Augustus Road

"The subjects of the empire are not allowed to make sacrifices, otherwise they will be put to the sword and their private property will be confiscated." - Constantius, the Roman emperor who believed in Christianity

————————————————————————————

Soon, the bodies of the Egyptian soldiers piled up like straw on the hillside. The successors no longer cared about the integrity of the phalanx. Many people abandoned their spears and rushed up with swords in their hands, while the archers who were responsible for covering them behind them began to exchange fire with the cunning Romans.

However, the Roman legion's more cunning side was deeply felt by the defenders of the fortress after two rounds of shooting. The arrows shot by the Gauls they brought were relatively short. When they fell on the Egyptian positions, many Egyptian archers instinctively took the enemy's arrows and shot them back (this was a very common thing in ancient battlefields). But when they put the opponent's arrows on the strings, they found that they could not shoot them at all - while the opponent could shoot back with their own arrows - so, after about two rounds, Otto Aarons' archers could not bear it and fled in defeat.

This was the original creation of "Desert Scorpion" Lepidus. Of course, he had read the "Decalogue" by Italian novelist Boccaccio and knew that this tactic was the patent of a count in the Middle Ages and had indeed won in history.

Over there, the five hundred besieged Egyptian companies also began to break out frantically. At the critical moment, Tagus lined up six light scorpion crossbows in front of the front, hitting the opponent's vanguard in pieces, and then asked two centurions to draw their swords and charge. Antony also rushed down with his cavalry. The Egyptian company, like a sandwich, had to surrender.

"Put down your weapons! I won't kill you. Anton's descendants are lenient to the enemy." Antony rode on a horse, shaking the dagger in his hand, and shouted triumphantly to all the Egyptian soldiers who were squatting with their heads in their hands.

Then Tagus's two centurions withdrew again and invested in the position on the hillside, launching an attack on Otto Aarons' troops. At this time, the Egyptian army's battle line was completely messed up. Under the fierce bows and arrows and scorpion crossbows, they were in a dilemma and could only get closer and closer in vain, slowly retreating towards the direction of the Pelusium Fortress while fighting.

"Dusongville, chase!" Libida waved his baton again, and all the Vipicinus people let out barbarian cries, hung their bows and arrows on their saddles, and then all jumped on their horses. The six scorpions on each wing of the front line fired continuously, and the Vipicinus cavalry in the middle formed an inverted trapezoid and rushed towards Otto Aarons' troops unstoppably.

Although the soldiers of the fortress suffered heavy casualties and left many corpses and wounded on both sides of the road, these blacks did not collapse when they retreated. Once Lepidus' cavalry approached, they stood together and stretched out their sharp spears from all sides. The horses, due to their "sharp fear", could only run around the formation of these people and could not play the power of pursuit. Some reckless and brave ones rushed in, but were either pierced with their horses or taken off their horses by many people and killed with swords or stones. The bodies of cavalrymen who were stripped of their armor were constantly thrown out like grape skins.

Once the Vipicinus cavalry was a little further away, these people blew a whistle and quickly changed into a loose formation and continued to run towards the city of Pelusium. It seems that these Nubian black soldiers were specially trained to fight against cavalry and were not so easy to surrender.

"The cavalry keeps attacking and blocking, let the infantry go up to deal with them!" Lepidus stood on the high ground and observed for a while, then gave the order to Antony, asking them to go up and inform Dusunville and Tagus.

Then, the Vipicinus cavalry quickly changed their tactics. They went in twos and threes, like hungry wolves, and specialized in tracking and killing the enemy's isolated squads, biting them patiently, while Tagus's 12th Legion's thousand-man brigade ran very fast and began to bite the rear guard of Ottoarens. The Romanized infantry were not afraid of these guys who were densely packed together with spears. They threw the light and heavy javelins in their hands violently, and each shot could kill a large number of people. Gradually, Ottoarens' troops could not even maintain the situation of "fighting and retreating". More and more soldiers who abandoned their posts began to flee aimlessly, but were immediately caught up and chopped down by the enemy's lightning-fast cavalry, and the number of people willing to form a formation continued to decrease - the number of people and morale were quickly melted in the hot sun.

When they reached a place ten miles from Pelusimus, Ottoarens's troops had lost more than half of their number. When they reached six miles, the commander-in-chief could no longer control his army and fled with his followers. His company shouted again, completely collapsed, and ran like spiders and ants.

Finally, Ottoarens ran into the fortress, with less than fifty people left.

The next day, at the Eye Fort in front of the fortress, the garrison general Ottoarens took off his armor and ashamedly asked the Roman commander to discuss surrender with the Roman commander amid the cheers of all the soldiers of the Thirteenth Legion.

Hebrida came down from the fortress platform, grabbed the rope, and then looked at Ottoarens and asked what he was going to do?

"I hope you can follow the virtues of a victor and pardon the lives of the remaining soldiers in the fortress. In exchange, I will hand over this great fortress." Ottoarens asked in Greek.

"Is there anyone who can speak the Greek language? After all these years, I still feel that their words sound like effeminate words, so when young Greek men come to Rome, most of the time they have to make a living by being male prostitutes." Hebrida put her hands on her hips. , said grandly, but in fact he knew that all the water and food in his camp were nearly exhausted. If the bastard in front of him persisted for three or four days, the outcome would really be indistinguishable.

"You want to surrender, right? Then please go out through the back door of your fortress, because the supreme commander of our army, General Lepidus, is behind your back. I am just the chief centurion." Haibrida's words caused laughter from all the soldiers in the camp. Some of them were sitting in front of the cavalry cannon, and some were sitting on the edge of the Eye Fort, shaking their legs. Maybe they would encounter many battles in the future, and some of them did. When they were able to die, in the colonial city where retired veterans were placed, they told stories to their children and grandchildren. The battle to capture the Pelusium Fortress was perhaps the most legendary. The nostrils were pierced and the main force of the Egyptian fortress was directly annihilated, and they had to surrender. "

Otto Aarons, who had no choice but to surrender again, was finally forgiven by Lepidus. At noon, the defenders in the fortress used mule-drawn carts to transport out piles of bloody corpses, and then the Romans stepped on them. Following the footsteps of the military trumpets, they entered the fortress from the front and rear directions to change defenses.

Pelusium, Egypt's gateway to Asia, now fell into the hands of Lepidus. (To be continued.)