Chapter 22: The Agronomist and the Legion (Part II)
After a while, Floys's men were disarmed, and then they were pulled to a burned-out wall, where they were all reimbursed as targets.
Combano dug his nostrils with his iron prosthetic fingers, and as he snorted, his intelligence officer rode his horse and handed him an urgent wordboard from the Italian city of Ga, which Combano grunted, turned his blindfold up, stared at it for a moment with his intact eyes (he did it only to better fit the image of Sethuris), and then threw it to Sackosa, meaning that he could not read it.
Sarkosa rolled his eyes and took the board, and then, in a nonchalant tone, told Sù Combano a very exciting news:
General Lypidaus was about to arrive in the vicinity of Cadiz and Italy within the prescribed voyage, and the absolutely elite main army of Caesar's side that he brought with him asked Cambano to give support within his ability, more specifically, to ask Cambano to fight north with all his strength from now on, and concentrate firepower on a large city like Orcresi, so as to attract Varro's main force and create conditions for him to successfully land.
"That's nonsense, the city of Alcrecy is the residence of the governor of the province!" Combano yelled, it was a shame for me.
Sarkosa then read on, and it was obvious that Lybida knew that the big horse bandit would react in this way, so he listed many advantages below, "As soon as I land, you will be the official treasurer of Lusitania, and you will have the right to occupy a third of all the spoils of our army in the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, your subordinates will immediately enjoy the Legion Title granted by Lord Caesar himself. ”
It's a bit of a stretch! As Combano pondered, several scout cavalry rode up. The commander hurriedly reported that Varro's legion was only ten miles away from us.
"Wowhaha! Let the guys who are as heavy as shrimp shells slowly follow my horse's ass and practice! Combano threw the board into the fire. Then he laughed and reoriented the blindfold. He put it on his right eye, and then grunted how the horizon had narrowed so much that he could only revert to his left eye, and rode staggeringly, giving the order, "The infantry, carrying all the booty, scattered into the surrounding forests and valleys; All the cavalry followed me and led the bastards towards the city of Olcrecy, and we did bigger things as we went. ”
"Whoa, whoa!" Barbarian and bandit cavalry in Saganmu's jacket. All raised dog-legged knives and responded to the call of the king of the mountain, which was their usual trick to play the old man Varro: robbing while running with light horses, dragging the heavy armies of Rome to run for their lives, and the world was in chaos, but the real trophies had long been taken away by the infantry, and Cambano naturally had a sales line, from Sagantan, New Carthage to Orcresy on the other side of the sea, there were internal lines he had planted, "It's not Lao Tzu, I brag." A lot of Roman knights still have to eat with me! ”
Of course, the city of Cadiz, the most important coastal defense point on the southern line of Lusitania. The knight Galonius, who served as Valo's treasurer, was also the object of Cambano's "key attention", and soon when Cambano's more than 1,000 light horsemen passed through the defense area under his jurisdiction in a whirlwind, the entire six brigades under Galonius pretended not to see it.
Soon, the bandits, nay, the official "Twenty-Seventh Legion" of Caesar's camp, ravaged the central part of the province and even plundered farmsteads on the outskirts of the capital.
Marcus. Varro was almost killed, when he was under the escort of the cavalry, he went to the city of Orcresi with great interest to watch the growth and fruit of the date palm trees, and asked the accompanying slaves to dictate themselves in detail, and he was still thinking about how to divide the fields in order to more effectively support the complete circular economy of the estate, in short, it is beneficial to human wisdom for generations to come, not the current kind of fighting and killing can be compared.
So, the "fight, kill, kill" soon happened in front of Varro's eyes, and several bandits who were riding horses from a distance of twenty Roman feet from him, probably from the ditch and the garden, suddenly appeared, and fired a few arrows at him and Hu Cong, one of which flew over Varro's head, but fortunately the old man was so frightened that he sat on the small chair and did not dare to move, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.
"How did they get all the way from around Italy?" At nightfall, in the governor's palace, Varro angrily asked his staff, "Don't I have troops stationed along the way?" Why, we can't even encircle and suppress such a conspicuous brigade of bandits, but I have achieved invulnerability in deployment in advance. But the incompetent staff below will only find all sorts of excuses, such as intelligence, enemy speed, dense enemy ear wires, etc., to prevaricate the old man.
"You mean that the inhabitants and tribes of Lusitania are all set on Sethouris and now Caesar, right?" In the end, it was Varro who pointed out the essence of the problem, and the staff members collectively acquiesced to silence when they saw that the governor had pierced the veil himself. After some deliberation, Varro also had to painfully admit in public that if this continued, no matter who Caesar or Pompey won, Lusitania would not be able to stay any longer, so he had this decision:
First of all, he collected heavy taxes throughout the province, and then hoarded the goods and money he received in the southern seaport of the city of Cádiz, and left it to be guarded by Gallonius; Then he took the main force of two legions and advanced towards the central core city of the peninsula, Korduba.
In this case, according to Varro's plan, if Pompeo had the upper hand in Spain, he would take the opportunity to cheer for Afranius in the city of Corduba and help him in the battle; If Caesar had made progress, he would have been able to retreat in time, avoid the edge, and go to the city of Cadiz, and bring all his money and army by sea to Mauritania or Africa.
This strategy is also something that only Varro can think of, mainly because he can't tell the truth of the various information, Aphranius boasts of his victory at Ilelda, and Caesar claims that Massella has been captured, as if both sides are winning in their own war reports, and both are at the end of the other party's war reports.
Many of the staff members could clearly see how "stinky" Governor Varro's plan was, but they all knew that if they were loyal and admonished at this time, they would dislike and even persecute the governor with great ambition and talent, so after saying a few random words and asking a few innocuous questions, all the staff members unanimously agreed with the governor's invincible plan.
As a result, just as Varro led two legions towards the city of Corduba, Li Pida's fleet and the six legions suddenly appeared in front of the bay of Cadiz City! (To be continued......)