Varro's words, listening to Li Bida was also a little sad, he sighed and said to Saab and Arp beside him: "Life is really unpredictable, like Marcus. When he was the chief executive, the people of the whole province were hostile to him, seeing him as an enemy, and in the political arena, because he was a foreigner, he could not control the inner circle like Cicero, and could only survive between Caesar and Pompey. But like now, he is living a study and pastoral life again, and he is a humorous and rational old man. In the same way, how many kinds of roles do we have to wear masks on the world stage? ”

"That is to say, Varro also has the value of a gift to him, and like that Curio, he has been forgiven by Caesar, but he has also been deprived of his official position." Unlike Arp, Saab knows the subtext of the chief lieutenant well.

Li Bida was stunned for a moment, and then said of course, this is of course, I did what I said, Varro was a great agronomist, and I would immediately buy him a house and a manor house in Etrunia, and I would like to collect and organize his books, and fully support his cause - even if I could laugh at his ridiculous theory that "the carcass of a bull can give birth to bees", but in agriculture Varro is still Varro, and you are only you, wheat in Etrunia and Sardinia, madder dye and viticulture in Cyrene, But they can't do without his guidance.

"And what about those veterans of Pompey's legion? You won't really be willing to let them go to the Varus River and disband automatically! ”

Li Bida's eyes sparkled as if he had picked up gold, "Of course not!" Now according to Caesar's Act. Transgaul, Old Gaul, and Aquinoa all began to establish cities with citizenship. However, many of the inhabitants of the Roman city-state could not afford to emigrate because of the turmoil of war. So where are the nearly 20,000 veterans who were ordered to be discharged? Caesar's action was due to the fact that he had no money to settle it, but I could do it, and Liguria and Alveni would set aside part of the land on which we had slaughtered the Albysians for them to establish villages and market towns, and Caesar approved the motion. ”

"If you're not mistaken, your excuse must not be as blatant as 'I want to control this group of veterans', right?"

"Well, of course not, my reason is according to Roman tradition. Each provincial colonial market town needs three hundred veterans to serve as guards and surveillance, and now the Gaul region is not peaceful, so can each city be increased to six hundred? In addition, these people did not fight with Caesar, and Caesar was not obliged to pay them retirement money and land property, as far as these veterans were concerned, they were defeated and had no right to demand this, and it was good to have a place to stay. ”

So come and go. It was the chief lieutenant who got the most benefits.

Soon. Caesar returned from Corduba, fully agreeing with Lybida's imminent disposition of the Venette rebellion, and it was not long before the whole army crossed the Varus and walked out of the Pyrenees to Marcelia, where he prepared to return to Rome by land.

Sure enough, on the way, Caesar received the news of the defeat of the Eleventh Army of Illyria, Pompey's followers began to regroup in Greece and other places, and Byblos's fleet began to blockade and besiege Brindisi, the momentum was very arrogant, and the situation facing Caesar became serious again.

In addition, Caesar's mobilization of Li Pida's military funds began to be urgent, and indeed the whole army was in a commotion on the march, especially the Eighth Army and the newly formed Ninth Army (Caesar abolished all the recruit legions at the moment, dismissed some of them, and merged and reorganized the Ninth Army Corps) The trouble was particularly severe, even at the curfew moment after the establishment of the camp, there were many soldiers walking around the camp, making loud noises, or whispering, and the centurion's reports on the instability of the military camp soon became a pile.

"On the whole, they demanded the fulfillment of the bounty of three hundred dinars each, which I owed them cumulatively after crossing the Rubicon, and now it is said that the Italian garrison is also making a fuss, and Antony is dealing with it." Listening to the noise of people coming and going outside, Caesar said uneasily to Li Bida.

The meaning is obvious, asking Li Bida to pay for the emergency, but Li Bida is really helpless, saying that such a large amount of money must be paid in cash (because the army is never willing to accept verbal things), he also needs time to turnover, and several other regiments are also infected, and there is a commotion. "Is it possible to borrow more money from the tribun and centurion, and then the situation can be eased as long as we get to Italy?" Li Bida remembered Caesar's usual method, and cautiously inquired.

Caesar shook his head, and said that this method also depends on the timing of its use, and it is suitable for the battle before the decisive battle or for the lone army to go deep into the enemy area, but now that the war is over, the soldiers and centurions will not be willing to be rewarded again, and they will have to pay for it themselves, and they will only demand that they do their best.

"It seems that the set of three and four will not work now." Li Bida pondered and thought, and then proposed a compromise solution, that is, when the army marched to the port of Yar, we would honor thirty percent of the promised reward, and our current funds, plus the loan from the Ligurian Chamber of Commerce, could still be scraped together, plus the abundant supplies in the port of Yar, we could also take out the reward and rest the soldiers, and then march to the south of the Rubicon, and we will honor the rest in full.

"That's all it can be." Caesar clapped his hands and said.

But when, ten days later, in the middle of the eighth month of the Roman calendar, Caesar was stationed in the port of Arr to gather supplies, the news came that the Ninth Legion, the vanguard, had mutinied in the town of Pinocenza on the Po River, and the soldiers refused to go any further, and threatened that if Caesar did not pay them the remaining seventy percent of the bounty, they would raise their eagle banners, leave the camp and go to Pompey, or disband themselves, "and let Julius himself fight Pompey." ”

After the Ninth Legion, followed by the Eighth Legion, followed by the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and even Caesar's most trusted Tenth Legion, the soldiers no longer marched silently, but exchanged their heads and ears restlessly, and some advocated that they should continue to obey the orders of the Superior, and the bounty would always be settled; Some shouted that if we back down here, all the generals and consuls would no longer take us seriously, and they would gain an inch.

After learning of this news, Li Bida was resolute and immediately asked the soldiers' committee to check and correct the ranks, and told the rioters to shut up, but he could not control the situation of the Eighth Army Corps, and the commander Gobale could not control it, and soon a mutiny also occurred, and the soldiers sat in place, unwilling to march towards their destination, and when the centurion came with a cane, they openly stood up and disobeyed, and a fight occurred.

"Prepare the horses, prepare the horses!" When Caesar learned of this in the port of Ar, his face was nervous, and he had to do everything possible to eliminate this mutiny, otherwise Pompey would find out about it, and he would definitely take the opportunity to launch a fierce counterattack. (To be continued......)