Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 166 Son of Light

To show his sincerity, the King of Ulster sent a small group of elite warriors to help. Orville was quite impressed by the leader of the group, as he was one of the few Irish people he knew - his name was Settant, and he had a more famous nickname.

The most famous Irish hero, Cuchulain, the Son of Light, is the protagonist of the most famous Irish epic story, The Cattle Raiders.

This is a standard tragic hero: he was born as a demigod, learned skills from a foreign master, and then became a great hero to fight against the evil foreign king in order to defend his country. In the battle, he accidentally killed his own son, and finally died in a very heroic battle. From the perspective of a humanistic hero, he is a person with a complete set of merits.

Due to the influence of some film and television works in his previous life, Orville was quite curious about him, so he asked to summon him first to see what he was like.

Cu Chulainn was a warrior wearing close-fitting light leather armor. He was tall and straight, with his hair braided and thrown behind him. His hair was black with a slightly bluish color. He had a handsome face and Celtic-style blue tattoos on his arms and cheeks. He was a man with a very impressive appearance.

He saluted Orville respectfully and said, "Prince of the Roman Empire, I send you greetings on behalf of the King of Ulster. May your barns always prosper and your woodlands always be full of vitality."

Orville motioned for the other party to stand up, looked him over for a few seconds, and said bluntly: "How many people did you bring to help this time?"

"We only have a hundred men due to the limited time, but I guarantee that these men are the best warriors in Ulster, and they are not inferior to warriors from anywhere else!"

After all, it is an interaction between countries, and sending reinforcements in units of hundreds seems more or less perfunctory, but the other party is full of energy and does not seem guilty or embarrassed at all.

"Really? I heard that you don't have a good relationship with Queen Boudica of Wales, but she directly sent tens of thousands of people to help you, and later said that tens of thousands of people would be mobilized. Your sincerity or determination to win doesn't seem to be enough?"

No matter how powerful Cu Chulainn was, he was just one man. He was not the reincarnation of Hercules or Samson, so he could not defeat ten thousand enemies alone. In Orwell's opinion, this showed that in the heart of the King of Ulster, the agreement with him was not that important, and it was probably just a matter of convenience.

There was a flash of undisguised contempt in Cu Chulainn's eyes: "It may be a bit exaggerated to say that we can defeat ten thousand with a hundred, but the help we can provide to you cannot be measured by the number of people. I am confident that I can make a contribution that exceeds the ten thousand Welsh people, and the role I can play is greater than that of Boudica and so many people."

"You sound quite arrogant. Do you mind letting me try out your skills first?" Orville became interested.

Cu Chulainn nodded heavily, indicating that Orville could act on his own and he would accept any challenge.

All the Roman officers on Orville's side were busy with things, even Rollo was mobilizing his soldiers to prepare for the subsequent battle to capture the city. It would be troublesome to get injured at such a critical moment, so after weighing the pros and cons, Orville found an opponent who would be okay if injured.

Hearing that there was a fight to be had, Astolfo agreed to Orville's request without much hesitation and prepared to fight Cu Chulainn to test his opponent's level.

On the military parade ground, the two men drew their weapons and prepared to fight.
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"Surrender! I can't beat you, I admit defeat!!"

After about thirty rounds, Astolfo simply dropped his weapon to show his surrender.

Cu Chulainn's spear stopped a dozen centimeters in front of the opponent's throat, and then he quickly retracted it. A smile appeared on his face: "Good idea, but the technique still needs to be practiced. It's not perfect yet."

Astolfo was also a little depressed. He had fought twice and lost both times. "If you were to fight me on horseback, the result would not be the same. I cannot bring out my strength in foot combat at all."

Orville shook his head slightly. The opponent's skills were actually not bad, but he relied too much on his special ability. Once he fought on foot, it would be difficult for him to have any advantage over people with the same level of talent.

Cu Chulainn's victory this time was fair and square. As a warrior who excelled in spearmanship, his skills were far superior to Astolfo's. If it were a fight of swordsmanship, that might be a little bit of a stretch, but in terms of spearmanship he had the upper hand over his opponent, and in just over thirty rounds he was able to put Astolfo in danger.

Comparing him with Rollo who also fought with Astolfo, Orville felt that he should be on the same level as Rollo who was holding a two-handed axe. Since weapons like guns have the advantage, he might even have a slight advantage.

All in all, this is a very qualified person with at least upper-middle-level talent, capable of serving as the main force in attacking tough situations.

He pointed at Cu Chulainn and said, "You have proven your ability. You are indeed very good as you said. So I decided to let you be one of the main attackers."

Cu Chulainn bowed to Orville again and felt very satisfied with the arrangement.
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After Gil Dress's troops arrived, the current troops were assembled and Orville began to announce his battle plan.

At present, he has made seven gaps in the city wall, and he is preparing to launch an all-out attack on these seven gaps.

Boudica's 10,000 Welsh warriors were responsible for launching a fierce attack on the two gaps and the city walls from the south of the city. This was a feint attack. There were a lot of people, but Boudica was the only talented one, and the quality of the army was also a bit poor.

The other five ports each had someone leading the attack.

The first gap was opened by Belisarius, who led Orville's mixed legion infantry and personal guard infantry.

The second gap was the mixed legion infantry of the Guards led by Stilicho.

The third gap was Rollo and his Viking men.

The fourth gap was occupied by Cuchulainn and the Irish warriors. Due to a slight shortage of troops, Orville deployed some legion infantry to this gap to make up for the shortfall.

The fifth gap was occupied by some elite Gaulish infantry led by Gilles de Rais.

In addition, all the ballistae, catapults and siege platforms began firing. Orville also arranged a number of auxiliary troops to use ladders to launch large-scale feint attacks on various parts of the city wall. Among them were several truly elite Roman centuries who hoped to try their luck.

There were more than 20,000 troops participating in the attack, almost the entire army. Orville only had necessary reserves left just in case. This was the largest offensive Orville could organize at this stage. If this attack also failed, he would have no choice but to play hide-and-seek with the opponent to see who would give up first, and then change the overall strategic style from offense to defense, and start to rely on the fortresses he built to fight a defensive battle.

(End of this chapter)