Don't hang your faith on the wall.

- Epictetus (famous Roman philosopher)

Flavis looked at the three legion commanders who had sworn allegiance to Caesar in front of him, and his heart was also full of joy; After all, the three of them represent not only the three of them, but also the three legions behind them and various interest groups. Perhaps there was nothing behind Rabinus, only a formidable Fifth Legion.

But there was more to Varus and Cecil than just one legion behind them; In the more than ten years of service in the Julius family, the two of them have already formed their own interest groups centered on themselves. Such small groups were also allowed to exist by Flavies, like the factions within the House of Augustus; All of them are conducive to the strengthening of the power of the family leader.

With the allegiance of these two men, Caesar would gain the support of a series of interest groups behind them, and then grow and develop the power loyal to Caesar. As long as Caesar can gain the support of most of the internal forces of the Julius family, then it is logical to change the family heir and make Caesar directly the next leader of the Julius family.

Judging from the current situation alone, Caesar, after gaining the allegiance of these three men; In terms of hard power, it means having the support of the Fifth and Sixth Army Corps, as well as the Seventh Army Corps. The seven legions of the House of Julius, three of which supported Caesar; The remaining four just take their time, Flavies still has time anyway.

Moreover, the commander of the First Legion was Caesar's father, Vibius; He can't support his brother as the head of the family, but oppose his son becoming the head of the family. Of course, Flavies could not deny that his youngest son could have done such a stupid thing; So, Flavis never talked to Vibius about this.

As for the rest of Karabes, he represents not one or two legions, but four mighty legions; But Flavis never worried about problems with Karabes. For with the wisdom of Carabes, he must have seen it; The only people who can let him show his talents are himself and Caesar, and no one else can let him develop on his own.

Therefore, Carabes does not have to say a word himself, and he will not hesitate to side with Caesar in the final choice; This is something that Flavies has always believed. Now that the three legionnaires had sworn allegiance to Caesar, the meeting was about to end; Considering the division of troops tomorrow, Flavis asked the three generals to go down first and prepare for each other.

That night, the candle of Flavies' tent remained unextinguished, and Flavis had a long conversation with Caesar all night; Early the next morning, the army began to pack up the tents they had set out in the camp for the previous night, ready to set off again. After Varus and Cecil handed over their auxiliaries to Rabinus, Rabinus set out with his fifth legion and three auxiliaries to the east.

After seeing Rabinus's army depart, Flavies did not delay any longer, but set out with Varus and Cecil with the Sixth and Seventh Legions to the northeast towards Norikum. Because the northeastern passage of the Alps is not very wide, it is just enough to accommodate the queue of the Julius family's brigade.

In order to better cover the whereabouts of the army, and also to take the Salzburg barbarian tribe by surprise; Flavies decisively ordered the 1,500 cavalry of his Chinese army to divide into three teams according to the original formation and go five miles in front of the army to open the way. The so-called opening of the road is naturally to solve all the barbarian tribes they encounter, control the barbarian tribes near the passage, and put an end to all possible traces of the leaking army.

The northeastern passage of the Alps is not short, and the mountain road is rugged and difficult to navigate; It would take at least ten days for the Julius army's army to fully pass through this passage. During these ten days, the cavalry of the House of Julius took control of a total of twelve barbarian villages, killing more than 500 barbarian warriors who tried to escape and report the news.

Out of deterrence, Flavis even directly ordered the cavalry to find out and hang all their families after killing the warriors who wanted to escape; On the one hand, it can greatly deter those tribal warriors who still want to escape, and on the other hand, it can also cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, so as to prevent the families of these slain warriors from seeking revenge from the Julius family in the future, and become an unstable factor under the rule of the Julius family.

With such a bloody joint policy, the barbarian warriors who wanted to escape and report the news disappeared all at once; On the one hand, it is because the truly fierce barbarian warriors have long since died in the previous escape, and on the other hand, it is also because this measure of the Julius family has played a great role.

