The Roman soldiers began to get down on one knee, not asking for surrender, but performing a prayer ritual. When they prayed, they sang a longer song or prayer, and they didn't understand what it meant, but it had an ancient charm.

In fact, for a long time, the Chinese army also had prayer ceremonies before the war, and would also sing poems full of ancient charm as prayers. But since entering the Warring States period, China can no longer see the pre-war prayers.

Pre-war prayer is a classical act, and it was the land of China that took the lead in ending the "classical era", but whether it is Central Asia, Europa, or even the Americas, their "classical age" has been continuing, and there are still pre-war prayers in some places even in the 22nd century AD.

When the Romans had finished their prayers, they shouted something in unison and struck their shields.

"You can see that Rome is a country with a long history." Donde said to his companions: "Only a country with a long history can have such a habit. In addition, of course, there needs to be civilization. ”

Whether they understood it or not, some of them nodded, and then looked at their own cavalry, which had slowly accelerated.

Although it was only a cavalryman with a front vest, the movement was still quite loud when the cavalry ran, and in the sound of heavy horse hooves, the knights on horseback were swaying with the bumps of the horses, and their eyes behind the double armor were fixed on the Romans who had already reacted in front of them.

The Romans had only a dozen cavalry, and they placed them on the left and right flanks.

After the cavalry on the Imperial side charged, the Roman cavalry soon swam as well, the heavy infantry in the middle set up a shield wall, and then some of the Roman infantry without shields were retreating, they were holding javelins that could accelerate at any time, and then threw their javelins.

"I'll just say, that thing looks very strange, it turns out to be like a Baiyue people's throwing gun!" Tang De had participated in more than one Battle of Baiyue, and he knew the power of throwing a gun.

What were the three main ranged attacks of the Roman legions? It's throwing guns, scavenging stones, and stone cannons. On the contrary, the use of bows and arrows was relatively rare, and it was generally the subordinate allies who acted as archers, and the Romans themselves as the main force in melee combat.

The Imperial cavalry, which was picking up speed, slowly turned into a sharp formation, and they actually placed their mounted guns in the special card slots, and then held the crossbows. With a loud shout, they gave priority to the Roman cavalry on the left and right flanks to fire crossbow arrows, the first shot only knocked over five Romans, and before they could shoot the second time, in fact, the crossbow could not do the second shot, the Roman cavalry turned their horses and ran.

"What kind of weapon was that?" Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers looked surprised: "The range is really long!" ”

Indeed, when the two sides were about 300 meters apart, the Imperial cavalry fired a powerful crossbow and showed enough accuracy that the Romans could not be surprised.

The range of the stone cannon of the Romans is four or five hundred meters, and there is no guarantee at all, they already think that the stone cannon is the longest-range weapon in the world, but the stone cannon is still large, and now it is not surprising to see that the cavalry from the Han Empire in the East can shoot so far with only such a small weapon?

"Arbalests, their weapons are called Arbalests." Apollodas explained: "That was a kind of limit in the cold weapon era of the Eastern Han Empire. The maximum range can exceed 500 meters, and the accuracy of a shot is guaranteed by a skilled crossbowman. ”

"Arbalest?" Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers glanced at the crossbow on the side of his steed after being released by the knight, and now it was shaking with the gallop. He said: "A weapon with a range of 500 meters! Its existence is a nightmare for anyone! ”

It seems that something has been left behind, Kiruslivi. Luce. Scipio. Calvers was stunned and asked, "The era of cold weapons?" Are there still thermal weapons? ”

"Yes." Apollodas was very serious, not at all like he was joking, he said: "Such a term came from the Han Empire in the East, but we have never been so clear about what it means. It was only after we had seen another weapon called flintlock pistol and artillery in the Eastern Han Empire that we knew the difference between hot weapons and cold weapons. ”

If you just listen to it, if you haven't seen it, no matter how rich your imagination is, it's always hard to imagine. Luce. Scipio. Kalfus, however, paid attention, especially when he heard that the weapon, called artillery, had a range of nearly a thousand meters.

