You should always be passionate about the craft you have studied, and you should be uncomplaining, even if it is not rich in itself; Follow the example of those who put their whole soul in the gods, and let the rest of your life go through like this, neither being a tyrant nor a servant to anyone.

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

The disproportionate damage on the walls did not last long, and with the addition of six thousand light infantry, the number of enemy troops on the walls began to increase at each moment, and the Iberian infantry could no longer kill and wound the enemy in large numbers while keeping themselves undamaged; From the moment a desert infantryman plunged his sword into the heart of an Iberian infantryman before he died, the Iberian infantry's casualties began to increase dramatically.

At this time, a thousand lightly armed infantry operated siege cones also came to the vicinity of the city gate, and the light infantry set the siege cone in a good position and began to attack the city gate; When the siege cone first hit the gates, Mahabal knew the time had come for a counterattack. Mahabal himself led 3,000 Punic infantry out from behind the city wall, and at the same time, Mahabal shouted an order to the soldiers on the wall:

"Brothers, we've had enough of the cat-and-mouse game, and now the counteroffensive has officially begun, and I'll get rid of all the Numidian monkeys on the city walls; Not a single one to stay! At the command of Mahabal, the Iberian infantry, who had been fighting against the desert infantry and light infantry, immediately began to purge the Numidian army on the city wall with the cooperation of the Punic infantry.

One by one, the Numidian infantry was killed by several Carthaginian soldiers, and the ladders on the walls were toppled one by one; The remaining Numidian soldiers on the city wall hurriedly climbed down the ladder in panic, and even several desert infantry could not escape and jumped directly from the fifteen-meter-high city wall.

The five thousand Carthaginian infantry easily regained the sovereignty of the city walls, and the main enemy was the Numidian army, which consisted of new soldiers; If the enemy army was the elite infantry under Ahmed, it would not be so easy to drive off the walls. Even though the Numidian infantry on the city walls and all of them were cleared, there were still a large number of Numidian light infantry and desert infantry gathered under the city of Tapsus; They were regrouping at Gaia's behest, ready to take the ladder to the head of Tapsus once again.

Yes, it was the Gaia Legion Commander who was not supposed to be at the forefront in the first place; Although both Tulguta and Ahmet strictly forbade him to enter the front lines of the battle, the soldiers of the Recruit Legion were simply poor in the city. The desert infantry who had already climbed the city wall were driven off the city wall again, and even the ladder that had already reached the city was knocked down; Even the light infantry who had been beaten by the Carthaginian defenders wanted to abandon the attack and flee back to their own camp!

Gaia, who couldn't stand it, had to disobey the order, and took his own personal guards cavalry as a warlord, and came to a place less than twenty meters from the city wall; After personally slaying down one of the lightly armed infantrymen who tried to retreat, Gaia shouted angrily at the remaining terrified desert infantry and light infantry:

"I'm the captain of the Gaia Legion. I know that among you are not only my desert infantry, but also the light infantry of the Captain of the Niptasan; But I don't care who you are or who you are. As long as you dare to take a step back, don't blame me for being ruthless! All the centurions and tens' are under command, and you reorganize your army and set up the ladder up to the head of the city; Then you will take the lead for me, or you will be killed on the spot!" ”

Gaia's order was not just empty words, and the hundreds of cavalry guards under his command all raised their cavalry spears at the same time against the army under the city walls; In the face of Gaia's strength, the army under the walls had to re-raise the ladder under the organization of their respective centurions and tens, and prepare to launch another attack. Soon. The defenders on the walls were about to face another flood of enemy troops.

Moreover, at this time, the siege cones near the city gate had also launched thirteen consecutive attacks on the city gate; Even if the city gate has already been reinforced by Victoria's third floor, but if the city gate is not sealed, the fall of the city gate is only a matter of time. Could it be that the defenders of Tapsus, under the personal command of Viminina and Mahabal, could not resist even a tentative attack by the Numidian army?

The answer, of course, is no! Although the weak attack of the archers was unexpected by Vimina and Mahabal, it was just in the right favor of Vimyna's plan; The army now gathered under the walls of Tapsus was the real target of Vimina and Mahabal, and the killing of the enemy on the walls was only an appetizer.

While Gaia himself organized the Numidian army to launch a new attack, archers, less than 4,500 men, once again reached the city walls under the orders of Mahabal; It's just that this time the arrows in their hands are no longer ordinary arrows, but specially crafted iron arrows! Forty-five hundred self-ashamed archers had once again reached the edge of the wall, and this time their eyes were not as weak as they had been when they had attacked the first time. Rather, it is full of hatred and self-blame.

These archers were ordinary Carthaginians before they joined the army, and they never killed anyone, nor did they have hatred for anyone; The reason why they always shoot arrows weakly in their hands during the first attack is not because they are afraid of the enemy, but because they do not want to shoot the innocent Numidians. However, because of their own cowardice, at least five hundred of their comrades were shot by Numidian archers; Even they believed that the corpses of Carthaginian infantry lying everywhere on the walls were their fault.

So, this time they will never be weak again, they will never be unbearable again. The arrows that shoot will not be so weak; Looking at the archers who were full of murderous aura, Mahabal nodded secretly, and then ordered: "Archers obey the order, all use iron arrows." three rounds of arrow rain; Cover direct fire within 20 meters outside the city walls! ”

Under the orders of Mahabal, 4,500 archers calmly drew the iron arrows from their quivers, and then shot the iron arrows in their hands with all their bows against the Numidian army below the city walls; The rain of 5,000 iron arrows is simply a rain of bullets in modern warfare. The thousands of Numidian troops under the walls suffered heavy casualties under this rain of arrows, as long as they were shot by iron arrows; Both the shield and the armor were torn apart in an instant, but Gaia escaped the disaster just outside the range of the rain of arrows.

