Don't worry about the future. If you had to go to the future, you would go with the same reason, just as you would come to the present with a reason. If a person does not care whether other people's words and deeds are correct or not, but only pays attention to whether his own behavior is correct, then how rich his life will be! To be honest, a good person is not to peek into the darkness of others' hearts, but to "go straight to the goal without squinting".

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

Soon, Nero knew why; The tortoiseshell formation of the Roman legions was a very effective formation. In the face of long-range enemy strikes and resistance to cavalry charges, this formation can indeed effectively reduce the casualties of the soldiers; However, this formation is very simple to face the enemy head-on, and lacks sufficient countermeasures for the attack from their own rear. In the panic just now, the garrison responsible for guarding the five thousand captives of Epirus also returned to the main camp under Nero's orders; And those captives took the opportunity to get out of the camp of prisoners.

The location of the Roman legions' captives had long been known to Pyrrhus's scout cavalry, so after considering the terrain of Tulbo, Pyrrhus and Pyrrhus also roughly guessed the location of the large camp captured by the Roman legions when they attacked Tulbo; In response to several possible locations, Pyrrhus ordered Pyrrhus to plant a large number of weapons in each of these locations, and to mark them clearly. When the captives left the camp because the defenders were not there, they quickly found the place where the weapons were buried according to the markers.

These five thousand captives were deliberately captured by the Roman legions on the orders of Pyrus, who had served the kingdom of Epirus for several years, and it was their forte to fight without armor but with weapons; It can even be said that they are the most elite army of the Kingdom of Epirus, otherwise Pyrus would not have been relieved to entrust such an important task to them. After obtaining the weapons that Pylos had prepared for them, they immediately formed a squad of 100 men and 50 men to kill the Roman legions of three legions.

A legion is composed of twelve brigades and seventy-five hundreds; The Roman army of the three standard legions formed a total of 225 tortoiseshell formations, which were the target of the prisoners' squads. Because the defensive direction of the tortoiseshell formation is the front and flanks, the rear is extremely lacking in protective strength; Under the sudden attack of countless squads of fifty people, countless Roman legionnaires were killed and wounded. I had no choice but to reluctantly withdraw from the tortoiseshell formation to face the sneak attackers.

The elite light infantry of 5,000 men killed less than 1,000 Roman legionaries in an instant, which was not a very good record under the premise of a sneak attack from the rear; However, Pyrrhus had fully achieved their purpose. The entire Roman legion phalanx and countless tortoiseshell formations were confused in their attack. One by one, the tortoiseshell formations were forced to disband, and the entire perfect Roman formation was completely disrupted; The rear of the Roman army was completely entangled in an anxious battle with these five thousand warriors.

If you look at it from a distance, you will find that the three Roman legions, which were originally in good order, have been completely divided into two parts; Except for the 13th Legion at the front, which remained solid enough, the Brutus Legion and the Amrius Legion in the rear were already in disarray and had no formation. Nero naturally discovered the changes in the rear of the army, but he had no way to withdraw to stabilize the rear; Because the cavalry cluster in front of it charged back again.

In a solid battle formation consisting of only the 13th Legion and three auxiliary legions. Nero was confident that his Roman legions would be able to withstand the onslaught of three thousand ironclad cavalry; Unfortunately, this self-confidence is too optimistic, and it underestimates the power of the cavalry cluster composed of ironclad cavalry and war elephants. When Pylos found that the rear of the Roman army was indeed as chaotic as Pyrrhus had arranged, he immediately led the cavalry to charge back; This time is the real bloody battle.

Nineteen war elephants took the lead in front of the ironclad cavalry, and once again the whole land trembled under the onslaught of the cavalry of Pylos; Although the soldiers of the 13th Legion have already set up a neat tortoiseshell formation, this still can't change the fear of war elephants and ironclad cavalry in the hearts of the soldiers. It is impossible to comprehend the feeling of a person who has not experienced the onslaught of a cavalry swarm, which is like a group of people standing together and being greeted by a neatly arranged heavy truck; What's even more terrifying is that the truck cluster is headed by a group of heavy tanks. When the cluster of tanks and trucks ran over them, the fear in the hearts of this group of people can be imagined.

The soldiers of the Thirteenth Legion are already heartbroken. But they also know that forming a solid formation and relying on a strong shield are more likely to win life; However, the light infantry and archers of the auxiliary legions did not have such awareness, and of course this had to do with their lack of sophisticated weaponry. The end result was that the six thousand men of the three auxiliary regiments collapsed under the threat of the cavalry cluster onslaught; The soldiers of the defeated army completely ignored the orders of their respective centurions and captains and fled for their lives on the battlefield, not only destroying their formation, but also completely disrupting the formation of the 13th Army Corps.

Nero looked at the formation in front of him that was disturbed by the auxiliary legions, and understood that there was no possibility of victory in today's battle, and he could only minimize losses; Therefore, he immediately ordered the officers and men of the 13th Army Corps to immediately retreat to the rear under the cover of the auxiliary corps. In Nero's view, the rear was now the time when King Epirus' ** team was engaged in a melee with the Roman legions; The enemy's powerful cavalry group will not be able to make a group charge against the melee army.

