Three Kingdoms Eschatology

Aurelian nodded and said: "That's all. I just wanted to see the power of their artillery. It's just that Sicily is too far away. It will take at least a month for the messenger to send the letter back and forth. We can't delay it for so long. "

The lieutenant general immediately explained: "The general doesn't know. Cyprus, opposite the south bank of Asia Minor, has a dovecote that can communicate with Sicily. We can send the letter there and let Hatulel of Cyprus forward it for us. It is only necessary to send the letter in this way. It will take a day, and if he brings the fleet here, it will only take half a month if it is fast, and it will take about 20 days at most if it is slow."

Aurelian snorted and said, "That's the way to do it. Send someone to send a letter to Cyprus quickly. Let them send a letter to Feng Hu in Sicily, telling us about the predicament we encountered on the Northern Expedition. Ask him to provide Support as much as possible." He deliberately emphasized the three words as much as possible.

Half a month later, more than a dozen Feng Hu galleons, escorted by nearly a hundred galleys, arrived at the coast of Marmara near Byzantium.

Of course, before this, Gan Ning, who led the fleet, had sent someone to sneak ashore in a small boat and sent a letter to Aurelian.He is required to occupy the coast of the strait from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of ​​Marmara, and at the same time open up a landing site and passage on the south coast of the Sea of ​​Marmara.Aurelian naturally agreed without hesitation.In fact, during the half month of waiting, Aurelian had almost captured the remaining area of ​​Asia Minor, that is, the surrounding areas of Byzantium, leaving only the isolated city of Byzantium.

As a result, Gan Ning easily landed.And began to pull siege supplies near Byzantium.Aurelian, who greeted him, was surprised to see that Gan Ning's soldiers were slowly driving several gigantic baggage carts carrying large supplies.Each of these baggage carts is pulled by more than 40 huge horses that are shoulder-high.Each baggage cart has more than [-] huge wheels.Those wheels seemed to be made of black iron, with an outer ring made of an unknown material.Aurelian thought that if he had not seen it with his own eyes, it would be difficult to imagine how such a huge thing could move on the ground.

After Aurelian and Gan Ning exchanged some courteous words, they came to a large cart and stroked the black outer circle of the wheel with their hands.Only then did Aurelian feel that this thing felt similar to the rubber string on the ballista, but its texture was much harder than the latter.At this time, Gan Ning still clasped his fists to Aurelian habitually with Chinese etiquette and said, "General Aurelian, please send us some people to point out where we should open the gap in the city wall. Let's get started!"

Aurelian asked suspiciously: "According to what you mean, you can open a gap at any point on the city wall?"

Gan Ning puffed his chest and said, "Of course, we guarantee that the gap will be blasted within a day."

After a while, Gan Ning's soldiers began to unload supplies from the giant transport cart. It turned out that there were two artillery barrels made of bronze with an inner diameter of two feet on the cart, and there were also huge granite stones that matched it. shells.The polished surface of this stone shell is much smoother than the stone shells used in ballistas.

Just when Aurelian marveled that this was the legendary cannon, Gan Ning's men had already started erecting the bronze cannon at the designated place.This was far longer than Aurelian imagined.The soldiers first piled up the slope of the mound with sand, carefully hung the huge gun barrel on the slope of the mound and fixed it with a thick wooden bracket.Then began to fill the barrel with bags of sand-like things.The last thing is to load the huge granite stone bullet into the barrel.This process took three to four hours. During this period, Gan Ning's soldiers also placed countless "small cannons" unloaded from the battleships near the two giant cannons.It is said to be a "small cannon", but in fact it is only compared to the two giant cannons. They are both conventional long-barreled cannons on battleships.

Aurelian saw that Gan Ning's soldiers had reached the breech of the cannon with kindling.He just waited and watched intently, but forgot Gan Ning's instruction to him earlier, the sound was too loud when firing the cannon, and he needed to cover his ears.In fact, even if he remembers it, he doesn't bother to do it. How can he be afraid of the sound of a few booms and explosions after he has been in battle for a long time.

But after a burst of white smoke, he heard a huge roar that he had never heard in his life. The sound came after more than a hundred battles, and it shook his ears almost deaf. Humming and chirping, almost nothing can be heard.

The generals at the head of the Byzantine city also felt the same way.They didn't know what the enemy was doing before, and thought that the two large copper pillars were used for sacrificial rituals.When they saw the enemy deploying naval guns, they realized that the enemy was going to bomb them.But they still don't take it seriously, their city walls are not comparable to the sides and decks of battleships.

