In September 9 AD, the ragged barbarians encountered the elite Roman phalanx, but they easily defeated it, and even the commander's own head was cut off and taken away. What's going on?
Looking at the thousand-year history of ancient Rome's conquests, such fiasco is also counted as a handful. Not to mention that their opponents are just a bunch of untrained barbarians with brute force. Why was it possible to achieve such an unprecedented victory? This has to say something about today's protagonist, the leader of the barbarians, Herman.
Hermann, a Germanic. That's right, Germany today. But unlike today, Germania is synonymous with Germany, and in 1200 BC, the Germans were a rather divided people, with no less than a hundred tribes. And each civilization is backward, life is nothing, basically the image of a barbarian.
Germanic tribes
Around 500 or 600 B.C., around the time of population expansion or food shortages caused by climate change, the Germans chose to move south to the Rhine Valley. During this period, active near the Rhine Valley was the ancient Roman Empire that we are familiar with. For the same reason, the ancient Roman Empire was actively seeking to expand north. Oh, so, two ancient peoples met so unexpectedly.
The Germans had no choice, nor did they want to. They got involved with the Ancient Roman Empire.
In 58 BC, the ancient Roman Julius Caesar the Great marched on his own and fought a fierce battle with the Germans on the banks of the Rhine, killing them and abandoning their armor and collapsing. After this battle, a total of 80,000 people were wiped out. Don't underestimate these 80,000 people, in the generally underpopulated European countries, the battle of 80,000 people is enough to go down in the annals of history.
After the war, Caesar's triumphant banshi returned to the dynasty, and on the way, he also wrote this battle into his famous work "Gallic War". It was also this move that set the name "Germanic" from then on.
On the other hand, the Germanic people, who had suffered defeat, were seriously injured, but they did not collapse because of it. As the Barbarians of the North, the Germans were quite brave and had the style of a fighting nation of Russia. They are ashamed of cultivating land, proud of fighting and fighting, and their daily lives are either hunting or robbery. They also have a tradition that every time whether it is a war or a fight, when relatives and family members come over, they do not greet each other, but gather up to count the wounds. If you don't have as many wounds as others, you're embarrassed to say anything.
When fighting, the Germanic people also had a strange custom, that is, in the war, the tribal leader must charge forward, otherwise he will not establish his prestige. However, due to the backwardness of this civilization, the weapons, equipment and tactical training of the Germans basically did not exist. Again so dead rushed in the first, the mortality rate is quite high. Every time the leader died, the troops lost their command and once again fell into a dead cycle of collapse and were left to be slaughtered.
In this way, the Germanic people have hardly won the wars of the past years, and have always been repeatedly defeated and defeated. This bad day lasted until 5 AD, when the Roman Empire established the provinces of Germania. At this point, the roman conquest of the Germanic people was initially completed.
Although the Romans established provinces, their rule over the Germanic peoples was not stable. These Germanic people were far away from the emperor of the mountain, and every three to five years they did something to add to the blockage of the Roman Empire. Although it could not shake the rule of Rome, it did disgust Octavian. No, not only did he send the general Varus as the governor of the Germanic provinces, but he also sent the 17th, 18th, and 19th armies north to quell the rebellion.
Ancient Roman elite phalanx
And when the Germans received the news, they were furious, and if you wanted to fight, you would fight, and they actually sent out such things to humiliate us! Therefore, they vigorously engaged in tandem and actively united with the surrounding tribes to form a coalition army to prepare to resist the "central army" from the invaders.
Why did the Germans react so violently? This is actually a violation of their taboo. The Germanic people were barbaric to barbaric, but they all strictly adhered to monogamy and lived a rather rigorous style of life. What a leg-splitting, scumbag, special professional ah is never heard, no concept. And the "Central Army" actually brought comfort women with the army to fight, which was simply an insult to the sacred battle! Can't stand it, absolutely can't stand it, him!
Since then, our protagonist Herman today has made a brilliant appearance.
