At this moment, not only the Gallic soldiers, but even the provincial coalition forces behind the fleet were shocked by this attack.
They never imagined that ships could fight in this way.
For a moment, the allied soldiers looked at Liu Bei's ship with a hint of awe.
With the strong support of the Han Dynasty and an invincible fleet at sea, Liu Bei's strength once again refreshed the allied soldiers' understanding of his capabilities.
Just as the Gallic soldiers were fleeing in panic, the second volley began.
The hit rate was lower this time than the first time because most of the Gallic soldiers had already escaped the range of the stone projectiles.
Looking around, only five or six Gallic soldiers were killed by stones because they couldn't escape in time; most of them died from being trampled.
Although the ballistae did not cause many casualties to the Gallic soldiers, the oil canisters that fell into the Gallic camp had a remarkable effect, with flames spreading rapidly throughout the camp and aided by the sea breeze.
Threatened by crossbows in front and with their camp on fire behind, the Gallic army was utterly terrified by this series of blows.
Many soldiers turned and ran, and no matter how much the officers in the Gallic army shouted, it was to no avail.
Seeing the Gallic army in disarray on the shore, Liu Bei's lips curled into a slight smile. He then gave an order to the messenger beside him:
"Pass on my order: have the Allied soldiers in the rear land immediately and seize the beach!"
Anyone who beheads an enemy soldier will be rewarded with five gold coins and ten acres of fertile land!
"yes!"
The messenger agreed, then climbed up the command tower and waved the command flag in his hand.
"Kill them all!!"
Upon receiving the order, the Allied soldiers in the rear also steered their warships and rushed toward the beach.
Under the cover of the fleet's ballistae, hundreds of warships of the allied soldiers rushed to the shore one after another, then jumped off the ships and charged into the chaotic Gallic army.
These allied soldiers included Romans, Spartans, Greeks, and Arabs. Although they were of different races, they shared a common goal: to cut off the heads of their enemies and claim a generous reward.
Soon, the allied soldiers caught up with the fleeing Gallic army.
Soon, close combat ensued, and the Gallic soldiers who were running behind fell one after another to the blades of the allied soldiers.
However, after killing the enemy, many Allied soldiers did not pursue them but instead bent down and began to cut off the enemy's heads.
Soon, many Allied soldiers got into a dispute over the ownership of the enemy's heads, and quite a few of them ended up fighting.
For a moment, the Allied soldiers were in a state of chaos as they scrambled for the heads.
"Brothers, the enemy is in disarray, follow me and charge back!"
Upon seeing this, a Gallic officer running ahead immediately roared and turned to charge at the chaotic Allied soldiers.
The surrounding Gallic soldiers followed suit.
They knew that if they continued to flee, they would surely die if they were caught. If they took advantage of the enemy's confusion to fight back, they might still have a chance to survive.
Soon, more and more Gallic soldiers stopped fleeing and turned to charge at the allied soldiers.
Faced with the sudden return of the Gallic army, the allied soldiers, caught off guard in the chaos, were also caught off guard.
These allied soldiers were simply sent from various provinces to make up the numbers, and their combat effectiveness was not much stronger than that of the Gallic army.
Within half an hour of the battle, the allied soldiers were being driven back by the slaughter.
"Hmph, a bunch of rabble!"
Looking at the allied soldiers being pushed back, Liu Bei on the deck couldn't help but snort coldly.
He hadn't expected that the fighting capacity of the Allied soldiers would be so low.
No wonder the people of these provinces were oppressed by Rome for so many years.
Liu Bei's face darkened: "Pass down the order, continue firing the crossbows!"
Upon hearing Liu Bei's order, an Egyptian officer standing nearby was taken aback: "Liu Huangdi, our men are mixed up with the enemy. Firing the crossbows at this time will injure our own men!"
Upon hearing this, Liu Bei turned his head and gave the other party a cold look.
Meeting Liu Bei's icy gaze, the Egyptian officer shuddered, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
Liu Bei said, enunciating each word clearly, "I don't want to repeat the order a second time, understand?"
"I...I understand!"
The Egyptian officer shuddered and quickly agreed.
Soon, the two hundred ballistae on the fleet were fully loaded.
Stone projectiles whistled out, hurtling towards the two sides engaged in battle on the coast.
A stone landed on the beach, creating deep craters. The splashing sand hit both sides' soldiers, startling everyone around.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Immediately afterwards, stone projectiles came whistling through the air, and the soldiers hit by them fell to the ground dead without uttering a sound.
This stone projectile attack was quite successful, killing and injuring more than 300 people.
However, nearly half of them were coalition soldiers.
Seeing the corpses lying on the ground and the wounded soldiers groaning in pain, both sides were stunned.
"What happened?"
"Why kill even your own people?"
"Are you crazy?"
For a moment, many Allied soldiers turned around and started shouting insults at the fleet on the sea.
"Continue firing!!"
Looking at the soldiers on the shore, Liu Bei coldly issued the order to launch again.
Soon, hundreds of stone projectiles were launched again, relentlessly hurtling towards the soldiers on the shore.
"Run!!"
Seeing the stone projectiles streaking across the sky, the soldiers from both sides, who had been entangled together, immediately split up and ran towards the north and the sea respectively.
"Order the fleet to dock. Tell those guys to hide on both sides and clear the way!"
Upon seeing that the soldiers on both sides had been separated, Liu Bei immediately ordered his troops to land.
Soon, Liu Bei's flagship, the "Leading the Way," was the first to approach the shore.
The Egyptian soldiers on the ship also rushed off the ship and charged towards the fleeing Gallic soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Allied soldiers on the coast also took cover on both sides.
"Brothers, follow me and kill them!!"
Zhang Fei, carrying his eighteen-foot spear, ran ahead, leaving a trail of clear footprints on the beach.
The Egyptian soldiers behind them followed their commander with high morale.
Soon, Gao Shun's 10,000 Arab soldiers followed closely behind.
"Brother Liu, our brothers were just fighting the enemy, why did you order the bombing attack?"
Upon seeing Liu Bei disembark, several officers of the allied forces approached him with resentment.
"Hmph~, you were just being driven back by the Gallic army. If I hadn't ordered the grenades to be dropped to separate you, your soldiers would have suffered even more casualties."
You've exchanged hundreds of lives for thousands, aren't you satisfied?
Liu Bei also stepped forward, coldly looking at the group of allied officers gathered together.
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