"Wars are not won in the study and on the parade ground." - Suvorov

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It was already noon, and several token officials rode into the city of Mutina on horseback, holding the edict in their hands, and Dehemoth, who was full of stubble and tired, stood in front of each other's horses, "This is the order of the Senate and the new administrator, Abinus, the governor of southern Gaul. Dehemoth immediately led his legion into battle to pursue his public enemy, Antony. ”

In front of the square full of smoke and ruins, sat the soldiers of Dehemoth, most of them wounded and very tired, Dehemoth turned his head to look at the scene, shrugged his shoulders and said to the token officer sent by Li Pida, "My subordinates have suffered heavy casualties, and now the two consuls, and the young Caesar have several vital legions, and they should be in pursuit." ”

"I'm just delivering the order, and you, Chief Executive, are responsible for the order." The token officer threw the bronze cylinder containing the edict to the ground arrogantly, then turned and rode away.

So Dehemos took a few of his followers and climbed to the head of the city of Mutina, where he looked at the rivers and wilderness outside the city, full of neat legion camps, and the cavalry of the patrol came and went, it was all the army of Li Bida and Young Caesar, strong soldiers and horses, sufficient supplies, and strict guards, "I never expected that the Senate was eager to save me, and Antony would be completely reduced to a wanderer, a lost dog, but who would have expected that Li Bida would quickly enter the city of Rome and seize real power." Now I'm a fish on the chopping board. Dehemoth sighed. Tears flowed down her cheeks. "The big mistake was made when I conspired with Brutus and Cassio."

After thinking for a while, Dehemoth's heart suddenly swelled with pride, and he turned to all the commanders and said, "Since this is already the case, there is no need to go any further, Abinus is the richest family in the whole republic, and Brutus is the most glorious family in the whole republic." I have both, so I must not let it down, let the knight's son who was a coin exchange merchant, and let the foreign naturalized people who had been slaved before be proud, and I, Dehemoth, will not have any doubts or hesitations at the end of the stage! The whole army was ordered to march out of the city at the fourth outpost tomorrow, to join up with the two regiments of recruits that had been recruited earlier, and to defeat Anthony first. Let's compete with Li Bida and Young Caesar again. ”

When this almost crazy and impossible order came out, all the middle and lower commanders understood. It was a tragic suicidal attack.

At the end of the night, the first to leave the city were the legions of Dehemoth's personal sword slaves, followed by the fourteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth legions, and at the last were the two new legions of recruits, and Dehemoth, knowing that his morale was broken, ordered the little baggage specially sent by Li Pita to be escorted in the middle of all the legions, for he feared that the deserters would plunder these things at will.

After three miles out of Rome, the newest two legions were almost gone, many of the recruits still killing themselves while looting their belongings and luggage, followed by the seventeenth and eighteenth legions, whose chief brigade still held on to their honors, and the rest began to flee.

Only the majority of the best-trained Fourteenth Legion, as well as about two thousand five hundred members of the Sword Slave Legion, who were the most loyal to Dehemoth, were still following the emblem and banner of Dehemoth, and were still walking towards Antony's camp.

At this time, the dust and frost were flying, and under the dark blue dawn sky, Li Bida, Young Caesar, and Panza with their guards had already been stationed on the high ground next to Anthony's camp, and came to "observe" this one-sided battle, and Anthony, who was personally in charge of the front line command, was also extremely excited, and he ordered the three legions to which he belonged, plus the twelve legions sent by Li Bida, the nine legions sent by Young Caesar, and the forty-third legions sent by Panza, a full six legions, lined up in three fronts densely lined up in front of the camp, Antony then placed the cavalry of Gaul, Spain, and Dalmatia on the right flank, because the left flank was full of high ground and streams, and Caesar the Younger also deliberately adopted Agrippa's construction and commissioned him as the director of engineering, and at the front of Antony's six legions, within a distance of about two furlongs, built a number of spectacled forts arranged in a trapezoidal shape, with the least at the front, and then wider and denser at the rear. Agrippa adopted the Gallic method of building a city, by inserting simple wooden fences into the soft mud and arranging them, and then filling each section of the fence with sandbags and stones, forming a semicircular barricade against the enemy, each of which contained two ten-man squads and two scorpion crossbows with wheels, and Antony's legionary infantry to fill the rear and center.

In fact, there is no need for Octavian to make such a big move, because from the moment Dehemoth decides to fight, it will be the end of losing, but he still has to use guò to establish his prestige and temper his direct team. But at Octavian's actions, Li Bida only laughed and did not say a word, and his son Leo also stood beside him, with a little uneasiness on his face, for when he had just gone up to greet his friend Young Caesar, who had been reunited for a long time, he was very warm and polite, but there was a certain subtle sense of estrangement.

"On this day, your troops will surely build great feats, Young Lord Caesar." Li Pita rode on horseback and complimented Octavian.

"No, Guardian, I'm just more eager to have my men slay the ugly enemy of Dehemoth." Octavian replied with a smile.

Then, with the sound of a long trumpet in the wilderness below, Dehemos ordered all his men to be lined up in a single formation, and shouted at Antony and Caesar the Young, without asking any tactics.

Over there, the scorpion crossbows in Young Caesar's improvised guard began to pour fire, and the sword slaves of Dehemoth's vanguard were constantly hit and fell, and in order to show their bravery, this group of men did not wear the locks and helmets of the legionnaires, but still dressed according to the Colosseum, and when their comrades fell, they did not look at them, and continued to assemble, forgetting their lives and dying.

Then, the soldiers in the front guard of the young Caesar pulled the scorpion crossbow upside down and ran back towards the bottom of the trapezoid, that is, the rear guard, and then the rest of the guards in the back row, again concentrated on the men and horses rushing up to Dehemoth, who rode on a horse and wore a white cloak, and the blood had stained his whole body red, but he was still shouting, encouraging everyone to continue to charge fearlessly. A short time later, on the forward guard, a large part of the most loyal and brave sword slaves of Dehemoth's subordinates died, many of them were shot through by the same pike dart, overlapping and falling together, many ordinary soldiers had broken away from the battle line and fled, even the Fourteenth Legion hesitated, they could only crowd out of the range of the scorpion crossbow barrier that shot the rain of death, and patrolled. (To be continued......)