Chapter 638 Battle of Chalons 20

The Roman army appeared in front of Attila. They walked slowly from a distance, just as they were deployed at the beginning. The Goths were on the right, the Romans were on the left, and the Alans, Franks and many other Germanic tribes gathered together in the middle.

Attila was also not vague at this time. He commanded the barbarian army under his command to change the battle line. The barbarian tribes that had originally fought against the Goths were still deployed on the right side to fight against the Romans, while Attila's own slave soldiers from the grassland tribes.

Perhaps Attila thought that the numerous and powerful barbarians were not as loyal and reliable as his own slaves, or perhaps he had other ideas.

Attila's army was in the middle, which was filled with Hun troops from his own tribe, and they were also the ones he relied on and was proud of.

The Roman army also gradually advanced towards the barbarian army south of the Marne River. They used infantry holding broad shields on the front line, followed by archers. Their existence was to prevent the archers of the Huns and nomadic tribes from causing casualties to the advancing Roman soldiers.

In terms of the Visigoths, they were the best students of the Romans but also their most dangerous enemies. They had mastered the Roman way of fighting so well that they did not need to imitate it deliberately. They could, like the Romans, arrange the soldiers with shields and spears in the first row, followed by the archers, and the remaining warriors in the second and third lines as a means of supplementing the battle.

Attila obviously did not agree with this kind of fighting style. He used arrows shot by his cavalry to bring pain and death, making the barbarian tribes fall at his feet and surrender to him. As well as the Romans, Aetius' fear of him was a high recognition of his strength and tactics.

As a great man made by a conqueror, he has always been unwilling to accept his past setbacks, such as the defeat at Thermopylae.

He did not take advantage of his volley fire because of the complex terrain of Thermopylae. It was not his fault, so his Eternal Heaven gave him a second chance. It was here, on a wide enough flat ground, that his warhorse could gallop freely and the riders could draw their bows and arrows, bringing death to all opponents who tried to fight against him.

"A friendly reminder, don't eat too much before the battle, otherwise you will often feel powerless to swing the spear and spada." Most of the advancing soldiers stretched out a hand to grab a piece of bread and put it into their mouths in big mouthfuls. Because they had not eaten breakfast, their centurions had to turn back from time to time to remind the soldiers present, lest they eat too much and have no strength.

The barbarians opposite them stood in place. The tall and strong guys among them raised their battle axes and shouted loudly from time to time, encouraging the soldiers behind them to roar together and vent their anger at the Romans in front of them.

They just wanted to scare the Romans, the Germans wanted to scare other Germans of the same physique. It seemed like a joke, but it actually happened on the battlefield.

"Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha!"

As the two armies got closer, they shouted at each other to boost morale. The distance between the two sides had reached five hundred meters.

At this time, Attila just waved his hand and a large number of cavalrymen under his command were dispatched.

All I saw were the riders in their usual coarse linen clothes, holding nomadic bows and galloping towards the coalition forces of the Alans and Franks in the middle of the road.

When they were two hundred meters away, they instantly split into two groups and rushed towards the left and right main armies of the Roman coalition.

Seeing these light cavalry rushing towards him, Luca turned around and shouted to Marenius: "Defend! Counterattack!"

"Raise your shields! Raise your shields!"

Marenius immediately shouted loudly to the bugler not far away and reminded him again and again. The bugler understood and immediately raised the bugle and blew a short bugle to remind the troops at the front.

"Click, click, click"

The soldiers who had not yet raised their shields were attacked by arrows that suddenly flew past them. The arrows kept hitting the Romans' iron helmets and bouncing off.

Soldiers without good protection could only use shields to block the flying arrows, which resulted in soldiers who were not well protected falling to the ground inadvertently.

The soldiers raised their shields and heard the arrows hitting the shields with a "crackling" sound.

"Don't stop, don't stop!"

The soldiers braved the hail of arrows and sped up their advance under the orders of the centurion's own field regiment commander, even though some soldiers were constantly shot and fell.

They pushed forward to close the distance between them and the Hun cavalry until they were within the range of the Roman archers. The Romans believed in their composite bows, and they also believed that such tactics could deal a sufficient blow to the Hun cavalry.

“Stop! Stop!”

With only one command, the huge Roman army formation was seen to stop in an instant with a "boom". They gathered together and formed huge tortoise shell formations.

The Hun cavalry were constantly hovering a few dozen meters away from the Romans. They kept shooting arrows at the huge shield phalanx in front of them, but they didn't know that every volley of their fire was clearly seen by the officers hiding under the shields.

The archers moved sideways into the huge tortoise-shell formation. They clenched the arrows on the bowstrings in their hands and stared at the Hun cavalry in front of them through the gaps in their round shields.

After a round of arrows fell, the only thing heard was the officer of the field regiment yelling: "Counterattack!"

“Wow!”

All I saw was the Roman soldiers suddenly dropping their shields, and the archers standing up, drawing their bows and arrows and pointing them directly at the Hun cavalry in front of them.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

"Click, click, click"

More than a thousand arrows flew into the sky, and it was the Huns' turn to be dumbfounded. They looked at the overwhelming arrows flying in front of them, and it was too late to think about retreating.

Dense arrows fell and instantly knocked the Hun cavalry off their horses. Their thin armor was simply unable to resist the Roman arrows.

On the Visigoth side, they also encountered arrow attacks from the Hun cavalry during their advance, but they were more confident in their own strength.

Because the Hun cavalry was in a state of rapid movement, they counterattacked the Hun cavalry under the guidance of experienced archers.

The old archer stared at the movements of the Hun cavalry with his eyes fixed, drew his bow and shot an arrow. The arrow fell from the sky and actually hit the leading Hun cavalry.

"boom!"

Thousands of archers in the Gothic army followed the old archer's target and shot arrows. The overwhelming arrows fell and instantly knocked the Hun cavalry off their horses.

Just after the Hun archers dispersed, the rumbling sound of horse hooves was heard.

The barbarian army in the middle looked at a loss, and of course, they did not take the necessary actions due to hesitation and uncertainty.

The smoke dissipated, no, it should be said that it was dispersed by a more powerful force, and only a large number of heavily armored Hun cavalry were seen rushing out from behind the smoke.

They were just as they were when they first came into combat, and Attila was convinced that they were still the weakness of the Roman coalition.

(End of this chapter)