Augustus Road

"Don't retreat!" The first thing Anthony did when he rushed down the hillside was to use his sword to cut off two of his own soldiers who had just fled down. The blood in his chest flew high, and the headless body was still in a trotting posture, and it took several meters for inertia to fall down. At this moment, the black soldiers who were retreating noisily were numb when they saw such a scene, especially when they saw the Matthias cavalry roaring behind Anthony. They thought that if they retreated like this, they would be trampled to death, so they howled again, turned around to pick up shields and javelins, and turned around to fight with Pompey's Ala cavalry who were chasing them.

When Anthony and the Matthias cavalry collided with Pompey's Ala cavalry, he felt for the first time that the Ala cavalry was so strong and unyielding. It turned out that these cavalrymen came from Tarraco near Spain. Although they surrendered to the Republic and served in the army for many years, their ancestors' fierce tactics remained unchanged. They wore round helmets, bronze breastplates, and held short swords and javelins. They formed a skirmish formation in twos and threes like infantrymen and dared to launch a counterattack against the Matthias!

However, in front of the Matthias' flexible and fierce two-headed lances, these Tarraco cavalrymen were useless. They were shot from a distance and stabbed close up. Soon, they left behind countless corpses and retreated to the top of the mountain. But at this time, a centurion of Pompey's right wing brigade skillfully went around the side of Anthony's cavalry and fiercely threw hunting spears downwards from the side of the cliff. The Matthias were caught off guard and many of them were stabbed at once. "Get off your horse, don't hesitate, charge up!" Anthony made a prompt decision, braving the hunting spears whistling in the wind from the side, holding up his shield. He waved his sword. He got off his horse and attacked the top of the mountain desperately! The Matians were also very brave. They really followed Anthony's example, dismounted one after another, and rushed up in a line with the Nubians of the 15th Legion, holding their super-long lances, howling.

Over there, the Pompeian army on the top of the mountain also drew their swords and rushed down, and immediately sawed each other on the mountainside!

On the other side, Selha finally recovered. Over there, Lepidus kept running back and forth, blowing the trumpet, asking the subsequent troops to give up going to the ambush site, and all use the high ground for deployment, and Selha cooperated very well, arranging the infantry battalion and the archer battalion into a right-angled "L" shape, and arranged more than three infantry battalions into a formation with only eight to twelve soldiers on the front and dozens of rows in depth. Like a big centipede, it attacked the hill on the right wing. In the center, the archers in the horizontal column fired continuously, shooting Vibrius's position tightly and preventing him from continuing to move forward.

Gradually, the superiority of Lepidus's troops began to emerge, and Vibrius on the other side was also very smart to think that if they continued to fight, they would really be surrounded again, so he blew the whistle of retreat. The Pompeian army of each century was very brave after receiving the order. They continued to fight in groups of three or two, holding shields, and repeatedly repelled the charge of the Nubian black soldiers. They also launched short-range counterattacks to prevent themselves from being outflanked and protected the golden hare flag of the legion while fighting and retreating. When these veterans were tired, they would tacitly exchange positions with each other, taking a short breath in the back, and continuing to fight one against three in the front, so that Lepidus's men could not find any signs of encircling and annihilating Vibrius's troops after rushing and attacking from all directions.

In the end, even the late Dussonville and Vercingetorix's cavalry, who also joined the charge, still failed to resolve the battle. If it were any other team, this place would have collapsed long ago, but the first battalion of Pompeii's first legion was indeed terrible and tough. Finally, a battalion of Machias's reserve also came up with an eagle flag. The two troops joined together and retreated back to back along the streets of Barreria, forming a "hard walnut". The Lepidus cavalry over there suffered, constantly circumventing and overtaking, and biting forward but unable to bite, while Vibrius's soldiers' feet were like steel, and they kept on the same level with these two-legged soldiers.

As a result, the encirclement battle turned into a pursuit battle.

At dusk, since neither side was prepared for a night battle, they could only stop the battle temporarily, but the cunning Vibrius left a small number of fake soldiers to create momentum, and quickly rushed into the dense forest with the main force and fled in a scattered manner.

The next day, after a day of fighting, the casualties were heavy, and the exhausted Lepidus cavalry discovered something strange, so they launched a pursuit, but apart from capturing a few stragglers, they did not gain much.

In this way, Lepidus mobilized 3,000 cavalry, more than 5,000 legion infantry, and nearly 2,000 servants of the Masi and Penilians, but failed to defeat Pompeii's 2,500 men. The casualties of the other side were unknown, because Vibrius's men were often killed or wounded, but the casualties of his own side were real - nearly 1,000 casualties, among which the most elite Matians had nearly 200 killed in battle.

The original plan was to annihilate the enemy's chief brigade and seize the legion flags. Now, let's not talk about these, and a few of my teeth have been broken.

But there was still a little gain, that is, the cavalry captured Pompeii's director of engineering, the unlucky Machias.

This man was brave and formidable in commanding his troops in battle on the streets, but when it came to escaping at night, he clearly lacked the experience of an old soldier like Vibrius. He wandered around in the woods with a few followers all night, and came out again the next day at the same place!

But seeing the enemy's engineering director covered in dust, Lepidus' attitude was no longer as pleasant as before. He was sulking and wanted to whip Marcius to vent his anger. Fortunately, Caesar came to the tent at this time, and poor Marcius escaped.

With Caesar present, Lepidus did not dare to act rashly. The bald man kindly asked Marcius about some situations, and then Antony on the side secretly made a release gesture. Caesar said, "If I'm not mistaken, Pompey will soon abandon Campania and Capua, so I let you go back and continue to follow him. You can show your skills in the construction of Brindisi's defense."

After that, Lepidus and Antony at the back pouted at each other and made helpless gestures at the same time.

"But!" Caesar suddenly said in a stern voice, "I still insist on that request. When I was in Rimini, I said that if we want to restore peace, we should let Pompey come to my camp. But now I have arrived in Corfinium, and Pompey is still avoiding me, which shows that he is guilty. Go back and tell Pompey - I hope to see him in Brindisi!" (To be continued...)