Rome Must Fall

"Speed ​​up and charge forward! Charge forward quickly!..." The tribal leader from behind shouted in a hissing voice, urging the soldiers to move forward faster.

Yes, others are not far ahead. Rush up to fight with them, and they will no longer be able to shoot arrows... The soldiers began to rush forward desperately, but while speeding up, they also used wooden shields to protect themselves. head and chest.

The sudden changes made by Broch's warriors had no impact on Valerius. After the first round of crossbow arrows were fired, he once again raised the red flag: "Crossbowmen prepare!"

The crossbowmen in the front row immediately handed the crossbows in their hands to their comrades in the rear, and at the same time received another crossbow that had been strung and arrowed.

"Fire arrows!" At Valerius's command, the frontline crossbowmen once again pulled the trigger, and arrows rained down the hill.

This is why, under Maximus's suggestion, the crossbow team practiced two stages of shooting during this period: two people were in groups, one soldier was responsible for setting the string, and the other soldier who was more skilled in archery was responsible for shooting. Repeatedly, this shortens the time between firing the crossbow and forms a more continuous attack.

Seeing the crossbow arrows coming, the Broch warriors who rushed forward were confident that their wooden shields could block them, but then they screamed because their simple wooden shields were penetrated by powerful triangular iron arrows, piercing their arms or bodies. other parts of the body, causing them to lose part of their combat effectiveness...

The crossbow team fired crossbows round after round. The soldiers were a little nervous at the beginning but became calm in the end, because the crossbows in their hands were sharp weapons for killing people, constantly harvesting the lives of the enemy.

The Broch soldiers who charged towards them paid an extremely heavy price. The 100-meter road was covered with blood, and there were injured soldiers lying on the ground and wailing everywhere...

When the charge was only thirty meters away from the crossbowmen, the formation had become sparse. The extremely frightened Broch soldiers retreated hastily when the crossbowmen were about to fire the sixth round of crossbow arrows.

Valerius did not wave the red flag held high in his hand forward, allowing the crossbowmen to kill the remaining enemies in front of him. Instead, he turned around, waved the flag backwards, and shouted: "Crossbowmen retreat!"

Although the enemies in front of the crossbowmen have been defeated, the enemies on the side have rushed up the hill and are about to fight with the legionnaires at the rear... In order to prevent the enemies from behind from swarming over and threatening the safety of the crossbowmen, Valerius decisively chose to retreat.

The legionnaires behind the crossbow and crossbow teams witnessed with their own eyes that the two newly formed long-range troops directly defeated the enemies charging head-on. While they were surprised and envious, they also had a desire to compete.

The collapse of the far left wing of Pannoni's army formation caused a large gap of more than 300 meters to the west on the north bank of the Korana River. While the crossbowmen and crossbow artillery teams were retreating, many small phalanxes of centurions behind them were also retreating. Move forward quickly.

Of course, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes made in the battle with the Otariat people, Maximus repeatedly emphasized to the legion commanders and captains at the military meeting held before the war: All teams must strictly enforce battlefield discipline, and those who violate it will be punished. The punishment must be increased.

The rightmost unit of the Third Army, which is the focus of the offensive, is naturally the focus of Maximus and the chief officer of the Ministry of War. The military judge is directly stationed in the rear to supervise it, and the army commander Tolerugo also sits directly in the rear. This makes Hundreds As they led the troops forward, the captains kept loudly reminding their soldiers: Do not leave the team to pursue the fleeing enemy, but stay calm, obey the command, follow the large troops, and attack the enemy's flank in a roundabout way.

The formation on the rightmost side of the Third Army turned eastward and detoured the enemy's flank. At the same time, it also revealed the reserve force of the Nix tribe behind it for this battle - the First Brigade of the Third Army.

The captain of the brigade was called Aeolocus. He was a coolie from the port of Naples. He joined the rebel army with Carminus and participated in all the battles that Maximus' army experienced. He has made many achievements and has also experienced defeats (the battle of the Vomanus River and the false defeat at the Battle of Segestica).

More than two years of war training made him an experienced veteran. He remained calm in the fierce battlefield. He did not immediately follow the troops of the Third Army in front to detour the enemy's flank, but walked in the team. At the front, he led his ten centurions straight forward, down the hill, and then spread out from north to south, guarding the flanks of the circuitous Third Army and acting as a barrier for the crossbow troops following behind. At the same time, he was also observing changes in the battle situation and was ready to lead his team into battle at any time.

