"In her world, there are only four kinds of beauty, the soldier on the battlefield, the monk on the altar, the beautiful woman on the bed, and the thief on the gallows." -- Clavier on Isabella of Spain

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When the whole army slowly descended from the high ground, Scipio counted and learned that 900 men were killed in the two legions together, 500 were missing and fled, about 3,000 were wounded, half of the centurions of the 7th legion were killed or wounded, and the Thracian prince Salada refused to return them, but was taken away.

"Withdraw to the other side of the Aliakmon River and rest for two market days." In the end, Scipio gave this order in a frustration. When he and the soldiers entered the baggage camp, he couldn't help complaining that Apis was unwilling to act to save him, but Apis seemed to be even more depressed, this guy who had always been extremely stubborn and stubborn in the eyes of Scipio, actually wrapped his thin body in a wool blanket, and snorted into the cold air, and then he saw Scipio, and immediately pointed to the soldiers' backpacks and luggage all over the camp, and said, "This is your faith and pillar, and you have become standard slaves." ”

Scipio didn't know what he was expressing, and didn't care, but asked him to train his team for the rest of the training, and soon send a large amount of food, drink, and money from Delphi, "so that when the rest period is over, I will reward my subordinates with all this, and then go to war again, and the merit of defeating Caesar will still belong to me." ”

In Caesar's hill camp in the siege of Kocula. Behind the wooden fence and the wall, the soldiers gathered around, and the weighing officer brought the noon meal. When the steaming stuff was piled on the soldiers' plates, they realized: it was just barley porridge mixed with beans and chickpeas.

But the soldiers did not say anything, and Caesar's men liked to make trouble in their leisure time, but now they had shared many hardships with their commanders in the previous wars between Gaul and Spain. I have long been accustomed to it, and I have understood that it is a very shameful act to complain, because everyone believes it. Their dictator Julius. Caesar must have been eating the same food.

But the beans were too hard, and the barley porridge was so thin that many of the soldiers had not yet reached a daylight hour after eating. began to line up in the trench under the wall. Thunder poured into it, "Gotta find a way to get some wheat bread." During his rounds, Karenus continued to speak to the scale-bearer, and then he saw Caesar's personal confidential slave and took him by the arm, emphasizing the subject again.

"There's everything, but there's no wheat flour, and of course there's no bread. It's like you can't have eggs without chickens. However, the dictator has just spoken. A large amount of fresh meat was bought from the cities of Illyria, and soon the soldiers could wave their barbecue forks, which could make up for the lack of bread, and it would warm the stomach anyway, and the meat would be significantly more effective. Caesar's confidential slave said.

Karenus shrugged his shoulders and said that only the lower people kept eating meat, and that if it continued like this, it would hurt the soldier's sense of honor. Then he saw a group of soldiers, humming and carrying stakes, walking towards the other side of the valley, and the lieutenant called out to the centurion who was leading the group, and he replied with great vigour, "Since Pompey's army has told us to be short of food, we will let him cut off the water." ”

It turned out that almost all the rivers that flowed through the city of Kocula were upstream of the mountain streams occupied by Caesar's army, and the "water breaking attack" became the greatest pleasure of Caesar's men when there was no battle, and when they encountered a shallow stream, they would use pickaxes and shovels to break it open and let the water drain to the ground, and if they encountered a larger river, they would first drive wooden stakes into the ground, and build small dikes like gates with stones in the middle, forcing them to change the direction of the flow.

Rabinus's four legions began to run out of water, and the pack animals died in large numbers, and the corpses were scattered everywhere, emitting a highly corrupt smell, so Rabinus sent men and horses to dig wells in front of the blockade, but in the bitter cold of winter, this was an extremely difficult and unproductive task, and he had to risk being attacked by Caesar's cavalry. A comical and cruel scene appeared, on the two blockade lines, Pompey's soldiers ate toast and various breads in front of Caesar's soldiers; On the other hand, Caesar's soldiers, even if they were hungry, held a water bottle and gulped in front of each other.

But in the black market that the soldiers of both sides secretly set up, the pieces of meat that had not yet rotted, whether they were mules or cows, and a small amount of water that had been exchanged for money, were sold to a very high price, and after every curfew, brave soldiers would sneak out of their respective camps and exchange them in the central ditch.

Until one day, a novel food was placed in front of Caesar's eyes, "What is this?" ”

As a result, the dictator's slaves waved their hands, saying that they had never seen such a thing, but that the soldiers would buy it from the locals when they were short of food, because the plant could be harvested in August and could be kept for a long time without spoiling. Caesar took the little crooked flakes, took them to his mouth, chewed them, then nodded, and said to the officers and servants, "Except that it is not bread, there is nothing wrong with it." ”

"Yes, I once asked the soldiers who ate this thing, and they all called it 'karao', and now when they eat barbecue and barley beans, the soldiers will eat it together, and it is said to be very good for the stomach, and the camp prostitutes also said that after they eat karao, they even have menstrual cramps." Karenus described the function of the food, but when it came to "menstrual cramps", he was visibly speechless, because it was taboo in the barracks to mention these things, which were considered unlucky.

However, Caesar did not seem to hear this, and he put down "Kara" with some uncertainty, and then said: "I remember, I heard that the naturalist of Varro said that this thing is actually the caraway in the forest, and now my people actually have to eat these things to survive, but I still hope that everyone can persevere, and in addition to strengthening the protection of the water source, Rabinus will not be restrained." ”

Caesar guessed correctly, and at this moment in the camp of Coculla, Rabinus called all the commanders of the three legions, "I need to select a brigade from each legion, and then attack the hill in the east, and destroy Caesar's fortifications and levees that cut off the river, because now that the problem of water shortage is getting worse, I don't think there will be any rain this winter." ”

In addition, Rabinus sent all the army's auxiliary archers, mainly Thracians armed with bows and arrows and javelins, and numbered two thousand men to accompany the three brigades. All the soldiers, at the second sentry moment, set off en masse, along the dark and lush mountain road, approaching the barrier under Caesar's blockade line, "Strike first, and see if the other party is real." The centurion who led the team whispered to the men and horses behind him and gave this order. (To be continued......)