"When a woman reaches middle age, she can go out because people don't ask her whose wife she is, only whose mother she is." - Greek orator Sibirid

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Sabo, who was hugged tightly by Li Bida, swayed his thin body, and his face was a little embarrassed, and after the other party asked, he replied that the cavalry artillery had used ships and mules and horses to transport them to Aguilera, and he was in Spain, and he also used the spare funds of the soldiers' committee to buy six more on credit, and now the entire legion has eighteen cavalry cannons.

"Well, the remaining question is to build the military road as soon as possible and go to Milan. With so many cavalry cannons, immediately in the war in the province of Gaul, our legion will soon be rewarded and sweetened, regular or irregular, auxiliary or not, not still look at the battlefield performance, the role of the regular legion, I will snatch it the same. Li Bida cheered his subordinates up like this.

But within two days, Caesar's lieutenant Rabinus sent a token officer to find Li Bida in the camp, saying that Caesar had left the other three legions, only the tenth legion, and had crossed the huge mountain range, arrived at Lake Leman and the Rhone and camped alone, and confronted the Helvetians alone.

It seemed that Caesar's warmongers were about to go to war with the Helvetians, and Li Bida spit out the bread he was eating, took the token and handed it to Milu. Tell him to give orders with Tagus. All the soldiers in the camp immediately checked their equipment, mules, horses, and weapons. Along the newly completed temporary military road, a rapid march towards the city of Milan was made.

Under the city of Milan, Secledilius chased Caesar to the outside of Lake Leman, and the rest of the commanders and generals stood in the camp made of red curtains, staring intently at the sand table, until the two auxiliary commanders, Appis and Lipida, arrived, and then the chief lieutenant Rabinus sighed, and pointed his baton at the sand table and said:

"The 300,000 Helvetians have begun to migrate on their own. Ignoring the warnings of the Republic, they carried with them large quantities of food, weapons, chariots and horses, and claimed that their tribe could defeat any other tribe that dared to stop them in two or three years of migration and become the overlord of all Gaul. ”

"Your Excellency the Governor is now alone with the Tenth Legion, crossing the Mega Mountains, and we need to know what the policy of the Helvetians there is." Apis asked.

Rabinus replied only that, since the Senate had not yet sent an emissary to declare the republic at war with the tribe, His Excellency seemed to want to confine the matter to a diplomatic framework. During this time, our five legions. Temporarily on standby in Milan, the commanders must not slack off in their combat readiness.

"I don't think there's a need to be on standby, there will be a war with the Helvetians soon, and we should take all the legions out of the city today and go to Lake Leman to reinforce Your Excellency the Governor." Suddenly, Li Bida's astonishing remarks caused the rest of the army commanders to talk about it—you must know that Li Bida's words seemed extremely reckless in any case, and the power to decide to declare war and make peace was in the Senate, and in the absence of a precise order, such rash remarks would be regarded as an indiscriminate attempt to start an "illegal war."

But he did not mean to be cautious again, he knew Caesar too well, and if this governor really longed for peace, how could he spend so much effort to get the position of governor of the province of Gaul? Like Lusitania before him, this Caesar only needed a bigger battle to gain money, fame, and allegiance from the army.

However, the following explanation of Li Bida was not so open-fired, and he mainly wanted to give the impression of the others to be prepared for a rainy day, and began to point the sand table with a gilded baton: it was impossible for the Helvetians to go further east, and there were only about two ways for them to reach their stated goal in Brittany, one was to cross from Geneva on the Rhône (Rodonnas), where there was a small and precious bridge, and this was where Caesar's Tenth Legion controlled and watched, and where the legion was stationed; The other way, along the Sefuni Gap, crossed the plateau of central Gaul to the west coast, passing through the territory of the Aedui and Secongians, both of whom were closest to the Roman Republic, and whose Excellency would not allow the Helvetians to pass.

"So, gentlemen. The end result can only be war. This is Li Bida's summary.

When the other commanders were about to express their worries, Rabinus stood up and said that the analysis of the Twelfth Legion was very reasonable, and we should not be so arranged, leaving half of the legions, that is, five brigades, to stay in Milan, and the remaining four and a half legions all followed me to Lake Leman to reinforce His Excellency the Governor, "After all, there are 300,000 Helvetians, and it is too dangerous for the Governor to confront them alone with less than 5,000 troops." ”

After saying that, Rabinus nodded at Li Bida very kindly, and asked him if he would like to take the chief thousand-man brigade of his own legion and serve as the vanguard of the whole team.

"I am honored, Your Excellency the Chief Adjutant General." Li Bida did not shirk at all.

In March, above the mountainside of the Alps is still a vast white world, and in the gorge between the towering peaks on both sides, a gilded Balantian falcon hangs its wings with angry eyes, as the emblem of the "Illyrian Twelfth Legion", and the flag of the "Iron Hand of Catiline", and is held in the hands of the flag bearer, and walks to the front of the long line, shining gold and silver in the grass-green and pale valley, and the Alpine air flow blowing from the Gorge from time to time is still extremely cold. Therefore, Li Bida, who was leading his mount "owl" on foot, instructed all the soldiers to wear amphorae and hide their helmets underneath like him, and whenever the clouds and shadows of the wind quickly spread over the entire mountain, the soldiers of the Twelfth Legion turned en masse, turned their backs to the wind, led the goats or mules and horses, and stood still until the knife-like wind swept in unobstructed, and they sat down one after another, and dodged the raging wind and snow with all their might, until the clouds and shadows flew to the other side of the valley, and the soldiers stood up again. Shake off the snow particles on your body and continue to move forward in an orderly manner.

But the whole march was still full of suffering, and the number of missing, wounded, and sick soldiers who could not drink hot water was increasing, but they could not be transported back to Milan, so Li Bida had no choice but to put them in groups of three or five, put them in place, gave them blankets, tents, meat, and coals, and told them to wait for the help of the follow-up troops, or set up a small camp on the spot, and wait for their strength to recover before deciding to stay.

At the end of the year, the 1,000-man brigade of the 12th Army Corps that walked out of the valley and gorge was only about 700 people, and the remaining 300 people were all attrition in the war, but the "veteran wing" led by Li Bida and mainly composed of freed slaves from Sardinia maintained a high degree of determination and will, and walked out almost intact.

As a result, as soon as he arrived at Lake Leman, Li Bida saw Caesar's Tenth Army, digging trenches and building fortifications. (To be continued......)