Chapter 116: Stand alone against the enemy

"Report to the leader, the Roman army to the west used dozens of ballistae to repeatedly bombard the team of leader Attumus after forming a formation. Many brothers there were panicked!... Report to the leader, the Roman army to the west threw missiles on the way across the river. The javelin killed many brothers! ...reported to the leader that the Roman army in the west had begun fighting with Attumus's team. Their attack was very fierce, and the leader of Attumus' team was slowly retreating. Let most of the Romans go ashore..."

Maximus's eyebrows knitted together as Tan Ma reported the battle situation of the friendly forces again and again.

"The Roman army in the west is attacking very fiercely, and Arttumus may not be able to hold it back for long..." Frontinus reminded.

"Should we send reinforcements?" Maximus asked with a worried look on his face.

"Chief, I don't think this is necessary." Quintus said calmly: "If you send too few reinforcements, it won't have much effect; if you send too many reinforcements, the Roman army on the other side of the river will definitely find out. If they attack with their entire army, How can we resist! We have discussed before what we should do if Attumus’s troops cannot resist the Roman army——”

Frontinus then said in a deep voice: "I think we should implement this plan as soon as possible now!"

Maximus was hesitant: It takes a lot of time for a team of tens of thousands to change their formation. Under the current situation, once it is implemented, it means that there will be no extra time to make new changes. .

He subconsciously asked: "Can Spartacus really lead his army to arrive in time?"

"Didn't Haggucs, who came back just now, already say that Spartacus personally promised that he would do his best to lead the army to come for reinforcements as quickly as possible!" Frontinus replied.

Quintus also said immediately: "Spartacus is a smart man, he should know what is best for the entire army!"

In fact, Maximus knew all this very well. At this moment, he just wanted some psychological comfort. Finally, he made up his mind: "Change the formation and prepare to defend against the enemy's double attack!"

The young attendants immediately rushed to deliver the order.

Soon, the bugles and the shouts of the team officers sounded from each unit. The soldiers who were originally resting in formation began to change their formations under the guidance of the team officers:

The First Legion was still arrayed along the river, but the formation was shrunk, and the length of the array was less than one mile;

The Second Army gave up its defense along the river, and turned its entire formation around, perpendicular to the western end of the First Army, with its line facing the west;

The Third Army Corps (a total of 4,000 people), which was originally a reserve, followed the left wing of the Second Army's formation and continued to expand southward. After reaching the hills behind the flat ground, it then moved diagonally forward in formation, reaching the top of the mountain...;

If you include the sea to the east and the hills tens of meters high to the south, the rebel army's defensive formation is approximately a rectangle, including the camp and the city of Mateninum.

After the formation was completed, there was still one mobile team left around Maximus - the thousand-man escort led by Pecot.

However, this team cannot move lightly, because it also has the responsibility of supervising the city of Mateninum and preventing the Romans from landing in the rear towns and ports and attacking the rear along the coastal roads.

Although according to the analysis of Quintus and Frontinus, the coastal towns in Forentany and Umbria that the team had experienced before did not have large ports, and the Roman army also faced difficulties after forcibly landing at the ports of these towns. The risk of being surrounded by the main force of the rebel army was not high, but they had to be just in case.

When the consul Clodianus saw that the enemies on the other side of the river were changing their formations and there was some confusion, he couldn't help himself and wanted to launch an attack. He gave up after repeated persuasion from his subordinates. But his mood also became restless, and he rode his horse back and forth in front of the array.

Finally a horse came from the west: "Your Excellency Consul, General Antonius has defeated the enemy. He separated a small number of troops to pursue the defeated troops, and said that after reorganizing the rest of the troops, he would go down the river to meet you. meet!"

"Go back and tell him to come as soon as possible and don't keep me waiting!" Clodianus waved his right arm seriously to emphasize the tone of his words.

"yes!"

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Antonius responded affirmatively to the order of the consul Clodianus, but even if he sped up his army and accelerated his eastward march, it was already more than an hour later when his vanguard approached the rebel army in the east.

Seeing the appearance of friendly troops, Crotianus, who was already impatient to wait, immediately gave the order to attack.

