"Don't plunder money, don't rebuke others indiscriminately, and be content with your own paycheck." John the Baptist to a "good" Roman centurion

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Soon, the men and horses on both sides were congested at the meandering of a slow tributary of the river, where there was an improvised bridge, facing each other across the bank, and the voice was noisy, "Pop, look, are the pack horses behind these cavalrymen carrying wood and oars?" On the high hill, Lybida pointed to the rear of the opposite queue, squinted his eyes, and shouted, and when Pop and all the centurions gave an affirmative reply after looking, Liberda said, "Is it true that the mercenary cavalry of the governor Caesar, when he goes to the city of Cadiz, still carry boats and oars?" This must be the barbarian army wishing to plunder all of Cadiz and preparing to cross the Strait of the Pillars of Hercules to Africa! ”

More than a dozen trumpeters, beside Li Bida, blew a high and loud voice together, and the judgment of "Lusitanian barbarians ahead" instantly spread throughout the entire army, and some hoplites seized the high ground on both sides that could control Asase, and some of the faster lightly armed skirmishers arranged a cordon along the river beach and began to fill the scorpion crossbow and slingling with "ammunition".

The barbarian cavalry on the opposite side also judged the hostility of the men and horses on the other side, and began to panic, and they shouted for their horses to turn back, and ran towards the depths of the rear in a scattered and chaotic manner, and the pack horses and mules of their baggage team were at a loss for what to do, and remained in place.

At this time, a large group of Roman soldiers was clamoring, holding the battalion flag, and stepping on the narrow bridge. Pounced on the other side. "Bastard. Which brigade is this? Li Bida pointed to the brave backs of the group and shouted, "Blow the military horn quickly and contact them to come back!" ”

"It's Hortenhues' brigade, this guy probably wants to loot the baggage and wants to go crazy." Pop was also nervous.

But even though the trumpeter was about to blow the cochlea, Hortenhues's brigade crossed the positions of the other troops straight and fearlessly, crossed the bridge, and rushed to the opposite bank in an instant, and then the woodlands and river valleys on all sides, like a thunderclap. The barbarian cavalry, who had pretended to be withdrawn, turned back and killed at this time, and at this time the men and horses of Hortensius did not even have time to line up in battle, and all of them were crowded around the barbarian's baggage team, and soon disappeared in the smoke and dust raised by the horse's hooves of the opponent's fast horses, and the rain of blood raised by the short sword.

Li Bida's face was pale, and on the opposite riverbank, a barbarian warrior wearing leaf armor triumphantly stabbed the head of Hortensius with a javelin, and galloped back and forth on horseback. Loudly mocking and provoking the stupidity and cowardice of the Roman soldiers, all the barbarian cavalry formed a deep formation. Eyeing the terrified recruits.

At this moment, Li Bida felt for the first time that Lusitania was a beautiful wasteland of twisted flesh and blood, where there was a danger of being killed at any time.

"I emphasize here again, I don't care how other legions, other brigades do it, but now on the Lusitania battlefield, private sorties and raids are not allowed. Do you really think that there is no need to die in this place for all the spoils of defeating the enemy and the city, seventy percent of them are put into the Legion Treasury, and then distributed again every three months, and the treasury is used to bear the pension of the dead? Today there is an example of living blood. Li Bida stood at all the centurions and angrily announced the new order, "The whole army is now camped around the cordon, and someone must be in charge of the post day and night. ”

Pope reminded privately next to him, Caesar is still waiting for us in Italy, do we have to escape the entanglement as soon as possible, Li Bida said angrily, they are all entangled across the river, how can it be so easy to end? I'll think about crossing the river as soon as possible.

After nightfall, Li Bida ordered everyone to light torches, and Hortensius's son, Hortensius Jr., was punished in place of his dead father, and together with the remnants of the brigade that crossed the river, he dug trenches shirtless, and even set up a "fake camp", which was parallel with the real battalion behind him, and asked Pop to lead people to build a simple bridgehead with bricks and wood on his side to prevent the enemy from attacking. Then he sent men, with tokens and orders from the consuls, to the city of Cadiz on horseback.

The Lusitanian barbarian cavalry also dug trenches and built camps on the slopes of the river valley on the opposite bank, although the attributes are barbarians, but these residents of the Iberian Peninsula are no strangers to the civil engineering of civilization Shijie, and they also have a good way to build camps, not only set up sentry posts and secret posts, but also set up a spacious sortie for the horse team, which can attack the Romans who may cross the river at any time.

The next day, Li Bida did not show any force to cross, Li Bida had the bridgehead as the central core, along the banks of the river on both sides of the construction of walls about five Roman feet high, and laid ballistas and rocket catapults behind the walls, and then he asked the veterans to stay in the camp, and the recruits were divided into several teams, led by experienced centurions, scouting along the river bank to survey whether there was any forcible crossing of Asase. This is a double win, which can not only allow the veteran to maintain the energy before the decisive battle, but also try to exercise the determination and interest of the recruit to perform the task.

All this, the barbarian cavalry also saw in their eyes, and they also showed a high degree of vigilance, where Li Bida's scouts went, they also followed to the opposite bank, in order to block the surprise attack of Li Bida's army in any direction. The two sides watched each other back and forth, passing the time, until the men of the city of Cadiz, about two thousand men, all shipwrights, commoners, and freed slaves, were carefully divided into four groups, and every two quarters of an hour, they entered the camp through the back door or the side door, and then ordered them to be trained in basic formation, and gave them broadswords and shields, promising them a considerable reward, and requiring them to follow him.

In the coming day, the army of Lypida suddenly fired swarms of stones, javelins and rockets at the opposite bank behind the bridgehead and the walls, and every once in a while they fired a wave of fierce fire, and the barbarian army's position was surrounded by gunsmoke, but the Lusitanian warriors maintained a high degree of composure, they held their posts in the camp and dispersed, and even the men and horses were in a low position after the fortifications, ready to meet the Romans crossing the river. And a group of Romans did carry shields and push improvised rafts made of sheepskin bags and began to cross the river at Asase near the bridgehead.

At this moment, the barbarian sentinels on a wooden tower shouted, and they found that behind the opposite wall, and between the valley of the river, suddenly appeared a Roman lightly armed army, the size of five or six brigades, marching rapidly towards the whole river.

It turned out that the bridgehead here was a pure feint, and the Romans were ready to send people around somewhere upstream to let the main force cross the river, which was precisely a strategy to attack the east and west. (To be continued......)