14. Caesar's Intentions (I)

In the twilight, a fierce battle was unfolding in the square in front of the royal palace in Alexandria.

And the armies of the two sides who shouted and fought turned out to be so similar in appearance.

- The same scarlet helmet, the same scarlet robe, the same square shield, the same Roman dagger, the same eagle banner, cuirasse, and leather bracers, and the same training and tactics...... Accompanied by almost identical trumpets and drumbeats, the infantry on both sides, armed with short swords, raised their large shields, which were lined up in front of the ranks, one by one, forming a moving barrier, and then slowly closing in on their opponents.

Another group of javelinmen and slingers threw javelins and stones at the back of the line, trying to scatter the enemy's formation.

When the actual hand-to-hand combat is encountered, the hoplites in the first line will use their short swords to attack through the gaps behind the shields, while stacking their shields on top of each other to protect each other, and try to pierce the opponent's vital parts, such as the heart or abdomen.

This was the standard tactic of the ancient Roman legions, and this was how the armies of both Pompey and Caesar fought. There seems to be some resemblance to the scene in modern warfare, when the Emperor Napoleon commanded the French army to bombard the French army first with artillery fire and then charge with bayonets.

In the Rim of the Mediterranean of this era, these well-trained Roman legions, who were adept at maintaining tight formations, were often able to easily defeat poorly organized barbarian tribes. But here, the commanders on both sides were experienced Roman commanders, and the armies of both armies were Roman legions trained according to the same code. Each is well aware of the other's tactics and skills, and the battle becomes a contest of strength without any tricks.

-- The commanders of both sides will constantly throw troops on one front to attack in turn, trying to knock on the other's shield wall. Until a certain group of soldiers can't hold it anymore, so that there is a breach in the shield wall. Then, the side that has gained a local advantage will take advantage of the situation to increase its efforts, expand the breakthrough point, and disrupt the opponent's array, so that the opponent will turn from a local setback that is broken through at one point to a full-scale rout that collapses.

But here's the thing. Due to the scorching heat and fatigue of the long battle, most soldiers did not have a very long will to fight. Although the shouts of killing in front of him were earth-shattering, several corpses continued to fall on the square paved with marble floor tiles. But a decisive breakthrough never came.

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As the sky gradually darkened, both sides had to withdraw their own armies and make a truce - Pompey's side, which rushed out of the palace and raided, did not pick up any bargains and failed to tear through the encirclement network set up by Caesar. But Caesar's soldiers were exhausted. It was impossible to continue the assault on the palace.

However. The Alexandria mob, indulged in killing and looting, but today they are still in good spirits.

Even after nightfall, the streets of Alexandria were intermittently filled with roars and swords, and scattered fires lit up among the tall buildings, reflecting on the clouds as a faint crimson as the sunset.

Beneath the brutal beauty of this violence. Countless lives are rapidly disappearing in the tearing of each other, and a song of destruction is played.

Relatively speaking. The main battlefield where the two Roman armies faced each other became one of the quietest places in the city.

After the battle at dusk, piles of clanging bonfires lit in the palace square, which had been covered in layers of corpses, rubble, and ashes. With the help of the flickering flames and the moonlight projected through the smoke of gunpowder, Caesar, dressed in military uniform, looked around at the blood-stained, tired and wheezing warriors, and looked up at the majestic palace above the steps, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought again.

Another day of scuffle came to an end for the time being, and both sides retreated to their respective camps to rest, with no progress being made, and the situation on the battlefield was not changed in any way, the only result being the burning of a few more blocks and the reduction of hundreds of houses to ashes.

But the Ptolemaic palace, which Pompey guarded, still stood tall in the flames of war.

Like most palaces of this era, the Ptolemaic royal palace in Egypt was built on a high platform inside the city, and it was necessary to pass through a series of steps to get from the square outside the palace to the palace gate. The palace is surrounded by thick walls and towers, and if you remove the gorgeous mosaics and reliefs, it is a very fortified city within a city.

Moreover, the royal palace located by the sea also had an independent royal port, and Caesar could not completely besiege it without warships.

At present, after several defeats in several engagements and the loss of nearly half of his soldiers and horses, Pompey has shrunk the remaining hundreds of personal guards into the palace and defended them to the death. These soldiers were elite veterans who had followed Pompey for decades, and there was no doubt about their loyalty and fighting skills. Due to the lack of siege equipment and the lack of overwhelming superiority in troops, no matter how clever Caesar was, he could not gnaw on this hard walnut for a while.

At the same time, Pompey also had the local Roman garrison, who were familiar with the terrain, fight guerrilla attacks in the city, and used the fleet to launch stone projectiles from the sea, or organized death squads to swim ashore to raid, constantly harassing Caesar's rear, making it difficult for him to scavenge for food and supplies, and unable to concentrate on attacking the royal palace.

