A conspiracy against Caesar is going on quietly!

At this time, Yakulius, who was highly anticipated by Pompey, was finally able to lead his entirely own troops with satisfaction, and walked onto the real battlefield for the first time under the command of Hockum.

His enemy was the Padist, the biggest enemy of the Roman Republic, the Parthians!

The Parthians were a powerful force, and they had even far surpassed the Persians in the past. They also successfully defeated the Roman invasion and killed their commander Crassus!

The Parthian Kingdom was indeed completely different from the Persian Empire in the past. Persia conquered by Alexandria was an ancient civilization dominated by farming nations. The Persian army at that time was not very different from that of Greece except for a few novel weapons, such as elephants and chariots. The basic tactics of Greece were not very different. The previous Battle of Gogamela was a continental style battle, and both sides met the enemy in neatly arranged square formations. Indeed, the Roman army represented the highest level of infantry formation battles in that era. No nation or Roman battle would have much chance of winning.

The Parthians who replaced the Persian Empire were genuine nomadic peoples. They would show the Romans a new tactical concept - highly mobile light cavalry tactics. The Huns and Mongols who carried this tactics forward became a nightmare for the whole of Europe many years later.

Crassus would pay the price of his life for his greed and arrogance, and tens of thousands of Roman soldiers would have to be buried with him.

．

．

．

．

．

In the Syrian province of the Roman Republic, the coastal mountains parallel to the Mediterranean coastline are like strong barriers, with ridges extending from north to south protecting narrow coastal plains and wealthy cities, leaving only three passes through which they are: they are the Omanian Pass, the Pillar of Yola and the Syrian Pass.

At the northernmost Omania Pass, the huge stone walls are like a long snake winding across the horizon under the cover of darkness. The roads behind the pass are sparse, and many roads are dead ends. As the winding paths circling up, fewer crops are coming, and the land is becoming more and more barren. Hels, an elite soldier of the First Battalion of the Sixth Legion of the Roman Republic, was walking on this rugged road. The strange and stumbling stones reflected the charming moonlight. The sudden rise of human shadows reflected on the stones, presenting various wonderful shapes.

．

．

．

．

．

As an elite soldier of the legion, Hulls didn't have to be on duty, but today the centurions of the first battalion were called to attend the military meeting. So he, an experienced veteran, came to check the sentry instead of the centurion.

Hulls was satisfied to see the sentries on the stone wall sticking to his post like pillars. At this time, the sky gradually became brighter and the vast plain was revealed before him: the land outside the pass was fertile, the cypresses blocked the invasion of the wind, protected the growth and prosperity of the orchards and flowerbeds, and the citrus were carefully cared for. The canal ensures the irrigation of crops and vegetables, and the wheat fields alternately stacked with sunflowers, making a prosperous scene. To the south of this rich plain is the flat Gobi desert, with only a few oasis adorning it.

A cool breeze blew gently, and the fragrance of soil came from the wind, and it also brought a crisp sound of horse hooves.

"Damn it, it's here again!" Hulls cursed angrily and spat phlegm outside the thick stone wall.

A small team of Parthian Rangers appeared in the sight of the guardians at the gate. The Parthians were a nation on horseback. The Parthians under their crotch were not as tall as the Spanish and North African horses in the Roman legion, but strong, fast and endurance. They received training in small steps and fast running since childhood. They ran quickly and steadily. Therefore, the Parthians could still shoot arrows very accurately when galloping. What scared the Roman soldiers the most was that the Parthians could turn around and shoot arrows on the horse when they retreated quickly, but their accuracy was not affected at all. The "Pathian Returning Arrow" became a nightmare for the soldiers of the Roman legion. So, as usual, they could only watch these rangers rob food with their might.

"That's right now, I'm about to harvest. These guys are coming more frequently! Just like fucking locusts!" A sentry spoke next to him.

"I really wish I could go out and fight them! Apart from us, where is the Roman soldiers who are so cowardly?" said another Roman soldiers angrily.

No one said anything now. The previous battle of Kale really scared the Romans. Crassus, one of the three Roman giants who were as famous as Caesar and Pompeii, led seven legions of 40,000 Roman troops to conquer the Kingdom of Parthia. In Kale, he was annihilated by Parthia General Sulena with only 20,000 cavalry.

"Have you heard of it? We have changed to a new commander." Hulls saw that the atmosphere was a little dull and wanted to change the topic.

"What if it happens? Some of the commanders in the past were dissatisfied. Every time they took us out, they were beaten by the barbarians and fled back? Even if they had the upper hand, they would not catch up with them. If it weren't for the barbarian cavalry who was not good at siegeing the city, they would not be able to keep it here." The sentry who spoke before said listlessly.

"I heard that this new commander has appointed a chief centurion, who looks like a rich young master from a big family in Rome. He looks like a little girl. Can such a person be commanded by the commander?"

"I guess we are here to make money again. Who makes us so fat here? It's both silver mines and fertile land?"

