Augustus Road

The three battalions of Carapis were stationed in the passage of ten or so stadia below the Acropolis, in the center of the battle formation. On the left wing were the Bosporus light infantry, who were now stationed on a raised hill, guarding the side of the Roman legion; on the right wing were a mixture of Rome's auxiliary cavalry and the Marca royal cavalry, advancing along the coast.

Before the battle, Carapis roughly calculated the number of people on the left wing, about 3,000 people, and the three battalions in the central core, excluding the previous casualties, had about 1,300 heavy infantry left, plus hundreds of auxiliary skirmishers, and his own cavalry on the right wing was about 500 people.

Absolutely, we are at a numerical disadvantage to the Pontic army. It's all because of the damned Marca and Claudius, plus a bunch of centurions who are only brave and noisy, which forced us to go to war. In fact, the safest way is to defend the Acropolis and wait for the snow to melt in the spring. The follow-up troops of the Thirteenth Legion and the fleet will arrive together to cut off the Cimmerian Strait. Then Mithridates and Adiana will definitely surrender. But now... Fortunately, in this situation, I, Carabis, have read the theory of battle formations of Lucullus before. It has repeatedly emphasized that it is not terrible to be at a disadvantage in terms of the number of troops. In the face of this situation, we must have a preset complete retreat and advance position, so that even with a small number of soldiers, we can still fight with the enemy without losing the upper hand.

This pre-set position was located behind the entire army formation, between the passages of two forests, and was an open lime soil. Pope directed a large number of slaves to dig a circular segmented trench, leaving a vertical embankment between each trench for several people to pass side by side, and then arranged the baggage vehicles, bundles of firewood, mules and horses along the trench to form a large circle, with slaves carrying axes, belly bows, and light scorpion cannons standing guard behind them.

It can be seen that before the advance, Carapis was ready to retreat with one strike, which was one of the reasons why Helenputina was angry with him. However, he was not afraid of others laughing at his lack of courage. After learning about the war history of the past dynasties in detail, he always believed that "a general who can charge is only a brave general, and a general who can retreat is a good general-Carapis. Cornelius. Marcus f" This famous saying is valid.

When the long-lost sunshine, from behind the accumulated winter clouds for many days, pierced the entire ocean and land, Carapis was more determined to "end the battle as soon as possible and withdraw the main force": the large phalanx of Pontus, which made the entire land tremble, was rolling in from the east. This was a "division" of the Bronze Shield Army with more than 4,000 people, with a total of four regiments and sixteen battalion-level phalanxes for combat. Each battalion had sixteen soldiers in a horizontal row, and a depth of sixteen people behind them. The first five rows of soldiers held a very long Macedonian spear and ran together to increase the kinetic energy of the spear tip. The spears of the last three rows of soldiers were extended at an oblique angle, and the spears of the last eight rows were almost vertical, so that they could shake the spear forest to resist the enemy's flying arrows. Between each phalanx, there was a "chain" of light shield soldiers and camping slaves, a light spearman regiment with eight rows in depth, and slingers and archers, who were responsible for maintaining the front lines between the camps to prevent the enemy's flanking and infiltration attacks. Together with these, the entire Pontic army had about 7,000 people on the front line.

Fortunately, the Pontic cavalry was almost completely lost in the previous Battle of Cape Chersonesus, so there were not many cavalry accompanying the phalanx.

The great emperor Mithridates of Pontus, because of the recurrence of his old injury, could not ride a horse for the time being, so he asked the slaves to carry him in a gorgeous sedan chair and walked through the phalanxes. All the soldiers shook their spears or knocked on their shields to cheer and salute their emperor. Mithridates did not need to say anything, he only needed to stretch out his hand to the soldiers, with tears in his eyes, which was enough to make his subordinates determined to fight.

Amid the sound of horns, the divisional phalanx of Pontus began to attack the core of the Roman army along the streets like a group of violent porcupines.

Carabis was on the hillside where the left wing high ground connected to the central street. He saw from a distance that there was a ruin of a quarry between his side and the Pontus Legion. The terrain was uneven and slightly broken. He then loudly announced the order to advance to several messengers. The messengers nodded repeatedly and rode towards the various centuries. Then the eagle flag began to wave. This was the order to advance on all fronts. The 10th Battalion walked in the front. The flag bearer held the flag with a palm mark and led the remaining follow-up centuries to advance towards the ruins of the quarry.

The armies on the other two wings also began to advance rapidly to the left and right.

"Amazon Queen, I want to ride a horse with you, keep up with the team, and perform command duties." Carabis raised his hand and asked Helenputina who was riding a white horse.

"Ella." The queen said briefly, and then Carabis was picked up by Ella who came from behind, and rode on the same horse with Ella. The queen herself and Alcapa rode down the hillside.

The sun was sometimes visible and sometimes invisible. The Roman legion was obviously faster. They were all loosely organized hundred-man teams, running freely on the rugged terrain and quickly reaching the commanding heights of the quarry. At this time, the Bronze Shield Phalanx of Pontus had just arrived at the foot of the quarry. Hebrida blew the whistle desperately. Amid the shouts, the Thracian light soldiers of each hundred-man team rushed out and threw a bunch of javelins at the phalanx. Many soldiers in the Pontus phalanx were pierced and fell, but the successors quickly filled the vacant battle positions. They were high He raised his extremely long spear and swung it rapidly, knocking down many flying light javelins. The sun suddenly came out, and all the Roman soldiers were facing the bright sun. They were so stimulated that they couldn't open their eyes and couldn't aim their javelins at all. Menander, the governor of the Bronze Shield Army of Pontus, seized this opportunity and issued an order to attack with his cane. The roar of the Pontus phalanx was soul-destroying. They rushed up the slope with dense spears and were invincible. The light shield soldiers climbed up first, ready to engage in battle with the Roman front.

If they were entangled by these light shield soldiers, then when the phalanx rushed forward, the Roman army would be instantly covered with corpses under the spear charge. Hebrida blew two rapid whistles, and the ten brigade flags with the palm mark swung almost in the opposite direction. Taking this as a signal, each century team took turns to retreat quickly, leaving only the extremely tenacious Thracian skirmishers. After special training, they could fight the enemy in groups of three or five with light javelins, short swords and half-moon shields, always keeping a distance from the phalanx and blocking the enemy's forward speed. (To be continued.)