Chapter 431: Borrowing a knife to kill
King Geseric, the king of Vandal who occupied the western Roman Empire in Spain, never thought that Majorian would make such a big move, a full 300,000 soldiers and horses, plus a well-trained and powerful naval fleet is definitely not something he can fight against with his current strength, he just wants to fight the autumn wind when the Western Roman Empire is in chaos, and he really doesn't have the strength to show that the soldiers and generals of the chariots and horses are against the soldiers.
When Majorian led the army to land in Barcelona, Geseric began to prepare to evacuate Spain, of course, the evacuation of Spain could not be just a gray withdrawal, he organized his troops to pack up everything that could be taken away, including the captured Roman soldiers, nobles and common people, waved his hand, and took away everything! This is his style of Gaiseric, Xu Zhimo is too far and far from him.
Originally nervous and worried about being flanked by the front and back, Li Ximir found that the towns on the attack route of the army were actually empty, not to mention a single figure, not even a mouse could be found, this situation did not make him half happy, but made him feel up and down, not knowing the reality of the enemy has become the greatest pain for him now, so that everywhere he and his army go is about to be full of grass and trees.
After capturing three empty cities in a row without much difficulty, Richmir realized that things might have changed dramatically, and he immediately sent his most elite scout cavalry to attack the towns along the route to reconnoitre, while sending someone to report the situation to Emperor Majorion.
Every other day, Scout Cavalry brought news from the front, and the towns where Scout Cavalry had arrived were empty. It wasn't until a week later, when the Scout cavalry at the forefront of the reconnaissance returned from Selivia that Selivia had also become an empty city, that he realized that the Vandals had evacuated Spain and taken all the Qiē with them. Only ruins remained.
The situation of the army of the central army Majorian and the right army of Egidious was basically the same, the entire eastern part of Spain was originally occupied by the Vandal, and there was no one on the territory, and it became a barren land, and Majorian was very anxious when he received the news, and vowed to cut the evil Gaseric with a thousand knives.
According to the calculation of time, Gaiseric's army must have taken so many supplies and people with them, and it must not have gone far. Majorian therefore ordered the Dalmatian governor, Marsilin, to lead his fleet to the Strait of Gibraltar to intercept them, and to be sure to stop Gayserik's army before they crossed the strait.
It is true that the army of Gaiseric has not gone far, they are still walking on the roads not far from Selivia. The army was carrying a large number of people and carrying an incomparably large amount of supplies, and it was estimated that it would soon be overtaken by the armies of the Western Roman Empire at the current marching speed.
When Gaseric saw the current speed of the army, he knew that this could not go on. Sooner or later, they will be caught up. In order to return to his kingdom safely, he had to find a way to slow down the Western Roman Empire's army, and he also thought that the Western Roman Empire's naval fleet was likely to intercept it at sea.
Gaiseric is worthy of a generation of heroes, he has the capital and talent to be a hero, he decided to give the army of the Western Roman Empire a vicious trick, according to judgment and speculation, he concluded that Majorian will order the fleet of the Western Roman Empire to the Strait of Gibraltar to intercept after learning that he led his army to flee with the local people. So he ordered his pirate fleet to hide in the Gulf of Almeria and ambush it as soon as it spotted the naval fleet of the Western Roman Empire sailing in the direction of the Strait of Gibraltar. If he waited for the appointed time and did not find the naval fleet of the Western Roman Empire passing by, he set sail for Algeciras to meet his army.
After arranging measures to deal with possible interceptions from the sea, Gaiseric decided to deal with the Western Roman army that was catching up, and according to the reconnaissance, a small group of reconnaissance cavalry came to Selivia from the east, and he knew that this was the reconnaissance cavalry from the left army of the Western Roman Empire, so that the vanguard of the left army would soon arrive in Selivia. Gayseric immediately returned to Selivia with 30,000 camel cavalry and set up an ambush, waiting for the first to reach the Western Roman Empire.
The middle route army, the 170,000 army under the command of the Western Roman Emperor Majorian himself camped in Linares, when he got the reconnaissance news from the front in his tent and learned the approximate location of Geseric's army, he immediately wanted to lead the army to catch up with all of Geseric's army as quickly as possible and leave all of Geseric's army in Spain, and it was best to leave Geseric himself in Spain, but Majorian remembered Geseric's cunning and cunning, and he was a little hesitant in his heart, is Geseric so relieved to open his back? Didn't Gaiserick prepare for the move? He was afraid of falling for Geseric's tricks, so that he was worried that his army would suffer huge losses, so he did not order the army to pursue immediately, and after careful consideration, he immediately issued two orders, one was for the right army Egidios, ordering Aegidius to lead the army to advance slowly, steadily, and send more scouts to reconnoitre, worried about Geseric's treachery, and the other order was for the commander of the left army, Li Ximir, He ordered Richmir to immediately lead his whole army to Selivia to pursue Geseric's rear army, and to join forces with the Central and Right Routes in Selivia three days later to flank Geseric's army.
