Chapter 33 Condicius's Reply (Part 2)

Soon, the cavalry horses under Lepidus began to stir restlessly. Animals have a much more sensitive sense of smell for the bloody smell of war than humans. The cavalry commander under the Silver Eagle extended his gaze to the far side of the desert, where a hurricane-like dust was raised. Yes, that was the enemy coming.

The alarm horn sounded throughout the camp. Sabo and Angondinus commanded and shouted nervously on the main road. After learning the news of the enemy's attack, the young soldiers of the Sixth Legion were busy organizing their battle preparations and formations. Everyone was excited and very nervous. In addition, Sabo also learned that although there were more than a thousand cavalrymen in the camp, war horses were a big problem. They were all good horses raised in the Cyrene pasture, but they were hungry, seasick, and vomited during the transportation process. After being pulled to the camp, they have not yet recovered to a state of combat. Only two or three hundred war horses of the Vipicinus people are still drivable.

Then, the cavalry commander also came to the front of the camp and said to all the soldiers: "Before the battle, someone asked me if we could climb up the high ground because it was very safe, but I refused outright. That was a cowardly act of seeking death. There is no water source on the high ground. If we do that, the enemy's light cavalry will quickly besiege us, and we will collapse before the reinforcements arrive. But we can't retreat into the camp, because that will also cut off the water source. This is the most painful lesson the Roman army learned in the Syrian War. So my sons and daughters of the Sixth Legion, everyone must follow my flag, keep calm, and bravely line up to fight. Smash the enemy's attack. They won't be rampant for long, and the rest of our comrades will soon come to reinforce us!" All the soldiers of the Sixth Legion responded and shouted. They followed the cavalry commander and the legion eagle flag, lined up in a compact formation, and walked out of the main gate of the camp. Beside them were Vipicinus' cavalry, and behind them were two hundred archers and slingers, all hired from Crete and Rhodes. Many new recruits with little military experience began to sweat on their faces. They felt that this desert area was simply too hot. It was incomparable to Sardinia, which had a pleasant climate and picturesque scenery. It was late autumn now. Anyway, they used these thoughts to distract themselves from their nervousness and anxiety.

Lepidus and other generals jumped off their horses in front of the soldiers. Standing in the front row, holding a shield, standing with all the combatants, and tightly protecting the silver eagle flag, seeing this scene, the mood of the Sixth Legion began to stabilize, and then they saw that the enemy in the distance had formed an unusually long horizontal line, like a very long and thin red line. Slowly advancing towards them.

"What the hell is Labinus doing!" Seeing this formation, even Lepidus couldn't help but grumble. If the Parthians and Cappadocians had the advantage in cavalry, they would confuse the opponent, probably forming a long column, making them look small in number from the front, and then suddenly spread their wings to surround and annihilate the enemy. But there is no formation like Labinus. Doesn't he have many cavalry under his command? And they were all infantry? Trying to surround us in a long horizontal column? At least from a dozen stadia away, in the yellow dust, it looked like Labinus's subordinates were closely packed with infantry, but when they were within visible distance, the Mauritanian and Numidian cavalrymen under Labinus straightened up from their horses. That's it! These people were originally lying on the saddle, so from a distance, they were about the same height as the infantry.

Labinus used a brand-new tactic of mixing infantry and cavalry. The front row of the army he led was full of light infantry and cavalry, closely packed together, and Laelius followed behind with the heavily armed chief brigade. Of course, because of the obstruction of vision, Lepidus could not see it.

"Prepare to shoot!" When the centurion raised the golden fly flag, a small number of archers and slingers rushed to the front line through the formation of the Sixth Legion, ready to release a rain of arrows to stop the enemy formation from being killed. The four cavalry cannons on the other two wings also began to operate intensively.

But at the command of Labinus on the opposite side, his long horizontal column suddenly split quickly, and the light cavalry in it stirred up a lot of thick smoke and quickly galloped towards the farther area of ​​the Lepidus Legion position. "Sir, the cavalry commander, they are trying to surround our two wings." Sabo shouted loudly.

"Send the Vipicinus to disperse them." Lepidus responded.

The few Gaul cavalrymen bravely charged at the enemy's light cavalry. They thought that they had great confidence in dealing with these people after the previous battle. This was indeed the case. When Labinus' light cavalry saw this group of chain mail monsters with shining "Sparta", they whistled and moved away again. It seemed that they had not collapsed. They were playing with the Gaul cavalry, preparing to exhaust them before collecting the merits.

At the same time, all the light infantry under Labinus bravely rushed forward against the whirring stones and arrows, throwing out hunting spears that covered the sky and the sun, with a sharp sound, "Defend!" All the centurions shouted this order almost at the same time, and the soldiers of the Sixth Legion raised their shields with a bang, followed by a violent sound like hail hitting the leather awning.

"Counterattack!" Hebrida waved his arms with a sword, urging the standard bearer to issue this order. Then the Sixth Legion struck its shields again, and then launched a fierce short-range counterattack against the enemy's light infantry.

But the barefoot enemy infantry ran even faster. As a result, Lepidus squinted his eyes and monitored the situation on the battlefield in the rolling smoke. He found that the enemy javelin throwers were retreating in an orderly manner, because there were heavy infantry positions behind Labinus, and there were cavalrymen all around, ready to lure our army deep into the depths and then outflank us from the flank!

"Everyone stays at their original positions and is not allowed to pursue more than four steps beyond their respective team marks. Those who violate the order will be executed immediately." Lepidus quickly issued a new order.

The cavalry cannon was also pulled back to the camp. Because there was no cavalry or enough infantry to cover it, it was exposed to the assault distance of the enemy cavalry, which was extremely dangerous. Soon, the Vipicinus cavalry also retreated because of the injuries and fatigue of their horses. They dismounted and began to join the infantry team, using javelins and bows to fight.

At this moment, Labinus, who seized the opportunity, drove all the cavalry to press forward. These dark-skinned guys galloped back and forth in front of the Sixth Legion's position, dodging the hunting spears thrown by the legion soldiers, and arrogantly shouted slogans, insulting and provoking, and launched short charges in small groups at any time, constantly eroding the Sixth Legion's position, pressing the soldiers into a very small area, trying to wait for an opportunity to trample and defeat everyone in one go.

In the dust and chaotic trumpet sounds, the Sixth Legion, which lacked experience, began to lose its composure. Many young people threw their hunting spears randomly before they could see the enemy clearly, but they were picked up by the enemy and thrown back with laughter.

Labinus simply bareheaded, rode a white horse, rushed to the opposite side of the Sixth Legion's front line, and said loudly and sarcastically, "Look at these new recruits, driven here by your commander to die, I really sympathize with you!"

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(End of this volume)