When the two giant bronze cannons with an inner diameter of two feet roared, their eardrums were buzzing, and they felt the city wall under their feet tremble violently.But the soldiers of the Aurelian Army who covered their ears outside saw two huge pits being bombarded on the city wall. With the two pits as the center, dozens of clearly visible cracks spread out like spider webs.

Then those ship-mounted cannons also began to bombard, one after another solid lead-iron projectiles blasted towards the cracked city wall, more and more shattering the bricks and stones beside the city wall.More than an hour later, the two bronze cannons were reloaded again. Behind the two loud roars, a large piece of stone strips and city bricks had fallen from a city wall, exposing the soil inside.In the third round of bombardment, the two city walls could no longer hold on and collapsed.

Aurelian's soldiers burst into joy.Aurelian also put down his hands covering his ears, waved his hands forward fiercely and said, "The whole army charges into Byzantium!"

In a short time, the huge army formation behind him turned into a torrent rushing down the city wall, and when it approached the city wall, it split into two torrents and rushed towards the two gaps respectively.The crossbow spears fired by the individual ballista roared and flew over the gap, aimlessly projecting towards the city.Then the crowd overflowed the ruins at the gap and rushed towards the city.Some defenders in the city tried to resist at first, but soon found that they could not resist the opponent's frenzy of attack, and retreated towards the three castles one after another...

Chapter 1153 Conquering Byzantium

In a short time, the city of Byzantium was full of Aurelian's armor.Surround the three tall castles in the city, one master, two assistants.Aurelian and Gan Ning rode into the city one after another.

Aurelian pointed at the castles still defended by the defenders with his horsewhip and said to Gan Ning, "Your subordinates, please blow away these three castles too!"

After observing the three castles, Gan Ning shook his head and said, "These three castles are built of monolithic boulders, and it is difficult to blast them away even with cannons. What's more, the bronze cannons have a long lifespan. Yes. Each barrel is enough to fire three or four times. Anything more is in danger of exploding."

Aurelian's face changed imperceptibly when he heard it.It turned out that he had seen the power of the cannon before, so he wanted to use some means to get a cannon and its related gunpowder to study.But now after hearing Gan Ning's words, he realized that a cannon barrel wouldn't last long, so he was a little disappointed.In fact, Gan Ning was only talking about the barrel life of the bronze cannon. As long as the shipboard artillery is maintained properly, each barrel can still be used hundreds of times.

Gan Ning clasped his fists again and said to Aurelian: "But don't worry, Governor Aurelian. I came here under the order of my lord to help Your Excellency recover this fortified city. So we still have ways to deal with the three fortified cities in this city." Fort."

At this time, Aurelian suddenly opened his eyes wide, staring blankly at the sky behind Gan Ning.Turns out there are several behemoths rising up there.He suddenly remembered that in the early years, he had heard that Liang Guo in the east had such a huge monster that could float in the air, but he never believed it.Seeing it with my own eyes today, I know that the rumors are true.

Seeing this, Gan Ning explained to Aurelian: "Your Excellency, this is a hot-air balloon airship equipped by our army."

Only then did Aurelian come back to his senses, and said, "Could it be that you want to use this airship as a siege tool and let soldiers descend from the sky to attack the castle? How many soldiers and horses can this thing hold, thousands of people?"

Gan Ning laughed dumbly and said: "Your Excellency Aurelian, this thing looks big, but in fact most of its volume is just an air bag, and the hanging frame under it can hold people. It can only hold five or six people. The largest model is no more than ten people." personal."

Aurelian shook his head and said, "Five or six people? Then how can they capture the castle? It's not as practical as a siege chariot."

Gan Ning continued to laugh and said, "This is not for attacking the city, but for observation posts. Guide our ballista men outside the castle to shoot ballista shells at fixed points in the city. Three or four of the other five or six people are longbowmen. They will launch precise and decisive shots against the visible enemies in the castle. Please, the governor, order your subordinates to set up an army formation. When our department's long-range strikes in the city are about the same, your department can climb up the ladder and attack the castle. "

Aurelian nodded and said, "Just do what you want. Let's capture the main castle first. Maybe after we capture the main castle, the other two secondary castles will surrender."