Nero was right, but he underestimated the speed of the cavalry swarm; Just as Nero gave the order. Nineteen war elephants had already rushed into the ranks of the Roman legions. Under the guidance of nineteen war elephants, the three thousand ironclad cavalry easily tore the front army composed of the 13th Legion and the three auxiliary legions in half; In this confrontation alone, the cavalry cluster of the Kingdom of Epirus wiped out at least four thousand Roman legions, and the huge Roman army seemed to have disappeared out of thin air in the middle.

Woo~Woo~Woo~Woo...... Meanwhile. Another high, majestic trumpet sounded from the rear of the scuffle between the Roman legions and the army of King Epirus; It was the nearly 30,000 hoplites of the Kingdom of Epirus personally commanded by Pyrus! It turned out that the horn that Pylos had ordered to be sounded in the city of Tulbo was not only the sound of the horn that he personally led the cavalry group to attack, but also the signal of his agreement with Pyrrhus; As soon as Pylos blows this horn in Tulbo, Pyrrhus will also lead the main army to surround the Roman legions from the rear!

When Nero on the battlefield and Gnaeus, who had already hurried to the rear with Tiberius, heard the sound of the trumpet, they both knew that the Roman legions were finished; At this point in the war, if Gnaeus and Nero could no longer see that the Roman expeditionary legion had completely fallen into the trap of the kingdom of Epirus, then they would not be worthy of being the legion's commanders. Pity. It's too late to understand this at this time; Gnaeus could only choose to escort Tiberius to break through as much as possible, and Nero could only try to gather the Roman legions around him to break through to the port.

And Pylos, after hearing the sound of this trumpet, naturally understood that Pyrrhus had arrived with reinforcements; In order to better prevent the Roman legions from scattering and escaping. Also in order to reduce the casualty rate of war elephants and ironclad cavalry, Pylos decisively led the cavalry group to break away from the battle with the Roman legions once again and began to gallop in the direction of Tulbo. At this time, the situation on the walls of Turbo was once again reversed; The advantage that would have belonged to the side of the Roman expeditionary legion. That changed after Pylos led the cavalry group to turn the tide.

Looking at the Roman legions, which were retreating and in crisis, the soldiers of the Eighth Legion and the Third Eagle Banner on the walls of Turbo were distracted and fell to the inferior enemy army who were absolutely inferior in numbers; As the battle progressed, the nearly 6,000 Roman legions were locked in a battle with the Turbo heavy infantry defenders, who numbered less than 800. However, the battle on the walls was no longer the center of the war; The decisive battle outside the city really determines the future of both sides of the game.

Needless to say, it was the army of the Kingdom of Epirus that now had the absolute upper hand; It was at this point that the Roman expeditionary corps really paid the price for their stupidity and arrogance. Nearly 30,000 or so hoplite legions, led by Pyrrhus, spread out from the rear of the Roman legions into a huge semicircle and came towards the entire Roman army. At this time, the Roman army was fighting against the Legion of Brutus and Amrius, who numbered less than 2,000 captives, and their total number was nearly 10,000.

Although the Brutus and Amrius armies had some losses under the sneak attack of the captives at first, and disrupted the entire formation; But the huge superiority in weaponry and the superiority in numbers allowed them to easily suppress the captives. Just after paying the price of less than a thousand men again, the five thousand elite light infantry of the Kingdom of Epirus had already lost more than 3,000 in battle; At this time, the remnants of the 13th Army Corps and the three auxiliary legions, which were less than 7,000, also came to the position where the rear army was.

Because the conquest of the Kingdom of Epirus was a cross-sea battle, each Roman legion did not carry its own ballista and stone catapult troops, which means that the number of each main battle legion was 6,000 instead of the standard of nearly 7,000. Now, the total strength of the three main battle legions and the three auxiliary legions on the main battlefield is only 17,000 men; The full strength of 24,000 troops had been easily wiped out by 7,000, and the two main battle legions and two auxiliary legions on the attacking city walls were less than 6,000 men. More than 10,000 people were exterminated.

Of course, these wiped out Roman armies were basically wiped out by cavalry clusters when they launched a surprise attack; Even so, more than 23,000 Roman troops were still active on the battlefield. It was the kingdom of Epirus that won the war, and this was already a foregone conclusion; But if you really want to completely annihilate the 23,000 Roman army, it will not be an easy task. Rabbits bite when they are in a hurry, not to mention these Roman legionaries who are armed to the teeth; Pyrrhus's original intention was to try not to consume his own strength, would he choose to fight to the death with the Roman army involved?

The answer is no, Pyrrhus's encirclement is extremely weak in the middle part; In order to let most of the Roman army see the hope of life and choose to break out from here. This can not only reduce the losses of King Epirus's ** army, but also allow Pyrrhus to slowly eliminate these Roman troops; Considering that Tulbo was twelve days' journey from the port of Epirus, could the scattered Roman army outrun the pursuing ironclad cavalry? Moreover, the Roman army at that time was a small fragment, not a powerful army gathered now.

Pyrrhus's strategy was successful. In the case of a cavalry cluster in front and tens of thousands of hoplites in the rear; More than 17,000 Roman legions, led by Nero, swore to the death and charged the hoplites in the rear. Faced with the exposed backs of the Roman army, Pylos naturally would not let go of this opportunity to attack; Once again, a battle for survival broke out, but the roles of both sides of the war had changed. The hunter becomes the prey, and the prey becomes the hunter. (To be continued.) )