Li Ximir did not dare to slack off after receiving Majorian's military order, although he now has 50,000 troops in hand, but now on the battlefield, his 50,000 troops are not vulnerable to Majorian, who has the twenty-fifth army and naval fleet, not to mention that there is an army of 30,000 horses to monitor his rear, so he has to grit his teeth and lead the army to march to Selivia as fast as possible, his army is now in Antequera, it is a little difficult to reach Selivia within three days, but it is not an impossible task, It was possible to get there in three days to make the soldiers harder.
When Leshmir arrived in Selivia three days later with his army, there was no one in Selivia, and although he had been informed by the scouts, he was still a little surprised to see the desolation of Selivia with his own eyes.
After three days of rapid marching, the soldiers were already exhausted, and Li Ximir asked the soldiers to camp and rest, in fact, he was very worried in his heart, according to the agreement he had arrived in Selivia within the appointed time, but he did not see the middle army and the right army in Selivia.
The exhausted soldiers went to sleep in the tent early after dinner, and the camp was stationed in the city of Selivia, which was undoubtedly much safer than in the wilderness, and if the enemy came from outside, his army could stand in the city, and even Leshmir fell asleep because of exhaustion.
In the middle of the night, countless black shadows emerged from all corners of the city of Selivia, and when the moon hid in the clouds, the shouts of killing rang out, and in an instant they resounded throughout the town.
"Kill, kill, kill Richmir!" This kind of shouting and killing was heard all over the city, and Gaiseric was not unaware of the rift between Richmir and Majorian, but he also had a lot of grudges with Richmir, thinking that when he was in Corsica, Richmir had defeated his army many times and killed many of his soldiers, and this blood feud Gaselic had always remembered in his heart, thinking that one day he must pay for this guy's blood debt, and today he finally got the opportunity.
The soldiers of the Vandal kingdom, under the command of Geseric, rushed into the tents of the soldiers of Richmir and slashed at the soldiers who slept like dead pigs, many of them had their necks cut off in their sleep, some were awakened by the shouts of killing, some were hacked to death with knives while dressing and carrying weapons in a panic, and many were shot with bows and arrows as soon as they rushed out of the tent with their weapons, and the whole of Selivia resounded with shouts of killing, and soon the city was full of flames and smoke.
"What? Did the Vandals come in? How did they get into town? Sue me, how did they get into the city? Upon learning that the enemy was a Vandal, Richmir was furious, grabbing the soldier by the clothes and screaming to vent his fear.
In fact, he already knew that he had been deceived by Majorian, Majorian must have guessed that Geseric had set up an ambush here, so he came up with a poisonous plan to kill people with a knife, Li Ximir hated it, but at this time the situation was critical, he had no time to hate, so he had to order the whole army to break through to the outside of the city, his 50,000 troops were scattered all over the city, and now the city was in chaos, and it was impossible to organize an effective defense, let alone organize a counteroffensive, and the top priority was to do his best to break out of the encirclement and preserve the living force.
Gaceric commanded his 30,000 camel cavalry to charge around the city, in the cavalry battle, the camel cavalry was more effective than the cavalry, the camel's body was taller than the average war horse, so the camel soldiers had a more condescending advantage in battle, and Richmir's army was in disarray, and it was impossible to organize a defensive phalanx against Gaceric's camel cavalry.
In the chaos and panic, Li Ximir came to the north gate under the protection of the guards, and the news of the breakthrough had been conveyed, but the city was full of Vandal camel cavalry, and there were not many generals who received orders, and the army that rushed to the north gate to meet was only a few thousand.
After paying heavy casualties, Li Ximir and the others finally opened the city gate, but they found that the hole in the city gate was blocked by countless stones, and this escape became a dead end.
After dawn, the battle ended, Li Ximir fought to the death, his 50,000 troops were killed more than 20,000 people, the rest of nearly 30,000 were all captured, a generation of heroes Li Ximir finally did not fight Majorian, was calculated by Majorian's trick to kill people with a knife. (To be continued......)