On the great plains of Ephesus, an empire-level decisive battle is about to break out. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

This was a battle for the survival of the Roman Empire, and Severus was very cautious. But he boldly tried a new phalanx formation.

In addition to giving full play to the advantages of the traditional Roman phalanx, this formation also integrated the advantages of the former Persian Empire, and the cunning Severus secretly added the Greek spear dense formation tactics in the Roman phalanx formation.

Severus' army was 270,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry and charioteers, a total of 300,000.

Severus's improved phalanx, with the hundred-man squad as the basic combat unit, is generally ten lines in depth, each column represents a basic tactical unit 'ten-man team', the captain stands at the forefront, armed with a rectangular shield, and a spear of about two meters, and the upper body is covered with light scale armor.

The remaining nine infantrymen, each armed with a bow and arrow, a javelin, and a Roman short sword, were generally lightly armoured.

At the beginning of the battle, the captain was responsible for resisting the onslaught of the enemy's cavalry, and the nine archers behind him killed and wounded the enemy with a dense volley, of which only the archers in the second row were able to shoot directly at the enemy from the captain's side, and the eight behind were to shoot arrows into the air, and the angle of fire was gradually raised to 45 degrees from front to back, so as to form a bow and arrow fire coverage within 300 meters in front of the formation.

When the enemy was killed and wounded by a rain of arrows, the infantry began to charge, they put their bows into their quivers, raised their javelins, and gave the enemy a more brutal long-range blow at close range, then drew the Roman short sword, which was the most conducive to hand-to-hand combat, and rushed into the enemy's line of hand-to-hand combat.

The Romans' bows and arrows were fired in a volley that covered the sky and the sun, and the javelins, like Katyusha rocket artillery, had a strong deterrent effect on the enemy.

In the phalanx, there was also the Greek spear phalanx tactic.

These tactics were carried out by hoplites, who were armed with iron helmets, cuirass, and shoulder armor, with scales on the rest of their torso. A shallow saucer-shaped round shield is about one meter in diameter, and the surface is covered with an iron skin. The main weapon was a spear about three meters long, and the auxiliary weapon was the Roman short sword.

The spear phalanx infantry fought in a dense phalanx, usually eight rows deep, with the first four rows of soldiers holding their spears horizontally forward, the back rows of spears stacked on top of the front rows of spears, and the last four rows standing their spears upright. This Phalanx tactic, which originated in Greece, requires a very high level of physical fitness and tactical literacy of soldiers. A heavily armed infantry needs to carry a weight of forty kilograms, run long distances and sprint with high intensity. A spear-dense phalanx must be kept in tight formation and in unison in any situation, which requires long queue training to achieve.

Frontal attacks in dense phalanxes were formidable, and their weaknesses were on the flanks, so they often required skirmishers or cavalry to protect them on both flanks, while the Roman phalanxes on the left and right provided such protection.

Thousands of battles have proven that this phalanx tactic is the absolute nemesis of infantry. Especially when facing the enemy's charge, you can imagine how lethal a sharp spear with a length of three meters is.

Princes' alliance side.

The alliance, led by Yuan Shao, did not listen to Cao Cao's advice. They believed in their hearts that the Romans were vulnerable, and in dozens of battles in Armenia and Asia Minor, they confirmed how vulnerable the Romans were.

The Roman army of 400,000 was wiped out by the expeditionary force of the alliance of princes, which made the princes not take the Romans seriously at all.

The alliance army of the princes also put on a formation.

It is one of the ten formations recorded in Sun Bin's Art of War.

The cone-shaped array is as humble as a sword, if it is not sharp at the end, it will not enter, if the blade is not thin, it will not be cut, and if it is not thick, it cannot be arrayed. Therefore, the end must be sharp, the blade must be thin, and the original must be Hong, but the cone line array can be decisive.

This means that the cone formation is like a sharp sword, the most elite soldiers should be arranged on the sides, the most powerful troops should be arranged on the tip of the sword, and the strength is not strong enough to use this array. The cone array is powerful and can destroy the enemy, but its defense is low. According to later generations, it is a wave of violence, and if a wave cannot take away the enemy, it will be taken away by the enemy. Therefore, the strength is strong, and this array can be used.

The alliance of princes maintained a complete victory over Rome, and the princes naturally wanted to use this kind of fast-killing formation.

As time passed, the positions of both sides were in place.

When the two armies first met on the plain of Ephesus, the Romans had no bottom in their hearts. Their mood when facing the expeditionary force of the Chinese Princes' Alliance was probably the same as that of the Eight Banners in the early Manchu Dynasty when they faced the Ming Dynasty army, they were a little ashamed and a little uneasy, and more for the sake of the empire's unhesitation.

This mood comes from repeated defeats.

When the drums of the expeditionary force of the alliance of Chinese princes sounded, the Romans were completely nervous.

The same is true of Severu.

Subsequently, Severus saw that the expeditionary force of the alliance of Chinese princes began to take the initiative to attack, coming quickly in a conical formation, and it was obvious that this was a frontal assault situation. In the face of the powerful assault situation of the expeditionary force of the alliance of Chinese princes, Severus was not worried but happy, and gradually overjoyed.

The Roman phalanx has the best defensive power in the world, and it is the most suitable for defending instead of attacking on the battlefield. What they wanted most was for the enemy to pounce on their phalanx. The Roman phalanx had always liked that the enemy was not afraid of death, so that they could pass through the phalanx and kill the enemy who pounced on them with the efficiency of a machine.

And Qin Feng understood this great advantage of the Roman phalanx, so in the previous battles of the expedition to Rome, he repeatedly emphasized the movement war.

Only by mobilizing the enemy during the movement and striking at the enemy by surprise during the movement can we make use of our strong points and avoid our weaknesses.

On the side of the alliance of princes, they adopted the most lethal cone formation in Sun Bin's art of war. In order to increase the power of the formation, the princes placed all their 20,000 cavalry in front to form the tip of an awl. It is hoped that through the natural strong lethality and deterrence of cavalry on infantry, breaking through the Roman phalanx, and the infantry following closely behind, it will be able to launch an encirclement and suppression of the enemy.

Severu never expected that without any temptation, the alliance army of the Chinese princes would pounce on him like this. "The Chinese are pigs, and they have been stupid enough to dare to pounce on our Roman phalanx head-on. It seems that these princes have no idea how powerful our Roman phalanx is. ”

For a long time, Severu has been studying Qin Feng's strategy and tactics, and Severu is really troubled by sports warfare. Because the most unsuitable thing for the Roman phalanx was movement warfare. Many years ago, a slave revolt led by Spartacus almost brought down the Roman Empire in the movement. Fortunately, at the last moment, Spartacus's rebel army split, and the large army chose to attack the city of Rome head-on.

Subsequently, the large forces of the rebel army suffered a crushing defeat to the Roman legions in frontal combat. Immediately after, Spartacus continued to move and fight, but was surrounded by the Roman army due to its sparse presence after the division. The Romans put down a slave revolt led by Spartacus in one fell swoop.

Severus has been studying the movement war to crack Qin Feng, but he can't figure it out, but fortunately, today's expeditionary force of the Alliance of Chinese Princes has begun to assault the Roman phalanx without hesitation. (To be continued.) )