Before fighting the Romans, the officers of the Han army also somewhat made up for the common sense about the Roman legions.

The Roman legions were the strong guarantee of the Roman Empire sweeping across the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa and establishing a world empire around the Mediterranean.

For hundreds of years, it was the invincible army in this world, the most powerful army in Europe after Alexander the Great.

After the reforms of Marius, they had formed a whole set of professional and systematic organizational structures of the corps.

The soldiers of the Roman legions had gone from being citizens who volunteered to join the army to being professional mercenaries, a real standing army that did not do anything about production.

The Roman Empire strictly controlled the number of legions in the standing army, also in order to control the power of the legion commanders, so that they would not become warlords.

After all, the royal family of the current Roman Empire rose to the throne step by step from such warlords, and they certainly will not let history repeat itself.

Although the number of standing corps is limited, there are sufficient reserves to mobilize more corps at any time.

This is also the reason why the Roman Empire, although there are few famous generals, can win many battles, without him, there are enough soldiers, the combat power of the soldiers is strong, as long as the commander is not too stupid will win the final victory.

The Roman Empire, faced by the Han Empire, had just experienced the most glorious era of the Five Sages in history, and began to decline from its peak.

However, the Roman legions were still strong and their combat effectiveness was still off the charts.

A Roman legion usually consisted of ten infantry brigades, while each infantry brigade consisted of six hundred-man brigades.

The 100-man team in Rome is said to be a 100-man team, but in fact there are only 80 people in each team, and they are divided into ten squads, each with eight people.

The captain of the hundreds, the famous Roman centurion, wears a broom-shaped helmet on his head, and the broom is horizontal to the left and right.

The ten infantry brigades were ranked in order of strength of their members, and the strongest first infantry brigade had only five hundreds, but these five hundreds were doubled, with one hundred and sixty men each.

That is, the ordinary infantry brigade was four hundred and eighty people, while the first infantry brigade had eight hundred people, usually mainly veterans.

The ranks of soldiers in the Roman legions were usually divided into grades based on the number of years of service and the number of military merits, and each hundred-man team was usually composed of people with similar years of service or military merits.

When the battle is lined up, it is often young people, with new recruits in front and veterans in the rear.

Weaponry also varies from person to person, with young men and recruits mostly light infantry, also known as cannon fodder.

Only veterans were armed with the best armor and spears, as well as Roman large square shields.

The veterans of the Han army who saw the Roman square shield for the first time were very surprised, wasn't this exactly the same as the square shield in the hands of their original hoplites?

Ma Chao soon received information from the reconnaissance battalion that a complete Roman legion had appeared in front of him.

According to the intelligence of the Roman legions summarized by the Ministry of Intelligence, a Roman legion is generally between 4,500 and 5,500 people, but it is usually understaffed and affected by personnel replenishment, military budget allocation, equipment supply, etc.

In addition, a Roman legion usually formed a cavalry force of 150 to 300 men on its own, which was used for reconnaissance and communication.

Therefore, Ma Chao was very surprised by the 3,000 cavalry mentioned by the reconnaissance battalion, especially when he heard that there were also heavy cavalry, and he couldn't understand it.

With the development of firearms, the hoplites of various countries are no longer the focus of development, and the Roman Empire has heard that firearms have also begun to be popularized.

In any case, Ma Chao is full of interest in this opponent, and Ma Chao, who is invincible all over the world, is naturally full of interest in the mysterious and powerful Romans.

Ma Chao ordered the whole division to search and advance, the speed of the cavalry was very fast, and before it ran out of twenty miles, a large group of cavalry appeared in front of it, just as the reconnaissance battalion said, there were 3,000 cavalry.

There were about 1,000 heavy armored cavalry, 2,000 light cavalry, and after discovering the Han army, they also shrank their formation and rearranged into heavy armored cavalry in the middle, and the light cavalry covered the queue on both flanks, with three rows in front and rear, and a thousand cavalry in each row.

The cavalry in the first row also had dozens of flags, the largest of which was a huge black eagle, and at the top of the banner there was a golden eagle, shining.

As soon as Ma Chao saw it, he liked it, "You will snatch the golden eagle back for me in a while, and Lao Tzu will be rewarded." Ma Chao shouted loudly.

"Whoa!" The officers and men of the division responded in unison.

The first division of the Haotian Army launched an attack queue from the division commander Zhang Xiu down, but the enemy only had 3,000 cavalry, and the attack front was limited, so Zhang Xiu ordered the first brigade to carry out the first wave of attack, which made the other two brigade commanders shout that it was unfair.

Even if only one division attacked, the Han army would have a brigade and nearly 5,000 cavalry, and the mortar battalion was already deployed and ready to support.

However, the enemy seemed to know the range of the Han artillery, and they deliberately stopped at a distance of 500 zhang, a range that only the field artillery could hit, but the field artillery moved slowly and fell far behind.

However, Ma Chao believed that his side had a numerical advantage, so he did not care whether there was artillery support or not, and ordered the 1st Brigade to start attacking.

The trumpet sounded, and the 1st Brigade formed three loose offensive phalanxes with regiments as units, and each regiment formed a loose offensive formation with three rows in front and rear.

In this way, the cavalry charge formation of the Han army, the first row was also a full 1,500 horses, and the Ili horses were fast, and the distance of 500 zhang, the Han army quickly ran over the halfway.

The Romans were indeed experienced professional soldiers, and although the total strength of the Han army was several times that of their own, they did not panic at all, nor did they turn around and flee.

Seeing that the Han army had launched a charge, the light cavalry on the left and right flanks, guided by the horn and military flag, slowly stepped forward a few steps and blocked the heavy cavalry behind them.

Two thousand light cavalry discharged two rows of horizontal formations with two zhang apart between the front and back, and in the face of the Han army's charge, they calmly took off the musket behind them, and then the shield was in front, and the musket was placed on the shield, quietly waiting for the Han army's charge.

The Han army was still at the distance they were accustomed to, when it was two hundred zhang, they raised their rifles with both hands and aimed and shot, because it was a marching shot, so it was not so accurate, but the front and rear rows, the salvo of 5,000 people, the scene was still very shocking.

When the Romans saw the Han army raising their guns and shooting, they had already raised their shields in front of them, trying their best to protect the horse's head and their upper body, and they tried their best to lie down on the horse's back.

After resisting this volley of the Han army, the Romans, under the command of the sound of the trumpet, immediately sat up straight and raised their guns to shoot.

The Han army did not have their breastplates and shields, so they could only duck their bodies to avoid the bullets.

Therefore, the casualties of the Han army were not large, and many of the war horses were hit by bullets.

The Romans suffered very few casualties, and the cuirass and shields were not bad at protecting against bullets, and only some of the horses were wounded by bullets.