South-west Britain, on the outskirts of the city of Gloucester

Over the past few days, the dark clouds hanging low on the edge of the sky have become more and more dull, and sometimes a cold rain has been sprinkled. There is always a smell of mildew in the cold and biting air, and even the strongest refreshing mountain breeze can hardly dispel it completely.

The mountains are shrouded in a gray mist, and the majestic mountains, forgotten by the sun, stand eeriely in the clouds like the Titans expelled by the god Jupiter. At the foot of this majestic mountain, a steep hill sits on the edge of a fertile field, surrounded by a babbling river.

It is called Barton Hill, and in the very distant past, the Roman legions who conquered Britain established a frontier post here to defend the nearby colony of Gloucester. Later, with the advent of peace, the outpost on Mount Barton was abandoned for a time, but the sturdy stone walls still stood through the centuries. By the time of the Dark Ages, when the Anglo-Saxons invaded, the fortress was reactivated.

Therefore, after the defeat in the field battle and the cutting off of the back road, the Emperor Romulus was able to flee here with a small group of defeated soldiers, trying to defend to the death.

At this moment, the Anglo Five-Nation Alliance, which had attacked from the northeast, had repeatedly besieged the fortress on Mount Barton and the Emperor Romulus who was trapped there, but due to the poor terrain, there was no progress.

Overall, Mount Barton is a small hill surrounded on three sides by rivers, like a small peninsula. On a narrow platform at the top of a hill. A stone Roman-style fortress can be faintly seen, and the hill is steep from the platform on which the fortress sits to the bottom of the mountain. And it is full of scattered terraces and bushes, and almost only goats can jump on it.

Obviously, the terrain was very defensive—the bottom of the mountain was muddy tidal swamps, and the mountains were steep and steep cliffs. The hill is mostly surrounded by steep cliffs, except for a rugged and narrow road that leads to the top. The attackers had to follow the path to wind their way up, while the defenders could rely on terraces and terraces to block the attack.

A bunker stronghold like this that towers over the top of a mountain. In the age of cold weapons, it was even more difficult to attack than the large cities with deep ditches and fortifications - the mountains were so steep that the cavalry could not rush up at all; The mountain road is narrow, and it is impossible to put in heavy troops at one time; The terrain is rugged. Trebuchets and siege towers also became ornaments.

When Spartacus launched a slave revolt and fled to Vesuvius with more than 60 people, the Roman army that surrounded them did not dare to risk attacking the mountain, preferring to camp patiently and besiege them. I want Spartacus and the others to starve to death. Zuihou was escaped by Spartacus from a cliff with a rope ladder.

At the height of the Roman Empire, when the Jews revolted, the Roman legions marched to Palestine to quell the rebellion. As a result, 900 Jews defended the fortress of Masada, and tens of thousands of regular Roman troops could not attack it for a long time, because the fortress was located on the top of a dangerous peak, the Roman legions could not use their troops, and all siege equipment was useless. After the failure of several "special operations" for rock climbing raids, the rebel Roman legions were forced by strict orders from their superiors. I had to use the ancient Egyptians' method of pulling stones to build the pyramids, which took a full year. Braving the Jews' stone bullets and bows and arrows, I don't know how much sacrifice was paid, I don't know how much it took to pile up a wide dirt slope in front of the cliff and push the huge and heavy siege towers up......

Therefore, the current barbarian coalition army is also helpless in the face of such a natural fortress that is difficult to attack. On the steep slopes of Barton Mountain, there are already many blood-stained fragments of clothing and armor, as well as exposed bones, which make people shudder to look at it.

-- Such a steep terrain that no number of warriors can rush forward; And the continuous cold autumn rain also made the fire attack tactics a joke; As for a long siege and waiting for the defenders to run out of food, it was also undesirable - because the Anglo coalition was this time alone and forced its way into the heart of the Celtic Shili range, and if it dragged on for a long time, the Celtic reinforcements would be in great danger.

After some deliberation, the Anglo kings could only organize superior forces and try to consume the Romans by means of wheel warfare.

As a result, this small hill has become a sad place for the Anglo coalition army to be strewn with corpses and rivers of blood in the past few days.

At this moment, in the misty smoke and rain, the Anglo coalition attacking Mount Patton suffered another tragic defeat.

Hundreds of Anglo warriors roared into battle and climbed the rugged mountain roads, and the Roman emperor's imperial guard guarding the hill was naturally not willing to be killed. As the siege lasted for a long time, the Romans had few bows and arrows and javelins left to waste them at will, so they whirled and swirled the ropes while pushing the stones and roots up the mountain path desperately.

Having to fight in dense formations on narrow mountain roads, the Anglo warriors at the forefront carried large and bulky shields, some wearing heavy armor captured from the Romans and Celts. While this sacrifices speed severely, it greatly reduces the damage caused by a rock strike on a mountain. Unfortunately, the mountain was steep and the roads were narrow, and the soldiers who were attacking the top of the hill had to carry heavy ladders on their shoulders, and they were not able to dodge at all, and at once they were so killed and wounded that they could almost throw a stone down the steep hill and roll them down the steep hill -- under the blow of the heavy boulders that fell one by one, the tightest protection was better than nothing.

