chased and intercepted by dozens of cavalry, and will soon die on the spot.

In this way, the few mobile forces of the Celts were also lost on the battlefield. The cavalry, which lost its restraint, began to bypass from the flank and outflank the Celtic army for a back attack. Fortunately, the Celts had a large number of people, and they could always separate some troops to block the cavalry that the Germans had surrounded.

These German cavalry were mainly light cavalry, and the impact of cavalry in this era was not enough. They could not directly crash into the blocking infantry, but instead got into a small-scale fight with these soldiers.

But at this moment, an unknown number of Vikings suddenly rushed out from the rear of the Celtic army. The coalition forces, who did not expect to be attacked from both sides, were in chaos for a while and did not know what to do.

These people were Rollo's men. Rollo himself led the other Vikings and Anglo-Saxons mixed troops to confuse the front line. Rollo's own soldiers, led by Roman officers, took a long boat down the river, took a long way to the back of the Celtic Legion, and waited for the opportunity on the edge of the battlefield. Now that they found the opportunity, they immediately launched an attack and began to attack the Celtic position from behind.

The situation seemed a little critical. The opponent's commander-in-chief had no reserve troops around him, only a few guards and personal soldiers.

One side was full of vigor, while the other side was forced to fight hastily, and had no advantage in numbers. The result of the war could be said to be quite one-sided.

This surprise force became the last straw that broke the camel's back. The soldiers who were fighting hard on the front line immediately lost their morale when they found that the headquarters was besieged. Belisarius seized the opportunity to send all the cavalry and reserve troops to support the German cavalry who were fighting hard with the enemy on the flank of the battlefield.

There is no need to say more about what happened later. The weak infantry line was penetrated, and a large number of cavalry detoured from the flank of the front to the rear and flank of the Celtic front, and then launched a massive charge at their backs.

Under attack from both sides, the Celtic coalition began to disintegrate, and the disintegration turned into a great collapse in a short period of time. This time Belisarius did not show much mercy and ordered the soldiers to pursue the enemy mercilessly. Any soldier who resisted would be killed on the spot, and the soldiers who did not resist and surrendered would be tied up with ropes and controlled, waiting for post-war disposal.

The German cavalrymen returned to their old duties. Belisarius released the restraints on these cavalrymen, and they excitedly used lassoes and other equipment to capture the fleeing Celtic warriors all over the mountains and plains, and the situation became quite chaotic.

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The battle actually ended in the afternoon, but the work of cleaning the battlefield, treating the wounded, dealing with prisoners, burying bodies and counting the dead continued until noon the next day before some clues were found.

At this point, there was no need to continue the war. The barbarians reluctantly elected a barbarian leader who had not died in the war and asked him to negotiate peace with the Romans as the speaker.

Since the other party had already surrendered, the Romans naturally accepted it with pleasure.

As the governor and war commander, Belisarius announced the disposal plan for these barbarians and the rewards for the victors.

For the victors, bounties, celebration banquets, spoils of war and other things are naturally indispensable. Belisarius also promised to give the dead more than the usual pension, and even the German soldiers had a share, which was considered to satisfy these soldiers with money.

The central government's appropriations have not been spent yet, so it is not difficult to share some money to reward the soldiers.

For these barbarian leaders who were suspected of colluding with the Franks, Belisarius directly charged them with the crime of conspiring to contact the Franks and trying to subvert the rule of the empire.

The main culprits were the most active tribal leaders. They were naturally confiscated, and those who were not dead were hanged on the cross. If the bodies of the dead could be found, they would be hanged on the cross again.

In addition, the barbarian tribes with the strongest resistance attitude would be dispersed and thrown to the Gaul province in the south, and the remaining barbarians who participated in the resistance would also be treated accordingly.

The heirs of the barbarian tribes would be required to be hostages in the British province of Londinium or the capital Rome for a period of time to receive Roman education, and Belisarius required them to pay blood tax, that is, to serve the empire.

In addition, the border with the Celtic barbarians in the west was pushed forward by about 30 to 40 kilometers, and their space was further compressed.

Belisarius also used coercive means to stipulate the mode of trade, coexistence, and communication between the barbarians and the Romans, and did not allow robbery, theft, etc. to occur, which was considered to be a result he wanted on the western border of the British province.

Although they had some opinions about Boudica, after this incident, the Romans still designated Boudica as the leader of the tribal alliance. She would continue to negotiate with the Romans as a representative and serve as a bridge to communicate and regulate the relationship between the Romans and the locals.

According to Belisarius' understanding, the matter was forced to be implemented by force, and the main hidden danger in the western part of the British province was successfully eliminated.