When a person starts amusing himself about what he is doing, it is difficult to tell if he is laughing or crying.

—Naipaul (West Indian writer, travelogue writer, and social critic)

The 24,000 longbowmen of the 12 longbow wings on the left and right flanks of the Roman legion's rectangular battle formation used the cold locust longbow in their hands to throw arrows one after another from the arrows, and fired sharp arrows at the lightly armed enemy soldiers.

The warriors of Lucy, who were constantly falling to the ground and dying, still holding their swords and battle axes aloft, shouted and charged forward, this is the warriors of the barbarians, no matter what force they belong to, they are so brave and powerful!

400 meters, 300 meters, 250 meters, 200 meters...... Seeing that about 40,000 enemy soldiers were about to rush into the battle formation of their own army, the officers and men of the Chinese army, who had not been moving at all, instantly separated two small covering troops from the flanks.

The two forces, each consisting of five Roman youth and five Roman hoplites, quickly moved from the edge of the center to the front of the longbowmen, using their shields to form a wall of shields to form a strong line of defense for the longbowmen behind them.

At the same time, the Roman light infantry at the front of the Chinese army trotted forward a few steps, and then raised their javelins, which were more than a fraction of the arrows fired by the longbowmen in terms of lethality!

As pure javelinmen, the Roman light infantry carried the three javelins with them as their main weapons, and although they were equipped with short daggers and small round shields for guards, they were not very skilled in combat.

Perhaps, compared with the ordinary soldiers of the Celestial Dragon Empire, whose combat skills are also not high, the Roman light infantry who are not good at hand-to-hand combat can barely be regarded as elite, but compared to the fierce and powerful barbarian warriors, the Roman light infantry is not enough.

In order to avoid close contact with the enemy soldiers, Lucis gave orders to his lieutenant general and Marcus to have the Roman light infantry throw only two rounds of javelins, and after the two rounds of javelin throwing, the Roman light infantry, which still had one javelin in their hands, had to immediately withdraw to the rear of the Chinese army.

Oldington, the lieutenant general of the Fifth Roman Legion, who commanded the Fifth Roman Legion in place of Luquis, and Marcus, the corps commander of the Sixth Roman Legion, naturally added Luquis's instructions to them when they gave orders to the officers of the various wings under their command.

In particular, Aldington, the adjutant general of the Fifth Army, who was originally the wing commander and adjutant general of the First Wing of the Fifth Army, and now also served as the temporary commander of the Fifth Army;

When the enemy soldiers rushed to a distance of only 150 meters from their own Chinese battle formation, the Roman light infantry, who were ready to throw, lined up in an extremely dense formation, threw their first javelin!

Thirty-two Roman light infantry of three brigades of eight wings of two legions, more than 5,000 javelins thrown at one time, accompanied by more than 20,000 arrows on both flanks, flew towards the enemy's charging warrior cluster like a stormy sea.

In the face of the roaring heavy javelins, the Lucy warriors, whose faces involuntarily showed a look of horror, subconsciously raised the round shields in their hands, trying to use this meaningless behavior to resist the rain of javelins!

Unlike the arrows fired by the longbowmen, no matter how sharp the arrows were, they could not penetrate the round shields made of heavy wooden planks, and the vast majority of the Lucy warriors who were shot by the longbowmen were because the round shields in their hands did not stop the dense rain of arrows from the sky.

Now the rain of arrows has turned into a rain of javelins, and the extremely sharp javelins, how can their great power be compared with arrows? The Lucy warriors who rushed to the front, the round shields held high in their hands, under the cover of the javelin rain, were nothing more than the end of the broken shields and the death of people.

The Lucy warriors who charged forward were like wheat in the fields, harvested like scythes by the javelins thrown by the Roman light infantry, and the Lucy warriors who followed them rushed forward one after another, and they were greeted by the javelins of the Roman light infantry.

After the two rounds of javelins were thrown, the Roman light infantry immediately pulled out the third javelin they had planted on the ground, followed the passage left by the Roman youth army and the Roman heavy infantry behind them, and retreated to the rear of the Chinese army without looking back.

The result of several salvos of 24,000 longbowmen was to shoot and wound 7,800 Lucy soldiers, while more than 5,000 Roman light infantry shot 4,000 enemy troops in two javelin throws.

Before the real hand-to-hand combat began, less than 40,000 of the more than 50,000 Luci soldiers remained, and it was self-evident how aggrieved the Luci soldiers were in the hearts of Viriacius and his Lucy soldiers, who had suffered casualties of up to a quarter.

Seeing that the enemy soldiers were about to rush into the rectangular battle formation of the Roman army, the Roman youths, who were ready to fight, did not rush to draw the short swords at their waists, but drew out one of the two javelins behind them and held it high in their hands like Roman light infantry.

Seeing such a familiar scene, the eyes of the Lucy warriors who charged at the forefront already showed a look of despair, and the posture of the Roman youth army was tantamount to the prelude to the arrival of death for the Lucy warriors who had suffered two heavy losses in a row!

Sure enough, the next second when the Lucy warriors showed a look of despair, the Roman youth army who raised their javelins threw the javelins in their hands with all their might, and the stormtroopers of Lucy's army suffered another devastating blow.

Due to the shortening of the distance and the density of the formation, the number of Lucy soldiers who died under the javelins of the Roman youth army this time was greater than the previous two times, and the tragic death of nearly 3,000 Lucy soldiers had already made the supposedly fearless Lucy warriors frightened.

After throwing a round of javelins, the Roman youth army, who did not use javelins as their main weapon, did not even have time to draw their daggers, and hurriedly withdrew behind the Roman heavy infantry.

Blocked by the shield wall of the Roman hoplites, the Lucy warriors cursed the Roman light infantry and Roman youth army hiding in the shield walls in the dialect of their respective settlements, and slashed the shields of the Roman hoplites with their swords and battle axes.

The Roman hoplites who supported their left side shields with all their strength held their short swords in their right hands, and the shield wall built with countless square shields was never a simple defensive formation, but the core of the shield wall tactics was the defensive counterattack!

The rough ramming and slashing of the enemy soldiers could not shake the impenetrable shield wall, and the Roman hoplites, who patiently waited for the right time, endured in silence for about three minutes, and when they felt that the enemy's spirit had been discharged, they began to fight back fiercely!