Soon, drums and trumpets sounded in the city of Byzantium.The soldiers all over the city arranged in a neat formation according to the instructions conveyed by the sound of drums and trumpets.Gan Ning's soldiers also set up ballistas outside the main castle.These ballistas are relatively close to the castle, so in order to prevent them from being attacked by long-range weapons from the city, tall and thick scull shields were erected in front of them.

A soldier at the head of the city stared dumbfounded at the huge monster floating in the air not far from the castle.Suddenly, with a piercing scream, a four-foot-long heavy arrow pierced his chest, and he fell to the ground without saying a word.

Only then did the soldiers around him come to their senses, shouting loudly, raised the individual ballistas in their hands, and shot into the air.However, although the airship is not far from the castle, it is very high.These flying crossbow guns are much heavier than ordinary arrows, so they don't shoot too high. Before reaching the height of the airship, they turned around and began to fall.At the same time, a wave of crossbow spears flew up from the city.Many defenders were hit by arrows one after another, screaming and wailing one after another.

"Hurry up, hide!", "The enemy army is attacking the city, quickly hide behind." The defenders shouted and ran towards the tower or the wall of the last step.The walls of this Byzantine castle are in the form of multiple steps. In this way, when the soldiers are on the last step, the enemy soldiers under the wall cannot see them. When the enemy soldiers climb to the top of the wall, they will immediately encounter the second step. A head-on blow from the defenders.

Aurelian's soldiers erected hundreds of ladders around the castle, climbing up the ladders continuously.At first, there were still a small number of defenders standing on the edge of the castle, throwing rolling wood thunderstones at the Aurelian soldiers on the ladder.But they shot down the city like locust-like crossbows, causing a large number of casualties.The few remaining people were also forced to retreat to the second-tier city wall towers.

As soon as several Aurelian soldiers climbed to the edge of the castle wall, dozens of crossbows flew towards them.With screams and wailing, they fell down in an instant.The defenders on the second stage raised their individual ballistas and launched a counterattack.At this moment, more than a dozen dark objects suddenly rose up from under the city wall, and then crossed a parabolic trajectory before smashing towards the defenders on the second-tiered city wall.

The defenders didn't care, they thought it was a stone bullet from a ballista.Although this thing is powerful, its killing effect is equal to that of a crossbow flying aimlessly, which happened to hit a person and killed him on the spot.

However, when these suspected stone bombs fell, there was an astonishing roaring explosion.Then a large number of defenders around them fell to the ground in disarray.Some people covered their bloody eyes and yelled in pain.

Among the airships in the air, except for the longbowmen who kept shooting.The other two kept waving the flag, sending semaphore signals to the crossbowmen on the ground.Calibrating the drop point of their ballista projectiles.Ballista shells filled with black powder or Greek kerosene exploded constantly at the top of the city.Either it will collapse and injure a defender, or it will ignite a sea of ​​flames.

In a certain tower, a defender throws Greek fire bombs at the wall of the first step.It was almost occupied by Aurelian soldiers climbing up the ladder.At this time, a new type of incendiary bomb fired by a ballista happened to get into the observation window of the tower.A ball of fire immediately filled the space inside the tower, and after a few short shouts came from inside, there was no sound...

The defenders at the top of the castle finally couldn't hold on, and retreated deeper into the castle in panic.Aurelian's soldiers surged upward like a colony of ants.A few minutes later, the gate of the castle finally opened, and the crowd outside the city turned into a crowd, rushing into the castle.

Chapter 1154 Britain

On a cliff at the southeastern tip of the British Isles.A burly, typical Caucasian man stood on a huge and relatively flat rock.For a while, he looked down at the black rocks at the bottom of the cliff, where the stormy waves beat, and for a while, he turned his eyes to the distance, looking at the place where the sea and the sky meet.Behind that is the continent of Europa.

This person was Theodosius, governor of the Roman province of Britain, one of the few "local princes" that Alexander could trust.However, his current territory, the British Province, had been isolated from the Roman mainland many years ago.Because on the other side of the sea, several provinces with the Gaul province as the core divided their territory, established themselves as a country, and established the Gaul Empire.Its current king is Postumus.Previously, this person was just a small Gaul garrison commander who belonged to the Augures faction.

Gaul and the surrounding Germanic provinces seem to be connected to Thrace, the home of Augustus, and Asia Minor to the west.But the central areas where they have complete control are actually far apart.They are also separated by vast forests in and out of barbarian tribes.Although these places are in the area of ​​these provinces on the map, in fact the Romans' control over these areas is extremely weak, even close to zero.The only area that is safely connected by land between the east and west is the northern foothills of the Alps, which is full of mountains.

