Augustus Road

"A kingdom often falls because of the lack of a nail." - Ancient proverb

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Because I am short of money, this is Lepidus's justified reason. Dear Sabo, you have to know that there are nearly 2,000 infantrymen and slingers in the Chimeradon camp, thousands of horses for various purposes, and a considerable number of hostages and military slaves. The daily consumption of money, clothing and food is as deep as the mouth of a sea beast. The tithe and blood tax of the tribes around Italia and Osir alone cannot support it. The treasury I brought, including my private property, has more than 300 talents, and now half of it has been consumed by recruiting soldiers, training, adding equipment, etc. I urgently need money, more money, and there is nothing in the Vituni Mountains except goats. Betnali is different. There is developed trade and fertile fields.

"But that is not your area of ​​responsibility, and you should not be attacked by your army. You will be caught by Pompey and be criticized or even punished in the Senate." Sabocemus's suggestion was very serious.

Lepidus did not argue with him, but asked him to go to Italia as soon as possible to help Habaluka deal with the affairs, and then we took the baggage and headed to Betnali.

But three days after Sabocemus left, he returned to the Chimeraton camp and personally brought Caesar's "messenger stick" to Lepidus for review. It was a command document engraved with the army's internal code letters. Caesar's request was urgent: the journey to Numansia was temporarily shelved. Lepidus, you must immediately take the existing troops and cross the Guadalquivir River to Cadiz. There will be a thousand light-armed soldiers sent by King Juba of Numidia, and the most critical weapon - four war elephants. Your troops must escort these reinforcements, especially the four huge guys with long noses, safely across the Guadiana River after the spring to assist me in the battle. Recently, a large number of green forest horse bandits have appeared near the city of Cadiz. These people plundered the town and would ambush and kill our grain transport team and the new recruits.

Well, "thyme panacea" will come in handy again. Tossing back and forth. After reading it, Lepidus was ready to light a fire to burn the baton, but he thought about something and saw Sabokemus next to him with a serious face, so he stopped talking and asked two guards to keep Caesar's baton.

Then, Lepidus asked all the soldiers in Cimmeria to gather and told them to leave the winter camp immediately. Everyone marched according to the standard of "mountain baggage" and headed to Cadiz as soon as possible.

The so-called "mountain baggage" was the standard established by Marius at that time. Soldiers carried light backpacks alone, which only contained the necessary supplies and equipment to ensure survival, plus a small amount of money, and the packhorses carrying heavy baggage did not move with the army, so that the entire army could travel light and fast when crossing geographical places such as mountains, and exert the greatest speed advantage.

Soon, all the soldiers under Lepidus were arranged in a long double column, with the ala cavalry surveying and clearing the way in front, and the infantry trotting in the back. When passing through Italy, Habaluka joined the team at the request of his master, and everyone rushed towards the city of Cadiz.

A few days later, when they arrived at the city of Cadiz, King Juba's reinforcements happened to arrive at the port by ship. In front of the large dock pier, the workers were busy putting wooden ladders on the side of the Numidian ship, allowing groups of Numidian light infantry with colorful and strange clothes, a kind of javelin infantry with the highest evaluation in the Roman Republic, to disembark in groups and arrive in this city. Lepidus, holding Caesar's baton, stood in the square behind the dock with Sabo, Habaluka and other staff and followers, smiling, to greet the other clan leaders.

Suddenly, the high-pitched roars of beasts from several ships that were docking later on the sea caused many dock workers to run away in panic. Li Bi Da looked over there and saw several special ships with high guard plates (almost square in length and width ratio) slowly approaching the shore. Boatmen and sailors were crowded on the bridge and masts, shouting at the dock, saying that the ship could not be docked on the wooden pier, which was full of limestone and cliffs. Could we find an open gravel area so that our ship could release the sacred elephant and then go ashore?

Under the strenuous guidance of the dock staff, the ships finally found a deserted long beach on the other side of the city. Lepidus and the chief of the Numidian clan rode there to wait. They saw the ship carrying the elephants dropped an anchor in the shallow water, and several people opened the wide guardrail and laid it in the water. Then a bell rang, accompanied by a deafening and majestic roar. The mahouts rode on the gorgeously decorated African forest elephants, stepped on the guardrail, rushed to the shallow water, waded ashore, and lifted the There were rolling muddy waves. Lepidus's mount "Owl" was a lady among horses, docile and well-behaved, and a little aloof and noble (this was somewhat similar to her former mistress Adiana). As a result, it was frightened by these monsters that came on the water and bared its teeth and screamed wildly. The mounts of other people also retreated one after another. There were shouts of scolding and quieting of mounts everywhere. Only the mount of the Numidian chief was very calm. They must have been dealing with these war elephants for a long time and had long been accustomed to it.

These small forest elephants have good mobility and flexibility, and are most suitable for use as war elephants. They are covered with gorgeous saddles and driven by a mahout. These mahouts only wear helmets without any armor, and hold elephant training prods in their hands to guide their mounts to charge and trample the enemy's formation.

When the forest war elephants calmed down and scattered on the long beach, the 1,000 Numidian javelin soldiers came to join them. It was better to say that they came to serve the elephants than to fight, because each of them was carrying a heavy bundle of hay. "In the name of the governor, collect a large amount of hay and labor from Cadiz." Lepidus looked at the elephants, comforted the frightened "owl", and calmly instructed Habaluka, "Also, collect the tenth tax for next year in advance."

"If it's in advance, does the governor know?" Habaluka's voice was very low, he didn't want the extremely serious Sabo to hear it.

"I definitely don't know, but this is also a war need, the tax debts can be recorded on the bald man's head." Lepidus lowered his voice even lower.

At this time, the chief of the Numidian clan spoke Phoenician to Lepidus, Sabo and Habaluka translated together, the other party meant that the reinforcements had arrived on time, and where to move next.

"Oh, so." Lepidus took out Caesar's baton and said loudly: "Everyone, I am Caesar's confidant and the treasurer of Far Spain. Immediately, the war elephants and soldiers will meet up with our army - go north and open up the road to Betnali and Numansia. This is Caesar's order!" (To be continued.)