Chapter 438 Battle of Aquileia (I)

The only drawback of the forward and reverse double-bow crossbow is that it takes a lot of effort to string the bow, so the Ministry of War issued a special order: two crossbowmen are responsible for a double-bow crossbow, one shoots and the other loads the arrow.

After the successful trial production of the forward and reverse double-bow crossbow, it began to be mass-produced by multiple weapon workshops in Nix and distributed to crossbowmen in various legions. It played an important role in the battles with the Boii, Tauricians and Germans.

Now, facing the Roman heavy infantry that conquered the entire Mediterranean, can the Nix crossbowmen create glory again?

Reality soon gave the answer.

The triangular cone-shaped sharp arrow with strong kinetic energy penetrated the entire thick shield. Even though the power was weakened, it still pierced into the iron armor worn by the Roman soldiers.

A scream rang out from the front line of the Roman left wing, which was more than two miles long, and even a few soldiers fell to the ground.

Although the Roman army officers were shocked by the long-range killing power of the new bow-like weapon equipped by the Nix army, they responded quickly with experience: "Attack! Attack immediately!..."

The Roman soldiers of the 9th and 10th legions gave up the formation, raised their shields and began to rush forward to avoid being killed by the enemy again.

The front-line crossbowmen of Nix quickly handed the double crossbows to the teammates behind, picked up another crossbow with arrows already loaded, turned around and aimed again.

The closer distance caused more Roman soldiers to fall to the ground with screams, but this did not scare them, but made them run forward with all their strength.

The Nix crossbowmen finally pulled the string and loaded the arrows, and shot them hastily, so Dorin had to lead the crossbowmen to retreat quickly.

There were only three rounds of shooting at a distance of 100 meters, and even only one string was loaded, but the Nix crossbowmen caused certain casualties to the Roman heavy infantry, and more importantly, interrupted the offensive rhythm of the Roman legion and destroyed their strict military formation.

The Nix crossbowmen retreated like a tide, revealing a harder "reef".

The fish scale formation formed by the Nix First and Second Legions quickly closed after the crossbowmen passed, forming an iron wall more than two miles long.

These Nix infantrymen wore iron helmets and segmented iron armor, holding large shields in their left hands and short swords in their right hands. Except for the difference of wearing yellow lining and adding nose guards on their helmets, they were simply Roman legionnaires.

The Roman soldiers were surprised by what they saw, but the attack had been launched with all their strength and could not be stopped. Moreover, they firmly believed that no army in the world could stop their front after conquering the Gaul region and winning the Roman civil war.

But the soldiers of the Nix First and Second Legions were also full of confidence. Although it is difficult for the Nix military to evaluate the combat effectiveness of the first to fifth legions (the fifth legion, under the command of Pequot, has repeatedly made military achievements in conquering the Boii, Tauricians and defeating the Germans), there is no doubt that the first and second legions have the longest seniority and the most military achievements.

At this moment, the soldiers of the two Nix legions were extremely excited. Nix has been in a peaceful state for the past few years, and their titles have not changed for a long time. In their eyes, the Roman soldiers who rushed over were shining with wealth and status.

This is especially true for Akeguo. He has served as the first captain of the first legion for many years. Now he is looking forward to being promoted to legion commander in the war against the Romans, so that he can be no weaker than his fellow comrades in the same batch.

"Brothers, charge!" Akeguo shouted and issued an attack order like other captains.

When the Roman soldiers rushed to a distance of 30 meters, the Nix soldiers immediately launched a counterattack, because they had gone through repeated discussions and training beforehand and knew that the Roman legion liked to throw javelins at this distance first, so they took quick action and did not give the other side a chance to throw.

Two surging steel torrents suddenly met and collided on the three-mile-long plain, and the sound of shields hitting, metal tearing, and soldiers screaming came one after another and resounded through the sky.

Although the fight between the two sides had just begun, Anthony was in the rear and did not fully understand the situation in front, but he had already felt that the situation was completely different from what he had imagined in advance.

He looked up at the top of the city in the distance, where there was no fighting, and even the "legion soldiers" wearing red lining and standard armor disappeared. What attracted attention was a monster flag that had just been erected and fluttered in the wind!

I was fooled! The barbarians might have already captured the city of Aquileia! ...Anthony's heart sank, but he was not panicked. The attack horn had already sounded, and it was impossible to retreat easily. But even if the barbarians had made all the calculations, the victory or defeat of the battle still depended on strength. At the moment, this was still a face-to-face battle. He firmly believed that the Roman legions could crush any barbarian army.

Anthony didn't know that King Nix was standing next to the dragon flag fluttering in the wind on the top of the city, and his eyes were focused on him.

