Chapter 519: Unparalleled Achievement 5

After two hours, the soldiers in the first array suffered heavy losses. One third of the soldiers were seriously injured or dead, and half of the soldiers were struggling with injuries. Their scarred bodies were no worse than the shields in their hands.

This was like a living hell. The yellow soil and dry grass on the ground had lost their original color due to the blood. The blood-red color made the earth look like a sea of ​​blood. The huge tortoise shell formations were riddled with holes, but they still stood on the bloody ground, trembling and supporting themselves.

Aetius stood still in the army, giving people a sense of calmness and confidence, but in fact he was already extremely anxious.

In an army formation, the commanding general is the one who should not be feared the most. Aetius deeply agrees with this. After all, he used to be a victorious general, but most of the time it was under the premise that his strength advantage was huge.

He had already made the worst plan, which was to wait for the barbarian coalition to attack like a thunderous tsunami, but they did not do so. To be exact, this was not the worst plan, but the barbarian's full-scale attack would make him feel a little relieved.

But the barbarians did not intend to do so, as if they had become smarter at this moment. Although they were not afraid of a head-on confrontation, why not do it if it only consumed their strength and could make the Romans pay a heavy price?

This deadly long-range attack lasted for more than two hours, making it difficult for the front line of Aetius' army to continue.

The army was suffering from such a blow. Not to mention the physical pain, just the psychological consequences of the exhaustion and fear brought about by the constant attacks. Although Aetius did not say it, as one of the commanders, Tereus still had to speak out about this issue.

His face was a little nervous, probably because he couldn't sit still. He came closer and whispered to Aetius, "Captain Soldier, we, we can't just watch our soldiers die like this."

"I'm curious about how many stones these barbarians have in their pockets to sustain their attack on us for so long." Aetius breathed a sigh of relief. He looked relaxed, as if the casualties in front of him were not a problem at all.

"So what should we do next?" Therese asked hurriedly: "If this continues, the will of our soldiers will collapse. We can't just sit there and watch. At least we have to give these sons of bitches a head-on blow!"

"I understand what you mean, my loyal subordinate." Aetius nodded, but his eyes never left the group of barbarian cavalry less than 20 meters away from the front line.

Aetius seemed to have discovered something. He pointed at the barbarian cavalry and said to Tereus, "I noticed that their cavalry had to go back to replenish their javelins every fixed period of time. I estimated that they would go back soon."

Tereus looked in the direction Aetius pointed and saw that the backpacks of the barbarian cavalrymen who kept shuttling back and forth in front of their army were empty of javelins.

At this time, the barbarian army was divided into two parts. One part attacked the Roman army on the front line, and the other part went back to replenish javelins, and then took a rest during the supply period. There was no time to attack the Roman army during the handover between the two sides.

As Aetius said, they might have to go back to replenish their javelins. The sharp-eyed Tereus seemed to have found an opportunity. In order to confirm his thoughts again or to avoid stealing the limelight from Aetius, he pretended to be stupid and asked: "Captain Soldier, what should we do then?"

The solemn expression on Aetius's face eased a little, replaced by a cold smile. He looked very proud, as if the current situation of the battle had suddenly become clear: "Tereus, I now order you to command the cavalry squad to wait for their cavalry to retreat from both sides of the army. As long as there is a gap when their cavalry are fighting each other and causing confusion, our cavalry will be like two sharp swords and pierce their most vulnerable parts!"

For more than two hours, the Romans just hid behind their tattered shields and trembled without doing anything. The barbarians could easily judge that they had no strength to resist at this time. After all, the archers who wanted to fight back had to bear the consequences of wanting to resist.

The Romans must have been begging their so-called God to cast a spell to make the stones disappear from the pockets of the barbarian army's slingers, because at the moment no one except God could help them.

The Romans held their scorpion crossbows tightly and did not fire because their commanders were reluctant to use their precious crossbow arrows to fight against the melee troops they believed were more dangerous than slingers. After all, if they could deal the most fatal blow to the enemy's attacking force in a very short time and make it collapse, it would be a great encouragement to themselves and the army.

But the barbarian army saw the Romans' powerlessness, so they certainly didn't worry about any unexpected situations. If the Romans launched a full-scale attack, it would not be a wise decision to use 20,000 people against 40,000 people. Before there was no other way, they could only die little by little, and now what the barbarians had to do was to make them pay enough before they could come up with a solution.

In order to ensure concealment, the four Roman cavalry battalions were divided into two groups, leading their horses and hiding on both sides of the army formation, taking advantage of the moment when the barbarian cavalry retreated.

"Attack! Attack!"

In just a few seconds, the two thousand cavalrymen jumped on their horses, raised their lances, and led by their captain, bypassed Aetius's first formation and charged towards the barbarian slingers in front of them like two huge sickles.

“Boom…”

The galloping of the war horses made the earth tremble, and the horses' hooves trampled the exposed yellow soil on the ground into dust, which was as vast as a storm in the desert, majestic and extremely deadly.

The distance was only more than 60 meters, so it was very difficult for these barbarians to run. Due to their large numbers, even if they were as light as a swallow, they could not take a single step in this chaotic scene.

It was as cruel as a sharp knife piercing flesh and blood. The charging Roman cavalry raised their lances and rushed into the chaotic crowd. They were unstoppable along the way, but their thin and somewhat tired bodies were no match for the war horses. Countless barbarians fell under the horses' hooves or were pierced by their lances, crushing their internal organs.

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The Romans actually succeeded. The four cavalry battalions charged forward as if they were in an empty space. The originally clear situation instantly turned into a one-sided massacre.

The impatient barbarians could not bear to watch their own soldiers being slaughtered by the Romans. They were so angry that they called on each other to mount their horses and shouted that they wanted to have a taste of being slaughtered by these damned Romans.

Soon, groups of barbarian cavalry dropped their javelins, picked up scimitars or spears, mounted their horses, and charged towards the Roman cavalry.

"Order the soldiers to move forward!" Aetius gave another order: "Let these barbarian cavalry break our offensive. Come on, let us fight back against them with the battle we are most familiar with!"

The horns kept blowing, and the Roman soldiers, who were finally able to relax their defense, roared and advanced with their already tattered shields. The surviving archers followed behind the infantry.

(End of this chapter)