Chapter 291 - Mishap
Chapter 291 – Mishap
Naturally, this kind of technique’s destructive power also had its own consequences. The ancient Roman soldiers that used this technique would also keep losing blood. Afterwards, they would weaken, and after fighting a while in close combat, they would slowly decline.
On the other hand, the Carthaginian soldiers also struck back. They held their shields and pushed with all their might. They also accumulated power through the swords in their right hands, waiting for the ancient Romans to fall and thrust through their chests.
No matter what was said, the two sides were colliding against each other as a big melee unfolded.
Swords, shields, javelins, fists, and even their heads were used as weapons to quickly greet the enemy.
Naturally, the ancient Roman light infantry at the very front suffered the most in terms of equipment.
They did not have any kind of armor at all, not even leather ones.
They had been let off slightly during the first collision, but after that, they could only suffer in the middle of the chaotic battle.
If their swords hit places with armor, then there was no effect at all, and their fate would be death by counterattack from their opponent.
After an amount of time in close combat, the light infantry felt a disruption in the enemy formation. They immediately retreated to give way to the young soldiers and the adult soldiers.
These young soldiers and adult soldiers had the same action of throwing javelins. Afterwards, they charged ahead for a collision with their big shields. With their big shields, their damage had exceeded that of the light infantry at the front.
These ancient Roman soldiers attacked repeatedly, making it hard for the Carthaginian soldiers to maintain their formation. After the majority of the soldiers were killed, the center formation gradually stepped back.
At this moment, it was not yet Wei Xiao Bei’s turn to go into battle as he followed the formation’s advance, allowing him to leisurely look at the scene.
Although the soldiers around him were quiet, the roars,screams, and even the scent of blood had gradually excited them.
Wei Xiao Bei had decided that if the ancient Roman forces were going to go all out, he would immediately slip away.
He was not willing to be swept along within the ancient Roman soldiers. No matter how good one’s martial art was, being squeezed into a small position by the surrounding people would only be a waste of stamina if one had not reached a certain level of skill.
In other words, Wei Xiao Bei was strong right now, and even his recovery had allowed him to recover his limbs. It would even be difficult for a buff man to chop through his muscles with a cleaver. However, if he as surrounded by enemies, then he would waste a lot of stamina, and his ability to recover would decline. Various wounds would then accumulate and cause him to lose his life.
As the Carthaginian soldiers continued to retreat, the ancient Roman light infantry were lured into their encirclement. The young soldiers, adult soldiers, and reserved forces also followed after. The ancient Roman cavalrymen also got on their horses under the command of the war horn. They urged their horses to move outside the battlefield and try to outflank the enemy forces.
Without a doubt, the appearance of 6000 cavalrymen had caused morale to change directions. Naturally, among the cavalrymen, not everyone was a soldier. Some of them were only officers that passed down orders while most of them were troops from the forces of the colonies of the ancient Roman Empire.
Hannibal had already retreated to the back of the entire Carthaginian formation and blew his war horn to maneuver his army.
In an instant, the left wing of the Carthaginian formation comprised of 2000 cavalrymen moved out to attack. Their main task was to draw in the ancient Roman cavalry that was coming at them and prevent them from attacking the side of the Carthaginian army.
At the same time, the war elephant formation on the right also moved forward.
In truth, even Wei Xiao Bei could see that when the 6000 cavalrymen went to attack, the situation of the Carthaginian forces had worsened.
Scipio was truly one of the most outstanding commanders of ancient Rome. In just one look, he could tell what Hannibal was planning.
Naturally, it was also impossible for Scipio to just leave 6000 cavalrymen to stay idle. Once the Carthaginians showed a decline, then the sudden attack of the cavalrymen would naturally result in this.
In truth, Wei Xiao Bei was not in a good position in the phalanx. He was located in the left wing which was in contact with the war elephants.
Seeing the imposing manner of the incoming war elephants, even the veterans around Wei Xiao Bei could not help but pale up.
Facing the assault of the war elephants, even valiant ancient Roman soldiers could not withstand them.
At this moment, the ancient Roman war horn was blown. The ancient Roman-hired stone throwers from Palma quickly pushed forward. Among them, there were some that were even continuously blowing their horn-like instruments.
The skills of these stone throwers at blowing horns was very rough. They were able to blow the instruments, but the sound that came out was plain noise.
