On July 17, 183, Wang Jun arrived in batches in the area around Rahne on the east coast of Ireland with the assistance of the Ninth Army, the Second Army, the Fourth Army, and the Cavalry Corps directly under the Navy.

There was no resistance at the time of the landing, not even a local figure to be exact.

The population of this era can be described as scarce compared to that of later generations; On the other hand, the natural environment is quite intact; Wang Jun once had a plan to travel to Ireland, but because of the shyness of the pocket, he was unable to make the trip, and this time he landed on the land of Ireland thousands of years ago as a conqueror, and he felt that it was quite a lot!

Have you ever been to a place where the grass is green, the sun is shining, and the breeze is gentle, but the temperature is only 15 degrees Celsius?

Come to Ireland!

The temperature here is around 15 degrees Celsius throughout the summer, which is extremely refreshing.

With the exception of the coastal highlands, the whole of Ireland is made up of plains and hills, rich in pastures, and huge natural pastures, which are definitely a paradise for cavalry regiments.

Ireland was now controlled by the Celts, and Wang Jun was no stranger to the Celts; The Welsh region of western Britain was home to many Celts, but they were either assimilated into the Roman Empire or became slaves of Roman citizens.

The Celts were generally tall and strong, with long heads and white skin, blond hair and blue eyes, impulsive and violent surnames, lack of organizational surnames, and were proud of victory and discouraged by defeat; Compared to the Pictts, the Celts are not difficult to defeat, as long as you can resist their charge of ignoring their own lives.

That being said, you still have to try it to find out.

Immediately after the landing, the corps advanced westward, and after advancing about 20 kilometers, the royal army ordered to camp on the spot; Wood has satellites, wood has GPS, and the troops advance by their eyes and command by horns, just such a condition; The power of the Roman Empire never reached Ireland, and if it were not for the royal army, the Roman Empire would not have been able to set foot on this land from its birth to its demise; Because of the little knowledge and the army has just arrived in a strange place, it is the best policy to fight steadily.

The 2nd Corps was to the west, the 4th Corps was to the east, and the Cavalry Corps was to the south, and the three corps worked together to begin the construction of temporary camps; The temporary camp of nearly 30,000 people is not too complicated to build, and the main structure is to build a fence around the tent and dig a circle of trenches; The most time-consuming is the battlements with the fence as the outer wall, and the quality and persistence of the Roman army in camping made the royal army breathtaking, no wonder the Roman Empire can be inherited for thousands of years in history.

Clarke, the general of the Second Legion, had good luck today and fired the first shot to conquer Ireland, well, Clark had a gun, to be precise, Clark cut the first axe.

Clark, a general who mingled with the soldiers, was chopping wood with a group of soldiers in the woods at the edge of the camp; Clark was laughing with the soldier in charge of the guard not far away, carrying an axe, when he suddenly saw a Celtic rush out of the woods behind the soldier.

There was no wine, no greeting, and no beautiful women, and the way the shouting Celts welcomed the Romans was to kill; No sooner had Clark reminded his soldier than the spear thrown by the Celts plunged into the soldier who had turned his head to talk to Clark; Suddenly, Clark picked up the dagger he had placed on the ground, and swung his axe at one of the fiercest Celts; The nearby Roman soldiers took up their arms and engaged in a scuffle with the onrushing Celts, and among the soldiers at the edge of the woods, they immediately separated and rushed towards the camp under construction.

The Roman army reacted quickly, and in less than fifteen minutes a whole brigade of fully armed soldiers arrived at the edge of the woods, while two more brigades were trotting forward; The construction of the camp has been stopped, the three legions have entered a state of combat readiness, and the cavalry corps is fully armed and mounted on horseback, if it is not for the fact that the incident occurred in the woods, it must have been the cavalry corps of Ota who will be the first to gallop to help.

The soldiers who arrived quickly in full gear were stunned to find that the battle in the forest was over, and they could only help clean up the battlefield; Clark was sitting on a tree stump panting, his blood-stained axe was thrown at his feet, and on the ground of the woods lay a hundred corpses, most of them not soldiers of the Second Legion, but Celts.