Is this Anthony? One of the three giants in the late Roman Republic? ... Looking down from above, the vision was clearer. Maximus looked at him curiously for several times and found that the other party had nothing special except that he was relatively burly.

"My king, we have already started fighting with the Roman army. I think we can start long-range attacks." Pecot reminded on the side.

"Just do as you say." Maximus agreed readily.

After the order was issued, the Nix engineers began to fiddle with the crossbows placed on several towers on the city wall, pulling the crossbow arm, putting lead bullets, and aiming...

The crossbows that the rebels brought into the mountains had long been rusted and rotten, and were unusable. Later, Nix had crossbows, catapults and well fences, so there was no need to manufacture crossbows to equip the army. However, Aquileia was a Roman military fortress, and it was already equipped with a lot of crossbows for defense. After the Nix army captured the city, the engineering team repaired the damaged crossbows and used them in this battle. After all, the accuracy of the crossbows was higher than that of the catapults, so it would not accidentally injure the troops close to the enemy.

However, the two armies were fighting under the western wall, and the crossbows were aimed at the Roman First and Sixteenth Legions that were still marching.

At this moment, the two Roman legions had gradually turned from marching eastward to southward, pressing towards the Nix army under the northern wall of Aquileia.

The Nix cavalry that had previously blocked the Roman army's sight had withdrawn, and now the Roman First and Sixteenth Legions were facing the Nix Third and Fourth Legions waiting in formation.

Since the Nix crossbowmen were all concentrated under the western wall of Aquileia, the Third and Fourth Legions had no long-range attack means, but the crossbows on the top of the city made up for this defect.

One by one, stone bullets weighing nearly ten kilograms whizzed out from each tower and flew towards the Roman army approaching the city.

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Due to the repeated tests by the Nix engineering team during this period, the elevation angle, range and impact point of the crossbows in each tower when firing at the north side of the city wall have been figured out, and clear marks have been made on the ground, so most of the stone bullets hit the steadily advancing Roman army formation more accurately.

For a time, dust flew and blood and flesh splattered.

The horrific situation of the Roman soldiers who were unfortunately hit by the stone bullets caused the surrounding soldiers to scream in fear. Although for the Roman army formation with a large number of people, the soldiers killed by the crossbows were just a drop in the bucket, but the panic atmosphere it caused affected every soldier in the formation.

In particular, the Roman soldiers looked at the stone bullets that kept shooting from the top of the city and the enemies waiting in front of them. These veteran soldiers immediately realized that they had been fooled: Aquileia had been captured by the barbarians, but the barbarians had lured them here, obviously with careful preparations, and the situation was not favorable for them!

Many Roman soldiers panicked, causing the entire formation to become somewhat disordered.

Fortunately, the officers remained calm. They almost unanimously urged their soldiers to speed up and engage in close combat with the enemy as soon as possible, so that the enemy's long-range attacks could not work.

For this reason, the soldiers of the First and Sixteenth Legions of Rome did not even throw javelins less than 30 meters away from the enemy as usual, but ran straight into the enemy formation.

The front-line soldiers of the Third and Fourth Legions of the Knicks had already formed a tight shield wall. They stood shoulder to shoulder and back to back, so that the fierce charge of the Roman army could not shake their front line. On the contrary, taking advantage of the unstable body shape caused by the collision, the Knicks soldiers stabbed out their short swords fiercely...

When the right wing and the center of the Roman army were fighting, the left wing was still slowly moving eastward...

On the one hand, because the composition of the left wing army was complex and not as well-trained as other legions, in order to maintain the formation, it had to slow down; on the other hand, Antony was also pushing the boat with the tide. It didn't matter if the left wing army moved slowly. When they reached the predetermined position, the barbarian army might have been defeated. They could just pursue and encircle them. In this way, they didn't have to rush into the battle, expose their defects, and become a burden to the entire army formation, and they could also expand the results of the battle.

The commander of the left wing army was Trebonius. He didn't want to accept this appointment because according to the predetermined plan, the left wing was just icing on the cake for the victory of the entire battle. But Antony said that the main force of the new army on the left wing was formed by Trebonius himself and that he could command it more smoothly. Trebonius could not refute and had to accept it.

Originally, commanding the left wing had already consumed a lot of Trebonius' energy. Now as the center pressed towards the north of Aquileia, the direction of the left wing had to turn from due east to southeast to avoid leaving too much gap between the center and the city, which would affect the next battle.

Trebonius spent a lot of energy just commanding the left wing army to turn and march, and he was two or three miles away from the center where the battle was going on, so he didn't know that the situation on the battlefield had changed.