Augustus Road

"Hey, Mr. Lepidus." In the camp, the officers and soldiers of the 12th Legion who had obtained precious supplies put down their barbecue forks and saluted Lepidus, who was wearing ochre-red battle robes and golden armor.

Lepidus smiled as he walked through the crowd and then entered the commander's tent, where Sabo and Tagus stood straight, "How is it, the soldiers are all in good shape now. It seems that without supplies, even the God of War can't fight well. By the way, Sabo, how is the order I gave you?"

With sweat still hanging on his face, Sabo, who had shuttled back and forth between the camp and Mount Veia several times, had dark skin, but his clothes were still neat and tidy. Just now, he was constantly dusting before Lepidus came in, and he replied that the wild donkey catapults on Mount Veia continued to shoot fiercely at the barbarian crossing point under the illumination of the "Eyes of Juditia". From evening to morning, they have now focused on the pontoon bridge and small boats, and have made a lot of gains.

"Are there any difficulties?"

"The only trouble is that there are not enough stone bullets." Sabo said seriously, "Once this thing is exhausted, the efficiency of the blockade of the crossing point will be greatly reduced."

"Don't worry, the governor's supply not only sent beer and fat meat, but also transported a thousand stone bullets. Let the military slave team transport them up immediately." Seeing that Sabo had not left the tent to assist the commander Milu on the mountain, Li Bi Da asked curiously if there was anything else.

"Well, last time the commander asked me about the plan for the second cavalry gun, I have already written the first draft, please take the time to review it." After saying this, Sabo Kemus took out a roll of vellum and handed it to Li Bi Da respectfully. Then he saluted and left.

After spreading Sabo's vellum on the table. Li Bi Da began to read it carefully. Sabo's cavalry artillery pursuit plan is as follows: the regulations will not be changed, and the improved Celtic four-wheeled chariot will continue to be used as a tow, and follow the infantry brigade. Sabo's reforms are two points: first, the cavalry artillery will be divided into two echelons in the pursuit action, separated by a certain distance. When the first echelon starts shooting at the enemy's rear guard cavalry, the second echelon will continue to advance. If the first echelon drives away the enemy cavalry, the second echelon will cross the position of the first echelon, continue to advance for a distance, and then turn to the state of preparing to shoot, so as to try not to give the Helvetii a chance to reorganize the team; the second point is to improve the organization of the artillery squad, and try to set up a baggage squad exclusively for the artillery squad. A group of military slaves can be promoted as squad members, who are specifically responsible for providing pack horses, food and ammunition transportation for the cavalry artillery, so that the cavalry artillery can continue to accelerate, and the artillery and baggage personnel can be separated. Let the gunners concentrate on honing their shooting skills, and avoid the phenomenon that they were afraid of hardship and fatigue and went on strike.

In addition, Sabo wrote on the parchment that the communication and accuracy of the gunners should be improved. In the Battle of Mount Veii, the cavalry guns did not react very quickly, and the reason why they caused a great blow to the barbarians was mainly because the barbarians were too densely packed.

What Sabo said made sense, and Lepidus fully accepted his plan, but these improvement measures could not be done overnight in this era, and it was better to take it slowly in Caesar's war against the Gaul tribes.

Just as Li Bi Da was thinking about things, Tagus suddenly stepped forward to stop the panting messenger who had entered, "The Gunilin people have launched an attack again! Towards the position at the foot of the mountain."

"These barbarians are crazy. It seems that they are ready to sacrifice all of them to buy time for the rest of the Helvetii to cross the river." Li Bi Da hurriedly stood up and was about to run towards the position of Hortensius the Younger. Tagus reminded him at this time, should he send a token officer to let the Milu tribe of Mount Wei rush down to attack the Gunilin people?

"No, no, don't act rashly. Maybe the Gunilin people are feinting at the foot of the mountain, and there are ambushes waiting for an opportunity to attack the position on the top of the mountain? Let the four battalions left in the camp take out two to follow me to run into the position at the foot of the mountain. Relying on the fortifications, we can completely repel the Gunilin people!" Li Bi Da put on his helmet and Tagus ran out after the commander.

At the foot of Mount Veii, the Gunilin trumpeters stood in a row, blowing their bronze horse-head horns desperately until they shook the earth. Beside them, the barbarian horse-riding warriors attacked frantically again. They all hung their shields on their left hands as usual to defend against the stones and javelins from the top of Mount Veii, and held their swords and cavalry spears in their right hands, aiming straight at the position at the foot of the mountain like a tidal wave.

At this time, Hortensius the Younger had reinforced the wooden fence and built a tall watchtower on the position for people to observe the enemy's formation and correct the firing of the cavalry cannon. When the barbarian cavalry rushed to 800 Roman feet from the position, three artillery groups began to fire. At first, it was sparse, and then it gradually became dense. However, the running Gunilin cavalry were ready to die. Some people's heads were cut off by flying stones, and some were pierced by javelins, stabbed off the saddle, and rolled under the hooves of the following horses. However, the rest of the cavalry only slightly adjusted their direction, and soon regrouped and rushed into a distance of 300 Roman feet. The scouts and flag officers on the watchtower sent a signal: the cavalry cannons began to turn their firing targets to the barbarians. At the rear, the second line of defense, twenty or thirty light scorpion crossbows set up on the mound, shot out a row of short iron spears, cutting and tearing the flesh and blood of the high-speed moving Gunilin horses, causing a horrible shooting effect. However, the shooting of the scorpion crossbows did not last long. Soon, the Gunilin pioneer warriors began to jump off their horses, and together with the lightly armed elite infantry who had been sprinting with them, they slashed into the position held by Hortensius the Younger, and the two infantry battalions of the 12th Legion, along the line of defense composed of wooden fences and trenches, entered into close combat.

"Sir, should we go down the mountain to provide support?" On Mount Veia, a thousand-man brigade had already formed three horizontal lines. A trumpeter under the Iron Hand asked the chief centurion Milu nervously. Just when Milu was noncommittal, Sabokemus came galloping from the passage on the other side of the mountain and shouted, "Before receiving further orders, our troops will hold on here and do not move!"

Milu shrugged his shoulders and pointed in the direction of the mountain, meaning to ask Sabo to look. Along the entire wasteland inside Mount Veia, there were Gunilin attack troops running all over. Not only thousands of vanguard cavalry, but also tens of thousands of foot troops, all of whom were charging forward one after another under the "whistling death shooting" of cavalry cannons.

In front of the crossing point, two of the four pontoon bridges had been destroyed. The surface of the quiet Ala River was filled with swollen corpses of people and horses, as well as the wreckage of the smashed pontoon bridges and boats. More than 200,000 Helvetii who crossed the river crawled towards the distant Santoni on the other side without expression. . )