Beneath the hillsides and moors, green smoke curled and a broken Samontoga cannon was quietly abandoned in front of the bare woods, the air around it smelling of choking.

Most of the officers and men of the Eighth Legion sat on the ground, many wounded, others walking around, picking up arrows from the enemy, Scipio was in a terrible mood, and the two thousand Thracian auxiliaries he served as the rearguard did not come to meet him, probably under the city of Ephesus, and also surrendered to Caesar, like the shameless Seven Legions. In addition, Scipio's most important pack horse, which had run away almost halfway in the melee last night, blushed and asked the slaves to hurry up and put the rest in place, and then shouted a roar that echoed through the valley, "Tell Apis to come closer to me, no, immediately prepare the troops, and we will meet the six legions!" ”

Then he looked at the mountains and streets in front of him, changed his mind again, and lowered his voice, "Does Lybidaeus want a repeat of the ambush in Andabukia?" Maybe he set up a cavalry ambush again on my way to the camp of Appis, and I won't be fooled again by the good Li Bida. Scipio then instructed the entire regiment of the Alama cavalry to assemble and slowly search forward, with all the infantry and baggage following behind.

Sure enough, in the valleys and dense forests, from time to time there were small groups of enemy cavalry, shuttling back and forth, sometimes withdrawing hastily when they saw Scipio's main force, and sometimes boldly engaging the Ala reconnaissance cavalry.

Scipio became more cautious, avoiding any shortcuts, and pushed slowly.

Somewhere on a hill five Roman miles from him, Hansk ran profusely with sweat, and behind him were about two hundred Mattia cavalrymen. The captain of the Germanic cavalry simply took off his helmet. Blonde hair with upturned buns is exposed. Galloping all the way up, there Li Bida stood side by side with Mindaz, the fallen prince of Parthia, and was dispatching his cavalry to assemble.

Seeing Hansk's arrival, Li Bida went straight in, "Last night's cavalry night attack has already emboldened Pompey's father-in-law, and now you take most of the cavalry to follow me and turn north." Go and defeat the Minande Bronze Shield Army on the Northern Front. ”

If the time is not wrong, the 15,000 Bronze Shield Army is now heading south and encountering the 12th Army Corps sent by Li Bida.

After announcing this order, Li Bida handed over the banner of King Numa to Mindaz, "Allocate a thousand cavalry to you, and contain the enemy's two legions here." Mindaz's heart sank, the difficulty of this task is not low, but he is also the heir of the Parthian kingdom, and now he is under the tent of the Roman army, if there is no experience and military exploits. What will you rely on in the future to go back to your brother to take revenge on the throne?

Think, Mindaz took the flag. He said that I was going to retreat three Roman miles, and then build a stronghold in the road, and confuse them.

Li Bida nodded, and then took the rest of the generals, gathered all the cavalry, and made a short speech on the thin snow wasteland, indicating his tactical purpose, "We had traveled sixty Roman miles in a hurry, rushed here from Taktun, and slashed Scipio's head with a sword, he was already so frightened that he did not dare to speed up the march lightly, this despicable general only cared about his own luggage, there were hundreds of drachmas that he had worked hard for half his life, and he was going to return to Rome in the future, Use that money to open a small bathroom! From now on, I hope that all the elite cavalry, that is, you will work tirelessly, and gallop for another sixty or even a hundred miles, and do not break away from their saddles and weapons, and rush to the plains before the valley of the Amasya, to assist our comrades in the Twelfth Legion, and to defeat once and for all the bronze shield army of the villain of Minand, whom I defeated when I was in the kingdom of the Bosphorus, whose tactics and soldiers exude a pedantic stench, and who still clings to the phalanx of spears of Alexander's time, It is just to strengthen a division of 4,000 men to more than 6,000 men, to add more spearmen, let us strike at their soft underbelly, kill them all in the wilderness, and fertilize the whole wheat field of Taktun with their blood. If we are lucky, we will also get more friendly reinforcements from Fort Libida in the direction of Taktun, and set off with the belief of victory, turning ourselves and our horses into swords like the wind! ”

"A sword like the wind!" More than 5,000 cavalrymen, including Cappadocians, swung their spears on horseback, and then followed by the leading Lybida, with his blue cloak, and swept towards the north.

Then it was not until the evening of that day that Scipio's Eighth Army slowly joined up with Apis, who had deliberately slowed down, and the two commanders were speechless, and Apis once again proposed to build a new position, "Your Excellency, I personally propose not to go to Taktun now, but to turn to the Lydian plain and go to Silesia to settle down temporarily. These words made Scipio hesitate, but he still couldn't make up his mind, but said that Caesar's pursuit of the army was not enough, and there were still several legions left on the Greek island by the other side, and we were not at risk of being attacked on both sides for the time being, so we still had to insist on cooperating with Menander, capture Takton, rely on the Yukexing Sea, and fight Caesar.

"Then I'll continue to stay with you, maybe I can kill hope." Apis no longer continued to build anything, but he soon realized that since the meeting with the other party, Scipio's marching orders were completely in battle mode, one regiment and one day, according to the requirements of three to six Romes, so that there were no two days to reach Taktun - and now was the critical moment when every second counted, but Scipio seemed to be more interested in his own baggage, and the core of all tactics was to "protect the baggage".

But when the two legions had advanced less than five Roman miles, they discovered the fortification set up by Mindaz on the pass, which was so cleverly set up that only part of it was exposed on the cliff and the rest was hidden from the peak, and Scipio noticed the emblem and banner on the camp, and began to hesitate to send scouts to find out the size of the enemy's interception procession.

"Your Excellency, if you guess correctly, it's just a suspicious enemy army, just leave a small number of cavalry to watch, and our main force will continue to advance on a detour."

But Scipio ignored Appis's correct request, and he looked at the side road that bypassed this mountain pass in the twilight, and in the increasing wind and snow, it was completely blurred, "I see, it turns out that this camp is still a trick of Li Bida, he set up the camp there, and sure enough, he induced me to detour, and on both sides of the road over there, he must have set up an ambush, hum." Lybidaeus, the cunning alien general of the East, but no one told you that the same trick would not work a second time against a Roman? ”

After thinking about it, Scipio shouted, "The whole army is camped under the cliff here, and a tight guard is set up!" Then he sent one hundred and twenty cavalrymen and began to brave the wind and snow of the night to patrol the mountain road there. (To be continued......)