Soon something strange happened to the Romans, the army on the opposite side, which had been clearly not Persian, was rapidly massing, and it seemed that they were trying to replace the Persian cavalry just now.

Emperor Constantine, who was in the rear of the Roman army, pointed to the Great Jin Expeditionary Force and asked his close ministers: "Aren't these Orientals?" How are they here? ”

The Romans knew through Shile that there was a powerful and rich empire in the east of the world, and that they had conquered dozens of surrounding peoples and millions of barbarians. This empire has been the hegemon of the entire East since a thousand years ago, and although the empire was underestimated more than a decade ago, under the leadership of the new emperor, the Great Jin Empire has now re-emerged.

"Your Majesty, the Persians have formed an alliance with the Jin people, and this may be the reinforcements sent to Persia by the Great Jin." Constantine's close retainers bowed and replied.

"What? The Great Jin actually sent reinforcements, how did they get to Persia? Could it be that General Shile had been destroyed by the alliance between Persia and the Great Jin? Emperor Constantine was taken aback when he heard this, if this situation really happened, it would be too unfavorable for Rome, after all, one Persia was enough for them to bear, if it was coupled with the strength of the Great Jin that was not inferior to Rome, Rome would definitely not be an opponent.

"Your Majesty, this is impossible, a few days ago, the Lite merchant also told the minister that Shile was fighting a bloody battle with the Jin people in the east, and the two sides were still facing each other. Even if there is a time difference of more than a month in the middle, it is impossible for General Eschle's strength to be defeated like this. ”

"And how did the Oriental people on the other side end up here?" Emperor Constantine asked, pointing to the van army opposite.

"I heard that the Eastern Empire has a powerful navy. It was probably transported by sea. If General Shile is really wiped out, I am afraid that there will be more than these Orientals who appear here. ”

Just when the Roman monarchs and ministers were talking, Beigong Chun was ready to attack. The 3,000-chamber army, armed with twenty light guns, was soon arrayed. For a time, both sides of the enemy were attracted by the 'fancy costumes' of the expeditionary force, especially the weapons and equipment of the expeditionary force, which made the people on both sides stunned.

Seeing that the Jin army was about to attack, the Romans on the opposite side felt more and more uncomfortable. They had never seen the power of firearms at all, but they knew from the words of Shile's envoy that the firearms of the Eastern army were very powerful. But they don't know anything about it.

"Your Majesty, we can't sit still, we must take the initiative! You see, the formation of the Eastern army on the opposite side is quite weak. There is no giant shield and spear array protection in front. There are no cavalry troops on either flank, as long as our infantry can crush the opponent with a single charge, the rest can only be slaughtered by us! "A Roman general saw that the expeditionary force was not protected by armor, and that the soldiers were not as strong as the Romans. In his opinion, these 'weak' Orientals could not withstand the onslaught of the Roman hoplites.

"Hmm. Makes sense. Let the Left Wing Corps storm and try the fighting power of the Orientals first! Emperor Constantine also believed that sitting still was not an option, and he also hoped to find out the details of the Orientals by taking the initiative to attack.

With the order of Constantine the Great. The Roman legions, which had been holding out, moved, and two thousand hoplites began to counterattack with heavy steps. With the exception of the two thousand hoplites, no other army took part in the battle, and even the Persians had no intention of helping. It seems that both sides of the enemy want to see how the Jin army performs.

Seeing this, a sneer appeared at the corner of Beigong Chun's mouth, and he understood that this was the best time to establish the prestige of the Great Jin. As the saying goes, seeing is believing, hearing is believing, no matter how many people were boasting about the strength of the Jin army before, but before witnessing it with their own eyes, the Persians and Romans always looked at the Jin army with a suspicious eye.

The Roman hoplites, numbering more than 2,000 men, united to attack the expeditionary force in front of them, and it was a small test without adequate artillery support.

The rise of the Roman hoplites was a military revolution in ancient times. Hoplites, usually land-owning citizens, held shields about 1 meter in diameter, handled, made of wood, whose surfaces and edges may be covered with copper skin, weighed about 10 kilograms.

In addition to the shield, the armament of the hoplites consisted of a Corinthian helmet, cuirass and shin guards. Weapons consisted of swords and spears (made of dogwood, about 2-3 meters long, with long iron tips). All the equipment combined, it weighs 34 kg.

The main combat mode of hoplite infantry is to stand the tower shield side by side in front of the formation, knock the tower shield into the soil, and use the body to support it, which can defend against the straight line shooting of local long-range archery units, and can also defend against the impact of local light cavalry units and light infantry units.

