Chapter 272: Victory with Heavy Casualties
Another round of crossbow arrows was fired, shooting down many Desitiatai warriors, scaring the other warriors to slow down their charge instinctively.
At this time, Valerius shouted loudly: "Retreat slowly! Retreat slowly!..."
It was impossible not to retreat, because the crossbow arrows carried by the crossbow team were all gone.
Valerius originally hoped that the soldiers would slowly retreat in a shooting posture, so as to deter the enemy from desperately chasing. Who knew that after the crossbow arrows were shot out, some crossbow soldiers who were originally very morale began to feel weak. When they heard Valerius say to retreat, they immediately turned around and ran, causing the whole team to collapse at once. The dumbfounded Valerius actually became the last person to run...
Seeing this, the Desitiatai warriors immediately lost their scruples and chased with all their strength. The cavalry in the distance also plucked up their courage and chased after them...
Just then, a high-pitched trumpet sounded in front, followed by a roar like rolling thunder.
The cavalrymen first stopped chasing, then turned around and ran, faster than when they came.
The soldiers were blocked by the enemy in front of them, so they did not react for a while, but soon they saw a small square of fully armed enemies, all over the field, rushing towards them...
The first and third legions led by Maximus finally arrived at the battlefield.
The Pannonian coalition fought with the Aulus square for a long time in front, and was disrupted by the Pequots in the back. The cavalry was also attacked by the crossbow team and suffered heavy casualties... The addition of the Nix reinforcements was like a huge weight, which instantly determined the outcome of the whole battle.
Aulus was in the square. Although he did not directly fight the enemy, he kept shouting loudly to let the soldiers around him know that he was fighting side by side with them to maintain their morale. ,
At the same time, the huge noise and constant shoving from all directions made him feel like a small boat sailing on the sea when a storm came. He felt the dangerous situation his team was facing all the time. He was worried about whether the soldiers could continue to hold on, but at the same time he was relieved because it showed that his risky action was working. The enemy did not bypass them and enter the village, but was trying his best to annihilate them...
After an unknown amount of time, Aulus's throat was broken and he could not make a sound. He could even see the enemy in front of him. This showed that as the front-line soldiers were constantly injured and the back-line soldiers kept coming forward to fill in, the formation had become weaker...
How long can the entire square hold on? ... He had no idea, but at this time he could no longer think too much. He clenched the square shield and short sword in his hands, ready to fill in and fight the enemy at any time.
But at this moment, the continuous shoving from the right suddenly disappeared, and then he heard a joyful shout from the right side of the square: "Reinforcements are coming! ! Our reinforcements are coming!!!..."
The leader is finally here! ...A huge joy of surviving a desperate situation burst out from the bottom of his heart, dispelling the fatigue in his body and generating new strength. Although Aulus could no longer shout, he raised his short sword and kept swinging it forward. At the same time, he used his square shield to push against the soldiers in front of him, signaling the soldiers to launch a counterattack with his actions...
After a while, the enemies in front were all defeated, and Aulus' team launched a full-line counterattack with the main force.
Originally, the anxious Temagis finally pulled out more than 400 soldiers from the attacking team in front. Without time to organize the team, he rushed to Pecot and others who were driving away the fleeing soldiers of Segestica. Before the two sides engaged in battle, Temagis, who was riding on a horse, saw an astonishing scene: countless fully armed enemies appeared outside the battlefield, shouting and rushing towards the soldiers who were fighting...
"Why did the enemy's large army appear here?! Shouldn't they rush to the south to fight Brix and others?!..." Temagis shouted in horror.
No one responded, because the warriors who followed him stood there in a daze, watching the tribesmen who had been fighting in front of them being defeated in an instant, crying and shouting, rushing towards them like a tide...
"Leader, hurry up! Hurry up!" Under the urgent shouting of the captain of the guard, Temagis came to his senses: the enemy (referring to Pequot's team) who had originally driven away the fleeing soldiers of Segestica in front was turning to rush towards him, and countless tribesmen who were fleeing behind were also rushing towards him...
The situation was urgent and he could not think too much. He quickly turned his horse's head and squeezed the horse's belly: "Go!"
The warhorse raised its four hooves and carried him to the fields outside the battlefield. The captain of the guard led the warriors to rush forward to block the enemy who tried to intercept him.
Pequot saw the enemy leader wearing a horn helmet and armor riding past from the side, but he could not capture him because of the obstruction of the enemy soldiers, and threw out the dagger in his hand in a hurry.