As for the twelve barbarian tribes that were controlled, the total population of each barbarian tribe did not even reach a thousand, and the least was only one hundred and eighty people; The Julius family can't slaughter all these people, after all, they will also be part of the Julius family in the future, and they will also belong to the people of the Julius family.

So, in order to ensure the stability of these small tribes; Flavis had to keep leaving small armies behind to be stationed in these small tribes to ensure that they did not cause chaos in the rear of the Julius army. The fragmented twelve small tribes consumed a total of nearly two brigades of the Julius family; They were all stationed in various tribes in units of hundreds.

The ten-day journey was finally over; Due to Flavis' strict protections, the people of the Salzburg barbarian tribe were completely unaware of the arrival of the Julius army. After walking through this passage, it is only a day's journey from the settlement of the barbarian tribes of Salzburg; The Julius army will only need one day to launch a surprise attack on Salzburg!

After leaving the passage, Flavies collected all the cavalry, and allowed them to patrol in turns within a two-mile radius of the large army; Otherwise, cavalry that is too far away from the army may be spotted by the barbarian tribes living nearby. You know, the terrain after walking out of the passage is not so narrow; It's not that easy to catch the person who escaped and told the news.

While the army was rapidly marching in the direction of Salzburg, a caravan suddenly appeared and disrupted the march of the Julius army; When the caravan discovered the army of the Julius family, it immediately began to flee in frenzy. Flavies, fearing that they had gone to Salzburg to report the news, sent a full thousand cavalry to capture them all.

When all the merchants and guards of the caravan were captured by Flavis, Flavies was shocked; Because these people who were still running frantically just now turned out to be all standard Romans! Why did these Roman caravans flee as soon as they saw the army of the House of Julius?

Under the swords of the soldiers of the Julius family, the Romans of the caravan quickly gave an answer: it turned out that they were all merchants under the rule of the Julius family, but they secretly violated the prohibition of the Julius family and smuggled a large amount of wine and precious high-end luxury goods to the barbarian tribes of Salzburg; I didn't expect to run into the army of the Julius family here, so I naturally wanted to escape in a panic.

Since this caravan was a smuggling caravan, and it was smuggling large quantities of liquor and high-end luxuries; The only thing that can afford these high-end luxuries and huge things in the Norikum region is the Salzburg barbarian tribe. Flavies did not continue to embarrass these merchants, but let them provide themselves with the present situation in Salzburg; to offset their crimes!

Of course, the merchants hurriedly agreed to this, and they told Flavis all about the barbarian tribes of Salzburg and the situation of Salzburg; After that, Flavis also kept his promise and let them leave through the rear passage. As soon as the merchants left, Flavies ordered the army to halt its march and sent spies to nearby villages to verify what the merchants had said.

If what these merchants said was true, then the war of the Julius family against this barbarian tribe of Salzburg could easily be over; If they are all lying to deceive themselves, then Flavis is not a soft-hearted person, and when he returns to the Julius family, Flavis will personally find these people and hang them with his own hands!

As it turned out, the merchants didn't make up lies to deceive Flavis, and all of what they said turned out to be true! According to these merchants, the Salzburg barbarian tribes generally don't need as much wine and high-end luxuries, but recently the Salzburgers need a lot of supplies for the annual festival.

Both the common barbarians and the nobles among them celebrate and drink wildly at several festivals throughout the year; The most recent festival is the biggest of all the festivals of the year. On the day of the festival's official celebrations, ordinary barbarians of the Salzburg tribe drink home-brewed mead and beer and hold a grand bonfire.

The aristocrats, on the other hand, will buy more precious wines to drink; Some aristocratic banquets will also be held, and various high-end luxury ornaments will be compared. This will bring a steady stream of wealth to countless merchants, and those merchants in the territory of the Julius family cannot resist the temptation of gold coins, so they take risks to smuggle these things.

According to the information of the merchants, tomorrow is the arrival of the festival; And the spies sent by Flavies also proved this information. In this way, Flavies already had a complete offensive plan in mind; At this time, in Flavies's opinion, an alcoholic nation is not so annoying, at least at this time, it will be very popular with itself! (To be continued.) )