Chapter 196: Gallic Civil War 2
< 196. Gallic Civil War 2 >
Sextus’ army advanced like a storm.
Caesar’s army, caught off guard by the surprise attack, could not respond properly.
The six legions that attacked simultaneously from Hispania and northern Italy were fast and strong.
They broke through the front lines from both directions and quickly pushed back Caesar’s legions.
Then they joined forces with the southern Gauls and continued their attack with a terrifying momentum.
Sextus wisely did not provoke the Gallic tribes.
“I came here solely to summon the rebel Caesar back to his homeland. I have no intention of fighting with the loyal Roman citizens and brothers of Gaul. Even if there are Gauls who joined Caesar’s legions, I will not hold them accountable for their tribes.”
The Gallic tribes did not know how to deal with the situation where the Romans were fighting each other.
They would have to fight if Caesar ordered them to, but no such command had arrived yet.
In such a situation, the Gallic tribes could not attack the Roman army on their own initiative.
They could be accused of killing Roman citizens if they made a mistake.
The Gallic tribes, who were in a state of emergency, hastily convened a chief’s meeting to discuss the matter.
The news finally reached Caesar’s ears, who was in the north of the Rhine.
Meanwhile, Sextus did not stop.
Gabinus led a thousand cavalry and raided Caesar’s army’s supply depot in the territory of the Haedui tribe.
Caesar’s soldiers, who were overwhelmed by the unexpected attack, retreated in confusion.
“Counterattack. Let them regret drawing their swords first without knowing their place.”
Labienus, who was in charge of maintaining stability in Gaul, did not sit still either.
He bypassed two thousand cavalry and cut off Sextus’ rear supply line, killing or capturing most of the three hundred defenders.
But the actual damage was not that great.
Sextus, who had mobilized his navy, transported most of his supplies by ship.
In the meantime, Sextus’ army destroyed seven more temporary camps that Caesar had set up.
It turned out that they only boosted Sextus’ confidence with their less than sharp response.
“It seems that without Caesar’s direct command, they are only capable of this much.”
“It can’t be helped. When you are with a too excellent commander-in-chief, it often happens that you become dependent on him. We were also no different when we were under Pompey’s command.
He ended the war with our victory as long as he did what he told us to do. So we just had to follow his orders. Caesar was the same.
If you read his report, most of the war was planned by Caesar and his subordinates just executed it. So they couldn’t develop the judgment to lead an army on their own.”
There was no Roman nobleman who did not know how Caesar fought the Gallic War.
The Roman governor who conducted the war had to submit a report to the Senate as a matter of course.
Of course, usually not all senators read the report carefully.
But Caesar’s report was an exception.
He vividly described the process of his war as if it were a story, not a simple report format.
This was a means to promote his achievements, and his trick worked perfectly.
Almost all Roman nobles read Caesar’s biography with interest.
They all knew how he subdued the Gauls and conquered Britain.
Sextus expected this to work very favorably for them.
He knew how excellent Caesar was as a strategist, and he also knew his legion system and fighting style beforehand.
‘Marcus sir. You must have thought that I would never beat Caesar, but that prediction was wrong.’
Sextus analyzed the difference in power between him and Caesar several times coldly.
He certainly had many shortcomings compared to Caesar.
But that didn’t mean that the actual war would always be won by the stronger one.
There are countless cases in history where a seemingly invincible power was defeated by a country that they thought was inferior to them.
Sextus thought he had enough chances to win.
Of course, it could be a result of arrogance from his young age.
So he asked for advice from Pompey and Gabinus and did not take their opinions lightly.
“Caesar is currently leading his main force down here. Labienus will only think about joining forces with Caesar.”
“Should we attack them before they join forces with the main army?”
“If they are not fools, they would expect us to do that. So we should not chase them too recklessly and fall into their ambush. It would be better to clear the surroundings and advance cautiously while watching our rear.”
Sextus had definitely grown from his battle with Gnaeus.
He no longer moved his legion blindly and fought the enemy.
He had the ability to attack aggressively but smoothly, adjusting his pace as needed.
He also learned to coordinate with other types of troops, which he had failed to do before.
He improved his ability to match the strategy in the big picture and the tactics to execute it.
Maybe that was why.
Ravienus could not inflict as much damage on Sextus as he had hoped.
Rather, he suffered more losses when he tried to do something.
And bad news kept coming.
The ships that were supposed to head to Britannia were delayed by a storm and could not leave the port on time.
If this continued, he would not be able to call the army stationed in Britannia.
The legion that was stabilizing the border in Germania was not in a position to be called from the beginning.
On the other hand, Sextus was continuously forming additional legions in Hispania and Rome.
If they joined the front line, the balance of power would tilt in an instant.
But even in these unfavorable conditions, Ravienus never imagined that they would lose.
It was because Caesar, who had been inspecting the north of the Rhine, finally appeared with his main army.
※※※
“I thought he was just a brat who inherited his family name, but he was better than I expected. He seemed like a different person from Gnaeus’s evaluation.”
Ravienus spoke his honest impression as soon as he met Caesar.
Caesar did not hide his interest in Ravienus’s report.
“When I saw the battle he fought with Gnaeus in Hispania, he was not like that at all… Is it because he is young? He grows fast.”
“I can see why Pompey gave his family to his second son instead of his eldest. Maybe he knew that even if they had similar abilities at that time, the difference would widen over time.”
“That could be. I can’t judge him since I haven’t seen him myself. But I have to admit that he is a decent commander since you failed the first phase and moved on to the second phase of the operation.”
Caesar recalled Gnaeus’s face, whom he had talked to a while ago.