In this way, conditions were created for some military commanders in Gaul, Germany and other provinces in the west to get rid of Augustus' control.Shortly after the Roman civil strife split, Postumus also led his army away from Augustus, and with his own military talent and strength, he conquered the other warlords in the region.In the end, he proclaimed himself king, established an independent Gaul kingdom, set up his own administrative organs, and minted his own currency.After he surrendered the power of Prosius, who had been entrenched in Gaul outside the mountains for a long time, the territory of the Gaul Kingdom expanded to the north to the coast of the North Sea across the sea from Britain, to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the west, to the west bank of the Rhine in the east, and to the Mediterranean Sea in the south. Along the coast, there is only a strait of more than two hundred miles away from Corsica Island controlled by Feng Yu.

At this time, Theodosius was worried about one thing.More than half a month ago, Alexander sent someone from thousands of miles away to secretly send him an edict—asking him to lead the army across the strait, enter the territory of Gaul, and attack the Gaul Kingdom from north to south with Alexander's "Central Army".

However, although Britain was well-governed by Theodosius, the people on the island lived a relatively prosperous life, and the Scottish Celtic barbarians in the north were also firmly restricted to the north of Hadrian's Great Wall, but their military strength was not enough to penetrate the entire land. Gaul region.This is not because Theodosius is not good at running the army, but because of objective reasons.In fact, although his military talent cannot be compared with Aurelian, he can be regarded as a good general.

These objective reasons are firstly the problem of soldiers. If the barbarian slaves are not counted, the population of men, women and children in the whole of Britain is only 4 to [-].Such a small population cannot draw out the soldiers who form a large army.

The second is the issue of equipment. Even when the Roman Empire was not divided, Britain was the most remote province in the northwest corner of the empire.There is no population here, so there are very few merchant ships to and from Britain.These merchant ships, like all long-distance merchant ships in this historical period, left the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the ocean with strong winds and waves, and could only sail close to the coast.When Rome split, Gaul and Spain were divided by various rebel forces, and such routes became even more difficult.In the past, there were even fewer merchant ships, and since these merchant ships took extremely high risks and paid extremely high transit taxes to come to Britain, the price of the goods on board would naturally increase several times or even more than ten times.This further contributed to the material poverty of Britain.Therefore, the current Roman army in Britain is not to mention that it has updated its weapons and equipment like the "princes" along the Mediterranean Sea, even if the original Roman regular army is not fully equipped.

Finally, there is the issue of supply.Under Theodosius' governance, although Britain had abundant food and livestock, it was quite difficult to continuously transport the supplies needed by tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from the British Isle to the continent of Europe.And as the army advances, the supply line will get longer and longer.

At this time, the trusted adjutant next to Theodosius looked at him who was frowning and said: "Your Excellency, it is useless for you to worry about it every day! I don't think we need to pay attention to the decree of His Majesty Alexander, because we simply Impossible. His Majesty Alexander has never been to Britain and cannot know the details here, so he issued this absurd edict. I think you can send your Majesty a letter explaining our practical difficulties. At most we can send troops to cross the sea To harass and contain Postumus's army on the northwest coast of Gaul, but the main attack must be the troops led by His Majesty Alexander himself."

Theodosius sighed and shook his head again: "We must abide by His Majesty's edict. No matter what we think of, we must cross the strait and go south to join His Majesty's troops." After finishing speaking, he turned and headed towards the castle not far away. to return.His lieutenant sighed secretly: When is it, is it necessary to be so loyal to Alexander?Even if we don't rebel against the Roman Empire like those people did, it doesn't have to be.In the history of Rome, the generals outside did not need to obey the consul in everything.

How did the lieutenant know that Theodosius' insistence on following Alexander's orders was not out of loyalty.Theodosius' real idea was to take advantage of this opportunity to expand his power to the Europa continent in a legitimate way.Otherwise, living in the northwest corner like this, no matter how the situation on the mainland changes in the future, I will be in a more and more passive situation, and will eventually be annexed.

