Augustus Road

"Rome is safe, the country is safe, because Germanicus is safe." - Roman ballad, expressing admiration for this general (Nero's father)

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"Occupying the latrine and not shitting." When Lepidus returned to Rome bitterly and walked on the porch, he couldn't help but uttered such a sentence. Of course, he did not say it in Latin, so that everyone who followed him was dumbfounded. Thought the chief lieutenant was speaking in angry patois.

Then, Sabo, Selha, Phaobinas, Angandinus and other confidants gathered in the hall, asking what should be done next and whether Curio would really land in Africa.

"Landing?" Lepidus sneered, and then analyzed, "Curio seems to be very confident with me, but he can't with Pompey. Now Pompey is personally in charge of the city of Utica and has four legions of troops. , two were originally from Turas, and Pompey brought the first legion himself and recruited one locally. Moreover, when the war in Spain was fierce, Pompey was always training the army in an orderly manner, allocating supplies, and building Fleet - what does Curio have? Quintus's fourteenth legion, and two new legions mainly composed of Massi people, plus this man who is in his thirties has been staying in Rome, helping Pompey build Theater, he has no military experience at all, and he is not a fool. I estimate that it is unlikely that he will take the initiative to attack Africa. Pompey is a mountain in front of him, so he is very afraid that I will take you to rob him of his achievements. I would rather accumulate strength in Sicily and wait until there is a breakthrough in other battlefields before taking the opportunity to attack. Anyway, his role is only to contain it. "

So Saab asked for instructions very clearly, what should we do now?

Lepidus looked at everyone for a while, then waved, and the servants in the courtyard and corridors retreated knowingly.

Then Matthias brought out the huge sand table map, and everyone sat on the seats and gathered around it. Then Lepidus said in a very calm tone: "Caesar's front-line troops will definitely fail."

Sabo pointed to one side of the sand table and said, "If we cross the sea, the entire coastline is covered with cliffs and valleys, which is not suitable for large legions to land for operations. And Gaius and Ulabella brought three legions over this time, among which and the Eleventh Legion garrisoned in Illyria.”

"Wasn't this legion previously defeated by Lylias, Pompey's lieutenant and governor in Macedonia?"

"But according to intelligence, there are less than four thousand people left. All of them were pulled onto the ship by Ulabella and carried over to prepare for the attack on Dick Haqiang."

"This bald man is so cruel that he simply doesn't regard the soldiers as human beings. In other words, he always considers the problem from the perspective of weighing interests. What Caesar cherishes the most is the main force who followed him to fight in Gaul, the seven and ten. The legion, followed by our auxiliary legion, and the last one he recruited after crossing the Rubicon River, are probably expendables in his eyes," Lepidus said with the corner of his mouth raised, and then the commander and the commander sitting around him. The centurions all showed some kind of lucky expressions - it means that fortunately we are following another person, so Lepidus will not give up the behavior of defying the dictator in front of his subordinates any time. "Knowing that there is no advantage on the sea, He also knew that the terrain on the coast was difficult to fight, so Baldy boldly promoted these young generals and filled them with nearly 9,000 men to attract the attention of Pompey and Byblos. "

"Then what?" Angandinus asked curiously. Since Caesar does everything from the perspective of profit, then he can't just ask the soldiers to die?

"Then, of course, he took advantage of the gap and took his elite legions to go to Greece..." Lepidus said strangely, "This is another cover-up, so I stayed in Rome to protect my troops. , and the Twelve Legions who were also taken away. Fortunately, they had good combat capabilities and were placed by Caesar in what he considered to be the 'elite decisive force' sequence. In addition, if I remember correctly, Curio wouldn't let us. It is also good to go to Africa, and now you all go to Ravenna to secretly raise ships."

Everyone was puzzled again, but Sabo pointed to the sand table and said that Ravenna could cross to Olicum, where there were only ten decked ships of Pompeian generals Vespiro and Milochius, and a few The garrison strength of a brigade.

After Sabo finished speaking, Lepidus stood up and elaborated on the real plan, "After Antony's brother fails, Caesar will cross the sea himself. In addition, he will definitely ask us to cross the sea instead of going to Africa. We might as well make preparations early and take advantage of the opportunity." Take this opportunity to capture Olicum, and then Pompey will definitely send troops to seize this seaport city, and then it will be his turn to beat them on land." Then he went to the left bank of the Adriatic Sea. Marking out a few places with his hands, "Olicum, Issa and Sarona, this triangle area, close to the sea and mountains, and with complex terrain, happens to be the best place for us to play, as long as we can defeat Pompey's By not moving the army, we can create an advantage for Caesar to attack head-on, and we can also win a great victory on other roads. This is what I should do as the chief lieutenant general."

"What should I do with supplies?" someone asked.

The chief lieutenant's face became solemn and he sat down and said, "This is indeed a big problem. Because of the sea-crossing operation and the upcoming storms in autumn and winter, normal transportation by ships is very difficult, and the land transportation distance from Shannan Gaul is too long and full of dangers." . So the biggest possibility is to take the risk of collecting supplies from the Presbyterian Churches in the three cities I just mentioned. Even if they are in danger of betraying us, this can only be done. "

After hearing this, the atmosphere was silent for a while, and then Faobinas, who was usually the most taciturn, spoke, "There are Macedonians in the Sixteenth Army. They are adapted to mountain warfare. Leave the vanguard task to me."

Lepidus nodded, and then made arrangements, "The Thirteenth Army is gathering here along the street. The Sixth Army and the Fifteenth Army will go to Ravenna first to prepare for war. The Sixteenth Army will be stationed outside the city to follow me and wait for the opportunity to act."

Then, he summoned Matthias and told him to draft two double documents now, one to be sent to Sicily and the other to Brindisi. "The contents are exactly the same, impeaching Curio and asking Sicily to provide wood." Build ships."

Just as Lepidus had initially expected, both letters were in vain. Curio ignored this protest at all, and Caesar over there just smiled bitterly and put aside Lepidus' letter and ignored it. He was incapable of doing so. I have no intention of punishing any of my current right-hand men.

But do you think Lebida really just wanted to vent his grievances? Of course not, he quickly mobilized all the merchant connections from Etrunia to Liguria, shipped large quantities of wood and iron nails to Ravenna, and secretly built strong and light ships to prepare for the upcoming war.

As a result, two market days later, Bodie and his children appeared in front of his courtyard. (To be continued...)