I don't know if the Celtics are overconfident, or if Clark and others are not tall and make the other party mistakenly think that they are easy to bully; The Celts who launched the raid were only 105 men, and there was a brigade of soldiers who could go to the edge of the woods to cut wood, and with General Clark's words, there were 601 men!

A person can be proud, but not arrogant; These Celts, because they thought too much of themselves, were wiped out in the woods they were familiar with; The little boss whose head was split off by Clarke's axe couldn't figure out how this short man's fighting skills could be better than his own. The Celts were generally nearly a head taller than the Roman soldiers, and perhaps a big guy like Hogg, the captain of the royal guard, could compete with each other in size; However, the battle was not necessarily determined by height, and the soldiers of the Second Legion lost less than 20 men, of course, the disparity between the forces of the two sides reached a 6:1 ratio, and if it were not for the Celts playing the raid, the soldiers of the Second Legion would have lost even less.

Brave and brainless!

After understanding the situation, Wang Jun had the first judgment about the local Celts.

There are more than 100 people, and the opponent who dares to surprise more than 600 people should be regarded as very courageous;

However, with more than 100 unprofessional soldiers with backward weapons, more than 600 well-armed professional soldiers who went to raid in broad daylight, not to mention that there are tens of thousands of professional soldiers in the vicinity who can arrive at any time, this is definitely the brain-dead of the brain-dead!

That night, the soldiers in charge of the temporary camp were vigilant in order to be ready for a sudden attack; And the newly formed scout squadrons of each regiment took turns to send men and set up secret posts on the periphery of the camp.

The Celts did not reappear, and the king's expeditionary army survived the first night in Ireland in peace; Comrade Wang Jun slept very soundly, and according to the oral contract between the two parties, he absorbed a lot of spiritual power and sent Wang Jun into a deep sleep; At this time, Wang Jun probably wouldn't wake up when thunder hit his ears.

Belfast, the seat of the largest Celtic tribe in northeastern Ireland and the most prosperous market in Northern Ireland, is only more than 20 kilometers away from where the royal army camped.

Even though it was the middle of the night, the entire Belfast town was still brightly lit, and countless figures were busy in the firelight; Around Belfast, more than a dozen fire dragons of different sizes are converging on Belfast from all directions.

The news came from the north of Belfast this evening to the displeasure of Teward, the chief of the Bretto tribe; It is said that the Roman army appeared near Baleclair to the north and defeated the warriors sent by the Katua tribe, and his wife was the daughter of the leader of the Katua tribe.

According to several Catua warriors who fled back at the opportune moment, the Roman soldiers, although they were not tall and "not very good" in combat, were large in number and well-armed, which is why the "warriors" of their own tribe were defeated. The population of the Katuya tribe is small, with 317 households and a total population of just over 2,000; The loss of a hundred warriors is equivalent to nearly half of the combat power of the tribe. The Katuya tribe hurriedly sent warriors to the surrounding tribes to report the news, and moved the tribe to Belfast for refuge; Hundreds of people, driving thousands of cattle and sheep to travel at night, not to mention any efficiency, fortunately on the plain, the terrain is flat, and there is not much difficulty; Looking down from Belfast, the fire dragon that is slowly approaching the town due north is the Katuya tribe that has taken refuge.

Teward can become the leader of the most powerful tribe in this area, in addition to being brave, he naturally has some brains.

Upon hearing the news from the messenger sent by his father-in-law, Teward immediately sent men in the east, west, and south directions of Belfast to gather warriors from other nearby tribes in these three directions; And near the north of Belfast, in addition to the Katuya tribe, there are 5 tribes, and my father-in-law has already arranged for someone to report the news, so he doesn't have to send people anymore, I believe these 5 tribes also know what to do.