The bugle sounded, and the Roman military formation in the north began to slowly move south, and the red wave slowly soaked the Vomanus River...

The sound of bugles coming from the other side made Maximus feel nervous. Looking at the long moving iron wall on the other side, he couldn't help but murmur in a low voice: "It's finally here!..."

It was his first time to command such a huge battle, and the outcome of the battle would determine the life or death of the rebel army. He inevitably felt nervous.

"Brothers, the enemy is about to attack! Get up and stand up! Pick up your square shields and daggers and prepare to defend!..." The shouts of the rebel army officers rang out one after another in the array, followed by the soldiers The sounds of responses, the sounds of armor rubbing together, and the sounds of weapons clashing were intertwined.

Maximus suppressed the anxiety in his heart, turned his horse's head, raised his right fist high, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Free Italy will win!"

"We must win! We must win! We must win!!!..." The soldiers' roars centered on him and quickly spread to the two wings.

Maximus passed through the gap between the formations and ran back to the rear of the formation, just in time to meet the female battalion captain Karina who had been ordered to come.

"Report to the leader, I have brought 1,200 young girls!" Karina seemed calm, but the women behind her were all nervous.

Maximus forced a smile: "You divide the girls into three teams and line up behind the three legion arrays to cheer for the fighting brothers!"

Having said this, he took a deep breath and shouted loudly: "Sisters, believe me, with your support, we will definitely win the final victory!"

Maximus's confident words dispelled the uneasiness of some women. Once they were no longer nervous, they began to whisper to each other. If this kind of chattering noise would only make Maximus feel irritated, at this moment, it did not. Make him feel at ease.

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The first place where the battle took place was at Stone Bridge.

Without the obstruction of the river, the Roman soldiers lined up in four columns and soon reached the center of the stone bridge. Then under the command of the team officer, the Roman soldiers suddenly stopped advancing, slightly opened their distance, and squatted down...

"Javelin! Be careful with the javelin!" As soon as the rebel army officer finished speaking, dozens of javelins flew down in a fan shape.

Since the rebel army was against the Romans, Quintus, Frontinus and other Roman veterans had conducted targeted training on this. Therefore, the soldiers were quite familiar with Roman tactics and they quickly hid under their shields.

The javelin attacks of the Roman soldiers failed to cause casualties and failed to interrupt the opponent's defensive formation, but their attack did not stop. Under the orders of the team officer, they roared and charged towards the enemy at the bridgehead.

The red iron stream surged towards the shield formation of the rebel soldiers. The powerful impact forced the soldiers in the front row to retreat and raised the top of the array backwards. The Roman soldiers continued to squeeze towards the bridge head in an attempt to expand the bulge of the rebel array, and finally Create a gap.

At this time, the rebel soldiers on both sides of the bridge, led by their team officers, quickly moved toward the side of the bridge. The spears in their hands passed through the gaps in the stone bridge railings and stabbed the lower bodies of the Roman soldiers on the bridge.

The bridge was so crowded that the Roman soldiers on both sides of the bridge were unable to draw their square shields to defend their sides. With screams, the Roman soldiers were knocked down one by one...

But the Roman soldiers behind were still surging forward, and the narrow space made it impossible for them to mount an effective defense. It was not until the Roman officers supervising the battle at the rear discovered something unusual and ordered to stop the attack on the bridge that a group of Roman soldiers had fallen at the bridge head. Some of them were lying on the bridge. He was trampled to death by his own people.

The Roman soldiers retreated in embarrassment. The rebel soldiers did not pursue them under the strict orders of the team officers, but everyone's face was filled with smiles, and they began to gain confidence in holding the bridge.

When the Roman soldiers suspended their attack on the stone bridge, the long Roman military formation to the north had already entered the river. Soon, the entire formation became winding due to the different depth and width of the river.

In order to occupy the defensive points as much as possible and prevent the enemy from detouring, the river bank defense formation of the rebel army was relatively thin, with a thickness of basically only four columns. After the Romans entered the river, there were only two columns on the bank. They were the best-equipped soldiers in the team, while the other two columns retreated 20 meters away.

