A lawyer is the most ideal and irreproachable interpreter of the law.

- Jade Waina (ancient Roman satirical poet)

Cardoladu and Brigo were approved by Carabeth, who, after re-ordering the Second and Fourth Legions to clean up the battlefield and the First to rest and recuperate, asked Grace to lead his remaining 1,500 fanatical warriors to stay at Camp Terma and hasten to move all of the Grace tribes there.

Also, considering that the heart of the Maasai tribe, the city of Marseille is a city built on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and the Rhône; Therefore, Calabes also immediately sent several cavalry to Aretion of the Julius family, hoping that the Julius family would send a fleet to block the retreat of Marseille City from the sea and completely turn Marseille City into an isolated city!

As for the Third Legion, which was still pursuing the Marseille army, Calabes was not very worried about Itami and his cavalry; After all, Itami led more than 5,000 mobile and combat-ready cavalry troops. Even if something unexpected happened along the way, Karabeth was confident that Itami would be able to lead the cavalry to solve all the problems they encountered.

In fact, these questions are purely on the minds of Carabes; What was the ability of the defeated Marseille army to cause problems for Itami's massive cavalry force? You know, the Marseille army that poured out of the nest has been defeated by the army of Calabes; The remaining strength of the Maasai tribe was no longer able to pose a major threat to Itami's cavalry legions, and even a normal threat could hardly be formed!

Itami's pursuit was indeed very smooth, and after dealing with the cavalry units of the Marseille army, Itami began to pursue the retreating Marseille army; Only half an hour later, the trail of the Marseille army appeared in front of Itami. It's just that this time it was still not the main force of the Marseille army, but the 3,000 Maasai reserve troops that were left behind to block.

The three thousand reserve troops are still commanded by two elders of the Maasai tribe, whose mission is to use their own lives and the lives of their three thousand soldiers to win a chance for the Maasai tribe to survive; In order to make these 3,000 soldiers play a greater role, the leader of the Maasai army even made a point of letting the soldiers of the Deyiru Order perform a ceremony before retreating.

The 3,000 reservists, led by two respected elders of the Maasai tribe, launched a frantic counterattack against the rushing Itami cavalry troops. The courage of these Maasai troops is very commendable, and the spirit of sacrifice is also commendable; However, in the face of absolute strength, such sacrifices only show the powerlessness of the weak and the arrogance of the strong.

However, such a counterattack is also very valuable to the retreating Marseille army; At the very least, the three thousand men had once again bought half an hour for their main army. Moreover, Itami's cavalry units also paid hundreds of casualties against this fearless enemy, even more than the 2,000 cavalry that had previously routed Marseille.

Of course, the previous 2,000 Maasai cavalry finally broke out and escaped, while the 3,000 Maasai infantry in front of him all saved their lives, and even the two elders were bloodied on the battlefield. After the annihilation of this enemy, there were only 5,000 cavalry left under Itami's command; But Itami still felt like the pursuit was going on!

This is not to say that Itami is a general who does not think about the soldiers and rejoices in his achievements, but Itami understands that the Maasai army must not be released back to Marseille unharmed; Otherwise, the Calabesian army, lacking siege equipment, would have faced more and more experienced enemy forces, a more stubborn defense, and heavier casualties when attacking Marseille.

In view of this, Itami had to pursue as long as he could, until his cavalry could no longer pursue! After another hour of pursuit, Itami's five thousand cavalry were exhausted; And once again, in front of their eyes, there were the blocking forces left behind by the Marseille army, and this time the enemy was not three thousand, but a full four!

Looking at the 4,000 enemy troops waiting in front of him, Itami was also reluctant to fight any longer; However, war is so cruel, either you die or I die. In order to arouse the will to fight among his soldiers, Itami had to announce to them that as long as the enemy army in front of him was completely annihilated, the whole army would return and give up the pursuit!

Such an order was tantamount to heaven to the exhausted cavalry, who mustered up all their strength and began to charge again; This time, Itami's cavalry was noticeably less powerful than before, and it was weak in battle. Thankfully, these 4,000 enemy troops are also exhausted enemies, and their combat effectiveness has also dropped to an extreme.

Even if the warriors of the Deiru Order can boost their spirits and morale, the physical exertion is difficult to change; They won't be able to fight back as desperately as the previous blocking forces. When two exhausted armies fight, the only thing to compete is perseverance; In this regard, Itami's cavalry had always fought on horseback, and they were more than a step stronger than the Marseille army.

