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My soul, you have slowed down yourself, and the time has come for you to glorify yourself. Everyone has only one life, and your life is dwindling, but you still don't care for yourself, but put your happiness on other souls.

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

All the round shield cavalry galloping in the front were all suppressed by the ironclad cavalry, and countless round shield cavalry wanted to use the cavalry in their hands to attack the ironclad cavalry in front of them, but they were horrified to find that their spears could not pierce the enemy's full set of armor at all; Even attacks on the enemy's horses were ineffective, as the horses of the ironclad cavalry were also wrapped in thick armor.

However, the ironclad cavalry can easily raise the spear in their hand to penetrate the round shield cavalry in front of them, and even the spear of the ironclad cavalry in front has been pierced by four enemy cavalrymen; In desperation, the ironclad cavalryman had no choice but to drop his spear, draw his short sword at his waist and continue to charge.

Compared with the charge of the round shield cavalry, which was directly stopped, the charge of the ironclad cavalry continued to move forward with an indomitable attitude; All the round shield cavalry that stood in the way of the ironclad cavalry was mercilessly drowned. The collision of the two armies was only a moment, and the ironclad cavalry successfully wiped out the front army of the two thousand yuan shield cavalry.

With the follow-up charge, when the ironclad cavalry rushed to the rear of the round shield cavalry cluster with all their might, the two thousand round shield cavalry were already less than five hundred; And the ironclad cavalry was still unscathed. If the 5,000 mercenary cavalry on the right flank were beaten into such a miserable situation, they would definitely choose to flee in all directions on the battlefield without hesitation; The rout of the cavalry is always not easy to catch up, and it is good to survive.

However, these two thousand cavalry are different, they are cavalry loyal to the Hannibal family, and they are also the elite cavalry cultivated by the Hannibal family bit by bit; If it weren't for the untimely encounter with the completely inexplicable ironclad cavalry, they would definitely have been able to play a greater role on the battlefield and would definitely have been able to obtain extremely glorious achievements.

Even so. Nor did the cavalry complain or flee for their lives; They still chose to launch a swan song counterattack against the ironclad cavalry without hesitation. A brave and fearless warrior is always easy to respect, but there is no such thing as mercy on the battlefield; The best respect for the enemy is to give them an honorable death.

The ironclad cavalry, under the leadership of Marcus, also continued to launch a second attack on the round shield cavalry, and this time the remaining round shield cavalry also followed in the footsteps of their comrades, and all fell on the bloody battlefield; The ironclad cavalry paid the price of nearly 100 casualties. This is two thousand worthy of respectable opponents.

Just after the ironclad cavalry had eliminated the round shield cavalry, Licinius's 6,000 cavalry also collided with the 5,000 barbarian cavalry; However, Licini's strategy was not a hard-fought battle, but a witty grappling. Licinius put five thousand Numidian javelinmen at the forefront before the charge, when the two cavalry were about to collide; The five thousand javelinmen suddenly split into two groups and swept over from the two wings of the barbarian cavalry's charge.

But. The javelinmen did not simply avoid the enemy, they also threw their javelins at the group of five thousand barbarian cavalry while galloping on their horses; The dense barbarian cavalry charge group suffered heavy losses in this wave of javelin rain composed of 5,000 javelins, and at least more than 1,000 barbarian cavalry fell to their horses and were trampled into mud by their companions' horses.

Five thousand javelins were followed by a thousand long shield cavalry, but these long shield cavalry, led by Licinius, crashed into the cluster of barbarian cavalry; The two sides launched a fierce battle, and the long-shield cavalry used the spears in their hands to constantly attack the barbarian cavalry, and the barbarian cavalry also relied on the numerical advantage to surround and kill the long-shield cavalry.

At this moment, the javelin cavalry, who had recoiled from the flank, launched a second javelin rain attack behind the barbarian cavalry; This attack did not achieve the results of nearly a thousand men like the last time, but it also killed at least five hundred barbarian cavalry on the spot. However, the barbarian cavalry, which had already been prepared, did not give the javelinmen a chance to launch a third attack; The barbarian cavalry group that was fighting around the shield cavalry immediately divided two thousand cavalry and killed the javelin cavalry.

Javelinmen without having time to accelerate. The only option was to draw out the spare cavalry spears and fight with these barbarian cavalry; Originally, the Numidian javelin cavalry was prepared to be equipped with three javelins, but the javelin cavalry of the Augustan family was strengthened with weapons and equipment. The javelinees, who were originally only clothed, not only wore light leather armor, but were also armed with a spare cavalry lance; Although the cost and role of these weapons and equipment are not very large, they can play an unexpected role at a critical moment.

For example, in front of you, if it is a normal Numidian javelin cavalry entangled by other cavalry; You can only fight with your own javelin. The material, length, and lethality of the javelin are far inferior to the regular cavalry lance, but with the spare cavalry lance; The Javelin Cavalry of the House of Augustus was able to draw their spears and engage the enemy after being dogged by cavalry.

While the cavalry were fighting, Segudus was also leading the Third Legion towards the cavalry's battlefield; At the same time, the main forces of the two armies, the Chinese army, also began to fight. When Margo's first line of mercenaries and Raqqa's archers were less than a hundred and fifty meters away, Raqqa ordered his archers and slingers to stop and prepare to attack.

At the same time, Margo ordered his front-line mercenaries to speed up their march. Use your shield to attack the opponent's home in the rain of arrows; The mercenaries began to run at a rapid speed after receiving the order, the barbarians were already superior to the Romans, and the speed of the run was also faster, but the attacks of the Cretan archers were sharper.

