Chapter 429 Siege of Aquileia

Maximus raised his eyes and saw that the speaker was Ikarobio, the leader of the Germanic tribe Oxi. This tall, burly, and powerful man was a militant and had a high prestige among the Germanic tribes. It was he who gathered a Germanic army and went south to invade the territory of the Boii. In the end, he was defeated by the army led by Maximus. Later, Maximus used gentle means to make him accept peace with the Kingdom of Nyx.

This time the Kingdom of Nyx declared war on Rome and sent envoys to invite the Germanic tribes to join. However, he was the most active one and helped the envoys convince other leaders, so as many as 6,000 Germanic warriors followed the Nyx army. Go here.

Facing such a special person, Maximus considered his words and said cautiously: "Leader Icarobbio is right. If we attack the city with all our troops, we will be able to defeat Aquile in half a day." Asia captured.

It’s just that you have just seen that Aquileia is a military fortress used by the Romans to defend us. It has walls more than ten meters high, and they are all made of stone. It must be very strong; it has deep and wide trenches. , making it difficult for our soldiers to easily attack the city; there are many towers on the city wall, and I saw that they are equipped with ballistae and crossbows, which can easily attack our attacking soldiers...

Therefore, if we carry out a hasty attack, even if we capture the city, the casualties we will pay will definitely not be small. We have just invaded Roman territory and have not yet officially competed with the Roman army. Isn't it a little worth paying such a price? "

Icarobbio was stunned for a while, feeling that what Maximus said made sense, but he was unwilling to compromise like this: "Then what do you think we should do, should we just keep surrounding it like this?!"

As soon as Icarobio said this, many generals of Nyx looked at him with dissatisfaction, because his tone was really disrespectful to the king.

Maximus was marching with the German army during this period, and he was used to their way of speaking. Before his subordinates could reprimand him, he replied calmly: "As far as I know, Aquileia is the military commander of Rome. The fortress and the city's food reserves have always been sufficient. Just a siege will never make the soldiers in the city surrender in a short period of time.

However, the number of enemies in the city is small and they are completely surrounded by us. It is impossible for the Roman army to come to rescue in a short time. We have enough time to build siege equipment, remove their traps and obstacles, fill in the trench, Blow the gap out of the city wall...then it will be much easier to attack the city.

However, only the Third Legion and the auxiliary troops are enough to do these things. Other troops can occupy as much of the Roman North Italian Province as possible during the siege preparation period before the Roman army arrives. Territory, collect food supplies and weapons and equipment, and prepare for our next battle with Rome.

Pecot, please tell me about the next step. "

"Yes, Your Majesty." After Pecot bowed and saluted, he came to the large map placed in the center, looked around at the generals, and drew a circle on the map marked Aquilia with his finger: "Next, Star Gus led the first legion and the Yabod team led by Chief Isidi to clean up all the villages around Aquileia, try their best to capture the people in these villages, and drive them to fill in trenches and pull out traps, so that we can reduce our Casualties of siege.

Moreover, these people are related to the defenders in the city, and the defenders may not have the heart to attack them. This will help us complete preparations for the final siege faster. Maybe we can also use this to lure the enemy out of the city for rescue, creating a way for us to capture the city. City's opportunity. "

Maximus listened calmly and did not make any remarks. As the supreme leader of a country, after twenty years of war, he had become comfortable with treating the enemy's people as cannon fodder.

"What should I do with the supplies that I led the team to capture after capturing these villages?" Chief Isidi asked.

"Of course, as we have agreed in advance, the loot you captured belongs to you." Maximus responded.

"Thank you for your arrangement. We Yabod are willing to obey!" Isidi bowed to Maximus happily. Aquileia's territory is adjacent to the mountains where the Yabod people live. Isidi and the others are here. After the supplies are seized, they can be sent directly back to the tribe.

"King Nyx, where are we?! Which town did you arrange for us to rob?!" Seeing that Yabod had benefited, Icarobio immediately shouted anxiously.

"Don't be anxious, it will be your turn next." Maximus comforted him in a calm tone.

Pecot took over and pointed to the map and continued: "Padua is the most important town in the eastern part of the Roman province of North Easy. It has a large population and prosperous commerce, but it has few soldiers and weak city defenses...Tinibazu Si, you lead the second legion; Captain Icarobio, you lead the German troops, rush to Padua and capture this town. "

"Yes!" Tinibazus stood up and saluted.