Just when the lieutenant was about to leave with Theodosius, several guards around him began to exclaim: "Ship! A fleet is coming! It's still a big ship!" There are few, so the arrival of the fleet is enough to make people curious.But when the lieutenant general cast his eyes on Haitian Yixian, his expression changed drastically.Because the ships that came were not merchant ships at all, not even the Roman galleys he had seen before, but a fleet of huge multi-sailed galleons.The lieutenant, whose face was already pale, ordered: "Quickly pass the order! Let all the ministries be on alert! These ships are probably enemy ships."

Soon, Theodosius also got the news and came to the coast again.At this time, the beaches and piers on the coast that are easy to approach the shore are full of soldiers and horses amidst bursts of horns.There are also several small boats sailing out of the port quickly to meet the big sailboats...

Chapter 1155 The Prelude to the Battle of Gaul

Brighton, southern tip of the British Isles.When Theodosius sent people to find out the origin and purpose of the fleet that emerged from the sea, he was overjoyed.

They were the Sicilian fleet that came to help Theodosius, which was a timely help for Theodosius who was worried.He immediately met with the general of the fleet on the pier.

The general of the fleet is not Feng Yu's retainer from Daliang, but a local general from the Naval Academy in Sicily. He is the young master of Cyprus and Feng Yu's brother-in-law—Junior Harturel.After studying at the Sicilian Naval Academy for a period of time, he was appointed by Feng Yu to serve in the Sicilian Navy.Accompanying him was John Lawrence, Feng Yu's chief bodyguard.

After the two sides met, Little Hatulel explained the purpose of coming to Theodosius in detail.In addition to bringing a large amount of weapons and equipment to Theodosius under Feng Yu's order, and later helping them transport troops to land on the continent of Europe, he also brought an edict from Alexander - after Theodosius left Britain with his troops, He was succeeded as Governor of Britain by John Lawrence.

When Theodosius heard this, a faint displeasure appeared on his face, but it was fleeting, and he readily agreed.Theodosius of the British Isle has been painstakingly managed for many years, and it is naturally unpleasant to hand it over now.But Theodosius soon understood that although Alexander had ordered him to give the island of Britain to John, it could not have been Alexander's idea.

After a little speculation, he guessed that this was a tacit agreement reached between Feng Yu and Alexander. Feng Yu sent people, boats and goods to assist him in attacking the Postumus regime in Gaul, but the condition was that the island of Britain would be handed over to Feng Yu. people.Theodosius pondered again, how can Britain be a sparsely populated island hanging overseas, if he can get the help of Feng Yu's navy, he can land on Europa and successfully conquer Gaul is an easy thing to achieve.If you get Gaul, and then occupy the entire southwestern Spanish peninsula, then Britain is not worth mentioning compared with it.

What's more, in addition to this, what is more important is that his status in Rome's political arena will be raised to an unimaginable level, and he will keep pace with Aurelian, who has put down most of the rebels in the east.This is why he finally expressed his willingness to obey Alexander's edict.

After some discussion between the two sides.Little Hatulel then led the ship to continue eastward.They circle the southeastern corner of the British Isles and will enter the port of Londyneum at the mouth of the Thames, which will be London in the future.The small harbor of Brighton cannot accommodate so many huge ships.Moreover, most of the Roman legions stationed in Britain were stationed on the banks of the Thames.Brighton is still nearly two hundred miles away.

……

Britain, in the port of Londyneum at the mouth of the Thames River, giant multi-masted galleons sailed into the port under the guidance of the pilot boat.The shores around the harbor were thronged with onlookers, most of whom had never seen such a large ship in their lives.

On the pier, crates of weapons and equipment from Sicily were unloaded from the hold.The soldiers of the Roman Legion in Britain had already followed Theodosius' instructions and lined up in the open space beside the pier, waiting to receive their equipment.When these soldiers received the brand-new individual ballistas, they were all very excited.In the past, these individual ballistas were rare items that could only be obtained by the governor's small guards, but now it is said that everyone can equip them.And in addition to individual ballistas, there are more new ballistas of various sizes that they have never seen before.

In addition to the aid of weapons and equipment, Harturel also brought Theodosius personnel assistance, including longbowmen and their matching longbow chariots, as well as a small number of heavy armored cavalry equipped with horses and men.Theodosius was different from his soldiers. He had already seen the individual ballista, but the longbowman was the first to see it.

When Theodosius saw on the shooting range that these longbowmen hit the target a hundred battles away, and let the heavy arrow nearly five feet long penetrate the heavy armor worn by the target dummy, he was stunned.After he came back to his senses, he laughed loudly and said, "With the help of such magical soldiers, if I still can't win Gaul, it would be too shameful!"

