Rome must fall.

Chapter 432 Caesar's Choice

Although Pompey was old, as a famous Roman general who had won countless victories and enjoyed three triumphs, he knew clearly in his mind: Even if he had won a victory in Dyrrachium, the fighting quality of the army he had pieced together was not as good as that of Caesar's soldiers who had fought in Gaul for many years. The only advantage they had was the cavalry, but now the advantage of the cavalry had been broken by Caesar's strange tricks. With Caesar's ability, he would certainly take the opportunity to expand the results of the battle. The failure of this battle was inevitable!

If he had known earlier, he should have been more resolute, ignoring the repeated requests of Domitius, Metellus and others, and continuing to implement the original strategy... Pompey, feeling disheartened, returned directly to the camp, sat in the central army tent, closed his eyes, and prayed silently. There was still a glimmer of luck in his heart, hoping that his generals would suddenly rush in excitedly and say to him: Great Pompey, Caesar's army has retreated! ...

But such a scene did not occur. Instead, his confidants ran in in panic and told him: the entire army was being defeated!
Pompey seemed to wake up from a dream. He immediately summoned his family, confidants and staff, abandoned the Roman senators who followed him here, and also abandoned the soldiers who had followed him in battle for more than half a year, and quietly fled the barracks.

In his mind, those senators were ignorant and incompetent and could only hold back the troops; those soldiers lacked morale and experience and were no match for Caesar's army... He wanted to escape to a rich land where he would no longer be controlled by these people, regroup and try to make a comeback.

Caesar's army pursued the fleeing enemy soldiers and successfully captured Pompey's camp.

Soon Caesar issued an order requiring the soldiers to spare the lives of their compatriots as much as possible, but not to show mercy to the auxiliary troops who dared to resist.

Obviously, this was to show Caesar's magnanimity to Pompey's officers and soldiers, and it was just a special courtesy to his compatriots.

So, except for most of the senators and generals in Pompey's army who fled, large groups of soldiers knelt down and surrendered.

Caesar won the final victory in this battle.

Pompey, whom Caesar once looked up to, flattered, and tried his best to pursue, was finally completely defeated by him, which made Caesar feel unprecedented satisfaction.

Under the escort of the guards, he strode towards the captured Pompey camp.

Halfway through the journey, he suddenly stopped, looked around the plain littered with corpses, then lowered his head and pried up a piece of soil with his combat boots. The soil was stained scarlet red with blood.

His expression became a little complicated, and he sighed and said: "Too many Roman citizens died in this war!"

Sura comforted him, "Caesar, don't be sad. If it weren't for Pompey and Cato's constant persecution, this war wouldn't have broken out! Fortunately, all this is in the eyes of Jupiter. He knows who is right and who is wrong, so he punished the evildoers and let the victory belong to us!"

"Yes, Jupiter has blessed us!" Caesar looked at the soldiers cleaning up the battlefield in the distance and said with emotion: "Of course, if I didn't get the full support of my soldiers, I might have failed today!"

At this point, he suddenly remembered something and turned around: "Go tell Antony to quickly pack up the bodies of Crastinus (a retired chief centurion of the Tenth Legion, who was the first to call on his teammates to fight bravely for Caesar before this decisive battle) and other warriors. I will gather the entire army in a while and posthumously honor them!"

"Ah, awarding honors to the dead?! There is no precedent for this!" Little Sura blurted out.

"Well, it's there now!" Caesar responded in a serious voice.

Sulla the Younger immediately shut up. Now that Pompey had been defeated, Caesar was even more powerful. Even though he was a senior senator who had stood on Caesar's side a long time ago, he was like a minion at this moment, fearing that he would displease the most powerful man in Rome.

Caesar walked into Pompey's camp and saw the luxurious tents in the center of the camp for the senators to live in, as well as the various signs decorated in the camp to celebrate the victory. He couldn't help laughing: "War is a cruel thing. It's either you die or I live, but these people treat it as a joke. How can they not fail!"

Everyone claimed so.

Caesar walked into the central army tent and suddenly stopped talking. He just put his hands behind his back and paced inside the tent. Finally, he sat down on the main seat that Pompey had sat on before. He tapped the wooden table in front of him with his palm. His sharp eyes were no longer focused, but fixed on a certain place. His eyebrows relaxed, revealing a bit of joy...

The followers did not dare to disturb and stood quietly until Anthony broke in.

Caesar, immersed in joy, came back to his senses and looked at Antony with a pair of eyes as deep as a valley.

