Rome must fall.

Chapter 411 Knicks in Action

Due to poor harvests and insufficient supplies, Caesar had to disperse his eight legions over a vast area of ​​Gaul during the winter, which would reduce transportation costs and allow for better food from neighboring tribes.

However, this resulted in the Roman army being dispersed and quite vulnerable.

The Gallic tribes in the Belgian region had only recently formed an alliance with Rome, and Caesar did not trust them. Not only did he station a number of troops in the region, but he also interfered with the appointment of tribal leaders. As a result, some tribal nobles were dissatisfied.

After Caesar divided his troops and stationed them, they believed that the time had come to rebel against the Romans, so they contacted several tribes privately and launched independent rebellions at the same time.

The fifteen Roman battalions (including the entire Fourteenth Legion and five additional battalions) stationed in Atuatuca were attacked by a large number of Gallic warriors. The troops chose to retreat in fear, but were surrounded on the way. Except for a few survivors who escaped, the fifteen battalions were basically wiped out, and the two legion commanders, Cotta and Sabinus, were also killed in the battle.

This victory inspired other Gallic tribes to attack Roman troops stationed in their territories.

The army led by Quintus Cicero was also surrounded. He was the younger brother of former consul Cicero. The reason he became the legion commander was simply to consolidate the friendly relationship between his brother and Caesar.

Quintus was fulfilling his family obligations, but he was not a qualified soldier. He even wrote a play while leading the legion into winter quarters.

However, when attacked by the Gauls, he listened carefully to the advice of his officers and did not choose to retreat, but to stick to the camp. He not only delegated power to the officers, but also encouraged the soldiers during the day and urged the soldiers to strengthen the fortifications at night. He did what a Roman elder should do.

But more often than not, the soldiers persuaded him to go back to his tent to rest, perhaps because they felt he was a bit of a hindrance.

Ten days later, Caesar received the emergency letter from Quintus, which shows that he had not established a complete intelligence system in Gaul.

He immediately realized that he must act quickly to rescue Quintus's troops, otherwise if the Gauls were allowed a second victory, the rebellion would become even more intense.

So he quickly assembled an army of more than 7,000 people and marched north without delay.

This military action was undoubtedly very risky. Caesar had far fewer troops than the Gauls, and the soldiers under his command came from two legions that had been fighting for a long time and were tired and understaffed. However, with his decisive actions and excellent command, he eventually rescued one besieged army after another and repelled the rebellious Gauls.

Then, throughout the winter, he did not return to the south of the Alps to spend the winter as he did in previous years, but stayed in the military camp in Gaul, guarding against the Gallic tribes that might cause unrest at any time.

At the same time, he also recruited more new soldiers in the province and formed three new legions, including the 14th Legion that had been annihilated before. At this point, Caesar's military strength expanded to ten legions.

In the early spring of the following year (53 BC, the 20th year after the establishment of the Nyx tribe), Caesar began to take retaliatory military actions against the Gallic tribes that did not submit to him - burning the Gauls' houses and villages, eating and destroying their crops and livestock, killing and enslaving the Gauls, including the old and the young, women and children.

Yes, this is the brutal scorched earth policy.

As a result, every Gaul village and every Gaul house was burned by the Roman army; the captured cattle and sheep were gathered together; the wheat in the fields was not only eaten by the Romans or livestock, but also washed away by the heavy rains that were common in this season. When the Roman army left, the Gauls hiding in the mountains and forests would starve to death because they had nothing to eat.

Caesar spent most of the year commanding his army in Gaul and actually did not fight any major battles, but mainly engaged in destruction.

Northeastern Gaul was severely damaged as a result, and many areas were reduced to scorched earth, and it took more than ten years to recover.

After the military operation, Caesar once again summoned the Gallic leaders to a meeting, and many people attended.

At the assembly, Caesar accused Aco, a noble of the Sinoe tribe, of being one of the masterminds behind the rebellion, and had him whipped in public and then executed.

The other leaders were shocked, but no one dared to come out and plead for him.

Caesar was satisfied with the performance of his leaders. He felt that the fierce measures he took this time should be able to keep these Gauls quiet for a while.

So in the following period of time, he even had the leisure to continue writing the fifth and sixth volumes of "The Gallic War", attributing the destruction of fifteen battalions to the wrong command of the two legion commanders, and interspersed some anecdotes about Gaul and Germanic people, so as to reduce the bad feelings caused to the Roman people by the scorched earth policy he described in the text.

