Rome must fall.

Chapter 437 Battle
The two legions suffered heavy losses in the battle with Pompey's army in Greece, and Caesar sent the two legions back to Italy with Antony, which was actually intended to let them rest. However, the situation in the north was serious, and Antony needed these two powerful legions of Caesar to ensure victory, so after crossing the Adriatic Sea and understanding the situation in the north, he added Roman soldiers from Pompey's army who surrendered to the two legions to make them fully staffed. After this period of marching and camping, he believed that the combat effectiveness of the two legions had been restored by half.

Next came the First and Sixteenth Legions of Pompey's army. The First Legion was once loaned to Caesar and fought in Gaul for many years, while the Sixteenth Legion was formed by Caesar in the late Gallic War. Later, the Senate withdrew these two legions on the grounds that the Syrian province needed troops to ensure security, and later they were assigned to Pompey. They had not fought against Caesar's army with all their strength before, and in fact the combat effectiveness of these two legions was not weak, and Antony also filled the vacancies of these two legions.

The two columns to the north were the newly formed legions of Trebonius and a mixed force of Greek heavy infantry, Syrian infantry, and a small number of Roman soldiers (these were local soldiers recruited by Pompey in Greece and soldiers brought from Syria by his father-in-law Metellus). These two columns, especially the mixed forces, were weak in combat effectiveness and difficult to command, so Antony placed them on the right wing, mainly to increase momentum, encircle and pursue the defeated enemy.

Anthony's attack plan was: since the barbarians were attacking the city of Aquileia, the first to engage the enemy would certainly be the 9th and 10th legions on the left. They would gain the advantage in the battle, and then the 1st and 16th legions in the middle would press forward, which should cause a large-scale defeat of the barbarians. Finally, the army on the left would surround them. If the defenders of Aquileia took the opportunity to attack, they would win a glorious victory!

In fact, there were some troops following these six columns, including 500 Cretan archers, nearly 1,000 Syrian archers, and more than 300 cavalrymen.

Originally, Caesar had obtained a lot of cavalry after winning the Battle of Pharsalus, but he wanted to use them to pursue Pompey, so he did not give them to Antony. These more than 300 cavalry were brought by Trebonius, some of which were Gallic cavalry. Antony did not dare to use them with confidence, and according to the military intelligence he learned, the number of barbarian cavalry was much larger, so these cavalry would not be of much use, especially in the current situation of all-out offensive, even the archers would be useless.

The total strength of the Roman army commanded by Antony was about 33,000 people, divided into six columns, like six long dragons, marching towards the city of Aquileia in unison.

In the afternoon, the sea breeze stopped blowing, and the sky was an endless expanse of blue. There was not a cloud to block the scorching sun, which was getting hotter and hotter. There was an anxious and tense atmosphere in the air.

The sweaty Roman soldiers not only did not look tired, but rather somewhat excited, because the shouting and sounds of fighting coming from the front became clearer and clearer, and they could even vaguely see the outline of the city of Aquileia shrouded in dust and fog.

Anthony, who was riding at the front of the team, even saw countless Nyx cavalrymen arranged in a very loose linear array in the distance ahead. They were dim in the dust and fog, like a barrier between the mountains and the bay, shielding the Nyx army in the rear, and seemed ready to rush towards the marching Roman army at any time.

Anthony immediately issued orders to the columns.

Soon, the Roman army stopped advancing and the columns began to transform into horizontal formations.

The first to complete the formation change were the 9th and 10th Legions on the left wing. Although these two legions had to recruit some new soldiers due to a large number of vacancies, they had a group of high-quality officers with rich combat experience. Moreover, the newly joined soldiers had been trained by Pang Pei for more than half a year and had experienced many fierce civil wars, so the overall capability of the legion did not decline much.

After changing the horizontal formation, the officers of the two legions took the initiative to lead the soldiers forward based on the current situation without even waiting for Antony's order.

The next to complete the transition were the 1st and 16th Legions in the center, which had also fought in Gaul for many years. Their overall capabilities were not weaker than the left wing, but their morale was not as high as that of the 9th and 10th Legions.

The performance of the Fifth Column was unsatisfactory. Although there were some veterans of the Gallic War in the legion, the proportion of recruits was too high, the new recruit regiment had been formed too recently, and the officers were unable to command their soldiers well.

The worst was the Sixth Column. The other five columns had already advanced some distance, but they were still dawdling where they were. Anthony was so anxious that he ordered this mixed column to move forward immediately without changing into a horizontal formation.

Looking down at the earth from the air, the Roman army gradually changed from six columns into a diagonal line running from north to south. In the front was the Ninth Legion on the left near the sea, and at the back was a mixed column on the right next to the foothills. Like a rolling wave, they pressed towards the city of Aquileia.

The Knicks cavalry were obviously intimidated by the mighty momentum and retreated one after another, exposing the Knicks siege troops behind them.

