Three Kingdoms Swept the World II

Chapter 714 The Battle of Ephesus ([-])
On the great plain of Ephesus, a decisive battle at the imperial level is imminent.

This is a battle related to the survival of the Roman Empire, and Severus is very cautious.But he boldly tried a new phalanx formation.

In addition to giving full play to the advantages of the traditional Roman phalanx, this formation also incorporates the advantages of the former Persian Empire. Moreover, the cunning Severus secretly added the Greek spear phalanx tactics to the Roman phalanx formation.

Severus's army had 27 infantry, 3 cavalry and chariot soldiers, a total of 30.

The improved phalanx of Severus uses the centurion as the basic combat unit, generally ten rows deep, and each column represents a basic tactical unit 'team of ten', the captain stands at the forefront, equipped with a rectangular shield, and A spear about two meters long, with a light scale armor on its upper body.

The remaining nine infantrymen are each equipped with a pair of bows and arrows, a javelin, and a Roman dagger, and generally wear light armor.

At the beginning of the battle, the captain was responsible for resisting the impact of the enemy's cavalry, while the nine archers behind him killed the enemy with a dense volley. Among them, only the archers in the second row could shoot directly at the enemy from the captain's side, while the eight behind them It is to shoot arrows into the air, and the shooting angle is gradually raised to 45 degrees from front to back, so that the fire coverage of bows and arrows is formed within 300 meters in front of the formation.

When the enemy was massacred by the rain of arrows and defeated, the infantry began to charge. They put their bows in their quiver and raised their javelins to charge. Roman dagger, rushing into the enemy's formation for close combat.

The Romans' bows and arrows volley covered the sky and the sun, and the javelins were like Katyusha rockets, which had a strong deterrent effect on the enemy.

There are also Greek spear phalanx tactics in the phalanx.

These tactics were carried out by hoplites, whose equipment consisted of iron helmets, breastplates and shoulder armor, and scale armor for the rest of the torso.A shallow saucer-shaped round shield with a diameter of about one meter is covered with a layer of iron skin.The main weapon is a spear about three meters long, and the auxiliary weapon is a Roman short sword.

Phalanx Infantry fight in dense phalanxes, usually eight rows deep, with the first four rows holding their spears forward horizontally, the rear rows stacking their spears on top of the front row's spears, and the rear four rows holding their spears upright .This phalanx tactic originated from Greece has very high requirements on the physical and tactical qualities of soldiers.A heavily armed infantry needs to carry a load of forty kilograms, run long distances and sprint with high intensity.A dense phalanx of spears must keep the formation tight and in unison under any circumstances, which requires long-term queue training to achieve.

The frontal attack of the dense phalanx is unstoppable, and its weakness is on the side, so skirmishers or cavalry are often required to protect the two wings, and the left and right Roman phalanxes provide such protection.

Thousands of battles have proven that this phalanx tactic is the absolute nemesis of infantry.Especially when facing the enemy's charge, one can imagine how lethal a three-meter-long sharp spear is.

On the side of the alliance of princes.

The alliance headed by Yuan Shao did not listen to Cao Cao's suggestion.They believed in their hearts that the Romans were vulnerable, and dozens of battles in Armenia and Asia Minor proved how vulnerable the Romans were.

Rome's army of tens of 40 was wiped out by the expeditionary force of the alliance of princes, which made the princes ignore the Romans at all.

The alliance of princes also formed a formation.

It is the formation of cones, one of the ten formations recorded in Sun Bin's Art of War.

A cone-shaped formation is as humble as a sword, if it is not sharp at the end, it will not penetrate, if the blade is not thin, it will not cut, and if the blade is not thick, you cannot form an array.That's why the end must be sharp, the blade must be thin, and the base must be thick, but the formation of cones can be decisive.

It means that the conical formation is like a sharp sword. The most elite soldiers should be arranged on both sides, and the most powerful troops should be arranged on the tip of the sword. If the strength is not strong enough, this formation cannot be used.The conical array is powerful, and can destroy the enemy by destroying it, but its defense is low.According to later generations, it is a wave of violence, and if a wave cannot take away the enemy, it will be taken away by the enemy.Therefore, only those with strong strength can use this formation.

The alliance of princes maintained a complete victory over Rome, and the princes naturally wanted to use this quick-kill formation.

As time passed, the formations of both sides were in place.

When the two armies first met on the plain of Ephesus, the Romans had no bottom in their hearts.Their mood when they faced the expeditionary army of the Alliance of Chinese Princes was probably the same as that of the Eight Banners soldiers in the early Qing Dynasty when they faced the army of the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of mood comes from repeated battles and repeated defeats.

When the drums of the expeditionary army of the China Alliance of Princes sounded, the Romans became completely nervous.

So is Severus.

Afterwards, Severus saw that the expeditionary army of the Alliance of Chinese Princes began to take the initiative to attack, coming quickly in a cone-shaped formation. Obviously, this was a situation of launching a frontal assault.Faced with the powerful assault situation of the expeditionary force of the Alliance of Chinese Princes, Severus was overjoyed instead of worried, and gradually overjoyed.

The Roman phalanx has the best defensive power in the world, and it is most suitable for defending instead of attacking on the battlefield.The most desirable thing is to see the enemy bravely pounce on their phalanx.Roman phalanx soldiers always liked that the enemy was brave and fearless, so that they could pass through the phalanx and kill the enemies who rushed forward with machine-like efficiency.

And Qin Feng understood the great advantage of the Roman phalanx, so he repeatedly emphasized mobile warfare in the previous battles of the Roman expedition.

Only by mobilizing the enemy during the movement and attacking the enemy by surprise during the movement can we maximize our strengths and avoid our weaknesses.

On the side of the alliance of princes, they adopted the most lethal conical formation in Sun Bin's art of war.In order to increase the power of the formation, the princes arranged all their [-] cavalry in front to form the tip of the awl.It is hoped that through the natural powerful lethality and deterrent effect of the cavalry on the infantry, they can break through the Roman phalanx and follow the infantry to encircle and suppress the enemy.

Severus never expected that without any temptation, the Chinese princes' alliance army would rush up like this. "The Chinese are pigs. They are stupid enough to attack our Roman phalanx head-on. It seems that these princes don't know how powerful our Roman phalanx is."

For a long time, Severus has been studying Qin Feng's strategy and tactics. For mobile warfare, Severus is really troublesome.Because the Roman phalanx is most uncomfortable with mobile warfare.Many years ago, the slave uprising led by Spartacus almost brought down the Roman Empire during the movement.Fortunately, at the last moment, Spartacus's rebel army split, and the large force chose to attack the city of Rome head-on.

Subsequently, the large force of the rebel army was defeated by the Roman legion in frontal combat.Immediately afterwards, Spartacus continued to fight, but due to the lack of troops after the split, he was surrounded by the Roman army.The Romans quelled the slave uprising led by Spartacus in one fell swoop.

Severus has been researching to crack Qin Feng's mobile warfare, but to no avail. Fortunately, today's expeditionary force of the Alliance of Chinese Princes began to attack the Roman phalanx without hesitation.

　Thank you Xiachao Brothers for your support.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)