Augustus Road

This was the first confrontation between two elite armies at the extreme ends of the two worlds. In other words, the Romans knew little about the Sarmatians before, and many naturalists always confused them with the Scythians. But the Scythians chewed hemp leaves and were good at using bows and arrows as guerrilla tactics; while the Sarmatians put equal emphasis on bows and arrows as well as cavalry, and could fight both guerrillas and tough battles. Their tactics were quite similar to the Mattian cavalry. , also formed a loose formation for a surprise attack, waving their long spears, approaching the position of the 15th Army. {}

In particular, the fish-dragon flag held by King Asander of Sarmatia is an eye-catching and eye-catching symbol. Its front end is a golden dragon head with a ferocious face and sharp teeth, and behind it is a "fish" made of bags. "Body", once it starts running and galloping, the wind pours in from the faucet, pulling the fish body up and dancing, and drives the wind wheel in the bag, whining and whistling, giving the enemy strong psychological oppression.

It is a pity that the Fifteenth Legion, which had fought many fierce battles in the desert and on the European continent, would not take this fish-dragon flag seriously. Facing the incoming Sarmatians, they tilted all their archers. They were arranged in two rows at the front and back, with six rows in each row setting up bows and taking arrows respectively. Then the front row focused on direct shooting, and the back row concentrated on ejection. This was an improvement on the "**1" thunder salvo tactics.

The Sarmatians fell from their horses one after another in the rain of arrows. More and more people and horses were shot and wounded, and their formation became thinner and thinner. They only had about a thousand people, and they were facing ten people. The fifth legion was weak before the concentrated fire of three thousand archers, not to mention the remaining infantry of the fifteenth legion, which also began to form into small hollow square formations, preparing to fight the cavalry.

at last. It was Assander holding the fish-dragon flag. But the whine was in the opposite direction. Facing further and further away, in just two furlongs' impact distance, he actually lost nearly 400 strong cavalry, and collapsed before he saw the enemy's formation. This had a huge psychological impact on the brave and skilled Assander. He remembered the name of Lepidus, a Roman general, and surrendered readily during his subsequent expedition to the Bosporus. In exchange for titles from Roman allies, he provided them with mercenaries.

Seeing the nomadic cavalry fleeing in panic, Menander raised his body on the saddle and cried speechlessly, because after these cavalry left, he could only hope that the bronze shield army on the front line could defeat the tens of thousands of people resisting frontally. The second legion was defeated, otherwise they would all be dead and wounded sooner or later in the flying arrows. "Blow the horn of the entire army to attack, and no one is allowed to retreat. I repeat, no one is allowed to retreat!" Menander has already said Become a red-eyed gambler. He bent the riding crop and muttered nervously, "What I got is a good omen of victory. All the immortal gods should be on my side. I just need to hold on for a little longer, and hold on for a little longer."

At this moment, the Bronze Shield Army, which suffered heavy casualties, was divided into groups of twos and threes, and marched on the piles of corpses into the camp of the Twelve Legions. However, under the dexterous command of Carlenus and Biduita, all The sergeants were still resisting step by step, camp by camp and fence by fence. The momentum of the Bronze Shield Army was also declining. Many soldiers were injured and could not continue to move forward. They just sat there covered in blood, holding their swords or broken spears tightly in their hands, with angry eyes. , shouting for the victory of one's own army.

At this moment, in the core camp of the Twelve Legions, Tagus jumped onto the platform and raised the Balantia Mountain Falcon flag high in his hand. Then the soldiers placed the equipment behind the wooden fence and tore off the shield with a roar. The leather and grass were exactly the continuous-shooting abdominal bows designed by Adiana during the defense of Taktun. This time, six of them were specially dismantled from the fortress tower and transported to the front line here. "Amasya and Sinop is the land of my ancestors. If we cannot recover it, no matter what happens in the future, my life will be bleak. Therefore, I, Adiana, a descendant of the Mitra family, will support Rome at all costs. Cavalry Commander."

The Eubotian gunner who operated the continuous-fire abdominal bow skillfully moved the wooden engine back and forth with his hands. With a "clucking" sound, the crossbow arrows with short range but huge piercing power whizzed towards the enemy. The Bronze Shield Army continued to advance, like withered flowers in the middle of winter, they fell into the cold and dirty trenches one by one. The essence of training for five or even ten years died so easily. Soon the right ear of the Bronze Shield Army , only a few units were left intact, and the rest were damaged by the brutal firepower. Then the Twelve Legions shouted and launched a counterattack. They crossed the wooden fence, jumped down from all directions, and nimbly bit the left and right sides of the Bronze Shield Army detachment, killing them continuously with throwing spears and short swords.

At this time, the Zuoer Army could only detach some of its flanking troops to contend with the Fifteenth Army, which was shooting wildly from far away. The rest of the detachments were in the central position, unable to advance or retreat, and could only keep wandering back and forth. Useless.

The whole situation was already in a mess. The 12,000-strong Bronze Shield Army had already suffered one-third casualties at the second daylight hour in the afternoon, but this was not the worst. Soon on their right flank, More Romans emerged, led by Lepidus himself. Five thousand cavalry and twenty-eight legions, together with no less than ten thousand infantry, slowly formed a formation, heading towards the weak flank of the Bronze Shield Army step by step. Come slowly and slowly.

There were terrifying horns and piercing horns everywhere.

In this way, Lepidus' three legions, 5,000 cavalry, and 3,000 Adiana reinforcements surrounded the valley of Amasya, and successively deployed troops to form a perfect pocket formation, trapping Menander's Bronze Shield Army in the middle.

"Will the Bronze Shield Army be destroyed today?" Finally, Menander said this with a pale face. Behind him, several priests had been held down and beheaded one by one, but all this was of no avail. Menander saw with his own eyes that the big flag embroidered with the sun logo of the god Mithra suddenly fell in the fighting crowd and could never be raised again.

The cold wind swept by, the setting sun was like blood, and the ominous cold light was reflected on the soldiers of the Bronze Shield Army who were crawling around with arrow feathers and wounds. The entire battlefield had turned into purgatory, with a mixture of blood and snow everywhere, and corpses of various postures. Many soldiers had completely collapsed psychologically, or stayed where they were, lost the courage to resist, and were hacked to death by the Romans' swords, or threw down their spears and fled in panic.

The two camps originally captured by the Bronze Shield Army were soon broken by Lepidus's 28th Legion. The hundreds of Menander soldiers stationed inside were all killed and captured. Then Lepidus's cavalry were all lined up in the wilderness in front of the two camps, with swords and lances standing in rows, neighing like the wind. Facing the setting sun, Lepidus shouted, "Step on the enemy's corpses and launch an assault on the camp of Menander who has lost his fighting spirit. We will wash away the dust of the expedition in Sinop!" (To be continued...)u