I swear today is the most tiring day I've ever had. Like the rest of the soldiers of the First Brigade, we dragged our exhausted bodies slowly past the other phalanxes that had stood behind us without moving. I don't know what kind of eyes they're looking at us, well, but I'm too tired to even look up into their eyes, and I want to see guilt, shame, shame in their eyes.

I was amazed at how many of them were able to keep the crows silent, and they split into two rows for us to pass through the gap in the middle. My legs were as heavy as lead, and every step I took required a great deal of physical strength. The iron armor on my body was like a mountain, pressing tightly against my body.

Passing through the second array of the Twins, I heard the whipping and the wailing and screaming of people, and when I looked up, there were dozens of shirtless men, swinging their leather whips back and forth in the air, "snapping" on everyone who was tied to the pillar, whipping them open, these sufferers were old people and teenagers.

"These cowards never thought that escaping would end up like this."

Passing by them, listening to their wails of pain, Andrew had no mercy for them, the remnants of the four auxiliary legion phalanxes in front of us, numbering more than two hundred.

"It doesn't work at all to beat them so badly, because their will has been completely broken by the Burgundians." Andrew looked at them with unconcealed contempt in his eyes, and continued: "No wonder they could not be regular patrols (in the days of Diocletian, the Roman army was divided into frontier guards and patrols, and the patrols were offensive armies for internal counterinsurgency and external expansion)"

We dragged our exhausted bodies and walked nearly a kilometer before returning to the barracks, where we heard a more terrible cry than the beaten deserter. The wounded soldiers who retreated in advance have been treated here, because of the backward medical conditions, the wounds on the soldiers' bodies are forcibly healed with red-hot iron to stop the bleeding, because there is no anesthetic method, many soldiers are fainting or even dying of pain.

As soon as the camp gate was opened, a carriage was greeted by the corpses of soldiers who had failed to heal. They may well have died painfully after the treatment failed, but there is nothing I can do about their lives.

"Briss!" I looked back and saw my bloodied trumpeter, who smiled at me, this guy was red with blood, and his chain mail had five or six holes, but they were all cut open, but fortunately the wounds were not deep.

"What about our casualties?" I asked him.

"Sir, is it from our team, or is it all of them?"

"How?" I turned my head to look at him in surprise and asked, "What else do you know?" ”

"No, no, sir, I don't know." Bliss shook his head, he turned around and secretly nodded at the number of heads of the soldiers who were following me, and then turned back to me and said, "Sir, we lost more than twenty heads this time, and many of them were injured, probably more than half of the whole team, including me, of course. ”

"Well, at least, I'm not good enough to become a bare-bones commander in a few days after I became a centurion." I shrugged my shoulders and dragged my shield on.

"Luga, Luga."

Behind me was Andrew's voice, and he ran over to stop me, and I turned around and asked, "Andrew, what's wrong?" ”

"Orders have come from above."

"How do you know?"

"Anthony said it to our chief centurion Guy in the back, which I overheard as I passed by." Andrew looked me in the eye and it didn't look like a lie.

"Oh," my interest struck me, and I guess that was probably an explanation of why no orders were given in the middle of the battle. Or something else, I didn't speak, just looked at Andrew quietly, waiting for his next words.

"Listen, Luga, our attack today, no, it should be said that the attack of the Burgundians is a temptation."

"Temptation?" I repeated, thinking of the Burgundian cavalry that led the charge in this mass of smoke, and the Burgundian infantry that followed the swarm, which was a temptation, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was an all-out attack. This thing got into Anthony's mouth and turned out to be a tentative attack?

"Oh, Luga, don't look at me with such a frown." Andrew could see the uncanny meaning in my expression. He then explained to me: "I have heard from Antony that Marshal Aetius has recruited a number of Germanic mercenaries with the intention of ending the war with the Burgundians before winter comes. ”

Then I looked up at the sky and said to Andrew: "It's a crisp autumn, and now that winter is not a few days away, and this Burgundian is not one of those soldiers. If such a big city eats in a day, do we still want to go up? ”

"No, no, no, after three days, we won't be there, we'll just wait and see."

Andrew's words gave me a sigh of relief, and at least let me know that I don't need to be on that nightmare battlefield next time.

Back at their camp, several wounded soldiers were sitting at the camp gate, and their mutilated bodies with missing arms and legs made it impossible for them to return to the camp even if they were fully recovered, so they were wounded and discharged early. I walked past them, and they looked up at me, and there were two clear tear streaks on their bloodied face. A military doctor bandaged them one by one, and even so, the danger period was far from over, and the next wound infection would kill them.

"Blis," I whispered to my trumpeter, "these people, do they have any arrangements after retirement?" ”

"This, it should be able to find them a piece of land in their hometown to cultivate, and this is their only destination." Bliss said from behind me.

"How can they farm again when they are already disabled?" I don't understand.

"This is the rule that has been in place for hundreds of years," replied Bliss calmly, as if it were a custom, a habit, a culture, "sir, know that land is not available to a Roman citizen, and that the laws of the empire will guarantee the sanctity of the land they have acquired. ”

"That's a good place to be, isn't it?" I nodded slightly, and said, "I hope they can survive on that bit of land, on their mutilated bodies, and it is better to get a wife to serve them, rather than going to the tavern to exchange land for wine." ”