The Sended's

Chapter 43: Superpower's Greatest Enemy

The wise man once said, "Those who are desperate will indeed flee from the battlefield, but do not try to stop them from escaping this, for they will do anything to achieve it,"

That's not wrong, it's one of the reasons why many events from history where an army is not completely destroyed. In fact, only a few troops were recorded as being completely destroyed by the enemy

And some of them came from ancient Roman records, but not from their military power. Oh certainly not, because the Roman army at that time fought to get the land and conquer it, not to destroy the enemy forces

That means they will not pursue the enemy as far as possible, they even very rarely cancel their combat formations such as testudo, that is because it is a Roman culture that imitates the culture of Hellenism which itself imitates the culture of ancient Greece, he said,

In a nutshell, they think that a soldier who leaves the formation line is a soldier who is a shame, because it could have destroyed the entire army with enemy maneuvers

The Romans understood their thinking and instilled it into every soldier they had, so they had no one to aim for victory on the battlefield like the Vikings or anything else, the Romans chose to succeed together

But this allowed their enemies to run away easily, knowing that Rome's tactics were rarely mentioned to open formations and chase after the enemy, except for their cavalry....

Well I guess it's enough to talk about Romawainya, it's time to the main point.

In Roman records it is said that Rome has many enemies, even friends can turn and become enemies. But not once did their country submit, especially before the year when they rose to become a world power

But when their country was still newly formed and had a territory as large as modern Italy, there was another country that was their eternal rival, Carthage or Carthage

Carthage or Qart Hadast in Punic means new city, they originally started from a small Punic colony led by their first Queen named Dido

When Queen Dido first arrived in North Africa, there were already many Punic colonial towns standing there, the indigenous superior tribe there told the Queen that he could build a city but only as big as one cowhide

It was an insult to him, but it could be twisted back when he sliced the cow's skin as thin as a hair and put it on a hill forming a base to build a city

As Carthage was built, different from Rome, which in the beginning had already shed blood when Romulus killed Remus, Carthage was built with the wisdom of Queen Dido

These two cities from the beginning alone were already very different, how they grew was also different. Rome conquered all of Italy with military force, while Carthage preferred trade and diplomacy.

They even fought three wars, all three of which were won by Rome and completely destroyed Carthage, cursing their rich and fertile land with salt so that it could not be overgrown

With it Rome ensured that Carthage could never again rise and wage a fourth war.

My story will take in their second war, precisely to a Carthage General named Hannibal Barca. One of the best generals in using maneuvering

I take two examples of his famous battles, the first of which was the battle at Lake Trasimene when Hannibal passed through a narrow path to avoid the two Roman armies that were waiting for him, to his right is Lake Trasinene itself while to his left is a steep hill

Rome, who finally realized this, pursued with one of its troops, they numbered less so that it could reach Hannibal on the narrow road from behind

But when they arrived, no one was on the narrow path, which made them distrustful because Hannibal's army could move so fast. But the surprise didn't get there....

Apparently Hannibal climbed the hill to the left of the road and launched an attack on the confused Roman army on the road. Having superior terrain, surprises, and numbers, the Romans who should have been the most disciplined in the world decided to run

But where will they run? Because all Hannibal left was Lake Trasimene on the right side of the road

Eventually most of the Roman army was killed by Hannibal's Carthage troops, the rest drowned to the bottom of Lake Transmene for trying to swim in their armor.

"Miss, they advance in unison" said Percival

"Hmmm. I don't think so, they added strength to their middle side" I said after a closer look.

"What?! Doesn't that mean they know the weakness of our ranks?"

Now I'm sure the enemy has a pretty smart general, or maybe a smart advisor....

"I'll tell you the tactics now," after I think out loud there seems to be only one way

I told the five people my plan, they already know a little but the details I'm just explaining now. And as I expected, they were highly doubtful of this plan

"That's why you're weakening the middle? But your plan is very risky,"

"The greater the risk, the greater the outcome. Sir Percival will come with me to lead the middle so as not to misunderstand and run, the four of you will keep the right and left sides to stay,"

The middle side is the army that can finally fight because of my services, they will trust me more than the other half. For that I chose to lead them, but certainly not because of that one thing alone

In order for this plan to work, we needed another type of unit that unfortunately we and the enemy both did not have, but I managed to overcome it with my connection

No one was surprised when they saw this.

Now that the enemy is halfway through, all the knights have agreed to carry out my plan. They went to their own places, and so did Percival

So let me explain in detail, for that I will mention Hannibal's second famous battle, the battle of Cannae

After their previous defeat at Lake Trasimene, Rome was furious with Hannibal. They decided to assemble an army of unprecedented numbers throughout their history

In total there were approximately 100,000 soldiers in this army, to face Hannibal whose army was only 50,000, half of them, however, were no longer just Carthage troops but coalition forces from Carthage and tribes that hated Rome

Hannibal plays them in the open, no tricks here. Unless the enemy really fails to realize that it is a trick, then that is how Hannibal won this battle.

100,000 elite Roman soldiers against 50,000 united Carthage soldiers and tribes with minimal experience, Hannibal managed to annihilate the entire enemy army with only 5,700 casualties on his side.

How could he do that? He used the same tactics I use today, only on a larger scale.

First, let's advance a little side center so that my line appears convex, this aims to attract the attention of the enemy who is attacking to focus more to the middle. It is true that from the beginning they were aiming for the middle, but only their leaders knew

With this position, the soldiers who were on the right and left sides would be drawn to the middle as we slowly retreated, ups! I leaked the next step huh...?

The crossbowman was still on the front to shoot once or twice, after which I ordered to retreat

"We flush this land with their blood!"

Their line was twice as long as ours, the reason they didn't try to turn my line was because there was a river behind that would make it difficult for them

Like I said, the river is not too deep so it can still be passed without a bridge, but still it will be a weakness for those who pass it, or?

The clashes are happening, now there is no way to go back, everything has to go the way I want it to so that we can win this heavy battle

"Dead you!"

"Damn it!"

Curses after curses were thrown in this battle, many dead people were falling on the front lines of the line. The curse of the dead, huh? It's a fantasy world so I wonder if it really works

"Don't arrest! Let's give them what they want, step back slowly!" exclaim me again

"Eh? Does that mean we have to run into the woods again?"

"It turns out it's hard to fight the enemy in the open field,"

No, they misunderstood this. The reason Hannibal was on the middle side was so that his troops would not misunderstand him retreating too far to run, it meant that I also had to convince them

I lack charisma like Hannibal so I'll use my own.

"If any of you run away from battle, I will kill them with my own hands,"

Y-Yah sounds like I sent them on a suicide mission like the Soviets did against Nazi Germany, but my intentions are good.... Uhm, was my intention right?

The middle-sided troops continued to retreat slowly so that the enemy was unaware of it and continued to fill the basins in our ranks with soldiers from their right and left sides, as was Hannibal's way of defeating the Romans at Cannae

"Miss! It's the enemy General, let me fight it so that the battle is over quickly" Percival said

Hm? Oho! Right, there are enemy generals among them, but there's no way I'm sending Percival against him right now

"Rejected" I replied

"W-Why miss?! It could end the battle!" he does not accept

"Can't you see that he's been after you since? He looked at me repeatedly and at you with a smile, I'm sure there was a trap there,"

That was the first reason, the second reason was that if Percival could somehow kill the enemy General, then the enemy forces would run away and their total destruction plan would fail

No enemy should run, for that they must have a moral high up in order to continue to believe that we are very easy to defeat, and like someone who flies too high, when he falls, he will fall very painfully