Chapter 19: Prisoners of War Form an Army (Part 1)

"The Roman oligarchy after the failure of the Gracchi brothers' reforms only thought about how to make money, and its policies were unprincipled." - "Jugurtha's War"

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This is natural. There are always many nobles in the city of Rome. Whether they are speculative or persistent, they have private dealings with the Pompeian party. Sometimes they will provide some specious information, and sometimes they will publish some innocent information. ****'s feelings, but Aetius's letter is content that neither "Little Pompey" can ignore, because his ideological information is accurate and concise, and he can also propose corresponding plans. At that time, he opposed Clara Su's unsuccessful expedition to Parthia resulted in the annihilation of the entire opponent's army at Kalai, which made the tribune famous. Later, he fought desperately against Lepidus in front of the holy treasury (of course he ultimately failed), which can be regarded as earning attention. Now The nobles regarded him as a new star, raised a lot of money, said many good words, and promoted him to the chief legal officer of the capital smoothly.

As a result, Caesar made a plan last year to expand the number of arch-justiciers from only two to sixteen, which immediately made Aetius hate him to pieces. So he secretly colluded with the Pompeian party and constantly sent new strategies. This time, Aetius carefully observed the situation after Pompey's death, and then drafted a detailed document for Pompey:

In order to consolidate his dictatorial status, Caesar will soon launch an expedition against Dacia or Parthia, so you don’t need to be too domineering now and make Caesar think that Spain’s three provincial legions alone can pacify you. So just do some piracy in the Balearic Islands and don't attract enough attention from Caesar. That would not be a good thing for you;

Your combat strength is mainly to preserve about a hundred ships. More appropriate. Scattered garrisons, mainly threatening Masseria and the Ligurian sea area, to confuse the judgment of Caesar's camp;

Caesar's fleet will soon escort about 4,000 prisoners of war, most of whom are foreign soldiers recruited by your father, including Iberians and Numidians. After passing through the Balearic Islands, you can obtain information and attack fleet. Capture as many prisoners of war as possible to strengthen training for the army;

The target is the province of Far Spain, which is adjacent to Lusitania and a certain distance from Gaul and Italy. Many of them are Crean disciples of your father, as well as some veterans who were dismissed after being captured by Caesar. As long as By acting decisively and quickly, we should be able to control these two provinces in a short period of time and continue the confrontation with Caesar, but before that, we must not expose our goals. at last. Aetius made this suggestion mysteriously and in an ambiguous tone. "Now is a time when the enemy is not very clear between us. For Caesar, a dictator, he is actually a loner. Except for the army and a few tough guys, he has no power. So we have to use political means, no matter in Spain. The retainers, chiefs, and many nobles in the city are actually very dissatisfied with Caesar. Even people like Telureas or Cassio can get things done without using swords. "

After reading the letter, Routh immediately made a division of labor with Sextus: the former commanded the army, the latter was in charge of the navy, and Sextus' father-in-law Libo was in charge of camp management. The entire army must persist first and then find an opportunity to make a comeback. .

At this time, the two brothers walked out of the low tent, surrounded by camp fences held up with short spears and wooden sticks. Many military slaves and soldiers were holding axes and cutting down the dense forest. This island group in the Spanish Sea was actually not Not considered scattered, there are several large islands that are large enough for farming and garrisoning, and can build forts and docks. The only shortcoming is the lack of rain, but this is not necessarily a disadvantage for the little Pompey brothers who are good at fleets. Under the blue sky and white sand, many crew members were dragging the light Libourna assault ship onto the beach to dry, and then sat down in groups of twos and threes to light a fire and rub oil. Otherwise, in such weather, the skin would soon become chapped.

Sextus also took off his undershirt. At this moment, a servant handed over the ointment. He looked at it and saw that the label on the bottle was "Ophelenus, six hundred and eighty-four years after the founding of Rome, he dedicated himself to The Latin text for "Your Service" is, "This is a mixture of pea flour and olive oil. It is very effective and easy to sell. We spent a lot of effort to buy it from Sardinia." Smiling, Sextus nodded, returned the ointment bottle to him, and asked him to wipe his upper body.

Before I could finish wiping my arms, a small boat sailed up the sea. Many resting crew members started making noises and holding weapons in preparation for warning. But after a few people on the small boat got off, everyone cheered again. It turned out to be Rabin. Nus, Laelias, and Machius were all great Pompeian generals. Although it was a hot weather, Labienus was still covered with a cloak. It seemed that he was suffering from malaria and was shaking. He waded ashore with everyone and hugged Sextus, "How did you escape?"

"Don't worry, we definitely didn't escape by pretending to be humiliated - we are all veterans on the battlefield. After figuring out the rules of Caesar's army's encirclement and suppression, we spent a lot of money to hire a few desperate fishermen while they were slacking off. The one who sent us here from Utica heard that Scipio was not so lucky. He was too eye-catching," Rabinus said with a livid face, "But since we all survived, we have. Caesar looks great.”

"Aren't you afraid of the death penalty?" asked Sextus, who was greatly moved.

"Unless Mount Surat is moved to the beach of Baia, and unless the crow announces the good news at any time, we will definitely follow Pompey's son and fight to the death with Caesar." Laelias replied on behalf of everyone.

very good! So everyone quickly gathered together. Although there were only a few fortified houses with lime roofs on the island, no one complained about the hardship. Labienus still covered himself with a blanket and discussed the plan while shaking on the cot, and then he got the exact information. Later, Libo unfolded the secondary chart and said, "This was drawn by General Pompey when he was encircling and suppressing pirates. I was one of his twenty-four lieutenants at the time, and now the traitor Maximus in Caesar's camp also has it. , The most remarkable thing about this blueprint is that it subdivides a large sea area into blocks, which is convenient for encirclement and suppression, and now it is convenient for us to raid. "

"Repair all usable ships, unify the signals and work together, and distinguish the battle zone and the interception zone." Then Rabinus drew a few lines on the map with his finger, "This is where Sextus raided The two sides were given to Libo and Marcius to intercept the rest of Caesar's fleet. Lelias and I stayed at the camp, because we are both talented in the army, so we won't cause any trouble. "

As a result, just when Caesar was sailing to the port of Kalaris in Sardinia, he received the news that the prisoner-of-war fleet at the rear had been "intercepted". Hundreds of soldiers guarding the ship were killed on the deck, and most of the prisoners and transporters were killed. The ships were all robbed, and then Caesar suddenly stood up and said to move forward at full speed and ignore the prisoners of war. The number of enemy ships was unknown, and we would dock first.