Augustus Road

Under the hillside and wilderness, green smoke curled up. A broken Salmonto cannon was quietly abandoned in front of the bare woods. The surrounding air exuded a choking smell.

Most of the officers and soldiers of the Eighth Army were sitting on the ground, many of them were wounded, and some were walking around, picking up arrows shot by the enemy. Scipio was in an extremely bad mood. The two thousand soldiers he served as rearguard The archers of the Reese auxiliary army, who could not come to join him, probably surrendered to Caesar just under the city of Ephesus, just like the shameless Seventh Legion. In addition, almost half of the pack horses that Scipio valued most ran away in the melee last night. With a livid face, he asked the military slaves to quickly harness the rest, and then shouted a roar that echoed in the valley, "Shout Apis comes closer to me, no, prepare the team immediately, let's go to meet the Sixth Army!"

Then he looked at the mountains and streets in front of him, changed his mind again, and lowered his voice, "Does Lepidus want to repeat the ambush in Andabukia? Maybe he was on my way to the Apis camp. "Come on, set up a cavalry ambush again, good Lepidus, I will not be fooled again." Then Scipio ordered the whole legion, all the infantry and baggage to follow.

Sure enough, in the valleys and dense forests, small groups of enemy cavalry shuttled back and forth from time to time. Sometimes they quickly retreated when they saw Scipio's main force, and sometimes they boldly fought with Ala's reconnaissance cavalry.

Scipio became more cautious, avoiding any shortcuts and advancing slowly.

On a hillside somewhere five Roman miles away from him, Hansk was covered in sweat from running, with about two hundred Mattian cavalry behind him. The German cavalry captain simply took off his helmet. Revealing her golden hair in a bun. Galloping all the way up, there Lepidus and the troubled Parthian prince Mindaz stood side by side, arranging the gathering of his cavalry.

Seeing Hansk's arrival, Lepidus went straight in. "Last night's cavalry night attack has frightened Pompey's father-in-law. Now you can follow me with most of the cavalry and go north. Go and defeat the Menander Bronze Shield on the northern line." military."

If the time calculation is correct, the 15,000 bronze shield troops are now heading south and encounter the 12 legions sent by Lepidus.

After announcing this order, Lepidus handed the portrait flag of King Numa to Mindaz, "Give you a thousand cavalry and contain the two enemy legions here." Mindaz's heart trembled. This task is not difficult. It is considered low, but he is also a descendant of the Parthian Kingdom, and now he is under the Roman army. What will he rely on to avenge his brother and seize the throne in the future?

Come to think of it, Mindaz took the flag. He said that I was going to retreat three Roman miles and then build a fort on the road to confuse these people.

Lepidus nodded, then led the rest of the generals, gathered all the cavalry together, and delivered a short speech on the snowy wasteland, indicating his tactical purpose, "We originally marched sixty miles in a hurry, and from the tower Ketun rushed here and slashed Scipio's head with his sword. He was already too timid to speed up his march easily. This despicable general only cared about his own luggage, where he had spent half his life fighting for his life. With the hundreds of drachma silver coins I have obtained, I will prepare to go back to Rome in the future and use the money to open a small bathroom! From now on, I hope all the elite cavalry, that is, you will work hard and gallop another sixty or even a hundred. In Rome, do not leave your saddles and weapons and rush to the plains before the Amasian Valley to assist our comrades in the Twelve Legions and completely defeat the Bronze Shields of Menander, the villain and villain. I was in Bosch at that time. He had been defeated in the Kingdom of Prussia. His tactics and soldiers exuded the smell of obsolescence. He was still clinging to the spear phalanx of the Alexander era, but he had only strengthened a division of 4,000 men to six. There are more than a thousand people, and more spearmen are added. Let us attack their weak points hard, kill them all in the wilderness, and fertilize the entire wheat field of Taktun with their blood. If we are lucky, we will still be there. In the direction of Taktun, we received more assistance and reinforcements from friendly forces from Fort Lepidah, and set out with the belief that we would win, turning ourselves and our horses into swords like the wind!"

"Sword like the wind!" More than five thousand cavalry, including the Cappadocia people, were swinging their spears on their horses, and then followed Lepidus, who was leading the horse, and headed north with the blue cloak he was wearing. Sweeping away.

It was not until the evening of that day that Scipio's Eighth Army slowly met up with Apis, who had deliberately slowed down his pace. The two commanders looked at each other speechlessly, and Apis once again made a suggestion, "Your Excellency, General. , I personally suggest not to go to Taktun now, but to head back to the Lydian plain and go to Silesia to temporarily settle down." These words made Scipio hesitate, but he still couldn't make up his mind. It is said that Caesar's pursuit force is not enough, and there are still several legions left by the opponent on the Greek islands. We are not in danger of being attacked from both sides for the time being, so we still have to insist on cooperating with Menander to capture Taktun and rely on Uk to revive the sea. versus Caesar.

"Then I'll continue to accompany you. Maybe I can get a chance to fight." Apis stopped suggesting anything, but he soon discovered that since joining the enemy, the marching orders issued by Scipio, It is completely in a pre-war mode. One legion has one day, and it is based on the requirement of three to six Roman miles. In this case, it will not be possible to reach Taktun in two days - and now is the critical moment when every second counts, but Xibi Ah seems to be more interested in his own baggage. The core of all tactics is "protecting the baggage."

But after the two legions advanced for less than five Roman miles, they discovered the camp set up by Mindaz on the mountain pass. This camp was set up very cleverly. Only part of it was exposed on the cliff, and the rest was covered by Hidden outside the peaks, Scipio then noticed the numerous emblems and flags on the camp, and began to hesitate, preparing to send out scouts to find out the size of the enemy's blocking team.

"Your Excellency General, if you guessed correctly, this is just a suspicious enemy troop. Just leave a small number of cavalry to monitor us. Our main force will take a detour and continue to advance."

But Scipio ignored Apis' correct request. He looked at the side road around the mountain pass in the dusk. It was completely blurry in the increasingly heavy wind and snow. "I understand." Well, it turns out that this camp was Lepidus' treacherous plan. He set the camp there to induce me to take a detour, and he must have set up an ambush on both sides of the road over there, hum. Lepidus, the cunning East. Foreign general, but no one told you that the same trick will not work on a Roman the second time? "

After thinking about it, Scipio shouted, "The whole army will camp under the cliff here and set up strict sentries!" Then he sent out one hundred and twenty cavalry and began to brave the wind and snow at night, along the way. The patrol on the mountain road advanced. (To be continued...)