Chapter 23: The Non-Existent Fleet (Part II)
So the army of Tellureas, having abandoned their camp, marched about sixteen more miles into Rome, their fleet was half-destroyed, most of the cavalry had abandoned their mounts, many of the infantry did not even carry their equipment, many of them wore only helmets, and then two javelins and short swords, stumbling and grumbling towards the town of Gebra.
Without exception, the city of Gaybra was also guarded up and down, and thousands of Spanish troops rushed to the coast in a disorderly manner, and then their fleets sailed in confusion, "erecting wooden fences, seizing high hills, and organizing defensive lines, for our fleet has not yet come to meet them, and the enemy's pursuers may come at any moment." "Tellureas so ordered all the centurions, but the whole army had long since lost its proper dispatch and order, and everywhere people were shouting and coming and going.
At this time, the surplus Li Bida army also appeared in the wilderness in front of Gebra, and it was still Paruma who commanded all the cavalry, lined up in front, slowly advancing like a wall, waving flags, and neighing, "Let me achieve a great victory for my father to celebrate this year's Diana Day!" The little pigeon shouted to the captain of the cavalry beside him, and then he saw that across the river, the last remaining living force of the Spanish army on the opposite side was lining up along the river bank to defend against the deer, so he did not hesitate to take the lead, and rushed over with the Germanic cavalry like a surge, stepping on the splash of jumping, and then jumping off his horse in front of the deer, holding his sword and spear, and fighting with the enemy who rushed out to resist.
All those who engaged in the battle fought in the muddy water and on the land, and many people's clothes and armor and logos were stained with blood and mud, and there was no distinction between friend and foe. Paruma carried her sword. Limped hand-to-hand with the enemy who surrounded him - many of the enemy soldiers saw him wearing a general's cloak. However, he had obvious physical disabilities, so he deceived himself and went forward, but was cut down by Paruma one by one, because the elite soldiers of Tellureas, who had not been effectively rested and fed since the march and battle of the previous days, were already exhausted, and while killing one of Li Pida's cavalrymen, they often had to pay the price of several dead and wounded.
"Galius. Rush forward with the reserves and completely break through the Hechuan defense line for me. "With the clanging of swords and the sound of agitated trumpets, Galius led the chief brigade of the Seventh Legion, under the cover of the archers on both wings, and also waded through the river, slashing and slashing the enemy in front of him, and finally the Spanish army was defeated on all fronts, and all four legions were gathered between the city of Gabura and the coast, and the wounded were all everywhere. The wails soared to the sky.
Then, Galius and Paruma. The captured wooden fences and deer barricades were all pulled out and rearranged along the front line of their own army, and then the cavalry artillery, scorpion crossbows, archers, and slinger brigades of the Li Bida army came up one after another, and fired wildly at the positions of the Tellureas army.
By the end of the battle, the First and Fourth Legions, which were the vanguard guards of Tellureas, had lost thousands of men, and when they abandoned the camp, all their heavy equipment was thrown down, and they were powerless to fight back against the shameless long-range attacks of Li Pida's army.
"Hold on a little longer, and soon the fleet from Lili's side will come to pick it up!" This was Tellureas' last morale-boosting method.
After nightfall, Li Bida ordered the whole army to calmly build a blockade barrier, and arranged a dense guard post to monitor the enemy army, and also opened a road to the city of Gaibra, echoing the momentum, sealing the enemy in the narrow area of the coast.
In addition, Lybida sent another messenger demanding that Tellureas surrender as much as possible, otherwise "I will slaughter you and your men, and throw all your corpses into the sea to sacrifice to the god Neptune, and then I will march to Sicily and cut off Aquila's head and sacrifice to the god Venus." This time, Li Bida's words were no longer as polite as before, but full of violence and intimidation.
Tellureas hesitated, but most of his centurions and tribunes could not bear it, and demanded that the commander-in-chief surrender, for with the present fleet it was impossible to cross to Sicily, and most of them were abandoned halfway due to lack of supplies and maintenance, or were sunk by the artillery strikes of the Libida army; And counting on the fleet of Liliba was indeed a set goal, but the question is why they are not in the future until now? Perhaps by the time they arrived, our corpses would have been floating all over the bay of Gebla.
"Defend against it for another day tomorrow, and I'll give everyone an answer then." This is finally the decision of Tellureas.
The next day, when the morning sun rose unrestrained on the surface of the sea, the fog dissipated throughout the sea, and the shores of Gaibra were littered with corpses and wounded in a few furlongs, and the rest of the men filled the cramped area, watching the sea in anticipation of the arrival of the friendly fleet.
But Marclus's fleet did anchor three days ago, but the target was not Gaybra at all, but the port of Calaris
At last at the third quarter of the day, the sea was crippling and a large number of ships were approaching from all directions, but the cheers of the Tellureas camp were short-lived, for when they got nearer they all found that they were all hoisting purple sails, and were soon destroying and burning their very weak fleet one by one with crossbow arrows and flames. In the billowing fireworks, the men and wolves of Tellureas rushed forward, and behind the blockade of the ramparts of Li Pida, the infantry cavalry, covering all the cavalry artillery, also rumbled up.
After a burst of incoming fire, Tellureas could no longer bear it, and he announced that everyone would give up resistance and surrender.
"I was betrayed by this shameful guy Aquila!"
In addition to the four legions killed and seriously wounded, 15,000 men surrendered, plus the surrender of the previous two auxiliary legions, Li Bida collected 20,000 prisoners without much effort, but he obviously did not include all of them in his pocket: Li Bida was like Caesar at the beginning, and all those who had families in Spain were given appropriate Sichuan money, and promised to provide ships for dismissal; But those who were interested in continuing to serve were incorporated.
Even so, in the end, there were 10,000 elite soldiers under Li Bida's account, and Li Bida organized them into two new legions, "Casillo previously formed the first and third legions in Lusitania, in order to show my hatred for him, I will continue to keep these two numbers, but I want to turn this group of soldiers into Cassillo's nightmare and become his enemies." Li Bida said to Tellureas, who came to disarm and surrender.
After hearing this, Tellureas finally breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that Li Bida was not ready to sacrifice him to the blood after all.
"But, General Tellureas, I can forgive you and your men, but in the immediate Sicilian Campaign, you will have to take one or three legions with you to attack first." However, Li Bida will never trade at a loss, this is his principle. (To be continued......)