Chapter 263 Cavalry Rescue

The Nix army occupied the high ground, and the Pannonian coalition attacked from below, unable to fully utilize the advantage of numbers and gather strength to disrupt the opponent's tight phalanx through charging.

Once the two sides started fighting, in the close fighting, the Nix army relied on excellent protection, better teamwork, and the advantage of short swords in close combat, so that most of the screams were made by Pannonian soldiers.

However, the Nix army strictly abided by the predetermined plan and took a defensive position. The soldiers would never easily leave the phalanx to chase and kill the injured enemies.

Of course, this is also related to Maximus's revision of the military's meritorious promotion standards. The soldiers now know that it is useless to cut off more enemy ears. Only when the entire army wins, they will be meritorious.

The Nix soldiers did not advance, so most of the injured Pannonian soldiers could withdraw from the loose array with the help of their teammates. They had enough soldiers to replace them to maintain the offensive.

Several Pannoni leaders thought that the long and dense array of the Nix army would eventually become difficult to maintain on the undulating hills as the battle continued, but it did not happen. Or their idea had been realized before the battle began, because from a distance, the Nix army formation looked continuous, but in fact it was made up of a series of small squares of 100 people. As long as the soldiers of the 100-man team strictly abided by discipline, they could easily maintain the small square formation in the battle.

The Pannoni warriors who rushed up the hill certainly discovered the secret of the Nix army formation. They would naturally pass through the gap between the two squares of 100 people under the push of their teammates and attack the enemy from behind.

But this did not pose any threat to the Nix soldiers, because each square of 100 people was surrounded by a shield wall, just like a solid tortoise shell. Unless the morale of the soldiers inside collapsed, it would never be so easy to be smashed open. But the Nix soldiers all wanted to win this battle and advance to the next level. Even when they were surrounded, their morale was still high. No matter how fiercely the enemy attacked, they were always determined, tenaciously defended, and fiercely stabbed.

The Pannoni army was dispersed by the peculiar formation of the Nix army. As the battle continued and the soldiers in the rear continued to surge, the gaps between the Nix hundred-man squares became crowded. It was even more difficult to dodge the short swords that the Nix soldiers kept stabbing from the square shields, resulting in a high casualty rate for the Pannoni soldiers. The constantly accumulated wounded and corpses gradually blocked the gaps between the squares, and also made the later soldiers daunted.

What really threatened the Nix army was the right wing of the Pannoni coalition. The soldiers of Disione and Peruste did not charge in a loose formation like their compatriots in the other two large tribes. Instead, the tribal leaders commanded the warriors of their tribes to form small formations of dozens or hundreds of people in a tight formation at the bottom of the hill, and then marched to the top of the hill one after another.

The warriors held the wooden shields in their left hands in front of them. Their wooden shields were larger and longer than those of the other two tribes. The spears in their right hands pointed forward obliquely. They took slower steps to start climbing the mountain in a more orderly formation.

Looking down from the mountain, the army on the right wing of the Pannoni coalition was like the sea water at the beginning of the tide, surging towards the hills intermittently and layer by layer.

If most of the Pannoni warriors at the bottom of the mountain were not armored, it would give people an illusion: they are a replica of the Nix army.

In fact, the armies of Disio and Perustai initially used the same tactics as the armies of Mazii and Brochi, but in the years of conflict with the Boyi, in order to restrain the Boyi cavalry that was stronger than themselves, they had to train a more compact and better organized spear formation, which was one of the main reasons why they were able to stand on the north bank of the Drau River and fight with the Boyi without losing the upper hand.

When they were approaching the formation of the Third Legion of the Nixes, they did not rush forward with high morale, but continued to maintain their formation, approaching the enemy at a slower speed, and tentatively thrust their spears forward from behind their wooden shields.

Facing the spear formation of the right wing of the Pannonian army, the Nixes phalanx of centurions still took a defensive posture at first, but found that the Pannonian warriors used the advantage of the length of their spears to attack, but the Nixes soldiers found it difficult to attack the enemy.

Just defending and taking a beating is not enough!

The Nixes centurions ordered the phalanx to advance one after another, and the soldiers actively approached the enemy, rammed with shields, and chopped with short swords at close range...

The hills here are steep, and the Pannonians are in an unfavorable terrain, often at a disadvantage in battle, but once their formation retreats quickly, the Nixes soldiers will stop chasing and maintain their formation at the reminder of the centurions to welcome the arrival of the next wave of attacks.

The two great leaders, Demicas and Pagilas, saw that the attack was not going well at the foot of the mountain. After discussion, they separated some of their troops and marched eastward quickly, trying to bypass the easternmost end of the Nix army, go around to the side and rear of the Nix people, climb the hill, and attack from the front and back...

