Augustus Road

"I would rather carry a shield and go to the battlefield and fight three times than give birth to a child at home." - Medea compares the pain of war and childbirth

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A day later, as promised by Apis in advance, all the middle and high-level commanders of the two hostile legions, of course, who survived the march and the blizzard, supported each other and came to Lepidus, claiming that they had been authorized by their superiors and were willing to surrender to the cavalry commander in Rome.

"Where is your general Scipio?" Lepidus asked.

The answer he got was that he was missing, so Lepidus guessed that the long-legged general must have escaped miraculously again, which was quite resilient. Then, Sabokemus jumped out of the queue on horseback, and in front of the opposite side, he dictated the requirements for surrender:

From now on, all soldiers of the Sixth and Eighth Legions of Macedonia Province participating in Pompey's camp, regardless of their ranks, will lay down their weapons, give up resistance, and gather in the core area of ​​the winter camp to wait for the disposal of the surrendering party;

**Top**Point**Novel After the surrender procedure is completed, the winter camp will be abandoned and destroyed;

Those who can report the whereabouts of Scipio and the senators who escaped with him will receive a reward of 2,000 dinars;

Our army guarantees not to harm the prisoners and provide food and accommodation for everyone, but prisoners are not allowed to walk around or have other imprudent actions, otherwise there will be corresponding backup punishment measures.

After that, a tribune of the other side came up and handed Sabuo several lists. Sabuo handed them to the cavalry commander. Lepidus glanced at them casually. That was the list of the enemy legion, so he asked the military tribune, "To this day, how much authenticity can be guaranteed for the personnel and baggage of your legion on this list?"

"I'm sorry, sir, I really can't make any guarantees. I can only say that the baggage and personnel losses are huge." The tribune replied with a kind of sadness after surviving a disaster.

Then. Lepidus and his staff, with thousands of cavalrymen who came to pursue them, entered the winter camp of Scipio under Mount Asimanus in a mighty manner. They did not encounter any resistance, and the enemy had no strength and courage to resist them, because Lepidus's cavalry showed Scipio's army about 300 shields from a distance, all of which were captured from the Bronze Shield Army. This scene made all of Scipio's subordinates completely despair and collapse, and they could only accept the fate of prisoners of war.

After comparison and inventory, Lepidus found that the losses of the two legions were simply astonishing. The previous full staffing should be close to 12,000 people, but now there are only 2,500 people left in the Sixth Legion. Only less than 2,000 people survived the Eighth Legion. "This is an absolute military disaster." Dusongville, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but sigh when he saw the miserable scene.

"Fortunately, this is a military disaster for Caesar's enemies. Hey, immediately distribute some warm clothes and hot bean soup to these people, but don't feed them too much, so as not to make them die of bloating or give them extra energy to do other things." After Lepidus gave his instructions, he began to ask the prisoners coming and going about the whereabouts of their other deputy commander, General Apis.

But no one knew, because at this time, Apis was standing in front of a remote tent. The rest of the officers and soldiers ran out to accept the mercy of the victor, but he did not. Just as he had evaluated himself beforehand, "I am not a person who disregards the lives of ordinary soldiers and steps on their corpses to achieve my own success." However, the republican ideals did not allow him to go out and surrender to Caesar's party. At this time, Apis touched his whole body, hoping to find something that could serve as a relic, but after groping for a long time, he only found a small silver spoon, which was given to him by the "King of Kings" Tegrenes when he followed Lucullus as a military tribune in the expedition to Asia Minor and was sent to Armenia.

After so many years of fighting, he didn't expect that the only valuable relic was sent by the enemy. Apis laughed at himself. He thought of Misalo, the handsome and fearless young man who used death to advise the monarch. He used to be full of incomprehension about this martyr, but now he has awakened, "Perhaps when every great country is heading for destruction, there will always be someone who has to save this collapse process with his own blood." After thinking about it, Apis calmly placed the silver spoon on the snow in front of the tent, then walked into the tent enclosed by snow, poured out all the remaining fire in the brazier inside, and then lay down panting, looking at the dim tent frame and ceiling, and the rapidly scattered brilliant sparks. These red and golden fireworks surrounded his body. He felt that he instantly became the magnificent "Felix", gradually merging with the fire that devoured the tent.

By the time Lepidus found this place, the entire camp had been burned down and razed to the ground. The charred ground, mixed with white snow, was emitting thick smoke. Lepidus silently picked up the silver spoon from under his feet, and then bowed deeply three times towards the ashes...

After Scipio's two legions were completely annihilated, Caesar's new order came, "The situation in Asia Minor and the East has been determined. Your troops can temporarily winter camp in Mount Asimanius and rest for one to two months. Here, you can deal with the rewards and punishments of various states. After April, you can allocate two to three legions to accompany His Excellency Caesar to Egypt."

"Go to Egypt?" Lepidus was very surprised. It seemed that Gabinus and Marcellus had indeed fled to Egypt, because when Ptolemy restored his country, he also relied on Pompey's power. In name, he could be said to be Pompey's Creon. But according to his previous layout, Egypt should have surrendered to Caesar. Why?

Everything should be decided after the spring. Lepidus still needed to slowly collect intelligence on Egypt, so he immediately wrote a secret letter and entrusted his confidant to send it to Antioch in Syria. The recipients were Hebrida and Polo, who he had previously sent to the Syrian Legion. Both of them served as chief centurions in the army there.

Afterwards, Lepidus was stationed in the winter camp at the foot of Mount Asimanos, and was ordered to carry out the matters entrusted by Caesar. He imposed huge fines on the states that surrendered to Pompey after the outbreak of the war, such as Thrace, Bosporus, Judea, and Bithynia, which were also what Caesar urgently needed; then he made generous land gifts to allies such as Euboea, Galeasia, and Armenia in the name of Caesar, upgrading them from "quadrant monarchs" to "Roman vassal states". During this period, Lepidus made a detailed division: Sinope, Amisus, and Pergamon were given to Adiana, part of Cappadocia and Armenia Minor were given to Diotarus, the king of Galeasia; Colchis was given to Tegra the Younger of Armenia.

However, the price of allies is to provide vassal troops. This time, Caesar unexpectedly required all allied troops to be reorganized into auxiliary corps of the Republic. (To be continued...)