When the soldiers talked about it, nothing more caring for soldiers than the ability of the commander. A skilled commander can make his soldiers pay the smallest price to win. The soldiers are naturally brave enough to go to the battle under the command. Otherwise, they will be depressed.

As a veteran, Hulls certainly understood this truth. After listening to the soldiers' comments, he felt annoyed in his heart.

"Okay, shut up and look forward to your posts!" Hulls growled, and the sentries obediently stopped commenting on the new commander and focused on their duties.

Hulls looked at the sentries in a bad mood, and then at the Parthian Rangers who were robbing outside the wall.

It seems that he can only survive here until retirement. His wish to become a Roman citizen by making meritorious service is probably ruined. Thinking of this, he was not in the mood to stay on the stone wall anymore, and turned around and walked towards the Legion camp with a stern face.

Hulls, who returned to the station, unexpectedly saw another scene: the centurions who had just returned were all sweating profusely, and a set of brand new weapons and concrete hills piled up in the center of the camp.

"Hells, come here!" A centurion glanced at Hulls who was standing there in a daze.

"Try these armor and shields, our new consul is going to go to war with the Parthians, this time our Sixth Legion is in the first row, our battalion is in the first row of the Legion. The consul gives us some new guys."

Hulls picked up a new shield and weighed it. The heavy weight made him immediately realize that the new shield was different from the shield he used to use. He carefully observed the new shield.

In the past, legion soldiers used rectangular wooden shields, which could cover most of their bodies. The surface was covered with canvas, then covered with a layer of cowhide fixed with metal strips, and the upper and lower edges were wrapped with iron edges to increase the strength of the shield to protect it from top-down slashing damage and wear when placed on the ground. There was also a piece of iron relief decoration nailed on it, which could block the extremely powerful blows of stones, guns, and various heavy throwing weapons. This time, the transport was actually made of stainless steel and the area was larger, but there was a semicircular gap on each of the shields. I don’t know what to use.

"I'm not afraid of the Parthian arrows now!" Gorirong felt joy in his heart.

Hulls looked at the new armor with interest. In addition to being made of stainless steel, the new armor was also replaced with a pair of chain armor made of metal rings, but the style has not changed much. Just like what he is wearing now, it is also composed of a helmet, breastplate, and fence.

However, when Hulls' eyes fell on the weapons the soldiers were collecting, he was immediately shocked.

"Centurion, what's going on? Should we use a spear this time?"

Since the Second Macedonian War, the Roman Legion defeated the spear phalanx left by Alexander the Great. The Roman dagger has dominated Europe for nearly two hundred years. Since the spear phalanx was broken through, the spearmen could only fight with daggers without shield protection. Now the spearmen have basically been eliminated. Each Roman Legion is only equipped with about 300 spearmen to disperse the opponent's array during attack. They are usually placed in the second and third columns, and rush out through the passage between the phalanx during combat to launch an attack.

"It seems that I want to use it against the Parthian cavalry." The centurion said with a frown.

"The Parthians can shoot us like rabbits outside our range! They won't come to our phalanx foolishly. Even if they attack us and are defeated by us, how can we catch up with these stupid guys? Have you reminded the new consul?"

"You need to say that you think we are all idiots? You have fought a war?" The centurion of the first battalion replied angrily.

Hulls shut his mouth. A Roman legion had a total of sixty centuries, that is, sixty centurions. The powers of these sixty centurions were arranged in order. The centurions in the first battalion had greater power than the centurions in the second battalion, and so on. The last battalion had the least power.

The promotion of Roman centurions also rose from low-level centurions to high-level centurions in this order. Each battalion has six centurions, and the centurions of the first battalion are called "Starry Centurions". Their power is greater than that of all the centurions in the subsequent battalions.

The first centurion of the first battalion was promoted by the veterans with the richest combat experience, among which the most powerful was the centurion of the first centurion team, known as the "chief centurion". This is the highest-ranking centurion in the entire legion, and sometimes he can even command the military operations of the entire legion. For the sake of the safety of the soldiers, if the commander had unreasonable arrangements, he would definitely argue. Now that he said this, there was only the execution. The military law of the Roman legion was no joke.

"Hells, get familiar with the new equipment and the war will begin soon." The new chief centurion, the young Yakulius, reminded him again. After all, he still likes this experienced veteran.

"Yes!" Hels, who knew the Parthians were powerful, answered weakly.

Three days later, Hulls first put on his clean linen underwear, then put on a short-sleeved wool tunic that was dragged straight to his knees, and then put his feet into a military boot called "Caligu".

The military boots are made of leather, with four layers of leather soles and rivets with nailed short heads. Hulls tied the belt at half the height of his tibia and stomped on the ground twice, feeling satisfied that the boots were fixed. Then, after the legion slaves helped him put on his armor, Hulls walked out of his tent, and the Roman soldiers outside were walking out of the various tents.

