The beginning of the book, though bleak, is like a steep mountain, blocking a beautiful plain, and when you climb over the mountain in front of you, you will come to a pleasing realm, and the hardships of climbing will be exchanged for double the joy. Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info Happiness is certainly sad, and when the sorrow comes to an end, unexpected happiness will also surge.

- Giovanni Boccaccio (a prominent representative of the Italian Renaissance movement, a humanist)

The Macedonian phalanx, which was facing the enemy on three sides, was quickly overstretched in terms of strength, and behind them were the longbowmen deployed by Gattuste, and the three thousand pikemen in the rear could not come up at all for a while, and they had to fight on their own for the time being.

The volleys of the longbowmen continued, the attacks of Francis' army intensified, and the forward Macedonian phalanx, led by the Spartan hoplites and the Macedonian royal pikemen, barely managed to hold their formation after a difficult battle.

The elite soldiers who were originally responsible for covering the flanks of the pikemen were now in a battle with the enemy, and their numbers were also in a situation of drastic decline, and the army under the command of Francis was still advancing towards the point of engagement.

Francis's army, which had a local advantage, was gradually compressing the Macedonian phalanx of the Roman city that had been assaulted, and the casualties were slowly rising, so that the Macedonian phalanx, which was tightly formed, had to slowly tighten its formation.

The two pots of arrows were shot by the longbowmen in only twenty minutes, after which the longbowmen quickly turned around and withdrew out of the valley, making way for the pikemen in the rear, and thirty minutes after the battle began, all the pikemen under Gatus's command advanced to the exit of the valley.

With the Macedonian phalanx in front of them fighting desperately, the pikemen in the rear had enough time to reorganize their formation and quickly joined the battle, and the addition of this powerful new force immediately reduced the pressure on the soldiers in the front who were fighting hard.

The Macedonian phalanx, composed of more than 3,500 pikemen, was much more powerful than the previous Macedonian phalanx, which numbered less than 1,000 men.

This situation was obviously extremely unfavorable to Francis, but there was a strange smile on his face, and all along, it was only 10,000 elite soldiers and 15,000 ordinary soldiers under Francis's command who were responsible for blocking the exit of the valley.

After such a long battle, Francis's army, whose casualty numbers had skyrocketed, had never increased its strength, and with Francis's experience in warfare, he could not have made such a low-level mistake, unless he had other intentions!

Indeed, while Francis was commanding the army head-on and fighting a bloody battle with Gatus's Macedonian phalanx, the 10,000 elite cavalry under his command was making a detour to the rear of Gatus's army through an extremely hidden path.

The reason why Nabazani and Assam did not choose this Cadiz valley to block Francis's army in the first place, but chose the mountain road east of the valley to block it, is because there is a hidden path ten miles to the left of this valley that can lead directly to the east and west sides of the valley.

The Esthenians who were familiar with the terrain knew about the existence of this hidden path, but there were no people in the army of the Roman city who were familiar with this hidden path, because this hidden path was discovered during the Civil War, and Eggers, who had long been away from the Civil War, did not know about this hidden path.

If Bai Feng had decided to take Upton with him when he decided to go on the expedition, this hidden path would not have been the Achilles heel of the Roman army, but unfortunately there was no regret medicine in this world, and everything could not be changed from the moment Gatus led his army into the Cadiz Valley.

The 1,000 longbowmen who had withdrawn from the valley did not retreat, but remained outside the valley on the spot, waiting for the arrival of the White Peaks' army, and the Francis cavalry, which had successfully circled to the west of the Cadiz Valley, soon appeared in the rear of Gatus's troops.

The longbowmen under the command of Gatus were surprised by the rumbling of thousands of horses, and they knew that there was no large cavalry in the army of Rome, and just when they were at a loss, tens of thousands of enemy cavalry were killed!

The unprepared longbowmen had only time to draw their swords before they were caught in the sea of cavalry, and the roaring cavalry did not slow down in the slightest, and with their own impact they completely annihilated the thousand longbowmen under the command of Gatus.

Blood was still flowing from the corpses on the ground, and the cavalry having annihilated the longbowmen had already aimed their charge at the Macedonian phalanx, which was fighting fiercely, unsuspecting of the deadly threat coming from behind!

At this time, Bai Feng's main army was only ten miles away from the Cadiz Valley, and the Parthian archers, who were patrolling back and forth, discovered the traces of the enemy cavalry in time, and hurriedly brought the news back to Bai Feng.

When Bai Feng heard the information sent back by the Parthian archers, his face changed on the spot, and the elite cavalry under the command of Francis actually appeared in the rear of the Gartus army, and the danger of the Gartus army can be imagined.

Although Bai Feng also sent Bronno's Dragon Legion to the Cadiz Valley with Gatus when he gave the order before, Bronno's Dragon Legion was a lot slower in marching speed, and they were still five miles away from the Cadiz Valley!

A series of mistakes made Gatus's army fall into a situation where it could be destroyed at any time, and Bai Feng, who learned the facts, had to quickly give an order:

"Maxi, you immediately go to General Bronno's Dragon Legion, and let them rush to the Cadiz Valley with all their strength immediately, and tell General Bronno that the survival of Gatus and his army depends entirely on his Dragon Army!"

"Yes!" Maxi understood the seriousness of the situation, and rode away in response to the order.

"Darnell, you go and inform General Gamilios and General Bazel at once, and tell them to speed up their march immediately and rush to the valley of Cádiz as soon as possible, today is the time for our Armageddon with Francis!"

"Yes!" Darnell commanded.

"Antio, you immediately lead the soldiers of the Doge's Guard to advance at full speed, and be sure to reinforce General Gatus before General Bronno's Dragon Legion, and ensure that the main army of the Cheetah Legion will not be annihilated by Francis!"

"Yes!" Antio immediately turned to Wendell and Simpson to give orders, and his governor's guard was about to rush to the valley of Cadiz to reinforce Gatus's army.

In addition to giving these orders, the Parthian archers who had just returned were once again sent out by Bai Feng, but this time their task was not to reconnoiter the situation of the enemy army, but to find the path of the enemy cavalry, which was the top priority of Bai Feng's attention.

In addition, the Chinese army under Bai Feng's own command also began to advance at full speed, and Licinius's Roman Youth Army, Perris's longbowmen, and Eggers' Eagle Legion, all the soldiers were under Bai Feng's orders, and all unnecessary supplies were thrown away in order to advance.