Chapter 13: Counterattack (Part 2)

Rabinus put on his helmet, rode on horseback, surrounded by guards, and rushed to a place two stadias away from the old seaside camp to watch the battle. ..

Rabinus was very familiar with those who stood firm in the old camp, because he could tell from the shield emblem that they were the men of the Twelve Legions. They also raised the iconic Balantian Mountain Falcon flag. These soldiers He stood extremely fiercely in front of the wooden fence studded with iron nails, resisting the siege of his subordinates. Coincidentally, the four brigades that attacked the old camp were all Caesar's old soldiers who had surrendered together with Antony's brother Gaius. It seems that this is another fratricidal battle between former colleagues.

Many of the attacking troops tied thin firecracker wickers on the brim of their helmets. This was a new invention of Rabinus at the time, in order to reduce the number of soldiers being hit by stones when attacking Caesar's camp. The damage they suffered now became the basis for identifying the identities of the two armies. They continued to besiege Calernus' old camp along various roads, but Calernus skillfully resisted them one by one. At this time, Rabinus realized that the fruits of victory might be picked up by Lepidus who rushed out from the darkness. He was instantly dominated by anger and gritted his teeth and said, "Increase the number of attacking troops to eight." A brigade!”

Over there, Lelias's men were divided into two groups by the tributaries of the Jimmons River. The one-eyed general saw on the hillside in front of him, standing his most hated foreign enemy general, and the opponent's The flag, the immortal statue captured by the Sixth Army from the city of Masseria, is densely lined with about 3,000 infantrymen and archers on the hillside. A simple deer village has been formed with temporarily sharpened wooden stakes at the front and has been laid. Trebuchet. and the odd ballistae pulled by a mule-drawn carriage. and a train of scorpion crossbows. It seems that the defense has been built for a period of time.

"The bastard named Lepidus is really calm." Lailias thought to himself and ordered all the soldiers to stop us from expanding our victory. Continue to maintain formation and chase the opponent's defeated troops. "Let the defeated troops rush into the enemy's position on that hillside."

As a result, the soldiers of the two legions, stripped of their armor, let out loud shouts of supplication, and poured in like a tide from the position of the Sixth Legion towards Lepidus. Then all the soldiers from Sardinia turned their heads and looked at it in embarrassment. I asked the Acting Commander-in-Chief, hoping that he would issue instructions to deal with this situation.

"Once the army's position, deer camp and battle line are formed, anyone who appears in front of them will be treated as an enemy. I don't need to say more about this!" Li Bida looked seriously and held the baton. He knocked down hard, and then the bugler next to him immediately sounded the sound of a shooting horn.

The scorpion crossbows, cavalry cannons, trebuchets, and the archers from the front line behind the deer village all poured out the weapons at the same time. As a result, the defeated soldiers were overturned in large areas at once, and the remaining ones no longer dared to wail. Instead, they rolled and crawled, scattered to both sides of Li Bida's position, and fled without their lives. In this way, the area of ​​fire for Lelias's troops was cleared in a short time, and the second round was directed at them.

This kind of firepower was something Lelias had not seen before. In his concept, a legion of the Republic only had fifty-five scorpion crossbows, four trebuchets and ten crossbows. This was the standard equipment. of. But Li Bida clearly broke through the limitations of a single legion and concentrated all the artillery units directly under each legion and the light firepower of each centurion and placed them here at the Sixth Legion. In other words, there were one hundred and twenty Scorpion crossbows. Twelve trebuchets and no less than twenty cavalry cannons fired in unison.

Therefore, Lelias saw that the two brigades he was chasing at the front suffered a devastating blow in a very short period of time. At this time, the enemy's sixth corps began to cheer collectively and broke out. He shouted mockingly, "Let the next victory or defeat determine who is the hunter and who is the prey today!"

"Damn it!" Just when Lelias was about to withdraw his team and readjust his offensive, many people suddenly appeared on the longitudinal ridgeline on his right wing. These were the fifteenth legion, the dark-skinned Nubians. The soldiers once again adopted the "first and foremost" bow shooting tactic, concentrating eight hundred archers on the ridge line, arrows flying like plumes, and Lelias's right legion line also fell into chaos under such a blow.

"Withdraw all the troops!" Although Lelias was extremely brave in most cases, in the eyes of the philosophers at the time, bravery had always been the golden mean between cowardice and recklessness, so it was an advantage and a virtue, so he still succeeded. To avoid a reckless move, they requested that the two groups on the left and right, each with several brigades, be safely withdrawn along the tributaries of the Jimmons River. After all, breaking through Caesar's northern defense line was considered a great achievement.

Unexpectedly, there was another rapid blast of bugles. Lepidus waved his gilded baton, and the light spear-carrying chariot in front of the Thirteenth Legion roared out, followed by the Mattian cavalry carrying bows and arrows, and closely followed by The heavy infantry of the Thirteenth Legion.

Under these three waves of iron-blooded crushing, the front line of Lelias's left group also began to collapse. The entire seashore was full of soldiers killing each other. "Advance forward." This was Lepidus' death order. The soldiers of the three legions rushed down from all over the mountains and fields, chasing Lelias's defeated troops and heading towards the original position.

At this time, the eight brigades commanded by Labienus had already broken through the two wooden fences of the old camp after arduous battles. However, Kaleranus still withdrew the troops to the original core camp and continued to hold on. resistance.

"You ungrateful bastard, have you ever shown any favor to the other party in all your years as Creon of Pompey? It was Caesar who promoted you to the position of chief lieutenant, and it was also General Lepidus who protected your hometown of Kingulu during the war. Mom, now you have finally extended your butcher knife to your benefactor." Behind the wooden wall of the small camp, Calanus held his injured wrist and did not forget to angrily scold Labienus. He was an upright soldier and how much he respected Labien. Binnus, how much he hates each other now.

"Rabinus, you despicable villain!" The combatants and wounded soldiers of the 12th legion's chief brigade were all shouting this slogan in the small camp, and were still frantically tearing down the wall, and then smashing it down. .

Hearing such an angry rebuke, Labienus still had a low face, and the subordinates next to him suggested, "There is only this small part of the enemy's camp left, why not surround it, shoot in cork rockets, and burn them all to death."

But Rabinus did not respond in time, until he received the disastrous defeat of Lelias in front, and Lepidus had three legions rushing over, he just said lightly, "It's too late." and then issued the same order. The order to retreat. (To be continued...)