Augustus Road

"I am a person who is loyal to my beliefs, and I hope others are the same, it's that simple. ? . ." - Julius Caesar

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I didn't expect Cato to be so reasonable, but Triari still had a lot of thoughts. He ordered 600 elite soldiers, most of whom came from Sicily, to surround Cato's residence. Of course, Triari's order was to "protect the Lord Attorney", but he was secretly monitoring Cato because he regarded him as a bargaining chip for surrender and promotion, and he was a rare commodity - because compared to himself, Cato was more attractive to Lepidus, or directly, from Caesar, everyone wanted to catch this person, even if it was a hot potato.

And Cato was also very calm. He stayed in the courtyard comfortably, feeding the roosters coming and going, and seemed to have no regard for the impending humiliation.

When the envoys from the city of Masseria once again wore ball belts, raised their hands and shouted slogans of peace, and walked out of the collapsed city wall, Lepidus's troops were preparing to launch a general attack. The large teams selected from the four legions were all lined up behind or inside the giant siege tower. Many people were hiding in the shed, weighing the heavy swords in their hands, constantly waving, jumping, and warming up before the battle. The shouts of mutual arguing and mocking spread throughout the blockade. So when Lepidus in the rear camp decided to meet the envoys from the city who were begging for peace, the entire front-line troops were in fierce discontent and turmoil, especially Bagulus, the chief centurion of the Sixth Legion, who sat on the ground in front of the soldiers and the flag officer. He started to curse, and after cursing Masseria, he cursed Caesar and Pompey, then Cato the Younger, and finally the supreme commander Lepidus, "There is such a thing, a bastard. A foreigner. You would pull out his penis and plug it when someone is visiting a brothel and about to ejaculate on the bed? You can't even think of it!" Before the envoys could make a counter-argument, Lepidus continued to speak without question, "In the next 20 years, Masseria is not allowed to build large ships that can go out to sea for business. Only barges and fishing boats can be retained. In addition, there must be a long-term war compensation, totaling one thousand talents, to be paid off in 50 years, the principal to be paid to the treasury of the Republic, and the interest to be paid to Liguria."...

This condition is simply asking Masseria to commit chronic suicide!

But after the commander-in-chief finished speaking, he continued to bury his head in official documents, as if he had no interest in allowing the other party to bargain.

What to do? Now the tens of thousands of siege troops under this man are still ready to go. As long as he is slightly dissatisfied and the negotiations break down, all the big soldiers will rush into the city and they can easily get everything they want, and then everything will be over.

After painful torment, the envoys finally bowed their heads and expressed their acceptance of Lepidus's conditions, but they also reiterated that this condition was so humiliating that Marselia would never be grateful to the immortal god for "helping" them in this matter.

The two sides exchanged oath tablets in front of the gods, and after stamping them, the envoys slowly and solemnly retreated. Soon, a wave of protests was set off in the camp outside. The soldiers held their money bags and swords, no longer obeyed the queues, but ran around, shouting that the war was over, but we did not get the benefits we deserved.

Lepidus held his chin quietly with his hand in the lingering incense, and only after watching the other party leave did he breathe a sigh of relief. His staff members Sabo and Angondinus hurriedly handed over the secret letter tube that he had put away before. Lepidus took out a scroll from it, which recorded Caesar's battle in Ilerda - three legions were defeated!

That's right, three legions were defeated, and Caesar suffered a tragic defeat that he had never experienced in Gaul before.

The sweat on Lepidus's forehead rolled down instantly, not because of sadness, not because of fear, but because of confusion of thoughts!

Originally, Caesar, who was preparing to attack Ilerda, launched a large-scale cavalry battle against Afranius, causing the opponent's camp to withdraw to the left bank of the Sicris River, and did not dare to come out to graze during the day. However, when the summer rainy season came, Caesar was troubled by the flooding of the Siclis River. In addition, Afranius, who was still entrenched in Ilerda, still had the advantage of the terrain, and more importantly, he held the only stone bridge on the river, so he could attack freely and kill Caesar's grain transport team from all over the country.

In order to break the deadlock, Caesar used six battalions of soldiers to carry out fortification work at the main stream of the Siclis River, the Hiberus River, and built two pontoon bridges. This was commonplace for his subordinates in the Gallic War. Then, led by Lieutenant General Koda, he led the 9th, 19th and 21st Legions. The latter two were newly recruited in Italy by Caesar after the capture of Rome. They quickly crossed the pontoon bridge and threatened Ilerda from the flank.

But that night, torrential rain fell in the area of ​​the Siclis and Hiberus rivers, and the rivers swelled, completely destroying the two pontoon bridges. The three legions that had crossed were then trapped in a dead end where they could not advance or retreat. At dawn, led by Sextus and Peletaus, 30,000 Pompey's veterans launched a fierce attack on Coda's troops. The two new legions were the first to collapse on the two wings. After bravely resisting, Coda and the Ninth Legion also died under the fierce attack of the enemy.

"We have captured three of Caesar's eagle flags, plus hundreds of team emblems and league flags." Afranius said proudly. )