There was no trace of wings in the sky, and I had flown over.

– Rabindranath Tagore (Indian poet, philosopher, and Indian nationalist)

Luculus's four Macedonian royal pikemen and eight Spartan hoplites, as well as Wink's three Cretan archers, formed three advance units to aid the bridge, each consisting of four spearmen and one archer.

The commanders of the three advance units were the centurion Aggis of the Spartan heavy infantry, the centurion of the Macedonian pikemen, Kretas, and the centurion of the Cretan archers, Susman, each of the special troops, with a centurion as the commander.

Of the three of Aggies, Kretas, and Susman, Susman himself was the co-captain of Wink's First Archer Wing, and this time he was appointed commander of an advance force, not as Wenk and Luculus, but as a direct order from Bai Feng.

Leading the army to fight independently is the only way for every system class centurion to be promoted to a system general, and Sussman is the most outstanding of the three Cretan archer centurions, and Bai Feng intends to train him to become a system general, so he gave him this opportunity.

In contrast, the Spartan hoplite centurion Agis and the Macedonian royal pikeman centurion Centurion Kretas were undoubtedly better candidates for commander than the Susmansman, as the Cretan archers were destined to be only auxiliary in the defense of bridges.

The Spartan heavy infantry with super combat effectiveness and the Macedonian royal pikemen, second only to the Spartan heavy infantry, are very typical phalanx troops, and their combat effectiveness can be vividly exerted in the defense of bridges, and even stronger than other places!

The Cretan archers, whose range and lethality were superior to ordinary archers, could not bear the burden of frontal combat, no matter how good their combat effectiveness was, so the Spartan hoplites and the Macedonian royal pikemen were the absolute main elite to defend the bridge.

In just five minutes, Luculus and Wink had assembled three advance forces, and then, under the leadership of their respective commanders, the three advance forces, almost identical, headed straight for the bridge fifty miles away.

The task of the Spartan heavy infantry centurion Agis was to reinforce the third bridge closest to the garrison, and in addition to his own Spartan heavy infantry, he also commanded a team of Spartan heavy infantry, Macedonian royal pikemen, and Cretan archers.

Two teams of Spartan heavy infantry had 360 soldiers, one team of Macedonian royal pikemen had 241 soldiers, one team of Cretan archers had 160 soldiers, and four teams of reinforcements of special arms had a total of 761 soldiers.

On the march at full speed, Agis did not personally lead his Spartan hoplites forward, but rode his horse along with the other three centurions on the left side of the road, and time was pressed to make battle arrangements before he could lead his army to the bridge.

"Centurion Eumenis, as soon as our army arrives at the third bridge, you immediately lead your army to replace the bridge defenders, and defend the southern end of the bridge with a phalanx of ten pikes; no matter how fierce the enemy's attack is, your task is to defend the bridge and never take a step back!"

"No!" Eumenes, who was also a centurion of the Spartan heavy infantry, raised the red robe behind him and answered loudly.

"Centurion Aloyous, your mission is to block the exit of the bridge with a phalanx of twenty-four pikes after Centurion Omenes leads his army to garrison the bridge;

"No!" Aloyous, the centurion of the Macedonian royal pikemen, did not question Aggis's orders in the slightest.

"Centurion Appius, the Cretan archers are to be divided into two groups and deployed on the left and right sides of the south entrance of the bridge, and as soon as the enemy cavalry steps on the bridge, you must start firing with all your might, but try to avoid accidental injury, and the rain of arrows must not come within thirty meters of the friendly troops. ”

"No!" Epius, the acting centurion of the Cretan archer, with a slight look in his eyes, confidently accepted the order.

The range of a normal archer is 80 to 100 meters, while the range of a Cretan archer is about 160 meters, and if you shoot by projectile, the range of a Cretan archer will reach a terrifying 180 meters, or even 200 meters!

This range is still far from that of the longbowmen under the command of Bai Feng, but it is much stronger than the average archer, but what really makes Appius confident is not the range of the Cretan archers, but the accuracy of their arrows.

Within a conventional range of 160 meters, the salvo of 160 Cretan archers could be controlled within an error of no more than three meters, and Agis's order that the rain of arrows should not be 30 meters away from friendly troops was a child's order for Cretan archers.

On his way to the third bridge, Aggis also discussed with the three centurions of Eumenes, Aloyous, and Appius the tactical arrangements for defending the bridge, such as the rotation battle between the Spartan hoplites and the Macedonian royal pikemen.

After nearly an hour of marching at full speed, two groups of Spartan hoplites with incredible endurance were the first to reach the third bridge, followed by the Macedonian royal pikemen and Cretan archers, who needed about twenty minutes to reach their destination.

In terms of speed and endurance on the march, the outrageously strong Spartan hoplites were able to defeat the Macedonian royal pikemen and Cretan archers, and in order to avoid any accidents at the third bridge, Aggis had to reinforce the third bridge by dividing his troops.

After Aggis led two groups of Spartan heavy infantry to the third bridge, there was a faint trace of enemy cavalry on the north bank of the third bridge, and this group of enemy cavalry was the white flag cavalry galloping from the first bridge.

The cavalry of the White Banner, who attacked the third bridge, first failed in the attack on the second bridge, and then went to the first bridge, and found that there were also fifteen hundred defenders stationed there, so they came to the third bridge to try their luck.

As it turned out, their luck was not too good, nor too bad, for the advance force that had arrived at the third bridge had already taken over the southern end of the bridge before they arrived, but the advance force that had arrived was only two Spartan heavy infantry, and the other two groups had not yet arrived.

The 1,500 defenders of the third bridge, after handing over the bridge to two groups of Spartan heavy infantry in a panting, went back to the barracks 800 meters behind under the orders of Aggis to rest, so that only two groups of Spartan heavy infantry were guarding the southern end of the bridge.

The White Banner cavalry, who had been running around and had not found a suitable point of attack, saw that the third bridge had less than four hundred defenders, and when the excited scouts reported the situation to Henchiler, the Gregory burst out laughing.

Captain Halla, who was not far from Henchiler, found out that Henchill was extremely excited, so he hurried up and asked, "Brother Henchill, what makes you so happy, isn't there no defender on the bridge ahead?"

"Haha, Brother Harla, it's not that there are no defenders on the bridge ahead, but there are less than four hundred defenders! How about it, are you interested in taking this bridge in one fell swoop before Tumen and Huanggutai catch up, just like my brother?"

"Haha, Brother Xiangqiler, since there are less than four hundred defenders on the bridge ahead, what are we waiting for?"