Chapter 8: Divide and Converge Attack (Part 2)

In Olikum City, apart from the thirty hostages, more than 3,700 adult men were sold into slavery, and there were countless old, weak, women and children. Then after Lepidus met with Antony, after a brief exchange of greetings, and regardless of any formal etiquette, Lepidus quickly handed over the team - Lepidus took three legions, the 6th, 13th and 15th, and marched towards Thessaly. The rest of the troops were all composed of Antony took command and rushed to the city of Bugarotum to join Caesar and defeat neighboring Aetolia.

Although Lepidus was in charge of the North Army Group, his marching position was still southeast of the Port of Dikha. According to the original idea, his terminal point was Lyrisa on the east coast of Greece. However, when he led When marching with 15,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, I realized that marching in this mountainous area was extremely difficult. Lepidus had passed through here before, so in a sense, it was a return visit to his old place. However, The impression that Greece gives to everyone is that of mountains made of stones, roads paved with stones, and plains made of stones, with temples and fortresses made of stones. There are stones everywhere, and water sources are extremely scarce. And after a few years, Lepidus found that all the rivers in his memory were out of shape, because in this climate and the environment of the novel "Vertex", rivers are extremely fragile. The soldiers could only rely on the guidance of the local guides, and walked slowly for ten Roman miles under the still dry and hot sun in early winter, and then found a thin and soft stream to soothe themselves, because people and pack horses and war horses drank water. The demand is too high, so the number of individual allocations can only be reduced.

Equally hot were the sentiments of the Thessalians, who heard of the end of the city of Olicum. Messengers were quickly dispatched to the camp. Claiming that all surrounding towns have reached a consensus. Willing to provide Caesar's army with anything they need, including wheat, wine, leather, and women.

In this way, the life of the three legions was greatly improved. Lepidus stationed the camp and stopped marching, because he knew that Pompey's follow-up troops were all taking the sea route and gathering towards the front line, and he could not intercept them.

And as far as he knew. Pompey's five legions in Macedonia and Greece have all been assembled, and three more legions are also coming across the sea:

The numbers of these three legions have been assigned to the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Macedonian Legions. The Sixth Legion was actually adapted from the Eleventh Legion of Luculas's campaign in Asia Minor. It was originally stationed in Bithynia; The Seventh Legion was newly recruited by Brutus, Apis, Cassius and others in Asia Minor and other places; while the Eighth Legion was the remnants of the previous Eighth Legion of Lucula and the remnants of Cicero's Cilicia. It became known as the "Twin Legion". And according to the intelligence collected by Lepidus, these three legions were integrated into a large number of Greeks and Celts from Asia Minor. Therefore, the organization is very solid. In addition, although Scipio has only been in Asia Minor for about a month. But he has gained the reputation of "butcher" in terms of tax collection - he taxes everything, such as "door panel tax", "window tax", "stove tax", "military shoe tax", "crossbow machine tax", " The "pack beast tax" was short of the confiscation of the live and work tax and the heartbeat and fart tax. The greedy and violent tax collectors once again wreaked havoc in Asia Minor. The family properties of these knights were expropriated by Pompey, and they exploited the place even more to make up for the shortcomings. .

Therefore, Lepidus estimated that the equipment of these three legions would not be very poor, and they would arrive at the front line in Greece within a month.

Therefore, he cannot go too deep, as this will cause the entire army's battle line to be too long and too fragile.

In addition, Pompey's army's counterattack, if nothing unexpected happens, will come soon.

Lepidus' guess was not wrong, but before that, there was a fierce battle for military power between Labienus and Gebinus.

When Gebinus was awarded the honor of "Imperato" by the soldiers, troubles ensued. When the coastline was lost and Olicum was lost, Pompey's angry accusations and pursuits also came to the camp. , Rabinus took the opportunity to write a detailed report on the origin of "Imperato" and responded to the past. Soon after, Pompey ordered Gebinus to be transferred to the provincial treasurer and went to Delphi to "assist Marcellus" Take care of the general affairs, because Imperato is more needed there."

This kind of teasing and sarcasm made Gabinus ashamed and angry. He was obviously deposed, but now he could only accept this fact, packed up his bags sadly, and returned to Delphi.

As a result, all the command of the five legions, and the three legions that were about to arrive, was vested in Rabinus. He finally began to feel proud and proud, and faced off against Caesar without any constraints: after more than ten years of getting along day and night. , the deeper the relationship, the more irresolvable the hatred will be after the breakup. This is the same for both.

Rabinus acted vigorously and resolutely after taking over the army. He first reorganized the power of the fleet. Now Byblos died of illness and Maximus was captured, so he handed over the remaining 120 warships to the commander Libo, and used him to as commander-in-chief, and Pompey's eldest son Laus and youngest son Sextus as lieutenants-in this way, the fleet command was unified due to kinship and no longer disorganized. Then Labienus asked them to focus on destroying the fleet first. Attack Caesar's lines of communication and cut off the Adriatic Sea again, otherwise Caesar will obtain effective and sufficient supplies.

Then, Rabinus suddenly left only one legion on the Apsus River to confront Caesar, while he led the remaining four legions, bypassing Caesar's fortifications and heading directly towards the city of Cocula on the western coast. And go.

This surprised Caesar. He couldn't figure out what Labinus was trying to do, so he quickly recalled Antony, who had made great progress in Aetolia, and started to study it.

"I originally had only two estimates. One was that Labinus retreated, assembled all the legions, and fought with me in central Greece; the other was that Labinus attacked my wall line, trying to push me back to Apollonia and Dichalchium, and then tried to push me into the sea. Now he is risking his flank to be exposed and go around to the south of my camp. What is his intention?" Caesar said in a deep voice at the military meeting.

"This is obviously trying to lure us to abandon the solid wall and fight with us in the field, and overwhelm us with the advantage of numbers. So I suggest that we build an inner wall five Roman miles behind Bugalotum, so that we can protect several seaports and be foolproof. After we collect enough food, we can wait for an opportunity to fight the enemy." This is Callenus's suggestion, which is very cautious.

But Antony, who looked at the sand table carefully, seemed to have different ideas. He said proudly, "Maybe this is the purpose of Labienus, but war is never about who is more right, but who is less wrong. We can turn Labienus's action into a mistake and surround and annihilate him in Coracula!" (To be continued...)