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 heart: even if he had won a victory in Dyrrachium, the combat quality of the army he had put together was not as good as that of Caesar's soldiers who had fought in Gaul for many years. The only advantage was the cavalry, but now the advantage of the cavalry was also broken by Caesar's strange tricks. With Caesar's ability, he would definitely 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, ignored the repeated requests of Domitius, Metellus and others, and continued to implement the original strategy... Pompey, who was disheartened, returned directly to the camp, sat in the central army tent, closed his eyes, and prayed silently. There was still a trace 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 appear. Instead, his confidant ran in in panic and told him: The entire army is collapsing!

Pompey seemed to wake up from a dream. He immediately summoned his family, confidants and staff, abandoned the Roman elders who followed him here, and also abandoned the soldiers who followed him to fight for more than half a year, and quietly fled the barracks.

In his mind, those elders were ignorant and incompetent, and would only drag their feet. Those soldiers lacked fighting spirit and experience, and were no match for Caesar's army at all... He wanted to escape to a rich land where he was no longer 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 sent an order, asking 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 the officers and soldiers under Pompey, and it was just a special courtesy to his compatriots.

So, in addition to most of the elders and generals of Pompey's army who fled, batches of soldiers knelt down and surrendered.

Caesar won the final victory in this battle.

Pompey, whom Caesar had admired, flattered, and pursued with all his might, was finally completely defeated by him, which made Caesar feel unprecedented satisfaction.

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

Halfway through the road, he suddenly stopped, looked around the plain full of corpses, and lowered his head to pry up a piece of soil with his boots. The soil was stained scarlet 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, you don't have to be sad. If it weren't for Pompey and Cato's gang forcing us, this war wouldn't have broken out! Fortunately, all this is in Jupiter's eyes. 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 who were cleaning 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 remembered something and suddenly turned back: "Go tell Antony to quickly pack up the bodies of Crastinus (a retired chief centurion of the Tenth Legion, who took the lead in calling 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!" Sura blurted out.

"Well, it's there now!" Caesar responded solemnly.

Sura shut up immediately. Now that Pompey had been defeated, Caesar was more powerful. Even though he was a senior senator who had stood on Caesar's side long ago, he was like a minion at this moment, fearing that he would upset 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 said yes.

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 where Pompey had sat 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 were relaxed, revealing a bit of joy...

The followers did not dare to disturb him and stood quietly until Antony came in.

Caesar, who was immersed in joy, came back to his senses and looked directly at Antony with a pair of eyes like a deep pool in a valley.

Caesar was known for his romantic and free-spirited young age, but after nearly ten years of military career, he also slaughtered many Gaul tribes during this period, which made him have a strong sense of majesty and murderous aura. When he stared at him in silence, it would also make people feel cold.

Therefore, Antony quickly explained: "Caesar, we have already collected the bodies of Crastinus and hundreds of other warriors! In addition, the soldiers found Domitinus' body 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 who died on the battlefield in the end. He is better than Pompey in this respect, like a Roman elder."

"And... we also captured Brutus!" Antony said with emphasis.

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

"Sevilla's son."

"Is he injured?!"

"He's not hurt at all. I've asked the soldiers to take good care of him."

"Well done!" Caesar praised him rarely.

The reason why he behaved so abnormally was that he had affairs with many married women in Rome, but they usually didn't last long, with one exception - that was Sevilla. His affair with her lasted for decades and is still going on. Out of love for the whole family, he also loved Brutus, the only son of Sevilla.

Of course, this also involved another deep reason. He had an affair with Sevilla when he was very young, and Brutus's appearance was not much like his biological father, but a bit like Caesar. Therefore, the rumor that "Brutus is Caesar's illegitimate son" was rampant in Rome, and Caesar was also 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, even though he stood on Pompey's side against him in this civil war, his love did not diminish at all.

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

Read the error-free version! 6=9+Shu_bar first published this novel.

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

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

"Caesar, what happened?!" In the big tent, only Antony, 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 Nix invaded our Northern Italy and has now surrounded Aquileia."

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the big tent.

"Kingdom of Nix? Is it the barbarian tribe called Nix in the mountains east of the Northern Italy?!" Anthony asked loudly. He had been with Caesar for a long time and knew a little about the situation.

"Yes, it is the Kingdom of Nix that eliminated the Pannonians and the Boii and occupied half of the Danube Plain." Caesar responded coldly.

"I think this Nix barbarian doesn't want to live. He dares to offend us at this time. We should send troops back immediately. Not only should we defeat it and protect the safety of the Northern Italy, but we should also completely exterminate this barbarian!" Calvinus said fiercely.

"I think this Nix barbarian is probably allied with Pompey, so he attacked the Northern Italy at this time to disrupt our attack on Pompey." Little Sura reminded.

"It's very likely." Caesar nodded calmly. He did not say his other suspicion, that the Nixen had already noticed his intention, so they took this opportunity to take the initiative.

"Caesar, the letter said that there are tens of thousands of Nixen barbarians entering the country, and most of them are wearing armor, and their weapons look very good... I think there are only three legions of troops left in the three northern provinces, and they have to maintain order in Gaul. Trebonius may not have enough troops to repel this Nixen barbarian army. He needs enough reinforcements!"

After reading the urgent letter handed over by Caesar, Anthony also suggested loudly: "Caesar, many of our soldiers are from the northern Italian province. If they know that their hometown has been invaded by barbarians, they may be in turmoil! Now that Pompey has been completely defeated and his army has become our prisoners, we can completely withdraw most of the troops, Quickly rush back to the Northern Italian province and eliminate the Nix barbarians as soon as possible! "

"We can't do this!" Sura objected immediately: "Although Pompey suffered a disastrous 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, and can get their help at any time, and form a large army in a short time. Therefore, we can't take Pompey lightly, and we 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 combat effectiveness of our Roman soldiers, I believe that even if they are fewer in number than the Nix barbarians, they can easily defeat them. "