Vittoriafavoreuomoprudente (Victory favors the far-sighted)

-- Latin proverb

Having left behind the palace of 200 Spartan hoplites, Narsi immediately withdrew with the remnants of his army to the coast; There are nearly 40,000 troops, and at this moment, only the remnants of less than 800 people in front of them are defeated. Most of the senior commanders and legion commanders have been killed, leaving only Oscar and Quintus; The heavens of the Romans have fallen.

The only thing that made Narsi happy was that the baggage transports that had been left in the camp before the army went to war were still there; These pack horse wagons, which are usually used to haul supplies and supplies, have become the fastest means of evacuation. The more than 300 remnants of the army, who had already been exhausted, lay weakly on these carriages, and the gladiators were responsible for driving them. In addition to the ordinary transport carriages, there were several four-wheeled carriages belonging to the senior commanders; Now it belongs to Oscar and Quintus.

Oscar himself is now lying in a carriage, with Mary taking care of Oscar, who is already tired and unconscious; The commander of the Quintus regiment was placed in the same carriage as General Licinius and the commander of the Spartacus regiment. The rest of the carriages were smashed by order of Narsi, and the dozen or so horses became the mounts of the officers of the Samonai Legion.

The tense escape along the way made everyone's nerves tense; No one can guarantee how long a mere 200 Spartan heavy infantry will be able to hold out under the onslaught of the mighty Hannibal's legions. Therefore, it became the consensus of everyone to hurry up and flee for their lives while Hannibal's army had not yet caught up. No one complained about the hard work of galloping all the way, and no one complained about the bumps of the carriage transporting it; At this moment, rushing to escape for their lives has become the only goal of everyone.

Hours after escaping the stone bridge, no one knows exactly how long; After all, at this time, no one really has the heart to care about these things that have nothing to do with escaping. Moreover, every minute now seemed as long as a century passed for the gladiators and the remnants; Hannibal's cavalry, which could catch up at any time, was a nightmare for everyone.

Suddenly, a hurried sound of horses' hooves came after him; All the soldiers who heard the sound of horses' hooves looked pale at the rear, which was already unable to see clearly in the night. Don't blame the cowardice of the soldiers, no one can maintain a firm attitude after a fiasco like today's; Everyone became frightened birds, terrified by the eyes of Hannibal's legions.

Thankfully, it wasn't Hannibal's pursuing cavalry that came at a gallop; And just scouts of the Samonai Legion. It turned out that before leaving the Spartan heavy infantry to retreat; In order to prevent Hannibal's army from quickly breaking through the Spartan heavy infantry line and immediately pursuing his own withdrawn main force, Narsi secretly placed two scout cavalry behind the Spartan heavy infantry stone bridge defense.

As soon as Hannibal's legions broke through the Spartan heavy infantry lines, they hurried back to inform themselves; Just in case you were caught off guard in the face of Hannibal's pursuing army. He is now rushing back, could it be that Hannibal's regiment has broken through the line of Spartan heavy infantry? In fact, Nalsey's current psychology belongs to pure luck psychology.

Narsi himself understood that it was inconceivable for a mere 200 heavy infantry to hold back the attack of the elite division of the Seven Thousand Hannibal Army in a field battle; Even the relatively favorable terrain of garrisoning the stone bridge could not resist Hannibal's army for more than ten minutes at most. And now more than two full hours have passed since he and the others evacuated the stone bridge, and even night has fallen; The Spartan heavy infantry should have been wiped out long ago.

However, the news brought back by the scout cavalry surprised Nalsey! In the past two hours, 200 Spartan heavy infantry turned out to repel two waves of attacks by Hannibal's corps; It was a miracle to kill more than 500 soldiers of Hannibal's army with very little loss of his own! Nalsi didn't know how to describe his mood at this moment, maybe he was ecstatic, maybe he was sad.

The ecstatic is because this mere 200 people have used their lives and blood to win the hope of survival for those who have already been evacuated; The tragedy was that instead of dying on the battlefield where they deserved, this mighty Spartan heavy infantry gave up their lives for the sake of the others. What is even more sad is that at the cost of nearly 40,000 troops, less than 8,000 soldiers of Hannibal's army were killed on the battlefield; And these 200 people have played a record that makes everyone ashamed.

The scout cavalry rushed back to report the situation to the evacuating troops, hoping that the evacuating troops would speed up their evacuation; Because Hannibal would have taken other measures to continue the attack, the Spartan heavy infantry could not have held out indefinitely. Nalsi didn't say anything more, but ordered the scout cavalry to return; Then the army was ordered to continue to accelerate its advance.

