Chapter 426: Confrontation across the sea

Caesar also took away a special fund that had been kept for hundreds of years to prevent the tragedy of the Gauls looting Rome in 390 BC from happening again.

He confidently declared that Rome no longer needed this special fund because he had permanently solved the danger of the Gauls.

After solving the problem of funds, Caesar hurriedly led his army to Spain, leaving only Mark Antony in charge of Italy.

Although he knew that Mark Antony was not an ideal candidate to control Rome, there was no candidate with strong political ability and trust around him. However, now the whole of Italy is under his control, and those nobles and tycoons who are dissatisfied with him dare not mess around for the time being, so it is enough to let the tribune Antony, a loyal dog, help him keep an eye on Rome.

When Vercingetorix learned that Caesar led his army north and headed straight for Gaul, he suddenly felt nervous and thought that his affairs had been leaked.

But soon he got the news: Caesar came this time to deal with Pompey's army in Spain.

The person who conveyed the news to Vercingetorix was the subordinate of Onomabaitis, the commercial officer of the Kingdom of Nix. In recent years, Onomabaitis not only spent money to buy Gallic slaves in Italy, but also set up spies in many important towns in Italy, and even expanded the secret base to the port of Ostia, which is very close to Rome, so as to obtain intelligence about Rome for the kingdom.

Vercingetorix was relieved, but he became nervous again soon.

It turned out that Caesar led his army out of the province of Westphalia and arrived in Massilia.

Massilia is a Greek colonial city and has been an ally of Rome for a long time. During Caesar's tenure as governor of Gaul, he always respected and favored this city-state.

However, Massilia had a close relationship with Pompey and closed the city gates, not allowing Caesar to enter.

The Massilians also declared to Caesar that they did not understand the complex Roman politics, so they decided to remain neutral.

But in fact, they allowed Domitius' army to enter the port of Massilia by ship.

Well, Amitius, who was just released two months ago, shamelessly came to oppose Caesar again. The Massilians immediately asked him to command the city defense and made defensive preparations.

Caesar was angry at the deception of the Massilians, and Massilia, as an important port, could provide strong logistical support for the army fighting in Spain if it could be captured.

However, the city of Massilia had high walls and a large number of soldiers, so it would be difficult to capture it in a short period of time, and time was of the utmost importance to Caesar.

So Caesar left only a small number of troops under the command of the legion commander Trebonius to besiege Massilia, and he led the main force to bypass the city and rush to Spain.

At the same time, he issued an order requiring the tribes in southern Gaul to send troops to participate in the siege of Massilia and accept the unified command of Trebonius. In the order, he especially emphasized that Vercingetorix, the leader of the Arverni tribe, must lead the team in person.

Obviously, Caesar was still a little worried about Vercingetorix and wanted to test his loyalty.

Having been humiliated for so long, how could he let everything fall short when the dawn was about to come... Not only did Vercingetorix lead his army to Massilia at the fastest speed, but he also obeyed Trebonius' orders, causing the commander to say a lot of good things about Vercingetorix in his letter to Caesar.

Caesar rushed to Spain and joined the vanguard that controlled the Pyrenees Pass. At this time, he had six legions and some auxiliary troops, less than 50,000 people.

Pompey's army not only had an advantage in numbers, but was also a local tyrant.

However, Pompey's army in Spain was commanded by three legion commanders. One of them was Marcus Terentius Varro, a widely respected scholar with many works (Note: He wrote a book "On Agriculture", which was published in China), but he was not good at fighting. The army was mainly commanded by Petreus and Alfranius, while Alfranius was good at dancing and mediocre in military affairs. Only Petreus was a veteran with rich combat experience, but because of his humble background, he had never independently commanded a large army.

How could these three men of Pompey be Caesar's opponents? It took him only two months to completely defeat them. The remaining troops surrendered to him, and the whole of Spain was brought under Caesar's control.

Massilia also gave up resistance after hearing the news. Domitius did not want to surrender to Caesar again, so he fled by boat.

Petreus and Afranius were released because of Caesar's tolerance, but their hatred for Caesar did not decrease at all.

Caesar won the Spanish War, but he did not feel relieved, because his rival Pompey was recruiting troops in Greece, and his military strength was getting better day by day.

So Caesar left Quintus Cassius Longinus in Spain to help him control the newly conquered province.

Longinus, like Antony, was also a tribune and had joined Caesar early on. He had served in Spain when he was a quaestor and was relatively familiar with the situation in Spain.

