Augustus Road

Oh, now Lepidus knew where the "Lightning Throwers" legion had wandered. It turned out that it had already penetrated into the city of Santoni, cutting off the roundabout path of the Helvetic people. .

Poor, 300,000 barbarians are about to be captured by Julius Caesar in the narrow area between the Ara River, the Sequani Channel and the Santoni Plain, like a flock of desperate birds, entering Luo.

Half a market day later, in the noisy and busy camp, the priests of Phichiaris from Rome, holding bronze plates declaring war, stood dumbly in the torrent of soldiers coming and going, at a loss. The chief elder La He lived like a centurion and said, "I need to see the governor. I represent the Senate to read out the decree of war against Helvetia."

"Dear elder, you are late. We have already fought against the Helvetic barbarians in advance." The centurion saluted and ran away in a hurry.

The helpless priests could only hand over the order to the deputy general Rabinus who stayed in the camp. The other party solemnly took the bronze plate, and then asked the priests in the legion to keep it in a sealed cabinet. Then Rabinus Si felt that some of his past worries were dispelled, and he slowly sat down until several scale officers came to report on the inventory of military rations:

"There are 20,000 infantrymen, 10,000 slaves accompanying the camp, and packhorse equipment. Now there are 6,000 more barbarian auxiliary cavalry. The army's rations cannot last more than a month."

Rabinus said with a sullen face, "Didn't they supply supplies to the regular legions?" The scale officer replied, but the two auxiliary legions have been delaying for ten days, and they are afraid that they cannot be delayed any longer.

"Don't worry too much. Send the rest of the food and meat to the auxiliary army as soon as possible. At least one-half of the quota must be guaranteed. The Aedui tribe is rich in food. They will allocate a considerable amount to support the army soon. These two auxiliary legions are needed for the current battle." As soon as Rabinus finished speaking, the scale officers took the order and left.

In the wilderness outside the Ala River, the barbarian cavalry assisting Caesar once again started a melee with the rearguard Helvetic cavalry. The smoke and dust were like a storm, and javelins were flying everywhere. These barbarians were really ruthless in fighting each other. Rome The false hatred generated by the provocation of the envoys was the root cause of their anger. They basically gave up the usual turning and flanking tactics of the light cavalry. Instead, they directly lined up the cavalry into a dense impact formation, and then launched a rapid attack - after throwing javelins at each other, they pulled out their Celtic long swords without using shields at all, and fiercely The ground collided together, and then there was a bloody battle one on one, either on horseback or jumping off the horse, in the rolling heat waves and dust.

Among the temporary camps further away. Lepidus made various gestures with sweat on his face, and the buglers around him kept blowing various communication trumpets. The artillery detachment, under the command of Pope, grumbled about the weather and the commander, digging slope-like shallow trenches for the use of cavalry artillery.

According to Caesar's arrangement, the four regular legions are still resting and accumulating strength at the back, while the 6,000 cavalry of the Seguanni, Allobrogis and Aedui barbarians are responsible for holding the Helvetii in front. "Tail", Lepidus's 12th Auxiliary Corps acted as the "chain" in the middle.

"I must tell you that the soldiers are very resentful about the food rationing!" At this time, Milu ran over and took off his helmet, wiped the sweat from the back of his neck, and said to the commander.

"Of course. If we fight together with the regular army, they are all queens, and we are just maids in the palace. Do you think it will be as fun as following me in Lusitania?" Lepidus laughed dryly, and used a gold-plated baton on He pounded the mud under his feet, rolled his eyes, and said to Milu, "The situation immediately is also very clear. When the Helvetic people have crossed halfway, Caesar will launch a decisive attack on the remaining barbarians. , the main force is the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 14th Army Corps, the order we received is probably to stick to the existing positions, we have no share. "

"The trophy..." Milu asked.

Lepida squinted his eyes and pretended to look around at the scenery, then said to Milu: "Brother, don't you have the treasure of Saab in your hands now? You should immediately select a team of 100 people from the first brigade of 1,000 people to escort Sabo mapped out the terrain of the battlefield as quickly as possible, and then we camped step by step, choosing a flat area closest to the Helvetic river crossing point. When Caesar gave the order for a general attack, we were the first to rush in and snatch the prisoners of war and loot. "

"But what if I accept the order as you predicted and stick to the existing position?"

"What else can be done, let's extend the existing position to the enemy. In that case, to defend is to attack, and to attack is to defend." Li Bida's words were full of philosophical speculation.

At this time, a landslide-like sound came from the front, and the observation scout standing on a hill somewhere in the 12th Legion shouted, "Our cavalry has collapsed!" Lepidus and Milu stood up and looked through the wooden fence. It was indeed so - the Helvetic cavalry was indeed strong, and the other three Gaul tribes together were no match for them, or it was precisely because they were three united that they argued with each other in command and were defeated - in the wilderness, the defeated Roman barbarian cavalry, like a swarm of flies flying everywhere, chose the road to escape, "Good guy, this time it won't be possible to gather until tomorrow. Push all the cavalry guns into the trench and prepare to shoot." The eighteen cavalry guns squeaked along the slope into the shallow trench, and in front of them, leather bags filled with soil were piled into a small circular fortification to resist javelins and slings. All the gunners were now half-kneeling around the crossbows in a formal manner, waiting calmly at their posts.

Fortunately, Lepidus had foresight and erected two rows of wooden fences in front of the legion, so that the barbarian cavalry who were retreating did not rush into their own camp, but fled from the direction of the two wings, so that the firing range of the cavalry cannon was completely clear. So when the Helvetii cavalry shouted terrifying slogans and rushed towards the Romans' subsequent camp with the heads and flags of the enemy, two waves of crossbows knocked them over. Many people seemed to have seen the punishment of Thor, lost their spirit, and could only turn around and flee.

"Okay, tell Sabo to run to see me." Lepidus saw all this and ordered calmly.

But after this day's battle, the Helvetii were still full of pride and confidence. Didn't the three tribes still lose a big loss in the cavalry battle with us? We can cross the Ara River and leave the Romans behind.

So they overlooked that on a small rise outside the crossing point of the Ara River, the garrison was attacked fiercely and tirelessly by a Roman army. )