Even though Crane's Hidden Commandos managed to capture Pompey's sentry gate on the other side of the river during the night, the soldiers of the Ninth Legion were unable to capture the fortress on the upper Croix before dawn. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info Because Pompey's reinforcements were coming in a steady stream, blocking the way of Caesar's small troops.

At dawn, you can see the bloody and terrifying corpses inside and outside the walled city walls, stretching from the river beach to the military road behind the walled city. After the battle, Pompey patrolled the camp where the bloody battle took place last night with his personal sword slave, but there was no trace of victory in his eyes, but his eyes were full of melancholy and loss. No one knew what he was thinking, and the Senate might still be celebrating another "great" victory, while Pompey was silently saddened that in one night, thousands more Romans had died in the war, which meant that thousands more Roman families had been torn apart in this civil war.

Caesar retreated, and the cavalry came back to report that his army had left the other side of the river, and that the camps had all been deserted. Without your orders, the cavalry did not dare to pursue, Pompey. ”

"Then don't pursue, Caesar will soon be short of food and water, and I wait for him to surrender to me. Don't let more Romans die in this war. ”

Pompey's conversation with the guards was heard by many, and it was not known whether the legion leader had inadvertently let everyone hear or did it on purpose, in short, Pompey's popularity in the legion was growing day by day, he defeated Caesar, and again and again, yes, he proved with his actions that he was indeed the first Roman general of this era, and Caesar, who was nothing more than an upstart after returning from a trip to Gaul.

"We should pursue, while the other head is licking its wounds, pursuit. Completely crushed him on the land of Greece, never to set foot in the sacred territory of Rome again. ”

Marcellus was behind Pompey, and when he heard Pompey's command that he was unwilling to pursue, he stood up and once again defended Pompey with the so-called Glory Theory, asking him to send out his legions and completely exterminate Caesar. The people of the Senate are like a bunch of greedy vampons, who are stingy with every penny of their possessions, but want others to sacrifice for them to the best of their ability. In short, they didn't care how many people died and how many were displaced during the war, all they cared about was the money in their pockets and their absolute dominance over Rome. Pompey was tired of the daily nagging of these politicians, and only returned tiredly-

"Not right now."

"Why? You've won, Pompey, you've proved with your mastery of tactics that you're the greatest general in Rome, and now you just need to clench your fists and deliver the final fatal blow to your enemy. ”

Marcellus asked. He was another representative of the Senate, who, like Cato the Younger, judged Pompey only on the eve and at the end of every battle......

"When the beast is cornered, he will turn back and fight the last trapped beast, would you like to see Caesar finally lead a group of poor ghosts to resist us to the death? In that case, I will have no chance of winning. After this battle, Caesar's army was defeated, and the navy was defeated by us, and he would flee to Corinth, draining the last of his food and wealth from the city, but when he confronted us here across the river, Rabienus had already taken my best troops to attack the city, and I think that at this moment, Corinth had been conquered by Rabienus. Caesar will run out of food. All we need to do is get the big force behind them, build the fortifications in real time, and in a month or two, Caesar and his Gallic legions will surrender to me because they have no food supplies. ”

Despite the constant pressure on Pompey from the Senate, the commander of the legion still maintains his rational judgment and position. And in a month or two, it's almost time for winter to come......

Pompey was right, Caesar had only enough food and grass in his army for a month, and the loss of Corinth made the situation even worse. Without the trade and taxes of the city, Caesar waited even more helplessly for death to come.

"Has the grain team returned?"

Caesar's base camp, five miles away from Corinth, asked Anthony beside him with a tired face.

"They came back, but they didn't get much food, and your orders forbade them to rob the commoners, nobles, and knights of grain storage, but many of the locals thought that the war would continue, and that food would become more and more scarce, so they deliberately stockpiled food, and the price of grain went up. The price of wheat in Skopje rose by a third overnight, and if this panic is not suppressed, the price of cereals will soon rise to a price that we cannot afford. Caesar. ”

Mark Antony's answer made Caesar even more tired, and he reclined in his wolfskin seat, closed his eyes, and pondered, seeking a way out of the moment.

"Can we make peace with them, stall for time, and wait for reinforcements from Gaul to come? And send cavalry, go farther to collect food, the Thracian region was not affected by the Roman civil war, I think we can loot some food for the winter from there. ”

Anthony suddenly came up with a solution, but the idea seemed to Caesar naïve and unworkable.

"Anthony, you must understand that peace negotiation is not a tool for the weak, in other words, peace between the weak and the strong will only be seen as weakness, and peace between the strong and the weak will be seen as mercy. Although the two are nominally the same, they represent completely different meanings. The last time we made peace with Pompey, we did so to show our peace heart, to proclaim that we were righteous and stood in the interests of Rome. This time, however, we had lost the battle, and our food and water supplies were in danger, and to make peace with Pompey and the Senate would only make the Roman people think that we were cowardly and incompetent. It's like a fallen goat begging for forgiveness and mercy from a lion. Doing so will do nothing but humiliate oneself. As for the Gauls, yes, reinforcements from Gaul are estimated to be coming soon. However, I don't think we will make it that time. ”

Caesar opened his eyes and stared at Anthony as if to give the last touch. Antony didn't know what Caesar was thinking at this time, he just looked at Caesar loyally, no matter what the hero of the conquering Gaul would say in the next moment, he would do it without hesitation.

"Go, let the soldiers reduce the number of stoves they open every day, send some people, change into civilian clothes, and pretend to be fleeing. Go and confuse them, and force Pompey to fight us. ”

"What? Caesar, I don't understand what you mean, who are you going to confuse? Pompey will not fight us, if he wants to, he will fight us as soon as we first land in Greece. ”

Anthony was bewildered and puzzled by Caesar's arrangement. He looked at Caesar as if he had just misheard.

"Confuse the Senate, not Pompey. What I want to deceive is the Senate, leaving fewer stoves in the camp, so that they can mistakenly think that our soldiers are dwindling, and letting the soldiers go into exile as civilians, which proves that the reduction of stoves in the barracks is real. Of course, Pompey is not so easy to deceive, he is a cunning old fox, but the group of 'fathers' in the Senate, their thinking is not so complicated, they are blinded by wealth, and they are only full of the constant expenditure of military salaries, in order to defeat us as soon as possible, they will let Pompey attack, even if Pompey is unwilling, the noble delegation led by Cato the Younger will force Pompey to attack. Fight us. Because they will believe that our soldiers are on the run and that our regiments have no morale. ”

When Caesar finished speaking, a heavy, tired smile appeared on his face. Antony knew that the two greatest generals of the Roman Republic had exhausted their tactics at this moment, and then they were going to fight this war. (To be continued.) )