"I love betrayal in the enemy camp, but I hate betrayal." - Julius. Caesar-

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"Launch!" Hitius personally stationed in front of the scattered light infantry, waved his sword and shouted instructions, all the stragglers of the Hitius party rushed out of the smoke and dust stirred up in advance, and threw dense flying stones and crossbow arrows at the oncoming enemy cavalry, the opponent turned on his back, and the front line of the impact began to be chaotic, and then without waiting for a breath, the rest of the Hitius cavalry also rushed out bravely with short spears and swords, after a counterattack, the enemy's cavalry lacked the cover of the light infantry to cooperate, It could only recede like a tide by a distance of one furlong.

"Close." Under this order, the Hitius party quickly regrouped its formation, and its back was against the hill, dense and tight.

After two successive raids were thwarted, the Polabinus cavalry, which had been attacked from the southern flank, did not dare to look for Hitius's bad luck again, and they quickly divided into two teams, the front team was responsible for monitoring the cavalry of the Hitius, and the rear team turned and rushed over to intercept the envoy Celeste, who was about to come closer.

At this moment, Celeste's side was only one flag officer, several servants and dozens of cavalry armed, and the group of enemy cavalry behind was still in pursuit, Celeste was frightened, hurriedly abandoned the flag where he was, and then cut off the cloak of the main brush and threw it down, but his current situation was already "locked" - at this time, there were also a large number of intercepted riders in front. In an instant, Celeste thought of the topic of "I'm going to die", and it was the third hour of the afternoon. The small camp built behind him was already in flames. Most of his cavalry fled and scattered. The infantry, who had no time to run, also disappeared into the smoke and dust, and it seemed that most of them had been cut and slaughtered by the enemy cavalry, and the defenders of Suyato lost the courage to respond when they saw this tragic sight.

It was all over, and Celeste now regretted that if he knew that Rabinus's cavalry had been greatly strengthened, why should he take a chance and think that he had sent only a small number of cavalry to Suyato? It seems that Rabinus had already laid out a plan to encircle and annihilate him. So the cavalry under Suato was nothing more than a decoy to lure him in, and his main cavalry unwittingly lay in ambush on the north and south sides of the city, slaughtering his infantry and sacking his camp - no, now demanding his life.

All of this is a momentary greed, eight million Sethreus's private wealth, thinking of this, Celeste can't help but be annoyed, why here? Why in Numidia? Whether it's Rabinus or Lypida. It's all so hateful, I paid two million Sethres in bribes. It is hoped that he will be able to get a two-year errand here, and then return to Rome after he has made enough money, and then use guò bribes and campaign methods to raise the official rank to the rank of arch-lawyer, and then start working towards the consuls, "But this damned war, damn it!" Let the weak have no chance of survival at all. ”

Shuttle darts and arrows rained down all around him, and the servants were constantly wounded, groaning and falling from their horses, smoke and neighing cut off his sight and hearing, and Celeste instinctively followed the direction he had groped in and ran towards Hitious' position.

However, Hitius had also decided to retreat, "It is almost sunset, and the barbarians of the desert are best at fighting at night with a mixed group of infantry and cavalry, and if nothing else, they will intensify their attacks even more fiercely after nightfall." ”

"But the envoy is still far from us, besieged by the enemy's brigade of cavalry, do you want to send a cavalry wing to try his best to save him?" The token officer beside Hitius asked uneasily.

"To save him is to send himself to his death, the surveillance cavalry left behind by the enemy is eyeing us, if we are not cautious now, the next to suffer is the Hitius." The Quartet Monarch of Kirta sighed, and then he waved his hand, indicating that the envoy was bound to die, "Our army is still responsible for defending the city of Vaga, and maintaining the entire battle for the High Priest, and the whole army will immediately retreat along the mountains!" ”

With this order, the trumpets sounded one after another, and the Hitius party left a third of the cavalry in the position of the rearguard, and then they divided into small groups of thirty or fifty horsemen, and separated them, and the rest of the cavalry formed a column, and quickly marched in the direction of the city of Vaga, and after ten Stadia distances, the rearguard cavalry rushed over and became the vanguard, and so they took cover alternately, and when the mountains were exhausted, and the front was full of horses, Hitius shouted, and all the cavalry endured thirst and fatigue, and did not look back, Rushing towards the town in one go.

But the legate Celeste and his legion were buried in the desert, and the body of the legate was identified lying only a thousand feet from the previous Hitius formation, and he had no flags, no armor, and no cloak, and all the symbols of status were discarded, and even the richly carved cuirass was thrown away by him, and he tried to escape so much that the corpse was covered with only an undergarment, lying on its side on the ground, covered with sand, and his eyebrows, eyes, and hair were blurred. Several Mauritanian cavalrymen circled around his corpse, not allowing anyone else to come close, ready to receive a hefty bounty.

In desperation, the city of Suato surrendered, and Rabinus entered the city with his guards early the next morning, and he brought the soldiers fifty elders, most of them Italian immigrants, and then adopted the "one out of ten" penal law, executed five of them, hung their heads on the city walls, and then opened the city's treasury, which contained four million cestrius with public money, as well as the private collection of the envoys, which Rabinus gathered together and distributed to the meritorious soldiers. Then his men brought Celeste's body to him, and Rabinus looked at him, "He was a failed general, a successful historian, and his tragedy was in the misplaced role and the greed for money. Then Rabinus groped for his body, but found not a single coin, so he shook his head, took a dinar from his purse, and put it on the mouth of the fallen historian, "Send his body to the city of Vaga, exchange it for his wife Lenchat, and by the way blow the morale of the defenders, and all the rest of the foot soldiers will follow me to the other place, and I will take Vagah before the main force of Lypida arrives!" ”

Under the scorching sun, Rabinus moved four legions to encircle the city on all sides, and then about 2,000 corpses, bloody and naked, were thrown under the city's head, row after row, like dead fish washed up on the beach.

"Your legions have been annihilated, your soldiers have been killed or taken prisoner, your equipment and baggage have been lost, and even your envoys have been killed. Therefore, I would like to ask you to surrender as much as you can, in a compassionate manner. Rabinus, standing on the slope of the newly built siege city, shouted to the tower above the city, commanding the spear that was raised in the hand of the green olive branch. (To be continued......)