Rome Must Fall Chapter 58: Training troops

The soldiers were shocked by the menacing enemy tide, and witnessed with their own eyes those comrades who failed to return to the team were easily killed by the enemy. Cassinius's words aroused their desire for survival.

At this time, a large number of enemies rushed to the front of the formation, and Cassinius immediately shouted: "Javelin!"

The Roman soldiers roared loudly and threw their heavy javelins with all their strength.

What rushed up was the second brigade of the rebel army led by Cross. In the previous battle with Grabo, he had suffered a loss in javelin shooting and had been specially trained in this area, so when the Roman soldiers made throwing movements At that time, the rebel soldiers had raised their square shields diagonally, and thousands of javelins fell, without causing many casualties. However, after the sharp lead spearhead penetrated the square shield, the entire javelin shaft hung down and was dragged on the ground. Not only does the entire square shield become heavier, but movement also becomes difficult.

Although Cross was fierce, he was not without brains. He rushed to the front and immediately waved and shouted: "Brothers, stop advancing! Back off first! Back off! Pull out the **** javelin and fight again!" ..."

Most of Cross's second group of soldiers were Gallic gladiators and Gallic slaves. Cross's prestige in the team was very high. When he shouted, the people around him responded immediately, and others also retreated after seeing this. . There were also some soldiers who were not attacked by the javelins and rushed forward with the third group.

A hail of javelins drove back a large group of enemies, and another large group of enemies rushed up. There was some confusion between the enemy's attack and retreat.

Should we switch from defense to offense at this time and let the soldiers take the opportunity to charge? ...A thought subconsciously arose in Cassinius's mind, but he immediately suppressed it: If he were to fight side by side with his former comrades, he would not hesitate to do so, but now he is commanding a group of new soldiers. , once there is no formation to rely on, their morale will quickly decline when surrounded by enemies, and they will become as fragile as chickens...

The moment Cassinius was stunned, the enemy had already rushed to the front of the formation, and the soldiers had no javelins to use. He shouted loudly: "Get ready to fight!"

The soldiers thrust the lower end of their square shields into the mud warriors in front of their feet, crouched down, and hid most of their bodies behind the square shields. They clenched their daggers and stared nervously at the enemy in front, while their teammates behind them Stick close to his back, stand upright, hold the square shield in front of his chest, ready to help the front troops resist the enemy's attacks from top to bottom...

Although the third brigade only had a very small number of Germanic gladiators, under the leadership of Enomui, the soldiers of this brigade performed very bravely. They roared and rushed towards the Roman army.

Shields and shields clashed, daggers stabbed each other, and the two sides began to engage in battle. More than 2,000 people from the third group soon covered the front of the Roman army.

Cross struggled to remove the javelin from the square shield and prepared to lead his troops to charge forward, but found that the third group had completely blocked their way to the enemy's position.

Listening to the loud killing sound ahead, the soldiers of the second group could only panic. Cross calmed down and carefully checked the surrounding terrain, only to find that the enemy's formation was very strange: it turned out that the Roman army was located The location is a "U"-shaped river bend with high river banks. The Romans lined up on one side of the opening, and the other three sides were adjacent to the water. This not only saved one's own troops, but also prevented the rebels from detouring from the flanks and allowing them to pass. Too many troops cannot be deployed.

Cross stood on the shore not far away, overlooking the deep river, and couldn't help but curse: Cunning Romans!

Reluctantly, he turned back and said, "Go down alone and check the depth of the water."

A soldier who knew how to swim quickly took off his armor, plunged into the river, then stepped on the bottom of the river with both feet, walked around the river where the Roman army was, and came ashore and said: "Chief Cross, The river here is deep and the bottom is full of silt, making it difficult to stand, and the embankments are high and steep, making it difficult to climb up."

Cross put an end to the idea of ​​wading ashore from behind the enemy lines. While thinking about it, he returned to the rear of the Third Brigade. He happened to meet Altonix, the captain of the Fourth Brigade, who had arrived in a hurry. Seeing Cross, he asked with concern: "How is the war going now?"

Cross briefly described the situation. Altonix frowned and thought for a while, then suggested: "How about concentrating our gladiators like before and rushing to the front. As long as we defeat the enemy The shield formation, then the rest can be easily solved."

Cross glanced at the soldiers following him, shook his head and said, "I just observed the formation of the Romans. Due to the terrain, their formation is shorter, the formation is thick and dense, and the morale of the soldiers is not bad. And we are all the way When the march came here, there was a battle in the middle. Ordinary soldiers were already exhausted. You should know that the gladiators were heavier and consumed more, so they were naturally more tired. How could they still have the energy to charge into the formation? If they insist on going up, May increase casualties."

Cross paused and then said: "I have an idea. The Romans are very close to the river bank, and their number is far smaller than ours. Why don't we all press forward and do our best to push them down? River."

Altonix's glasses lit up: "This is a solution!"

"It's indeed a good idea!" Spartacus's voice came from behind him. Altonix turned around and saw Spartacus standing behind him dripping with sweat, and Han stood beside him. Mirka and Art Tumus.

"Spartacus." Cross asked in surprise: "You killed the other enemies so quickly?"

Spartacus wiped his sweat and said: "Those Roman soldiers have no fighting spirit and dare not fight us at all, but most of them don't wear armor and just run away along the river bank. The brothers of the first group It was really not easy to catch up with them. Fortunately, the fifth group led by Artemus came to help. After several rounds of siege, we were able to capture most of them. The few fleeing Roman soldiers were no longer worth pursuing. I He and Attumus rushed over, preparing to encircle and suppress the main force of the Romans with you, and happened to hear you discussing——"

Spartacus said with emphasis: "What Cross proposed is a good idea, but I don't think we need to be so anxious to kill this Roman army-"

"Why?" Cross asked a little puzzled.

Spartacus pointed forward and said slightly excitedly: "Look, the Roman army lined up for defense with its back on the river bank and was surrounded by us ~IndoMTL.com~ Neither dared to attack nor could they escape. What a great training opportunity this is! Let each brigade take turns to fight, which not only exercises the soldiers' ability to fight, but also allows them to take turns to rest and restore their physical strength."

Cross thought for a moment and reminded: "...If you follow your method, we will fight for a long time. If Roman reinforcements arrive, we will be in trouble!"

Hamilcar explained: "Didn't we already interrogate the prisoners before? This time Rome sent a legion. Some of them have been eliminated by us, and the other part is surrounded by us. Where will we be here for a while? There may be Roman reinforcements. Would we be afraid if nearby Campania towns dared to send troops to rescue them?"

Altonix and Cross smiled contemptuously.

"It's almost dusk now, and we can't rush back to the camp. Besides, we had plans to camp outside. Even if we light a bonfire here and fight the Roman army until night, there's nothing to worry about! On the contrary! , the Romans have no reinforcements, no food, and they have to keep fighting with us. We don’t need to pay a lot of casualties to finally defeat them."

Hamilcar's words moved the leaders present, and Spartacus's proposal was approved.

They each gathered their soldiers and lined up far behind the third brigade. Then they took food from the following convoy, let the soldiers fill their stomachs, drank water, and rested for a while. After a break, the order to retreat was sounded.

Originally, Spartacus and the others thought that the soldiers of the third group who were fighting fiercely would not be willing to retreat in front of the enemy. Who knew that when the trumpet sounded, these soldiers of the third group, who had become more fatigued due to the long and fruitless battle, immediately retreated. Withdrawing, they had only trained for two months and caused quite a chaos in the rush.