However, Caesar was somewhat helpless to suddenly promote a middle-level Roman bureaucrat to a high position like a provincial governor, because he had no more suitable candidates.

On the way back to Italy, he received bad news: Curio the Younger was killed in battle!

After being ordered to lead his army to Sicily, this noble young man who had cheered for Caesar in Rome easily defeated Cato, who had no intention of fighting, and took control of the entire Sicily. Then he led his army to North Africa, which was loyal to Pompey, and first defeated Pompey's army. Then, because he underestimated the enemy, he was ambushed by the King of Numibia, and almost all of his army was wiped out. He himself also died on the battlefield.

In addition, the army led by Anthony's brother Lucius, who was appointed by Caesar to garrison the Illyrian province, was attacked by Pompey's army and was forced to surrender in the face of a large enemy and a small number of us.

These news made Caesar determined to fight a decisive battle with Pompey's main force as soon as possible. Only victory could stabilize the entire situation.

So he hurriedly met with the generals of the Gallic tribal army who participated in the siege of Massilia, thanked them for their help, generously gave them valuable gifts, and allowed them to return.

Vercingetorix finally breathed a sigh of relief, but on the surface he looked grateful.

After Pompey arrived in Greece, he used his connections in the region to mobilize manpower and resources in the eastern Mediterranean, provided his soldiers with military pay, food and equipment, and recruited allies and auxiliary forces to strengthen his military strength. In just over half a year, he had nine legions and some new troops recruited from Greece and Asia, and even obtained a large number of cavalry.

His father-in-law Metellus, who had already rushed to the Syrian province, was even prepared to bring two legions stationed in the province to help him.

Pompey had to conduct a series of diplomatic activities to ensure that the Parthians would not send troops to threaten the Syrian province when his letters of persuasion failed.

Pompey spent a lot of time training the newly formed army and even personally trained with the soldiers. Although he had not fought for thirteen years, everyone respected his abundant energy, and the army gradually took shape under his strict requirements.

During Caesar's expedition to Spain, some senators who stayed in Rome decided to end their neutrality and ran to Pompey's army.

This included Cicero. He was unwilling to continue to stay idle, and unwilling to participate in the political activities of the Senate controlled by Caesar. In addition, he always loved Pompey in his heart, so he finally decided to go to Greece.

Caesar returned to Italy and went to Rome first to participate in the election for the consul next year.

According to the political tradition of Rome, the current consul should be responsible for presiding over the election, but this year's two consuls all went to Greece, so Caesar asked the legal officer Lepidus to appoint him as dictator to preside over the entire election, because there was a precedent.

Caesar was naturally elected as the consul for the next year smoothly.

At the same time, he used his power as a dictator to pass a series of laws, such as recalling those who were exiled by Pompey's special court two years ago, except Milo. He also restored all political rights to the children of the victims of Sulla's persecution of political enemies. In addition, he also reduced the high debts of debtors.

This series of measures won him some popular support.

However, Caesar soon resigned from the position of dictator and rushed to Brindisi.

His army had already assembled there, with a total of twelve legions, and most of the legions were fully staffed, with up to 60,000 to 70,000 troops available, which was twice as many as in his previous life. Thanks to the fact that Vercingetorix did not launch the Gaul Rebellion, his army did not suffer major losses.

However, the difficulties he faced now were still the same as in his previous life. There was a lack of enough transport ships, and it was impossible to transport this huge army to Greece across the sea at one time.

Moreover, Pompey had assembled a powerful fleet of about 500 warships, and there were also many small boats for reconnaissance, stationed on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, ready to intercept ships carrying Caesar's army at sea at any time.

The commander of this fleet was Bibulus, a senator who had served as a municipal official and a consul with Caesar, and was splashed with feces and urine by Caesar's supporters at public gatherings, causing him to dare not appear in public in Rome afterwards. He had countless grudges against Caesar. He strictly supervised the fleet, patrolled the Adriatic Sea day and night, and vowed to give Caesar a good look.

Caesar only had a dozen warships and was completely unable to fight Pompey's fleet at sea.

Faced with such a severe situation, Caesar seemed to have no solution.

For several months, he stayed in Brindisi without taking any action.

The time came to the new year (48 BC, the 24th year of the establishment of the Nix tribe). January was winter and the weather was relatively cold. According to the Roman military tradition, winter was generally a truce. Since Brindisi had been quiet for several months, Bibulus' fleet also relaxed its vigilance.