At this time, he suddenly received news from Rome that a major event had occurred in Rome's eastern province, and this event would have a significant impact on his future political career.

In 54 BC (the 19th year after the establishment of the Nix tribe), after Crassus became the governor of Syria, he spent nearly half a year making military preparations. At the end of the year, his youngest son Publius led a thousand Gallic cavalry to the east to meet his father.

Then the father and son began the long-awaited invasion of Parthia. After successfully capturing some Parthian fortresses and towns, Crassus led seven legions in the spring of the following year, crossed the Euphrates River to the east, and looked for the main force of the enemy for a decisive battle.

Crassus was full of confidence because Lucullus and Pompey had previously demonstrated how easy it was for the Romans to crush Eastern armies that were far superior to their own.

Near the city of Carrhae, the Roman army encountered 10,000 cavalrymen led by the young Parthian general Surena, and a battle between horse archers and heavy infantry began.

Because Surena was more prepared, the cavalry fired endless arrows, and eventually the morale of the Roman army collapsed. They were almost wiped out during the retreat. Publius was killed in the battle, and Crassus was also captured. The Parthians poured molten gold into his mouth, causing him to die in pain.

The Triumvirate had lost one of its corners.

Only Crassus's quaestor led some survivors back to Syria and repelled Parthian attacks on the province, winning fame for himself.

His name was Gaius Cassius Longinus.

This year Caesar fought in Gaul, Claudius fought in Parthia, and there was unrest in Rome.

Before the consular election in 53 BC, the two candidates joined forces to make huge bribes to the "Prior Centuriate" and the former consul who presided over the election. After the matter was exposed, the people were in an uproar, forcing the election to be postponed until the summer of that year, and the Senate had to ask the senior consul Pompey to supervise the election.

Just as the Romans were worried about the turbulent and chaotic political situation in their country, an inconspicuous merchant ship sailed into the port of Massilia.

The merchant ship docked at the pier, and getting off the ship were Onomabaitis, the commercial officer of the Kingdom of Nyx, his entourage, and a dozen Gallic slaves.

Onomabaitis's current external identity is a merchant from the Illyrian province. Since he had been to this city-state several times before and deliberately made acquaintance with the port affairs officer, he brought this group of people ashore relatively smoothly and checked into the inn at the port.

In the next few days, while he was selling goods at the stall he rented, he sent people to gather information everywhere.

Afterwards, he announced that he would sell the remaining goods to the villages outside Massilia, so he formed a caravan to go out of the city to sell them.

Massilia had been dependent on Rome for a long time and was protected by Rome's military. It had not encountered war for a long time and the city-state's armaments were relaxed. Even though there were a little more Gallic slaves in Onomabaitis' caravan, in recent years, due to Caesar's conquest of Gaul, a huge number of Gallic slaves poured into the slave market of the three northern provinces. Neighboring Massilia was also affected. Every household had multiple cheap Gallic slaves. Therefore, the city guards of Massilia easily let them go without any suspicion.

The caravan traveled westwards and stopped when it was about to reach the border of the city-state and the uninhabited wilderness.

Among the slaves who were originally responsible for driving the carts and guarding the goods, three Gallic slaves quickly came to Onomabaitis.

The way Onomabaitis looked at them was not as careless as a master looking at his slaves, but more like the solemnity of a supervisor giving tasks to his subordinates. He said in a deep voice: "I can only send you here. From now on, you have to rely on yourselves. May the goddess Danu bless you! So that you can successfully complete the task assigned by the king!"

"Since the goddess Danu has already warned the king, she will definitely protect us and help us complete our mission so that our fellow Gauls can be saved!" said a slave with a firm expression, and the other two also nodded vigorously.

"If... any of you are unfortunate enough to be captured by the Romans, don't forget the oath you made in the temple!" Onomabaitis looked at them and reminded them in a stern tone.

"Don't worry, if we fall into the hands of the Romans, we will never utter a word even if we are torn to pieces!" The three responded in unison and firmly.

"Okay!" Onomabaitis signaled his men to hand each person a bag filled with food, water, and blankets.

After the three of them took it, they bowed solemnly to all the people in the caravan, then quickly rushed into the forest ahead and disappeared.

"Let's go back. It's time to do some shopping." Onomabaitis waved his hand and said. Although he believed that the city guards with lax military discipline in Massilia would find it difficult to discover the abnormality of the caravan, this matter was of great importance and could not tolerate any negligence.

(End of this chapter)