Chapter 8 Fire in the Backyard (Part 1)

"I am a human being, and I understand all that is human." - Humanistic lines in the ancient Roman Terence play

——————————————————————————————

The two sides immediately collided with each other like thunder and fire, and began to fight fiercely with a town called Ruspina as the middle line of confrontation. The first cavalry battle, Caesar's experienced Germanic and Gaul team won and captured hundreds of Numidians.

Caesar ordered them all to be killed, leaving no one alive, and then the heads were skewered on spears and placed in front of the gate of his camp, claiming that this was the price King Juba had to pay for massacring Italian citizens.

The anger was triggered more and more, and King Juba personally ordered to fight Caesar again the next day, with all the cavalry and war elephants. The legion led by Scipio joined the legion of Labienus from Zeta and dispatched all the cavalry to sweep around Caesar's camp. Their numbers were absolutely superior, and they surrounded Caesar's camp and cut off the internal and external traffic. As long as they saw anyone dare to come out to graze, they would be killed with bows and spears.

In this way, Caesar's legions were suppressed in a territory of less than six Roman miles. There was only a narrow corridor near the shore, which was connected to the city of Leptis. Antony, who was guarding the city, led the cavalry every day to escort the few grain supplies to the front-line camp, but the consumption was still amazing, because the second wave of teams that came across the sea, including the Tenth Legion, were still in Brindisi. And they were intercepted and attacked by Pompey's fleet on the island of Corgi. "Don't give Caesar time to breathe. We are now in an advantageous position and it is beneficial to fight quickly." Scipio and Labienus quickly reached a consensus and prepared to join forces with King Juba's main force as soon as possible to launch a general attack on Caesar's troops. If Caesar refuses to come out and fight, then we will break through his camp.

But just when the two generals were about to pass on the order. King Juba sent an envoy to ask Scipio to meet him.

Labinus was very angry and said that Scipio was the chief executive of the Roman Republic, while King Juba was just a vassal monarch. Why should we ask our chief executive to meet him in his tent?

But Scipio was very calm. He said that it was meaningless to care about these things now. He was willing to ask King Juba to assist our army in the decisive battle with a humble and cooperative attitude.

Then, Scipio brought a few monkeys to the huge tent decorated with luxurious decorations by King Juba. Several servants stopped him and asked Scipio to change his toga with purple edges, "because King Juba doesn't like to be in his own tent. Seeing the same purple as his robe and boots is disrespectful to him." "But Caesar has not been eliminated yet." Scipio said, suppressing his anger.

"That's not true. The despicable Caesar bribed the prince of Getulia, Bocchus, and now he has risen against me. I am now providing you with assistance on three fronts, and I am exhausted. Do you want me to win one or two victories against Caesar at the cost of losing my own country?" King Juba said angrily.

At this moment, General Mago also volunteered to lead 5,000 cavalry as a vanguard and quickly return to Numidia to repel and stop the invasion of Getulia, because their tribal territory is too close to the city of Kirta. If the cavalry goes out to fight, it may take less than three days to threaten your majesty's capital.

King Juba nodded, but Scipio was anxious at this time. He still insisted on asking King Juba to stay temporarily, at least to meet with Pompey before making a decision.

"How can this be in time? I am not your vassal now!" King Juba slammed the table and stood up.

"Then let's do this." Scipio's tone was almost begging, "General Mago will stop the Getulians first, and your Majesty will take some of the troops to Utica to meet with Dictato, and leave some troops for me to fight Caesar."

King Juba thought for a while, and reluctantly said okay, I will leave 10,000 cavalry and 30 war elephants for you, and I will take the rest of the troops to Utica for the time being, and observe the changes in the situation on the way.

When he heard about the war elephants, Scipio's eyes lit up. He hurriedly thanked King Juba and expressed his willingness to live up to the trust, treat these huge and noble animals well, and train them carefully.

"After all, you are the chief executive, why are you like a humble animal trainer? Let my elephant trainer take care of the elephants, and you don't need to worry about it." King Juba replied curiously and unhappily.

Then Scipio returned to his camp and told Labienus about it. The other party was very shocked. What about the general attack? But Scipio was full of confidence. He said that as long as he had thirty war elephants, he would definitely defeat Caesar.

Whenever Labienus saw his great father-in-law talking about animals, his eyes would be shining, more excited than seeing mountains of gold and silver treasures. So he instinctively felt that it was unreliable to put the hope of this decisive battle on Scipio, so he walked to the map table, used a graphite hook pen, drew a circle on his own camp, drew a circle on Caesar's camp, and then drew a line of the battle area in the middle. Finally, Labienus suddenly drew a line directly to the city of Leptis behind, and then shouted, "Ignatius, Ignatius!"

On the next sunny and windless day, Scipio sat in an armchair, watching the training of war elephants in the parade ground in front of the camp. "It is said that Caesar also learned that King Juba reinforced us with many brave elephants, so he taught the soldiers how to fight. Joking, this is simply wishful thinking, how can he compete with wild animals? This also shows that the battle of Africa from beginning to end, animals are the key to determine the victory or defeat, so all the officers and soldiers on horseback must watch carefully! Remember my words, only those who love animals can win all victories."

A dozen military tribunes and chief centurions, with bitter faces, stood trembling at the edge of the parade ground or on the tower, forced to watch the war elephants' drills, because this was the request of the great father-in-law, and Labinus looked from a distance, then shook his head, and let Scipio go crazy, and he went down to arrange tactical plans.