The operation of the individual ballista is extremely simple, and the shooting accuracy of the soldiers is not high in actual combat. The only requirement is that the soldiers are required to be familiar with the new tactics that rely on the individual ballista in battle.These, in less than a month of training, Theodosius' British Legion soldiers basically met the requirements.

It was almost noon on this day, and the thick fog that pervaded Londinium finally cleared, revealing the sun hanging obliquely in the sky.Having already prepared, the galleons full of soldiers from the British Legion sailed out of the port of Londinium one by one, entered the open sea and headed south.After a while, the sea was covered with shadows of sails and masts like forests.

The Gaul Army had discovered an unknown fleet heading north toward Britain along the Atlantic coast of Gaul more than a month earlier.After receiving the reported military situation, Postumus immediately guessed the origin and purpose of this fleet.He will immediately strengthen the defense and patrol on the northern coast of Gaul facing the British Isle. In addition to adding hundreds of light cavalry patrol squads to strengthen the defense of more than ten coastal fortress towns, he will also transfer two main armies to northern Gaul. Snipe the possible landing of the British Legion.

However, the northern coastline of Gaul is too long, stretching and tortuous for three thousand miles. Even if those cliff coasts that are not suitable for landing are removed, there are still more than a thousand miles of coastline.Therefore, even if the Gaul army took strict precautions, the fleet full of the British Legion could easily land on the shore.When the patrol light cavalry of the Gaul army found them, tens of thousands of soldiers had already landed on shore.

Postumus received the urgent military information sent by the pigeons, and he did not dare to neglect, and immediately mobilized his two main force corps to greet Theodosius who had landed from two directions, and he personally led one of the corps.

After landing, Theodosius, who led his army southward, met head-on with the legion led by Postumus, but there was a river called the Marne between them.The armies of the two sides immediately confronted each other across the river. Postumus waited for his other legion to arrive, but Theodosius was not in a hurry to cross the Marne River, and seemed to be waiting for a fighter.

As night fell, Postumus was listening to the military situation reported by the soldiers in the large tent of the Gaul army camp on the south bank of the Marne River.

"His Majesty the King, our Second Legion has arrived on the bank of the lower Marne River as scheduled."

Postumus asked blankly, "The enemy on the other side has any unusual movements."

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Roman army on the other side did not make any changes. They stood still and seemed to be waiting for something."

A sneer appeared on Postumus's face and he said, "No matter what they are waiting for, they won't be able to wait. It was ordered that the Second Legion cross the Marne River from the lower reaches overnight, and then march towards the right flank of the enemy camp, and we will also act overnight ..."

Chapter 1156 Marne River

Although the night is dark, the moon hanging in the sky is very bright.The surface of the Marne River is illuminated and shimmering.Where the current upstream is slow and shallow, groups of Gaul soldiers are holding ropes and wading across the river.

When the tens of thousands of troops passed through, the expression on Postumus' face suddenly relaxed a lot.This place is not far from the camp of the British Roman Army, so he believes that if there is any accident in this operation, it can only be that the legion he personally led was intercepted and ambushed by the enemy when he crossed the river.On the contrary, as long as one can cross the river, the victory of this battle is guaranteed.

For downstream, another Gallic army was crossing the river.They were even less likely to be intercepted or ambushed by the Roman army, because there were still fifty or sixty miles away from the Roman camp, and it was impossible for the Roman army's patrolling cavalry to patrol that far.But now that their main force has crossed the river, the Roman army has no energy to pay attention to the enemy's situation in the lower reaches of the Marne River. It can only form an army to meet the Gaul army.As long as he lined up and confronted the Roman army for a few hours, another Gaul legion would appear behind the Roman army, and the Romans would only be defeated by then.

Thinking of this, Postumus had a sneer of complacency on his face.He straightened his body on the saddle, waved his hand and said, "Order, the whole army is marching towards the Roman camp at full speed. Today, these British Romans will all be buried by the Marne River."

In less than an hour, the legions of Postumus approached Theodosius' camp.But at this time, Theodosius' rangers had already discovered Postumus' legion.The horns sounded one after another in the military camp, and the Roman soldiers began to form an emergency formation outside the camp.Theodosius' camp was not built for long-term defense, so it didn't have many fortifications. If it was huddled in the camp, it would be easy for the opponent to destroy the camp and defeat the army at the same time. Therefore, defending the enemy outside the camp is the only way. s Choice.

