Chapter 1025 Crazy Faith
The war between Rome and Parthia had begun to become frenzied, but the Roman eagle flags were still watching the fun, and only Ardashir and his men were stationed in the Zagros Mountains.
However, Temujin and Jin Wushu retreated to the rear defense zone to prevent Rome from bypassing the Zagros Mountains.
It has to be said that Ardashir was indeed worthy of the glory of the third century. He defended the mountain, and even the church believers' army had fallen into madness and could not make the Zagros defense line collapse.
Even though the Parthian Guards were not good at defense, but rangers and heavy cavalry known for their mobility and lethality, Ardashir relied on his own grasp of opportunities to harass the Roman rear while holding the defense line tightly.
Under the Zagros defense line, arrows rained down and the church barbarians attacked the Zagros defense line frantically. Even though they knew that the result of doing so would basically be death, all the church barbarians still shouted slogans and launched an attack on the Zagros defense line.
"Revenge for Pope Saint Peter!"
“Fight for the Lord!”
These two slogans drove all the barbarians crazy, to the point where even the Eagle Flag Legions of all the Roman nobles were frightened.
These legion commanders know something about the policies for reducing the number of barbarians.
Especially Africanus, commander of the Eighth Legion, and Benito, commander of the Fourteenth Legion. The more they knew, the more frightened they felt.
The corpses of the barbarians even piled up to almost one meter high on the battlefield, but the church's barbarian army seemed to feel no fear at all and continued to charge forward.
The Church seemed to be completely oblivious to the losses and launched wave after wave of counterattacks against the Zagros Line of Defense.
What’s even more terrifying is that this was just the result of one charge, while the church launched nearly three or four times.
At this moment, no one knew how long the Zagros Line of Defense could hold out, as huge crossbows had already been placed on the battle line.
Even though Parthia had created a defensive secret technique, it began to crumble. The Church had gone completely crazy and had hardly considered losses or tactics, and simply fought to the death with Parthia.
He was about to kill Ardashir and avenge St. Peter III.
If Ardashir had not led the Holy Meteoric Knights in a risky charge and destroyed most of the real equipment, the Zagros defense line would have been reduced to ruins under the bombardment of these crossbows.
However, the war has continued until now , and even Ardashir, who had made preparations early, is now exhausted both physically and mentally. More importantly, how long can this defensive secret technique last? As the backbone of Parthia, he knows this very well!
They did divide the Roman nobility and the church, but the problem is now that they really seem to be unable to defeat the church.
The original plan was to lose to the church, but the premise of losing to the church was that the entire line of defense was not broken. If they lost now, Parthia would be completely defenseless.
That would be too difficult for Parthia. It is very likely that they would not be able to even survive this wave, let alone win.
The Roman Eagle Legion also tried to bypass the Zagros Mountains from other places and enter the eastern plateau of Parthia, and the full-scale war between Rome and Parthia broke out at this time.
Although Ardashir wanted to stop this situation, he also understood that only a war across the Zagros Mountains could train the Parthian soldiers in the rear and let them understand what kind of enemy they were facing.
In this situation where Ardashir was half giving in and half being helpless, part of the Roman regular army successfully crossed the Zagros Mountains, and chaos began east of the Zagros Mountains.
However, due to the dual presence of Temujin and Jin Wushu, the chaos east of the Zagros Mountains was still under control. The 7th and 8th Eagle Flag Corps attempted to break through but were forced back.
What Ardashir doesn't understand the most now is why after the death of St. Peter III, the church not only did not become leaderless, but instead seemed to have found a backbone and began to work together.
St. Peter III and Cyprian's false intelligence led them to unleash a mad beast.
Although it was a bit difficult, the general strategic direction was still carried out according to the plan discussed by Temujin and Ardashir.
The pressure from the church was so great that Ardashir was breathless, while on the other side, Temujin stood like a solid wall blocking the Roman Eagle Legion commanders.
In this atmosphere, a group of legion commanders could not help but gather together to discuss the problem, as their current performance was really too embarrassing.
