Chapter 163 Maximus’s Summation

Who knew that this was Spartacus's plan. The rebel ambush on the mountains on both sides quickly broke out. The two Roman legions collapsed instantly. They were chased by the rebels and fled back to Riminirum in embarrassment.

The defeat in the first battle made Crassus very angry, but he still comforted his lieutenant Mummius who disobeyed his orders. But when he turned around, he cruelly issued the order to carry out the "Eleven Killing Rule" on the five hundred soldiers who retreated first, and summoned the entire army to watch the execution process.

When the Roman soldiers saw the cruel scene in which the person who had drawn the death lot was beaten to death with wooden clubs by his comrades, they all shuddered. They felt that even dying by the sword of the rebels was worse than dying at the hands of Crassus. Much more honor.

At this point, Crassus' goal of making the soldiers fear himself more than the enemy was achieved.

In addition, through these days of observation, he found that the rebel army really seemed to have no intention of going north, so he decided not to wait here, and led the entire army to break camp and go south, following the rebel army.

But he never fought with the rebels. Instead, he reorganized his troops and sent out cavalry (Roman cavalry was far more numerous than the rebels) to attack small groups of rebels who were alone or gathering food.

Based on his own situation, Crassus adopted Fabian's delaying tactics against Hannibal.

Spartacus deliberately sold out flaws several times in an attempt to lure the Roman army into attacking, but Crassus was not fooled.

Spartacus led the entire army to fight to the death with the Roman army, but Crassus always built a camp early and could not hold on.

Spartacus was helpless with this Roman army, and at this time he also encountered a big trouble - lack of food.

As they moved north, the rebels plundered the east coast of Italy. When they turned around and returned south, although Maximus led the army to leave, the number of the entire team was not much different than before. However, there was not much oil and water available on the old road back, and Spartacus had to change the direction of march. , entering an area that the rebel army had not raided before - the Lucania Mountains.

Of course, Spartacus had another purpose in marching here: he wanted to take advantage of the difficult mountain roads, hidden mountains, and difficulties for the Roman heavy infantry troops to march here, so that the Roman army would not want to continue to follow. And if the Roman army continued to follow, the rebels could more easily create some chances of victory.

But he still underestimated Crassus.

Crassus led his army to follow the rebels into the Lucania mountains without hesitation, but he built camps and marched very steadily, allowing Spartacus to find no flaws. On the contrary, the rebels ran into some trouble.

Several teams that joined the rebel army in the Picenum area began to be dissatisfied with Spartacus's practice of always marching without taking the initiative to attack the Roman army, so they launched a surprise attack on the Roman camp without authorization, which resulted in failure.

However, the Roman army did not pursue after the victory, which caused Spartacus to later learn the news and specially arranged for the team to set up an ambush outside the Roman camp to return without success.

The rebel army's high momentum of winning streak suffered a setback.

Spartacus felt the difficulty of the commander of this Roman army. Crassus - this was the name of the Roman commander he learned from the captured Roman soldiers, and it was also the person Maximus warned him to be wary of when he left.

Spartacus thought twice and decided to lead his army southward, leaving Lucania and heading to Regium. On the one hand, the area he was going to march through was the former Magna Graecia, which was relatively wealthy and could solve the food problem of the rebels; on the other hand, he decided to send thousands of people across the Strait of Messina to Sicily.

He had long heard that the slaves there were numerous and oppressed, and there had been heroic deeds of large-scale resistance to the Roman army in the past. Now they were just like a lot of dry wood on the stove, waiting for him to light a fire. It was enough to set the whole of Sicily on fire. In this way, the two rebel armies could support each other across the strait and weaken the Roman army.

To be honest, the eight legions led by Crassus, plus the urban troops recruited along the way, had reached more than 70,000 people, which made Spartacus feel some pressure.

Hamilcar reminded him not to forget Maximus's warning, and suggested that he send a team to Regium instead of the whole army.

