"It might be the other Pannonian tribe great chief sent as reinforcements." Maximus suddenly showed interest, lightly patting an elder half-squatting in front of him and said half-jokingly, half-seriously: "Fortunius, this is a great opportunity. Two Pannonian great chiefs standing together. If you could shoot them dead with one arrow, we could win without a fight."
Fortunius, a Roman veteran, part of the Flanitnus’ batch of army slaves, was appointed by Maximus as the crossbow cannon team leader because he had previously served as a crossbow gunner in the Roman Legion, in charge of managing the six captured crossbow cannons of the rebel army, commanding 24 soldiers.
This crossbow cannon team could only be useful in Campania during a farm attack, and its last role was in the attack on Canosa. Due to running out of the already limited lead balls, it was temporarily sidelined.
During the rebel army’s march north, they continuously defeated Roman armies and captured quite a few crossbows. Maximus requested an additional 10 crossbow cannons and some lead balls. Unfortunately, during the difficult march in the Illyria Mountain, some supplies, including cumbersome lead balls, were abandoned for the soldiers to move more easily. Even the crossbow cannon mounts were dismantled and discarded. Only the most important torsion metal spring arms were treasured like gems by the crossbow team soldiers, carried along the way in turns, and finally brought to the temporary camp.
Then Fortunius went to see engineer Spukala, hoping he could find someone to help restore the crossbow cannons.
But after Capito learned of this, he thought that without lead balls, restoring crossbow cannons was pointless and suggested transforming them into crossbows to make them functional.
Fortunius strongly opposed, and the two had a heated argument, drawing Maximus’ attention. In the end, he decided to support Capito’s suggestion, instructing engineer Spukala to gather craftsmen from the engineering camp to promptly use the key components of these crossbow cannons to convert them into crossbows to strengthen the camp’s defenses.
Ultimately, the engineering camp successfully converted 10 crossbows, while the rest remained in storage due to minor or major damage to the torsion metal spring arms, awaiting potential repair materials.
These ten crossbows were then moved to the newly built wooden tower.
Fortunius looked back at Maximus, eyes filled with anticipation: "Leader, if I shoot those two people you mentioned, what reward will I get?"
Just yesterday, during a Political Affairs Hall meeting with department chiefs, Maximus issued an order to everyone in the team regarding the Pannonian invasion: all tribe members must unite to rely on the camp’s defenses against the enemy’s attack. If successful, all ordinary tribe members would be promoted and become second-class tribe members, and promotion time for reserve tribe members would be reduced from three years to two!
This directive greatly boosted the morale of the newly formed Nix tribe members. So when the Pannonian Alliance Army arrived in force before the camp today, the Nix tribe soldiers standing on the wooden wall walkway readying for defense showed no fear but excitement - this included the soldiers operating the crossbows as well.
"You don’t need to shoot them both. Just kill that Segestica great chief and you’ll have achieved a great merit. I will grant you a two-level promotion, making you a first-class tribesman!" Maximus encouraged decisively.
"Just watch me!" Fortunius eagerly rubbed his hands, again lying prone behind the crossbow, sighting through the scope. He had previously fixed the firing angle and now fine-tuned it with great care.
The remodeled crossbow had several differences from the original crossbow cannon.
Firstly, the wooden stand below was not as tall as the crossbow cannon’s but had stones attached to increase weight, ensuring the crossbow’s stability during firing to improve shooting accuracy.
Secondly, unlike the crossbow cannon where the firing angle was only straight or slightly upward, the crossbow could adjust the firing angle downward since crossbow arrows wouldn’t slide downward like lead balls.
Moreover, the wooden slide of the crossbow was narrow but longer than the crossbow cannon, as it held not round lead balls, but short spears...
"Brothers, draw the bow!" Fortunius commanded.
A supporting archer immediately turned the pulley, drawing the bowstring back.
Another supporting archer inserted a short spear into the slide, ensuring it fit perfectly.
Fortunius stared intently through the metal sighting hole above the slide at the person clad in dazzling golden armor.
The moment the person stopped moving, Fortunius swiftly pulled the trigger, and the torsion spring arm drove the bowstring to snap back rapidly, imparting powerful force to the short spear, heard with a "whoosh" as it flew and turned into a black dot in the sky in everyone’s eyes.
Andres had just taken two steps when he unknowingly stepped into another trap. Just as he instinctively bent down to remove it, he heard the sharp whoosh and then the agonized cries of his warhorse and warrior behind him.
Andres turned sharply, greeted by a scene of shocking horror: a warhorse’s neck had been sliced half through, and the warrior on its back, even clad in leather armor, had a large hole in his abdomen from which intestines spilled with blood. A blood-red short spear held him skewered diagonally to the ground...