After Valerius led his team to retreat to the rear of the array, he took a short rest and then followed the first group of the Third Army forward. When passing through the battlefield where he had previously attacked from a distance, he also sent a small number of crossbowmen to simply clean the battlefield and collect crossbow arrows that could still be used.

Although through the hard work of the craftsmen in the iron workshop, more than 7,000 crossbow arrows were produced in just two months. On average, each Lu Bin's quiver was filled with 12 arrows, and only half of them were shot in the previous battle, but in the relaxed After defeating the charging enemy, Valerius believed that the team he led could still play an important role in today's battle, so the more crossbows he had, the better.

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After the attack horn was sounded, the leaders of various tribes led the soldiers to fight the enemy. As the big leader, Brix sat behind the center of the left wing of the Pannoni coalition and paid attention to the entire battle situation.

At this time, as the battle begins, the only thing Brix can still command is the 300-man escort around him. The soldiers in the escort are all fat and strong, with superb martial arts, and most of them are nobles from various tribes. child. He gained their allegiance by promising them land and wealth, and equipped them with iron armor, sharp double-edged swords, and strong shields, making this guard the most powerful in Blix's hands. Strength also enhanced his prestige among the entire tribe.

In fact, he also learned this trick from his neighbor Andres, and he also learned from the failure of Andres' battle and did not let his escort serve as the vanguard at the beginning of the battle. to attack the enemy formation, but to stay by his side in case of any eventuality.

When the news came that the warriors on the far left were attacked by the enemy's crossbows and collapsed, Blix was shocked. Although he knew that the warriors of his tribe had the lowest combat effectiveness compared to several other large tribes due to the relatively stable environment they were in. Worse, not even as good as Ma Qi Yi (Ma Qi Yi has many mountain people), but he never expected that not long after the war started, some of his soldiers would be beaten and run away.

While he was angry and angry, he also realized the danger of the situation. If he could not stabilize the left wing as soon as possible and allow the enemy to take advantage of the opportunity to launch a counterattack, it might lead to the collapse of the entire tribal army, and his ambition might be in vain.

Therefore, he immediately sent an escort to the left wing for rescue. Of course, he would not let his most precious possessions risk alone. At the same time, he also sent his men to gather the defeated tribesmen and ask for help from the other three leaders.

The news that the crossbow unit defeated the enemy in front of them quickly spread to the headquarters of the Knicks army, which immediately swept away the tense atmosphere.

"Chief, I didn't expect that this crossbow unit that you personally formed would be so powerful. It actually defeated the enemy who was charging in front of you!" Quintus said with surprise and a little excitement: "I thought I would be the first to make a breakthrough. The one who gets the first victory will be a certain centurion of the Second Army, or the first battalion of the Third Army.”

Frontinus seriously reminded: "Chief, of course the crossbowmen defeated the enemy first, but you need to think carefully about what kind of merit you should get. After all, you and the legionnaires bravely fought against the enemy. Compared with fighting and being injured at any time, the crossbow unit only shoots from a long distance. If the enemy rushes up, they can hide behind the military formation without much danger.

If their standards for meritorious service are the same as those of legionnaires, will the legionnaires find it unfair? And it will also make the tribesmen more willing to be crossbowmen, and no longer regard being a legionnaire as an honor. "

Maximus's smile that just appeared quickly disappeared. He touched his chin, nodded and said: "Frontinus, the matter you mentioned is very important. The amount of risk you bear should be the amount of benefit, Crossbowman The standards for meritorious service should indeed be different from those of legionnaires!

But we have to wait until the battle is over to discuss this matter. Now what we want to focus on is how the next battle will develop after the good news comes from the crossbow team? "

"What we were most worried about before was when we could open a gap on the enemy's left wing. We didn't expect the crossbow team to make a breakthrough so quickly." Frontinus said with relief: "We have made a detailed plan in advance. I I believe that Toreligo and Aeolochus will implement this plan step by step, and eventually defeat the enemy's entire left wing! We don't have to worry, we can wait for the next good news to come. "

"Captain Valerius of the Crossbow Corps is a veteran with rich experience. I know him well. He will never be satisfied with just winning the first victory." Quintus took over the conversation: "The Crossbow Corps has such amazing damage. He will definitely lead this team, seize the opportunity, and make new achievements.”

"In this case, let's just wait for victory with peace of mind. Anyway, no matter how anxious we are now, we can't provide them with any help." After Maximus was relieved, his words became a little more teasing.

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Except for the area where the Knicks army had the upper hand on the north bank of the Korana River, the two sides were still in a stalemate on the rest of the front.