It is one thing to return to the country in despair and gain nothing. If the Chu army takes the initiative to seek peace, the situation will be another.
Momia could take the opportunity to negotiate terms with Yan Liang, and at least she could keep the newly acquired Persian land west of the Euphrates River.
With this large piece of land, even if it is empty and desolate, it will be a great achievement. Momia returns to Rome with this huge achievement, which can at least quell the dissatisfaction of the nobles and save their mother and son.
status.
"Quick, bring the letter quickly." Momia shouted impatiently.
The soldier hurriedly handed over the letter, which was a letter written in Roman.
Momia opened the letter with great expectations, but as she looked at it, her beautiful face became more and more gloomy, until her eyes burst out with angry flames.
"This shameless Yan Liang dares to humiliate me like this. It's really hateful!" Momia yelled angrily.
It turned out that the letter was not a letter of peace at all, but a letter of humiliation.
In the letter, Yan Liang ordered Momia to lead his army back to Rome with an ultimatum. Otherwise, Yan Liang would destroy her army, capture her and punish her as a prostitute, and let the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Chu Dynasty ravage her to their heart's content.
Arrogance, arrogance, open humiliation, these extreme words flooded Momia's mind like a tide.
As the supreme empress dowager of the Roman Empire, the noble Momia had never suffered such humiliation.
This was not only a personal humiliation for her, but also a humiliation for the entire Roman Empire.
"I have made up my mind and will never take a step back. I will not give up until I defeat the Chu army and kill Yan Liang!" Momia blushed and roared sternly.
At this time, Momia could no longer retreat.
If she retreats, she will be afraid of Yan Liang's threat. If word spreads, her reputation will suffer a greater blow, and the subjects of the entire Roman Empire will complain that she has damaged the national prestige of Rome.
At this point, Momia can only hold on and win this war no matter what.
Elder Harvey and some of the ministers who advocated retreat originally wanted to persuade the Queen Mother to retreat, but when they read the content of Yan Liang's humiliating letter, they were speechless.
The emperors in the East humiliated their empire and their empress dowager in this way. Can they still persuade the empress dowager to swallow their anger and retreat back to Rome in despair?
The retreating faction remained silent, while Saga and other fighting factions became even more angry. They wrote letters one after another, demanding that the attack on the Assyrian Chu army be strengthened.
The angry Momia ordered the Roman soldiers to be organized and mobilized again to launch a second wave of unprecedented scale attacks on the Assyrian city and the Chu camp outside the city.
Yan Liang had expected this. He had more than 2,000 Yuanrong soldiers, 500 crossbows, and 300 crossbow carts, relying on these powerful long-range weapons. Yan Liang dared to kill as many Romans as they came.
After several days of bloody fighting, the Romans suffered 7,000 casualties, but still could not break through the Chu army's iron wall.
Momia was in trouble.
Attack, but cannot break through the solid barriers of the Chu army.
If you retreat, you will have to endure the humiliation of Yan Liang, and face the danger of rebellion by the nobles after returning home.
Mormia was in a dilemma and had no choice but to waste her time in front of the Assyrian city day by day.
Yan Liang was not anxious at all. This time, he showed great patience.
For several months, the Chu army could not hold out and could only send out light cavalry to harass the Romans' food routes.
By the end of summer, the Romans' food routes had been almost completely cut off by the Chu army.
The morale of the Romans, who were short of food, hit rock bottom, and there were complaints about morale, and soldiers soon began to flee.
This is a precursor to collapse.
The situation of the Romans was deteriorating day by day, but the situation of the Chu army was getting better day by day.
The 100,000 infantry troops led by Gan Ning and others have arrived in Persia and are stationed in the newly captured cities, completely controlling tens of millions of Persian slaves.
Driven by the Chu army, these Persian slaves could only work non-stop, and the fruits of their labor provided sufficient food and grass support for the Chu army on the front line.
Roman camp, imperial tent.
"Empress Dowager, our army is severely short of food and grass. The soldiers have low morale and have begun to flee in droves. I think it is meaningless to continue fighting this battle. It is better to order a retreat."
Even Saga, who had always taken the lead in fighting, could no longer hold on at this time. He changed his mind and advocated retreating.
The other generals such as Kamuo also requested to withdraw their troops, and the calls for withdrawal became louder and louder.
Momia looked at the consuls who were shouting to retreat one by one, gritted her teeth secretly, and a trace of embarrassment flashed between her eyebrows.
After a long silence, Momia sighed: "Since you are all clamoring to retreat, then retreat."
Momia had no choice. At this time, she could not care less about revenge for Yan Liang's humiliation. She knew that if she continued to spend time here, she and the 400,000-strong army would be annihilated here.
Compared to dying here, if you go back to the country, you may face rebellion from the nobles, but there is always a glimmer of hope.
In desperation, Momia had no choice but to retreat.
Saga and other consuls secretly breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly resigned to prepare for the retreat.
As a result, the entire Roman camp and 400,000 soldiers were busy and prepared for three days.
Three days later, the huge army abandoned the encirclement camp and began to move slowly towards the west.
To the south of the Assyrian city was the Chu army's camp.
