"No, no, no! Appis and little Crassus are two animals! He emptied all my food reserves! ”

In Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, when Antony returned to Greece with a large army to retake these towns, what awaited him was not a massive siege, but a series of empty Greek towns. In the city, in the bazaar, all the grain and crops were looted.

Appis expected Antony to return to Greece with a large army, and that there would be so many towns that Crassus the Younger and Maxim could not defend them all. Therefore, before leaving for Greece, Apis had already agreed with Crassus Jr. that when he arrived in Greece and Macedonia, he would only loot the local granaries, and there was no need to occupy the towns, and all of Antony's grain and grass reserves would be looted, leaving empty cities for him, and then returning to the coastline with baggage for the navy to pick up.

Antony won a small victory on a local battlefield, and he didn't want the whole battle to happen, but he was once again calculated by Appis.

What made Antony even more angry was that Apis was not done as a thief, and after the little Crassus ransacked various towns in Greece, he left seven days' rations for the local residents, and now, Antony returned with a large army, and the residents' rations were almost consumed, and the mouths that were waiting to be fed reached out to Antony and his army's heavy supplies.

His grandmother's, the labor and management themselves are not enough to feed you?

In desperation, Anthony had no choice but to snatch the remaining food reserves from the already starving populace. You know, either you will starve to death, or the legions will starve to death. The two had to choose one, as the commander-in-chief of the corps, Anthony, of course, chose the former, and without an army, what was left of a general? After that, there was a lot of revolt in various places. It seems to be more serious than the resistance when little Crassus entered the city and ransacked it.

Eventually, after retaking five Greek towns, Antony's reputation in Greece became stinking. People called little Crassus a thief and a robber, and Anthony a butcher and a ghost......

"Cleopatra, my days in Greece are difficult, and whatever the situation may be in Alexander's condition, it is imperative that you get the grain and grass from Egypt to Greece again as quickly as possible. Apis has attacked my granary, and now, the legion is in dire need of food and grass, and as long as this difficult time is transitioned, my legion will surely fight the demon of Appis again. ”

In Corinth, Antony, in desperation, wrote to Cleopatra. She was asked to continue to support the Legion in the war, and urgently transferred food and military supplies to Greece. He knew that Cleopatra must have been very dissatisfied after receiving the letter, and in a short time, Egypt had sent a large amount of grain, grass and soldiers to the Greek region, but in less than half a year, all of them were robbed by Apis. This was not the point, as Cleopatra repeatedly emphasized as she left that the purpose of her return to Alexandria was to solve the problem of the plague in Egypt. It may take a long time to solve it. In this situation, the queen had to deal with the problems in Egypt while also raising food and grass and forming a fleet to transport supplies. Antony knew he was embarrassed by Cleopatra.

But the war in Greece is now more important than anything else. After hesitating, Anthony gave the letter to his most trusted servant, and asked him to take the letter and deliver it to Alexandria in person.

……

But Appis apparently didn't give Anthony such time. The four full-fledged legions led by Crassus the Younger made a great bend in Greece and eventually joined up with the three remnants of Apis's legions on the coastline. Now, all the legions from Italy are together, and they are well stocked with food, grass, and armament, and they can finally compete with Antony.

……

Lacking food, grass and supplies, Anthony's soldiers began to panic. At this time, Antony, who was a little embarrassed, knew that it might take some time to wait for the Egyptian grain ship to arrive. At the moment, perhaps the most direct way to obtain food and grass is to wage war against Apis and recover his stolen military rations.

The psychology of the decisive battle grew, and three days later, two distinct teams met on the outskirts of the small Greek coastal city of Apollonia.

However, before the decisive battle, Apis was "intimidated" again. Upon hearing of Antony's arrival in advance, Apis set up camp on the coastal road, erected a high wall, and put on a posture of strict defense with a battalion of five steps and a tower of ten steps.

In fact, Apis did have this capital, after the sack of Greece by Crassus the Younger, a large amount of grain and supplies were transported to Apis's military camp, and now, with sufficient supplies and grain and grass guarantees, Apis was not in a hurry to fight Antony.

When Anthony arrived on the outskirts of Apollonia and saw this impregnable fortification, he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh helplessly. His opponent is simply a second Octavian, despicable and shameless. Or rather, shameless.

The Romans admired force and glory, but Appis, cowering, stealing food and grass, building high walls, in short, did not fight himself head-on.

"I must make Appis go to war with me! Waiting like this is not the way to go. ”

In the camp, Antony was impatient with the long confrontation, his food and grass were running out day by day, and the Egyptian ships had not yet arrived. And the only remaining grain and grass will not last long, and in a few days, the soldiers will begin to go hungry, and at that time, there will be no combat effectiveness at all. Do you want to go back and plunder the little grain left in the market again? When the time comes, I am afraid that without Appis opposing himself, the people of all Greece will oppose him.

"But General, we don't have a better way, Apis will definitely not take the initiative to go to war, he is a ruffian. It is useless for you to insult him like this, and you may be ridiculed and ridiculed by him. ”

Domitius stopped Antony before he left the camp and expressed his opinion earnestly. Indeed, after years of fighting with Appis, even Antony's subordinates saw Apis's face clearly. Appis was a man who could have taken the insults of his enemies as a deaf ear, not to mention that the current situation was extremely unfavorable for Anthony. The reality was that the only way to regain the looted food and grass was to forcibly attack Appis's fortress, but that would certainly result in heavy casualties, and Domitius knew that Antony would not agree to do so. Because in fact, he loved to cherish the soldiers under his command, even if he came all the way from Italy, most of the soldiers who died in the defeat were not the regular army of the legion, but those Eastern mercenaries and Egyptian soldiers.

"Let the soldiers come forward and mock and insult Appis. It doesn't have to be annoying for him, it's okay for his subordinates to be annoyed. The whole fortification was so long, and I don't believe that any of his generals could not control the impulse to go out of the camp to attack our soldiers. ”

Anthony swears.