Temagis instinctively leaned his upper body over the horse's neck, and heard a clang, and the conspicuous horn helmet was knocked to the ground.
He was dizzy and frightened, and he could only hold the horse's neck tightly and let it run freely...
When Temagis regained consciousness, the battlefield was far behind him. He was on the road where he had crossed the Kupa River and marched to the Anrotas village. He thought that he had led a complete 8,000 Desitiatae warriors at that time, but now he was left alone...
He didn't dare to look back at the battlefield, nor did he dare to listen to any noise coming from behind him. He just shook the reins desperately and urged the warhorse to run faster.
After running for a while, he saw a group of cavalrymen by the river in front of him, and those cavalrymen saw him and began to shout: "It's the great leader! The great leader!..."
Temagis recognized that these were the Desitiatae cavalrymen who followed him to the expedition to Nix, and urged his horse to rush over and asked: "Why are you here?"
The cavalrymen immediately lowered their heads and dared not respond.
Temagis looked at them and found that more than half of the cavalry had lost their helmets, weapons, and looked quite embarrassed. He immediately understood what was going on. Although he was angry, he was not much better, so it was difficult to reprimand them. He asked, "Where is Tellus? Where is he?"
"When we...we charged the enemy reinforcements, Leader Tellus rushed to the front, but was shot by the enemy's bow and arrow, and didn't...didn't stand up again..." Someone answered in a heavy voice.
Temagis felt another palpitation. He closed his eyes painfully, then opened them again. He looked at the cavalrymen and asked coldly, "Since you are already here, why don't you cross the river?"
The cavalrymen looked at each other, and finally someone said hesitantly, "Great... Great leader... It's not that we don't want to cross, but there are enemies on the other side of the river!"
"There are enemies?!" Temagis was startled, and walked through the cavalrymen to the riverside. He took a closer look: Sure enough, there were hundreds of Nix soldiers on the other side of the river. They were on full alert and blocked the entire section of the river.
Temagis took a breath: The Nixmen are preparing to catch us all in one fell swoop!
Fleeing from the battlefield was the closest time to death for Temagis in his life. Although the dagger thrown by Pecot did not knock him off his horse, it knocked out his courage. He really did not have the confidence to lead a group of equally demoralized cavalrymen across the turbulent river to attack the array of these powerful Nix soldiers and carve out a bloody path for himself and the fleeing soldiers later...
Facing the expectant and nervous eyes of the cavalrymen, Temagis, who had led troops here once last year, thought for a while and said, "We continue to move forward along the river. There is a stockade of Segestica ahead. Let's take a rest there and rush to Brochi's territory tomorrow..."
The cavalrymen were as if they had been pardoned, and they all praised Temagis's idea...
…………………………………………………………………………
From the moment Temagis fled the battlefield, the battle was over, and the only thing left was to pursue the fleeing soldiers.
Because Maximus had previously assigned some soldiers to block the entrance to the camp, the Pannonian coalition's defeated soldiers had to flee eastwards. However, there was a Pequot army blocking them from the east. He also assigned some soldiers to block the wadable river section in advance. In the end, except for a small number of defeated soldiers who escaped the encirclement and fled to the lower reaches of the Kupa River along the river bank, most of them were either killed or drowned. The number of prisoners reached more than 6,000...
However, the casualties of the Fourth Legion exceeded 1,800, which was a serious injury.
When Maximus saw Aulus and Pequot, they were so tired that they had difficulty even saluting.
Maximus quickly stepped forward and gave the two a strong hug, and asked the attendants to hold the two legion commanders, and then enthusiastically praised loudly: "Aulus, Pecot, your performance completely exceeded my expectations. Not only did you confuse the enemy and ensure the safety of the territory, but you also used a surprising move to contain the enemy, creating very favorable conditions for the main force to annihilate them! On behalf of the tribe, I thank you and the soldiers of the Fourth Legion for your great contribution!"
Maximus said, and saluted the two solemnly.
Aulus responded in a heavy tone: "Chief, in order to intercept the enemy, our Fourth Legion made the greatest effort, but it also suffered heavy casualties..."
"I know..." Maximus' tone became low, but then he said forcefully: "The tribe will not let the soldiers sacrifice in vain. Those who died in the battle will be honored and remembered by the tribesmen forever! The injured will receive the best treatment in the hospital! The entire Fourth Legion will receive second-class merit, and I believe many soldiers will be promoted and awarded! I will also let the Ministry of War give priority to replenishing the Fourth Legion's troops. I believe it won't be long before the Fourth Legion will be fully staffed!..."