Augustus Road

So in the town of Mykonin, located northwest of the salt lake of the same name, Caesar's army and Pompey's army had their first rear guard and vanguard battle. The legion arranged by Caesar was the Thirteenth Legion. They formed a horizontal line along the town of Mykonin, blocking the road between the town and the salt lake, and brought a large number of archers with golden fly flags, shooting arrows at the chasing Pompey army like rain.

"Charge over, just in time to find out Caesar's details." Pompey ordered calmly, and then Vibrius and Peletaus led the chief battalions of the First and Second Legions respectively, forming a formation like a sharp cone, and rushed over bravely - in addition, the three battalions of the First Legion went around to the north of the town of Mykonin, to form a situation of looting and attacking the Thirteenth Legion.

The arrow suppression of the Thirteenth Legion did not last too long, and it had a melee with Pompey's vanguard, killing and injuring many people, and then fled.

Pompey then led his guards and followers, rode into the deserted town of Mykonin, climbed up the tower next to the small hall, and looked out over Caesar in front of him. This time, the Ten Legions took about two full days to cover each other and retreat, and Pompey's front guards were exhausted, with many casualties, and the rest of the soldiers sat on the ground to rest; Pompey on the tower could only ask Labinus's Sixth Legion to continue and not relax the pursuit of Caesar.

This time, the "La Colonia" Legion did not encounter any effective interception from Caesar. It successfully advanced four Roman miles, along the salt lake, and reached the land west of Thapsus by the sea.

But Pompey was very frustrated to find that he had been tricked by Caesar again: Caesar played a trick again. He selected 600 soldiers from each of the three legions and marched lightly without luggage, rushing ahead of everyone to block the people of Tapsus. This battle even took place before Pompey arrived at the city of Mykonin. Then Caesar quickly built a crescent-shaped blockade along the periphery of the city of Tapsus - he continuously sent out rear guards to buy time for this fortification. "We also built simple camps and barriers, and prepared to fight Caesar in the future!" Pompey ordered, and then he sandwiched many war elephants and cavalry on his wings. In the center, he and Labinus personally urged everyone to set up the camp with all their strength, "Don't be afraid of the enemy's attack. They have fought for a day and built a camp, and their strength is exhausted." This is Pompey's judgment.

In front of the southern corridor, Lepidus joined his Sixth Legion, and then also under the Tapsus, he sent out half of his dismounted cavalry to form a defense line, and then he took the rest of the troops to build three mutually supporting camps.

"We can't give Lepidus a chance to set up camps." Scipio and King Juba quickly determined the answer, and then they commanded the elephants to rush up, "Charge, charge, show the results of my training, you should not be afraid of any stone and arrows now!" Scipio sat on the elephant tower, excitedly shouting at the elephant divisions on the left and right, rushing towards Lepidus's line. According to Scipio's understanding, in such a crowded environment, it was the best place for war elephants to exert their power, and there would be a scene of blood and flesh flying and trampling.

However, Hybrida stood at the front of the line and asked the soldiers to throw out caltrops and set up many large animal traps, yes, animal traps. When he served in the Seventh Legion for many years, he used this thing to deal with the sickle-bladed chariots of Pontus.

"Fool, do you really think that war elephants are invincible?" Lepidus sneered in his heart, "Animals can never overcome their inherent shortcomings, but humans can. This is the most basic principle for them to climb to the top of the food chain after millions of years of evolution."

Standing behind the caltrops and traps were the low-lying Agrians and Rhodesians. The rain of stone bullets they smashed was overwhelming, which was much more cruel than when the elephants were trained. During the training, many soldiers saw the tears on the face of the commander Scipio and secretly relaxed the force of smashing the elephants, but Lepidus's men had no such concerns, because they didn't want to be trampled to death by these thick-skinned beasts.

Many elephants cried out in pain, unable to bear the pain, and began to ignore the orders of the mahouts, turning around and running around, causing chaos in the narrow area for the following infantry and cavalry. The rest of the elephants that rushed forward also panicked in front of the caltrops and traps, and dared not trample forward. All the attacking formations were blocked in front of Lepidus's firepower line, so the attacks of arrows and slings became more fierce, causing heavy casualties to the subordinates of Scipio and King Juba. After about half a day, they retreated one after another and could only set up camps in dejection.

The day's battle ended, but at dusk, Pompey discovered a crucial change in the situation: a large number of ships suddenly appeared on the coast outside the city of Tapsus. That was Lepidus concentrating all of Caesar's and his own ships. Aquila commanded the left-wing fleet, and Aidanges commanded the right-wing fleet, directly blocking the sea surface of the city of Tapsus. They all came from the island of Kerchi and replenished sufficient supplies.

Then, Caesar's trump card appeared. From the flat-bottomed boats of the fleet, three new legions, the 12th Legion, the 5th Legion and the 15th Legion, came down one after another. They were all secretly transferred to the ships by Caesar a few days ago, waiting to appear today and become the key to defeating Pompey.