Chapter 7 The Curse of Aetius (Part 2)
Training the war horses to adapt to the bronze drums is indeed a top priority, but there is another point that Tobias later emphasized: the war horses of the attached cavalry brigade, including the pack horses of the entire legion, are facing a number crisis.
Horses were the most precious resource in ancient times, and they were also the most luxurious war consumables. It is not an exaggeration to say that raising a horse is equivalent to raising four or even ten people. At that time, when the expedition set out from Gaul, the entire cavalry brigade had more than 2,000 war horses, which was a surplus. But after the battle, many were injured and sick, and there were less than 1,000 horses left, barely enough for one person and one horse, but Tony Hanske warned that if there were only so many horses, they would probably be lost during the march to Asia Minor before the war with Parthia.
"My money will be used to search for horses throughout Cyrenaica!" Lepidar did what he said. After consulting the two, he decided to divide the plan into three parts as an important part of Cyrene's development plan in the next three years. First, they prepared to extract a commission from the salt and crystal trade of the Kingdom of Caramanthea in the south, imitate the navy, and establish a "horse-herding fund". The first part was paid by Lepidus with 400 talents. In addition, Ptolemy also consciously paid this year's "Lepidus gold" totaling 300 talents. This money was used to buy horses from all over Libya.
There are several main sources of horses. One is to buy them directly from the people of Cyrene at a marked price. Both pack horses and plow horses are fine, or escaped war horses that were privately hidden by the people in the previous war. Some wealthy Jewish or Greek lords in the local area also forcibly collected some horses. The second is to send merchants to trade with various tribes in southern and western Libya. Everything can be sold. Crystal, salt. This included Libida's hasty order to melt all the gold and silver coins that the Hashidi believers had looted from the city-state treasury, and to have the crafts made by the craftsmen go to buy excellent Berber horses, and to build a special trading house at the trading location. These horses were mainly used as new war horses.
As for the third part, it was to prepare to set up stables in Barka and Yazda next year, managed by a special treasurer, and to purchase a batch of mares for breeding and reproduction to expand the number of horses. "They were raised in the Yazda River Valley, but all the war horses that were drawn out were raised in the Barka Fortress." Tobias's worries were very realistic - Yazda was close to many barbarians in the south. Once there was any change or conflict, the place where the horses were raised was affected and the war horses were taken away. That would be a big loss.
After a tense month, nearly a thousand war horses were finally recruited. In addition, a considerable number of pack horses were brought in to make up for the previous deficit of the legion. And Sabo also felt that the commander-in-chief was a very interesting person. The entire Roman Republic, whether Caesar or Pompey, did not attach much importance to cavalry. Anyway, there were Gauls or Aetolians who played the role of auxiliary cavalry and were deployed on the wings of the legion to prevent the enemy from breaking through. But this Lepidus now seemed to regard the breeding of horses as a key link in the combat effectiveness of the entire army and as a long-term undertaking. His goal was obviously not to gather a cavalry wing of Ala for each legion, but to form a legion with cavalry alone.
In addition, during this month, sometimes Lepidus, who was lying on the couch, was thinking over and over again. I may not be able to save Crassus, but I must save myself. What is the difference between my legion and Crassus's legion? What is the advantage of the Parthians, as far as I know? This is not like fighting any enemy before. The burden on his heart is heavier than anyone else, but in other words, the whole brain is running and burning rapidly.
After sorting out Tobias's words, Lepidus came up with several clues. The advantages of the Parthians lie in the range of bows and arrows, the lethality of bows and arrows, the advantage of horses, and the reasonable combination and coordinated operations of heavy and light cavalry. If this expedition wants to win, these points must not be ignored.
Thinking of this, Lepidus got up from the bed and walked to the courtyard behind. The whole building was blue-gray in the night. Under the grapevine, Alp was playing with Matthias throwing lamb leg bones. Several Medgers and Lusitanian swordsmen were on guard in front of the tower and the gate, coughing and talking from time to time.
"Use your bow and arrow to shoot a target for me to see." Lepidus pointed at Alp and said.
Archery is the strong point of the Medjie people in the Kusi region. Although Alp was a little puzzled, he still took out his weapon, a Nubian composite bow, pulled the string to the full, and aimed at the copper target at a distance of 120 Roman feet. With a loud bang, even though the copper target was two palms thick, it was still pierced by Alp's divine power. The brass arrowhead passed through the copper plate, revealing a length of three palms.
"This is you, Alp. How far can an ordinary archer, even a Cretan archer, get with the single bow commonly used by our army?"
Alp shrugged his shoulders and said, "Respected commander, on the contrary, probably because the island of Crete is rich in high-quality wood, the power and range of the single bow they use are not inferior to any other nation, and the arrowheads of the Cretans obviously strengthen the distribution of copper, making them very heavy, and they are thrown to the top of the enemy's head, and then the arrowhead falls rapidly due to its own weight, which can tear any armor." However, this kind of archery requires a very long time of training, so in the entire ocean only the Cretans can use it. It is a skill that can only be learned alone.
"But I just thought about it. The number of Cretans is still small, but our army urgently needs a large number of archers to fight against the Parthians. You should understand what I mean. What I want is cheap archers who can be trained in a short time. Or to put it bluntly, even if there is not enough time, I still hope that the Nubians, the Aesios, and the Vipicinas can have bows that can rival the Parthians in this expedition."
Alp's dark skin was really hard to distinguish in the night. He only saw his white teeth bared and said sorry, I don't know much about the difference between the Parthian bow and the bow in the Kusi region. How did its range and arrowhead surpass ours?
"I don't know the details, I must ask Joseph from the Chamber of Commerce to find a way to get one, no matter how much money is spent. If Parthia really allows all riders to have this new type of bow and arrow, it will definitely not be difficult to get it." Li Bi Da made up his mind. He believed that the reason why Crassus was defeated by Parthia in this plane seemed to be that he did not understand the enemy's situation at all, and thought that the opponent's tactics were no different from those of the barbarians in Asia Minor. "Know yourself and know your enemy" is the most basic and profound thing in the art of war. (To be continued...)