Except for a small wooden shield. The mercenaries, who were not equipped with armor at all, suffered heavy casualties under the first round of arrows from the Cretan archers; However, such casualties also provoked the bloodthirsty belligerence in the barbarians' bodies, and they began to charge forward even more regardless of the casualties. The next attack was a double blow of archers and slingers, and in just three rounds, there were less than a thousand mercenaries on the front line.

However, they also came to a place less than fifty meters from the headquarters of Raqqa under heavy casualties; The five strikes that Lucis had planned to carry out were out of the question. If you continue to launch two rounds of attacks, then these 3,000 valuable ranged forces will also get caught up in a struggle with the enemy, and the gains outweigh the losses. Thereupon. Raqqa had to take his 3,000 men and quickly retreat from both flanks to the rear of the 1st Army.

After Raqqa immediately withdrew, the one hundred and forty-four ballistas that had been exposed and had been prepared for a long time launched an attack under the orders of Gabriel; Of the 144 ballistas, 44 were used for stone attacks, while the rest were for spear attacks. Forty-four fifty-pound stone bullets and a hundred spears the size of a baby's arm were shot at the more than 1,000 running mercenaries.

Barbarian warriors who are hit by stone bullets will be smashed on the spot. Those who are directly hit in the head will even be smashed by the brain; And the spear's attack is even sharper. Each spear shot has a powerful lethality, as long as the barbarian warrior who is shot by the spear is directly carried up and pierced through the body and inserted into the ground; Some spears even pierced two or three enemies into the ground at once, and the bloody scene on the battlefield was simply cruel.

In just one attack, the barbarian warriors who rushed to the front were dead and wounded; However, the ballistmen did not stop their attacks. Because Margo's second line; Two thousand mercenaries also entered within three hundred meters of Luquis's main formation. And the range of the ballista is about 350 meters! Just when the ballistae hurried to reload the stone bullets and spears, the stone catapults in the rear of the Chinese army also let out their own "roar"; The boulders projected from the thirty-six stone crossbows shot directly at the Marco Honjin formation on the last line.

In an instant, the three thousand lightly armed infantry in Marco's formation were smashed all over the field by thirty-six boulders that fell from the sky; At this time, the second round of attacks of the ballista crews was also ready, and at the command of Gabriel, this second wave of attacks was also shot out in an instant. After this round of attacks, Luquis ordered to stop the attack of ballista and stone catapults; The five battalions of the 1st Army of the Formation were ordered to immediately rush forward and attack the remnants of the mercenaries on the second line.

Because at this time, Marcus had already adjusted the formation of the ironclad cavalry and was ready to charge the Marco camp, in order to avoid accidental injury, Luquis had to let the equipment troops stop attacking; At this point in the battle, the final victory was basically Luquis's. Marco also understood that this battle could not be won after the ironclad cavalry annihilated the round shield cavalry.

The reason why he also launched an attack with the Chinese army was to make a last-ditch effort, but the long-range attacks and weapon strikes of the Roman army completely ruined Marco's last glimmer of hope; Margo knew that continuing to fight would only increase casualties. However, the Roman army still had a lot of cavalry strength, and if you directly ordered the troops to withdraw from the battlefield, you would definitely not be able to escape the pursuit of the Roman cavalry.

Therefore, Marco personally took the initiative to stay with his elite mercenaries to continue to meet the Roman army; However, he ordered the herald to immediately withdraw the remaining cavalry on the right flank from the battlefield and retreat to Córdoba. and gave the last two orders to several heralds, first, to immediately go north of Betica, and order Corisse to return to Córdoba with an army of five thousand; Second, he immediately went to Córdoba and ordered Theophanis to join the army of Chryses, and immediately lead the remnants of the army out of Córdoba. Take a boat ride to Sicily.

As for Marco himself, Marco chose to stay on the battlefield and fight until the last moment; Because Marco could not stay in his robes and die alone on the battlefield, he had to stay with them. What's more, Margo feels that he has lost the family's inheritance with his own hands. He really has no face to face his big brother Hannibal; You can only choose to tie yourself up on the battlefield.

Those barbarian cavalry did not have the consciousness of Margo, and they also found defeat on the battlefield, plus the third legion approaching step by step; The remaining 3,000 barbarian cavalry hastened out of the battle as soon as they received Margo's order, and Licinius wanted to launch a pursuit, but was stopped by Luquis's horn.

On the frontal battlefield, the charge of 2,000 ironclad cavalry completely annihilated the last line of Margo's remnants of mercenaries in just one wave; Margo himself was after killing six ironclad cavalrymen. It was solved by three spears that were stabbed at the same time. The remaining 1,000 mercenaries on the second line also quickly collapsed under the attack of the hoplites of the First Army, and the scattered barbarian infantry desperately fled on the battlefield.

The javelinmen who rushed back to their camp completely wiped out this rout under the orders of Luquis; The battle ended with Margo's defeat. Lucis did not continue to lead the army to pursue while he was victorious, but only cleaned up the battlefield step by step and prepared for the next battle; Because after the 16,000 troops under Margo's army were settled, the defenders of Córdoba were only 12,000 at most, and with the assistance of a large number of weapons, it was only a matter of time before the Augustus family occupied Betika.

For the next five days, Lucis led his army to the city of Córdoba, and all the thirteen cities he passed through were surrendered; When he arrived in Córdoba, Luquis saw an undefended city. It turned out that the last 12,000 defenders of the Hannibal family had been evacuated from Cordoba by Theophanes on his own initiative three days earlier, heading towards the port.

Luquis immediately sent a large number of cavalry to reconnoiter in the direction of the port, only to discover that Theophanes had left Betica by ship with a large army a day earlier; At this point, the entire province of Betica was transferred from the hands of the Hannibal family to the Augustan family, the last overseas colony of the Carthaginian kingdom was also cut off, and the Augustan family finally became a family with three provinces!

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