Of the full firearms troops, only the school led by Han Xin was the only one equipped with flintlock pistols, and the rest of the Wehrmacht was only equipped with a certain number of artillery. Then it was the merchants of Parthia or Bactria who had seen Han Shin's battle with his firearms troops, and it was only possible to see from a distance that Parthia and Bactria had not tried to obtain those two weapons, but they had never been able to obtain them.

The Imperial cavalry easily did not enter within one hundred and twenty meters of the Roman main formation, they knew very well the projection limit distance of the javelin, and the long war experience made them understand that when the enemy still had cavalry, they should kill those cavalry first, as long as the enemy lost their mobile strength, those troops without mobile ability in this formation, even if their defense was strong, was just a plate of vegetables waiting to be eaten.

"They're cautious." Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers' face was actually not so good-looking, because his side had already eliminated nine cavalrymen, but the other side did not have any casualties. He turned his head to look at a middle-aged man and asked, "Ulilius, what do you think?" ”

"They are really cautious, and looking at their actions, it is clear that they are an elite team." Ulilius was a commander in the Roman legions, and he was loyal to the Calphus family, which is why he accompanied the envoys. "Maybe this contest will end with the opponent winning, but there will be no losses in our own heavy infantry," he said. ”

Ulilius would have made such a judgment because the Imperial cavalry had never attempted to attack the heavy infantry of the Roman army.

The Roman infantry was quite famous in the Western world, especially the Roman heavy infantry, which formed a kind of scale-like infantry phalanx, and there was no record of being broken by the enemy.

In fact, the protection of the Roman heavy infantry is really too perverted, they are wearing three layers of armor, the innermost layer is the ring armor, the second layer is a soft leather armor, the outermost layer is hard leather armor, there is almost no metal armor, in fact, the protection effect is really quite good, especially for the chopping weapon has stronger protection.

There were still six Roman cavalry, but they had retreated back into their camp, and the knights of the empire were pulling away, wringing the roulette wheel as they cruised and cruised, winding the crossbows.

"Their crossbow bolts won't do anything to us." Ullius said: "Our shield wall ......"

On the other side, the knights of the empire fired crossbow arrows when they reached a hundred and fifty meters, and the sound of breaking through the air whistled towards the main formation of the Romans, and the arrows nailed to the tarot shield made a crisp sound, and most of the crossbow arrows were staring at the shield and shaking their tails. A very small part of the tarot shield was shot, but the penetration power did not have much momentum when the shield was broken, and it only touched the heavy armor of the Romans, scraped a white mark and fell to the ground.

"At such a distance, you can still shoot through the shield?" Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers looked surprised, then turned to longing: "That weapon called a crossbow...... We need to get it! ”

The Imperial cavalry repeatedly reduced their speed, they repeatedly reloaded their crossbow arrows, and then fired at the Romans, going back and forth almost twenty times, and the Romans were killed and wounded.

"What a boring battle." Donde yawned and said, "Do those Romans think we're going to be stupid to attack?" ”

Wu Shao shook his head and said, "Look, they're already making a new reaction. ”

The Romans did have a new reaction, a Roman with a brass trumpet sounded a crisp trumpet, and the Roman heavy infantry began to dismantle their shields, forming an inverted "U" formation, shouting slogans in unison, moving forward step by step, poking the ground with their shields with each move.

As spectators, Parthians and Bactrians had different reactions.

The Parthians were actually a country with a large number of cavalry troops, and they were trying to watch the tactics of the imperial cavalry, apparently trying to learn something they didn't understand.

The Bactrians were a country with a large number of infantry, and they also used heavy infantry as the main force of the army, and there were some similarities with the Romans in their tactics.

In fact, the tactics of the Romans and the Greeks are the same in many places, and they even have a lot of similarities in the style of the army's armor, such as wearing skirts and armor......