Two flowers, one on each table; At the end of today's tragic decisive battle, the scout cavalry of the city of Messina also fled back to Messina in a panic. Without any hesitation, the remaining generals of the House of Scipio in the city of Messina received the news; The whole city was immediately put under martial law, and all men between the ages of 16 and 45 were conscripted as temporary soldiers in the city in case of an imminent attack by Hannibal's army.

At the same time, he immediately sent the results of the decisive battle to the city of Rome through the eagle of correspondence that had already been prepared. There were only two of these eagles of communication, which could ignore the sea and land, in order that the Senate could get the news after the outbreak of each great war; And take rescue measures in a timely manner. In the previous Second Punic War and the Battle of Kangnai, the Senate used communication eagles to obtain timely results. And this correspondence of the eagle from Messina in Upper Sicilia to the Roman city in Latin took only one day and one night; If it is the way of a fast horse to speed up the boat, it will take at least seven days!

In the luxurious four-wheeled carriage, after Mary's careful care and careful feeding of some food; Oscar finally woke up after nearly three hours in a coma. Oscar, who woke up suddenly, didn't see the tragic battlefield full of corpses, and didn't need to hear the screams of mourning; I just saw Mary sitting beside me and looking at me tenderly.

At this moment, Oscar knew that he had escaped; No other words were said and no inquiries were made. Oscar just took Mary into his arms, hugged Mary tightly and didn't dare to let go; Mary meekly let Oscar hold her, and then gently caressed Oscar behind Oscar with the palm of her hand, and comforted her in a calm and peaceful tone:

"Oscar, all misfortunes are over; We have completely escaped the pursuit of Hannibal's regiments. Soon, we will reach the coast; After that, we don't have to worry about Sicily. Together we return to your own Sardinia, and then live and work in Sardinia; Let's not care about Hannibal's legions, and we don't care about the Roman and Carthaginian strife. We live only for our future and happiness. ”

Oscar did not make any reply to Mary's words, but still held Mary tightly in his arms; At this moment, Oscar doesn't want to think about anything, he just wants to quietly hug the beauty in front of him and feel the serenity and tranquility of escaping death. Mary didn't speak anymore, and dropped her hand that was caressing Oscar; Just hugged Oscar quietly like this, forgetting the time.

Unfortunately, such tranquility does not belong to the Oscars; He wasn't just Oscar, he was the leader of the House of Augustus. After the end of the war, he had more things to do; Even now, it is impossible for him to let go of all his worries and immerse himself in the tenderness of Mary. After a long time, Oscar took a deep sniff of Mary's scent; He asked Mary, who was in his arms:

"Can you always be by my side and never leave me?" Oscar's sudden words made Mary's body tremble, and then Mary said lightly: "Oscar, don't worry; As long as you take me wherever you go, I promise you won't leave you. Ignoring Mary's understatement, Oscar once again hugged Mary tightly; Then he suddenly let go of Mary, took the dagger and said to Mary as he walked out of the carriage:

"I can't let go of everything in House Augustus, it's a mission given to me by heaven; I can't let you go, it's a command I gave myself. I don't care what thoughts and other thoughts you have; As long as I'm alive, don't want to leave me. Otherwise, I will take you back to the ends of the earth; And then I'll beat you up! ”

With that, Oscar opened the door of the carriage and walked out; Looking at Oscar who was gradually moving away, Mary touched the hair that had been sniffed by Oscar just now and scolded with a smile on her face: "Fool! Oscar, who had stepped out of the carriage, saw Narsi riding on a war horse and leading a war horse towards him; After Oscar turned over and jumped on his horse, the two ran side by side to the front of the team.

While riding with Oscar at the head of the group, Narsey told Oscar all the Spartan heavy infantry reported by the scouts; Oscar continued to ride forward in silence. Soon, the time had come five hours after everyone had evacuated the stone bridge; Because of the use of horse-drawn carriages, the march was much faster than before. However, marching at night was already more difficult than during the day; So, it's still about two hours away from the coast.

The reason why Oscar chose to get out of the carriage was only so that the gladiators and remnants of the House of Augustus could see their commander; To make them more motivated to go on, but also to buy their hearts. Wouldn't a leader and manager who can live and die with him in his most critical moment make everyone more convinced? What's more, it was Oscar who led them out of the encirclement.

The two-hour journey was not very long, and the so-called pursuers of Hannibal's regiment never caught up; At this time, a bright light finally appeared in front of the eyes of everyone who had not dared to march with torches, and it was General Skori and his Ninth Brigade waiting for Oscar!