Augustus Road

When Lepidus rode to the right wing of the army, several of the retinue officers who had followed Crassus before held the relic of the consul - the cloak that was cut by the sword and stained with Crassus' blood, and gave it to General Lepidus who had dismounted. Maia then quickly used the cloak as a flag, tied it to the spear, and held it high in front of the entire right wing army!

"The wings of the goddess of vengeance will descend on the enemy!" All the soldiers shouted loudly, raising their swords and shields.

Surena received a report from the scout that the front of the Romans was very strange, "there are chariots moving rapidly."

Romans and chariots, Surena could not consider the two together, he personally led his retinue to scout. Sure enough, there were about twenty chariots, both Celtic four-wheeled chariots and Libyan two-wheeled assault chariots, surrounded by hundreds of Matthias cavalry, and they were calmly wandering in the area ten furlongs in front of the main Roman position.

This scene surprised Surena. The shadow of the attack by the Roman vanguard just now emerged, and he decided to be cautious: let thousands of cavalry go forward to monitor. As a result, the vehicles suddenly stopped, and the crews on them unloaded the cavalry cannons loaded on them upside down. The assault chariots made by imitating the Garamantes and the cavalry surrounded them. At that time, both sides were out of the range of bows and arrows, but the Romans suddenly attacked. Ten cavalry cannons fired the first wave of stone bullets, fiercely hitting the team of the Paia vanguard light cavalry. The broken limbs of people and horses flew in the smoke. Now it was their horses' turn to run around in fear. Just like that, out of the range of bows and arrows. The gunners of the cavalry cannons fired the second and third waves in one breath. Surena, who was stunned by this scene, did not expect that the light crossbows generally used by the Romans for siege and defense could be transported on vehicles and used in field battles.

Over there, as usual, the giant bronze drum carried by the Paya people on a vehicle was slowly pulled to the front line, and the priests smashed the drumhead desperately, but what surprised them was that the Roman front cavalry was not frightened by the drum sound and ran around. Since Lepidus, who had obtained the intelligence of Paya's "secret weapon" in Cyrene, had already imitated this bronze drum and constantly trained the horses' ability to resist attacks during the journey with the army. Horses are very smart animals. As long as they are accustomed to this sound and are no longer sensitive, then this drum sound will not disrupt their formation at all.

"What kind of team is this, full of strange and ominous feelings." Surena, who was originally in command on the battlefield, became more and more uncertain in his heart.

The firepower of the cavalry cannon is like the drumbeat. It was getting tighter and tighter, and finally there was a crisp sound, and a stone bullet smashed through the bronze drum cart of the Paya people. The shaft, drumstick, and several bloody priests flew back more than a dozen Roman feet amid the sorrowful screams of the surrounding cavalry, like a pile of garbage and could no longer move. Then Lepidus's skilled gunners used the ruler to quickly lock the target that had been hit again, and then concentrated their firepower. The stone bullets kept hitting and bouncing on the top and around the bronze drum cart. The surviving priests no longer dared to stay under the cart, but ran around, and most of them fell under the flying stone bullet fragments.

The unbearable Paia Light Cavalry began to charge at Lepidus's frontier forces regardless of their commander's orders. However, the enemy they faced this time had completely different tactics from Crassus's troops. The chariots pulled the cavalry guns back from the pulleys into the carriages very easily and left. The Matthias cavalry then split into two and retreated towards the two wings of Lepidus' position.

The Paya people who charged later found that Libida, like the dead devil Crassus, was also arranged in a large square array with all four sides facing outwards. But when they got closer and took a closer look, they found that the opponent's large square array was actually composed of small square arrays with intervals like fish scales, with lightly armed archers in between. And at the forefront of the shield wall were six long horizontal arrays of archers, most of whom were Nubians and Cretans. They stood proudly in place, and after winding the strings, they concentrated on merging the six rows into one, and all shot the arrows in their hands like a rainstorm. The sound of the strings was like a sudden thunder in the cloudless desert, exploding on the Paya light cavalry who were just about to draw the strings. Head and neck, after shooting this wave, the enemy calmly retreated back to the deep shield wall, but more than half of the first-line Paja light cavalry had been killed or wounded, but many brave men, still carrying arrows, screaming in pain, like thick black arrows, tried to rush to within 120 Roman feet of the shield wall and shoot arrows quickly, but the two wings of the Lepidus phalanx, including the second-line troops, began to use single bows and compound recurve bows to shoot fiercely and alternately. Many Paja light cavalry gritted their teeth, with arrows all over their bodies, and tried their best to shoot an arrow at the silent Roman shield wall like an ice cube, and then fell down.

The light cavalry came like a tide and went like a stream. The bodies of horses and riders, some of whom were dying, were lying on the sand covered with arrow feathers. Some dying people struggled with arrows in their backs and chests, trying to sit up. Then the black team of the Serapis Legion came out and threw another batch of javelins at that area, and then everything became quiet, without even the groaning.

Then, the battlefield fell silent again. The Roman positions were like the solid and cold ice belt in the desert, motionless. Only the flags flashing and reflecting in the scorching sun were still standing silently. Surena held the double snake flag and was very puzzled. He really couldn't understand what tricks the other party was playing, but the earlier intelligence was indeed true. This detachment had unmatched excellent cavalry and a large number of auxiliary archers, which was incomparable with the previous main body of Crassus' army, clumsy and heavy infantry, and a small number of weak long-range arms.

After a stalemate of half a day, the second cavalry charge was shot back. Most of the archers of the opposing team could only shoot on foot, and rather than pursuing accuracy, they were doing the ancient "primitive barrage interception". In terms of individual soldier technology, they were not at the same level as the Paya people, but they were well-trained and strictly followed the orders of officers. Collective shooting became particularly threatening.

In addition, according to the wounded soldiers who ran back, the Romans here also solved the supply of bows and arrows and stone bullets - the number of camels they have may even be more than ours, all full of saddlebags and quivers.

When his subordinates suggested that Surena take a roundabout way, the general shook his head and said that it would be impossible for us to succeed easily in this situation. Since so many people have been killed and injured, the city of Carrhae behind us may break out at any time. We should retreat a distance, expecting that the Romans would not dare to pursue us.

But suddenly, Surena thought of a fatal problem, and his eyes went dark and he almost fell off his horse. (To be continued...)