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The leftmost wing of the Pannonian coalition was attacked from the front and back by the opponent. The Brochi warriors in it knew that the situation was somewhat dangerous, but they were aroused by hatred and put up a tenacious resistance. Moreover, they were numerous, and due to the squeeze from the front and back, the formation became thicker, making it difficult for the attacking Nix Second Legion soldiers to make a breakthrough for a while.

Aeolus did not lead his own brigade to join the battle, because he had seen the enemy's reinforcements coming.

The crossbowmen led by Valerius had already advanced to the formation of the first brigade of the Third Legion, still in two horizontal rows. Seeing the enemy enter the range, the first row of crossbowmen immediately fired crossbow arrows.

After a wave of arrows, not many enemies fell, which was completely incomparable to the previous results, because the enemy this time was heavy infantry. No matter how strong the crossbows were and how sharp the arrows were, even if they could penetrate the armor, they could only cause some damage at most, and could not completely make them lose their combat effectiveness.

Valerius was somewhat unwilling and ordered another round of shooting.

This wave of crossbow arrows caused fewer injured enemies, because the enemy strengthened their shield protection.

Valerius did not order to shoot again, but decisively let the team retreat.

Aeolus immediately asked the entire brigade to quickly meet up: the four hundred-man phalanxes in the middle charged from the front, and the three hundred-man phalanxes on each side bypassed the enemy's flanks.

In fact, the guards of Bricks had not even formed a battle formation, so there was no flank to speak of. They rushed all the way to reinforce, but they did not expect that the enemy would have a special troop waiting here. First, the crossbows shot, and then the infantry charged. The guards rushed to fight, without even time to breathe, let alone time to reorganize the formation. Facing the dangerous situation of being outnumbered by the enemy, the pride in their hearts did not allow them to turn around and escape. With a slightly desperate roar, they bravely rushed forward, waving their long swords and slashing at the enemy.

Shields collided, swords chopped each other, and the Nix soldiers fought fiercely with the enemy in the front. The flank team quickly completed the encirclement. They squeezed inward from all directions with a tight shield formation. The Brochi heavy armored soldiers, who were less than 300 people and had not formed a formation, could not resist the powerful force of the opponent and were soon squeezed into a ball. There was no room for movement, and it was even difficult to raise the shield and swing the sword.

Countless Nix soldiers' short swords stabbed down from above the square shields, fiercely piercing their necks and arms without armor protection. Amid unwilling roars, these Brochi heavy armored warriors fell one by one...

When the first battalion of the Third Legion was fighting, the crossbow team was not idle either. Valerius led the soldiers to form a formation with crossbows outside the friendly army to prevent the enemy's reinforcements from attacking.

Valerius's caution worked. When the battle between the two sides was about to end, the sharp-eyed crossbowman suddenly shouted: "Cavalry! The enemy's cavalry is coming!"

Valerius' heart tightened, and countless Pannonian cavalry soon appeared in his field of vision.

The messenger sent by Brix asked for help from the other three great leaders. Mazii's army was in a fierce battle, and it was difficult to withdraw like Brochi. There was a guard of 200 people around Metilius, but most of them were lightly armed infantry with wooden shields and spears. Metilius sent them all to rescue without hesitation.

According to the fighting style of the armies of Disione and Peruste, they could have spared some troops to rush to the left wing for rescue. However, the two great leaders were commanding the army to implement front and back encirclement of the enemy on the hill. They really didn't want to give up halfway, but the left wing was in danger and had to be rescued, so they decided to send out the cavalry that had not played a role.

1,100 cavalrymen galloped westward from the right wing. Even if they tried to take the lowlands between the hills, the road was uneven after all. They were in a hurry, and horses broke their hooves from time to time along the way. They finally arrived at the far left wing before the Mazii escort, just in time to see that the Brochi army was either being flanked or surrounded...

The cavalry leaders observed for a while and quickly decided to launch an attack on the first battalion of the Third Legion first. On the one hand, it was because the Brochi warriors besieged by these enemies were in the most dangerous situation, and also because these enemies occupied a favorable position for the cavalry to rescue the friendly forces that were flanked.

Due to the urgency of the situation and Brix's selfishness, he did not tell the other three leaders in detail that "the enemy's crossbows are very powerful!", so the cavalry knew nothing about it. From a distance, they also saw the Nix crossbowmen guarding the periphery of the target. They had no armor, no shields, and only short wooden sticks in their hands. They thought they were a group of slaves serving as cannon fodder, just like their own army in usual battles, and did not take them seriously at all.