Chapter 529 Suebi War (Part 2)
What kind of war is this? Mateolius didn’t even dare to imagine it, because he didn’t know what kind of enemy he would face, but he knew what kind of mob he had under his command.
"I have great confidence in you in this offense, and I hope you will not disappoint me!"
Luca reminded him again and again that he must not lose, he must not lose. He had also heard of Leo, who had enjoyed the privilege of legislation under the amnesty of Augustus Valentinian III a few years ago.
You must know that Trajan once said: "Augustus's order is the highest law!" Now Liang also has the same right, which means that he has become the Augustus of the religious world. Of course, he also has such power in the entire Roman Empire.
Mateolius did not dare to imagine how Leo would treat him if he failed. He might even accuse him of being unfavorable in governing pagans, which would make him feel uncomfortable. He was not afraid of being beaten, but was afraid of being deprived of his military power.
If his military power was taken away, then the 3,000 soldiers under his father's command would have nothing to do with him! He was too afraid of this. He had finally become a legion commander, but in the end he was nothing. He couldn't describe how it felt.
"Wait!" He muttered to himself as he walked. "Luka brought more than 10,000 soldiers this time. Why did he let us 5,000 people lead the charge? Didn't I hear that he formed a new legion? Why not let that legion lead the charge? Why not use me?"
He had clearly realized that the enemy in this battle was not only the Suebi, but also himself.
He could have fully coordinated his army with the new legion in the attack, so why did he have to let his legion attack alone?
No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't figure it out, and the confusion made him angry. He just couldn't understand Luca.
"This must be a trap to lure me into it. Okay, Luga, you insidious villain. I shouldn't have saved you in the first place, you damn bastard!" Mateolius cursed in his heart, turning around and casting a resentful look at Luga who was unaware of the situation.
The army soon passed Caesar Augustana, and as the target got closer, Mateolius became more and more anxious, and he began to be afraid of facing Luca. He hated and feared Luca, and thought that he pointed him to a dead end.
Soon, after a week, the army finally arrived at Salamantila. The army was stationed outside the city. The distance was so close that they could even see the busy soldiers on the wooden city walls. Perhaps they never expected that the Romans would launch a large-scale attack.
At this time, Mateolius' heart was in his throat, he realized that he had provoked the army to attack. He did not dare to neglect it at this point, and hurriedly used the free time to stop the soldiers from paying attention and asked them to drill.
Such sharpening of weapons before the battle did not have any effect, but instead made the already exhausted soldiers complain even more, but Mateolius would not listen to these! The next morning, the messenger came to Mateolius's tent at the front of the camp, woke him up, and said to him: "The captain of the soldiers requires you to gather the troops and prepare for the attack!"
"The day has finally come." Mateolius rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up and dressed reluctantly. He knew it was an order and no matter how much he scolded his parents, it would not change.
An hour later, all the soldiers of the 21st Luca-Victorious Legion finally finished their preparations and lined up outside the city of Salamantira. At this time, Luca led a group of cavalry and found Mateorius.
"They have made sufficient preparations, Matt!" Luca pointed to the city of Salamantira in front of him and said to Mateolius, "But your soldiers are numerous and braver than them. I believe you can handle the task you are capable of now, am I right, Matt?"
"Yes, yes, just as you said!" Mateorius' face turned even paler, but he couldn't say he couldn't do it now, otherwise he would be slapping himself in the face! "Okay!" Luca nodded heavily at him, and looked at Mateorius with trust and said, "Then attack, let me see your strength!"
Luca left after saying this, leaving Mateolius behind. He turned around and looked at the walls of Salamantila and couldn't help swallowing.
"Now that it has come to this, I can't care about so much anymore. I hope God will bless me!"
“Wuwuwu…”
The attack horn sounded, and the two field regiments in the front row took the lead in the attack. Many of their soldiers held ropes and escorted siege cones forward.
Less than a hundred meters away from Salamantilla, archers holding compound bows lined up in a row. They dug a small pit in the wasteland in front of them, poured kerosene into it and lit it. They lit the grease-coated arrows, placed them on the bowstrings and pulled them in a circle.
“Ka-ka-ka…”
The flaming arrows whizzed down from the sky like falling meteors into the city of Salamantilla. Most of the Suebi were local militiamen recruited from the area. If they had armor or cowhide helmets, they were considered well-equipped, but most people were still wearing ordinary cloth.
