The prince is not above the law, but the law is above the prince. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

- Gaius Pliny Cecilius Secondulu (Roman Patriarch and Writer)

Although Oscar and Lucquis will split their forces in two ways, the ultimate goal is to take Upper Sicilya; Therefore, Oscar's task to Luquis was to take the port, leaving half of the army to garrison the port, and the remaining half of the army to be led by Luquis with cavalry troops, escorting the equipment brigade of the First Legion to Messina immediately.

It was also a full ten days from the port to the city of Messina, and the speed of the equipment troops was relatively slow, so it was not bad that Luquis could lead the equipment troops to Messina in fifteen days. Combined with the time it took for Luquis to travel and the time it took to take the port, it would take about a month for Luquis to arrive in Messina.

And the main army led by Oscar himself will also march at a similar speed, after all, the six cities and one military fortress along the way are no joke, they really need real knives and guns to occupy; The time of the march, combined with the time of the offensive battle, would have taken about a month for Oscar himself to reach Messina.

In this way, the main army led by Oscar and the reinforcements of Luquis will gather under the city of Messina at about the same time to launch a sharp attack on the city of Messina! In fact, without Luquis's support, it was not easy for Oscar to take Messina; You must know that Messina was the capital of a province that had been carefully fortified by the Scipio family, and it was difficult to take it without the use of large siege engines.

Of course, if it were to be piled with human life, it would still be possible to take the city of Messina; After all, the defenders in Messina, in addition to the 4,000 elite cavalry of the Huskid Duba, only had less than 3,000 infantry left, which was not enough to hold Messina. However, such a victory piled up with the lives of the soldiers was not the victory that Oscar wanted.

This is not to say that Oscar himself was a good man, but that the heavy casualties paid under Messina were too heavy for the Augustus family to bear. In the next decisive battle, each soldier is a key factor that may affect the final victory; How could Oscar pay a greater price under Messina?

After discussing the specific battle plan, Oscar asked all the generals to go down and prepare; And he himself began to think about how to appoint the commanders of the various legions tomorrow. The five brigades of the Samonai Legion must still be commanded by Antio; The two thousand infantry of the auxiliary regiment of the First Army must still be commanded by Raqqa; Fifteen hundred soldiers of the family guard, needless to say.

The only question was who should command the seven brigades of hoplites of the First Army, and Oscar himself certainly not; After all, it is impossible for Oscar himself to really charge ahead. Mary was not the right person to do so, as she also held the position of Captain of the Guards Infantry Regiment; Moreover, Oscar will not allow her to go to the front line in person.

In this case, the officers and men of the First Regiment of these seven brigades lacked a suitable commander; In desperation, Oscar had no choice but to appoint Teller, the captain of the First Brigade of the First Legion, as the temporary commander. The first brigade of each legion is the most powerful brigade, and its size is different from the other eleven brigades.

From this, it can be seen that the captain of the first brigade of each corps still has a fairly high status within his legion; To put it bluntly, the supreme commander of each legion is the corps commander, followed by the corps adjutant general, and then the captain of the first brigade. As for the remaining eleven captains, their status is absolutely equal, and it has nothing to do with the ranking of the brigade.

After dealing with these trivial affairs, Oscar changed his usual routine and went to bed early; Starting tomorrow, the tense war life will officially begin, and Oscar also needs to recharge his energy to better prepare for the next combat life!

Early the next morning, as soon as it was dawn, there were bursts of trumpets in the makeshift camp; Oscar also got up to the sound of the horn. After Oscar got dressed and walked out of the military tent, he found that the soldiers of each legion had already walked out of the military tent and began to assemble in a unit of 100 people.

Last evening, Lucis and Antio had already made arrangements for today's division in their respective legions; This morning, after only dismantling the temporary barracks, the freshly baked two armies will set off separately. Just as the 100-member teams were preparing breakfast, the soldiers who did not participate in the preparation of breakfast began to pack up and dismantle the barracks.

After breakfast, the entire huge makeshift barracks had been dismantled; At this time, it was just seven o'clock in the morning. With the demolition of the temporary barracks, all the soldiers and soldiers have lined up in neat ranks in the open space; The sea formed by the black armor and the black battle flag makes people feel depressed and at the same time, it is also very reassuring!