"It sounds like this town is pretty good. We'll take this order." Icarobio responded happily.

"Chief Icarobbio." Maximus reminded earnestly: "Padua is a wealthy town, enough to meet your needs. However, this town also has a large number of slaves, most of whom come from There are various tribes in Gaul, and some are even Germanic. I hope you will be careful to distinguish them after you attack the city, and try not to accidentally injure them."

"Damn the Romans!..." Icarobio cursed a few times, and then responded seriously: "King Nyx, you don't need to remind us again, we will abide by the agreement with you! In addition to slaves, there are also those poor people who can't afford to eat, we will not hurt them at all!"

Maximus laughed: "I believe I will hear the news of your victory soon."

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The sudden invasion of the Kingdom of Nyx shocked the people of the northern Italian province. After the officials who stayed in the Governor's Palace in Ravenna received the news, they immediately took two measures: first, urgently summoned the legions stationed in the Gaul province to resist the invading enemy; second, sent a messenger to inform Caesar.

They didn't even think about informing the Roman Senate of the news at the first time, because after the outbreak of the civil war, the power of Rome was concentrated in the two warlords Caesar and Pompey, and the Senate without soldiers and power became a complete decoration. Moreover, if the news of the attack on Caesar's rear base camp spread, it would only make the elders on both sides lean more towards Pompey, so they wanted to temporarily block the news and repel the enemy as soon as possible.

After Caesar went south, he successively drew troops from the Gaul province to fight in Greece. Now the troop deployment of Caesar's rear base camp is as follows:

The Illyrian province is garrisoned by 15 battalions led by Lucius (Anthony's younger brother), the purpose of which is to block Pompey from recruiting reinforcements from Greece. So when Pompey crossed the sea to Greece, Lucius led his troops south, but was defeated by Pompey. In the end, Lucius surrendered. Because Pompey had to concentrate on dealing with Caesar, he did not occupy the Illyrian province. This is why the main force of the Kingdom of Nix can easily cross the mountains, pass through the northern part of the Illyrian province, and enter the northern Italian province;

The northern Italian province originally had two legions stationed as a maneuver, but because During Caesar's tenure as governor, the province of Northern Italy had been very stable, and the Alps served as a barrier, so after the civil war broke out, two legions were successively transferred to the south by Caesar to fight. Except for the military fortress Aquileia, which habitually stationed several battalions, there was no real military force in other towns;

Although the situation in Gaul had stabilized in the past two years, Caesar was still not very confident about this newly conquered region, so even when the civil war broke out and he urgently needed a large number of troops to defeat Pompey, he still left two legions, one to guard the north of Gaul and the other to watch the south of Gaul;

In addition, after Massilia surrendered, Caesar was worried that it would relapse, so he stationed another legion in the province of Westphalia as a deterrent.

Because the legion commander Trebonius performed well when he was in charge of the siege of Massilia before, he was considered to be quite capable among the many legion commanders under Caesar, so Caesar promoted him to the deputy general of the Gaul province, with the power to command the three legions left behind and the auxiliary forces formed by the Gallic tribes.

However, Trebonius's command residence was not in Ravenna, but in the province of Westphalia, because it was closer to Gaul and more convenient for him to command the army.

With three legions and auxiliary troops, Trebonius had at least 20,000 elite soldiers, and he also had the power to form a temporary army. The officials of the Governor's Office believed that this deputy general was fully capable of repelling the invading barbarians.

Trebonius received the order, and he was shocked but did not dare to neglect it. He immediately sent a messenger on a fast horse to Gaul to recall the legions there, but the situation in Gaul had changed at this time.

When Maximus was preparing to send troops, he had asked Onomabaitis to send someone to inform Vercingetorix. On the day when the Nix army attacked and surrounded Aquileia, Onomabaitis once again used the channels he had worked hard to establish over the past few years to let Vercingetorix, the young leader of the Arverni tribe, get the news that "the Nix Kingdom has attacked the northern Italian province" several days earlier than Trebonius.

Vercingetorix had an easy way to go: after the Romans had withdrawn all their troops stationed in Gaul to fight the Nixes, he could calmly raise his arms and call on all the Gallic tribes to declare independence! In this way, the Gauls could get rid of Roman control without suffering any casualties.