Beautiful birds don't have to be made up of beautiful feathers. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

- Aesop (Greek fabler, Phrygian)

In order to completely annihilate the 70,000-strong army of Okchivian, Li Lias also paid a lot of price; Especially when the cavalry of the Augustan Empire launched a flank attack on the infantry battle array led by Okchivian himself, the pikemen of the Kingdom of Egypt inflicted huge losses on the cavalry under the command of Lilias, and more than 3,000 cavalry were killed in front of the enemy's guns in the first round of charge alone.

If it weren't for the continued charging of the subsequent cavalry who were not afraid of death, coupled with the hard work of the frontal hoplites, it is not clear whether the five legions of the Augustan Empire would have won the battle on the battlefield; Even Lilias himself, after the battle, admitted that the pikemen of the Kingdom of Egypt were extraordinary in combat effectiveness, and they could definitely be called a real elite army.

The Augustan Empire's evaluation of the combat effectiveness of the Egyptian king's ** team is mainly based on the typical battle example of the absolute superiority of the Egyptian kingdom being tortured and killed by the Seleucid Empire's ironclad cavalry, as well as the fact that the Egyptian king's ** team is not strong in battle; In fact, the army of the Kingdom of Egypt is still very good in terms of combat effectiveness, especially the pikemen and archery troops, which are even more amazing.

Of the 40,000 infantry under the command of Okchivian, there were also about 5,000 archers, and they inflicted heavy casualties on the light infantry of the 13th and 14th legions; Only the hoplites of the Augustan Empire, with their excellent weaponry, did not suffer many casualties under the attack of the enemy archers.

Even so, Li Lias killed 20,000 enemies and captured 15,000 prisoners, and paid the price of 7,000 cavalry casualties and 6,000 infantry casualties; After two successive battles, only 18,000 cavalry and 14,000 infantry were left under the command of Lilias, and five kilograms of chariot troops under the command of Leopatra could be put into battle.

However, Li Lias still had more than 35,000 prisoners to be guarded, in order to reinforce the main army led by Oscar himself as much as possible; In his capacity as commander-in-chief, Lilias ordered his deputy commander-in-chief, Sinrida, to lead the 14,000-strong army of the 13th and 15th legions to reinforce the main army of Oscar directly from the west bank of the Nile.

Lilias himself led three cavalry regiments and escorted 35,000 captives from the east bank of the Nile to Alexandria; As for the vehicles that are intact, they can only be left in place for the time being and handed over to the friendly care of the chariot troops.

The reason why he did not personally lead the entire army to reinforce Oscar was also a decision made by Li Lias based on the actual situation; The attack on Memphis City led by the main army led by Oscar himself was destined to be a tragic siege battle, and the cavalry troops and chariot troops could not play any role in the siege battle, so it was better to directly escort the captives to Alexandria City to stabilize the rear.

In fact, as Li Lias expected, after the 75,000 Egyptian army and the 30,000 Augustus Emperor** army led by Oscar and Cleopatra entered the Central Egyptian region; Instead of wasting time in the unguarded towns of Central Egypt, they rushed to Memphis City, where the army had gathered.

At the same time, Oscar also sent herald cavalry to Spartak in the border area, and asked him to lead the elite army of the Augustan Empire with four legions to attack from the west of Memphis; When Oscar's army reached the east of Memphis after a thirteen-day march, Spartacus' 40,000 elite troops had already set up camp five hundred meters west of Memphis.

According to the report of the Dead Warrior, the defenders of Memphis numbered 70,000; The most elite Pharaonic legion consisted of 15,000 Pharaoh's Praetorian Guards and 15,000 Pharaoh's Chosen Archers, while the 30,000 infantry consisted of 20,000 desert axe men and 10,000 archers, and even 5,000 of the 10,000 chariot troops were Egyptian archers.

In contrast to the Egyptian kingdom's army, which focused on pikemen in the border regions of the Seleucid Empire, its large army within its own kingdom was significantly more focused on archers; Of the 70,000 defenders in Memphis, there were 25,000 pure archers, and if the archery chariot troops were archers, they were 30,000 archers.

In fact, chariot units did not play a role in the defense of the city; Rather than wasting them in the barracks in the city, it is better to let the soldiers of the chariot unit leave the chariot to participate in the defense of the city.

Even if the soldiers of the 5,000 regular chariot troops were too wasteful to defend the city, the archers of the archers of the archery chariot were definitely the weapons to defend the city; You must know that the archery chariot troops of the Kingdom of Egypt are truly elite divisions, and the archers used to shoot on the chariots are not ordinary archers at all, but elite pharaoh's chosen archers.