Eventually, the battle, which neither side was willing to fight, lasted twenty minutes before it ended, and the Marseille army of 4,000 finally collapsed at the cost of 2,000 casualties; And Itami's cavalry troops were no better, and even the task of pursuing the defeated army could not be completed, so Itami had to slowly retreat with them.

By this time, Calabes had already led his army to clean up the battlefield, and dismantled the temporary military camp on the west bank, and established a new large military camp on the east bank. The remaining 7,000 men of the First Army and the Second and Fourth Legions, which had not suffered any losses, had been stationed in the barracks, and after the return of Itami's cavalry, the army under the command of Calabis was also collected.

After the army was all returned to the barracks, Karabes first gave orders to the generals to give the soldiers of the four legions a good rest for the day today, and a great celebration of victory tomorrow; As for the issue of rewarding and promoting soldiers for their military merits, we can only wait until the end of the war to make specific arrangements.

Today's battle, combined with the dozen or so tentative attacks that had preceded it, had cost the army under Calabes's command a total of seven thousand casualties; Among them, the 7,000 cavalry of Itami's Third Army lost more than 2,500 people, and only about 4,000 remained. And the 10,000-strong army of the First Army of Calabes also paid the price of nearly 3,000 killed, and the two legions with the fewest casualties also combined with 1,000 casualties.

In this way, the casualty figures of the four legions under the command of Carabis together are basically a complete corps of casualties; Of course, the casualties of the Maasai tribe are much more terrifying than that. In this battle, the Marseille army dispatched more than 28,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry; In the end, only 8,000 infantry and less than 1,000 cavalry were able to escape.

This means that the Maasai tribe paid the price of 20,000 infantry and more than 3,000 cavalry in this battle; That's three times as many casualties as Karabes! In addition to the superiority of his own weapons and the number of troops, the mastiff troops under Grace also played a crucial role in achieving such a huge victory, which Carabes will not forget.

After this victory, Calabis knew that the Maasai tribe was no longer able to resist his strong attack, and it was only a matter of time before he took the whole of the Maasai tribe and the Gallic region beyond the mountains; That's why Carabis gave his men plenty of time to recuperate, celebrate, and treat the wounded.

In addition to arranging for ordinary soldiers, Calabes also praised the generals who had made meritorious contributions in this battle; In particular, the three generals of Tursus, Falkus, and Itami, who played a huge role. If it weren't for the forest hunters of Falkus to deal a major blow to the Maasai army, the ensuing battle would not have gone so smoothly.

Tursus's hoplites were the mainstay of defending against the attacks of the Marseille army in frontal battles, and they were also an important support for the implementation of the Calabesian strategy. As for Itami, his cavalry unit single-handedly slaughtered 9,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry in the decisive battle, and his record was already terrifying.

If we add to this the casualties inflicted by Itami's cavalry on the Marseille army during the previous tentative assault; Well, in this war, Itami's 7,000 cavalry had already completed the feat of killing 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry of the enemy. This figure was half of the enemy's fallen infantry and all of the fallen cavalry, and Itami's cavalry units only paid less than three thousand cavalry casualties for this!

After commending these three generals, the other generals also received varying degrees of praise; After that, Carabes asked the generals to go back to the barracks to pacify the soldiers and organize a rest. This was followed by a three-day retreat and celebration that was personally allowed by Calabis, and three days later, Calabis once again led his four legions to the base camp of the Maasai tribe!

After the rest of the mighty four legions, they once again showed a high-spirited attitude; The infantry marched in neat formations, with their heads held high as the cavalry patrolled back and forth, towards their final destination. The march from the vicinity of the Rhône to the city of Marseille takes only one day and one night.

But in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army under his command, Carabes did not march day and night, nor did he let the soldiers hurry to the road; Instead, he led the army to march without hurry, and there was no sense of speed at all. His generals did not understand Karabeth's intentions, but they did not raise any objections to Karabeth out of trust in him.

In this way, the journey, which would have taken only one day and one night, was carried by the army of Calabes for three whole days; Three days later, in the afternoon, Calabes led an elite army of his four legions to the city of Marseille. Looking at the panicked Marseille army on the walls of Marseille, Calabes did not rush to attack the city, but let his army start the task of building a military camp in an orderly manner. (To be continued.) )