When the comrades of the regiment walked along the main road on the Syrian plain to one-third of the hills, the hills suddenly appeared in front of them. A red sunlight shone on the hills in front, and the dew on the leaves on the top of the tree on the road was as bright as gemstones. The trees were like burning torches. The entire plain was bathed in the bright sunlight. Soon, the sounds erupted everywhere. Parthian cavalry ran towards them from all directions.

"The first battalion stops moving forward! The front row stands a shield!" Yakulius' majestic voice came from behind.

Standing in the first row, Hurs grabbed the handle of the shield and stood the shield on the ground. The shields of his companions were immediately tightly joined with his shield. Almost at the same time, the sharp arrows of the Parthian cavalry began to pour into the Romans' defense.

"First Battalion, form a turtle formation!" Yakulius calmly gave the order.

The first battalion quickly closed the formation. Hurs and the Roman soldiers in the first row immediately placed the shield on the ground in a squatting position. The second row of soldiers placed the shields on the front row and the soldiers in the third row and the back raised the shields over their heads, stacking them like tiles. In this way, six airtight shield arrays were formed in each hundred-man team, which looked like fish scales from a distance.

While the first battalion was well trained and quickly formed the turtle formation, the second and third battalions on both sides also formed the turtle formation. However, since their number was only half of the first battalion, the size of the turtle formation was much smaller. Behind these three battalions are the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh battalions, and the remaining eighth, ninth and tenth battalions are in the third row of the legion.

This time the Romans dispatched three legions, and the entire army did not arrange the legions in parallel as they did in the past. The entire formation seemed to be a huge "哥" starting with the Sixth Legion where Hels was located. The left wing was the Third Roman Legion called the "Rose Legion", and the right wing was the Twelfth Roman Legion called the "Electronic Legion". The three legions could only accommodate four or five horses and ride together.

More and more Parthian light cavalry emerged from all directions, and they could not see their formation at all. These skilled cavalry only had light leather armor, a long sword on their waists holding the famous Parthian recurved bow. This bow gradually slowed down from the back to both ends, and finally bent the bow in reverse and attached with a bowstring, fixed at both ends with cow horns, and concave in the center grip. The shape of the entire bow is like the outline of the back of a bimodal camel. This bow is extremely powerful, with a range of up to 300 meters, and can shoot through the scale armor within a distance of fifty meters. The bow made of straight wooden sticks in the Roman legion is beyond the reach of both range and penetration.

The rain of arrows like a locust fell on Hels and the shields. The soldiers' ears were full of the "swoosh, whirl" sounds of arrows cutting through the air and the "dong, dong" sounds hitting the shield. The Parthians carefully kept a distance of about fifty meters from the Romans' defense line. They shot arrows quickly, without aiming at them at all, but just tried to shoot the arrows with the greatest strength.

"Luckily, I changed my new shield!"

Hulls' gratitude to the new commander is hard to describe in words. The wooden shields of the past could not stop the sharp arrows shot out by the Parthians' combination bow at such a close distance. In more than once in the past, the Parthians' arrows penetrated the shield and nailed the Roman soldiers' hands to the shield. That being said, they were still in a situation of being beaten and had no chance to fight back. Soon, Hulls' gratitude was replaced by anger:

"Damn it, how long will it last? I thought we could win the battle by blocking the Parthians' bows and arrows? What a young man who has never fought!" Hulls cursed in his heart.

"Woo, woo", a new huge sound that had not appeared on the battlefield overwhelmed the harsh sound of the arrow rain. Hulls, who was hiding behind the shield, could not see what happened, and only heard the screams of humans and the neighing of horses. Soon, the dense rain of arrows falling on the shield began to become sparse. As the "Woo, woo" sound continued to sound, in a while, the sharp arrows were no longer flying towards them.

"The first battalion restores the queue! Each hundred-man team relaxes the distance between each other."

Hearing Yakulius's order, Hurs finally breathed a sigh of relief and stood up straight. He moved his arms and knees, which had been sore and numb, and looked forward. The scene in front of him shocked him and his friends:

Stone bullets, which were several sizes larger than coconuts, were still roaring over their heads, and the corpses of Parthians were everywhere in front of them. Some people had their heads smashed by stone bullets. The white brain and red blood mixed together looked like a big bowl of flesh and blood. Some people only had the lower half of their bodies squirmed there, and they didn't know where they flew above their waists. Some people were embedded in their chests by stone bullets, and could only breathe out a little bit. In the distance, several camels loaded with bows and arrows were hit and were making waves with their tenacious vitality.

．

．

．

．

．

The Parthian light cavalry were at a loss by this sudden blow. They avoided the Romans and reassembled in the distance.

Hurs and his comrades gave a deafening cheer. The first battalion suffered a small loss in the confrontation just now, and only a few soldiers were injured by bows and arrows shot through the gap between the shields. Amid their cheers, four battalions in the second row quickly passed through the gap between them, forming a new first column, allowing the three battalions to recover their physical strength and care for the wounded.
Chapter completed!