Chapter 175 A show of force

"Maybe it's other Pannoni tribe chiefs who sent reinforcements." Maximus suddenly became interested, patted an old man squatting in front of him, and said half-jokingly, half-seriously: "Fortuni Us, this is a great opportunity. Two Pannoni leaders are standing together. If you kill them both with one arrow, we will win without a fight."

Fortunius, a Roman veteran and a group of army slaves with Frontinus, was appointed by Maximus as the captain of the ballistae because he had served as a ballistae for the Roman legions. He was responsible for taking charge of the six captured by the rebel army. Ballista, with 24 soldiers under his command.

After this ballista team was established, it came in handy when attacking farms in Campania. The last time it came into play was during the attack on Canossa. After the few lead pellets were consumed, it was temporarily dismissed. Hidden in the snow.

During the whole process of the rebel army's march north, due to the continuous defeat of the Roman army and the seizure of many ballistae, Maximus asked for 10 more ballistae and some lead shot. Unfortunately, the subsequent march in the Illyrian mountains was too much. In order to allow the soldiers to pass more easily, some baggage was abandoned, including the lead shot that was difficult to carry. Even the bracket of the crossbow was removed and thrown away. Only the most important torsion metal spring arm was removed from the crossbow. The soldiers of the team took turns carrying it like a treasure, and finally brought it to the temporary camp.

After that, Fortunius went to the engineer Spucala, hoping that he could find someone to help repair the ballista.

But after Capito learned about this, he believed that without lead shot, there was no point in repairing the ballista. It was better to transform it into a crossbow, which could still function.

Fortunius firmly opposed it, and the two quarreled, which attracted the attention of Maximus. He finally approved Capito's suggestion and asked the engineer Spucala to summon the craftsmen of the engineering camp to use it as soon as possible. Important parts of these ballistae, transformed into crossbows to enhance the defense of the camp.

In the end, the engineering battalion successfully modified 10 crossbows. The rest were more or less damaged due to the torsion metal spring arms. The rebel army now lacks materials to repair them and can only continue to store them in the warehouse.

After that, the ten ballistae were moved onto the built wooden tower.

Fortunius looked back at Maximus with expectation in his eyes: "Chief, if I shoot the two people you mentioned together, what reward will you give me?"

Just yesterday, Maximus issued a decree to everyone in the team at the political hall meeting and after discussing with the department chiefs: In response to this Pannonian invasion, all tribal people must Work together and rely on the camp to resist the enemy's attack. If they are successfully defeated, all ordinary ethnic groups will be promoted to the first level and become second-class ethnic groups. The three-year promotion time of all reserve ethnic groups will be shortened to two years!

This decree greatly boosted the morale of the newly-established Nix tribe people. So when the Pannoni coalition came to the camp in a mighty manner today, the Nix tribe soldiers standing on the wooden wall walkway prepared to defend themselves. There was no fear on their faces, but instead excitement, including of course the soldiers manipulating the crossbows.

"You don't need to shoot them both. As long as you can shoot the leader of Segestika to death, you have made a great contribution. I will upgrade you two levels in a row and make you a first-class citizen! "Maximus encouraged without hesitation.

"Then let's see what happens to me!" Fortunius rubbed his palms together excitedly and once again lay behind the crossbow to take aim. He had already fixed the firing angle, but now he adjusted it carefully.

The modified crossbow is different from the original ballista in several ways.

First of all, the wooden bracket below is no longer as high as the crossbow, but stones are hung to increase the weight, thereby ensuring the stability of the crossbow when firing and improving the accuracy of shooting.

Secondly, unlike the crossbow, which can only shoot horizontally or diagonally upward, the crossbow can adjust its firing angle downwards. After all, the crossbow arrows will not slide downward like lead shot.

In addition, the wooden chute of the crossbow is narrow, but longer than the crossbow, because it does not place round lead balls, but short spears...

"Brothers, fire your bows!" Fortunius ordered.

An auxiliary crossbowman immediately twisted the pulley and the bowstring was drawn.

Another auxiliary archer inserted the short spear into the chute and made it fit perfectly.