The almost negligible defense left them with no choice but to dodge the oncoming arrows, but the crowded city walls made it impossible for them to move, and the officers, who didn't care about their lives, ordered them to stand still.
People were shot by arrows and fell down from the city wall. Faced with such casualties, the survivors could only hold their javelins tightly and watch the Roman army approaching.
"Archers! Archers!"
They called out to each other, and the archers climbed up the city walls. They all used short bows of inferior quality, so their range and lethality were still somewhat behind those of compound bows.
They caught up with the Romans when they were less than sixty meters away and shot arrows at the soldiers in the formation below.
Braving the hail of arrows, although people were constantly shot and fell, some soldiers began to panic after only a few fell. If the officers had not shouted loudly, they would not have continued to move forward with their shields.
The soldiers of the two field regiments continued to move forward. People kept falling down along the way. They finally got close to the city wall, tied knots in ropes, and prepared to throw them over the wall. They hooked onto the wood one by one and pulled them hard.
The wall was less than four meters high, and the Roman soldiers tried to throw the rope up again and again, but most of them missed. The Suebi javelin throwers on the wall stood up, raised their javelins and threw them down. They didn't care about the accuracy, they just wanted to be as fast as possible. Anyway, there were so many people below, and as long as the spear head was pointing downwards, it would be fatal.
“Crack!”
A trap! The Romans cheered, and the others were encouraged.
“Crack!”
One after another, they seemed to have figured out the rules and put them on quickly and well.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
The ropes were put on the wood and pulled, with the intention of tearing the wooden wall into pieces.
Seeing the Romans' intention, the barbarians quickly put down their javelins and drew their axes to chop the ropes, but as soon as they stuck their heads out, they were shot and fell down.
"Be on guard! Be on guard!"
Seeing the wooden walls being pulled side by side, they were swaying and crumbling. The barbarian soldiers on the walls threw javelins at the Romans below under a hail of arrows.
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Both sides paid a heavy price. Seeing the city wall being torn apart and gradually falling down, the Suebi naturally could not bear it! Only more than 30 warriors wearing iron armor, armed to the teeth, holding axes and swords, holding shields and weapons, were waiting behind the city gate.
"Remember, your role is to stop those damn Romans. Rush out and kill them!"
“Hoo! Hoo!”
The soldiers roared twice and slapped their shields with their weapons to indicate that they were ready!
“Squeak!”
The gates of Salamantilla were wide open, and dozens of Suebi warriors rushed out, roaring and waving axes and swords. They rushed straight to the soldiers in front of them who were pulling the ropes hard.
The Romans never expected that the Suebi would open the city gates and rush out, but their empty hands were no match for their sharp axes.
The roars and hacking of dozens of people frightened the soldiers of the two field regiments in front of them. Even the soldiers who waved weapons to resist quickly fell under their skilled and cruel axes.
Such an attack caused many Roman soldiers to cry and drop the ropes in their hands and flee.
In order to stabilize the situation, the field regiment officer had to take the lead in counterattacking. He led the braver soldiers to launch a counterattack against the Suebi warriors in front of them.
But they hadn't trained properly for a year, and even a sprint of a few dozen meters made them feel exhausted, not to mention facing barbarians who were stronger than them.
This was a complete suicide mission. The leading Suebi warrior dodged and chopped off the officer's arm with his sword. As he was covering his broken arm and screaming in pain, the sword blade stabbed into his chest fiercely.
Seeing their officers being killed so cruelly, the soldiers behind them collapsed. They were killed by dozens of people and threw away their weapons and armor, and fled frantically towards the army formation behind them.
"Hey! Turn around! Keep attacking! Keep attacking!"
Mateolius had not expected this kind of crowd. He shouted orders to the defeated soldiers running towards him, but it had no effect at all.
"Stop them! Stop them!"
The furious Mateolius grabbed the bow and arrow beside him and pointed at the defeated soldiers in front of him and shouted loudly. The archer didn't understand what he meant.
"Shoot them! Until they stop and look back!" Mateolius roared, turned around, grabbed a javelin and threw it at the deserter in front.
"laugh!"
The deserter was shot and fell down. The archer understood what he meant and pulled out arrows from the ground and aimed at them.
(End of this chapter)