The army continued to move forward, but it was not until more than an hour later that Borda, who had led the men in pursuit, did not return, and even the heralds who had gone to deliver the order never came back to report the situation.

Anastasia knew that things might not be good, there must be someone who wanted to disadvantage the princess's dowry procession, and now he didn't know what the enemy's purpose was? Is it to rob or rob people? Or is there another ulterior motive? In any case, he knew that the immediate priority was to send scout cavalry to guard the surroundings in case the enemy would surprise in front of him and be kept in the dark.

"Come on, dispatch four hundred-man teams, led by their respective centurions, to reconnoiter and guard within a radius of five miles in the four directions, front, back, left and right, and if the enemy situation is found, immediately send someone to report!"

"Yes, General!"

By noon, Anastasias was sure that the centurion Borda, who had not returned to the ranks until now, had met with an accident, because of the large number of marching troops, and the lack of horses for the weak handmaidens and eunuchs of the ranks, the march was very slow, and he had only walked more than twenty miles in a morning and less than thirty miles, such a march was too slow, but it has always been like this these days, if the speed of the march is accelerated, those handmaids and eunuchs will not be able to stand it, maybe they have not yet reached Carthage, The princess has no one to serve.

Walking in the desert, the more tired you are, the more you can't stop to rest, once you stop to rest, maybe you can't stand up again, you are thirsty to drink water, hungry and gnaw dry food, in short, you can't stop to rest, you have to wait until the evening after the sun goes down to find a place to camp, so that you can be safe and sound. Even when camping at night, there is a lot of caution, and the desert is usually hot during the day and cold at night. Therefore, it is best not to go out when camping at night, hide in the tent and wrap a blanket to keep warm and sleep and rest, and only then will you have the energy to continue to travel, once you have a bad rest, you are likely to die in the desert the next day, those maids, eunuchs and Praetorian Guard soldiers have no experience in desert life, but fortunately they brought guides and enough people with experience in desert life to accompany them.

All afternoon. Nothing happened, and although the marching team sometimes fainted from heat stroke from time to time, there were quite a few doctors with them this time. After being treated, he also returned to the road, but other than that, he was calm as usual.

But the more this happened, the more uneasy Anastasias became. It's like the calm of the sea. There is no wind and no waves, but in fact, on the calm sea, there are turbulent waves and deadly rapids.

Just as Anastasias was engrossed in his vigilance, a fast horse came running ahead, and the cavalry came running to report to him: "General, five miles ahead is the next oasis, and now it is getting late, is the army camping there?" ”

Camping, of course. Camping is just a place to rest, and camping at the oasis is a great way to replenish your water. Some oases are inhabited by desert herders and have bazaars where they can buy grain and forage for supplies.

Anastasiaus took out the parchment scroll and looked at it, and then thought for a while: "Order, the whole army continues to advance, camp in the oasis five miles ahead, replenish drinking water, food and other supplies!" ”

After hearing the order, there was a roaring sound of joy in the procession, and the speed of the march suddenly increased, and the maids and eunuchs, who had been very tired after walking for a day, also had strength in their bodies at this time, and their steps were larger.

…….

"Whoosh-" A scout cavalry galloping in front of him let out a muffled snort, obviously an arrow, but he gritted his teeth and continued to gallop, he knew that he had to escape, otherwise the entire dowry party would be destroyed.

After shooting the arrows, the pursuer saw that the enemy scout cavalry in front of him was still sitting firmly on horseback, and was a little dissatisfied with what he had just done, and immediately blew a whistle, and several of his companions immediately chased after the fleeing man at full speed after receiving his instructions.

After more than ten minutes, the reconnaissance cavalry, who had been wounded by an arrow, finally met a companion of his own, who saw the man on horseback in front of him crooked, obviously wounded, and immediately met him and asked loudly, "What's the matter?" What's the situation? ”

The wounded scout cavalry stopped his horse, at this time he was extremely weak, he knew that he would not survive, and he had to pass the news back, he said intermittently: "Hurry, hurry up and report to the general, a large number of unidentified troops have appeared in the southwest direction of the lake, see that there are at least three thousand men and horses, all of them are cavalry, let, let the general be small, small ......."

Before he could finish speaking, the man was dead, but his companion had received all the information, and he glanced at the corpse on horseback, and as soon as he pulled the reins, turned his horse's head, and galloped away to the camp.

Anastasiaus was inspecting the sentry posts in the camp, and since the departure was due to the departure tomorrow, the defenses of the camp were very rudimentary, and the camp was built on its back, with only some timber fences nailed around it, and some horse rejection, so that there were no other facilities, mainly to prevent the cattle from scattering.

"General, general, news has come from the reconnaissance cavalry in the front, there is a large unidentified army in the southwest direction is rapidly approaching our army's camp, and now it is not clear whether that army is friend or foe, please make a quick decision!"

