Rome must fall.

Chapter 431: Battle of Pharsalus
Faced with the raging rebellion, although the Roman legion commander was a little panicked, he did not choose to lead his troops to retreat back to the province of West France, but instead gathered his troops, defended the camp, and waited for reinforcements because of previous experience (the last time the Gallic tribes rebelled, the legion led by Cotta abandoned the camp and retreated, but was eventually annihilated; while the legion led by Cicero's brother Quintus held the camp and was finally rescued by Caesar).

The troops of various tribes in northern Gaul surrounded the Roman camp, but they lacked unified command and fought on their own. The Roman camp not only had sufficient supplies, but also had complete and strong defense facilities. The Gauls failed to capture the camp after several attacks and instead suffered considerable casualties in the counterattack of the Roman soldiers.

Just when they were at their wits' end, Vercingetorix arrived with a large army.

Relying on his prestige, Vercingetorix became the undisputed commander-in-chief of the entire Gallic army. So after repeatedly investigating the defense situation of the Roman camp, he discussed with the leaders of various tribes many times and formulated a new plan to attack the camp.

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Caesar led his army to retreat from the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea to the heartland of Greece.

Since it was summer, most of the wheat fields were ripe, and the hungry soldiers could harvest them on the spot, saving the trouble of collecting food.

During the march, the previously dispersed troops gradually joined the main force, and Caesar's military strength was replenished.

But as news of his defeat at Dyrrachium spread, some Greek towns felt that it was a mistake to aid a Roman general who was likely to lose the war.

So when they arrived at Gomphe, the city's governor not only closed the city gates, but also publicly announced: Caesar's army is not allowed to enter! He also ordered them to leave immediately!

Caesar was furious and immediately led his army to attack the city, which he quickly captured.

With his connivance, the soldiers not only looted the city, but also killed, raped and plundered at will. The city's chief executive was forced to commit suicide.

This was the first time since the outbreak of the civil war that Caesar allowed his soldiers to ravage the civilians of an occupied city, showing his ruthless side to the people of the Roman province, but it greatly boosted the morale of the army after the defeat at Dyrrachium.

Other Greek towns, fearing the same tragic fate as Gompheus, welcomed Caesar's army with open arms.

This greatly improved the food supply of Caesar's army and the soldiers' health, making Caesar more confident in having a decisive battle with Pompey to completely end the civil war in Rome.

However, Pompey's army followed behind but always avoided a direct battle with them.

Caesar did not expect Pompey to be so cautious after winning a victory. He understood that Pompey was adopting the Fabian strategy (during the Second Punic War, the Roman army commander Fabius faced the victorious Hannibal army and used the tactics of avoiding battle but following closely, which greatly limited the power of Hannibal's army and played an important role in the final victory over Carthage) in an attempt to drag him down.

Caesar was not panicked, for he had received news: Pompey's father-in-law, Metellus, the new governor of Syria, was leading his troops into Macedonia to support Pompey.

He immediately led his army to meet the enemy, forcing Pompey to fight him.

Pompey understood Caesar's intention and continued to implement the strategy he had previously formulated, following Caesar's army at a leisurely pace, attempting to use this to wear down the enemy.

However, he was now in some trouble. Although he used the excuse of leaving Cato in Dyrrachium to command the garrison there to prevent him from interfering with him, the criticism from a large number of conservative senators in his army had not diminished.

They accused Pompey of delaying the war in order to maintain his own high position, and even called him "Agamemnon."

Even Cicero, who loved Pompey very much, publicly declared that this civil war was actually a struggle between Pompey and Caesar for supreme power.

The suspicion of the senators grew, and the pressure on Pompey increased.

The armies of both sides entered the Thessaly region one after another. With Caesar's deliberate indulgence, Pompey successfully joined forces with his father-in-law Metellus, and the strength of his troops increased again.

This greatly encouraged the conservative senators, and coupled with the previous victory in the Battle of Dyrrachium, they believed that victory was just around the corner, and even began to consider reserving a generous share of the spoils for themselves. Some of them even sent their men to Rome to buy a mansion near the forum that belonged to Caesar's party for themselves, while important conservative senators such as Domitius, Metellus, and Lentulus were already arguing over who should succeed Caesar as high priest.

The atmosphere of victory was everywhere in the military camp, which even affected Pompey, the commander-in-chief. At the same time, the senators were urging him to eliminate Caesar as soon as possible so that they could share the fruits of victory after the war.

Pompey finally decided to fight Caesar head-on, but his remaining rationality still made him want to choose a suitable opportunity to fight.

In the following days, the two sides continued to maneuver and move in close quarters according to the conventional fighting methods of the time. At the same time, Caesar led his troops out of the camp several times and lined up to challenge Pompey, but Pompey refused to fight.

