"Phew!" The gladiator rebels roared and pounced on the neatly lined Roman phalanx with their short swords.

In Xu Mo's condescending gaze, the entire battlefield was divided into two parts, and the rebel army on Xu Mo's side rushed towards the Romans like a wave. The Roman army stopped, and the entire phalanx began to spread to the two wings, and the square array of 300 people gradually stretched into three horizontal columns.

The first row has two rows, the first row is a large standing shield array, and there are about 100 people. The Roman soldiers thrust their shields into the grass, and the triangular pyramids below the shields immediately plunged deep into the earth, and the soldiers tilted the shields a little and pressed them against their shoulders. Immediately, a steel wall of tower shields appeared in front of the gladiator rebels.

The second platoon of the first column, numbering about 80 men, were armed with two light javelins, nine feet long, and four and a half feet in the front of which were long metal poles with an iron spear head attached, behind which was a wooden pole tail with a rope attached to it.

In this case, the javelin is heavy in front and light in the back, and after being thrown by the soldier, the rope is pulled, and the javelin will spin forward in the air, draw a graceful arc, and then hit the enemy at an angle of 30-45 degrees. These spiraling javelins act like drills, shattering enemy shields, piercing armor, and penetrating deep into the body, inflicting severe penetrating wounds on enemies.

The second column, numbering about 100 men in three rows, was hand-to-hand combat, armed with Roman double-edged swords and oval shields. Behind them was a third column, a reserve of about thirty men, with five Roman officers on horseback who stayed with the reserve.

Bardax's mercenary legion was on the right side of the battlefield, forming a diagonal with the position of Xu Mo and the others. Bardax did not immediately throw these people into battle, and the death of each of these people had to be paid for by Bardax himself, and Bardax brought them mainly to capture the escaped slaves at the end of the battle.

Fifty steps, forty steps, thirty steps...... As the gladiators approached the shield wall expelled by the Romans, the Roman officers in the rear began to give orders to attack. The javelinmen in the first row immediately began to run, stood on tiptoe and threw the javelin high, and after throwing the javelin, he jerked the rope behind the javelin.

"Poof!" A gladiator who was shouting and running suddenly noticed a black dot in front of him, a javelin hit him directly in front of the door, the spinning javelin pierced through his mouth, the back of his head peeked, and most of the long metal rod slid out of the back of his neck, and then stuck in the grass behind him, directly nailing him to the ground like a char siu.

"Ahh A gladiator not far away was even more unlucky than this companion, and a javelin pierced his thigh. Although this injury is not immediately fatal, judging by the blood gushing from the unfortunate man's thigh, he should have been stabbed by the sharp spear head of the major artery in his leg, which means death on the battlefield where he is fighting.

Fortunately, the gladiator rebels were not regular troops, and although they did not have a battle formation, the scattered charging ranks also greatly reduced the power of the javelins thrown by the Romans, and only about 20 gladiators were killed in this round of javelins.

In fact, although Lucius was threatened by Bardax because of Neos, he had to send the Roman army to help Bardax capture the rebellious gladiators, but Lucius took advantage of Bardax's ignorance of military affairs and left a fatal flaw in the Roman army he sent.

In the year 197 of the Spartan calendar, the Roman consul Marius (Marius) implemented military reforms in response to the shortcomings of the Roman army at that time, such as the lack of soldiers: the property qualification for military service was abolished, the army's supplies, weapons and equipment were supplied by the state, and military training was strengthened. This series of reforms gradually transformed the Roman army from a national army with compulsory military service to a professional army.

However, although the eligibility for military service property was abolished and the equipment of the army was standardized, the formation of the Roman legions remained unchanged, and a Roman army generally consisted of three parts of soldiers, young soldiers, young soldiers, and reserve soldiers.

Young soldiers are relatively young, lack training and combat experience, are under the age of 24, generally account for 30% of the total number of legions, and the prime soldiers are generally between 25 and 35 years old, and are the core and main force of the Roman legions, generally accounting for 50% of the total number of legions, as well as 15% of the reserve and 5% of the cavalry and other arms.

In fact, the most elite of the Roman army were not the prime-age soldiers, but only 15% of the reserves, all of which were veterans over the age of 35 and under the age of 45. These veterans were extremely experienced and combat-willed, and generally went into battle in the form of traditional Greek heavy infantry, armed with plate armor, spears, and square shields.

The reservists are the reserves of the legion, and they generally rest on one knee when they are not needed in battle. These veterans were only used when the battle was stalemate and the legions retreated, hence the ancient Roman proverb: "Throw in the reserves!" That means it's time for an emergency.

Pompeii could not maintain a large army in peacetime, and even Lucius, the governor of Pompeii, could not form a Roman legion other than a standing army without the permission of the Senate, otherwise it would be a rebellion. Although Pompeii had only 2,000 standing troops, most of these soldiers were reservists, and only a few of them were young soldiers trained on a rotational basis.

When the Badacus Manor incident was not regarded as a slave uprising for the time being, even if Lucius helped Bardax defeat the rebel army, he would not be rewarded by the Senate, let alone regarded as his own political achievement. Therefore, at this time, Lucius hoped that the rebel army could defeat the miniature version of the army he sent, so that the "slave defection" would really be recognized by the other nobles as a "slave rebellion".

Although Lucius was threatened by Bardax because of Nyos's leaks, and feared that his reputation would be damaged, he was forced to send three centuriens to help Bardax suppress the rebellion, but he kept an eye on it, and the three centuriens he sent were all young soldiers, and even their officers were young Roman nobles who had not experienced actual combat.

Bardax, who did not understand military affairs, saw that Lucius had sent three centuriens armed to the teeth to help him, and of course he had nothing to say. However, the cautious Bardax still used some of the assets of the Bardax family in Pompeii, hired two hundred mercenaries, and joined in the suppression of this uprising.

The gladiators of the rebel army, after passing a wave of javelins, had already rushed to the front of the shield wall. Faced with a thick shield wall, the experienced gladiators felt like they were pulling a turtle and had nowhere to start, and their previous gladiatorial opponents would not be equipped with such large tower shields, and they could not go around the back.

The hesitation of the gladiators did not bother the Romans, and in the gap between the towers and shields, the Romans began to greet the gladiators with spears and double-edged swords.

The double-edged swords and spears of the Romans were already longer than the gladiatorial swords of the gladiators, and they were covered by tower shields, and the gladiators screamed and fell under the butcher's knives of the Romans.

With the proper battle orders of the Roman officers in the rear, the soldiers on both wings of the Roman battle formation began to pull out the tower shields inserted in the ground and interspersed the back of the rebel army, they wanted to surround the rebel army, treat all the gladiators as dumpling filling, and wrap them in the center with tower shields like dumplings.

The gladiator rebels, who outnumbered the Romans, were already on the verge of defeat before they even broke through the first line of defense of the Roman battle array......