He was a person with such a small capacity that it made him suffocate.
He thought Sextus would be no different from him since he had fought a fierce battle with him, but it seemed he was wrong.
The momentum of Sextus’s army that was pushing forward was definitely more fierce than Caesar’s initial expectation.
“Are the Gallic tribes going to watch the outcome of your fight with Sextus? Wouldn’t it be easier to win if you tell them to attack Sextus’s rear instead of watching?”
“No. We can’t let the Gallic tribes attack Sextus’s army directly. There can be no reason for non-Roman citizens to kill Roman citizens. If necessary, we have to conscript them into our legion and send them to the battlefield.”
“Then you don’t need Gallic assistance in this fight?”
“Of course. Isn’t it better to show them clearly on this occasion? The tribes that will follow me and the nobles in Rome. That even if he inherited Pompey’s name, he can’t threaten Caesar’s glory.”
Ravienus nodded calmly.
Caesar’s decision was not arrogance or pride.
Caesar was a person who deserved to show such confidence, having watched him since the beginning of the Gallic War.
“But will Sextus try to fight a decisive battle with Imperator? If your main force from Britannia and Germania can’t come, they might try to drag out time.”
“We can just form legions from the northern tribes if we need to. And if they don’t want to fight, we’ll teach them reality. Then they’ll realize that their best chance is to take a risk and aim for a blow.”
Caesar began to take action.
Caesar’s army, whose morale had risen by joining Imperator, counterattacked.
Caesar’s army did not waver at all even against surprise attacks.
Sextus tried to send a thousand cavalry around and hit the scouts, but it didn’t work out well.
The reaction was different from before.
The movement of troops was fast, and the formation was solid enough that there was no gap.
It felt like a huge fortress was moving.
The situation in local battles also changed drastically.
Caesar kept throwing hundreds of units and harassed Sextus relentlessly.
He regretted that he couldn’t get a decisive blow with a surprise operation.
Time passed endlessly.
Sextus’s army size gradually decreased as they suffered losses in small battles.
It was like bugs eating away at the leaves, accumulating damage unknowingly.
It was the difference in the commander’s ability.
Caesar showed the difference in level as if he wanted to, sending dozens of messengers from the commander’s tent every day.
He used the mobility of the cavalry to the limit and cut down one by one the bases that Sextus had occupied.
Sextus’s army, which had been advancing relentlessly, was soon stuck in place and unable to move.
The initial momentum that had been driving them smoothly was broken as if it was a lie, and the morale of the legion also went down with it.
Sextus tried to reverse the situation by leading the cavalry himself, but Caesar’s side did not even fight him head-on.
Before he knew it, the number of soldiers he had lost was close to the size of a legion.
But luckily, two legions that had been hastily formed in Hispania joined Sextus’s camp.
Caesar’s troops were slightly less than six legions, and Sextus’s legions were more than seven.
Pomponius and Gabinius suggested that they should stake a battle.
“Caesar, who has a thick backbone in war, will continue to launch an all-out offensive. Unfortunately, you are still lacking in experience to follow Caesar.”
“But wouldn’t that be the same in a pitched battle? Rather, Caesar’s real ability might come out in a pitched battle…”
“Still, if we go on like this, we will only be eaten away by Caesar. But if we use our advantage in numbers and fight a pitched battle, we still have a chance to win.”
“A chance to win…”
Sextus looked at them with disbelief.
When did their confidence fall so low?
It had not been a few months since they started the fight.
This was the time when they should be burning their spirit to overcome this situation, not showing such a passive attitude. Suddenly, Sextus remembered what they had said before.
‘Caesar’s subordinates are strongly dependent on their commander and show weakness in independent judgment?’
That was not a fact that only applied to Caesar’s subordinates.
Who was mocking whom?
Pomponius and Gabinius were the same.
They had been conducting wars under Pompey all along.
They knew how much the commander’s ability affected the outcome of the war.
They had easily won any war by just following the commander’s orders.
In the pirate eradication operation, in the eastern expedition, when they crushed Cushi and Aksun, they never faced a crisis.
Their strength was in executing orders, not in devising a overall plan.
When he thought about it, he understood their current state.
If Sextus had been an ordinary commander, he might have bitten the bait that Caesar threw here and decided to fight a pitched battle.
But as he faced the extreme situation, Sextus’s capacity finally revealed its true nature.
“No, we won’t fight a pitched battle.”
“What? If we don’t fight a pitched battle, we will be slowly devoured. And even though Gaul seems to be watching the situation now, if we clearly fall behind, we don’t know how they will change. We might even get our retreat cut off.”
“That’s why we have to retreat before our retreat is cut off.”
“What? Retreat?”
Gabinius’s mouth opened wide at the unexpected remark.
Sextus looked around with a puzzled expression as if he had heard something wrong.
“Yes. We have to admit that we were too optimistic about the situation. It was because Caesar’s troops were scattered everywhere.
But I’ve always felt a strange sense of unease in my heart. Wasn’t the first battle too smooth? Did Caesar really leave himself undefended and pushed back so deep? Or did he have some other trick up his sleeve? I’ve always doubted that.”
“But Ravienus tried to attack us quite desperately.”
“That could have been an attempt to gauge whether he could inflict serious damage on us. If our defense was weak, he wouldn’t have to retreat and just push us back with a big blow, and if not, he might have tried to lure us into a place where we had no way out.”
Sextus Pompey and Gabinius’s faces turned pale in an instant.
If that was true, they were almost like rats trapped in a poison.
“Break through to the west and board the ships and retreat to Hispania. And if we drag it into a long-term war, we will have an advantage in economic power.”
< 196. Gallic Civil War > End
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