Fortunius stared unblinkingly at the man wearing dazzling golden armor in the metal eyelet above the chute.

The moment the opponent stopped moving, Fortunius quickly pulled the trigger, and the torsion spring arm drove the bow string to rebound quickly, giving the short spear strong power. A "swish" sound was heard, and the short spear flew out. , in the eyes of everyone, it instantly turned into a black spot in mid-air.

Andres had just taken two steps when he stepped on another trap. Just as he was about to bend down and pull it out, he heard the sharp sound of breaking wind, and then the screams of war horses and the screams of soldiers sounded behind him. Scream.

Andres turned around suddenly, and what caught his eye was a horrifying scene: a war horse's neck had been cut in half, and the warrior on the horse had his abdomen stabbed out even though he was wearing leather armor. There was a big hole in his body, and his internal organs and intestines flowed out along with the blood. A short blood-red spear nailed him firmly to the ground at an angle...

Andres, who has always been brave, was also horrified at this moment: The distance here from the enemy's camp wall is more than 50 meters, but the enemy's short spear can actually be projected so far and have such terrifying power!

Andres didn't have time to think too much. He turned around and ran back, shouting at the same time: "Quick! Get out! -"

As soon as the words were spoken, a black shadow flashed before his eyes, followed by the shrill screams of the warriors. This time, two warriors were strung together by short spears.

Then another spear came...

When Fortunius saw that the short spear he fired did not hit the enemy's leader, he slapped his thigh in annoyance, turned around a little ashamed and said: "Chief, I have only used this crossbow for a few days, and I am not completely familiar with it yet - —”

Maximus pointed forward: "He is still there, you still have a chance."

Fortunius immediately lay down behind the crossbow to take aim, and at the same time shouted: "Hurry up and fire the bow! Load the spear!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a spear fired from the wooden building on the left, and then a spear fired from the wooden building on the right. Apparently, the crossbow archers on the two wooden buildings also imitated the same pattern after seeing Fortunius firing. After all, the cavalry in front of the camp are also within their shooting range.

"How dare these guys take credit from me!" Fortunius roared, then took another look before calmly pulling the trigger.

Seeing that the Pannoni cavalry in front of the camp were in confusion under the crossbow attack, Quintus immediately suggested: "Chief, I think we can send a few hundred men out of the camp to pursue a little pursuit to boost the morale of the soldiers."

"Okay." Maximus nodded.

Soon, the drawbridge at the camp gate was lowered and placed over the trench. Four Centuries rushed out one after another, running quickly towards the Pannoni cavalry along the safe road in front of the camp gate.

At this moment, Andres and Temagis were rolling and crawling back desperately. They didn't even dare to mount their war horses again, because they didn't dare to stand there for a moment in the face of the short spears that kept coming. Make a stay.

After finally retreating out of range, the two men suddenly saw several teams of the Pannoni coalition forces that had been staying behind rush out, roaring loudly and rushing towards them.

It turned out that the Pannoni forces waiting in the rear were far away and did not know that there were traps in front of the enemy camp and there were also crossbow shots. They only saw their cavalry staying there for a long time, and then the enemy rushed out. When the camp arrived, out of concern for the comfort of their chiefs, Segestika and Desitiatai each sent a force of a thousand men to come to the rescue.

Seeing this, Andres and Temagis quickly mounted their horses, faced the running soldiers, waved their hands and shouted: "Stop! Pull back! Pull back!..."

The rescuing Pannoni troops had dispersed as they ran over, and their roars completely covered up the shouts of Andres and the two men. Except for a few people who were closer to the two, most of the soldiers not only did not stop. , but speeded up because they saw that the enemy in front was finishing up their wounded cavalry compatriots, which made them furious...

Just at this moment, the retreating copper horn sounded in the camp, and the Nix tribe soldiers outside the camp began to retreat...

Upon seeing this, the Pannoni warriors gave chase and soon some warriors stepped on the trap and screamed and fell. This went unnoticed at first, and it wasn't until more people fell that everyone realized there was a trap.

