"The problem is obscure, and life is short." - Protagra, the ancient Greek philosopher, whose other famous quote is "Man is the measure of all things"

"What the hell?" Vicintoli, who was anxious to enter the battle, stood with his cavalry at the foot of a high slope outside Massella, looking at the scene of the Albisis army not far away, billowing with smoke and dust under the Renus River, entering the city to assist in the defense, "Is it just for us so many elite cavalry to watch each other slip away?" Didn't Li Bida draw all the cavalry as the front line, and also brought two thousand good horses from Cyrenaica to supplement the cavalry ranks of the Sixth Legion? Now all the warriors are here, and they don't rush down to intercept the enemy! ”

Vicintoli kept nagging, but Hansk and Dussonvier next to him were very calm, because Sabo, the overseer holding the banner of King Numa, was standing behind immediately, and he represented the disposition of the commander-in-chief, so if he said not to move, then everyone should not move.

These days, Vicintoli and they, having seized the high ground, watched like fools and cowards as the Albysians joined the battle of the city of Marcelia, armed with Celtic shields and spears, and on horseback and dragging wheeled canoes.

He entrusted Prime Minister Gable to besiege fortifications and ships, and appointed Pop to design siege equipment, and let the Sixth Army be placed between Masseria and Liguria, a small port surrounded by mountains, Monoico City, under the guardianship of the lieutenant generals Borus and Petronius, turning Monoico (now Monaco) into a transit point for supplies. All provisions from Sardinia, Corsica and Liguria. are unloaded from here. It was then transported by land to Yar in relative safety, because the strength of Marcellia's fleet was not to be underestimated, so Li Pida was reluctant to risk sending the fleet directly to Yar.

Finally, after all the Albisians had entered the city, Li Bida began to act, and he divided all the cavalry into squadrons and scattered and attacked all the villages and markets around the city of Marcelia, which was unexpected. This time, Li Bida was full of "mercy", he did not plunder the villagers as usual, but let them hold all the food and belongings, and drove them to the city of Massalia, causing a flood of refugees at the city gate all day long, and Dumijus could only open the door and put tens of thousands of refugees in.

"Very good", then Li Bida officially began the siege plan, he once again drew out all the cavalry teams in the four legions individually, and occupied all the high and important roads from the ten stadia outside the city. Flaunting his might back and forth, so that Dumijus could not attack his engineering team, which was made up entirely of infantry. Divided into three divisions, a blockade of moats and wooden fences was constructed along one of the walls of the city of Massella opposite the land (the city was located on a triangular protruding peninsula, and all three walls were on the sea), initially one, and then a second one was built across the two stadia spaces, the inner one with ballistas and archers facing Massella, and the outer one aimed at the vast field beyond the Renus River. In the middle of the two blockades, Li Bida began to build a large number of shield vehicles, ramming piles, siege towers and other facilities, which made Dumijus confirm that when the project was completed, Li Bida would inevitably begin to storm the city of Massella.

Subsequently, the movement of Li Bida's troops under the supervision of the city tower strengthened Dumijuan's judgment - judging from the flags, Li Bida's most elite fifteenth and sixteenth legions were all deployed at the blockade line, while the Ligurian servant legions were placed in the old port east of Massalia, a narrow waterway, and the east bank of the east bank, which was now clogged with mud and silt, probably to be responsible for monitoring and containment.

But Dumijus misjudged, and after the blockade was completed, Li Bida immediately gathered all the cavalry, about 5,000 men, from all nationalities, and at the exit of the second blockade line, he lectured to everyone: "This siege is bound to be a contest of perseverance and courage, but I think it is also a contest of logistics, for the city has the advantage of abundant material reserves, and will not be lost on the way because of transportation; As for our army, the advantage is that we have supply routes along the coast, and the state of Liguria is now fully supporting us. After careful analysis, I found that the trick to victory was to maintain our own superiority and crush the superiority of the opponent - Dumijus was full of the idea that I would attack his well-fortified city, and then he would return with a feather, and then he would use the fleet in the city to go out to sea to attack my communication line and esophagus, and force me to withdraw from the siege, so that the five armies of Pompey in Spain would form a local advantage, or encroach on Gaul, or cross the sea to attack Italy, so that the superiority of His Excellency Caesar would be neutralized, or even reversed. Comrades, generals, so Marcelia must perish in three to six months, and the whole world will be locked and the key to the war will be on our side. Today, all of you are gathered here, you should understand my intention, that is, I have restrained your desire for war before, and the purpose is to first let ten thousand Albisi barbarians into the city, and then drive more than 30,000 surrounding villagers into it, so that the food reserves of Massella will be consumed at twice and three times the rate, and all we need is to intensify the siege and let them perish in hunger and hardship. If you were to ask me what we should do now, then you would be happy, and we would first use our cavalry to sweep the villages of the Albisis on the outer line, and destroy them all and burn them to the ground, in order to punish this unscrupulous barbarian. Then, I'll leave even more terrible tasks to my most reliable knights and merchants! ”

"So let's sabotage!" More than five thousand horsemen, guided by the banners of various colors, shouted loudly, and went up the river Renus like wolves, and burned and plundered the markets and villages of the Albysians when they saw them, because all the strong men went to help defend Massella, and now they were completely cut off by the blockade, so that the tribe was left only with old and weak women and children, and a large number of slave traders were like sharks following the ships on the sea, with fifty to a hundred sestris, and even the governor of Sardinia allowed them to use real goods, whether it was meat, grain, or wine, to sell the thousands of captured Albixi settlers into slavery and send them into Liguria, providing them with a large amount of cheap and even priceless labor to be used for more desperate assistance from Liguria.

"All the fields of the Albysians are now to your Alveni tribe." These are the words of Vicintoli next to him at the bottom of the cliff of Mount Yachen, looking at the mountain fort, the last stronghold of the Albissies. (To be continued......)