Anastasias's face changed dramatically when he heard this, he had been worried that someone would spy on the princess's dowry procession, and he was very uneasy all day today, but he didn't expect that what he was worried about finally appeared.

He knew that he couldn't mess up, he was in chaos, he was the commander of the army, if he messed up, then the whole army would be in chaos, there would be no combat effectiveness at all, the princess would be in danger, his own safety was not important, but the princess's safety was related to the interests of the empire, he remembered what the emperor had said to him before leaving, even if you and your three thousand men were all wiped out, you must send the princess to Carthage safely, and if it really doesn't work, you must also bring the princess back to Ankara intact.

After calming down the panicked situation, Anastasias quickly issued an order: "Order all wings to assemble quickly, defend with their backs to the camp, and the reconnaissance cavalry in front immediately inquire about the movements of the unidentified army and report the situation at any time!" ”

"Yes, General!"

To the southwest of the oasis, Balhan was quietly and quickly approaching the camp of the princesses of the Eastern Roman Empire on the shore of the lake with three thousand iron horsemen, and his plan was to take Anastasia by surprise in the dark night. When it comes to combat experience and the experience of commanding in battle, Balhan has experienced dozens of battles and battles, and his combat experience and command experience can be described as quite rich, while Anastasia only has experience in individual combat, but he has no experience in commanding the army in battle, he was selected from a small soldier to join the Praetorian Guard, and after entering the Praetorian Guard, he has never participated in the battle, nor has he commanded the army to fight, and has been staying in the palace to protect the emperor's safety, and his military ability is too far from Balhan.

"General, the last general is incompetent, just now there was an Eastern Roman army scout cavalry who broke through the defense line of our scout cavalry and entered the hinterland of our scout range, it is very likely to know the reality of our army, the key is that people ran away, my people did not catch up, and please surrender to the general!" The captain of the scout rode over and reported to Balhan.

When Balhan heard this, he was furious, and he raised his horsewhip to beat the captain of the cavalry, but he stopped halfway through the wave of his hand, and did not fight, and after receiving the horsewhip, Balhan took out the map and looked at it, and thought for a while: "You immediately take your people and divide them into two groups, one group is ambushed ten miles northeast of the lake, and the other group is ambushed fifteen miles to the east, when the Eastern Romans find that their situation is not good, they will definitely send people to the nearest town for help, this is the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire, we must not let them find reinforcements, Do you understand what General Ben means? If there is a mistake this time, General Ben will not spare it! ”

"Yes, General!" The captain of the scout cavalry narrowly escaped death and promised to leave immediately.

After the scout cavalry team was gone, Hans, the deputy next to him, asked: "General, it is estimated that Anastasias already knows about our situation, and it may be impossible for us to sneak attack at night, what should we do now?" ”

After thinking about it, Balhan made up his mind and said, "What should I do? The sneak attack didn't work, now we only have a strong attack, we only have two days, it's been a whole day, we must return to the landing site by this time tomorrow, otherwise we will be abandoned here! Passing on the general's military order, the whole army is advancing in the direction of the Eastern Roman army, tonight we will consume with them, it should be them who are afraid, not us, we are here to fight them, we do not attack, they must always guard against us, and we can actually rest assured and bold to sleep, wait until tomorrow after dawn, and then have a decisive battle with them who have stayed up all night, this general wants to see, whether it is the Janissaries of the Eastern Roman Empire who are powerful, or the soldiers of the Marine Cavalry Division of my Great Qin Empire are brave! ”

"Yes, General!" Hans nodded to the herald next to him, and the herald shouted after receiving the order: "General Balhan has an order, and the whole army will continue to advance to the northeast to the camp of the Eastern Romans!" ”

Although they had already received the news and were prepared to meet the enemy, when the overwhelming sound of horses' hooves came, and the ground was constantly shaking as if an earthquake was about to be earthquake, the camp of the Eastern Romans was still in a panic, and the camp was full of maids and eunuchs scurrying around, these eunuchs and maids had no combat power, so they could only stay in the camp, and many people were huddled together and trembling, because the momentum created by the galloping of three thousand iron horsemen together was really terrifying.

The army stopped not far from the 3,000 Janissaries of the Eastern Romans, who were ready to fight the cavalry in front of them at any time, but Barhan gave an order that sounded extremely absurd, he ordered the army to rest in two parts in turn, but the rest half of the soldiers rested on horseback, and the other half of the men were engrossed in watching the Eastern Roman Janissaries in front of them.

Anastasias didn't know that Balhan had given such an order, he was very depressed, the army in front neither identified itself nor launched an attack, so what kind of trouble was this to make in this formation? (To be continued......)