However, the light infantry who operated the siege cones were not so lucky. Unfortunately, they are also the target of attack; In just one round of arrow rain, at least 500 or more of the 1,000 lightly armed infantry were nailed to the ground. At this moment, the city of Tapsus became a living hell; The one who was able to be shot in the first place became the lucky one.

The Numidian infantrymen who were shot in non-lethal parts by iron arrows, but were firmly nailed to the ground by iron arrows, were the most miserable; They wailed bitterly and tried to pull the iron arrow out of their bodies, but they could not do so because of the pain and the depth of the iron arrow, so they could only wail and cry for help. Gaia was also stunned by the scene in front of her. He saw with his own eyes a centurion with a shield being shot in front of him by three iron arrows; The centurion was pinned to the ground before he could even react, staring at Gaia staringly.

The personal guards cavalry who reacted naturally knew that they had been tricked, and they hurriedly took the reins of Gaia's war horse and escorted Gaia back; The remaining Numidian soldiers who narrowly escaped in the first round of arrows also quickly abandoned their armor and fled to the rear. Unfortunately, the speed of their reaction and escape were still not faster than the second round of arrows; This round of arrows nailed countless Numidian soldiers to the ground. The other Numidian soldiers fled even more frantically.

The last round of arrows of the archers on the city wall was no longer to kill the enemy, but to give a good time to the Numidian soldiers who were nailed to the ground and had not yet died; In just these three rounds of arrows, more than 5,000 Numidian soldiers were nailed under the walls of Tapsus. Of the sixteen,000 infantry sent by Numidia in this tentative attack, all but the four thousand archers who did not approach the walls were unscathed; No more than four thousand of the remaining twelve thousand infantry were able to return alive.

Even if those 4,000 people fled back, they would not be able to form any combat effectiveness in a short time; Because of all that is happening under the city of Tapsus. It has completely scared their guts. Not to mention them, even Mahabal and Tulguta and Ahmed were frightened by the power of these three rounds of iron arrows; They have never seen such a sharp bow and arrow attack since they joined the army!

Of course, there's no denying it; The reason why these three rounds of arrow rain were able to achieve such great results mainly relied on the simultaneous emergence of three irreproducible factors. First, the Numidian army was crowded under the city of Tapsus; secondly, it is the height of the walls of Tapsus that creates the great power of the iron arrow; Thirdly, the previous weak performance of the Carthaginian archers caused the Numidian army to let their guard down, and it was not until the appearance of these three rounds of arrows that they were taken by surprise.

Anyone who thinks that this type of iron arrow attack can be used on a large scale must be a fool; Because the iron arrow is so heavy, the range of the iron arrow is basically impossible to exceed fifteen meters in normal archery. The wooden-tipped arrows used by normal archers can shoot people from a distance of 100 meters. At about fifty meters, a sharpshooter can even shoot hoplites; Except for the fact that the iron arrow attack is useful when it is condescending, it is basically the prey of ordinary archers on other occasions.

Even if the enemy is within ten meters, the iron arrows fired by the archers are not enough to shoot a person; This time, Vimyna relied not on iron arrows at all, but on the height of the walls of Tapsus. If you had replaced the iron arrows with 4,500 iron rods and thrown them from a height of fifteen meters, you would have killed countless Numidian soldiers below; Not to mention iron arrows with sharp arrows!

In this tentative siege battle, Vimina and Mahabal lost less than 1,000 casualties to the Numidian army; Now there is no need for Vimyna to do anything else, and it is impossible for Zuguta to launch a new attack again in half a month, because he has to find a way to boost the morale of the army under his command.

The greatest impact of the Iron Arrow Graveyard under the city of Tapsus was not how many Numidian soldiers were killed, but it caused a very large psychological shadow on the Numidian army; Not only the lightly armed infantry who escaped death, but also those who did not participate in the battle were frightened by the iron arrow cemetery in front of them, their faces turned pale and their legs trembled without realizing it.

Although Thuguta and Ahmet did not intend to take Tapsus in one attack. Even Turguta had decided to surround Tapsus after a tentative attack; Then send a herald and order Jubal to lead a large army to take advantage of the emptiness inside Carthage to attack Africa directly. As a result, this tentative offensive turned directly into a defeat with heavy casualties; Then the original established strategy has become a helpless move after failure.

The meaning of the same thing in different postures is completely different, and its nature is also very different; However, the war still has to go on. Tulguta can't just give up on a single battle because he loses it. After gathering the 4,000 defeated troops back into the camp, Zuguta set up the camp five miles outside the city of Tapsus; The 12,000 javelinmen under his command divided into three waves and took turns patrolling 500 meters outside the city of Tapsus, blocking the city of Tapsus.

In the barracks were the four thousand troops who had fled and the unscathed Legion of Egclus, as well as the four thousand archers, the three legions of recruits; It's just that the number of troops has changed from 21,000 before the battle to 13,000 now. As for Ahmet's army of more than 13,000, he was sent out by Tsuguta to attack the cities outside of Tapsus in the province of Baisasian; The fighting on the entire Southern Front was suspended because of this battle. (To be continued.) )