Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 181 Allied Forces
Helplessly, the scout cavalry could only watch these hundreds of infantrymen being wiped out by the enemy, and then hang far behind the enemy, watching the enemy's next move.

Fortunately, the Germans did not seem to intend to attack the Romans' well-prepared positions in one go. They only planned to regain some ground during the water confrontation. After achieving this goal, they were ready to call it a day and return to the camp with their soldiers.

In their view, these scout cavalry were nothing to worry about, as they would certainly not dare to pursue them after they crossed the river. It had become a consensus that the Romans' biggest weakness was that they did not have a decent cavalry unit, and they suffered a great disadvantage when fighting against the Germanic cavalry.

Just as they expected, the auxiliary reconnaissance cavalry hired by the Romans did not follow too far. After the Germans crossed the river, they could only retreat in disappointment without pursuing them further.

The German commander therefore relaxed his vigilance and ordered his soldiers to switch to marching formation and prepare to return home.

But just as they were about to retreat to the camp for rest, they passed by a forest and suddenly a large group of Celtic light infantry rushed out from the forest. They had blue tattoos and shouted various battle slogans, and attacked the Germans like a tide.

The Germans were totally unprepared for this and were still marching in a long snake formation. This situation was extremely disadvantageous for them, as they were attacked in the middle of the march and were cut off.

Having a formation and not having a formation are two completely different things. A sufficiently well-trained army might be able to rely on basic qualities to quickly unite around grassroots officers when suddenly attacked, forming a small-scale infantry line to resist the enemy. Obviously, the Germans' military literacy was not that high. They were dispersed and cut into countless small groups by this wave of soldiers, and could only rely on instinct and subconsciously stick together with the surrounding soldiers to fight stubbornly.

As a result, they could not resist for long and were quickly wiped out by the Celts. The small number of surviving Germans had lost their will to fight and surrendered to the Celts. However, these Celts did not accept prisoners in principle. Most of the prisoners were killed on the spot, leaving only a small number of people survived.

As the commander of this battle, Boudica silently observed everything behind the scenes - Orville probably guessed that the other side would try to escalate the war situation after getting angry, and he was already prepared to deal with it.

While the Germans were moving, Boudica quietly led her men to sneak over from the other side of the river, ambushing in this area in advance, and launching a surprise attack when the Germans relaxed their vigilance. The effect was quite good, and they won a great victory.

Although they lost about a hundred auxiliary troops responsible for fetching water and Roman legionnaires, the results were still very good. Boudica roughly counted the results of the battle and found that at least six or seven hundred Germans were killed by the Celts on the battlefield, and hundreds were captured, which was a huge loss.

The Germans basically picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelons. Even if their numbers were larger, such a trade would definitely still be a loss.

And the key issue is not this. At the same time, Orville was leading a large army across the Broad River and heading straight for the town of Hastings.

He had already prepared his attack plan, and had been waiting for the opponent to lose patience and take action. Now was the right time, and he didn't want to drag it on any longer, so he chose to fight the opponent directly at this moment.

Many cavalrymen in the German army attacked by the Celts took the opportunity to escape. They hurriedly informed the Germans in the camp, and the other side hastily gathered troops to go out of the city to meet the enemy. They did not choose to defend the city. On the one hand, they had more powerful cavalry and the advantage of mobility. Giving up this would be tying their own hands. On the other hand, the town of Hastings did not have a sophisticated city defense system, so it was more practical to choose to go out of the city to meet the enemy.

They felt that although they were inferior in quality, they still had a numerical advantage of nearly twice as much, not to mention the cavalry units that were several levels stronger, so they might not suffer a loss if a real fight broke out.
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The main forces of both sides were fully mobilized and assembled on the slope northwest of Hastings to confront each other. Orville's marching speed was faster and he occupied the upper level of the slope, which put the German army on the opposite side in a dilemma.

We can't just stay in this stalemate forever, but attacking the hillside would be a bit disadvantageous. As for retreating directly, it is not that easy either.

First of all, any experienced general should know that fighting a war is also a competition of each side's confidence in victory. If the commander on your side is afraid before the battle, then there is no need to fight the war. The people below will lose their hearts, and the soldiers will lose confidence in winning the war. The result will be catastrophic.

Harold Godwinson is now actually trapped. Once the army is assembled, it cannot retreat at will. Once the army's morale and combat confidence are lost, it will be difficult to regain them in a short period of time.

Putting aside this problem, how to "retreat in an orderly manner" without turning it into a rout is a very technically demanding thing. The enemy is watching on the opposite side and may launch an attack at any time. If there is any loophole in the formation of the Germans at this time, the result will be catastrophic.

However, the army composition of the Germans is still the most unreliable coalition. If the coalition had a very powerful leader, everything would be fine and there would not be any big problems in leadership and command. But to put it bluntly, none of the three parties on their side would submit to each other.

The Anglo-Saxons were the local natives, the largest in number and with a nominal combat commander, so they were certainly unwilling to be inferior to others; the Vikings felt that they could kill all the local natives, but they were forced to cooperate with the locals because of the threat from the Romans, and would certainly not obey the command and dispatch of the local nobles. The fact that they obeyed a little was the result of Ivar's strenuous mediation; as for the Franks, although they had the smallest number, they were all the noblest cavalry and had the backing of a great power, so they were arrogant and did not mind being inferior to others.

The three parties are not in harmony with each other, but there is no problem with the command being chaotic and inefficient.

An army with this structure would be very easy to exploit its weaknesses and be defeated one by one. Even though Harold had never read the Art of War (The Art of War), he could still imagine the scene.

When friendly forces are in trouble, they are as still as a mountain. When retreating or advancing, they are as swift as the wind.

As for the last two sentences, "Attack cities and seize lands, and they are as slow as a forest. Harass the people, and invade like a fire." Whether they can be shown depends on the situation. In short, Harold is not optimistic about retreating at all.

In this case, there was actually only one choice before him from the very beginning - to attack the Roman legion position head-on.

(End of this chapter)