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- Aeschylus (ancient Greek tragic poet, father of tragedy)

People who have never seen a real army charging in unison will not be able to understand the fear when you are faced with a thousand troops and horses, especially when these charges are still invincible ironclad cavalry, which makes people feel even more frightened from the heart.

A truly elite division can rely on many factors to achieve, but to maintain the strength and combat effectiveness of the army, it can only be restrained by iron discipline; There is no doubt that the army of the Augustan Empire was the elite division of such discipline.

The overwhelming ironclad cavalry launched an indomitable charge without any formation, while the soldiers of the eight equipment brigades could only stand motionless in the distance, waiting for death to come; The pikemen of the auxiliary legion in front also did their best to maintain their spear defense formation, but their slightly trembling bodies still revealed the fear in their hearts.

When the ironclad cavalry charged to a distance of only three hundred meters from the auxiliary pikemen, the captains of the eight equipment brigades gave the order to shoot at the same time; Eight equipment brigades, each equipment brigade has forty-eight ballistae, which is nearly four hundred ballistas.

The bolts fired from the ballista were enough to send a swift rain of bolts through the air, and then into the charging clusters of the ironclad cavalry; The ironclad cavalry, which was quite densely arranged, paid a not heavy price under the attack of this rain of crossbows and arrows.

Although the impact speed of the ironclad cavalry and the heavy armor they wore made it impossible for the crossbow arrows fired to penetrate the two of them, this round of crossbow bolt shooting still stopped the charging momentum of the ironclad cavalry; Especially those ironclad cavalry who were directly covered by the rain of crossbow arrows, their originally dense shock clusters were unexpectedly cleared out of a vacancy.

It is a pity that less than 400 of the 40,000 ironclad cavalry actually fell under this round of crossbow shots; However, nearly 400 ironclad cavalry were shot on the spot, but their 40,000 seriously affected the impact speed of the ironclad cavalry who followed closely.

After this first round of ballista volleys, the soldiers who had already prepared the crossbow arrows hurriedly stuffed the crossbow arrows into the ballista, and then fired a second volley; This round of volleys was the last volley of the apchamen, because as soon as they finished this volley, the phalanx of spears formed by the auxiliary pikemen in front of them was easily torn apart by the rushing ironclad cavalry.

The 8,000 auxiliary pikemen and nearly 7,000 soldiers of the equipment brigade were not able to stop the charge of the ironclad cavalry at all, but their salvo of two rounds of crossbow arrows and the desperate blocking of the pikemen reduced the impact speed of the enemy ironclad cavalry to a very limited extent.

By the time the ironclad cavalry stormed the first phalanx of pikemen formed by the Nubian pikemen, the speed of the ironclad cavalry was significantly less than the swift and wild rush when they had just launched the charge; Even the morale of the ironclad cavalry was not as high as it had been at the beginning.

Even so, the charge of nearly 40,000 ironclad cavalry was not something that a mere 20,000 Nubian pikemen could stop; But it is undeniable that these ironclad cavalry also paid an extremely heavy price when they broke through this pikeman phalanx.

Almost all of the ironclad cavalry charging at the forefront fell in front of the Nubian pikemen in the pikeman phalanx, and the ironclad cavalry following them continued to charge forward, which completely broke through the first pikeman phalanx composed of Nubian pikemen.

It was almost impossible for the Nubian pikemen who had broken through the phalanx by the enemy ironclad cavalry to leave the battlefield alive, because in front of them were the charging enemy ironclad cavalry, and less than ten meters behind them was a phalanx of pikemen who were waiting for them; Therefore, their only choice is to desperately resist the onslaught of the enemy's ironclad cavalry in the battle and fight to the last moment of their lives.

All the 50,000 soldiers of the Kingdom of Egypt had already received enough gold coins to make their families rich for a lifetime before the war, which was the promise that Spartak had advanced to them in advance, and it was also the price at which they sold their lives to Spartak.

After the first pikemen phalanx was completely annihilated, the surging ironclad cavalry immediately rushed in front of the second pikemen's phalanx; This time, the ironclad cavalry was not as fast as before, and they also suffered heavier casualties under the spears of the Nubian pikemen.

However, the ironclad cavalry was still the ironclad cavalry after all, and the second pikeman phalanx still failed to rent a single order to get the charge of the ironclad cavalry; The hoplites who had been watching the battle behind the Nubian pikemen also formed a tortoiseshell formation at this time, waiting for the charge of the enemy's ironclad cavalry, and also waiting for themselves to take over the oath of fighting to the death from the hands of their comrades in front.

After the 40,000 ironclad cavalry broke through the two pikemen phalanxes that Spartak was waiting for, they completely annihilated the eight armed brigades and 8,000 auxiliary pikemen under the command of Spartak, and also completely annihilated the 40,000 Nubian pikemen belonging to the Kingdom of Egypt; However, they also paid the price of more than 15,000 ironclad cavalry killed for this, and the real battle was just beginning.