In Anthony's eyes, there were thousands of overlapping human figures in front of him, and the crowds were like the densely growing weeds under the city of Aquileia swaying in the wind... The situation on the west side of Aquileia was like this, and it can be imagined that it should be the same in other directions. The city of Aquileia has been surrounded by the enemy, but fortunately, most of the barbarian soldiers in front were still facing the direction of the city wall. It seemed that the enemy had not been able to react in time to deal with their attack!
While Antony was delighted, he also vaguely saw the fighting between soldiers of both sides on the city walls as he was getting closer and closer to the city of Aquileia.

The barbarians are about to capture Aquileia! ... Antony was immediately frightened and ordered the attack to be sounded.

The soldiers of the Ninth and Tenth Legions began to speed up their pace, getting closer and closer to the enemy in front. The two sides were less than a mile apart, and Anthony could see the enemy in front of him shouting and retreating in panic.

"Forward! Roman warriors, forward! Kill these barbarians and defend our land!..." Anthony drew out his dagger, pointed it forward and shouted. However, he did not urge his horse forward. After all, he was now the commander of an army and could not charge forward like he did when he was a captain.

The infantry formation behind him quickly caught up with him and left him behind. The soldiers who passed by him couldn't help but respond loudly: "Don't worry, General Anthony, we will bring you victory!..."

Antony fell behind the left wing, which determined the victory of the battle, and he sat here hoping to witness the glory that was about to be won.

The Ninth and Tenth Legions advanced like an iron wall, and the enemies in front of them retreated like a tide... But when the tide receded, what appeared in front of the Roman army were thousands of Nyx soldiers wearing leather helmets and light armor, holding crossbows. They were arranged in a loose array, with firm eyes and equally excited expressions.

The enemies, who were previously dressed in barbarian attire familiar to the Roman soldiers (all Germanic and Japodic warriors acting as bait), suddenly turned into a uniform, tightly-organized Roman-Greek style. The key point was that the opponent seemed to have been prepared, which made the Roman officers in the front row feel a little uneasy.

Being experienced, they decisively stopped the advancing army just a hundred meters away from the enemy and began to reorganize the formation that had become disjointed due to the long march. They also allowed the soldiers to take a break and accumulate strength for the final attack.

The 9th and 10th Roman Legions were repeating their actions in the Battle of Pharsalus, but in front of them were not Pompey's infantry formations that dared not attack, but the Nyx crossbowmen who dominated the river plains.

According to the Nix army, one legion has 500 crossbowmen. This time, five legions went out to fight, with a total of 2,500 crossbowmen. They would be concentrated and used in the battle to exert their maximum power. This time, the Ministry of War considered that the west of Aquileia would be attacked by the Roman army first, so they deployed all 2,500 crossbowmen here. The commander-in-chief of the crossbowmen was the only female general in the Nix army, the second-class baron Doreen.

This heroic female general was standing under the raised crossbow flag, shouting loudly: "Forward!"

With the flag pointing forward, the loose double-line formation of crossbowmen marched forward until they were about a hundred meters away from the Roman formation, then stopped as the flag was raised again.

"Shoot!" As Doreen shouted, the military flag waved left and right in the air.

The crossbowmen in the front row pulled the trigger one after another, and thousands of crossbow arrows shot out.

Just as the Roman soldiers raised their shields in front of them, crossbow arrows as fast as meteors hit the shields.

The Roman soldiers were surprised by the high speed of their opponents' crossbows, but were also glad that they had defended in time.

But they were too happy too early, because the crossbows held by the Nix crossbowmen were no longer the arm-drawn crossbows they had in the beginning.

When the Nixes attacked Broch, the Broch warriors used thickened shields, which greatly reduced the lethality of the crossbow. In view of this situation and considering the future battles with the Roman heavy infantry, Maximus ordered the weapons workshop to start trial production of double-bow crossbows (that is, adding another bow to the crossbow shaft) to enhance the crossbow's armor-piercing power.

The first crossbow made was a tandem double-bow crossbow. Although the shooting power did increase a lot, the double bows were concentrated at the head end, the weight was unbalanced, it was very inconvenient to hold, and the aiming accuracy was also reduced.

After learning about these drawbacks, Maximus came up with a new design - a double-bow crossbow with both forward and reverse bows.

Can the bow be installed in reverse? ... The craftsmen made it with doubts, and the result surprised everyone: the double bows can be installed at both ends of the crossbow shaft, which makes the center of gravity of the crossbow balanced, very convenient for hand-held shooting, and has excellent accuracy. Moreover, this design can obtain a longer bowstring draw distance in less space, thereby obtaining a higher shooting rate, and thus shorten the length of the crossbow arm, making the size and weight of the entire crossbow smaller, making it easier for one person to carry and shoot...

(End of this chapter)