Chapter 50 Parchment

No one was knocked down. The disappointed expressions on the faces of these barbarians did not need to be concealed at all. The doubled salary that was just promised was gone now.

"Ha! This is the difference between a regular army with experience and mercenaries from the wild!" Guy turned around and waved at them to leave. They were all dejected, as if they had just been defeated. The trumpeter at the door did not try to persuade them to stay. He gave each of them a denarius, which was not a small amount. It can only be said that this guy named Guy is a rich kid, a landlord's child with no shortage of money.

"Bah, damn it!"

The soldiers in our huge square formation were not happy to see this group of barbarians take the money and run away. Not only the soldiers, but even the centurion standing in the first row gnashed his teeth, put away his sword, and picked up the stones on the ground. Although he was in the crowd, he could not escape Guy, whose eyes were as sharp as an eagle. Guy walked over quickly, grabbed the centurion's wrist, and cursed: "Idiot, I called this man here, if you have any grievances, come to me!" As he said that, he knocked the stone out of the centurion's hand.

Not until the last barbarian's back disappeared outside the camp gate did the chief centurion Guy loosen his hands. He returned to the phalanx with an unhappy look on his face. The soldiers rubbed their shoulders and necks, and so did I. My hands were almost numb from the long period of snatching. When I put them down, I felt a warm current slowly flowing into the blood vessels in my arms, from top to bottom, little by little, until they reached my fingertips.

After unzipping his trouser legs, he saw bruises of various sizes on the outside of his thighs and calves, just like the spots on a spotted dog. As long as he took a step, his legs felt like they were being stabbed by ten thousand needles. He thought that since he had become like this and suffered so much, the high and mighty Chief Centurion should let him go at such a critical moment. No! This brave Chief Centurion Guy said no to everyone when the soldiers were eager to rest! It was all because before the camp gate was closed, a soldier in ordinary clothes ran in with a parchment letter in his hand. He was panting and trotting all the way to Guy's side and handed the parchment to Guy. Guy took it and opened it, but did not read it carefully. He just glanced at it roughly. From the way he was mumbling, he had roughly understood the meaning of the letter.

"Hey, Roman warriors!"

This damned chief centurion, at this time, I don't know where he found an oval broad shield like the one we have. He raised the shield above his head, pulled out the iron sword on his waist and slapped it hard, making a loud noise that attracted everyone's attention. The soldiers kneaded the red and swollen parts of their bodies while looking at the chief centurion Guy in front of them. Some soldiers muttered something, and they must be praying to God to let Guy have mercy and stop training. After a while, when Guy felt that he had attracted everyone's attention, he walked slowly to the pile of stones in front of us with the iron sword and broad shield, and looked around at us. Everyone under the pile of stones was sweating, including me of course. God knows what tricks this bad guy has come up with to torture us. We are all veterans who have experienced battles. Can you give us a way out? "Phalanx, line up!"

Seeing Guy's arrival, the training was not over yet, at least that was the desperate thought in every soldier's heart. The same was true for the centurions. The training had not stopped yet, so the team could not be lazy. Since Chief Centurion Guy had come, the only way was to line up again and accept Guy's new training tasks.

“Hehehe…”

As if some conspiracy had succeeded, Guy looked at us, grinning evilly, and paced back and forth on the pile of rocks in front of us. I was too lazy to count how many people were eager to see him fall to the ground from the pile of rocks, but Guy didn't. He stood on the pile of rocks with his chest puffed out, looking down at us and said in a deep voice: "Roman warriors! (I want to vomit just by hearing this title, but once this guy shouts, I can't stop!) You are veterans who have survived battle after battle. I dare not say whether you are brave enough and decisive enough on the battlefield, but I have to mention that you are lucky enough! Of course, your usual training is inseparable!"

As he spoke, the sinister, cunning and vulgar expression on Guy's face slowly disappeared, replaced by seriousness, solemnity, and a little bit of sadness (I'm not being poetic, that expression really gave people the feeling of being like that!). He continued, "In the Battle of Narpon, our Fourteenth Legion arrived last, but we were still severely damaged by the brutal Goths. The soldiers killed alone accounted for half of the entire legion! Even we are in this situation, then what about the Seventh Gemina Legion as the vanguard? It was defeated along with its auxiliary legion, and now the two survivors of the Second Legion are among you."

This is self-evident. Everyone around us looked at us. I know that they are well aware of what Andrew and I have done, but no one admires us. I don’t know why.

"Ludinan! Siege of Ludinan!" Guy emphasized the name twice. "Everyone knows how we took this city! Although we were resting in the rear and did not participate in the battle! But do you all know how many times we attacked the city?"

“Eight times!”

A soldier under the pile of rocks answered.

"Yes! Eight times! In this battle, the bodies of the soldiers who attacked the city alone, whether they were temporarily recruited or mercenaries, could form a wall taller than Ludinan! Think about how many people we lost in these eight attacks?"

The soldiers fell silent. They put down their hands that were massaging the bruises and stared at Chief Centurion Guy in front of them without saying a word.

"In order to honor those who shed their blood for the empire, Aetius fulfilled his promise and promoted every soldier who participated in the battle to the main legion or auxiliary legion, because they deserved the legion and such generous treatment. Those who were tired of war were given enough denarii so that they could go back and live a decent life, because that was what they deserved."

Guy then let out a long sigh and looked down at everyone in the audience with a serious expression.

"The war, the war has not stopped! Ludinan is just the beginning! The real target is Worms, the capital of the Burgundian rebels, and the land south of the Rhine belonging to the empire! So we can't rest, we must continue to move north! Continue the war! War! What the barbaric Burgundians have brought us, we must return double!" Guy almost shouted on the pile of stones. Every soldier below was still looking at him silently, but his eyes were red, filled with anger and hatred.

I thought the soldiers would shout for revenge along with Guy, but I was wrong. The place with several hundred people was surprisingly quiet. No one roared along with Guy's roar. They just remained silent.

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Either break out in silence or perish in silence. But I believe they all chose the former. Courage does not need to be spoken, only action is needed! After calming down for a long time, Guy slowly opened his mouth: "When you are facing the choice between life and death, I hope you still remember that Rome is with you!"

(End of this chapter)