Moreover, after smashing the shields of the barbarian soldiers on their heads with large stones that rolled down the mountain road, small stones like hail followed—fired by the Romans with slings, and they smashed precisely at the weak parts of the enemy that were not protected by armor and shields; Some even fell directly on their faces, causing those miserable soldiers to immediately turn into bloody people with blurred facial features, and let out bursts of heart-rending screams. Or simply bleed, with buzzing ears, black eyes, and weak legs. Zuihou passed out directly to the ground with a "coo-dong" sound.

Relying on the vicious tactics taught by the British at the "Carmelott" Antarctic Research Station, many of the sharp stones thrown by the Roman emperor's imperial guard were deliberately soaked in foul-smelling feces. Once these sharp stones contaminated with N kinds of germs cut through the skin, the fate is simply unimaginable - according to the health and medical conditions of the West Shijie in this era, which are almost extremely backward, even if the injuries they suffer for a while are not fatal, it is very likely that they will soon become inflamed due to wound infection and will not receive any anti-inflammatory drugs. In the end, he could only die of festering all over his body in extreme pain.

The druid's jumping god Jishu may have a good idea of how to curse people to death, but if they want to save the wounded. But I'm completely blind.

In short, this kind of embarrassment of being beaten and not fighting back is obviously a test of people's will. While enduring such a tragic and fatal blow overhead, he continued to wail and fall from the badly damaged mountain road. Soon. The attackers' ranks could not support it, and even the bravest Anglos began to turn and flee, and the entire attacking formation, which had been quite orderly, suddenly became extremely disordered.

The barbarian chieftains, who had been accompanying them in the war, hurried after them, shouting with all their might, pleading and cursing at their soldiers, reminding them of the honor of their tribe, and hoping that they would endure the rain of falling stones. Climb to the top of the mountain in one go.

But as the vanguard at the top came under increasing intensity, only a handful of them paused for a moment. Seeing that the other partners had no intention of stopping, they were naturally not willing to suffer losses and die, and soon squeezed more and more eagerly into the ranks of Xiangxia noodles.

This threw the whole team into disarray, and the chaotic squeeze began, and the soldiers who had been defeated in front completely lost their order, squeezed their comrades who had not yet been attacked by stones to the ground, and then stepped on the bodies of the fallen men, and fled with all their might. The Anglo chieftain had to guard the entrance to the mountain road himself, slashing with whips and swords, forcing his soldiers to turn around and attack again.

This time, they ignored the overwhelming stones, and ignored the bitter cries of their wounded companions around them, and just buried their heads in desperate climbing, one person in front was wounded and fell, and two people in the back immediately shouted to make up for it, and their offensive was like a surging sea, wave after wave. The front wave had just collapsed under the resistance of the defenders, and the next wave was immediately surging again.

Thus, the frightened attackers, stamping on the corpses of countless of their comrades, finally advanced along the mountain path to the fortress gates, only to be immediately driven out of the fortress by a small group of Roman warriors in leather armor, waving a variety of weapons and leaping along the rocky mountain road...... After a hand-to-hand encounter, unable to deploy superior forces and not as good as the Romans, the Anglobarian forces were once again completely defeated, and they all turned around and ran down the hill. The Romans, who had been trapped in the fortress for many days, were still a little unsatisfied, and actually took advantage of the victory to rush out of the fortress, chasing the enemy's tail and rushing out - accompanied by the sound of loud military trumpets, their mouths shouted "ho, ho", and brandished spears, short swords, sickles, and even captured maces, and other chaotic weapons, and agile leaped forward and pursued on the mountain road covered with stones, thorns, and corpses, constantly killing and injuring the defeated soldiers who had fallen behind, thus causing chaos and collapse on a larger scale.

From time to time, some unwieldy Anglo warrior slipped on a muddy hillside and couldn't get up for a long time, and then the pursuing Roman soldiers cut off their heads, grabbed the bloody hair and carried it in their hands, and then someone excitedly stripped the armor of the dead from the corpse.

Indeed, some of the barbarian warriors who had fled stopped at the slightly open mountainside, tried to spread their forces and turn to resist, but the roaring stones took the Anglo warriors as targets: the ropes of the catapults shook over the heads of the enemy, drawing circles as if they were hunting a deer in the mountains, and threw deadly sharp stones at them......

As a result, the little morale that had been brought up with great difficulty disappeared in an instant, and the terrible rout continued further.

In the end, the entire Anglo army fell into a chaotic push, and the defeated soldiers in front of them, frightened by the tragic sacrifice, actually squeezed their comrades behind them to the ground, and fled with their fallen bodies.

