The two sides formed a formation near Fort Adrian. Then a terrifying battle broke out. Celtic and Norman troops occupied several higher hills. However, Artoria did not rely on these hilly terrain, and used longbows, heavy crossbows and artillery to fight in a defensive posture.

Opposite Artoria, there is a stable and unchanging heavy infantry phalanx of the Romans. Four regular legions and eleven local garrisons were arranged into three-layer and stable Roman phalanx. They took Roman heavy infantry as the backbone, and the garrisons of the garrisons as the main force. They were paired with Trabisson archers and dismounted Seljuk Turkic cavalry archers. At the same time, they were equipped with more hot-for-nosed and stone-populated soldiers, making the long-range power of the Roman phalanx stronger.

Lili Annu seemed to want to use such tactics to fight against Norman and Celtic's long-range advantage.

At the same time, she gathered the Eastern Roman lancers of each legion, arranged on the right wing of the army, a high hill. She ordered these lancers to be on standby at any time to attack the Norman flanks. In addition, a group of Minotaurs, some guard heavy cavalry, iron armored paladins and Argontopuri heavy cavalry were also organized by her, and they were put into the battlefield as a force for strong attack.

On the other side of the Roman army, the left wing was about 30,000 mercenaries. Those mercenaries from Europe and Arabia were placed here. Lili Annu was not optimistic about the combat effectiveness of these mercenaries. Their only purpose of existence was to restrain the Celtic army on this side.

The number of troops of Lili Annu was more than three times that of Artoria. Therefore, Lili Annu was able to complete a wider lineup with more troops, and she divided the troops into these three parts. Similar to the previous battle between Egil and Hungaryat. She wanted to give full play to the advantage of numbers so that she could defeat the enemy in terms of formation width and thus surrounded the Celtic army and achieve tactical purposes.

However, what Lili Annu faced was not those Balkan mountain people with poor equipment and poor training. Instead, they had undergone rigorous training and were completely equivalent to the Norman Empire in terms of equipment, as well as the fierce Norman Hussars and well-trained Eastern European horse-riding militias.

In recent years, the Celtic Army has completed large-scale dress-ups. Whether it is armor or weapon styles, they are consistent with the Norman Army. Without looking at their hood, shield badges and flags, they cannot be distinguished from the Norman soldiers. This has further increased the combat effectiveness of the Celtic Army, and even reached a point where it is no different from the ordinary Norman Army.

The time was April 2, 1014 AD. It was around nine o'clock in the morning. Shortly after the troops on both sides had breakfast, the battle began.

At the first moment of the battle, Artoria and Lili Annu issued such an order almost at the same time: "Forward!" Whether it is the side with the dominant numbers or the side with the absolute disadvantage, they all adopted the tactic of strong attack. It seems that neither the two female commanders want to show any weakness in front of their opponents.

Although Egil equipped Artoria's army with twenty twenty twenty four-pound infantry cannons, which was a gorgeous artillery fire. However, it seemed that Artoria had no intention of using these artillery. She completely put these artillery into her barracks and used them as more advanced stone casters rather than field equipment. Compared with those high-tech equipment, the queen believed more, and the personal bravery of her soldiers and the great sword in her hand.

"crossbow!"

When the infantry phalanx of the main forces of both sides marched to a distance of 260 meters from each other, the Celtic army stopped moving forward. The thousand Celtic heavy crossbows in the front row were equipped with three-quarter plate armor, and the heavy pulley crossbows were aimed at the Romans. The Romans who were still moving forward were not too slow.

It was like thousands of years ago when the Roman Empire and Gaul, the Spanish, Celtic and Germanic peoples fought. The proud Roman soldiers, facing the roar and charge of the barbarian soldiers, still slowly took uniform steps and advanced in square arrays. That calm and that momentum. They were completely mocking: We are civilized people, you are barbarians.

However, today is different from the past. When the Romans - or more precisely, the Greeks, were still moving forward at such a leisurely pace, they were not the barbarian tomahawks, but the Norman crossbows!

More than two hundred meters away, even the Trabisson archers who use compound bows cannot shoot deadly arrows. However, the Norman's heavy crossbow can already penetrate the heavy chain armor within this distance!

