Chapter 8: Divide and Converge Attack (Part 1)

"My husband is my most precious ornament. He has been the general of Athens for twenty years." - The wife of Phocion, the ancient Greek general of Athens

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Although they were prisoners, the two sea commanders of Pompey's army were treated well by Antony. They had fires to keep warm, and chestnuts and wine were sent to them to fill their stomachs. Most of the army soldiers brought by Maximus drowned in the sea because they were wearing armor and were not familiar with the water. Most of the survivors were rowers recruited from Rhodes. Many of them were familiar with the subordinates of Antony or Lepidus because they were from the same hometown. Therefore, Antony promised not to kill them without presenting it to Caesar, and to send them back home once the war was over.

In this sudden hurricane, most of the fleets that Pompey came to intercept were damaged, and the rest were in twos and threes, and they did not care about fighting and hid in the small harbor for shelter.

The oarsmen and soldiers lit a huge bonfire in the area where Anthony was, which was a signal to gather the scattered teams on the shore. At night, the legion soldiers came in dozens or hundreds. They were all in boats and sampans. They waded ashore under the strong wind and suffered a lot, but most of them survived.

However, there were always more than a thousand veterans led by Venditis who did not come to join, which made Anthony worried. You know, the number of these veterans is almost equivalent to one-third of Caesar's current legion establishment, and the quality is even at the backbone level. If they are discovered and annihilated by Pompey's troops, it will be a great loss.

"Where are we now?" On the beach, Anthony found two captives who were warming themselves by the fire and shivering, and asked.

This was the second time Marcellus was captured. He had surrendered to Lepidus during the siege of Masseria, but then he went east to Pompey. He was a staunch republican. When Antony asked him, he was confused because it was his first time to take his fleet to the battle and he really didn't know why.

Maximus, who had been in this sea area, replied that the northwest wind was blowing, and you could just reach Apollonia from Brindisi, but since the previous wind direction turned to the southwest, I predict that the current direction may be between Dicchachuang and Apollonia.

When the centurions asked Antony whether they wanted to go deeper into the southeast to join Caesar's army, he refused outright: "Now we only have personnel and a small amount of weapons left, and even most of the horses have been lost. At this moment, we should gather our troops and horses, no matter which direction, to find the nearest town to get supplies, so that we can better resist Pompey's counterattack, because if this person is right, we are in the area where Pompey and Dictato's positions are intertwined, and we must guard against the enemy's guerrillas and cavalry. As for the meeting with Dictato, I heard that he has temporarily stabilized the situation, so we can take it slowly. Anyway, we have come to Greece, everyone! Then fight and plunder to your heart's content, and find a new baggage bag first."

The good news came in the early morning hours, when Venditis sent the messenger cavalry who connected the line - his veterans, who not only successfully landed safely, but also killed Pompey's cavalry stationed in the city of Lisas and captured the town.

It turned out that after Lepidus used the strategy of sowing discord to make Gabinus "strengthen" the right wing, the fortifications built by him, Caesar and Callenus were a diagonal line, so Labinus changed his tactical plan again, sending cavalry and servant troops to bypass the river valleys and mountain roads in the north that Caesar's army could not block, constantly eroding the local market towns, and preparing to open up the road to Olicum as soon as possible. After the defeat, Caesar also kept his composure and took a nonchalant attitude towards Labinus's behavior. The city of Lisas was one of the recently captured towns. It was only six Roman miles away from the place where Antony landed, and Olicum was forty Roman miles northwest of it.

Last night, after Venditis's troops landed, they were attacked by a total of 600 Pompeian cavalry from Lisas. Most of them were recruited from Bithynia. At first, these cavalry shouted in Latin, saying that they sympathized with these shipwrecked enemies and promised not to harm them as long as they were willing to lay down their weapons and surrender. The vigilant Venditis thought that since these cavalrymen had come in the dark, they would never stop until they cut off their heads, so what they said was all lies. So he gathered hundreds of veterans, first shouted the same words to pretend to be evasive, and then quietly prepared weapons and occupied the advantageous terrain. No one was deceived by the opponent's lies, and they were all prepared to fight to the death.

However, the 400 people on the other two ships were all new recruits who were reorganized before the expedition. They were timid and wavered. Regardless of the rebukes and persuasions of the officers, they ran to the enemy cavalry to surrender, and most of them were brutally killed later.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Venditis led his troops to quietly approach, suddenly knocked on the shields and weapons, let out a terrifying shout, and launched a short charge at the enemy cavalry, killing dozens of them, seizing a lot of horses and bags, and the rest turned around and ran away in fear. Then Venditis joined up with other veteran troops and decided to advance quickly without waiting for Antony. At dawn, he occupied the deserted Lisas because the cavalry originally stationed there were so frightened that they simply abandoned the town and fled.

Antony, who was overjoyed, immediately took thousands of his troops to Lychas at close to noon, and set up a position. After receiving the news, more and more people rushed to join here. About three days later, all the legions were assembled, because No more than a thousand men and horses were lost in crossing the sea, and more than half of them were frightened by the enemy's bluff because of their cowardice, and were captured and killed.

Another market day passed, and Lepidus' three subsequent legions stationed in Ravenna also landed intact at Sarona and Issa - in the Greek theater, Caesar's crisis of being alone was finally changed, and he had The strength has reached ten legions again. Although it is still a little behind Pompey in terms of complete organization, Caesar's confidence in the decisive battle has returned!

In the camp behind the wall, he summoned Lepidus and handed him the latest military order: The fortifications here are complete and Pompey's army cannot break them for the time being, so you take your direct troops and rush to meet the legions of Lychas and Antony. Seize the time to eradicate the city of Olikum, which is still resisting, and then assemble with the three legions (the 6th, 13th and 15th legions) you crossed from the sea further north, and then split into two, and you lead a group to sweep across The Thessalia region in the north, while Antony led a group south to join me and launch a sweep towards the Aetolia region in the south.

"Rabinus tried to attack me in a roundabout way, so I responded by grabbing him in the middle of his throat and outflanking him from both sides!" Caesar said fiercely.

"What should we do if we capture the city of Olikum?" Lepidus asked, and then he said, "Although I personally don't think there is any benefit in destroying it, it is the winter camp soon, and what the soldiers want is a happy robbery. I’m so excited to continue fighting.” r1152.

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