Casaridoa was among them. Standing at the back of the queue, he witnessed the javelins thrown by the Romans in the river piercing the mud in front of them, like withered grass in winter, giving him a cold feeling.

He couldn't help but shiver, and then he heard the tenth captain shouting urgently: "Quick! Get up quickly! The enemy is coming ashore!"

Casaridoa ran forward with his teammates. He stopped midway, bent down and pulled out a javelin: Damn it, the tip of the spear was bent, but it could still be used as a stick.

As soon as Casaridoa merged into the formation, he heard screams coming from the front. The screams were so harsh that he couldn't help but feel shocked, and then he heard the excited shouts of his teammates around him.

Although the water flow in the lower reaches of the Vomanus River was gentle, the knee-deep water and the silt at the bottom of the river made the Roman army's line move slowly and the line became uneven. However, it was impossible for the soldiers to stop and reorganize their formation voluntarily, leaving teammates behind. Driven by, they can only continue to move forward.

Due to the erosion of the river over the years, the river bed and the river bank formed an inverted trapezoid shape. The Roman soldiers who had reached the shallow water did not dare to step on the diagonally upward river bank with their legs soaked in river mud and charge towards the enemy, because that would most likely cause them to fall. , so they still moved forward cautiously.

As the rebels on the shore were fully prepared in advance, the Roman javelin attack did not cause major losses or panic, and the entire front was tight and organized.

The first person to fight in this section of the front was the rebel centurion Staggs. The rebel army who learned Roman tactics also inherited Roman military traditions. The centurion at the head of a team should stand on the team during battle. Front left, front row.

Staggs, who was born as a slave, joined the team last year after the rebel army conquered Vesuvius. He has participated in the surprise attack on Pompeii, the attack on Canossa, the surprise attack on Sarapia and some attacks on farms. He is already considered a combatant. An experienced veteran.

He stood still at first, and when the Roman soldier holding the shield slowly moved to two steps away from him, he suddenly took a big step forward, stepped into the mud with his left foot to stabilize his body, and slammed the square shield into the opponent's side. shield.

The opponent's feet immediately slipped, his body lost balance, and his upper body was exposed outside the shield.

Staggs leaned forward and quickly thrust out the dagger in his right hand, hitting the enemy's face hard.

The Roman soldiers screamed and fell on their backs, taking their comrades behind them with them and rolling them into the river.

Seeing this, the surrounding rebel soldiers cheered and used this method to deal with the enemy in front of them.

For a time, the Roman army, which was unable to exert its strength due to terrain restrictions, was completely at a disadvantage.

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Not all the Roman armies that crossed the river to attack were blocked by the river banks. Due to the changes in the rebel army's formation, the defense line along the river was greatly shortened. More than half of the Roman armies in the north easily crossed the Vomanus River without being hindered, and then began to move towards the river again. South spread out the formation.

Since the Roman army that had just arrived from the west was also located here and was resting, the two Roman armies inevitably intermingled, causing some confusion.

The commander of the northern army may be eager to complete the offensive order of the consul Clodianus, or he may underestimate the offensive ability of the rebel army. He ordered the troops to continue eastward, first avoiding friendly forces, and then deploying their array.

In this way, when they re-arranged themselves, they were only about 200 meters away from the rebel army's formation.

This situation was soon discovered by Frontinus, who was observing the enemy's movements in the front. He immediately rushed back to the rear: "Chief, the enemy troops crossing the river are too advanced, and they are also fighting with the enemies coming from upstream. The troops are mixed together, we should attack immediately while they are still in formation! "

Maximus looked in the direction of Frontilus's finger, and what he saw was a long wall formed by his own soldiers.

"What we were most worried about before was that the front line in the west was too wide and there was no terrain advantage. If the enemy strengthened their offensive in the west, it would be difficult for us to hold on for a long time. Now the enemy has given us an opportunity because of his carelessness, and we should not miss it!"

Quintus also said with some excitement: "Let the second legion attack immediately, catch up, entangle the enemy, and prevent them from successfully completing the change of formation, so that their advantage of large numbers cannot be used, and they can also avoid being javelined." Throwing casualties.”