Augustus Road

Things do not appear because they have meaning; they have meaning because they appear. ”——Seneca, ancient Roman philosopher

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Soon, the sentinel cavalry fought with the enemy's cavalry.

The location was in a river valley under the highlands. Several oarsmen who came ashore ran quickly to fetch water with their clay pots. As expected, two thousand Mauritanian cavalry were ambushing them in the valley. They were originally preparing to go to Lepp. Tisi went to collect military pay, but happened to encounter Lepidus' landing army.

The skin of this group of cavalry is almost as dark as that of the Nubians. They have no armor on their bodies. They ride barefoot on the backs of short, long-haired African horses and carry javelins to fight.

The result is obvious. Two hundred Vipicinas cavalry beat the crap out of two thousand Mauritanian cavalry. It is difficult for their javelins to kill the Gauls' chainmail and shields? none? wrong? .s. But the Spartan sword in the hands of the Gauls could easily chop these unprotected cavalry into limbs.

After repelling this group of cavalry, there were dozens of brave ones among Lepidus who chased them all the way. As a result, they found that the group of people had all entered a small town called Hadrumum and defended themselves. Then these Gallic cavalry ran back again in the evening and told Lepidus the situation. After learning the news, Sabo next to him immediately asked the cavalry about the distance from here to Hadrumum. After getting a relatively accurate answer, Sabo sat on the stand table, using a ruler and his hands to draw carefully with his teeth. . Soon he told Lepidus. Indeed the fleet had passed Leptis a full forty Roman miles away. We are now much closer to this town called Hadrumum, about ten to fifteen Roman miles away.

After Lepidus felt the terrain around the camp, he ordered all the soldiers and oarsmen not to rest tonight. He directly removed the planks from the flat-bottomed boats and sharpened them, and then erected wooden fences around the camp to block the cavalry. "You can't Venture deep into the interior to cut down trees and gather livestock.”

"Then, the horses in the camp still need fodder. I think there is no fodder within a very long distance." Sabo reminded.

"Then you have to think carefully about Sabo. The enemy has so many cavalry, where do they get their fodder from?" the cavalry commander asked.

Dusonville on the side replied on behalf of Sabo, "This area is filled with hundreds of miles of gravel and sand. If hay is needed, it can only be transported centrally from distant towns and stored in the place called Hadrumom." Otherwise, there would be no way to supply so many cavalry. "That means we are going to attack Hadrumom first?" Sabo said. Then he fixed his gaze on Lebida, who was still deep in thought, as if urging him to just give the order. All the plans are already in mind.

"Well, of course we can attack. Leave it to Sabo and Dusonville, while Angandinus and I stay in this camp to guard against possible enemies from Leptis. Time has to be fast, otherwise we will We are under attack from both ends." Lepidah suddenly woke up when he saw Sabo's gaze, but he was obviously thinking about other deeper issues just now.

The next day, Sabo and Dusonville set off with a thousand infantry and all the cavalry. Angandinus, who had never spoken at this moment, also told the cavalry commander that in fact, he and Leptis's garrison The commander Condisius had a friendship with him, so he was willing to write a letter and send it, hoping that he could surrender to the dictator and save everyone's lives.

"Of course you can." Lepidus, who was still sitting at the stand table, readily agreed. Then he found several token officers and gave them an interesting order. Then Matthias sent many letters Distributed to each other one by one.

When one of the magistrates, carrying a letter from Angandinus, came to the city of Leptis, Condisius received him, and Lepidus' magistrate saluted the commander of the garrison, and then Just prepare to submit the letter.

"Who sent the letter?" Condisius asked without leaving his seat.

"It was drafted by the cavalry commander, His Excellency Lepidus, and represents the intention of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar." the token officer said clearly.

"Luolu has a dictator, and that is Gnaeus Pompey, the great Pompey!" After Condisius finished speaking, he ordered his followers to tie up the token officer and cut him off cruelly. tongue, gouged out his eyes, and then cut off his head and placed it on a silver platter with the tongue and eyes. The letter Condiceus did not open it at all, but put it there intact and returned it to arrived at the Lepidah camp forty kilometers away.

"I am ashamed to have served with him. He is a cowardly bastard with no etiquette or mercy." Seeing the cruel scene on the silver plate, even the usually good gentleman Angandinus couldn't help but cursed angrily. . The cavalry commander called all the officers and soldiers in the camp to come and see the silver plate full of blood, and also denounced Condisius for killing the messenger for no reason. At this time, three more brigades from the Sixth Army came ashore one after another. Everyone was full of blood and vowed to avenge their fallen comrades in future battles.

At the same time, the infantry and cavalry team commanded by Sabo and Dusongville fought a textbook battle in front of Hadrumoum: when the Mauritanian cavalry rushed out of the city again, they were defeated by the Gaul cavalry again. It was late autumn at that time, and the climate was too suitable for the Gauls. Then Sabo set up two cavalry cannons and a noblewoman cannon, and urged the infantry to chase the scattered enemy cavalry. After destroying several towers, they seized the city gates and drawbridges. Most of the cavalry from the desert surrendered, and a small part escaped.

Sure enough, there was indeed a large forage warehouse in Hadrumoum. After Sabo and Dusongville judged the situation, they dismissed all the captured Mauritanian cavalry and horses, but robbed all their luggage, and then distributed half of the money to the soldiers and half to the city residents, hiring them to use mule carts to transport all the forage to the camp of the cavalry commander.

After asking, I learned that the citizens of Hadrumoum said with resentment that since Pompey's army arrived here, the entire coastal and inland cities have been plundered. Not only did they force their cities to buy expensive fodder that was not produced locally, but they also collected various taxes as military pay to hire and support a large foreign cavalry team, and forced able-bodied men to serve in the army and guard their fortress camps. Now the people in the entire region simply hate Pompey's party.

What these citizens said was true. When Sabo and his team opened the luggage of the Mauritanian cavalry, they quickly counted that this group of cavalry, who were neither good-looking nor useful, had only served here for a short period of half a year, and each person had one or two hundred dinar silver coins in his luggage, which was still the tail of the surplus.

"It seems that in order to support his war and to please King Juba, Pompey's plunder of the province has indeed reached the point of exhausting the pond to catch fish."

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