"Imperial subjects are not allowed to sacrifice or die, otherwise the sword will be added and private property will be confiscated." - Constantius, the Christian Roman Emperor

————————————————————————————

Soon, the corpses of the Egyptian soldiers were piled up like wheat straw down the hillside, and the men and horses that followed no longer cared about the integrity of the phalanx, many abandoned their spears, gritted their teeth and rushed forward with their swords, while the archers in charge of covering behind began to exchange fire with the cunning Romans.

However, the more cunning side of the Roman legions, after two rounds of fire, let the defenders of the fortress deeply feel, the arrows fired by the Gauls they brought, the arrows were relatively short, and when they landed on the Egyptian positions, many Egyptian archers instinctively took the enemy's arrows and shot them back (this is a very common thing in the ancient battlefield), but when they put the opponent's arrows on the string, they found that they could not shoot at all - and the opponent could use their own arrows to shoot back - so, it was about two rounds of effort, Ortuarens' archers could not bear it anymore and fled in rout.

This is the originality of the "desert scorpion" Li Bida, of course, he once saw the Italian novelist Boccaccio's "Decameron", and knew that this tactic was the patent of a medieval count, and it was indeed victorious in history.

Over there, the five hundred besieged Egyptian companies also began to break through frantically, and at the critical moment, Tagus lined up six light scorpion crossbows in front of the formation, beating the opponent's vanguard in an uproar, and then let the two centuriens draw their swords and assault, and Antony also rushed down bravely with cavalry, and the Egyptian company could only surrender like a cake.

"Lay down your arms! I will not kill you, and the descendants of Anton are lenient with their enemies. Anthony was on horseback. Shake the dagger in your hand. He shouted triumphantly to all the Egyptian soldiers who were crouching with their heads in their hands.

Then Tagus's two centurians pulled out again. Throwing themselves into positions on the hillside and launching a counter-offensive against Otuaarens's troops, the Egyptian army was in complete disarray, caught between a fierce bow and scorpion crossbow fire, and could only fight and retreat closer and futilely towards the fortress of Perusim.

"Juniper Vier, pursuit!" Li Bida waved his baton again, and all the Vibichinas let out the cry of the barbarians. Hanging their bows and arrows in the saddle, they all rolled over their horses, and the six scorpions on each flank of the formation clicked and fired continuously, and the Vibicinas cavalry in the center formed an inverted trapezoid, and rushed inexorably towards Ortuaarens' troops.

But the soldiers of the fortress side suffered heavy casualties, and abandoned many corpses and wounded on both sides of the road, but the negroes did not collapse as they retreated, and as soon as Lipida's cavalry approached, they were next to each other, and their sharp spears were stretched out from all sides. Out of "fear of the tip", the horses can only run around the formation of these people. Unable to exert the power of pursuit, some reckless and brave, after piercing in, were either pierced with men and horses, or were taken off their horses by many people and killed alive with swords or stones, and the corpses of cavalrymen who had been stripped of their armor were thrown out like spit grapes.

And as soon as the Vibichina cavalry was a little farther away, these men quickly turned into a loose formation and continued to run towards the city of Perusim, it seems that these Nubian black soldiers, specially trained to fight cavalry, are not so easy to capture.

"The cavalry keeps attacking and hindering, let the infantry brigade go up and deal with them!" Li Bida stood on the high ground and observed for a while, and gave the order to Antony, telling them to go up and inform Dusonville and Tagus.

Then, the cavalry of Vibichinas quickly changed their tactics, they were like hungry wolves, tracking and killing the enemy's lone squad of men and horses, and gnawed patiently one bite at a time, while the thousand-man brigade of the Twelfth Legion of Tagus ran fast and began to bite the rear guard of Otuaarens, these guys with spears held together in dense groups, the Romanized infantry were not afraid, they violently threw out the light and heavy javelins in their hands, and each shot could stab a large number of people, and gradually the troops of Otuaarens' troops "retreated while fighting" The situation could no longer be sustained, and more and more soldiers who had abandoned their posts began to flee aimlessly, only to be overrun by the enemy's lightning cavalry, and the number of those willing to form a battle continued to dwindle - both numbers and morale quickly melted away in the scorching sun.

Ten romans from Perusim, Ortuarens' men had lost more than half of them, and by six miles, the commander-in-chief could no longer control his army, and he himself fled with his retinue, and his company shouted in unison again, completely collapsed, and ran like spiders and ants.

Otuaarens, who rushed into the fortress at the last time, had less than fifty people left around him.

The next day, at the Eye Fort in front of the fortress, the defending general, Ortuarens, removed his armor and, amid the shouts of all the soldiers of the Thirteenth Legion, shamefully asked to consult with the Roman commander about surrender.

Hebrida came down from the fortress terrace, grabbed the rope, and then looked at Ottoarens, and asked what the other party was going to do.

"I hope that you will follow the virtues of a victor and forgive the lives of the remaining soldiers of our own in the fortress, and in exchange I will hand over this great fortress." Ottoarens pleaded in Greek.

"Do you know how to speak the Greek language, after so many years, my brother still thinks that their words are like sissies, so when young Greek men come to Rome, eighty percent of them have to live by being male prostitutes." Hebrida crossed his waist and said angrily, but in fact, he knew that all the water and food in his camp were close to running out, and if this bastard in front of him held out for another three or four days, the victory or defeat could really be said to be indistinguishable.

"You're going to surrender, right, then trouble my brother to go out through the back door of your fortress again, because the supreme commander of our army, General Liberdaus, is right behind your anus, and my brother is just a chief centurion." Hebrida's words caused the laughter of all the soldiers in the camp, some of them sat in front of the cavalry cannons, some sat on the edge of the eye fort, shaking their legs, maybe they would encounter a lot of battles in the future, some of them would indeed die right, in the colonial city where retired veterans were housed, when they told their stories to their children and grandchildren, this battle for the capture of the fortress of Perusim was perhaps the most legendary, "Our general passed through the nostrils of the crooked Taifeng evil god, and directly annihilated the main force of the Egyptian fortress, They had to surrender. ”

Ottoarens, who had no choice but to surrender again, was finally forgiven by Lipida, and at noon the defenders in the fortress carried out piles of bloody corpses in mule-drawn carts, and then the Romans stepped on the footsteps of the Ying and the trumpet, and entered the fortress from the front and rear directions to change defenses.

Perusim, Egypt's gateway to Asia Minor, thus fell into the hands of Lybida. (To be continued......)