Just when they stopped chasing, short spears from the camp were fired at them, causing panic again...

The Nix tribe soldiers who were retreating turned back to fight. The Pannoni warriors, who still had no fighting spirit, retreated one after another...

The soldiers of the Nyx tribe took the opportunity to clean up the battlefield and retracted the short spears they fired.

Since the Nyx tribe had just been established and had not yet built furnaces to smelt iron or forge weapons, the short spears fired from the crossbows were cut off from the spears of previously captured Segestica warriors, and a wooden concave bracket was put on the end. , can hook the bow string... This is actually quite wasteful, but there is really no other way, so I cherish it more.

When the soldiers returned to the camp carrying five or six frequently killed horses, there was a cheer in the camp.

Maximus looked down at the cheering soldiers on the wooden wall walkway and smiled: "Unexpectedly, the enemy just arrived and gave us a victory, which helped boost our morale!"

"However, they will also learn from this. Next time they attack, they will probably be better prepared and we won't be able to repel them so easily." Quintus reminded.

"I'm hoping that all their troops will come forward so that our camp can exert its true power!" Maximus said confidently.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

The Nix tribe was laughing and laughing, while the Pannoni coalition, which had suffered a slight setback, was dejected.

Andres, who was originally smug and ambitious, frowned at this moment. After a brief discussion with Temagis and the commanders of the other two supporting armies, he reluctantly issued the order for "the army to return to the east village."

The army had just arrived and returned immediately. It was not yet noon... Andres made this decision very helplessly.

Due to the tight blockade of the "mercenaries" before, he was unable to know the situation of the enemy's camp. He also made preparations to attack the camp, but he never expected that this "mercenary" would actually attack the camp in just one month. The simple camp was built into a city with complete and tight defense facilities (Andres believed that the outer wooden walls built by the mercenary camp were better than the main fortress of Segestica, so it was not a camp, but a city).

He had never attacked a city like this in his previous fighting career. This small defeat made him realize that he must be fully prepared before attacking again, otherwise failure would be the only thing waiting for him.

The Pannoni coalition returned to the stronghold. After long discussions, Andres, Temagis and other army leaders finally formulated an attack plan, and then sent messengers to the main stronghold of Segestica.

On the second day, Andres led his army across the Korana River again and stopped advancing three miles away from the "mercenary" camp.

Andres first sent cavalry to monitor the movements of the "mercenary" camp, then sent one-third of the soldiers to the mountains to the west to cut down trees, and then sent another third of the soldiers to clear the ground and set down tent……

He wanted to build several simple camps between the two swamps in the east and the mountains in the west to allow the coalition forces to station themselves here. This would make it easier for the army to attack the "mercenary" camps nearby.

Andres arranged his tribe's camp in the direction of the "mercenary" camp, which was the closest to the enemy. He was embarrassed to let reinforcements take the greatest risk, so he could only stand at the front.

The camp of the Daixi Tiatai reinforcements was close to the mountains, and there was a bit of risk here, because the enemy might go around the mountains to launch an assault, so Temagis, who had the closest relationship with him, led the army to station.

The camps of Broch and Maziyi's reinforcements were arranged eastward in sequence, passing through the open space between the two swamps and extending to the Korana River.

Each camp is separated by a certain distance, and the arrangement of tents in the camp is also quite loose, making the entire Pannoni coalition camp four miles long from north to south and more than five miles long from east to west...

Andres believed that even if their camp was simply surrounded by wooden fences and had no defensive effect, if the militant mercenaries dared to launch a surprise attack, their camp would be wide and long enough to allow the troops behind them to attack. Having enough time to organize a counterattack may encircle the enemy in the camp, so he hopes that the enemy will do this, which is much better than storming the enemy's camp.

Andres was satisfied with his arrangement. The only slight drawback was that there were a lot of mosquitoes due to the proximity to the swamp. However, the Pannoni people originally lived along the Sava River and the Drau River, and there was no shortage of these two large rivers. They have their own ways of dealing with the swamp, and their bodies are relatively adapted to being bitten by mosquitoes all year round.