Don't waste the rest of your life dreaming about other people's things, unless you can connect those dreams to a common goal, because that would really delay you from doing something else.

- Marcus Aurelius (the only philosopher-emperor in Western history)

Luquis, who hurriedly set off with the First Legion, only brought the personnel of the Main Battle Legion and the Auxiliary Legion onto the transport ship, and Luques did not bring any other equipment and weapons; Without the ballista and catapults, the First Legion became a mere field legion and no longer had the ability to attack cities.

However, Luquis didn't just throw away all these important assistive devices in a hurry; Mainly because the three legions that had previously set off for the Balearic were all fully equipped and headed for the Balearics. In other words, these three legions not only had the same strength as the First Legion; They also have a complete equipment brigade.

According to Oscar's orders, Tetius' Fourth Army was to remain in the Balearic and not participate in the attack on Betica; Therefore, Luquis's idea was to send the equipment brigade of the Fourth Legion to support his First Legion. After the war, the First Legion was to return to Sardinia; The 3rd and 5th Legions would definitely still be stationed in Betica, which would save the 1st Legion the trouble of carrying equipment back and forth.

The Iberian province of Spain was much farther from Sardinia than to the Balearics, and Luquis's fleet arrived in Iberia after a full twenty-two days' voyage; At this time, the Third and Fifth Legions had already landed in Iberia half a month earlier, and were stationed in the military camps secretly arranged by the Spaniards.

When Luquis's fleet arrived at the port of Iberia, he was greeted not only by Segudus and Ronkina, but also by Matuginus, the governor of the province of Iberia; There was only a simple nod between Luquis, Segudus, and Longkina, but Matuginus was an existence that Luquis could not afford to slacken. After all, the battle that the Augustan family is about to start still needs the support of the Spanish kingdom in all aspects.

The most important of these is not the grain and grass promised by King Charles VII of Spain, but the support of the Iberian province in terms of intelligence, terrain, transportation and other aspects; Moreover, the strong dragon always can't suppress the ground snake. No matter how much Charles VII's order is in favor of the House of Augustus, as long as Matuginus is greatly discounted, the House of Augustus will not be able to bear it; So. Luquis had to be respectful and humble enough for Matuginus.

After the two exchanged pleasantries on the harbor, Luquis led the First Legion to the barracks; Matuginus also returned to his governor's palace to await the secret conversation with Luquis in the evening. After arranging for the First Legion to be stationed and handing over the temporary administration of the Legion to the lieutenant General Tuka, Luquis convened a small military meeting with Segudus and Ronkina.

Lucquis had just arrived in Iberia. I don't know much about the situation here; So Luquis took the initiative to ask: "Two generals, it has been half a month since you landed in Iberia, what is the attitude of the Spaniards here towards the Carthaginians of Betica, and what is the attitude of Matuginus towards our arrival?" ”

Segudus and Ronkina looked at each other. Longkina, who had been under Luquis's command, stepped forward and said, "Your Excellency, Commander, according to our observations; In the Kingdom of Spain, at least in the Iberian province, ordinary Spaniards did not have much hatred or resistance towards the Carthaginians, as if there had never been a war between them.

As for the Governor of Matuginus, he was a local powerhouse of the Kingdom of Spain who had grown up as a pure military general; More crucially, Matuginus grew up in Spain's war with the Hannibal family. So, Matuginus himself was full of hatred for the Carthaginians of Betika; He's even willing to send a small elite to lead the way! ”

There was all kinds of information about Spain, and Luquis also saw a lot from Oscar, but he never saw it with his own eyes or heard it with his own ears; After determining the ideas of the ordinary people of Spain and Matuginus. Lucquis began to prepare for tonight's secret conversation. In fact, there is nothing to prepare, because it will take at least three days for the army of the Augustus family to officially set off, and it is still early.

Why do you want to leave three days later? Because the Augustan fleet had limited transport capacity, Licinius's Guards cavalry was still floating on the sea to Iberia! As night fell, Luquis, who had prepared his preparations, took Cegudus and Longkina with him to the governor's palace in Matuginus.

Originally, Luquis was going to have a good greeting with Matuginus tonight, but he didn't expect Matuginus to come up with a typical battlefield general; He did not have any false greetings and politeness with Luquis, and as soon as they met, he told Luquis all the information he knew about Betica, and promised that he could send his general Anteng to lead a cavalry of 100 men to lead the way for Luquis and the army of the Augustus family in Betica.

Not only that, but Matuginus also told Luquis explicitly; The general and his 100-man cavalry were all Spanish nobles who had escaped from the province of Betica. They themselves have a national hatred for the Carthaginians of Betica, and they will never make a mistake in their mission; Lucquis can have complete trust in them.

The concise and clear secret conversation lasted less than half an hour before it ended. Matuginus's vigor pleased Luquis; Before leaving, Luquis also presented a big gift that Oscar had prepared long ago - 5,000 sets of weapons and equipment of the old Roman hoplites! Although these things were a drop in the box for the Augustans, they were a precious treasure to Spain, which was known as a barbarian like Gaul; Matuginus, who was a soldier, accepted the gift very happily.

