Chapter 448 Caesar's offensive choice

After the recruitment was effective, Caesar even lived in the military camp outside the city. People would see him in armor inspecting the training of new recruits on the playground from time to time...

The Roman people were looking forward to Caesar leading the army north to drive out the barbarians three months later, but Caesar himself did not want to wait that long.

When people still thought that Caesar stayed in the military camp every day and worked hard to train new recruits, he had disguised himself and sneaked out of Rome, took a boat at Ostia Port, and arrived at Sardinia, which is across the sea from the mouth of the Tiber River.

There were seven legions that arrived one after another under Caesar's orders, about 3,000 cavalry (most of which surrendered from Pompey's troops), a total of more than 40,000 people, in addition to more than 200 warships and a large number of transport ships.

Since the day Caesar left Egypt, he had been thinking about how to quickly pacify northern Italy. Based on the intelligence he had obtained about the Nix army and the Gaul rebels, and through discussions with generals such as Trebonius, he formulated a rather risky sea raid plan, and while handling administrative affairs in Rome, he frequently wrote letters to urge the army assembled in Sardinia to make careful preparations.

In previous invasions by northern barbarians, Rome sent troops to meet them, all of which had to go around the Pisenum area in the east, pass through Rimini, and then enter the northern Italian province...

Caesar believed that the traditional marching route took too long and was easily defended by the enemy, which would prolong the war. Rome was now in crisis, and he really shouldn't spend too much time in northern Italy, so he decided to take another route - the sea route.

There are many places for landing in the northern part of Illyria and the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, but the terrain there is narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of large troops. In addition, the Nicholas army has strengthened the defense of the city of Tulsa. Judging from Lucius's previous attack on the city, it is not so easy to conquer. Once a long siege is caused, it will go against Caesar's original intention.

In the eastern part of the northern Italian province and the Adriatic Bay, there is no suitable place for landing except Pula on the Istria Peninsula, and Pula is strictly guarded by the Nicholas army. Therefore, landing on the eastern coast of northern Italy is not within Caesar's consideration. Not only is there no suitable place there, but the Adriatic Sea is narrow, and it is difficult for large fleets to enter and exit without avoiding the eyes and ears of the enemy, making it difficult to achieve the purpose of a surprise attack, but it will cause great difficulties for landing.

In addition, there is the western coast of northern Italy. But it is almost covered by the Apennine Mountains, and the coast is full of continuous and towering cliffs. There are few decent coastal towns, let alone ports.

There are some suitable landing sites on the coast of West France, especially a city that has not fallen - Massilia. Caesar can lead his army to enter the port of Massilia by boat, then recapture West France and attack Gaul to achieve the effect of Wei to save Zhao.

But Caesar did not intend to do so, because he felt that the most threatening to Rome was the Nix army, which would not rush to rescue because of his attack on Gaul. Instead, it was more likely to take advantage of the absence of the main force of the Roman army and speed up the march to Rome. Moreover, after landing in West France, if you want to enter the western part of Northern Italy, you can either take the narrow seaside avenue - Scauli, or cross the Alps. Once the enemy knows the movement of his army and blocks these roads, it will be difficult for the Roman army to enter Northern Italy from the west by land, and the entire war process will be protracted.

After repeated consideration, Caesar finally set his target on Genoa, the only seaport town on the western coast of Northern Italy.

After the snow on the mountains at the northern end of the Apennine Mountains melted, it flowed to the lower areas, forming streams. Most of them flowed into the Po River from south to north, and a small part flowed directly into the Mediterranean Sea from north to south. Among them, two rivers that were very close to each other washed the mountains for years, and the mud and sand they carried formed a small flat lowland at the estuary.

As early as hundreds of years ago, the Ligurians living in the northern end of the Apennine Mountains discovered that there was a natural harbor at the northern end of this lowland, so they built the port town of Genoa.

When the Romans began to dominate the Mediterranean, the small town of Genoa, which was small in population and located in a remote area, received attention, not only because it was an important port for the western part of the northern Italian province to conduct maritime trade with the outside world, but also because it was an important hub for the Scauli Avenue, the seaside avenue from Rome to the western French province.

But even so, due to geographical constraints, the area of ​​Genoa City after hundreds of years of development is still small, the population is not large, and even in order to facilitate the transportation and storage of goods, it has no city walls for a long time. It was not until the rampant pirates in recent years that it was forced to build a simple city wall.

Genoa's location was so important that Vercingetorix would not ignore it and sent nearly 2,000 soldiers to garrison the city.