It was very clear that the noise coming out from these horns was disliked by the war elephants as their speed quickly decreased.
At this moment, a large group of stone throwers surrounded the elephants. They loaded fist-sized stones in their slings and spun them above their heads before throwing them at the elephants.
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!
Countless stones rained on the bodies of the war elephants.
Although the war elephants had armor on them, the continuous rain of stones had still given them pain.
They all retreated backward. Especially the more timid elephants ran back the way they came, stepping on the Carthaginian soldiers on their side.
“Wuuu! Wuuu! Wuu!”
The sound of horns continued to sound. The ancient Roman soldiers in a phalanx had also began to advance. Wei Xiao Bei’s reaction was not slow as he followed them from behind.
At this moment, the 6000 strong ancient Roman cavalry had directly collided with 2000 strong Carthaginian cavalry. In an instant, hundreds of cavalrymen were dismounted from their horses by pikes.
The Carthaginian cavalry simply could not block the Roman cavalry that was more than twice their size. They were quickly outflanked and separated. In just a few minutes, marks of cracks in their formation had appeared.
Midway into battle, the Carthaginian heavy infantry had retreated to the rear lines and began to stabilize their formation while counter attacking the Roman soldiers behind them. The Carthaginian soldiers in the left and right wing were also closing in on the center.
On this side, Wei Xiao Bei’s phalanx had began to attack the Carthaginians that were in chaos from the war elephant’s attack.
Before all this, the Carthaginians had already sounded their horns, laying down orders to retreat and leave the battlefield.
Afterall, the Carthaginians had already lost the initiative. If they slowly retreated with Hannibal’s command, then they might still be able to turn defeat into victory.
It must be known that Hannibal’s military exploits were more on few against the many, where he was part of the few. He would intentionally let the Romans pursue them, and in the end, he would launch a counterattack that would disrupt the enemy forces.
However, the Carthaginian soldiers were too excited. They had already formed the crescent moon formation. Even if they wanted to retreat now, it would be very hard to do so.
Wei Xiao Bei was in the phalanx and attacked along with the Roman soldiers. The javelin in his hands had directly killed three Carthaginians.
For other Romans accurately hitting their enemies was a very hard thing to do within the formation, but for Wei Xiao Bei, it was simply child’s play.
Although the Carthaginian soldiers only gave 30 evolution points, it was not a problem for Wei Xiao Bei to obtain thousands of evolution points by the end of the battle as long as this kind of pacing continues.
After being trampled by their own war elephants, the Carthaginian soldiers had lost most of their morale. They were simply in disarray. Their formerly strict formation had disappeared from their sights.
When the Carthaginians’ side was about to collapse, Wei Xiao Bei could faintly feel something had changed. However, it was not a huge threat to him.
When Wei Xiao Bei killed his tenth Carthaginian, the gaze that the Romans used to look at him turned into respect and admiration.
In truth, even if your discipline was loose during the era of cold weapons, as long as you could display bravery in battle, people would look at you with respect.
The reason was simple. The stronger their allies were, the safer people would feel while in battle.
This was also the reason why normal soldiers were willing to follow behind the undefeated god of war, Hannibal.
If an officer was stupid, then their subordinates might just leave him behind once they encountered danger.
No one was willing to throw away their life for a stupid leader.
At this moment, a golden light pillar landed on the back of the Carthaginian forces and quickly spread.
This expanding light looked like divine magic.
Every Carthaginian soldier that was showered with the light immediately trembled. Their morale instantly rose as they became extremely fierce!
The light quickly approached near Wei Xiao Bei.
Wei Xiao Bei could feel that the light contained mysterious powers.
When the light shined on him, he felt as if he was being looked at by an incomparably strong existence, to the points that the hairs on his back stood up!
On the other hand, the Carthaginians that were fighting in close combat appeared to have become one level stronger.
With Wei Xiao Bei’s martial achievements, he was able to judge that the light had increased the Carthaginian soldiers power from 1-Star Elite to the peak of 1-Star Elite, infinitely approaching 2-Stars.
The effect of these changes were huge for normal soldiers. It could be said that their strengths had doubled.
By contrast, the Roman soldiers seemed as if they could not bear the might of the Carthaginian soldiers anymore.
They had dropped down from heaven to hell in an instant,allowing the Roman soldiers to truly understand what misfortune was.