People say goodbye to life is not without care, they all have expectations for the afterlife; For a body that has fallen by death, it is not possible to abandon it, nor can it be left to live and die.

- Lucretius (Roman philosopher)

After the meeting that night, the generals of the House of Julius began to move early the next morning; Gallerius was busy leading his second army and marching immediately to Ubria, while Appius divided his army into twelve parts and sent them to twelve important cities in the three provinces of Gaul, and he himself led a cavalry hundred-man and an armed brigade to be stationed at Sagesta, in the province of Regulia.

Farius also set out with his Fourth Legion, and he needed to be stationed along the Rubicon River with his Fourth Legion to support the various legions of the Julius family; The last thing left was Vibius, who was stationed in Etrusia. His First Legion did not need to be mobilized at all, as long as it remained in the barracks outside the city of Arethion.

However, Flavies still called his youngest son and his second son, who was the heir to the family, to his study, and presented them with his experience of serving in politics and the army. After Quintus and Vibius arrived in the study, Flavies did not directly say anything to them, but took them to the back garden of the family mansion to watch the ants.

At this moment, there was a large group of black pressed ants on the ground carrying a small piece of fertilizer that the servants had scattered on the ground; The ants worked together to pick up this small piece of fertilizer, which was insignificant to humans, and began to send it to their burrows. Flavis quietly looked at the ants at his feet, and Quintus and Vibius also stared at the ants.

Time passed like this, and after about ten minutes, the ants disappeared in front of the eyes of the three of them with such a small piece of fertilizer; When the ants were completely invisible, Flavis looked up and asked his two sons, "You have been looking at these ants just now, tell me what you have seen." ”

Quintus and Vibius looked at their father for some reason, and looked at each other for a while; Then Quintus, who was the elder brother and heir to the family, was the first to speak: "Father, I see unity; It is because of their solidarity that these tiny ants can carry such a piece of fertilizer that is a behemoth to them back into their burrows! ”

Flavies nodded at Quintus with an expressionless face, then turned his gaze to Vibius next to Quintus and asked, "What about you?" "Vibius originally thought of unity, but Quintus had already said it, and he naturally couldn't say it again; So, after thinking about it, Vibius said:

"Father, I see not only unity, but also diligence and hard work; If there was unity, the ants would not have been able to move the fertilizer. Only if they are both diligent and united, they can carry this piece of fertilizer that is a behemoth to them back to their caves! ”

Vibius thought his father would smile appreciatively when he heard his answer, but that wasn't the case; Flavies still looked at his two sons with a blank face. It wasn't until both Quintus and Vibius felt the hair all over their bodies that Flavis sighed and said:

"Quintus, you are the elder brother and the heir to the family; You can see the unity in the ants, and I'm relieved. However, I would like to ask you: have you managed to unite with your brother and take care of your nephew?

Vibius, you are not the heir to the family, but you are also one of the most important members of the family; He is also the commander of the family's first legion. You can see the unity and diligence and hard work in the ants, and I am also very pleased; At the same time, I also want to ask you: Have you achieved unity with your brother and worked diligently?

Quintus, Vibius; You are all my sons, and you are the future pillars of the House of Julius. If the two of you are not united enough, how can you lead our House of Julius to prosperity? Also, your eldest brother died in Sicily for the sake of his family and for the Republic; Have you taken care of the three children he left behind?

Fadia is fourteen years old this year, and did you know that she has two years to get married at most? Decius (son of Lucius, Decius Julius, not the Maxentius family) is eight years old this year, do you know what he does when he misses his father? I won't talk about the four-year-old kid this year, you know it in your own hearts.

I hope that our Ulius family can become a united family, and only when you family members are united, will our Ulius family become strong. For those generals, the House of Julius was the object of their allegiance; But for you, the house of Julius is your home, the place where you were born and raised.