But Spartacus considered that the Roman army was following closely. Once he divided his troops, the Roman army could easily find out. They could go around him in ships and attack the separated team first. By then Cross The tragedy will happen again.

Spartacus rejected Hamilcar's suggestion and still decided to lead his army to Regium himself.

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Andres was guarded by the cavalry. He didn't even enter the stockade where he was stationed last night. He fled eastward along the south bank of the Kupa River in a panic. Even though there were no more pursuers behind him, they didn't stop them. The war horses passed the previous village of Cabudes, and finally arrived at the tribe of Amrotas. The cavalry reined in the horses and surrounded Andres into the village.

When Amlotas, the leader of the tribe, saw Andres's devastated appearance, how could he not know that the army had been defeated? How could he not be frightened when he saw only such a few people coming back? But knowing Andres' temperament, He didn't dare to ask, so he had to send a few slaves to serve Andres carefully, and he asked the cavalry to inquire privately.

Although Andres served as a servant of the Skodisqi people when he was a boy and suffered some bullying, after he became an adult, he followed his father to resist the oppression of the Skodisqi people. Kill many enemies in battle and gain a lot of fame.

After he personally led the troops to fight, he won many battles and became a famous warrior among the Pannoni and the nightmare of the Skodisci. In the end, the Skodisci tribe in the upper reaches of the Sava River was destroyed. Great effort. After that, he became the leader of the Segostika tribe and resolutely used troops against the Aldie tribe, also winning consecutive battles...

It has been more than 20 years since he first stepped onto the battlefield, and it has been smooth sailing, without any defeat, or even any serious injuries. But today he was defeated. He suffered a disastrous defeat in a battle that was related to the rise and fall of the tribe. He was still confused as to how he was defeated...

This blow was so huge that he was in a trance along the way. He didn't talk to anyone when he entered the village, and fell asleep in bed.

He slept until late at night. He woke up in a daze, looked around, and found that it was not his bedroom. Then he vaguely remembered that he had arrived at the tribe of Amrotas, and then the Segostika warriors were defeated. The image of an avalanche-like battlefield appeared in his mind, and he suddenly felt a headache. He couldn't help shouting: "Here comes someone!"

The door was pushed open immediately, and the tribe leader Pulikas came in and said happily: "Big leader, you're awake!"

Amrotas came in next, and he asked with concern: "Big Chief, you have been sleeping for most of the day, do you want to eat something?"

When he said this, Andres subconsciously reached out and touched his stomach, and immediately made a "gurgling" sound. Now that his head and stomach no longer hurt, he immediately ordered: "Get me more as soon as possible. Come get something to eat!”

"Big boss, please wait a moment. Everything has been prepared for you. It just needs to be heated up again." After finishing speaking, Amrotas turned around and went out.

"What time is it now?" Andres asked his confidant.

"It's already late at night."

"It's been so long?! What's the situation on the enemy side now?" Andres' voice trembled slightly when he mentioned the word "enemy".

"Big leader, I...I didn't send scout horses to detect the enemy's movements." Pulikas lowered his head in shame and responded in a low voice: "But so far, we have not seen the enemy appear near here, and they have not escaped back. The soldiers all said that as long as they ran past the Wallis village, the enemy would not pursue them again..."

Andres glared at him subconsciously, but then he thought that even he was at a loss after the defeat, let alone them, but at least Pulikas knew how to protect him loyally.

Andres' expression brightened slightly and he asked again: "How many soldiers have we returned so far?"

"Uh... almost 3,000 people."

"Only 3,000 people!" Andres exclaimed in a loud voice, because although he has never been defeated, he has been fighting for many years and knows that after a battle, in most cases, the winning side cannot kill or capture. Many enemies and most of the defeated troops were able to escape back to their tribes and be reorganized to fight after a while. This time Segostika sent 16,000 warriors, but only 3,000 of them escaped. Less than one-fifth of the total population.