Herman and his father were originally the patriarch of a small tribe, and according to this origin, Herman himself was at least a patriarch in the future. Although it is very likely that he will hang up because of his predecessor in future battles, he can still drink five or six times in peacetime.
But things were always uncertain, and his father was soon killed in a battle, and he himself became a prisoner and was taken to Rome. Most people are ignorant when this big change occurs, and there are many people who have ended their lives since then. But our little Herman is not so fragile, not only does not complain about himself, but strives to be strong. Not only did he actively enlist in the army, but he also got rid of slave status, became a Roman citizen, and finally joined the ranks of knights and became a celebrity.
In 4 AD, during a roman foreign campaign, Hermann, who was less than 22 years old, was promoted to the head of the Germanic mercenary corps and qualified to participate in the Germanic campaign four years later.
How, our hero Little Herman is going to learn from Yang Kang to be a father?
No, it doesn't.
On the way out, Herman was in Cao Yingxin's heart in Han Ying. Constantly trying to agitate the surrounding Germanic tribes to rise up against the Roman invasion. During this period, because the commander Varus was not familiar with the land, the Roman army stopped and went, coupled with the small rebellions that came and went, the place did not arrive for several months, but the body and mind were exhausted, and the people were sleepy and tired. If it were not for the strict military regulations of Rome, they would all want to retire and go back to rest and discuss.
By the autumn of 9 AD, the Roman army, which had been marching for nearly half a year, marched to the forest area of Teutoburg, and due to the narrow and rainy roads, the gap between the large armies was as high as 15 to 20 kilometers, and the end could not be taken care of at all. At this time, our little Herman has also sneaked away.
Herman had seen the world himself, and had been a Roman knight, plus a good brain. Without much effort, they united the 7 largest tribes in the surrounding area and prepared to teach the Roman army a good lesson. This year, Herman was only 27 years old.
Herman knew that the Roman army was well-equipped and had high tactical skills among non-commissioned officers, and if it wanted to charge head-on, it would undoubtedly be a death. If you want to fight, you must take advantage of the scattered appearance of the army and horses to encircle and annihilate them.
The opportunity soon came.
On a rainy autumn day in a forest near Teutoburg, Hermann led his "army of barbarians" to the first victory. The rough roads and heavy rains made it impossible for the cavalry of the Roman army to deploy, and the infantry could not be effectively assembled because of the scattered appearance. On the contrary, the broken Germanic allies were flexible and actively exerted their individual advantages to rush the Roman army to pieces. In just one day, the Romans had to collect their troops and avoid the front for a while.
The Germanics fought against the ancient Roman phalanx
In the evening, the Roman legion of chicken thieves had planned to sneak away through the night, but without thinking, they were caught by Herman. He sent men to arrange all the intersections to resist the horses, and then hid behind them with spears in hand, and if anyone came, he would stab them. In this chaotic night, Varus lost his beloved general, and his second-in-command Vera was stabbed to death, and even the body could not be pulled back.
In this way, in this small forest, the two sides fought for three days and three nights. Finally, on the fourth day, everyone was relieved. With less than a thousand losses, Hermann annihilated a Roman army of 25,000 men. Commander Varus himself was not able to escape, and even his head was cut off by the Germans as a trophy and taken away as a souvenir.
When the news reached Rome, octavian, the "First Emperor," was so angry that he cursed Varus for his incompetence, burying one-tenth of the country's army. Later, Octavian revoked the 17th, 18th, and 19th Legions and never used them.
Since then, throughout his life, Octavian has never launched a major campaign against the Germanic region.
I have to say that sometimes only a little change is needed to achieve brilliant achievements. However, this is also bullying Western barbarians who have not seen the 36 counts, but will only fight hard and charge hard, and do not talk about the method of warfare at all. Otherwise, this kind of pediatric strategy in ancient mainland china, even a small low-level officer can see where such a victory will be ushered in.