After returning to the barracks from the governor's palace in Matuginus, Luquis began to negotiate the battle plan with the two commanders and the three lieutenant generals; According to the intelligence provided by Matuginus. The newly recruited 17,000 troops of Margo and Theophanes are not weak in combat. Among them, the 2,000 infantry belonging to the garrison were directly upgraded by the elite militia of the Hannibal family, and the remaining 15,000 troops were not recruits, but mercenaries recruited with good combat effectiveness.

It's just a nice name to say that it's a mercenary, but the real identity of these fifteen thousand mercenaries is that of a robber; And they were all bandits active on the border between Spain and Betica. The very existence of the bandits who were able to survive the double blows of the Hannibal family and the Kingdom of Spain speaks of their combat prowess.

However, not all of these 28,000 troops were concentrated in one place; Among them, led by Theophanes himself, and in charge of garrisoning Córdoba were the first 6,000 elites of Betica. Among the 6,000 elite were 2,000 round shield cavalry, 2,000 Iberian infantry, 1,000 javelinmen, and 1,000 Balearic slingers.

As for the remaining 20,000 or so troops, they were divided into two parts, and Marco personally led 5,000 elite mercenaries and 7,000 newly recruited mercenaries to garrison the border between Betica and the Iberian Province; The former commander of the provincial garrison of Betica, Cyses, led 2,000 new provincial garrisons and 8,000 mercenaries to garrison the border between Betica and Lusitania.

Because the border between Betica and the province of Iberia was surrounded by mountains, Margo's 12,000 mercenaries were all infantry. Only mercenary cavalry, numbering less than two thousand, acted as a mobile force; However, the border between Betica and Lusitania was indeed plain, suitable for large-scale cavalry battles, so Chlorese concentrated 5,000 mercenary cavalry under his command.

In fact, the landing of the Augustan army in the Iberian province should not be a secret to the Hannibal family in the province of Betica, so Margo will adopt such a distribution of troops; The 22,000 troops were evenly divided between the two battlefields. In order to defend against a possible attack by the Kingdom of Spain.

Although the two elite legions of the Kingdom of Spain came to the border area because of Margo's crazy expansion, no one can guarantee that the Kingdom of Spain will not launch an attack on Betica; Not to mention the rest, the Spanish Kingdom's move of allowing tens of thousands of Augustus troops to enter Iberia was enough to make Margo quite suspicious of the Spanish Kingdom.

Marco's military deployment, regardless of its intentions. But all were extremely advantageous for the House of Augustus; Even if the border between Betica and Iberia was not suitable for a large-scale cavalry attack, the three fully armed Augustan legions had a force of 30,000 men, a force far from being able to withstand Margo's forces.

Moreover, the current Augustan legion is not the Roman legion of the past; The current main force of 6,000 infantry of the legion is all more well-equipped hoplite infantry, and the auxiliary light infantry is not javelinmen and light infantry, but has elite Cretan archers and Balearic slingers and Numidian javelin cavalry; Coupled with the support of equipment, the combat effectiveness of such a powerful combined legion is no longer what these Carthaginians can imagine.

Admittedly, Marco himself did not take the pre-Roman military reforms as a big deal; He didn't regard the auxiliary legion mechanism established by the Augustus family as a great thing, otherwise he would not have learned that the total strength of the Augustus family legion was as high as 30,000, and he would dare to garrison the border area with 12,000 mercenaries.

Even in Margo's opinion. With the 12,000 elite light mercenaries in his hands, he could rely on the mountainous terrain of the border area to entangle the Roman army of the Augustan family to the death, and finally destroy this huge army three times the number of troops in his hands. However, this idea may not come to fruition in the end; Because the army of the House of Augustus is no longer the Roman army of the past.

What's more, Marco is not Hannibal, he doesn't have the ability to win more with less, and defeat the strong with the weak; If it weren't for the terrain that restrained the Roman army from exerting its full force and fighting head-on on the vast battlefield, Lucquis was convinced that a legion under his command could completely annihilate Margo's 12,000-strong army, provided that Margo's troops did not retreat.

The three-day wait is not a long time, but it is not a short time either; It was enough for Luquis and the others to complete the rest and preparation of the three legions while waiting for Licinius. With Licinius came not only a cavalry corps of five thousand men. There was also the Instrument Brigade of the Fourth Army Corps; After all the troops had been assembled in the barracks, Luquis made a new arrangement.

First of all, there was the issue of the configuration of the corps, and Lucis ordered that all the directly subordinate equipment brigades of the three legions be drawn out to form a purely temporary equipment battle group; Then one hundred and twenty heavy cavalry from each regiment were drawn out to form a temporary assault group. Finally, there is the arrangement of cavalry, and the establishment of cavalry hundred-man teams in each legion remains unchanged. continue to be responsible for the reconnaissance work of the regiment; However, the Javelinees who belonged to the three auxiliary regiments were all drawn under the command of Licinius.

After completing these temporary changes in the organization, Lucis ordered Licinius to open the way in front with 8,000 cavalry troops, with Ronkina leading the Fifth Army as the front army, Lucquis himself leading the First Army as the middle army, and the Third Army and the Instrument Battle Group of Segudus as the rear army.

But. Luquis's route of march was not to attack Betica along the river from the nearest mountain road; It's a farther and flatter coastal road. For Luquis knew that mountain and river routes, while convenient for supplies and quick movements, were extremely vulnerable to sneak attacks; This second way, however, is much safer, but it takes a little more time. (To be continued.) )