- What is even more hateful is that the Roman soldiers, who had just returned to Pompey and had been in Alexandria for many years, seemed to have completely forgotten their pride and honor. When they fought in formation, they were completely vulnerable, but when they attacked lone soldiers with sticks in the streets and alleys, they were more skilled than one another. These people preferred night and dusk to daytime, and the difficult terrain and narrow and winding streets made them a fish in water, but they became a nightmare for the Sixth Legion—whenever Caesar's legionnaires were ready to rest and eat, they would always throw a few stones or shoot a few cold arrows from a corner, and by the time they sent their troops to clear them, the sneak attackers had already slipped away without a trace.

However, Caesar did not have so many troops under his command and could not control the entire city. Even a few blocks around the palace could not be cordoned off.

As a result, even the outlaws who fought bravely and fiercely were gradually exhausted by this endless sneak attack.

On the other hand. If Caesar temporarily gave up attacking the palace and dispersed most of his forces to eliminate the "guerrillas" who were active in the streets and alleys, Pompey would open the palace gates and lead the army to raid, so that Caesar's Sixth Army would be left and right - the terrain of the Ptolemaic palace would be condescending, and any large-scale movement of Caesar's army would be clearly visible to Pompey's sentinels on the palace walls.

In this case. Unless Caesar chooses to raid at night, there is no way to keep it secret. And if you really choose to set off at night when you can't see your fingers, you will fight in the streets of this strange city...... The Sixth Legion, which is unfamiliar with the place. I'm afraid that there are more people who get lost than those who die in battle.

Caesar had commanded many battles over the past few decades, but never had he felt so powerful as he did now.

- Unfamiliar cities, narrow streets, dense buildings, the queue tactics of the Roman legions to dominate the Mediterranean. It simply can't be done in such a place. And Caesar's proudest elite cavalry. It's also hard to find a space within the city where you can make an impact.

(Historically, in the real Alexandria melee, Caesar's command was much worse than the other battles he was responsible for.) ）

This made Caesar feel as if he was stuck in a huge mire of boundless nature, and no matter how much he struggled, he could not find a way out.

And the army he carried with him was too small, and it was slowly melting and disappearing little by little, like ice and snow in the sun—Caesar had only 4,000 soldiers with him when he set off from Rhodes Island, and he was in the process of landing on the beach in Alexandria. Hundreds more drowned because the transport ship was sunk by enemy ships. After a series of chaotic street battles and ambushes, the troops around him had been reduced to less than three thousand.

Fortunately. Pompey's army was no longer able to muster two thousand men after repeated heavy losses, so Caesar was still able to gain the upper hand.

In short, unlike Caesar's previous siege warfare, which could be broken as soon as the walls were opened, on the battlefield of Alexandria, he had to rely on a pitifully small army of missing troops, in this maze-like megacity, playing endless "games of beating sticks" with Pompey's equally pitiful soldiers and horses, and at the same time worrying about the supply of the army.

-- The food that Caesar had brought with his army sank to the bottom of the sea with the fleet. While retreating to the palace, Pompey ordered the burning of all the granaries near the port, and even though Caesar immediately rushed over to extinguish the fire, he was unable to capture much wheat.

In this way, Pompey, who was confined to all the luxurious palaces he had, could naturally enjoy the delicacies of the Ptolemaic imperial kitchen. Caesar, stranded in the ruined neighborhoods, had to have his soldiers raid houses and scavenge for rations from citizens' homes – an inefficient and casualty-prone method of "supply on the spot", and dozens of soldiers had been killed in the process of collecting food.

At the same time, the citizens of Alexandria, who were born and raised, are wreaking havoc and devastation in the city...... Looking back at the blazing fire that reflected half of the sky, and listening to the faint miserable howl, Caesar could only sigh helplessly.

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-- Ever since the two fierce Romans fought in the city of Alexandria, the whole city has completely lost order, and all kinds of social contradictions that had been barely suppressed by the Ptolemaic dynasty with violence have erupted.

First of all, the year of extreme famine in Egypt, and the Ptolemaic dynasty neither calmed the price of food nor distributed relief, the citizens of Alexandria were struggling to live and die, looking at the still profligate dynastic magnates, and everyone had too much resentment in their hearts. Now that the Romans had entered the city and fought and the Pharaoh and his army had disappeared, many people had a different mind—the timid townspeople, who instinctively shrank into their homes and did not dare to go out, but the brave or hungry saw an opportunity to make a fortune......

Therefore, while the two groups of Romans were fighting, many destitute natives also took firewood knives, clubs, daggers, axes and other weapons they could find, while avoiding the main battlefield of bloody fighting between the Romans. While shouting and flocking to the mansions of the nobles and rich all over the city, they can't wait to start looting and plundering, venting their long-standing grievances.