At the same moment, the Gaul army also stopped advancing, and also began to form an army formation amidst the sound of horns.After about half an hour, both sides set up a phalanx.The soldiers all held torches, and they gathered into two endless seas of lights, which were gradually approaching and getting closer.

But when the two sides were more than a hundred battles apart, the horns and pace of the Gaul army stopped abruptly.After a few minutes of such a quiet confrontation between the two sides, there were waves of howling arrows piercing through the air.

It turned out that in the Roman army formation, those longbowmen from Sicily began to attack the Gaul army with long bows and heavy arrows.Immediately thereafter, the screams and wailing of the arrow-shooting soldiers came from the Gaul army's formation.But after all, these longbowmen are rare in number, and the distance has reached the limit of the longbow's range, so they can only cause limited casualties to the Gaul army, and hit the morale of the Gaul army.

Postumus waved his hand, and the lieutenant next to him immediately understood, and ordered: "Send the order, the whole army puts out the torches!" Immediately, the lights on the Gaul army's side were extinguished one after another.It was already the darkest hour before dawn, and those Sicilian longbowmen couldn't find their targets in the dark night sky, so they could only shoot the sparse heavy arrows aimlessly at the Gaul army formation hundreds of battles away. …

On the lower reaches of the Marne River, another Gallic army was descending into the river like ants.The water here is no better than the upper reaches, the water is deep and fast, so each of them carried auxiliary swimming tools.

Their legion commander was standing on the bank of the river, personally supervising the army to cross the river.In the sight of the legion commander, nearly a thousand Gaul soldiers have successfully swam across the Marne River and cooperated with the soldiers on the river bank to pull the rope.Once these river crossing ropes are set up, their crossing speed will be greatly increased.

At this moment, he suddenly heard an exclamation: "There are enemy cavalry!" The regiment leader was startled, and quickly looked to the opposite bank. Under the moonlight, he saw two or three cavalry walking along the river bank. Gallop the horse.He hurriedly shouted: "Let the cavalry on the other side of the river chase..."

Before he finished speaking, he realized that the soldiers crossing the river at this moment did not have a single cavalry.He thought to himself—this place is at least fifty miles away from Theodosius' camp, how could it be possible for the Roman army's rangers to patrol so far away?Where do daily supplies come from?And it's so far away, even if you don't consider the supply problem, it will take a day to go back and forth. Unless you send a large number of rangers, it is impossible to bump into them so coincidentally.

Before he could figure out the answer, there was the sound of screaming arrows in the distance, and at the same time, a flying fire meteor shot into the sky.The head of the Gaul army was even more surprised when he saw this. The enemy cavalry released loud arrows, which meant that there was probably a large group of enemy troops nearby.But this is impossible!Since the Roman army landed on the coast of the North Sea, although the Gaul side could not immediately gather troops to intercept the sniping, they still had the ability to track and investigate them.According to previous intelligence, apart from Theodosius' army, there is no second large-scale army at all.It is absolutely impossible for Theodosius to come out with some troops when confronting Postumus across the river, and place them in the lower reaches of the Marne River tens of miles away.

The legion commander of the Gaul army didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly said: "Order, quickly cross the river. There may be a large enemy force nearby, and we must quickly cross the Marne River."

Although he was anxious, swimming across this deep and rapid river was not as easy as marching on flat ground.The Gaul army tried their best, but they only accelerated a little bit.About half an hour later, nearly a thousand Gaul soldiers crossed the river.Suddenly someone on both sides of the river exclaimed: "Boat! There are ships appearing in the river!"

The legion leader hurriedly looked around, and under the moonlight, more than a dozen full sails appeared in his sight in the downstream direction of the Marne River.Under the sails is a flat and oddly shaped boat.The people on the boat had already begun to paddle their long oars, and the Gaul soldiers could clearly see the silver waves rolling on both sides of the boat under the moonlight.

These are the Viking ships from the Sicilian Army, and they are only part of the fifty or sixty Viking ships.They were originally loaded on galleons, carrying six or seven hundred soldiers and horses up the river and deep into the inland at the mouth of the river.The Gaul army believed that it was impossible for the galleons of the Roman army to sail into the inland river, so they did not conduct strict surveillance and investigation on both sides of the river.The rangers of the Roman army on the shore were also unloaded from these Viking ships, and the usual supplies were also obtained from the fleet.

