Chapter 20 The Road to Ursau (Part 2)

At that time, the entire battlefield fell into a brief silence, followed by a wave of shouts of "Long live" - ​​followed by Dusonville's cavalry, they stood up one after another, holding up their swords and shields, and walked along the Machius boulder. The breaches they made rushed forward unstoppably. The military slaves also gritted their teeth and used rope chains from behind to drag the components of various siege equipment and risk their lives to move forward. The high priest agreed to them, After this battle, each man was rewarded with a bushel of wine and twenty silver drachmas.

The cavalry artillery gunners at the bottom of the valley also showed extreme bravery. The arrows hit the iron shield in front of them, causing sparks to fly. They remained calm and kept shooting at the enemy's camp. A light round stone bullet, It whizzed past all the soldiers below, grazed diagonally on the cliff, and ejected diagonally to a towering tower in the southeast corner of the camp. Above it was a centurion of Machius and two cannon operators. The soldiers and a military slave immediately fell together with the shattered tower, and they all died.

This "refreshing" cannonball once again made all the soldiers of Lepidus cheer. The high priest himself took off his helmet directly and rode his horse to the front line where the arrows were strewn. "Medecei Guards, Lusitania Swordsmen" Team, everyone press on me, today we have the blessing of the God of War, whether it is Mars or Reus, their blessing is with us, the enemy will soon pay the price for their stupidity! "

"They are assembling bellows cannons, hurry up, get the charcoal carts down!" shouted an angry Marcius. With a bang, his soldiers opened the main entrance of the camp, and then the military slaves moved two carts equipped with many pointed weapons. Thorns and javelins lit the chariot of fire. Then let out a shout. I pushed it down along the slope under the main entrance.

Several soldiers of the Reus Legion were half-crouching. The shields were folded into a ring-shaped protective belt. Several military slaves behind them shouted and stretched out some long and weird iron forks. As a result, they forcibly caught the two charcoal carts, and the spikes poured out. and flaming charcoal, one after another hit the soldier's shield, one of them jumped on the face of the soldier slave, and he immediately howled miserably. He covered his face and rolled on the ground. The other people immediately rushed forward to help put out the fire.

"Come on, come on!" Several military slaves wearing strange asbestos clothes rushed up. They held small bellows cannons in their hands, but they soon sprayed out water splashes, which actually destroyed the burning coals. The cart was doused, and then the rest of the slaves used scratching hooks and ropes. Pulled the charcoal cart away.

Assembled bellows cannon with iron shield. Silly Dahei group forced himself up the slope. Everyone in the camp knew how powerful this thing was, so they made a mess. Many people had already escaped from the main entrance and the tower, and Machius was also anxious. He was sweating profusely and rushed forward with his personal barbarian guards.

A burst of dazzling flames swept directly through the main entrance of the camp. The guarding soldiers in front of them were instantly swallowed up. Many people screamed and ran around with their bodies covered with fire. "Get back inside." Gius was indeed an expert in civil engineering. He built a chain of fortresses. The main gate burned by Lepidus' army was just a peripheral "barn city". He built a road with iron gates on a slightly higher platform. The bronze city gate and the surrounding wooden gates and towers served as the second line of defense, so Marcius quickly led the rest of his troops to close the defense. Lepidus's dismounted cavalry attacked several times, but failed to succeed. .

At this time, the battle situation fell into a stalemate, but for Lepidus, he could not continue the stalemate. If Machius's reinforcements arrived, he would be finished.

It seems that all expectations are really pinned on Audax for the time being.

At this time, Audax, who was a little drunk, took everyone along the dense woods and took a long detour under the guidance of the guide. Everyone was very tired, especially when they heard the sound in the distance. The shouts of death and the fireworks from the valley bottom made them even more anxious when they knew that the battle was already underway. Elks kept jumping up and down in front of them. Everyone pushed aside the thorns and walked hard with one foot deep and one shallow. With.

"Arp, I give you a mission, which is to ask Marcius to surrender." Amidst the smoke and smoke, the high priest suddenly gave the captain of the guard this mission.

So the noble warrior from Nubia tied the spear in his hand with a ribbon and an olive branch, slowly walked alone to the gate of the camp's defense line, and loudly asked in simple Greek to talk to the commander.

But Marcius was very angry. He shouted that if there was to be a peace negotiation, it should be a matter between the top commanders of both sides. It would be disrespectful to Lepidus to send a guard captain to discuss such an important matter. .

"But our supreme commander is the high priest of the Republic, and as far as we know, your official rank is as high as provincial treasurer, and has not yet entered the Senate." The famous retinue next to Arp said with a certain embarrassment. Emotion says.

Subsequently, the two sides began to argue, and Marcius insisted, "The current situation is on the battlefield, so the official rank in peacetime does not apply. The high priest is not allowed to go on the journey to command the army in battle, but this does not mean Did you come to Spain with a dozen legions? So here, our status is equal."

Marcius was frothing, and the staff and centurions around him reminded them to prevent the enemy from cheating, "It doesn't matter, Lepidus is using a delaying tactic, and so am I. I'm just waiting for the reinforcements to arrive as quickly as possible." ." Machius replied in a low voice, looking very confident.

Sure enough, the high priest rode his horse himself, and the two sides agreed not to use throwing weapons against each other. They came to a distance of one and a half stadia from the camp. The Medjet Guards nervously used shields to protect Lepidus. The two began to talk about this and that, and gradually in the evening, the high priest saw that the negotiations were fruitless, so he temporarily withdrew the soldiers on the front line, and Machias was also full of confidence - reinforcements would arrive at the latest in the afternoon tomorrow, and Lepidus would be unable to escape.

After sunset, Machias also counted his troops and found that most of them were still intact and could be combined into a complete force of three battalions. The food and equipment in the core warehouse of the camp were also well preserved, and the morale was still strong. This made Machias more relieved. He carefully inspected each sentry post, and then sat in his tent command post, sleepless, excited and nervous waiting for the arrival of the next day's dawn.

After a while, he felt a little sleepy, so he lay down on the camp bed, but he couldn't fall asleep. After all, he had just experienced a fierce battle during the day. Now the enemy couldn't eat him, and he couldn't eat the enemy either. However, Lepidus should not have successors, but he did. He just had to wait patiently. Thinking of this, Machias turned over and sat up again. At this time, the serviceman he hated the most walked in. (To be continued...)