Chapter 60: Training

The soldiers were shocked by the menacing enemy tide, and witnessed with their own eyes those comrades who failed to return to the team were easily killed by the enemy. Cassinius's words aroused their desire for survival.

At this time, a large number of enemies rushed to the front of the formation, and Cassinius immediately shouted: "Javelin!"

The Roman soldiers roared loudly and threw their heavy javelins with all their strength.

What rushed up was the second brigade of the rebel army led by Cross. In the previous battle with Grabo, he had suffered a loss in javelin shooting and had been specially trained in this area. Therefore, when the Roman soldiers made throwing movements, the uprising The soldiers of the army had raised their square shields diagonally, and thousands of javelins fell, without causing many casualties. However, after the sharp lead spearhead penetrated the square shield, the entire javelin shaft hung down and was dragged on the ground, which not only caused the entire The square shield becomes heavier and movement becomes difficult.

Although Cross was fierce, he was not without brains. He rushed to the front and immediately waved and shouted: "Brothers, stop advancing! Back off first! Back off! Pull out the damn javelin and fight again!..."

Most of Cross's second group of soldiers were Gallic gladiators and Gallic slaves. Cross's prestige in the team was very high. When he shouted, the people around him responded immediately, and others also retreated after seeing this. There were also some soldiers who were not attacked by the javelins and rushed forward with the third group.

A hail of javelins drove back a large group of enemies, and another large group of enemies rushed forward. There was some confusion between the enemy's attack and retreat.

At this time, should we switch from defense to offense and let the soldiers take the opportunity to charge? ...A thought subconsciously arose in Cassinius's mind, but he immediately suppressed it: If he were to fight side by side with his former comrades, he would not hesitate to do so, but now he is commanding a group of new soldiers. , once there is no formation to rely on, their morale will quickly decline when surrounded by enemies, and they will become as fragile as chickens...

The moment Cassinius was stunned, the enemy had already rushed to the front of the formation, and the soldiers had no javelins to use. He shouted loudly: "Get ready to fight!"

The soldiers thrust the lower end of their square shields into the mud warriors in front of their feet, crouched down, and hid most of their bodies behind the square shields. They clenched their daggers and stared nervously at the enemy in front, while their teammates behind them clung to them. Standing upright on the back, holding the square shield in front of the chest, ready to help the front troops resist the enemy's attacks from top to bottom at any time...

Although the third group only had a very small number of Germanic gladiators, under the leadership of Enomui, the soldiers of this group performed very bravely. They roared and rushed towards the Roman army.

Shields clashed, daggers stabbed each other, and the two sides began to engage in battle. More than 2,000 people from the third group soon covered the front of the Roman army.

Cross struggled to remove the javelin from the square shield and was about to lead his troops to charge forward, but found that the third group had completely blocked their way to the enemy's position.

Hearing the roar of killing in front, the soldiers of the second group could only panic. Cross calmed down and carefully checked the surrounding terrain, only to find that the enemy's formation was very strange: it turned out that the Roman army was located at A "U" shaped river bend with higher banks. The Romans lined up on one side of the opening, and the other three sides were adjacent to the water. This not only saved their own troops, but also prevented the rebels from detouring from the flanks and giving them too much strength. Unable to expand.

Cross stood on the shore not far away, overlooking the deep river, and couldn't help but cursed: Cunning Romans!

Unwilling to be reconciled, he turned back and said, "Go down alone and explore the depth of the water."

A soldier who knew how to swim quickly took off his armor, plunged in with a sudden thrust, then stepped on the bottom of the river with both feet, walked around the river where the Roman army was, and came ashore and said: "Chief Cross, the river here is thicker. It’s deep, the bottom is full of mud, and it’s difficult to stand on it, and the embankment is high and steep, making it difficult to climb up.”

Cross gave up the idea of ​​wading ashore from behind the enemy's formation. While thinking about it, he returned to the rear of the third group. He happened to meet Altonix, the captain of the fourth group, who had arrived in a hurry. When he saw Cross , asked with concern: "How is the war going now?"

Cross briefly described the situation. Altonix frowned and thought for a while, then suggested: "How about we concentrate our gladiators as before and rush to the front. As long as the enemy's shield formation is broken, , then the rest will be easy to solve.”

Cross glanced at the soldiers following him, shook his head and said, "I just observed the formation of the Romans. Due to the terrain, their line is shorter, the array is thick and dense, and the morale of the soldiers is not bad. And we marched all the way to Here, there was a battle in the middle, and ordinary soldiers were already exhausted. You should know that gladiators are heavier and consume more, so they are naturally more tired. How can they still have the strength to rush into the battle? If they insist on going up, the number of soldiers may increase. casualties."

Cross paused and then said: "I have an idea. The Romans are very close to the river bank, and their number is far smaller than ours. Why don't we all press up and push them into the river with all our strength."

Altonix's glasses lit up: "This is a solution!"

"It is indeed a good idea!" Spartacus's voice came from behind. Altonix turned his head and saw Spartacus standing behind him dripping with sweat. Standing beside him were Hamilcar and Attumus.

"Spartacus." Cross asked in surprise: "You killed the other enemies so quickly?"

Spartacus wiped his sweat and said: "Those Roman soldiers have no fighting spirit and dare not fight us at all, but most of them don't wear armor and just run away along the river bank. The brothers in the first group really don't want to fight." It was easy to catch up with them. Fortunately, the fifth group led by Artemus came to help. After several rounds of siege, we were able to capture most of them. The few fleeing Roman soldiers were no longer worth pursuing. Tumus rushed over, preparing to encircle and suppress the main force of the Romans with you, and happened to hear you guys discussing——"

Spartacus said with emphasis: "What Cross proposed is a good idea, but I don't think we need to kill this Roman army in such a hurry-"

"Why?" Cross asked a little puzzled.

Spartacus pointed forward and said slightly excitedly: "Look, the Roman army lined up for defense with their backs on the river bank. They were surrounded by us. They neither dared to attack nor could they escape. What a good training exercise this was. Opportunity! Let each group take turns to fight, which not only exercises the soldiers' ability to fight, but also allows them to take turns to rest and restore their physical strength. "

Cross thought for a moment and reminded: "...If you follow your method, we will fight for a long time. If the Roman reinforcements arrive, then we will be in trouble!"

Hamilcar explained: "Didn't we interrogate the prisoners before? This time Rome sent a legion. Some of them have been eliminated by us, and the other part is surrounded by us. Where can there be Rome at this moment?" Reinforcements. If the nearby towns of Campania dare to send troops to rescue us, will we be afraid?"

Altonix and Cross smiled contemptuously.

"It's almost dusk now, and we can't rush back to the camp. Besides, we had plans to camp outside. Even if we light a bonfire here and fight with the Roman army until night, there's nothing to worry about! On the contrary, the Romans With no reinforcements, no food, and constant fighting with us, we can finally defeat them without paying a lot of casualties. "

Hamilcar's words moved the leaders present, and Spartacus's proposal was approved.

They each gathered their soldiers and lined up far behind the third group. Then they brought food from the following convoy, so that the soldiers filled their stomachs and drank water. After taking a short rest, The order to retreat was sounded.

Originally, Spartacus and the others thought that the soldiers of the third group who were engaged in a fierce battle might not be willing to retreat in front of the enemy. Who knew that when the trumpet sounded, the soldiers of the third group, who had become more fatigued due to the long and fruitless battle, immediately retreated. However, After only two months of training, they caused quite a bit of chaos in the rush.