The Imperial cavalry moved unhurriedly and fired continuously, much to the frustration of the Romans.

In fact, the most helpless thing for the infantry against the cavalry is the difference in speed, if the cavalry has a long-range attack weapon that surpasses the infantry, then the infantry will be even more depressed.

In the past dynasties of the Chinese dynasties, which were dominated by infantry in history, their encounters were actually quite good, at least there were long-range shooting weapons such as crossbows that could effectively kill, but it was very difficult to win a big victory.

The Romans did not have long-range weapons that had a range greater than the crossbows, and they could only endure the crossbow arrows fired by the imperial cavalry from a distance, and the crossbow arrows may have been fired many times without causing any casualties, but they were only passively beaten without effective means to fight back, which made people really too aggrieved.

It may be that it is really aggrieved to a certain extent, and it may be the first time that the imperial cavalry approached the Romans within a hundred meters, and the Romans who saw the imperial cavalry winding up again, the Roman shield wall suddenly cracked as they advanced, and twenty light infantry armed with javelins ran out of the shield defense circle.

Seeing that the Romans had come out of the defensive circle, the imperial cavalry did not drive their horses away, they seemed to have been waiting for this moment for a long time, and carried out the necessary dispersal amid the whistling.

Roughly as the Imperial cavalry divided the gap wider, the Roman javelinmen threw it, and after throwing the first javelin, they continued to throw the second, and then turned and ran to the left and right sides of the formation.

The Roman javelin was a spear about two meters long, with a metal spearhead at the top, and the rest was unknown what kind of wood it was.

The javelins that were thrown would flutter in flight with their long bodies, in a curvilinear way, and they would be thrown from a distance of about eighty meters, because they were not flying very fast, and they did not hit at all.

When the Imperial cavalry marching towards the Roman main formation approached sixty meters, the Roman javelinmen had already retracted into their main formation again, because the Imperial cavalry was close enough to the Romans, and the Roman main formation threw javelins again.

"Psychotics will attack the heavy infantry with shields." Don De watched the brothers pull away again unscathed, and once again said in a very boring tone: "I have found out that the Romans did not deploy archers? ”

"Their javelins are a big threat." Wu Shao's eyes stared at the javelins that did not hit the target but were almost one-third inserted into the dirt, and said: "Because of the small number of people participating in the battle, it seems that the javelins have no effect, but once the number of people participating in the battle is large, it is impossible to have enough space to flexibly dodge the thrown javelins as now." ”

Tang De still agreed with Wu Shao's statement, and nodded: "I don't disagree." ”

On the other side, the previous scene began to be repeated on the killing field, that is, the Imperial cavalry opened the distance and fired crossbow arrows, accumulating, diffuse, and throwing shots, taking turns to change tricks, and more or less achieved some results. Then the Roman phalanx of infantry advanced slowly, enduring the few but unstoppable arrows, and marched in frustration and irritation.

"Perhaps......" said Ulilius with a slight hesitation, "we should admit defeat." ”

Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers was reluctant to say, "Their arrows will run out." ”

Ullius shook his head, "They'll be supplied, and they'll be replenished with arrows again and again. ”

"......" Kirusli Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calvers was suddenly a little stunned and said, "It's true that we don't have restrictions on not being able to get supplies. ”

Ullius no longer hesitated and said: "It is not a foolish act to admit failure, and only by admitting failure can we learn our own shortcomings." Improve yourself and then win the next time. ”

"Okay!" Ki Bru Wei. Luce. Scipio. Calphus had already looked at the Parthians and Bactrians, and just as he was about to speak, he saw their eyes widen, and he couldn't help but turn his head to look in the direction, and when he saw the picture, he muttered: "They actually charged?" ”

Yes, the Imperial cavalry charged, with a round shield in one hand and a mounted spear in the other, and were charging to the sound of horses' hooves. (To be continued.) )