Hannibal the Carthaginian star was a born hero, and his lifelong pursuit was to defeat Rome. In 2 18 BC, Hannibal led his troops across the Alps and unexpectedly appeared on the Roman plain, thus opening the prelude to the Second Punic War. Hannibal lecter radiates the most dazzling light on this stage built by countless flesh and blood soldiers. His fame shook the whole Mediterranean.
In 2 16 BC, Hannibal Barca, a great Carthaginian star, set out from Spain, marched more than 1,000 kilometers quickly, browsed the natural hazards in the Alps and suddenly appeared on the map of Rome. Originally Hannibal took 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry and 30 elephants, but in the Alps, ordinary soldiers froze to death and 30 elephants were spared. On the other side of the mountain, Rome has at least 200,000 troops.
Faced with this situation, Hannibal chose to March. This kind of action cannot be called "recklessness", but "wisdom". Because Hannibal has calculated one thing, and that is cavalry.
Western Rome always attached great importance to infantry, even during the period of Eastern Rome, and various formations were invented (though worse than Sparta). Cavalry, in the eyes of the Romans, are not at all dirty, and they are all "pets" of the upper nobility.
The invasion of Gaul in the 4th century BC had a great influence on the tactical development of Roman legions. The application of three-line array and sword and shield tactics is largely the result of the accumulation of battlefield demand in the early stage. The defeat of the Roman army in the invasion of Gaul completely ignited the fuse of tactical reform. The replacement of equipment such as long shield is the result of military exchanges with Samoans.
Even so, the Romans still attached importance to infantry, and the so-called improvement was only the change from infantry to heavy infantry. Need cavalry. The Romans were recruited temporarily from neighboring countries.
Against Canny, the Romans sent the traditional three-line array as usual, which was a huge regiment composed of phalanxes and could crush the enemy with endless offensives. The two wings of the Roman army were protected by cavalry, one was Roman cavalry and the other was allied cavalry.
Hannibal's greatness is that he has no fixed tactics, but is based on psychological warfare. The Romans successfully used the central breakthrough last time. He saw through that the Roman coach must once again give play to the dominant center breakthrough and deliberately use the formation with heavy center but weak combat effectiveness to cause anti-encirclement.
In hindsight, the Romans should have thinned the formation and then rotated around the right wing to force the Carthaginians to the river, but Hannibal concentrated the cavalry on the left wing and bit the Romans on the back. If the coach of Rome is an idiot, he will win more. He can make full use of his own strength to push the other side to the river, and even disperse his troops to form two teams to echo each other, not afraid of being surrounded by division. Of course, Hannibal will certainly adjust, but Rome has great advantages in strength, and the more stupid the method, the smaller the flaw.
Hannibal's formation is the famous crescent formation.
70,000 Roman infantry collided with China's army in Carthage, trying to defeat Gaul and Spanish troops. At the height of the fierce fighting in China, Hannibal waved the banner, and the African heavy infantry on two wings quickly outflanked Rome and surrounded the Romans on three sides. Hannibal's cavalry quickly defeated the Roman cavalry and killed everyone, while the cavalry of Nombia blocked the cavalry of the Roman Coalition forces. Immediately, Hannibal's cavalry bypassed the rear of the Romans and attacked the allied cavalry with the cavalry of Nombia, killing them all.
In the end, all the cavalry of Carthage joined forces to attack the weak rear of the Roman legion. Immediately, the Romans were defeated and the battle turned into a one-sided massacre. Due to the lack of long-range weapons, the Roman infantry could only stare until the Carthaginians committed suicide.
No matter how paulus (commander-in-chief of Rome) judged Hannibal's disposal, maybe he saw the Carthaginian middle road and thought that Carthaginian troops concentrated in the middle road in order to break through their own front with inferior troops, or he had long seen that the Carthaginian army middle road was weak and wanted to concentrate on tearing it apart. Anyway, paulus concentrated forces! Paulus also raided!
As a result, paulus's two wings were attacked by Carthage's main force, and the rear was shattered by Carthage cavalry.
In one day, the Romans were wiped out, 60,000 people were killed, and 1.7 million people surrendered, setting a record for the number of soldiers killed in one day. It wasn't even until the Battle of the Somme in World War I.
Now, let's explain why the Western Roman Empire destroyed the Qin Dynasty at the same time.
As far as the two great powers, East and West, are concerned, they both have large-scale legions competing for hegemony, and both have experienced the baptism of many wars. But the difference is that a large-scale legion is not the same as a large-scale modern legion.
Cavalry has always been the weakness of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, the cavalry of the Qin Dynasty participated in more than 40 battles, and the number exceeded100000, which made the Huns dare not despise. Compared with the Xiongnu's ravages in Europe in the later period, it is no problem for the Qin Dynasty to completely abuse the Roman Empire, not to mention the BUG weapon "Qin crossbow" of the Qin Dynasty.
Judging from the number of people who participated in the war, compared with the battles of hundreds of thousands of people in the late Warring States period, the military war in ancient Europe can only be regarded as the stubble of Mr. Liu.