Scipio, on the other hand, was still in high spirits, and he exclaimed, "I have been looking forward to this day for a long time, fighting side by side with the army of animals to defeat the enemy. I had been well prepared beforehand, and I had carefully read the detailed manual written by the owner of the Colosseum, which said that the elephant was the most invincible beast on land, but it was also the most delicate, and it was afraid of fire, and it was afraid of the smallest things, so it was damn and unforgivable for the enemy to use trumpets and slings against it. So now, my lords, what we have to do is to prevent these actions of the enemy from causing any harm to my herd. ”

Then Scipio burst into tears, and he gave instructions to the herald, and thirty war elephants were lined up in two columns, and the mahouts sat on their backs with clubs, and drove them towards the soldiers on one side, and then there was a whistle, and the soldiers picked up many stones the size of grapes, pressed them on the slings, and threw them at the elephants like rain, and the elephants screamed in fear.

But Scipio heard the elephant's cry and wept even more, and at last he relented and gave the next instruction.

On the other side of the herd, another group of soldiers appeared, their stones the size of plums, and they also crackled on the retreating elephants, and the pain of the elephants had no choice but to turn their heads again and continue to rush in the direction they had set. As a result, the frontal soldier began to smash the stone with his fist, causing Scipio to burst into tears, twitching his shoulders and barely being able to control himself.

"Forgive me, only such cruelty can make war elephants brave the enemy's slings and crossbows on the battlefield." Here's how he explained.

In another camp, Caesar had heard of the King of Juba's war elephants. In particular, the remnants of the 22nd Army painted their voices and described the tragic situation of the array being trampled by war elephants in front of him. He also took great pains to ask the soldiers to train in the tactics of "fighting against elephants".

Caesar had been prepared for this. He gathered all the generals and veterans of the legion, including Lusitanis, Gauls, Germans, Nubians, and Black Sea people, and then took out several elephants himself. It was borrowed from the Colosseum and the circus, and Caesar asked everyone to touch the elephant, to feel its body and habits, and to discuss which part of it was the hardest, which part was the softest, and where the fatal flaws were.

"Use your spears, stab them to death, stab them all." Suddenly, Caesar gave this order with no expression.

Many people looked at the behemoth with its head held high. They all daunted.

As a result, Caesar personally went to the centurion of Nubia of the Fifteenth Legion. Because he still held a very long sharp spear in his hand, and served as the spear-carrying escort rider of General Selha, Caesar took the spear from the other man's hand with great difficulty, and then held the spear, and with a loud shout, with a very correct thrust posture, pierced the tip of the spear under the ear of an elephant, and the breath of the elephant was like thunder, and frightened many people to continue to retreat, but it still fell in pain, and when the huge corpse collapsed like a mountain, Caesar with the spear stood motionless, very calm.

Then with blood on his face, he turned back to those present and said, "Livestock cannot be killed without a metal weapon, remember, it is only livestock, and we are smart people who can come up with a thousand ways to kill them without harming ourselves." Ladies and gentlemen, come and try it! ”

Then the Gauls and Germans were the first to pluck up their courage, and many of them, armed with spears and swords, took the lead in slaughtering the other elephants, and for a time a great howl filled the camp.

Three days later, Scipio and Rabinus went into battle, and thirty war elephants with towers on their backs and armor formed an extremely long wall of flesh and blood, and the Numidian cavalry and Pompey's infantry stretched out in an extremely long horizontal formation, which seemed to stretch for almost a dozen Roman miles, so that Caesar's eyes were full of enemy troops. The swords beating against the shields, the battle trumpets, and the roars of war elephants made the waters of the Libyan Ocean boil.

Caesar, however, was uncharacteristically uncharacteristically ordered his soldiers to hide in the camp, with high ditches and deep fortifications, and a dense barrage of deer and wood to block Scipio's onslaught. For Caesar believed that although the soldiers were no longer so afraid of the enemy's elephants, he still did not have enough strength at hand for a decisive battle, and it was better to wait for Li Bida to bring the third wave of troops from Brindisi, including the strong Twelfth, Sixteenth, and Thirty-first Legions, before a decisive battle with Scipio.

"Then storm it." Seeing Caesar hanging his free card, Scipio himself bravely sat on one of the elephant towers, commanded the whole army to press up intensively towards Caesar's camp, the cavalry of both sides shuttled between the camps and fought, clashing with each other bravely, Scipio waved his spear and threw javelins on the elephant tower, braving the stones and arrows shot by Caesar's camp to boost his fighting spirit, and several Mauritanian monkeys squeaked and screamed, and also jumped around on the elephant tower, demonstrating for his master.

As a result, the Rhodesan slinger in Caesar's camp stood up behind the wooden fence, and a burst of stones flew in, and one of the monkeys was immediately beaten to the point that his brain was splashing, and he fell into Scipio's arm with a scream, and pulled him twice with his furry paws, and stared at Scipio for a second with his big yellow and orange eyes, and then he choked.

"Archimedes, Archimedes! Oh my, woo wow wow wow wow! Scipio cried out in anger, and then he threw down his hat and helmet, raised his spear bareheaded, and ordered the whole army to break Caesar's camp and kill the dogs to avenge the tragic death of Archimedes.

Secretly, Rabinus sent the cavalry captain Ignagius, with six brigades of infantry and a thousand cavalry, to bypass the fierce battle and make a detour towards the city of Leptis.

This was Rabinus's strategy, he estimated that Caesar would concentrate all his essence on the front line, and the city garrison in the rear would be empty, so as long as Leptis was captured, Caesar's back road would fall, and the morale of his whole army would inevitably collapse.

Indeed, only the six hundred cavalry led by Antony were stationed in the city of Leptis, and many slaves and volunteer citizens climbed up the battlements, dismantled the ballista equipment, and prepared to transport it to Caesar's camp to strengthen the army, where Antony himself commanded, and finally when the last noose ballista was dismantled, several soldiers pointed to the huge smoke and dust raised from the city, saying that there was an army that was rapidly approaching us.

"Don't tear down this gate, and tell the cavalry to ask for the other party's password after all the cavalry withdraw to the city gate, and at the same time prepare for battle." Anthony commanded.

When Ignagius's men and horses came to the gates, they were all cloaked in Caesar's army, and shouted that we had returned from the camp ahead, for we had heard that the Pompey fleet on the island of Kirki would come to raid Lyptis. (To be continued......)