In the palace, Yan Liang was drinking Persian wine and enjoying the cool breeze blowing from the Euphrates River.
Suddenly, Deng Ai came in excitedly, cupped his hands and said: "Father, the Romans have begun to retreat."
Rome, retreat!
Yan Liang's eyes flashed with excitement, he jumped up, strode away from the tent, and rode straight to the Assyrian city.
Climbing to the top of the city, Yan Liang raised his eyes and looked down into the distance. Sure enough, he saw that the enemy camps were completely empty. Hundreds of thousands of Romans had withdrawn from the camps and were slowly moving towards the northwest.
"That stinky bitch Momia finally couldn't stand it any longer. Huh, it's not that easy to run away!"
Yan Liang sneered and then sent an order to summon the generals.
Returning to the imperial account, all the generals were gathered, and Yan Liang gave the order to counterattack.
One hundred and fifty thousand cavalry came out in full force, following the retreating Roman legion, looking for an opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the demoralized Romans.
Although the Romans retreated, they retreated in a very rhythmic manner. The lineup was relatively tight, and this was obviously not the perfect time to attack.
As a result, 150,000 Chu cavalrymen followed the 400,000 Roman legions, eagerly looking for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow.
While following, Yan Liang continued to release his light cavalry, attacking the Romans from all sides, constantly disrupting their formation and making their retreat uneasy.
In order to avoid retreating too quickly and being overwhelmed by the Chu army, Momia could only maintain a dense formation and move at a snail's speed.
In this case, the Romans could only retreat slowly at a speed of less than fifty miles a day.
Seven days later, the Romans were harassed until the tired army entered Carchemish Castle.
At this time, they could finally take a breath and rely on the defense of the fortress. They did not have to worry about the Chu army attacking the camp at night and could finally sleep peacefully.
Yan Liang rode his horse around the fort and inspected the terrain.
At dusk, while stationed on a hill, Yan Liang looked at the enemy fort from afar: "I think this is the ideal place for a decisive battle. What do you think, Fengxiao?"
Guo Jia nodded and said: "Although this fortress is located on a high ground and is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is extremely difficult to obtain water. Our army has only cut off the water source outside the city. Within a few days, the Roman army will be in chaos. At that time, they can only choose
Leave the city to break the siege, look north and continue retreating."
After a pause, Guo Jia continued: "If the Romans want to break the siege of our army, they must use their cavalry to break our blockade before they can go north. And the only road to the north from this fort passes through a stretch of land between two hills.
I think this narrow place is an excellent place to set up an ambush, and we can use the terrain there to annihilate the enemy cavalry in one fell swoop."
Guo Jia spoke and revealed his strategy.
His strategy coincided with what Yan Liangliang had in mind.
The reason why Yan Liang followed the Romans for a long time and never launched an attack was because the Romans' military morale had not yet collapsed, and on the other hand he was afraid of their 60,000 cavalry.
If the 60,000 Roman cavalry could be annihilated, then the remaining 300,000 Roman infantry would only be slaughtered.
"Fengxiao's plan is very clever, let's do it like this." Yan Liang whipped his horse whip and made a decision.
The order was quickly passed down, and 150,000 Chu army cavalry surrounded Kachemish Fort, pretending to annihilate the Romans here.
Immediately afterwards, the Chu army cut off a small river outside the fort, cutting off the Romans' way of getting water from outside the city.
Guo Jia's move quickly achieved the expected results.
The Romans were originally short of food and could barely survive their hunger, but the lack of water was even more fatal.
The water source was cut off, and the 400,000 Luo soldiers, who were short of food and water, hungry and thirsty, had reached the limit of their endurance and were on the verge of collapse.
Carchemish Castle is filled with an atmosphere of tragedy of failure and resentment, and the resentment is as thick as a ghost castle.
In the imperial tent, Momia looked gloomy, Alexander looked panicked, and all the ministers looked gloomy and sad.
"Empress Dowager, the Easterners have surrounded the castle and cut off our water source. This time they clearly want to surround us here. We can't wait any longer. Please send cavalry to break through the enemy's obstruction in the north and create a way for the army to go north.
Let’s take the road.”
In a pessimistic atmosphere, Saga raised his hand and spoke.
Momia's body trembled and she fell into hesitation again.
The remaining 60,000 cavalry are already the last ones she can rely on. Once these cavalry are lost, her 300,000 infantry will be destroyed by the Chu army's cavalry in the blink of an eye.
Unless absolutely necessary, how could she risk the cavalry so easily?
However, now that the Chu army has made it clear that they will surround them and die of thirst here, if they don't use the cavalry at this time, her 400,000-strong army will be completely annihilated here.
At this time, under Yan Liang's pressure, Momia had no choice.
After pondering for a long time, Momia let out a long sigh and shouted: "Where is Camoo?"
Kamius, who was beside Saga, stood up with a solemn look on his face.
Momia looked at him and said: "Camius, you are the best cavalry commander in our Roman Empire. I order you to lead 60,000 cavalry to attack and clear a way north for our infantry legions. The Great Roman Empire
My life or death depends on you, don't let me down."
Camus took a deep breath and said resolutely: "Don't worry, Queen Mother, I, Camus, will definitely fight my way out even if I risk my life!"