Later, the armies of both sides reached the flat and open plain of Pharsalus. Caesar once again lined up his troops to challenge Pompey, but Pompey still refused. Caesar had no choice but to withdraw his troops and prepare to find another opportunity to fight.

At this moment, Pompey led his army out of the camp and began to line up on the plain.

Caesar did not want to miss this great opportunity, and immediately ordered the soldiers who had already formed a marching formation to return and start again. It can be said that Caesar's soldiers had consumed some more energy before the battle.

At this time, the warring parties:
Pompey had a total of about 50,000 troops. He divided his troops into three parts: left, center, and right wing. The right wing was close to the Aeneid River and was commanded by Lentulus; the center was the main force, commanded by Metellus; the left wing was commanded by Amityus; and on the outermost side of the left wing were 6,400 cavalrymen, commanded by Labienus.

Pompey arranged his troops in the conventional three-row formation, but each battalion was ten rows deep, which was much deeper than usual. This allowed him to resist and contain the fierce attack of Caesar's elite troops for a longer period of time.

He focused the key to victory on the huge cavalry team on the outer left wing, because Pompey's advantage was that the number of cavalry far exceeded Caesar's. He wanted to make full use of this advantage and let the cavalry gallop across the open plains, first defeating the enemy cavalry and then sweeping through the enemy formation.

Pompey's tactics were simple and clear. Caesar, who was observing the enemy situation, saw it at a glance, so he began to deploy his troops accordingly.

Caesar's total military strength was close to 2.2 (in previous history there were only ), and he divided the troops into three parts: left, center, and right. The left wing was close to the Aeneid River and led by Antony; the center was led by Calvinus; the right wing was nominally under the command of Sulla the Younger, but in fact Caesar was always stationed behind it.

Although the battle array was also a traditional three-row battle array, the depth of each battalion was only four to six rows due to the smaller number of troops than the enemy. Caesar also deployed cavalry on the outside of the right wing, seemingly to resist Pompey's cavalry, but in fact Caesar secretly deployed ten infantry battalions behind the right wing cavalry, standing in an oblique shape. Due to the cover of the cavalry in front and the dust when the battle array was filled, Pompey's side did not notice Caesar's deployment.

Before the battle began, Caesar specially reviewed the entire army. Many veterans and centurions expressed their determination to win victory for Caesar and fight this last battle!
After Caesar gave the order to advance, the soldiers, with high morale, advanced forward in an orderly manner with steady steps, and only shouted and threw javelins after approaching the enemy.

As a result, they found that the enemy did not rush up to fight, but stood still.

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As a result, Caesar's soldiers showed a terrifying high level of discipline. They actually stopped and calmly readjusted their team in front of the battle array before continuing to move forward. After reaching the right position, they threw the second javelin again, and then shouted and launched a charge.

The fierce charge of Caesar's army caused chaos in the front ranks of Pompeii's army, but Pompeii's army was large in number and had a particularly large depth, so they were able to resist the charge in the end, causing the infantry of both sides to engage in fierce fighting.

Although Pompey ordered his infantry to hold their positions, he initially had Labienus lead the cavalry to charge the numerically inferior enemy cavalry.

Caesar's cavalry retreated quickly, luring the enemy into pursuit.

Pompey's cavalry was huge in number, but they came from many regions and lacked tacit coordination with each other. Moreover, most of the commanders of the cavalry were enthusiastic but inexperienced young Roman nobles.

Labienus knew the shortcomings of this cavalry, so before the charge he issued an order requiring each cavalry team to control their horse speed as much as possible in order to maintain their formation.

At first the Pompeian cavalry performed well, but after repelling the enemy cavalry, they became complacent with their own strength and were busy chasing the enemy, resulting in chaos and congestion.

Labienus and his officers soon lost control of their troops.

Caesar seized the opportunity and ordered the ten battalions deployed in the rear to attack.

The soldiers, armed with javelins and using them as spears, launched a fierce charge at the Pompeian cavalry, which had slowed down due to excessive confusion.

Pompey's cavalry was quickly defeated and fled to the rear in chaos.

Caesar's ten battalions of infantry once again showed a high degree of discipline. They did not pursue too far, but quickly turned around and attacked the left wing of Pompey's infantry.

The left wing of Pompey's army was attacked from both sides, and the morale of the army was shaken.

Caesar promptly deployed the third line of reserve troops into the battle.

Pompey's army was under great pressure, retreating step by step, the battle line gradually disintegrated, and finally collapsed...

After the battle began, Pompey was stationed behind the cavalry, hoping to witness the defeat of Caesar's army. But he did not expect that his cavalry would be the first to be defeated, and his heart sank to the bottom.

(End of this chapter)