The hoplites usually moved in a phalanx formation, with all fighters closely arranged in a square formation of 8 or 16 columns, moving and attacking together, taking advantage of the concentration of firepower against the looser and scattered enemy forces.

This tactic is quite successful and has a significant increase in combat effectiveness, but it is slightly less effective against mobile units or well-trained elite fighters.

In the face of such a heavily armed force armed to the teeth, it is impossible to say that Beigong Chun is not nervous at all. He could only hope that twenty cannons would be unusually powerful, otherwise he would not be able to take down the opponent with only three thousand musketeers.

Due to logistical reasons, the expeditionary force was not equipped with heavy artillery, and the battle could only rely on light artillery against the enemy's hoplites. The simplest and most violent method of the approaching Roman hoplite phalanx was to bombard the artillery and keep the infantry behind. No matter who is in front of you, first ravage it several times with shells.

In this way, the Roman hoplite phalanx was tragic, they had no chance to make contact with the expeditionary force, and they were already stunned by the overwhelming artillery fire. This unexpected blow, which broke down the Romans, who had never seen such a weapon.

"Tom tom!"

"Boom!"

Twenty light artillery pieces were the first to bombard the Roman phalanx, and for a time the hoplites were all covered in smoke from the battlefield, and the entire phalanx was shrouded in heavy artillery fire. Although twenty cannons were not powerful enough to smash the Romans to smithereens, the fear of the unknown caused the invincible Roman hoplites to collapse completely.

Emperor Constantine apparently overestimated the capacity of his own army and underestimated the shock and lethality of the expeditionary force's artillery fire to the Romans. The artillery of the expeditionary force was a natural nemesis against such a dense phalanx as the Roman hoplites. A shell went down, and more than a dozen people around were blown away.

A few shells went down in a row, and a small half of the phalanx was gone. If it weren't for the insufficient number of artillery equipped by the expeditionary force, perhaps the hoplites that the Romans were so proud of would have been gone by this time. But even so, after half an hour of indiscriminate bombardment, the Roman hoplites began to disperse.

The Romans and the Persians had a lot of bloody conflicts before, and the enmity between the two countries could never be explained in one or two sentences. Many Persian generals saw that the Romans were defeated and retreated, and immediately became ready to move, and some even wanted to take advantage of the fire to loot, but under Russell's constraints, the Persians were gradually pacified.

At this time on the battlefield, the Roman hoplites became the key target and priority object of the artillery of the expeditionary force. A large number of murderous shells, all pointed at the hoplite phalanx.

Pity these Roman soldiers, where have they endured such a brutal shelling. Their bodies, under heavy artillery fire, easily turned into nothing. Their shields were lifted to the sky.

Their spears, I don't know how many pieces were blown up. As a result, the Roman hoplites, with only two thousand men, were quickly defeated and retreated under the bombardment of the artillery of the expeditionary force.

Under ferocious artillery fire, the Roman hoplites were crushed. When they went to the battlefield, there were 2,000 men. But when they retreated from the battlefield, there were less than 1,300 men, which was a heavy casualty, and what made them even more humiliated was that they didn't even see the face of the enemy.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

With a loud bang, more and more Roman soldiers returned to heaven. Due to the artillery fire of the expeditionary force, it was so unexpected by the Romans that the Romans, who were still full of confidence, were demoralized all of a sudden. Constantine the Great also had to make a painful decision, and more than 100,000 Roman troops surrounded their emperor and began to flee.

"Hoplite...... It's over......"

"The future of the Romans...... It's over......"

Emperor Constantine muttered helplessly, not knowing what to do.

Since his accession to the throne, Constantine the Great has relied heavily on the Roman hoplites. He relied on this force to sweep through the rebels of the Western princes, and basically, he was able to conquer the entire Roman Empire, and the hoplites played a vital role.

This time he was able to stabilize the formation in an extremely critical situation, not by relying on hoplites, otherwise the Roman army would have been defeated by the Persians long ago without waiting for the expeditionary force to attack. Now, the army he was most proud of had been defeated without any defense, and it was as if he had lost his backbone, and he didn't know what to do for a while.

Eventually, on the strong advice of his ministers and generals, Constantine the Great decided to withdraw his army. For, the already frightened generals, agreed that as soon as the artillery of the eastern troops was brought close to their main phalanx, they would be vulnerable to artillery bombardment, and in case the emperor was killed, it would really be the end for the Romans. Therefore, it was a wise choice to temporarily retreat to Hatra and rely on the city to avoid the artillery of the expeditionary force.

"Okay, retreat to Edessa and talk about it." Emperor Constantine said weakly. (To be continued......)