After Luquiszema came to Oscar's side to say his solemn farewell, he led five brigades of the officers of the First Legion and three brigades of the Samonai Legion to the northeast without looking back; After Luquis's army left the place completely, Oscar, together with Mary, rode his horse and led the rest of the main army to the east!

After three days of marching, Oscar's army was stationed more than ten miles west of a small city; This small city was the first of the seven cities, and it was also the most defended city outside of the military fortress. The city was garrisoned by 1,500 militiamen, of whom Hannibal had less than 50 veterans.

In fact, such city garrisons were nothing more than recruits recruited by Hannibal locally; The veterans, who numbered less than fifty men, were not so much the junior officers who commanded the militias as the overseers sent by Hannibal to supervise them. After all, Upper Sicilia had been ruled by the Scipio family for so many years, and it was inevitable that there would be resistance to Hannibal's rule.

None of these things, though, have anything to do with the Oscars; Oscar's army stopped and encamped ten miles from the city; It's not just that it's too late to attack, but it's also to build some necessary ladders for tomorrow's attack. Without any siege equipment at all, Oscar could only use the simplest ladder to siege the city.

In the early morning of the next day, before dawn, Oscar ordered his soldiers to prepare breakfast; It wasn't until the day just began to light that the Augustus army that had eaten breakfast immediately sounded the horn of an impassioned attack. Immediately, Antio personally led three large groups of Samonai legion soldiers to carry the ladder in the direction of this small city!

The sudden trumpets and earth-shattering shouts completely shocked the defenders on the city walls, and these so-called defenders were nothing more than farmers who had laid down their hoes and taken up arms, and had not yet undergone any training; Even though the Hannibal veterans, who were less than fifty men, tried to stabilize them, they were still terrified in the terrifying atmosphere of the battle.

The soldiers of the Sammonai Legion were really fought out of the sea of swords and fires; The captains and centurions of his legion are all veterans who survived the last decisive battle of Lili, even ordinary soldiers have experienced the previous attack on the Balearic Islands, and they are all veterans with certain combat experience and have seen blood, far from being comparable to ordinary recruits.

The defenders on the city walls, in the face of the sudden appearance of a large enemy army, only began to fight back with bows and arrows; But with a bow and arrow of this level, how could they stop the fierce Samonai Legion! Just as the soldiers of the Samonian Legion approached the city wall with the ladder, the five hundred Cretan archers of the First Auxiliary Legion also came to a hundred meters from the city wall and began their first volley!

If the Hannibal veterans were able to stabilize the situation after discovering the enemy's attacking army; Then, after three rounds of arrows from five hundred Cretan archers, the defenders of the city walls fled for their lives in terror and howling wolves. Seeing that these militiamen behaved so badly, those veterans directly pulled out their short swords and killed several deserters, so that they could stabilize the situation on the city wall.

Unfortunately, at this time, the soldiers of the three brigades of Antio's Samonai Legion had already climbed the ladder up the city wall; In order to avoid accidental injury, the Cretan archers also stopped firing salvos at this time. After climbing the city wall, the soldiers of Samonai's legion were like tigers and wolves breaking into the flock; The militiamen who went on a rampage and killed only dared to retreat and not dare to move forward.

The gesture of less than fifty Hannibal veterans urging the militia to fight was so obvious that it naturally provoked more and more aggressive attacks; In less than five minutes, these Hannibal veterans were killed and wounded, and the remaining militiamen who had been frightened would naturally not hold on any longer, and they decisively chose to surrender.

After this battle, the army of the House of Augustus successfully took the first city in Upper Sicilya; More than 400 enemies were annihilated, more than 1,000 were captured, and their own casualties were only 12 killed and 27 wounded! With such a first victory, all the soldiers were full of confidence in the next battle; Even Oscar himself was shocked by such an easy victory.

After less than twenty minutes of fighting, Oscar led his army into the town; The internal fragmentation of the Roman Republic was only internal and not known to outsiders. The House of Augustus also did not have a clear independence; In addition to the flag of the House of Augustus, the flag of the Roman Republic was also used.

Whether it was the former Scipio family or the current Augustan family, they were all the power of the Roman Republic, and for these Romans ruled by Hannibal, they were really family. Therefore, for the army of the Augustus family who came from afar, everyone welcomed it, not rejected it. (To be continued.) )