But according to the intelligence collected by Roman spies, the Gallic rebels stationed in Genoa were not only unfamiliar with the terrain around the city, but also did not set up a sentry post at the western estuary. They were also relatively lazy and huddled in the city at night, rarely patrolling the city walls.

So, on a full-moon night in early March, Caesar sent a fleet. In order to avoid being discovered by the blast furnace rebels in the city, they made a big detour and finally arrived at the estuary of another river three miles west of Genoa. There were large shoals here, which were convenient for ships to beach. However, the mud and sand here were slippery and it was difficult for individuals to move, and it was almost impossible for a large army to land, so even during the day, the Gauls rarely patrolled here.

But hundreds of sailors and carpenters in the fleet jumped into the river beach without hesitation, dragging special sampans, carrying tools, and working hard in the mud that could sink their legs deeply for nearly two hours, and finally built a simple dock, with a "ship bridge" that was hundreds of meters long extending all the way to the shore next to Scauli Avenue.

Then the soldiers of the 13th Legion began to land with siege equipment such as long ladders, siege crossbows, and disassembled siege vehicles.

Last year, the 13th Legion, led by Caesar, avoided the blockade of Pompey's fleet, crossed the Adriatic Sea by boat, and ventured to land on the coast of Epirus. The soldiers already had a lot of experience, and they had undergone many trainings in Sardinia beforehand, so they were well organized and arrived at the shore smoothly. Then, according to the plan, first cut off the passage between Genoa and the outside world, and then quietly surrounded the entire town. After some rest and preparation, they began to attack the city with all their strength at dawn.

The Gallic warriors stationed in the city mainly came from southern Gaul. They had lived in the mountains and forests since childhood. When they came to the seaside for the first time, they were not used to the cold and wet sea breeze and the endless roar of the sea tide. In addition, they were separated from the Gaul army by mountains. After a long time, they did not find any traces of the Roman army. The complaints and homesickness grew rapidly in their hearts, so they became lazy and just wanted to hide in the house and have a good sleep when it got dark.

So when the soldiers of the 13th Roman Legion approached the city of Genoa, most of the Gallic warriors were still asleep. It was not until the Roman soldiers broke the city that the Gallic warriors hurriedly gathered and counterattacked, and many of them were even out of armor.

The battle lasted until the morning, and the Gallic warriors were finally surrounded and annihilated.

The 13th Legion that occupied the city of Genoa immediately opened the port and the dock, and the huge fleet loaded with Caesar's army docked at various ports one after another.

Because Caesar had made careful preparations in advance, the Genoa dock was busy and lively, but the entire landing process was organized in an orderly manner.

The Seventh Legion, which had just completed the landing, took a short rest at Caesar's urging and marched north with two days of rations, and the other legions that landed later also marched north one after another.

There are more than 70 miles of mountains and steep cliffs between Genoa and the Po River Plain, but many rivers flow in between, forming a flat river valley connecting the north and the south. The Romans built solid roads in the river valley for commercial needs, so the march of the Roman army was not only fast, but also smooth.

Even if they encountered a Gallic outpost halfway, it was originally specially entrusted by Vercingetorix to his men. Its function was to send people to Genoa every day to understand the situation, and then report the situation to the headquarters of the Gallic army. It can be seen that Vercingetorix understood the importance of Genoa and therefore remained vigilant.

But the Gallic warriors in the outpost had not seen the enemy for a long time, so they were inevitably slack. When they found the Roman army, they were already surrounded.

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The Roman Seventh Legion easily crushed the outpost, spent more than a day to walk out of the valley pass, and soon arrived at the city of Tortona (Dertona).

Tortona is a small town that prospered because of Genoa. As a commodity transit point, it does not have a decent city defense, but the Gauls still stationed a hundred warriors here.

Perhaps because they came from the Arverni tribe, they strictly implemented the requirements of their leader Vercingetorix, discovered the traces of the Roman army before it approached, and quickly fled Tortona and rushed to Piacenza, the headquarters of the Gallic army.

The Roman Seventh Legion occupied Tortona without a single soldier and controlled the pass.

After that, the Roman legions arrived one after another, and Caesar led the baggage team into the town in the evening.

The leaders of the Gallic army also received the news from the Gallic warriors stationed in Tortona at dusk: the Roman army is coming!

The leaders headed by Vercingetorix were shocked.

After the leaders of the Gallic army reached an agreement with King Nix to "fight the Roman army in the northern Italian province", they all thought that the Roman army was most likely to attack from the south of the eastern part of the northern Italian province. However, although the western part of the northern Italian province is surrounded by the Alps and the Apennines on three sides, there are still several places that are convenient for the Roman army to march and enter the western part of the northern Italian province, so it is worth paying attention to.