Chapter 411 Knicks in Action

Due to poor harvests and insufficient supplies, Caesar had to disperse his eight legions in a very large area of ​​Gaul in winter, which could reduce transportation consumption and better feed neighboring tribes.

However, this resulted in the dispersion of the Roman army and made it quite vulnerable.

The Gallic tribes in the Belgian region had only recently formed an alliance with Rome. Caesar did not trust them. He not only stationed a lot of troops in the region, but also interfered with the appointment of leaders within the tribe, so some tribal nobles were dissatisfied.

After Caesar divided his troops and stationed them, they thought the time to resist the Romans had come, so they contacted several tribes privately and launched an independent rebellion at the same time.

The fifteen Roman battalions (including the entire 14th Legion and the other five battalions) were stationed in Atu Atuka and 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 battle.

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

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

Quintus was fulfilling his family obligations, but he was not a qualified soldier. When he led the legion to the winter camp, he was even writing a play.

However, when he was 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 officers, but also encouraged soldiers during the daytime and urged soldiers to consolidate fortifications at night. He did what a Roman elder should do.

But more often, the soldiers persuaded him to go back to his tent to rest, perhaps because they felt that he was a bit of a hindrance.

Ten days later, Caesar received an emergency document from Quintus, which shows that he did not establish a complete intelligence system in Gaul.

He immediately realized that he had to act quickly to rescue Quintus' troops, otherwise if the Gauls won a second victory, the rebellion would become more intense.

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

This military action was undoubtedly very risky. Caesar's troops were far less than those of the Gauls, and the soldiers under his command came from two legions that had been fighting for a long time, were tired and understaffed, but he relied on his bold actions and excellent command to finally rescue one besieged army after another and repel the rebellious Gauls.

Then throughout the winter, he did not return to the south of the Alps to spend the winter as in previous years, but stayed in the Gaul military camp, alert to 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 was completely annihilated before. At this point, Caesar's troops expanded to ten legions.

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

Yes, this is a cruel scorched earth policy.

So, 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. And when the Roman army left, the Gaul people hiding in the mountains and forests would be doomed to starve to death because they had nothing to eat.

For most of this year, Caesar commanded the army in Gaul, and actually did not fight a big battle, mainly destruction.

The northeastern part of Gaul was severely damaged, and many areas turned into a scorched earth, which was difficult to recover for more than ten years.

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

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

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

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

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

At this time, he suddenly received news from Rome that a major event had occurred in the eastern province of Rome, and this event would have a major 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 second year, crossed the Euphrates River to the east, and looked for the main force of the enemy to fight a decisive battle.

Crassus was full of confidence, because Lucullus and Pompey had proved in the past how easy it was for the Romans to crush the Eastern army that was far superior to their own.

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

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

The Triumvirate lost a corner at this point.

Only Crassus's quaestor led some survivors to withdraw to Syria and repelled the Parthian attack on the province, winning himself prestige.

His name was Gaius Cassius Longinus.

This year Caesar fought in Gaul, Crassus fought in Parthia, and Rome was also in turmoil.

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

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

The merchant ship docked at the dock, and the commercial officer of the Kingdom of Nix, Onomabaitis, and his entourage, as well as a dozen Gallic slaves, got off the ship.

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

In the next few days, he sold goods at his rented stall while sending people to inquire about the news.

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

Massilia had long been dependent on Rome and was protected by Rome's military. It had not encountered war for a long time, and the armaments in the city-state were relaxed. Even though there were slightly more Gallic slaves in Onomabaitis's 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, and the neighboring Massilia was also affected. Every household had multiple cheap Gallic slaves, so 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 deserted wilderness.

Three of the slaves who were originally responsible for driving the carts and guarding the goods hurried to Onomabaitis.

Onomabaitis looked at them with a serious look, not like the carelessness of a master to slaves, but more like the solemnity of a supervisor when assigning tasks to his subordinates. He said in a deep voice: "I can only send you here. It depends on you from now on. May the goddess Danu bless you! Let you successfully complete the task assigned by the king!"

"Since the goddess Danu has warned the king, she will definitely bless us to complete the task and save our Gaul compatriots!" A slave said firmly, and the other two nodded vigorously.

"If...some of you are unfortunately caught by the Romans, don't forget the oath you made in the temple!" Onomabaitis looked at them and reminded them with a stronger tone.

"Don't worry, if we fall into the hands of the Romans, we will never say a word even if we are crushed 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 took it, they bowed solemnly to all the caravan members, then quickly entered the forest ahead and disappeared.

"Let's go back. It's time to buy something." Onomabaitis waved his hand and said, although he believed that the city guards of Massilia, who had lax military discipline, would find it difficult to discover the abnormality of the caravan, but this matter was of great importance and could not be neglected.