"Hurry up and shoot them with a bow and crossbow!" As soon as the commander of the Gaul army finished speaking, he heard the sound of the rope snapping.A Viking ship rushing to the front had broken the first rope to cross the river, and the soldiers on the ship used their spears to stab the Gaul soldiers who were swimming on the river...

Chapter 1157

On the surface of the Marne River, Gallic soldiers swimming across the river were constantly pierced by spears.They made continuous screams and wailing sounds, and these sounds penetrated the night sky, allowing the latecomers in the Gaul army who were far away from the river bank to hear clearly.

The muscles at the corners of the Gaul Army's commander's mouth twitched a few times, and then he calmed down.Because a large number of Gaul soldiers on both sides of the river rushed to the bank of the river with their shields and individual ballistas.The widest part of the Marne River here is only about 300 meters.Therefore, these enemy ships in the river can be said to be completely within the range of the Gaul army's individual ballista.A few rounds of shooting can turn these monster ships into hedgehogs.

The first wave of crossbow guns from the Gaul army roared and rushed towards these Viking ships.The Roman soldiers who were still stabbing the enemy soldiers in the river with their spears shouted to each other to remind them to hide behind the shield walls hanging on both sides of the ship's side after hearing the sound of crossbow spears piercing the air.

Immediately afterwards, only the constant thumping sound of crossbow guns firing on the side of the ship and the shield, and the screams of several Roman soldiers who dodged a step slower.Moments later, the Roman soldiers and Viking sailors on board launched a counterattack.Hundreds of crossbows flew towards the Roman soldiers, but it was almost impossible for this number of crossbows to cause much damage to the Gaul army.So the head of the Gaul Army who was watching the battle didn't seem to care.

But what happened next surprised the Gaul army. After these crossbow spears hit the ground or hit the shield, they made a sound like thunder, and some even shot up flames several feet high.It turned out that the Sicilian army that assisted Britain brought the latest special crossbow guns. The gun head was equipped with an ignition device made of flint combined with Greek fire. The hollow gun was filled with black powder mixed with lead or Greek kerosene.When it hits the ground, it explodes or explodes.

Although the soldiers of the Gaul Army were wearing traditional ring armor, but only the greaves protected the front of the calf on the legs and feet. The flying lead collapsed into the flesh, screamed in pain, and fell to the ground one after another.Such inexplicable casualties, together with the rising flames and the continuous thunder-like sound, immediately filled the Gaul army with fear.The whole crowd receded like a tide.

The two thousand Gallic troops who crossed the river also left the river bank for nearly a hundred battles. Just as they were still in shock, there was suddenly the sound of galloping horses' hoofs.Although this voice sounds like there are not many war cavalry.But these Gaul troops were also surprised.This is the natural fear of infantry facing cavalry.Some of the generals shouted: "Don't be afraid. We have enough weapons to restrain the cavalry now. Get ready to shoot."

These generals are right. Today is no different than in the past. After the infantry is equipped with a large number of long-range weapons such as individual ballistas, the cavalry has in turn become the crushing target of the infantry.Even the iron armor on the heavy cavalry in Sicily cannot block the intensive shots of crossbow guns.

Under the shouting command of the generals at all levels, the two thousand Gaul soldiers had already picked up their individual ballistas, lined up in rows or squatted or stood, and aimed the ballistas in their hands in the direction of the sound of horseshoes.At this time, the sound of the roaring horseshoes was very close at hand, but it was also the darkest hour before dawn, and I could hardly see my fingers.

Without waiting for the orders of the generals, the Gaul soldiers pulled the trigger of the ballista, and the dense ballista roared and shot forward.Even if they couldn't see the target, they believed that the concentration of crossbow guns alone could cause a lot of damage to the enemy.Some Gaul soldiers in the rear threw their torches forward, hoping that the burning torches would illuminate the space ahead.

Sure enough, they heard the voices of Ma Xiaoren shouting, but there were not as many people as they expected. At most, there were more than a dozen casualties.What's even more strange is that the sound of the war cavalry was very close, but there was no war cavalry in the place ahead illuminated by the torches on the ground.

The dense crossbow spears continued to shoot towards the dark place ahead, but the ears of an experienced centurion in the Gaul army suddenly trembled slightly.He roared loudly: "They are separated to the sides, don't shoot forward, shoot to the sides!"