Chapter 267: Step by Step

Hermanus's combined fleet marched forward in a line, led by fifty six-story heavy warships, followed by warships of all sizes. The entire arrangement turned the warships into a huge city floating on the sea.

Although they had secretly learned the Roman ramming ship, it was impossible for the Vandals to master such a huge six-row warship in just a few years. They dispersed their warships because they were not numerous, not to mention the quality. However, the threat was to their capital, and their king was in Carthage, so a battle with a clear gap in strength was inevitable.

The Roman six-row warship had a specially built tower on which were installed scorpion crossbows for attacking enemy ships. Soldiers used torsion bars to pull the crossbows in a circle and loaded them with metal crossbow arrows with strong penetrating power. The sailors below also held bows and javelins. They did not dare to slack off, hoping to kill more damned Vandals when the two sides came into contact.

"Keep medium speed, maintain formation, don't panic, victory belongs to Rome!" Hermanus drew out his iron sword and raised it above his head and shouted loudly. Not only the long-range soldiers, but also the short-range soldiers drew out their iron swords and waited quietly behind Hermanus and Belia.

The front end of the six-row warships was designed like a city wall, and the gaps on the parapet were filled with people. The armies of both sides slowly approached each other, and everyone's heart was in their throat.

Most of the Vandal warships were light and fast boats, just like the pirates cruising in the Mediterranean, except that the Vandal warships were like enlarged versions of pirate ships. However, they did have more than twenty heavy warships in four or five rows, which were the backbone of their strength.

"Trebuchet! Trebuchet!"

At the call of the officers, three or four trebuchet operators at the back of each warship pulled down the loading port of the trebuchet with great effort and fixed it. Then four or five people pulled the rope tied to the stone to drag the stone to be launched to the side of the trebuchet, and everyone worked together to push the stone into the trebuchet.

Everything seemed to be ready, the two sides were getting closer and closer, and Hermanus' right hand holding the scepter was already sweating profusely. War was full of too many uncertainties, and no one could tell what the Vandals, who were obviously at a disadvantage in strength, would do. It might surprise Hermanus.

"General!" The officer who delivered the order came behind Hermanus and said in a deep voice, "The enemy is within range!"

"Then what are you waiting for?" Hermanus turned around and said, "Don't care about my feelings, fire freely and weaken the enemy's combat effectiveness as much as possible."

The herald took the order and retreated. After a while, he heard a "cracking" sound behind him. Dozens of stones were suddenly fired from the back of a row of six warships, humming in the air and falling into the Vandal army that was coming towards them.

“Boom boom boom…”

Dozens of rocks fell and smashed through several unfortunate Vandal warships, while the rest fell on the rolling sea, creating huge splashes of water on the Vandal warships passing by.

“Wuwuwu…”

Suddenly, a trumpet sounded in the Vandal army. It should be the horn commanding them to attack. Their oars drove the warships to significantly increase their speed and they rushed straight towards the Roman army.

"Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle!"

The officers roared, not caring about their already hoarse voices, and slapped the busy soldiers passing by them, demanding that they return to their combat posts.

"Light ramming ship, go! Go!"

The approaching Vandal warships were always the biggest threat to the heavy warships. The scorpion crossbowmen on the tower operated their scorpion crossbows and aimed at the approaching Vandal vanguard warships.

“Ka-ka-ka…”

Armor-piercing crossbow arrows wrapped in metal were fired continuously from dozens of crossbows. Because crossbows are precision-strike weapons, they can hit the target without missing a single arrow in the hands of skilled soldiers.

The metal arrows were extremely armor-piercing, and each shot had extremely strong penetrating power. Every time they hit the Vandal warship, no matter the hull or the deck, a single hit did not make a hole in the small boat. They could even penetrate the enemy completely after hitting him, nailing him to the deck or mast.

This did not stop the Vandal navy's attack. Such an attack allowed them to speed up, and they appeared in front of the Roman fleet in an instant following the flow of the waves.

“Ka-ka-ka…”

The ship was full of Vandal archers, who were drawing their bows and arrows, intending to use these tiny arrows to show the Romans their anger at the moment. Now the Romans on the ship were not to be outdone, and they fought back with bows and spears, which was also a reward for the Vandals.

The ramming ships were dispatched, increasing their speed to maximum and heading straight for the Vandal warship.

“Boom boom boom…”

The weak little boat naturally could not withstand the impact of the metal ram of the ramming ship. At the very least, a huge hole would be gouged in the bow, and at worst, the entire hull would be torn to pieces and overturned. The soldiers on the deck fell into the water like dumplings. No one tried to rescue them, and they could only float and sink in the water crying, exhausting their last bit of strength bit by bit and then sinking. But the Vandals did not care about such losses.

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"Not good!" Even though it seemed like he had won a small victory, Hermanus couldn't be happy at all, because the ramming ship stopped after defeating the Vandal's front row of boats, but the Vandal's ramming ship came against the wind and waves, aiming directly at the stopped ramming ship! "Stop them! Stop them!"

The officers ordered the scorpion crossbows and archers to try at all costs to use bows and crossbows to block the oncoming Vandal ramming ship, but it was too late. The bows and arrows could only kill the sailors standing on the deck, but could not cause any serious damage to the hull.

“Boom boom boom…”

The sound of collision was extremely harsh, ramming ship against ramming ship, metal ramming ramming metal ramming, more soldiers were overturned and fell into the water, and the first line of defense of the Roman navy was broken by the Vandals in an instant. The remaining Vandal ramming ships carried fully armed Vandal soldiers, who kept maneuvering the warships under the rain of arrows and javelins, and stopped in the gap between the six rows of warships. The Romans never stopped resisting them, and they commanded the slaves to use the long oars as a counterattack weapon and tried to overturn the not-so-big Vandal warships with those dozens of oars.

The Vandals took out long hooks with ropes from the ships, threw countless iron hooks at the six-row warships, and tried to climb up by grabbing the ropes and holding iron swords in their mouths.

"Stop them, stop them!"

This was to take advantage of their close combat. Not only Hermanus, but also his officers were well aware of the Vandals' intentions, so they ordered their soldiers to go and stop them.

(End of this chapter)