Chapter 262: Making the First Contribution

"Speed ​​up and charge! Quickly charge!..." The tribal leader in the back shouted, urging the warriors to speed up.

Yes, the others are not far ahead. If they rush up to fight with them, they will not be able to shoot arrows anymore... The warriors began to rush forward desperately, but while speeding up, they also used wooden shields to protect their heads and chests.

The sudden change made by the Brochi warriors did not affect Valerius at all. After the first round of crossbow arrows were fired, he raised the red flag again: "Crossbowmen, prepare!"

The crossbowmen in the front immediately handed the crossbow in their hands to their comrades in the back, and at the same time took over another crossbow that had been strung and arrows released.

"Shoot!" At the command of Valerius, the crossbowmen in the front pulled the trigger again, and immediately a rain of arrows poured down the hill.

This is why, under Maximus's suggestion, the crossbowmen have been practicing two-stage shooting: two people form a group, one soldier is responsible for drawing the bowstring and putting the arrow on it, and the other soldier with better archery skills is responsible for shooting, repeating the process over and over again, which shortens the time interval between drawing the crossbow and shooting, forming a more continuous attack.

Seeing the crossbow arrows coming, the Brochi warriors who rushed in front were confident that their wooden shields could block them, but then they screamed because the simple wooden shields were penetrated by the powerful three-edged iron arrows, piercing their arms or other parts of the body, making them lose some of their combat effectiveness...

The crossbowmen fired round after round of crossbow arrows, and the soldiers became calm from being a little nervous at the beginning, because the crossbows in their hands were killing weapons, constantly harvesting the lives of the enemy.

The Brochi warriors who charged towards them paid a heavy price. The 100-meter road was covered with blood, and there were wounded warriors lying on the ground and wailing everywhere...

When the charge was only 30 meters away from the crossbow team, the formation had become sparse. The Brochi warriors, who were extremely frightened, retreated hastily when the crossbow team was about to shoot the sixth round of crossbow arrows.

Valerius did not wave the red flag in his hand forward again to let the crossbowmen shoot the remaining enemies in front of them. Instead, he turned around and waved the flag backwards, shouting: "Crossbowmen retreat!"

Although the enemies in front of the crossbow team had been defeated, the enemies on the side had already rushed up the hill and were about to fight with the legionnaires on the side and rear... In order to avoid the enemies behind him rushing over and threatening the safety of the crossbowmen, Valerius decisively chose to retreat.

The legionnaires behind the crossbowmen and the crossbow artillery team 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 the desire to compete with them.

The collapse of the far left wing of the Pannonian army led to a large gap of more than 300 meters to the west on the north bank of the Corana River. While the crossbowmen and crossbow artillery teams were retreating, the several centurions behind them were also moving forward rapidly.

Of course, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes made in the battle with the Otariat, Maximus repeatedly emphasized to the legion commanders and captains at the military meeting before the war: All teams must strictly enforce battlefield discipline, and those who violated the rules must be punished more severely.

As the focus of the attack, the far right wing of the Third Legion was naturally the focus of Maximus and the chief officer of the Ministry of War. The military judge was directly stationed behind it for supervision, and the legion commander Tolerogo also sat directly in the rear. This made the centurions constantly remind their soldiers loudly when they led the team forward: Don't leave the team to chase the fleeing enemy, but stay calm, obey the command, follow the main force, and attack the enemy's flank in a roundabout way.

The rightmost formation of the Third Legion turned eastward and outflanked the enemy's flank, revealing the reserve of the Nix tribe in the rear in this battle - the First Battalion of the Third Legion.

The captain of the battalion was Aeolus, who was a coolie from the port of Naples. He joined the rebels with Carminus and participated in all the battles experienced by Maximus' army. He made many contributions and also experienced defeats (the Battle of the Vomanus River and the feigned defeat at the Battle of Segestica).

More than two years of war training made him an experienced veteran. In the battlefield where the sound of killing was deafening, he remained calm and did not immediately follow the Third Legion troops in front to outflank the enemy's flank. Instead, he walked at the front of the team, led his ten centurions straight forward, went down the hill, and then deployed from north to south. While guarding the flanks of the outflanked Third Legion troops and providing a barrier for the crossbow troops following behind, he was also observing the changes in the battle situation and ready to lead the team into battle at any time.

After leading his troops to retreat to the rear of the array, Varelius took a short rest and then followed the first battalion of the Third Legion. When passing the battlefield of the previous long-range attack, he also sent a few crossbowmen to simply clean up the battlefield and collect the crossbow arrows that could still be used.

Although more than 7,000 crossbow arrows were made in just two months through the hard work of the iron workshop craftsmen, and each Lubin's quiver was filled with 12 arrows on average, and only half of them were shot in the previous battle, after easily defeating the charging enemy, Varelius believed that the team he led could still play an important role in today's battle, so the more crossbow arrows he had, the better.

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After the attack horn was blown, the leaders of various tribes naturally led the warriors to fight the enemy. Brix, as the chief, sat in the rear of the left wing of the Pannonian coalition and paid attention to the entire battle.

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 with him 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.