Moreover, the crazy momentum of the church made them feel uneasy.
Although the death toll of believers in the church was huge, there were many soldiers who crawled out from the pile of dead bodies under the protection of the angel army.
All of these soldiers were transformed into elite troops, and they were replenished in waves to the 15th and 16th Legions.
The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Corps not only made up for the lost manpower, but also expanded by more than two times.
In addition, a group of church reservists who were reincarnated as angel warriors flew in from the country, and the 17th, 18th and 19th legions also completed their organization.
The strength of the church is growing day by day. If they had the confidence to fight their way out of the church together before, now they really have to consider the strength of the church.
There seems to be a subtle change in the strength of both sides.
The original Eagle Flag Legion seemed to be superior to the Barbarian Legion. Even the Eagle Flag Legion on the church's side should be suppressed by them.
But the crazy war seemed to reshape the barbarians' bloodiness. Although this bloodiness was based on faith, it was equally terrifying.
Including the Second Trajan, everyone will feel extremely cautious when facing the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Legions.
Camillo, the strongest among them, was not even sure of defeating any of them.
It was a kind of hysterical madness, which even made Benito and others feel chilled to the bone.
The overall trend on the battlefield was that Rome was suppressing Parthia and had an absolute upper hand.
Although the church suffered heavy losses, the suicidal behaviors of five for one, ten for one, and twenty for one made Parthia unable to withstand it.
"What should we do next? You all know the requirements from above. Let us avoid losses and let the barbarians die!"
Africanus knocked on the table and said with a headache.
Originally, these words should not come out of the mouth of a legion commander, but he was a pure-blood, so in front of a group of Roman legion commanders with legitimate bloodlines, he was even a little outspoken.
"Africanus, be careful what you say. The higher-ups just told the church to lead the battle and we just need to provide support!" Benito corrected Africanus.
"Anyway, what should we do next!" Africanus waved his hand and asked the question again.
Benito and others are very troubled. The current situation has made them unpopular both inside and outside.
The barbarians are brave and fearless, but they, the Eagle Flag Legion, are timid and cowardly.
But an order is an order, and although Africanus's words may sound crude, they do mean what he says.
Rome just wanted these barbarians to die, but now the way they die is very different.
Originally, the barbarians had size and quality, but their morale was low, and any charge from them could cause the defeat of a barbarian army that was several times their size.
Originally, Rome was planning to use this method to send the barbarians to their deaths.
After all, many times, once a war begins to fail, the massacre cannot be stopped. Even if Parthia is unwilling to be the knife, it will never let go of the fat meat that is delivered to its doorstep.
After the previous batch of barbarians were defeated and returned, the Romans would mobilize their forces again and directly establish their supreme status in the hearts of these church believers.
By directly establishing the divine right of the monarch, the gods would become only a cultural symbol, and Rome would be the dominant force in the empire.
At that time, we can use the church to better control the barbarians, and even pull some of the church's barbarians to fight on the battlefield of Great Britain in the north.
However, everything has changed now.
The barbarians who were originally afraid of fighting have now become crazy and are not able to bear the losses.
To be honest, Benito even felt that the ordinary regular army of Rome was not as iron-blooded as these church barbarians.
Just as the Eagle Banner Legion fought for the Roman Empire, the barbarians of the church also fought for the church.
Carrying the burden of the church and the expectations of God , this is the current situation of these barbarians.
"If they really take Ardashir's head, I'm afraid some members of the Eagle Flag Legion will really have to replace their members!" Camillo said with a sneer.
The Roman Eagle Legion emphasizes the strong going up and the weak going down.
If we let these iron-blooded barbarians kill Ardashir, who knows, they might really gather some tricky legions.
By then, the weaker legions, such as the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd Eagle Flag Legions, would probably be squeezed out.
If the church controls nearly half of Rome's eagle flags, plus the huge base of barbarians and their natural connections, it is really hard to say whether Rome is Roman or barbarian.
"What should we do? Can we kill them all here?" Graz said with a sneer.
