"The older I get, the more I learn." - Solon

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Li Bida's subordinates, a group of cavalry trampled on the remaining enemy soldiers on the battlefield, even though they knew that it was a miserable defeat, but many soldiers of the Bronze Shield Army who were extremely loyal to Menander, before dying, they also stretched out their hands and tried to pull the hooves of Li Bida's cavalry, and finally were trampled to death, or stabbed to death by swords and spears, and the Bronze Shield Army fell on this snowfield one by one, and the blood soaked the soil under them.

In this way, the bronze shield army of Pontus, as well as the ambition of Menander, were reduced to dust under the iron hooves of Lybidaeus in the course of a day's war.

Just as Li Bida said, although Minander and his soldiers are brave and extremely skilled in tactical drills, they still stick to the old tactics of Alexander the Great's era, not to mention that Menander's understanding of the Macedonian system is to constantly strengthen the spear depth phalanx, but this system and tactics began to decline as early as a hundred years ago, and Alexander the Great's tactics of sweeping Europe, Africa and Asia did not rely solely on the spear phalanx, but the perfect coordination of infantry, projection, and light and heavy cavalry.

So Minander was defeated, and he was not only defeated by Li Bida's tactical strategy, but also by the torrent of the times.

But the king of the Bosphorus was still struggling to flee along the narrow road and the dense forest, and the trees and fields were rapidly retreating, and Menander had no thought of dying for the time being, for he had a wife and children, and he had to take them back to the Bosphorus safely. Even if you abandon the cities of Sinop and Amisus. That can be a little longer. Maybe he can keep his original kingdom.

At night, Menander wailed, and his guards and henchmen were fewer, but the cavalry of the other side was still chasing him like wolves, and here was the valley of the Amasya, surrounded by barren mountain roads, and his horses were foaming at the mouth of the night. He looked more and more tired, but he was not sure where Sinop was, and now he only knew that he had no qiē, the army, the power, the baggage camp, everything, he ran aimlessly along the night road, the torches of the pursuers behind him were constantly shaking, and the shouts of enemies in all directions were getting closer and closer.

The 500 Mattia cavalry sent by Li Bida pursued Minander all night. These fierce Caucasian herdsmen-turned-riders are like ghosts. They are adept at breaking into three or four squads, constantly overtaking pursuits, which makes Minander like a poor rabbit being chased by wolves, and at all times, there are pursuers behind him until he is tired to despair. The next morning, in the cold wind, Minand's mount slowly lost its course, and was still reprimanded by its master with a whip, but it only shed tears, circled in place, and finally screamed, sprayed white mist, and fell down with a bang, exhausted to death.

The master's hair was unkempt, his cloak had been scraped by the branches, his eyes were blank, he stumbled to the spring in front of the dense forest, lay down, and drank a few sips of cold water without a head, and then Menander slowly stood up with his hands on the trunk, his lower limbs were so tired that he could not move anymore, he remembered his wife and children who were still in Sinop, and could not help crying, and then one hand held the trunk of the tree, and the other hand touched the Persian scimitar hanging under the skirt armor.

At this moment he looked around, and finally saw the scene around him clearly, he was still in the middle of the mountain road, on both sides were straight deciduous trees, the morning sun stirred the flying mist, and on the other side of the road, there was the sound of the thrashing figures of the cavalry and the chirping of horses. Menander cried, then turned slowly, tried to lean straight against the trunk of the tree, stood straight, looked up at the blue sky, and then tilted his head down again, and by this time he could already see the hideous faces of the rapidly approaching Lypida cavalry twenty Roman feet away, with their outstretched hands, and their flying lassoes, and it was obvious that they were going to capture him alive.

In a burst of exclamation, Menander plunged the Persian scimitar into his neck, his knife was still a few seconds faster than the horse's hooves, Mattia scolded and screamed, ran back and forth a few times around him in an instant, and after controlling the horse, he jumped off the horse and surrounded the body of Minander leaning against the trunk of the tree, his eyes were still open, and large strands of blood flowed down the hilt of the scimitar.

At this moment, in the wilderness in front of the Amasya River Valley, in the abandoned bronze shield military camp, Li Bida's troops were burying a lot of corpses, because the number of dead enemies was too large, and there were as many as 6,000 abandoned on the battlefield between the two army camps alone, "They are all respectable warriors." Tagus sighed, and then he saw the huddled corpse of a young Bronze Shield officer in the trench under his camp, he and his comrades were staggered and killed in battle, his gray eyes still seemed to burn faintly, his hair was stained with frost, and the armor on his body had blended with the color of the surrounding earth, but his hands were still tightly clutching a huge battle flag.

"Who is this?" Tagus turned back and found that it was the cavalry commander himself, riding his horse, accompanied by his retinues, to the front of the trench. Tagus and the soldiers around him stretched out their hands to salute, and then replied that this huge battle flag should be the symbol of the Bronze Shield Army, so this corpse should be the standard-bearer.

Li Bida looked intently at the cold corpse of the young officer, and then said to Tagus, "Give him a separate burial, and erect a stone tablet and an inscription on it, telling the latecomers of his identity and bravery, but this Mithra banner must be confiscated as a trophy." After saying this, several soldiers jumped down to deal with it, and at this moment Kalenus also arrived on horseback, and Li Bida instructed him, "The honor of entering Sinop City is given to the Twelve Legions, and you will clean the battlefield in the same place for three days, and I will also equip you with the soldiers of Yubertnia, and the shores of the Yukxing Sea will then be surrendered." ”

But at this time, Serha and Peternius next to them heard this arrangement, and they were extremely dissatisfied, especially Serha even complained, why can't our fifteenth legion enter Sinop, how can I explain to my subordinate soldiers?

"After we defeated Scipio, the fifteenth legion received the same reward, you must know that Scipio's baggage also has two or three hundred talents, and now we will go south again, aiming at Scipio's two legions." Li Bida replied.

But Serha was still unrelenting, and must ask the cavalry commander to distribute fifty dinars to each soldier in addition to the booty. (To be continued......)