After breaking through the two pikemen phalanx in a row, the ironclad cavalry group, their impact speed has been completely reduced to the lowest point; Even if they barely beat the horses, it would be impossible to raise the charging speed of the entire cluster in a short period of time.

On the other hand, the 48,000 hoplites under the command of Spartacus, they were already ready for battle, and under the stimulus of the belief of their comrades in front of them to fight to the end, their blood had already surged to their hearts; The ironclad cavalry that rushed into the hoplite battle formation were not able to break through many well-defended tortoiseshell formations, but they went deeper and deeper into the battle formations of the hoplites.

After almost all the ironclad cavalry rushed into the relatively open hoplite battle formation, Spartacus, who was in the rear, immediately sounded the horn of attack at the sound of the horns around him; With the sound of this horn, the tortoiseshell formation composed of all the hoplites was broken down into a straggler battle formation in an instant, while the more than 20,000 ironclad cavalry were instantly divided into countless small pieces by these hoplites.

The most powerful thing about the ironclad cavalry is nothing more than its powerful impact, after losing this absolute advantage, they fell into the siege of the hoplites, and the situation of the ironclad cavalry immediately took a sharp turn, and the casualty number also soared.

The commander of the ironclad cavalry under Seleucus VII decisively gave the order for the whole army to retreat after discovering that such a disadvantage was difficult to reverse; However, it is not easy to get in and want to withdraw, how could the hoplites under the command of Spartak miss this golden opportunity, it is an opportunity that more than 50,000 robes and lives have been exchanged for them!

The fierce fighting was endlessly carried out in the open land of Koro Syria, and the blood of human cannibalism had already stained the ground beneath their feet, but no one had the intention of stopping; In the end, the Seleucid Empire's ironclad cavalry was still not able to be completely annihilated by Spartacus, but more than 30,000 ironclad cavalry out of 40,000 ironclad cavalry were left on the battlefield forever.

Spartak exchanged the lives of 40,000 Nubian pikemen, 13,000 hoplites, and 15,000 other soldiers for the almost total annihilation of 40,000 ironclad cavalry of the Seleucid Empire; Even if nearly 6,000 Seleucid Empire's ironclad cavalry escaped from the battlefield, Spartak's results were enough to be proud.

The loss of nearly 70,000 troops was something that the Augustan Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt could bear; However, the loss of more than 30,000 ironclad cavalry was a catastrophic consequence that the Seleucid Empire simply could not afford, and the Seleucid Empire would even lose the war because of it.

The fierce battle lasted seven hours, from eight o'clock in the morning to after three o'clock in the afternoon; When the defeated ironclad cavalry quickly fled from both flanks of the battlefield, before the soldiers under the command of Spartacus could catch their breath, the 40,000 infantry of the Seleucid Empire stationed in the Syrian region of Koro finally arrived on the battlefield.

Spartacus's hoplites were no longer able to fight, but two cavalry legions and 10,000 Nubian cavalry had not yet been brought into battle by Spartakus; From the beginning to the end, Spartak did not put his precious cavalry strength into the fight with the enemy's ironclad cavalry, but now it happened to be a lifesaver on the battlefield, Spartak immediately sent his own 30,000 cavalry to meet the enemy infantry.

The 40,000 infantry of the Seleucid Empire were tired of marching for seven or eight hours, and they thought that they had rushed to the border area to clean up the battlefield for the ironclad cavalry, but they did not expect to usher in a cluster charge of 30,000 cavalry under the command of Spartacus.

For a whole day of bloody fighting, these 30,000 cavalrymen had been watching the bloody battle of their robes giving up their lives, but they could only cruise on the edge of the battlefield under the strict orders of Spartacus; Now it's finally their turn, they want to avenge their robes with the blood of their enemies, and they want to let the infantry of the Seleucid Empire taste what it will be like to be killed by cavalry!

The 40,000 Seleucid infantry consisted of phalanx pikemen and conscripted pikemen, which should theoretically be enough to cope with the charge of 30,000 cavalry under Spartacus; Unfortunately, they didn't even have a chance to form a phalanx of pikemen, so they were attacked by 30,000 cavalry divided into three lines from the front and the left and right flanks at the same time.

20,000 cavalry of the Augustan Empire and 10,000 cavalry of the Kingdom of Egypt finally annihilated the 40,000 infantry of the Seleucid Empire at the cost of less than 5,000 cavalry killed; Among them, less than 20,000 enemy soldiers were actually killed, and all the rest were taken prisoner.

Spartakus, who had fought the battle, did not waste time on this battlefield, except for leaving 16,000 light infantry of eight auxiliary regiments to clean up the battlefield, he himself led his cavalry and hoplites to continue the march towards Damascus. (To be continued.) )