Chapter 197: Madness

At noon, under the blazing sun, the armies of both sides collided fiercely, just like the collision of iron walls, and the spurting blood was the sparks they created.

As the two sides were fighting fiercely, the Roman cavalry formed a diamond-shaped attack formation from both sides of the infantry, and pierced the rear of the Sassanid first array like iron spikes. The galloping horses were in groups, and no one dared to use their flesh and blood to stop them, which cut off the connection between the first row of the Sassanid army and the rear, and they were instantly in a dilemma of being attacked from both sides.

Being attacked from both sides was not the worst situation faced by the first row of mercenaries. The worst situation was that the Roman cavalry turned around and rushed directly into their opponent. The whole team was torn apart by the horses, and the original confrontation was broken. The team was broken into pieces and was vulnerable to the powerful Roman infantry. In an instant, corpses were everywhere! After all, mercenaries worked for money. Faith and honor really couldn't arouse their fighting spirit. Soon, they collapsed, just like the Sassanids had just defeated the first row of Rome.

This tactic was very familiar to the Persians, but they never expected that they would be hit by it again centuries later. Under the command of the cavalry officers under Theodosius II, the Macedonian hammer produced initially satisfactory results, which also forced the Sassanid troops in the rear to cheer up and meet the enemy again!

"Your Majesty!" The officer behind him began to persuade Yizhai: "Rome is at its peak right now, why don't we withdraw our troops, avoid their attack, replenish our forces and fight again?"

"I led the army here to win victory and glory!" The young Yizdegerd did not listen to any advice. In less than half an hour, they lost more than a thousand people. This was a huge shame for Yizdegerd. He clenched his teeth and his breathing became rapid! "Even if the Romans are numerous, we must be stronger, even stronger!" Yizdegerd roared and shouted loudly: "All the soldiers in the rear, retreat, and take out the gift I prepared for the Roman emperor!"

The horn sounded, and the Sassanid infantry in the second array immediately retreated. This might not be a good sign, but to the fearless Roman soldiers, this was just a sign of fear on the part of the Sassanid army. They cheered, like bloodthirsty wolves, slashing and killing all the defeated Sassanid mercenaries they could catch up with, and planned to rush forward and tear apart the remaining Sassanid infantry in one go!

"Swish, swish, swish"

Hundreds of burning oil bottles suddenly appeared above the heads of the retreating Sassanid troops, and they had no time to stop or dodge.

"Pa pa pa"

The broken oil bottles instantly bloomed like beautiful and deadly flames on the Roman soldiers in the front. The raging flames engulfed dozens of Romans, and a blazing wall of fire instantly appeared in front of the two armies, blocking the Romans' fierce attack. The flames were burning, mixed with the screams of the burned soldiers, looking at the countless figures struggling in the sea of ​​fire, but no one dared to step forward to rescue them.

The Romans stopped, dragging out those soldiers who were only on fire and struggling. As for those in the sea of ​​fire, they could only listen to their shrill screams and miserable cries, and watch the figures in the sea of ​​fire slowly fall down in the struggle.

Yisi'ai closed his eyes and listened quietly to the deafening screams. A faint smile appeared on his face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The expected plan was achieved, and it seemed that even the burnt smell in the air became very sweet.

The pressing offensive was forced to stop. The way the attack was achieved was so despicable that Theodosius II could not help but curse. He even began to blame himself for not bringing a catapult, otherwise he would have smashed them into a pulp!

The fire was still burning, and even if the fire gradually weakened, the soldiers could not charge. God knew how many such trump cards Yazdegerd had. The follow-up troops of the Sassanids immediately seized the precious time to gain a foothold. Yazdegerd's remaining troops were pulled into two straight lines, with those holding spears and shields in front and those holding iron swords and iron rods in the back. The remaining cavalry were divided into two groups on both sides of the formation. On the one hand, they were to fight against the Roman cavalry to prevent them from repeating the same trick, and on the other hand, they were to become a sword hanging over the heads of the Roman attacking team. If they wanted to charge regardless of everything, they would have to consider whether the Sassanid Persians would also use the cone hammer tactics to launch a major counterattack.

"Keep the rectangular formation and advance slowly. They are no match for us. Hold on, hold on!" Orius Luca was in the center of the cavalry. He had full command of the 500-man armored cavalry, which was like an iron fortress. The cavalry surrounding them had no way to deal with them. All those who fell along the way were Sassanid cavalry, and only four or five Roman armored cavalry were killed with great effort by the Sassanid cavalry who surrounded them because they were exhausted. Seeing that the only remaining numerical advantage was gone.

"Disperse!"

At the command, the dense and solid "fortress" like a city wall instantly disintegrated into countless silver individuals, rushing madly towards the surrounding Sassanid cavalry. How could these guys who didn't even have complete armor be their opponents without the advantage in numbers? In a few seconds, the armored cavalry killed them and made them flee in panic.

Luca did not order his soldiers to chase after them, because after a short period of fighting, he found that not only the horses, but also the people were a little out of breath. The result of pursuing extreme protection is poor mobility and poor endurance.

Luca stopped the troops, turned around, rode his horse to retrieve his lance, sheathed his sword, and went into battle with his lance, facing the Sassanid army that was close at hand.

"Damn, have they defeated the intercepting soldiers?" The outstanding performance of the Roman armored cavalry gave Isisaeus a headache. He could no longer mobilize more troops to contend with and stop this super-heavy cavalry unit.

Theodosius did not want to give the Sassanid army any chance to catch its breath, so he took the opportunity to redeploy the legions, replacing the already breathless third formation with soldiers from the second formation who had almost rested and returning them to the front, and moving all the cavalry to the right side of the formation, because the armored cavalry led by Luca was on the left.

The brief truce was a great opportunity for the archers to play their part. They took advantage of the chaos in the Sassanid army's formation and rained down arrows, causing the Sassanid army to pay a heavy price! "Your Majesty, we still have a choice!" The officers behind Yazdegerd were no longer confident about the current situation, because the army had lost one-third of its troops, and faced with the Roman legions that also suffered casualties, they still had an overwhelming advantage. Moreover, the newly joined Roman heavy armored cavalry and their amazing performance completely broke the balance, and Yazdegerd's original cavalry advantage was now gone.

"No need to persuade, my servant!" Izdegerd held his simple helmet, which was not as gorgeous as he had imagined, and was silent for a long time before finally putting it on. "I said, I must get something, so I can't take the initiative to retreat and make the Romans laugh, even if we die together!" Izdegerd said, staring at the opposite Roman army formation, the chariot in the back and the people on the chariot. Similarly, Theodosius II also strived to get a result. He certainly couldn't bear to see Izdegerd retreat at this time, and he also wanted to decide the outcome.

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"Then next is the final blow!" Theodosius II and Yazdegerd I drew out their iron swords at the same time and pointed them at each other.

(End of this chapter)