And the plundered aristocrats and plutocrats were not to be outdone. Mobilize private soldiers and guards to resist desperately. Even if they are unable to support it in the end, they will burn down their mansions and storehouses in Zuihou, destroying everything that cannot be saved, lest they fall into the hands of the mob. The rioters retaliated with a roar of "shoot and kill", killing all the remaining living in the mansion and even throwing babies into the blazing fire.

Spurred on by blood and wealth. Frenzied citizens are beating, smashing, looting, and burning with weapons, wantonly venting their years of accumulated anger, and the city suddenly becomes a paradise for criminals. Each resident instantly transforms into a beast, tearing at each other's throats in order to snatch other people's property and protect their own. Countless ladies and ladies were pushed to the ground in the filthy streets, and they endured the assault of the mob with terrible roars.

Secondly, as a commercial metropolis in the era of slavery. Alexandria was also an important hub for the slave trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. Slave traders from all over the eastern shores of the Mediterranean liked to transport their slaves to the city to sell them and exchange them for other goods. There were also slaves who worked in shackles in the workshops and farms outside the city. Even according to the most conservative estimates, the number of slaves in the city would not have been less than 100,000.

Whether they were hoarded for sale in the "circles" of the slave market, or working in the estates and workshops, the lives of these slaves were clearly miserable. Driven by whips and sticks, they had to work as cattle and horses all day long. Wheat, barley, fruits and vegetables are grown in the suburbs, and beer is brewed in the city. transporting goods, doing the hardest and most dangerous manual work such as scraping the bottom of a ship at the docks, and even fighting to the death in the gladiatorial arena to entertain spectators.

What's even more terrifying is that they also have to endure all kinds of abuse and even torture.

-- In today's Mediterranean Shijie wars, the number of prisoners of war sold into slavery was extremely large, and the Roman army often sold the inhabitants of entire cities as slaves when they conquered a certain place. The Parthians, the Pontics, and other nations followed suit, greatly expanding the source of slaves. As a result, slaves were now very cheap, and the brutal overseers often treated them as human beings at all, treating them as inferior to livestock, and often hung disobedient or tired slaves on trees and whipped them to death, or pushed them into earthen pits to bury them alive, threw them into sacks and threw them into rivers, forced them to eat dung, skinned them with knives, and burned them alive in boiling water......

So, after taking advantage of the chaos to break free from the shackles and escape from the prison, a considerable number of slaves who were full of hatred and hatred immediately exploded the pot violently. They began to snatch weapons and rebel, and soon used their destructive energy to the fullest, wantonly venting their hatred and anger, burning everywhere, turning the city that had enslaved and tormented them for many years into a terrible sea of blood.

Zuihou, in the midst of the chaos, I don't know who opened the prison and released all the prisoners, adding further fuel to the chaos in the city.

- Hungry citizens poured into the streets, busily looting food and goods; The grief-stricken slaves broke free from their shackles and cages and took the most brutal revenge on their oppressors and overseers; The prisoners who escaped from the prison also tried to fish in troubled waters in the chaos and make a fortune to escape. The Ptolemaic army, which was supposed to maintain order and suppress the riots, disappeared without a trace, leaving the city to the Romans and the rioters......

As a result, after just a few days of rioting, the city was covered in black smoke and dead bodies, and the blood was particularly frightening in the light of the night's fires. Even the temple was not spared from this catastrophe - the red-eyed mob soon rushed into the magnificent temple with a shout, and beckoned the fat-headed priests with sticks and stones, not minding the curse of the gods. And these magic sticks who were still acting at the moment ago, after losing the protection of their power, they could only be slaughtered as if they had been pulled off their backbones, and they were soon smashed alive into meat sauce.

Mansions collapsed in the fighting, temples were trampled flat, blood stained the streets, and many neighborhoods became ablaze. Everywhere there were riots and slaves besieging the mansions of the rich and beating the nobles and priests. With countless stones, knives and arrows flying through the alleys at every moment, the cries of women and children and the screams of men echoing among the burning houses, the city becomes a huge colosseum, and everyone in it is busy killing or being killed.

To make matters worse, the carnival of killing, looting, and destruction, as well as the naked madness and bestiality, continues to spread in this devastated city, with no end in sight.

Everyone is caught in the whirlpool of fighting each other, and they can't break free at all, like a creepy hell soul song......

Caesar was helpless about this brutal tragedy - he had come to hunt down Pompey, not to help the Egyptians suppress the riots. Until Zuihou decides the winner, both he and Pompey will have to resign themselves to the chaos in the rest of the city. (To be continued.) )

PS: PS: I suddenly found that I have a talent for prophecy, writing about space will have Shenzhou going to the sky, writing space H lectures will have real space lectures, writing about the Egyptian civil war will immediately Egypt will be in chaos - the next volume will be written about the United Kingdom, I don't know if Britain will make a big mess at that time??