When he was young, Caesar was known for his romantic and free-spirited character, but after nearly ten years of military career, during which he also massacred many Gallic tribes, he had a strong sense of majesty and murderousness, which could make people feel cold when they watched in silence.

So Antony quickly explained: "Caesar, we have already collected the remains of Crastinus and hundreds of other warriors! In addition, the soldiers also found the body of Domitinus when they were cleaning the battlefield." Caesar was very calm about the death of his mortal enemy, without even blinking, and just said calmly: "I didn't expect that he would be the one to die on the battlefield in the end. In this respect, he is better than Pompey, like a Roman elder."

"And...we also captured Brutus!" Anthony said emphatically.

Caesar was shocked and asked hurriedly, "Which Brutus?"

"Son of Seville."

"Is he injured?!"

"He is not hurt at all. I have asked the soldiers to take good care of him."

"Well done!" Caesar gave a rare compliment.

The reason for his abnormal behavior is that he had affairs with many married women in Rome, but usually they did not last long, with one exception - Seville. His affair with her lasted for decades and is still going on. Out of love for the whole family, he also loves Seville's only son Brutus very much.

Of course, this also involves another deeper reason. He had an affair with Serville when he was very young, and Brutus does not look like his biological father, but a bit like Caesar. Therefore, rumors about "Brutus is Caesar's illegitimate son" spread in Rome, and Caesar was skeptical about it.

Caesar had only one daughter, who married Pompey and died of miscarriage. Caesar, who had no children, naturally loved Brutus very much, and his love for him did not diminish even though he stood on Pompey's side against him in the civil war.

Caesar realized his loss of composure in front of his subordinates, but he didn't care. He even decided to visit Brutus after he finished his military affairs and use this victory to persuade this foolish boy who was bewitched by Cato to change his mind.

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At this time, the guards outside the tent came in quickly: "Governor, there is an urgent letter from Ravenna!"

Caesar looked at the emergency mark on the letter presented by the guard and was slightly moved. He took the letter, unsealed it, unfolded it, and soon frowned.

"Caesar, what happened?!" Inside the big tent, only Anthony, who was highly valued, dared to ask at this time.

Caesar said slowly with a serious expression: "Just when we were fighting a decisive battle with Pompey, the Kingdom of Nyx invaded our northern Italian province and has now surrounded Aquileia."

As soon as these words were spoken, there was an uproar in the tent.

"The Kingdom of the Nyx? Is it the barbarian tribe called the Nyx in the mountains east of the northern Italian province?!" Anthony asked loudly. He had stayed with Caesar for a long time and knew some of the situation.

"Yes, it is the Kingdom of the Nyx that destroyed the Pannoni and the Boyi and occupied half of the Danube Plain." Caesar responded coldly.

"I think this Nix barbarian doesn't want to live anymore. He dares to offend us at this time. We should send troops back immediately. We must not only defeat him and ensure the safety of the northern Italian province, but also completely wipe out this barbarian!" Calvinus said harshly.

"I think the Nix barbarians are probably allied with Pompey, which is why they are attacking the northern Italian province at this time in an attempt to disrupt our attack on Pompey," Little Sura reminded.

"It's very likely." Caesar nodded calmly. He did not express his other suspicion, which was that the Knicks had already noticed his intention, so they took this opportunity to take action first.

"Caesar, the letter says that there are tens of thousands of Nix barbarians entering the country, and most of them are wearing armor. Their weapons also look very good... I think there are only three legions left in the three northern provinces, and they also have to maintain order in Gaul. I'm afraid Trebonius doesn't have enough troops to repel this Nix barbarian army. He needs enough reinforcements!"

After reading the urgent letter handed over by Caesar, Antony also suggested loudly: "Caesar, many of our soldiers are from the northern Italian province. If they knew that their hometown was invaded by barbarians, their morale would probably be shaken! Now that Pompey has been completely defeated and his army has become our prisoners, we can completely withdraw most of the troops and quickly rush back to the northern Italian province to eliminate the Nix barbarians as soon as possible!"

"We can't do this!" Sura objected immediately: "Although Pompey suffered a crushing defeat in this war, his prestige in the eastern provinces is still very high, and he has close relations with the eastern kingdoms and city-states. He can get their help at any time and form a large army in a short time. Therefore, we can't take Pompey lightly and must lead the army to pursue him!
As for the Northern Italian province... we can send a small number of reinforcements, so that they can return faster. With the fighting power of our Roman soldiers, I believe that even if they are outnumbered by the Nix barbarians, they can easily defeat them. "

(End of this chapter)