"Even if you want to do it, can you do it now?" Benito said helplessly.
The church is now a legion built with human lives, and they can no longer control it at will.
Speaking of which, if their five legions died here, the church might be able to directly establish an independent country.
The problem of the barbarians is too big to be solved, and they don't have any good solution, otherwise the upper echelons would not have secretly reduced the number of the barbarians.
The most troublesome problem is these three angel legions. The healing effect is too good. There is no way to save the dead soldiers, but as long as they can come back with a breath, most of them can be saved.
This effect of accumulating veterans, which is equivalent to a miracle, is simply speechless.
In addition, considering the current intensity of the bloody battle, I'm afraid that after the battle, there won't really be a few super elite legions that can emerge.
Just like what Han Xin said, training soldiers is useless. As long as they are sent to the battlefield a few times and survive, they will basically know everything.
The same was true of Huo Qubing back then. After one battle, his troops not only did not decrease, but increased instead. He had a large number of Huns under his command who surrendered to his power.
The will to survive will allow them to transform perfectly.
Of course, the most important thing here is the transformation of will. After the transformation of will, qualities can be supplemented later.
Now that the soldiers of the Fifteenth Legion have survived the bloody grindstone, and with the instruction of the veterans of the Fifteenth Legion, they will be able to grow and expand rapidly.
Benito and his companions were not politically gifted, so they could not come up with a good solution to the problem of the barbarians.
We can't give citizenship to all these barbarians. Not to mention whether the country allows it, there is a question mark over whether the economy can sustain it.
But we can’t deprive these current citizens of their identities and replace them with these barbarians, right?
That's not realistic. If that were to happen, Africanus would be the first to rebel.
As for giving citizenship to everyone, that is even more nonsense.
Historically, Severus' son Caracalla did this, gave citizenship to everyone, and then he was killed.
What is worrying is not the scarcity of wealth but the inequality of wealth. Citizenship is a kind of nobility, and it is also one of the important reasons that supported these barbarians to rely on the Roman Empire.
If things really go wrong, Great Britain to the north will definitely not recommend using power and status to win them over.
So when they get together, the more they talk, the more annoyed they become.
"Never mind, since the barbarians are getting stronger, let's do something big!" Africanus was so annoyed that he decided to do something big.
"Let's gather together and attack Ctesiphon, forcing Parthia to defeat the barbarians!" When Africanus said this, everyone was stunned, but soon they felt that what Africanus said made sense.
Wars of low to medium intensity will allow the barbarians to grow, so they might as well speed up, increase the intensity directly, and lead the barbarians to attack Taixifeng.
If they succeed, they will have the upper hand over the barbarians. If they fail, Parthia will certainly counterattack. If the barbarians continue to be stubborn, it will be a fight to the death and the casualty rate will surely rise sharply.
But if the barbarians withdraw and the anger fades, then things will be the same as before.
"Let's do it!" Benito was the first to express his support.
There was no way out. The blame now fell on him. He was determined by Cyprian to avoid the fight on purpose.
The casualties alone are too numerous to mention. In the 16th legion, a legion commander died, one-third of the troops were lost, and in the 15th, half of the troops were killed.
However, only a few hundred people died in the Fourteenth, which was not a big deal at all. Just comparing the war losses, he had no place to complain.
He is now the prime suspect in the murder of St. Peter III and is almost hated by the church. Some radical believers even want to assassinate him.
He felt frustrated and couldn't kill them directly. When he killed the first radical believer, he saw the way those barbarians looked at him.
Completely different from the previous awe, it was now full of hatred.
He really wanted to kill people in large numbers to let these barbarians know who the real master of Rome was.
However, he had no choice because he had to take the blame in political struggles.
He was blamed for the incident with St. Peter III, but when it is over, he will be rewarded with a promotion and a raise.
But if he continues to escalate the conflict, his political career will be over.
Being blamed for something would really become evidence of a crime.
Taking the blame for doing things for the boss is different from making a fool of yourself.
