Chapter 26: The Raft (Part II)
Fortunately, the main members of the previous 27th Army were the horse bandits cobbled together by Cambano and the local Spanish auxiliaries. The auxiliary legion, now in Li Bida's eyes, only the source of soldiers is different from the regular legion, in terms of combat effectiveness, he is confident that he brought it out, if he doesn't ask the number, whether it is morale or combat power, it will not be even a little worse than the regular legion of the second line, especially the twelve and sixteenth legions, which have a strong foundation and rich combat experience, and are close to the elite of the tenth legion. Therefore, in this battle, Li Bida also attached equal importance to the newly formed 27th Army Corps, that is, he was determined to give full play to their advantages of mobility and lightness, and secretly drew half of the artillery detachment, carrying six cavalry cannons and some scorpion crossbows, and decided not to carry food and baggage, and ran towards the location of the Cambano cavalry.
In this weather, normal people will not have any military action! But this is also the best time for the army to act treacherously - the tradition of the Roman Republic is to concentrate the army for a decisive battle, its advantage lies in the developed transport routes, including land and sea routes, and the shallow mobile depth, so that they and foreign enemies, or civil wars, are mainly infantry corps heavy combat, but with the extension of the battle line to the north and the east inland, the advantage of infantry began to be offset by the great depth, cavalry and mobility became more and more important, of course, there are not many people in the current period, even including Caesar and Pompey such figures, This trend was not well understood, so Pompey was suffering from guerrilla warfare by Sethuris in Spain in his early years, and Crassus was annihilated by Parthia in the desert of Calle.
Li Bida recognized, or in his existing knowledge system before he crossed, that the cavalry was the queen of ancient warfare. But unfortunately, he came to the classical era when the stirrup had not yet been invented. And there was no other reason why he was reluctant to rush to popularize this simple thing in his cavalry ranks. Because the technical content of this thing is too low, but the power is too great, it did not appear, but the people at that time had not been enlightened by God and blessed their hearts, once Li Bida made it out in advance, then even the most ordinary Celtic tribe's forging technology could make it large-scale, "It was not the stirrup that pushed the cavalry." It was the cavalry that prompted the emergence of stirrups". The traverser, in ancient times, had to be more cautious, he mastered too many things that seemed ordinary but too exciting, but for himself, it was more like a sharp double-edged sword, if he was frivolous and impetuous, he would bring disaster upon himself.
Therefore, Li Bida's innovation should be more "natural to the point of not showing traces", and this time, the 27th Army Corps is the reform of light infantry. These four thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry (including the Mattians), did not have heavy equipment. It is particularly suitable for traveling in the mountainous regions of Spain, and is suitable for interspersed and circuitous tactics.
Six thousand soldiers hurried in the heavy rain, burying their heads in the road, and many of the people at the grassroots level, who did not know what kind of role they were playing in this march, met with Combano about the next morning.
"Look, the piers are still there! All of them were killed by my cavalry, as they were told. In the rain, Combano proudly pointed to the water and said to Li Bida.
Li Bida looked at what he was pointing at, sure enough, there were bridge piers, but they had long been covered by the surging torrent, and only a few undistinguishable tips were still exposed, which was difficult to detect at first glance, it seemed that even if Combano didn't kill him, the pontoon bridge erected by these people would be washed away, but the crux of the matter now is that after the war starts immediately, Pompey's army can't pass, and Li Bida can't get through, so even if Aphranius's team collapses, the credit doesn't have much to do with him - since the defeat of the Kofinium ambush, Li Bida was interested in annihilating Pompey's legions.
However, even though it is Asase here, the river is still swollen and whirlpooled, and it is still raining in the sky, "Wait where you are, Aphranius is not in a hurry, and we are not in a hurry." Li Bida ordered.
Over there, Pompey's camp was also tormented in the rain, and everyone was eagerly waiting, "just waiting for the moment when they are ready to go, and they can only surrender their fate to God." Afranius muttered, and he couldn't blame anything for this, because that's the reality.
In Caesar's camp, the soldiers also stood silently in the puddles, and Vicintoli rode on horseback, looking at the dense rain and the vague enemy positions opposite, and his heart was full of anxiety.
All the people are waiting.
The sound of dripping rain is like an hourglass of life and luck.
At last, the clouds of rain slowly rose and dissipated, and the sun suddenly came down unobstructed, Sextus shouted, stepped on horseback, and rushed to the valley in front with all the cavalry, and the soldiers of the five legions staggered behind, and Aphranius saw that all his subordinates looked tired and depressed, and saw that all the baggage was abandoned, and that he was still seriously wounded, and he was violently shaken in his heart, and could not help but doubt the meaning of such a war, maybe he could have been decisive back then, instead of caring for his son's life, If he had made peace with Caesar as soon as possible, perhaps the whole army would not have been reduced to such a point like a mouse being played with in the palm of a cat's hand, let alone so many loyal and brave subordinates would have died.
At the same time, Caesar's entire camp was filled in with the exception of Milou, who remained with the oldest veterans, and all the rest launched a surprise attack on Pompey's camp from the filled camp gates and trenches. "How can Pompey and his men hide their tricks from me? I'm Julius. Caesar will only be at the mercy of the gods and fate, and will never be subject to any earthly enemy! "When Caesar saw the suspicious movement of troops in the opposite camp, he saw through Sextus's ambush strategy, so he let the 10th legion, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, penetrate the road between the camp and the mountain to guard against the attack of the ambush, and the 7th and 8th legions continued to pursue with the cavalry of Vicintoli, while the 15th and 16th legions made a detour to the mountains, searched for the ambush and killed them, and slowly advanced forward with the new two legions to cope with the situation of the battle on all sides.
At this time, the ambush composed of the chief brigade of the five legions could not rush down, and was oppressed and cleared by the two legions, and the terrible word "annihilation" appeared in everyone's hearts, and soon under the joint temporary resolution of several chief centurions, everyone began to throw down their weapons and surrender down the mountain.
The retreat began to crumble, and Aphranius, who remained in the rearguard, suddenly shouted to Peletaeus, "You continue to protect Pompey's youngest son, but I am only his lieutenant, and I am responsible for the lives of the soldiers of the entire army, not the disciples or servants of his family. Are you going to fight me? As a result, Peletaeus, with his guards and armed slaves, only nodded to him, and then continued to run away with the soldiers who were still willing to follow. (To be continued......)