Chapter 594 First Contact

"Don't stop! Don't stop, hold your weapons steady, the enemy is trembling, rush forward and crush them! Attack! Attack!"

Catus' blood was boiling with the battle, he roared with an anger even stronger than the barbarian in front of him. He dropped his shield, not afraid of the oncoming barbarian at all, and rushed towards him waving the iron sword in his hand and roaring.

Seeing that His Excellency the Duke was so brave, even though he was exhausted, the dozen or so soldiers behind him mustered up their courage, gritted their teeth, raised their spears and aimed at the dozens of Frankish soldiers coming towards them.

At this time, the entire camp was in chaos. There was no so-called formation at all. Both sides were in a stalemate. To be honest, the Franks in front of them did not seem as strong as they had imagined at the time. Because Catus was able to lead his soldiers to overthrow the Franks in front of him so easily in the strife.

Soon, because of their absolute advantage in numbers, the Franks were no match for the Romans who kept attacking them and quickly retreated.

Facing the Franks who fled back into the woods, Catus did not intend for the soldiers to chase them. He just stretched out his hand to signal the soldiers to stop.

"Let them freeze to death in this snow and ice, you damn beasts!" Catus spat towards the woods where the Franks disappeared, and when he turned around, he found a person still wriggling on the ground.

He was seriously injured, but he still managed to survive tenaciously. No, it cannot be said that he survived, but rather that he was barely alive. He dragged his dying body and kept crawling in the direction where his compatriots had fled, leaving behind a long dragging trail with a little blood in it.

Catus stepped on the barbarian who refused to die, and the struggling barbarian let out a low growl with a cry-like tone.

"Look who this is, a damned beast!" There was no mercy on Catus's face. As he spoke, he turned the wounded soldier over with his foot, turned him upside down, and stepped heavily on his chest.

"What? This is..."

An expression of disbelief appeared on Catus' face, for he saw that the dying Frank in front of him was actually a white-haired old man.

Catus felt very unbelievable, and then he uncovered the second body, and then the third. They were either old people or ugly disabled people. Because they were wrapped in thick fur coats, their specific appearance and age could not be seen, so their weak fighting power always gave people the illusion that the Franks were vulnerable.

"Your Majesty the Duke! Your Majesty the Duke!"

The subsequent troops that were fighting the enemy in the woods arrived late, but they saw that Cartus's soldiers had already begun cleaning the battlefield.

"Gentlemen, are you coming here at such a speed to taste the leftovers of victory?" Catus' tone was slightly sarcastic.

"I'm sorry, sir, we were attacked in the woods."

"How many of them are there?"

"Dozens."

"Dozens." Catus finally couldn't help laughing, and then asked: "So, where are they now?"

“Run away.”

"How much did you run?"

“More than half.”

"So how much did we lose?"

"More than 60 people, half of whom were injured and could not be saved."

The commander of the field regiment spoke in a lower and lower voice. He hardly dared to raise his head to look directly into Catus's judging gaze. Yes, he was being questioned.

"I'm afraid I'll have to carefully examine your abilities after I return." Catus said, sighing softly, shaking off the blood on his sword that was about to freeze into ice, and sheathing it again. He cheered for the soldiers cleaning up the battlefield, "Now the Franks must be aware of our presence, which is good, because we can solve this battle while keeping the pressure on them!"

No one knew how much the soldiers heard, but only they themselves knew whether they understood Catus's orders.

"Okay, let's get ready and move on!"

Catus stepped over the corpses on the ground. The cold wind blew and he couldn't help shivering. He realized that he was still wearing too thin clothes.

Seeing the soldiers around him shivering, the cold in the woods was even colder than in the town. They were all stripping the bloodstained fur coats from the corpses and putting them on, and continued to move forward.

"Your Excellency, the soldiers are already exhausted. In addition, in the icy and snowy weather, many soldiers reported that their feet were frostbitten."

"But if we don't move out in time, resting here will give the barbarians enough time to react. I obviously won't give them such an opportunity." Catus said, putting on the fur coat he picked up and said to the officer behind him: "This is a war, every second counts. We can't miss the opportunity because of fatigue. It's not that I don't care, at least our enemies don't care."

Catus' attitude was very firm. Even though the soldiers had thousands of complaints, they had to endure the fatigue and pain and continue to march forward.

Just as the Romans packed up and prepared to set off, suddenly, a loud noise was heard in the woods.

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“What, what is this!?”

The soldiers looked in the direction of the sound, wondering with their hearts in their throats.

"Hold on, hold on!"

Catus also realized that the sound was not right. He raised his right hand above his head to signal the soldiers not to be confused by the sound. He stared at the increasingly violent forest in front of him with wide eyes. His first thought was "There must be something wrong!"

“Wow!”

A warhorse leaped up from behind a bush, and the splashing snow lingered around the horse like clouds. The knight on the horse was dressed in armor.

The man's leather coat blended seamlessly with the horse under him. He held a lance in his hand, which was tucked tightly against his waist as he charged towards the Roman soldiers in front of him. Soon, a series of rapid trumpets sounded, and a large group of cavalrymen emerged from the woods. They quickly formed a line when they entered the open space and charged towards the Romans in front of them.

"They're coming! They're coming!"

At this time, the scattered Roman soldiers realized the danger. According to their training practice, they had to form a dense line to defend against the attack of cavalry.

However, there were a large number of border militiamen among them, which led to chaos in their formation when facing a powerful enemy. They were unable to form a suitable line of defense against the enemy cavalry.

"What the hell are you doing! Damn it! Damn it!"

Seeing his team in such chaos, Catus naturally couldn't help cursing, but cursing could not solve the primary problem at hand. Catus could only watch the soldiers who had just gathered together being dispersed in an instant.

The soldiers who tried to defend had completely lost hope, they scattered like birds and beasts, each fighting on their own with shields in hand. But how could they be a match for the cavalry? With the huge advantage of open ground, the barbarian cavalry shuttled back and forth, using lances and scimitars to slaughter all the Roman soldiers who tried to resist or gave up resistance.

Hans hid inside, or wanted to escape when the opportunity arose, but the chaos did not give him any chance. He could only hide beside the destroyed tent and pretend to be dead. He saw Catus standing there not far away, muttering a word.

(End of this chapter)