Augustus Road

Immediately, the Twelve Legions who followed Antony also went up to the high ground with flags. At this moment, Rabinus's troops got down from their original garrison position, advanced three stadias, and began to prepare to kill Lepidus. Besieged, because the manor Atrius mentioned was in the shadow of the hillside, Labienus could not see it and had no knowledge of it. He fully believed that as long as he waited patiently for one more day, the enemy would Disintegrates on its own due to thirst.

It is summer, and the previous rainy days have ended. The sunshine is unobstructed, and the daytime is extremely long, so the sunset lasts for a very long time.

In the darkness, Lepidus' two legions had taken turns and went to the farm at the rear to drink enough water. The soldiers standing in front were densely packed, blocking the enemy's sight well.

An hour, an hour and a half passed, and the proud Labienus walked his mount back and forth in front of the battle, waiting for Lepidus to kneel down and beg for mercy. Sure enough, not long after, the two enemy legions on the opposite side began to make a commotion, and the sound was very loud. Many soldiers in singlets ran down the mountain, shouting, "It's not bad. As expected of Lepidah's soldiers, they can persist for such a long time." They just started to collapse." Rabinus waved his hand to all the cavalry and said, "Those are the enemy's troops. Pay attention to whether they have weapons on them." The Numidian cavalry laughed. They felt that the enemy was about to come. Many more would come down to surrender, and these Romans had been defeated by them before at Utica, and more than one legion had been killed by their swords. This time seems to be no exception.

Therefore, they did not set up a cordon, but the speed of this group of troops descending from the mountain was getting faster and faster, and Rabinus had not yet noticed anything strange. Lepidus's "surrendering soldiers" suddenly pulled out the daggers and daggers from their clothes, rushed forward, and treated the enemy with their own medicine, and violently attacked the unsuspecting Numidian horse's belly. Stabbing or chopping the horses' hooves worked wonders, as most of them didn't even have saddles. Amidst the roar of screams, Rabinus's first line of cavalry collapsed immediately. "The cavalry at the back, press forward. Kill all those who dare to resist the sneak attack!" Rabinus almost fell into the attack. He pulled the reins and ran to the rear, furious.

But this was obviously not a simple near-death counterattack, because the infantry of the Lepidus Army suddenly separated from the passage on the hillside. The cavalry then rushed over like bursting lava and started fighting with Labienus' men. Then, Lepidus' infantry also moved forward bravely and attacked with all their strength. The corpses of the Numidian cavalry they killed piled up in mountains. The rest no longer paid attention to Labienus's scoldings and instructions and fled in all directions. Rabinus hurriedly rode to his "new command center" camel team again, preparing to use camels to send semaphores. Save the troops. "Despicable villain!" At this moment, Antony galloped up and threw a javelin at Labienus. Rabinus jumped on his horse, and the javelin hit the token officer who was riding on the camel. He fell down with a muffled groan.

When Labienus saw the opponent, he was like an angry Hercules. He did not dare to fight and could only continue to go around the road to avoid it. He could not remember how many times he suffered such a heavy defeat at the hands of Lepidus. The moon has risen now. The shouts of the pursuers were slowly left behind, and Rabinus rode in the "ocean" of gravel and corpses. Together with the defeated soldiers, they fled in an unorganized manner towards the starting point.

Yes, he was running away again. In the wind and moonlight, Labienus's tears flowed down his cheeks and onto his stubble, cold.

Twenty-two abandoned camels were captured by Lepidus, "This is quite interesting, using camels to command the entire army." Lepidus accepted these animals unceremoniously, no matter what Rabinus's behavior this time The raid still caused him great trouble, and the name "Rabinus" itself meant "strong enemy" to Caesar or Lepidus. Not to mention anything else, Lepidus' two legions died in this battle. Six hundred people were killed. , but nearly two thousand horses were lost. According to Lebid's later evaluation, the battle against Zeta City was not worth the gain.

Correspondingly, Rabinus lost about 900 men in battle, but did not lose many horses.

In the next battle, the 12th and 15th legions may become mere infantry legions.

Lepidah first led his troops to stay at the farm for one night, and then returned to Agaba. After confirming that there was no enemy situation, it took half a day to return to the Jemal Mountain camp.

As a result, the body of little Hortensius was also brought back, covered with sword wounds and javelin stab wounds. It turned out that the troops sent by Caesar to the Cave Mountain were also ambushed by Pompey and the King of Juba, and suffered losses. It was very tragic. The army was carefully brought out by Lepidus and was good at mountain warfare. Little Hortensius took the initiative to stand behind the veteran, but was attacked and killed madly.

"In the end, he was as unlucky as his father." Lepidus sighed. After looking at the remains of little Hortensius, he asked to prepare a shroud and ferry money for Hades, and then buried him on the spot with other war dead.

Both attacks on Hadrumom and Zeta encountered setbacks, and the fierce south wind also blew every summer. This kind of wind had previously been encountered by Lepidus and others during the expedition to Cyrene, and it was enough to make it possible for one time. Burying the entire tribe, although the momentum of the blow to the Libyan coast has been greatly weakened, it also made it difficult for ships from Italy and Sicily to dock. Pompey's naval fleet also became active again. They were no longer as a whole and the dominant Caesar. Instead of fighting fleets, they break into parts, specifically attack transport ships, and engage in wolf pack tactics. The supply problem of Caesar's dozen legions is now becoming more and more prominent, but Caesar still requires everyone to work hard step by step, building a fort every short section, and then the next one, trying to follow the ridge, like stretching an arm, Uzta was surrounded from left to right, which made the soldiers involved in security and engineering feel even more tired.

Then the biggest problem appeared. The narrow valley plain between Uzta and Caesar's camp had no underground water at all. Water could only be transported from the towns behind. "This made it difficult for the soldiers to hold on to the fortress."

However, the soldiers of several legions were still very enthusiastic and wanted to overcome the difficulties for the dictator. They drank very little water every day, endured the harassment of Pompey's side, and continued the fortification. However, the efforts of these brave men ultimately came to nothing. When they finally reached the foot of the Tower of Uzi, Scipio and Labienus were already prepared to heighten and thicken the walls on both sides of the acropolis, and set up Many projectile weapons were fired, and Caesar's "arms" were blocked in this way.

Then, Caesar's legions worked tirelessly to build a long fortification across the entire confrontational battlefield, directly facing the city of Uzta, extending a section of the city wall every day, but the result was the same: when they were halfway through the construction, Pompey's army statue As a mockery, a very deep trench was dug around the outside of Uzi Tower to block the fortifications. The fortifications were cut off by this deep trench and could no longer be extended.

"Can't this continue like this?" Lepidah, who was on Mount Jemal at the top of the left wing, sighed when he saw this scene.