Crossbows, such as the product of advanced technology, were once one of the secret weapons of the Roman Empire. At this moment, it appeared in the hands of Celtic descendants who were regarded as barbaric by the Greeks. This has to be said to be a huge irony. If anything is more ironic than this, then it is the lethality caused by these crossbowmen!

On the front, the iron-armored paladins wearing three layers of heavy armor were not afraid. However, the guard heavy cavalry wearing only a single layer of heavy scales and the Argontopuri heavy cavalry in the reserve officers' regiment suffered a great loss when facing the Norman heavy crossbow! The heavy scale armor that was originally leaned on as a barrier could not stop the crossbow arrows pushed by mechanical force! The huge thrust even made them fall directly from the mount. It was as if someone was hitting them with a warhammer, and the screams came from afar!

And a little lucky, between the armored paladins and other heavy cavalry, are the Minotaus Minotaurs, who were also vanguarded. Although their skin is amazing, it cannot completely offset the lethality of the Norman crossbow arrows. However, these trolls with rough flesh are much more tenacious than humans. The fatal damage to ordinary humans is just a small matter that is irrelevant to them. Unless they shoot in the head and directly penetrate it, otherwise it would be useless.

The trolls were indeed severely hurt by the crossbow arrows. However, this severe pain in turn also pricked their wildness. They roared and pulled out the crossbow arrows with one hand. They didn't care at all that such a simple and crude treatment would cause the consequences of the deterioration of the wound. They also ignored the blood that kept sprung out from the wound and began to charge towards the Normans.

"What a bunch of monsters..."

After seeing the performance of the Minotaurs, both Artorian and Lili Annu had such ideas. These powerful soldiers who are powerful enough to intimidate all soldiers have the value of their existence. Although they consume more than ten times the military rations and materials of normal soldiers, especially meat. However, after seeing their violent performance on the battlefield, all commanders will feel that they are worth it.

"Hmph... order the forwards to speed up!" After seeing the Minotaurs' brains getting hot and charging without permission, Lili Annu snorted lightly to express dissatisfaction. Of course, in fact, the queen also knew that when the opponent's long-range firepower was the only way to attack quickly. So she also agreed to the Minotaurs' approach. At the same time, she issued an order to speed up the entire army and get in touch with her opponent earlier.

When seeing hundreds of monsters running towards their positions, Artoria also felt a little pressure. In the Second Battle of Budapest, Artoria was fighting the Ross in the north. So she did not see the performance of these monsters. Although I heard many people talk about it later. However, the second-hand information is not as shocking as I saw with my own eyes.

However, the shock lasted for a short time. After only a few seconds, Artoria returned to normal. She quickly issued the following command:

"Continue shooting, shoot those monsters' eyeballs! Fire sought after and super spear ready!"

The Celtic army, which received the order from Artolia, immediately entered combat readiness. After seeing the strength of the Norman phalanx infantry, Artolia also decided to follow the Norman new army to transform her troops. She changed all the heavy shield spearmen that occupied about half of the Celtic army to super spearmen. They also equipped them with new and large hand gun musketeers.

This group of new armies was equipped with three-quarters of plate armor. The Welsh Red Dragon flag was given. Although it was quite similar to the Norman phalanx infantry in training, it added a little traditional attack spirit of Scottish pyramids. Artoria required these super pyramids to be able to lift up super pyramids when necessary and launch a charge against the enemy. Regardless of whether this tactic is suitable or not. However, at least, the dense super pyramids and heavy crossbows and muskets that cooperate with them will have a very good effect in the cluster charge against the heavy cavalry and Minotaurs on the front of the Romans.

As the Celtic heavy crossbowmen continued to shoot, the roar of some of the Minotaurs finally turned into wail. If one or two crossbow arrows didn't work, then use ten or twenty. As they got closer, the power of the crossbow naturally became greater and greater. When the enemy's forward approached less than one hundred meters, even the iron armored paladins wearing three or even four layers of armor began to become unbearable.

"Hmph...it's still useful." Although I don't like crossbows, this kind of ranged weapon that is similar to cheating. But at this time, Artoria had to admit that these cheating evil weapons are indeed very useful... (To be continued)
Chapter completed!