"Big boss, it's less than a day before the battle ends. Maybe... other warriors have lost their way, or... have bypassed this stronghold and are still on their way back to the tribe." Pulikas explained.

"Just walk along the river, how can you get lost..." Andres muttered without saying anything more. He also hoped in his heart that things would be as Gillicus said.

"Big boss, the food prepared for you has been heated up!" Anlotas held a large wooden tray and entered the bedroom.

There were two roasted legs of lamb on the wooden plate, a large bowl of wheat porridge, a can of goat's milk, and a large handful of washed cabbage... The food was abundant.

"Leave it here, I'll go see the returning soldiers first." At this moment, Andres couldn't think of eating, so he got up and walked out.

"It's so late to go see the warrior?!" Amrotas looked at Pulikas in shock.

Pulikas didn't respond and followed Andres out the door.

After comforting the defeated soldiers who had escaped, Andres came back to fill his stomach and then went to sleep again.

The next morning, Andres woke up again and felt much more energetic. It seemed that the disastrous defeat in yesterday's battle had been forgotten. He did not immediately lead his troops back to the main stronghold, but continued to stay in the stronghold, sending out cavalry to detect the enemy's movements while sending cavalry out to gather the fleeing troops.

After learning that the enemy did not take advantage of the victory to capture the two strongholds in the east, he was a little surprised: if it had been him, he would have taken advantage of the great victory to directly seize the main stronghold of Segostika, and then captured and destroyed the Kupa River. That's what he did with the Skodischi tribe upstream.

But it was obvious that the enemy leader was a cautious man and did not take advantage of the victory to attack. Instead, he retreated back to their camp. This made him temporarily relieved, but then he felt frustrated because the cavalry ran for most of the day and only brought back More than 1,000 defeated soldiers were killed, and no other tribesmen were found.

Of the 16,000 Segestica warriors, only less than 5,000 escaped in the end. This was a complete fiasco, and how could Andres not be heartbroken!

Just when he was about to lead his army to leave this sad place, the cavalry captain came to report: "Kabdus is back!"

Andres finally felt that the spirit of nature still had some protection for him. He could imagine how much impact this fiasco would have on the tribe. With the help of Cabudus, he could help him solve a lot of troubles, so He quickly asked someone to bring Kabudez over.

Kabdus had a clean face and neat clothes. Apart from his tired look, he did not have the embarrassment of fleeing after a defeat.

"Big boss, I'm back."

"Kabdus, your safe escape is the best news I heard today!" Andres rarely said such kind words.

However, Kabdus was not moved by this. He still said carefully: "Big leader, I did not escape, but... the enemy put me back."

"What did you say?!" Andres's eyes widened and his voice suddenly rose.

"The enemy let me back because they wanted me to bring you a message. They want to have a truce with us!" Kabudez carefully emphasized the word "truce".

"Truce?" Andres thought he heard wrongly: "The enemy won the victory and actually asked for a truce?!"

"Big leader, the enemy leader told me..." Kabudez still said cautiously: "They were invited by the Aldi people to recover the land along the Kupa River for them.

And the Ardeii also promised that as long as they could drive us out, they could get a large piece of land to settle along the Kupa River... so they launched an attack on us.

He said that as long as we voluntarily withdraw from the Kupa River, and the leader you and he swear an armistice to the gods in public, then he will gradually release the tens of thousands of captive tribesmen and let them return to the tribe..."

"What is gradual release?" Andres asked in a deep voice, suppressing his anger.

"I also asked about this at the time. The enemy leader told me that he was worried that after releasing all the prisoners at once, we would... regret it after we regained our strength, so he wanted to release 1,000 people every other month -"

"Damn bastard! Who is he? He actually dares to humiliate me like this!" Andres suddenly became furious: "A truce, stop the war! He thought that winning two battles would make me, Andres, surrender. No, I will lead an army to kill them again, destroy their camps, chop off their heads, and throw them to wild dogs to chew on..."