Chapter 504 Deterrence

"Attention! Attention! They are coming! They are coming!" The Roman soldiers gathered together again at the shouts of the officers, and they formed a simple shield wall on the river beach that had been trampled into a road.

The weapons behind the shield wall were even more varied, some were iron swords, some were rusty iron axes, some were crude spears, and even pitchforks for sticking grass. In short, they brought all the weapons they could use, and everyone gritted their teeth, watching the barbarians in front of them getting closer and closer.

The barbarian army jumped onto the ice, and the thick ice was able to support the charge of so many of them. Because the Roman archers had run out of arrows, they had to join the shield wall of resistance. Although not only the archers, but even the infantry of the garrison were shaky.

The barbarians rushed to the center of the river ice, and they were like a surging black torrent, rushing towards the Roman army.

At present, the total number of Romans on guard was only 300, while the number of barbarians was over 1,000. They came roaring, and the entire ice surface was shaking. Of course, no one cared that the ice beneath their feet had cracks.

The Roman soldiers were all trembling, not sure if it was because of the cold or something else, but they could see that they were breathing rapidly. Fear was printed on everyone's face. They saw the barbarian army coming towards them and had already collapsed, and they had no intention of resisting!

"Hold on! Hold on!" The officer still did not give up. He knew very well that he could not panic here. Even if he was scared or terrified in his heart, he could not show it to the soldiers around him.

"I still have a wife and children. Oh, God, I don't want to die!" But he could no longer control the soldiers' fear and could not force them. After all, they were just militia soldiers living here, far from the regular army.

Hearing such sounds, the breathing rates of more soldiers began to change significantly. The soldiers began to panic and could not even stand. Seeing the barbarian army approaching, the chaotic footsteps of the barbarians shook the eardrums and even the hearts of each of them, and the oppression they gave was self-evident.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

Finally, one of them couldn't hold it in any longer and broke down. He screamed loudly like a frightened child. He dropped the weapon in his hand and the soldiers beside him tried to hold him back but failed. He just screamed and ran away.

"I don't want to die either!"

"God, have mercy on me, I don't want to die!"

With the first deserter, other soldiers will flee one after another.

"Don't run away! Hold on! Hold on!"

Even if the officers shouted at the top of their lungs, it was of no avail. As the barbarians got closer and closer, the Romans scattered in an instant. In such a situation, even the bravest people would begin to plan whether to stay or leave.

This officer was also an ordinary man. He could not endure such a double blow. In the end, he raised his shield and wielded his sword and tried to catch up with the soldiers who were fleeing in front of him.

"Haha, the Romans are running away!"

"Ha, damn coward!"

Looking at the fleeing Roman border guards, the barbarians shouted and cheered loudly. They stood by the river and raised their weapons above their heads to celebrate their hard-earned victory.

On the other side of the Rhine, the others were cheering when they saw the victory. This meant that they would usher in a new life. The elders of the tribe had already told the girls to pack their bags and get ready to set off.

“Stop! Stop!”

The Romans who were fleeing stopped after running less than fifty meters. All of them stopped, as if they had encountered something terrible.

"Why, have these cowardly Romans decided to seek honor again?"

The barbarians at the front stopped cheering and regrouped under the call of their leader, ready to see what the Romans were going to do! "Ha! Show them how powerful we are! These skinny Romans!" The warriors of the Germanic tribe raised their axes high and roared loudly, just watching the group of Romans turn around.

The blood all over their bodies had formed scabs, their eyes were wide open, and there was even greater fear in their eyes.

“Ka-ka-ka…”

Behind the Romans, dozens of huge stones flew into the sky. All the barbarians looked up and watched the stones pass overhead. Surprisingly, the target of the stones was not them, but the ice behind them! "Nothing, nothing, nothing..."

As the stones fell to the ground, holes were smashed into the crumbling ice layer one after another. Soon the intact ice layer was broken into pieces.

The carriages that had just set foot on the road collapsed in an instant because the broken ice could not support them. Countless women and children fell into the icy water along with the carriages.

The road was shattered, and the barbarian leaders looked at the flowing water and the bewildered family members on the other side. They wanted to save the drowning people, but the broken ice made them sink as soon as they stepped on it. There was no other way, they could only watch the women and children struggling in the water, and they could only kneel down and pray that Valhalla could save them.

Seeing the women and children he had tried so hard to protect struggling in the water while he was powerless to do anything, the exasperated barbarian leader clenched his fists and howled to the sky, probably regretting that he had never expected the Romans before him to be so tactical.

"Kill them! Kill them!"

The barbarian leader led the warriors behind him and roared loudly. They raised the axes in their hands and continuously hit the shields in their left hands.

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“Wuwuwu——”

The horn sounded, like an invisible wave of air sweeping over, instantly drowning out their roars.

The roar of the barbarians stopped, and they saw the Roman army walking out of the woods behind the Romans in formation. They were arranged in rows of hundreds of men and pressed towards the torn defense line of the Rhine.

“Tap, tap, tap…”

There were too many Romans, and they walked forward slowly and surrounded the barbarians in front of them in an instant.

At this time, the group of border guards in front of them hurriedly retreated to the side, revealing a large group of cavalry, numbering hundreds or nearly a thousand people. They slowly moved forward under the leadership of a Roman who was wearing gorgeous armor but a thick robe on the outside.

Such momentum silenced these barbarians who thought they were fearless. It was finally their turn to tremble in fear.

The leading Roman walked slowly to within fifty meters of them. He looked so natural, looking down at the barbarian leader in front of him with unquestionable majesty in his eyes.

Where did such momentum come from? Was it his personal prestige or the powerful soldiers behind him? The barbarian leader couldn't tell. He just felt a huge pressure. He could only grit his teeth and hold on. His subconscious told himself that he couldn't give up.

"Fight or surrender?" The guard beside the Roman officer looked at him coldly. The words that came out of his slightly opened mouth were like the coldness coming down from the sky above his head, making him shiver uncontrollably.

For the barbarians who crossed the border without permission, this was an impossible battle to win.

(End of this chapter)