Quintus, in the future, when dealing with family affairs, you have to work harder and more diligently; When you are at home, you have to be a little more concerned and take care of your younger brothers and nephews. Vibius, in the future, you will have to work harder and more diligently in dealing with the affairs of the Legion; When you are at home, you should be a little more concerned and take care of your brothers and nephews.

Always remember one thing: whether you are the head of the family, the heir of the family, the ruler of the family; You all have to know that this family is your family, and it will always be that family, you have to give everything for this family, and you must care for everyone in this family! ”

Flavies's words, both Quintus and Vibius, were ashamed; At the beginning, the two were still full of shame when they were questioned by their father. But the further back Flavis spoke, the more uncomfortable the hearts of the two became; Until now, his face is red and he has no place to be ashamed.

So, when his father admonished him for the last time, Quintus and Vibius looked into their father's eyes with red faces and promised, "Father, we will obey your teachings; You won't be disappointed! After saying that, the two brothers looked at each other at the same time, stretched out their hands and grabbed each other's hands tightly!

Seeing that Quintus and Vibius were able to reassure him in front of him with shameful faces, Flavies was also full of relief; Although his two sons don't perform very well on weekdays, they can still make some achievements as long as they teach properly. With the assurances of his two sons, Flavies ended the father-son conversation with satisfaction, and began to get busy with the affairs of the expedition.

Rabinus's Fifth Legion and Varus's Sixth Legion, as well as Cecil's Seventh Legion, were preparing for the expedition in their barracks outside the city of Arretien. Because the journey to the east is not short, and there are still some mountainous areas with exceptionally rugged roads in between; Therefore, not all of the three legions' equipment brigades went out with the army, and only carried a total of thirty-six ballistae.

In order to facilitate his command, Flavies also drew out all the cavalry of the auxiliary regiments of the three legions; A makeshift fleet of 1,500 Gallic cavalry and 36 ballista guns became the Chinese army under the personal command of Flavies himself. The other legion commanders naturally commanded their own hoplite legions and auxiliary legions with only 2,000 light infantry left.

However, even carrying only thirty-six ballistas was not an easy task; After all, the advance speed of the ballista is too slow, and it will seriously slow down the marching speed of the army. In fact, with Phraves's idea, attacking Norikum did not require a ballista at all; The barbarian people's construction level is already poor, so why do you need to prepare special ballistas!

Rabinus, however, was vehemently opposed to such an approach; The reason is that even barbarians who don't know how to build can build a line of defense for their cities with strong tree trunks. If you don't carry any siege equipment, it will greatly affect the attack speed in future siege battles; Because of the fence-like wall built up by tree trunks, it is impossible to use ladders to attack.

Of course, the Julius family could also use fire to burn down all the wooden walls of the barbarian city; However, if this method is really used, then what is the point of the Julius family occupying Norikum? Could it be that the Julius family could have built new stone walls in a short time after burning down the wooden walls? That's a huge project!

Isn't it huge?! Noricum is located north of the Alps, while the Julius family is located south of the Alps; The difficulty of transportation in the middle can be imagined. Although the two sides have a fairly wide road in the northeast to navigate, the cost of transporting supplies is too high; It's not a good deal at all.

Rather than that, it would be better to keep the wooden walls; At least it will be more convenient for the Ulius family army to use it in the future. As for the stone walls, it would be good if the Julius family could build Salzburg, the capital of Norricum, into a stone city in the future; Forget about the other cities in the Norikum region.

In this way, under the persuasion of Rabinus, Flavies finally agreed to carry the ballista; However, the scale was still limited to thirty-six, which was not even the forty-eight that a legion would have in standard configuration. When Caesar learned of this, he came up with a new way to prevent the ballistas from delaying the march; That is, two horses were assigned to each ballista, dragging the ballista forward.

This new method completely solved the problem of the speed of the ballista march, and Caesar was treated differently by Rabinus and others; After a day's preparations, the next morning, nearly 30,000 troops of the three legions quietly left the barracks in the early morning and marched towards the east where the sun was rising! (To be continued.) )