Chapter 22: The Wrath of Luculas I

"O traveler of long journeys, please pause for a moment and look at the past of a Roman who once lived in this world." - An epitaph in ancient Rome

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This was the reconnaissance squad of the Triple Wing, and they took the orders of Apis, walked out of the camp, and waded through the frozen river, because since that day's battle, the Pontic army had slowly left, but the cautious Apis was still afraid that Mithridates would use the same stratagem against him, so it was not until four or five days later that he sent a reconnaissance force led by Hybrida to find out.

The whole scene was exactly as Heblida said, the great soldiers of Pontus went to camp empty, and the whole wilderness and hills were covered with snow, and they saw many, many corpses on the battlefield, most of the abandoned corpses, most of which were killed by the Roman Eighth Legion, which made everyone present feel painful and uneasy, because most of the armor, clothing, and jewelry on the corpses were stripped of by the soldiers of Pontus as trophiesβ€”what the Romans would do to the vanquished.

As a result, thousands of naked corpses had been blown black and frightened in the wind and snow of the previous days, frozen to the point of incomparable stiffness, and maintained all kinds of pre-death postures, or lying, or sitting, or curled up on all fours, Calabis frowned, and slowly walked somewhere, where the corpses were the most dense, densely next to each other, as if guarding the corpse in the middle.

"Poor Sonajus, even if he is noble and good at fighting, he will not be able to avoid the call of Hades." Seeing this, Arminius sighed, "It's useless, the Eagle Banner of the Eighth Legion has been taken away, and the honor of this legion is over." ”

Everyone stood silently in front of the corpse of Sonajus, and mourned for a while, and then Calabis turned and took a step, only to be shocked, his foot clearly stepped on something that could move, and he was so frightened that he subconsciously took two steps back, and drew his short sword, even if he couldn't use it, but it was still possible to use it to strengthen his courage.

The "thing" turned over slightly, shaking off the snow covering it, and it turned out to be a person holding a leather blanket, staring at the hedgehog-like eyes, just now hiding under the snow, extremely weird.

The rest of the men drew their daggers as well, and the man carried the blanket and muttered a few words, and then Calabis cried out in amazement, "It's you, Timosius!" ”

This is the same Dr. Steki hired by Mithridates, Timosius, who nearly castrated Calabis. Timothy angrily explained to Calabis why he was here, it turned out that this lord was unhindered, and the god of deer and fish, who had been worshipping their Scythians when the army of Pontus was fighting and fighting, was able to pass through an area full of dead bodies in a blizzard and come to the river to worship the god of fish. As a result, the Pontic army left in a hurry, leaving the empty camp, and forgetting that there was still him, he was going around and around, and he could not find any trace of the team, but fortunately he was a Scythian, and he was born with the wind and snow on the steppe, so he temporarily dug a pit down, put a blanket on it, and actually held on like this, did not freeze to death, was stepped on by Calabis, and when he saw the snow and sunny, he was just about to leave and continue to run. "In that case, send him to his fish god." Highbridar picked up her sword and pressed it down against Timosius' neck.

Calabis stopped him, "You're crazy, you know he's Mithridates' royal doctor." Count it as your loot, how? You know, he is in the city of Rome, and he is worth at least 20,000 cesdes. Hybrida looked at Calabis for a moment, and felt that what he said was true, so she put away her sword, "Maybe in the future, he can make the city of Rome have another fish temple." ”

At this point, Timothy asked Calabis aloud what would happen to him.

"All I can say is that you have temporarily become a prisoner of the Roman army." Calabis said, and then Timosius didn't react, ran to the pit where he was hiding, and actually took out a skeleton with ruddy remnants from it! Everyone looked at the skull with incredible eyes, and there was still a little withered hair on the top of the skull, "Let's go." When Timosius had finished speaking, he carried the skeleton affectionately on his shoulders and strode ahead of everyone, as if it were not the Romans who had captured him, but the Romans.

A group of men walked in a single formation on the barely knee-deep snow, until a few furlongs from the camp came the sound of horses' hooves and shoutsβ€”four horsemen with grape scepters galloping towards the camp of Appis, and Hebrida hastened to let everyone avoid it and saluted.

"This is the herald of Tuna Road Kuras, and they're finally here." After putting down her hand, Highbrida exhaled a mouthful of white flower mist and said.

Sure enough, after a while, Lucuras did lead the Seventh Legion and the Eleventh Legion, and came in the snow, all the soldiers and centurions were in a very bad mental state, their faces were dark, they were carrying heavy equipment, staggering, there were very few mules and horses in the queue, and afterwards Calabis heard that many of them froze to death in the mountains of Armenia, including the old man "Owl" of Calabis, especially when the officers and soldiers saw the corpses densely scattered in the distant fields, their morale fell to the freezing point, They had known in advance that the Eighth Legion had suffered heavy losses, but they had not seen the sight to be so miserable.

Luculas has been fighting in Asia Minor for several years, relying on these three main legions to come and go, and this time he lost a third of it, which is really a whimper.

"It's him, this shameless villain." Seeing that Claudius had reappeared in the front cavalry, Heybrida and the remnants of the Triple Wing all shouted angrily, "Bablius. Marcuse. Claudius! Traitor traitor! ”

When Claudius heard this, he was very alarmed, he did not expect that anyone in the triumph would survive, so he hurriedly covered his handsome face with his cloak regardless of where the sound came from.

After lunch, Luculas ordered all the soldiers to be assembled in the open area in front of the barracks, a full twelve thousand men, and braved the extreme cold to form a huge hollow phalanx, and Calabis was also crowded in the position of the triad, because he was now a free man, and could theoretically raise his sword and fight for the legion at the front.

Apis had already handed over the paperwork to Luculas according to the procedure, and the other party did not blame Apis's self-indulgence, but said in a grateful tone: "Thank you Apis, for your temporary disposal, you saved the whole of Rikdania and Silesia. ”

But Apis replied solemnly: "Mithridates turned north, and annihilated the main force of the Eighth Legion, from officers to soldiers, four thousand good Roman soldiers, with fifty centurions, twenty-four generals, tribunes, and your lieutenant Sonajus, all perished on the snowy fields before themβ€”which also means that now Mithridates has crossed Cappadocia, and the whole seaside of Pontus, there will be no Roman army that can stop him." ”

Hearing this, Lucuras also had a calm expression, pressed one hand on the table, slowly lowered his eyebrows, and then suddenly opened his eyes like fire: "Where is Triali!" ”

"He's been in hiding for fear of retribution from the survivors of the Eighth Legion."

"Then you give the order, gather all the soldiers, now!" This was Lucuras's order.