In this way, the defending army can use as many as 30,000 archery troops for defense, plus 15,000 powerful Pharaoh Janissaries and 20,000 powerful desert axe soldiers; Oscar felt that if he wanted to capture the heavily guarded city of Memphis, it would be impossible without a month or two and at least 50,000 casualties!

More importantly, this is Oscar's best estimate given that the defenders of Memphis have no reinforcements to reinforce them; If Liriath's army was unable to stop the reinforcements of Octvian, the battle would have been even more brutal, and the Augustan Empire would have had to pay a heavier price to help Cleopatra capture Memphis.

Because the arrival of reinforcements is not about how powerful military assistance it can bring to the defenders of Memphis, but it can bring hope to the defenders of the city, which is a situation that Oscar does not want to see; Therefore, before the results from Li Lias's side came out, Oscar only temporarily surrounded Memphis City with superior forces, and did not immediately attack Memphis City.

Memphis City is a new capital of the Egyptian Kingdom established on the east side of the Nile River, in order to prevent an enemy from attacking Memphis City from the Nile River, Memphis City is still the Nile River in the east or the most turbulent and turbulent place in the entire Nile River; In this way, the armies of the Augustan Empire and the armies of Cleopatra did not need to care about the east side of Memphis.

As for the remaining three sides, the north was surrounded by the seventy-five thousand army of Cleopatra and the thirty-thousand army of the Augustan Empire, and the west was surrounded by the forty-thousand army of Spartacus; To the south, however, it was surrounded by no army of Oscar and Cleopatra.

With the strength of the defenders of Memphis, if they are willing to abandon the city of Memphis and fight against the armies of the Augustan Empire and Cleopatra, this is the best thing for their side; Neither the life-threatening Ptolemy XIII nor the shrewd and powerful Posinius would have made such a stupid choice, and there was naturally no need to surround the southern wall.

Even the western wall surrounded by Spartak was the existence of Oscar to disperse the defenders of Spartak, and it was not really the main army that would attack the city of Memphis; After all, there is a large army of archers in Memphis, and Oscar doesn't want the elite division of his empire to die under Memphis like this.

On the third day of Oscar's siege of Memphis, two regiments led by Sinrida rushed outside Memphis; When Oscar learned of the victory of Lilias, he handed over the 13th and 15th legions brought by Sinrida to Spartak for unified command, so that Spartacus's army increased from 40,000 to 54,000.

After that, Oscar and Cleopatra organized a tentative assault on Memphis City; The attacking force consisted of 35,000 infantry under Cleopatra and 10,000 infantry under Oscar, and Spartacus's western force was also to organize an army of 14,000 men to make a feint.

The pharaonic chosen archers of the Kingdom of Egypt were originally on a par with the Cretan archers of Crete and the forest hunters of the Gallic barbarians, and some people even ranked these three archers as the most powerful archers in the world; Not to mention the attack power of the Chosen Archers, at least their range is as far as two hundred meters, and with the assistance of the Memphis City Wall, they can definitely break through two hundred and fifty meters!

When the first wave of 15,000 Egyptian infantry and 5,000 Augustan Empire infantry approached the Memphis city wall with a ladder pushing the siege ladder, they were immediately attacked by a rain of arrows from the chosen archers defending on the city wall after entering a range of 250 meters; The sharp and dense rain of arrows inflicted heavy casualties on Cleopatra's army, which was not well-armed.

The Augustan hoplites, who reacted in time, pulled their allies under their shield walls to reduce the casualties of Cleopatra's army, and even then, after entering a hundred and fifty meters range, the ordinary archers on the walls began to shoot, and the more dense rain of arrows directly repelled the first wave of attacks.

After the first attack was repulsed by the archers of the defending army, Oscar organized a second attack consisting of 20,000 Egyptian infantry and 7,000 Augustan hoplites, and sent his own guards to serve as the overseers of the Egyptian army; If it hadn't been for the collapse of the entire line of these Egyptian armies just now, it would not have been possible for the 20,000-strong army to touch the city walls!

Unfortunately, this time, the attack of the Governor team still failed; Whether it is the rain of arrows under the pressure of the black, or the fierce defenders on the city wall, the attacking Egyptian army can not bear it, and even the hoplites of the Augustan Empire are fighting hard, not to mention the Egyptian army whose weapons and equipment and will to fight are far inferior to the hoplites.

After two successive defeats, Cleopatra's army paid the price of fifteen thousand killed, and Oscar's army also paid the price of five thousand casualties; Spartacus' feint did not meet a large number of archers, and his troops even stormed the walls at one point, but ultimately failed at the cost of 4,000 casualties. (To be continued.) )