It can penetrate eighty meters and cause damage. This made Shen Bing, who was standing at the top of the city watching the battle, feel half relieved in an instant.
In fact, this is not surprising. The Roman infantry shield weighed only 20 kilograms because of its large area, but its protective ability per unit area was not stronger than that of an ordinary shield.
What the matchlock gun breaks through is a point per unit area.
The Roman phalanx was stunned, because except for trebuchets, crossbows and other weapons, there had never been any equipment that could kill the soldiers behind the shield at a distance of 80 meters, but the Silk Kingdom on the opposite side was stunned. But the army did it, and it used a seemingly insignificant iron pipe.
The Roman soldiers were frightened at first sight.
"What is that?" someone shouted in the formation: "Our shields are useless to them!"
The officers at the back didn't know what was going on in the front. They thought it was because the shields were not dense enough, so they gave the order: "Turtle Shell Formation!"
Although many Roman soldiers doubted whether the turtle shell array would work, on the one hand they did not believe that the enemy's weapons could penetrate the shield. On the other hand, this was also the Roman legion's habit of dealing with enemy long-range strike equipment. More importantly, in addition to They have no other choice.
So the Roman soldiers gathered together in accordance with the order and formed a tortoise shell formation: there was almost no gap between the shields in front of them, and the shields were held above to block them. From the outside, it looked like an airtight tortoise shell.
This was exactly what the Shenwu Army wanted. They reloaded without haste, and then raised their matchlock guns again. With the order, there was another "bang bang bang" sound, and a tragic sound was heard from the turtle formation. Yelling, another row of Roman soldiers fell to the ground.
Immediately, a Roman soldier shouted to the officer behind him: "Sir, the enemy's weapons can penetrate the shield, and the tortoise shell array will not work!"
Only then did the officers understand the problem and crisis, but they had never fought such a battle... The enemy's equipment could actually penetrate the shield?
So I was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to do.
If it were another army, such as the Macedonian army, they would collapse immediately if they encountered this situation.
However, the Roman legions had strict military discipline, especially when they implemented a very cruel "eleven killing system".
That is to say, if there is a large-scale rout, mutiny, or loss of the military flag and other serious situations, a group of ten people will draw lots. Regardless of whether they are officers or soldiers, regardless of their status, if they draw the death lot, they will be executed.
Moreover, the surviving soldiers could only be stationed in dangerous areas outside the military camps, and their rations were replaced by barley to feed livestock.
Although it was not practiced often, it was enough to intimidate the entire army and prevent them from escaping easily.
At this time, Marcus gave the order: "Charge the whole army!"
Marcus is an experienced commander. He only discovered a problem at the moment when the enemy and we were facing each other: although the enemy's firearms were highly lethal, they took a long time to prepare.
Therefore, the only way to win this battle is to charge as fast as possible.
Upon hearing this order, all the Roman soldiers felt trembling with fear for no reason... Isn't this a firearm used to face the enemy with flesh and blood?
But it only paused for a moment. Following the officer's whistle, the Roman soldiers shouted and rushed towards the Silk Army, holding shields and daggers, hoping to break into the enemy's formation and fight at close range.
However, the reality made them desperate.
Each Roman soldier holds a heavy shield, and even when charging, they are still faltering... Their charging speed will be faster than that of the Macedonian infantry. Although their shields are heavier than super long guns, super long guns are not easy to maintain balance.
However, more than two minutes was still enough time for the matchlock to fire more than ten bullets. Especially as the distance between the enemy and our troops became closer, the hit rate of the matchlock also increased significantly.
So with bursts of "bang bang" gunshots, Roman soldiers fell on the charging road in batches, and the corpses lying on the ground further increased the difficulty of the Roman army's charge, and the corpses piled up more and more.
.
In terms of charge alone, the charge of the Roman legions wearing armor and holding heavy shields is extremely wrong.
Because if a heavy shield and armor cannot stop the projectiles fired from a matchlock gun at a distance of 80 meters, the heavy shield and armor have no meaning other than hindering one's own charge speed.
This is also one of the reasons why breastplates gradually disappeared after the emergence of muskets and were finally eliminated.
Therefore, if the Roman soldiers were smart enough to simply throw away their shields and charge at full speed, they might still pose a threat to the arquebuses of the Divine Armed Forces.
But no one realizes this. The shield can be said to be the third life of Roman soldiers. The long-term war made them think that throwing away the shield would mean injury or even death, so they would rather die with it.
But even so, this battle was still dangerous.
The Roman legion rushed to the nearest position, which was less than ten meters away from the Shenwu Army. It was about to rush into the Shenwu Army and cause a commotion. Fortunately, a hail of arrows shot by the Qingqi on the flank blocked it in time.
Seeing this scene, even Shen Bing had to secretly praise the combat effectiveness of the Roman legion.
This is a war with huge disparity in strength, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a war with different dimensions.
In particular, the Roman soldiers had never seen a matchlock before. It was not easy for them to see such an indescribable equipment for the first time without panicking and completely collapsing. They could still charge without fear of life and death like they did now... It's no wonder that this legion soon fell into disgrace.
It can become the overlord of the Mediterranean and even reach Central Asia.
But now, with the appearance of Shen Bing, I am afraid that the Roman Legion will never have such an opportunity again.
Finally, after a mountain of corpses was piled up in front of the muskets of the divine warriors, the Roman soldiers could no longer bear the fear in their hearts and collapsed.
Of course Wang Ben would not miss this opportunity. He sent the cavalry up with a wave of his hand.
The two thousand heavy cavalry came into play at this time. They rushed out from the two wings, spread out their formation, and then rolled over the fleeing Roman soldiers like tanks.
The light cavalry spread out and used bows and arrows to chase down the fleeing skirmishers.
The Shenwu Army marched towards the enemy's walled city step by step with muskets in hand... The archers on the walled city were almost negligible to their vine armor, and they could walk to the walled city and kill them at close range.
As a result, the Roman soldiers on the wall were also frightened. Even though Marcus shouted angrily and even killed several deserters himself, they still abandoned the wall and fled regardless.
The entire battle lasted for more than half an hour and ended with the Qin army capturing the northern walled city.
Shen Bing directly set fire to the walled city, and then asked all the soldiers to return to the city... This is the advantage of owning a city. You can return to the city to rest at any time, and then recharge your batteries for another counterattack.
The next counterattack will not be a small test of skills like now.