At dawn, Belfast gathers a large number of hardcover men armed with various weapons; Sixteen tribes sent reinforcements from the surrounding area, and together with the Bretto tribe, a total of nearly 8,000 warriors were gathered; Because of the suddenness of the incident, and for self-preservation, the tribes in the north sent only half of their warriors; The tribes in other directions expected the coalition forces to quickly crush the enemy and prevent their own tribes from being attacked outside the village and almost overwhelming.

The Celts living in Ireland relied on huge natural pastures, mainly by grazing for their livelihood, and almost everyone was a "cavalry"; However, because of the lack of stirrups, and the lack of backward weapons, etc., in most cases, the so-called "cavalry" of the Celts is only the "cavalry" when marching, and when fighting, most of the tall and burly Celts still dismount and fight on foot.

Even so, the Celts' combat effectiveness was somewhat improved; Not only is the mobility strong, but the physical consumption of the soldiers during the march is much less than that of the infantry, and the distance of dozens of kilometers is smaller, and the soldiers can still have some physical strength after rushing to the battlefield, and they can immediately enter the battle with little intensity.

If the king's army relied solely on hoplites against the Celts, the risk would still be great.

With more than 4,000 Celtic warriors, Teward hid in the woods 200 meters east of the Newtown Abi Tribal camp, with Mount Gemre behind him, which reached a height of only 300 meters; The camp of the Newtown Abi tribe was between Ballyclaire and Belfast, and the Roman army was bound to pass through it early this morning, so Teward decided to ambush here.

More than 3,000 other Celtic warriors, all on horseback, stayed on the side of Mount Gemre; Once Teward and the Romans were fighting, the more than 3,000 men could attack from the enemy's flank, first breaking up their ranks, after which the warriors dismounted and fought.

Because of limited intelligence, Teward did not know the specific number of Roman troops, but estimated that there would be a little more than his own people, but he carried out his own surprise attacks, and the other side was small, with his own bravery and the fearless courage of Celtic warriors, it was certainly not a problem to defeat these invaders.

After all, the leader of the tribe is not a professional soldier, and he can summon the warriors of nearby tribes in a short period of time and set up an ambush, and ambush the royal army in the middle of the road, which is already a leader with some ability; Fighting between Irish tribes was basically rare a few decades ago, and for more than three hundred years, there has never been a foreign invasion, and no one in Ireland has experience in how to fight a war of scale.

It didn't take long for dozens of Roman cavalry to appear in the sight of Teward and others, and the Romans came!

Wang Jun leisurely rode on a white horse without half a motley hair, followed by this black shiny war horse.

In terms of horsemanship, Wang Jun has reached the level of mastery, and in the entire cavalry corps, Wang Jun said that he was second, and no one dared to say first. This is not because of the fear of the identity of the commander of the Wang army, the Wang army does have such a status; There may still be some officers and soldiers who have reached the level of mastery in equestrianism, but their physical surnames are far behind the royal army, and fighting on horseback requires the strength of people and the strength of horses to play together, and the result is naturally self-evident.

With the full cooperation of the British governor Jack Ace, the cavalry legion had two war horses per capita, and the royal army, who liked to ride horses, also got two good horses; One is called Xiaobai and the other is called Xiaohei, the name is indeed very earthy, but it also conforms to the characteristics of the two horses. According to Wang Jun's special requirements, the craftsmen in the army ordered him a strengthened horn bow and a "long sword" with excessive weight and length; With superhuman physical fitness, ordinary weapons can no longer meet Wang Jun's requirements.

Because of yesterday's Celtic attack, scouts were sent in all four directions of the expeditionary column, and the archers were undoubtedly the best choice for this role on the plains.

Suddenly, the line stopped.

Listening to the report of the leader of a squadron of archers, Wang Jun learned that there was a village in front of the team, but it was empty; According to the survey of the archers, the people of the village did not leave for long, and they left in a hurry.

Looking at the hill at the back of the village, Wang Jun thought about it and called several generals to explain it; The marching troops, under the command of the deputy commander Villeries and several generals, adjusted their formation slightly and continued their march forward.

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