Although the barbarian king once again supervised the warband, striking the soldiers who had just fled with whips and swords. Trying to force them to turn around and go back to fighting. But even if the routs really had the intention, it would not have been possible to stop at once, for those fleeing forward were pushed by those behind, and those behind were pushed by those further behind. The Zuihou men were desperately driven away by the Romans with various weapons......

To make matters worse, the extremely steep and precipitous mountain road made them run faster and faster downhill...... Zuihou, everyone was forced to fall like an avalanche, and fled until they reached the muddy river beach without stopping their legs and feet, trampling on them along the way and killing countless people.

As if wanting to embarrass the barbarians more, the Roman soldiers who rushed out of the fortress did not accept it. Instead, he continued to stand at the foot of the mountain, flapping his shield with his short sword to show off his might, and blurted out a series of extremely ugly foul words.

The Angles on the other side did not understand much of the Latin of the Romans. But he also knew that there would be no good words, and he was immediately angry. A group of tall, tattooed men, all of whom had no armor or even a coat, roared out and rushed out. Simply topless in the cold rain. Showing all the muscles and tattoos. These brawny men, spear in one hand and javelin in the other, galloped forward, long blond hair fluttering behind them like dazzling little yellow dots moving across the muddy dead grass. They rushed for a moment, then suddenly stopped, and after a loud roar, the javelins in their hands were thrown out in unison. Then he continued to charge with a short spear.

This dense array of javelins killed an unlucky Roman soldier in an instant, and the ferocious charge that followed made the emperor's imperial guard panic for a moment. But. They soon found that the enemy was still some distance away from them, and once again calmed down, and under the command of Emperor Romulus, who was dressed in bright red robes, they slowly retreated up the hill and attacked the poorly equipped men with catapults. In just a few moments, the shirtless men who rushed to the front fell down, and the blood flowed from their heads and bodies, staining the ground beneath them red.

But these guys are indeed brave, no matter what the injury is, no one snorts, but seems to be inspired to be wild, and they rush more and more bravely. A Roman soldier who slipped and fell behind during the retreat was swarmed by them, slashing and stabbing with spears, and became a pile of rotten meat...... The Romans retreated while throwing stones, and it was not long before they retreated into the fortress again, and then forced their opponents down the hill with huge rolling stones.

Emperor Romulus was relieved to see these strong, bare-chested men wielding blood-dripping spear tips and shouting at himself as they drifted away from the foot of Barton Hill - it looked like he should be able to survive again, at least today.

After a few more days, reinforcements from the various Celtic allies will arrive, and the Anglobarians will have to retreat once more.

Defensive counterattacks like this have broken out six or seven times in the past ten years, and the Emperor is almost familiar with them.

He made a rough estimate that the Angles had lost at least sixty warriors in the fierce battle just now, while the Romans on the hill had paid the price of only three killed. This was due not only to the extremely favorable terrain, but also to the great superiority in armament.

- The swords and battle axes used by the Roman Emperor's imperial guards were obtained by some means from the "Castle of Camelot", that is, the second group of future travelers that the Emperor met, and they were not only not easy to rust, but also extremely sharp. In particular, those oddly shaped battle axes (fire axes and engineering axes) can cut through thumb-thick iron rods without collapsing. When fighting against those barbarians who were so scarce that they had to use large wooden sticks inlaid with sharp stones, the emperor's imperial guards with these "divine weapons" were naturally very advantageous.

Unfortunately, the number of these sophisticated weapons is too small, and the "Castle of Camelot" only has a small stockpile, but it does not know how to build it, and even if it is willing to help, it will not be able to provide much to the emperor. The army that Gloucester City can muster is just as insufficient, otherwise......

Emperor Romulus sighed helplessly as he fiddled with a multipurpose Swiss Army knife in his hand.

At the same time, seeing that the barbarian coalition army stopped attacking and began to retreat slowly, the Roman soldiers who had been fighting fiercely for a long time were also relieved. But a moment later, before they could catch their breath, all the people on Barton Hill froze in place:

With a loud cry full of ecstasy, layers of barbarian warriors cheered and retreated to the left and right, and a bunch of old and weak women and children tied with ropes were pushed out and knelt on this blood-soaked land, among which there were many familiar figures. Kneeling at the front of the line was a middle-aged woman who was held down, even though she was tied up with flowers at the moment, her original gorgeous clothes were stained with blood and mud, and her unkempt hair was scattered to cover half of her face, but it was still difficult to hide her luxurious and graceful bearing.

Looking at this scene, the emperor was cold for a moment - the city of Gloucester had been breached, and his queen had fallen into the hands of the barbarians!

The next moment, Emperor Romulus was even more desperate to see a barbarian warrior pour a ball from his leather bag, poke it at a slender pole, and then slowly walked to the cliff of Barton Mountain, shaking the pole in a big way to show off - it was the head of his only son!

So, after days of hard fighting, his physical strength has long been overdrawn, and he has suffered from the wind and cold because of the rain? Emperor Augustus, at last, could not hold on any longer, and his legs went limp, his eyes blackened, and he fainted at the top of Patton Hill amid the exclamations of the soldiers. (To be continued......)