Rome must fall.

Chapter 428 Return to Italy

Isidi, the chief of the Yapod tribe, was wearing a horn helmet and leather armor, lying under a big tree to enjoy the coolness, with a big sword and a wooden shield beside him.

The spies who were sent out came running down the mountain: "Captain, the Roman caravan designated by the Nixes is here!"

Isidy suddenly perked up, stood up quickly, turned around and shouted: "Our target is here! Everyone hurry up and rush down the mountain with me to intercept them! Remember! Don't be ruthless yet, trap them first, so as to lure the Romans out of the city!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Yapod warriors shouted excitedly. They had not engaged in looting for many years.

On the one hand, the Nyx, who were on good terms with them, continuously imported cheap and high-quality materials to meet their living needs, so that they no longer had to risk their lives to plunder the trade routes; on the other hand, Caesar's conquest of Gaul and his powerful army also greatly intimidated the Japodes, so that they did not dare to risk genocide to offend this powerful Roman governor.

But now that Caesar has led his army away, the Nyx, their allies who had been providing help, have made demands on them again, and the restless factor in the blood of the Japodes has begun to stir again.

Compared to the overly excited soldiers, Isidy was calmer. He did not forget his mission, so he said to the spy: "Hurry up and tell the Nixes who came with us that we have come down the mountain, and tell them to get ready! Remember! As soon as the Roman army appears, you must urge them to come down the mountain to surround and kill them! I don't want our soldiers to suffer more losses, understand?!"

"Captain, I understand. Don't worry!" The spy nodded heavily.

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My Lord, something bad has happened! Tullius's caravan was robbed by the Japods, and they sent people to ask us for help! "

When Micinaeus, the military tribune stationed in Aquileia, heard the report from his subordinates, he was moved.

As his name suggests, Miecenas' family was a new Roman noble family with no political background. Therefore, when he was young, he was very ambitious and hung out with Curio the Younger and Antony, thereby gaining their support. He was successfully elected as quaestor and entered the Senate smoothly. Later, he followed Antony to join Caesar.

However, compared with his friends who used to hang out with him, Curio the Younger was highly valued by Caesar and led a large army to conquer Sicily and Africa alone. Antony was sent to Rome and later led reinforcements to support Caesar. Even Lucius (Antony's younger brother), who was less capable than him, was sent to lead a dozen battalions to guard the Illyrian province. Only he was sent to guard Aquileia.

It is said that he was responsible for defending against Celtic invasion and guarding the security of the eastern part of Northern Italy, but everyone knew that Northern Italy was the safest province among the provinces controlled by Caesar, and there had been no war for many years, so Miecinaes had only four battalions under his command, and most of them were new recruits.

Seeing that his former friends were all making achievements, although Miecenas was unwilling to accept it, he dared not show his dissatisfaction when Caesar was now becoming more and more powerful.

But now is the opportunity!
Tullius was the largest arms dealer in the entire province of Gaul and the most important retainer under Caesar. He provided great support for the continuous expansion of the army in the province of Gaul and had a certain influence in Caesar's heart. Therefore, when Tullius personally led a caravan to Pula to transport weapons to Caesar's army in Brindisi and passed through Aquileia, Miecines specially sent a team of centuries to escort him.

This time he was in danger, and as long as he was rescued, Miecenas believed that he could win his favor and make him speak well of him to Caesar.

In addition, it was a good thing that the Yapod people took the initiative to provoke a war. He could use this as an excuse to recruit more soldiers, expand the size of his army, find an opportunity to wipe out the Yapod tribe, and earn some merit for himself.

In order to eliminate the looting Japodes as quickly as possible and reduce the losses suffered by Tullius, Miecinaes ignored the dissuasion of his camp commander and insisted on leading half of the army in the city (two battalions) to rush to the rescue.

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"I remember this section of the road. After turning the mountain pass in front and walking a short distance, we will be out of the entire mountain range, right?" Tinibazus, the commander of the second legion of the Kingdom of Nix, looked ahead and asked loudly to the guide beside him.

"Yes, it only takes ten more minutes to enter the Roman province of Illyria and reach the coast," the guide replied.

"How is it? My memory is great! More than 20 years have passed, and I still remember the roads here so clearly!" Tilibazus boasted loudly to the soldiers beside him.

Then he laughed again and said, "We were in such a mess when we entered the mountains, but now we are back! This time we will make the Romans pay for the blood debt they owed us! Hey, Samoras, don't just walk with your head down, at least say something."

"I have nothing to say. If the Romans come, we will follow your orders and lead our brothers to fight." Centurion Samoras said in a buzzing voice.

Seeing that he was just walking, Tinibazus could not help but remind him in a low voice: "You, usually apart from training in the training ground, you take care of your wife and children at home, and you don't care about anything else! We have finally encountered this war, you must make more merits and raise your title. You must also actively strive to improve your position in the army. At least you must become a captain, so as not to disgrace your qualifications in the kingdom!" "Oh." Samoras responded.

Master Tinibal looked at his old comrade-in-arms, who had shared life and death and hardships with him for decades and still looked simple and honest, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: after he was promoted to legion commander three years ago, he made many reports to the Ministry of War, proposing to promote Samoras to captain, but they were all rejected by the Ministry of War on the grounds that Samoras was not capable enough.

Just as he was sighing, a scout came rushing over from the front and said, "Commander, the First Legion has captured the city of Tarsatica.

Tarsatica was a small coastal town in the northern part of the Roman province of Illyria, not far from the passage through which the Nyx army emerged from the mountains, and therefore became the first stronghold that had to be eliminated.

Tinibazus immediately turned around and said to the messenger: "Go and inform all the teams to speed up the march. We must reach Pula within two hours and capture it as soon as possible to avoid any accidents!"

"Yes, legion commander!"

Pula, an important town on the Istrian Peninsula and the only major port in the northern Adriatic Gulf, was a stronghold that the Nyx army had to occupy first in order to prevent the Roman army from landing here in the future and threatening the logistical transportation lines of the Nyx army.

Since the Kingdom of Nyx had already planned to attack Rome, it had Onomabaitis set up trading posts in towns that needed to be conquered, such as Talsatica and Pula, and stationed a large number of troops there. The easy conquest of Talsatica was the result of internal and external cooperation.

Tinibazus was worried that the people of Pula would strengthen their defenses after learning the news of the "fall of Tarsatica", thus increasing the difficulty of the Second Legion's siege, so he asked the army to get there as soon as possible and not give the people of Pula time to prepare.

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Everything went according to plan. The Japodes plundered Tullius's caravan, lured out the defenders of Aquileia, and together with the ambushed Nicholas's army, annihilated them, and then rushed to the city of Aquileia and surrounded it.

At the same time, Nicholas' main forces entered the Illyrian province through the built mountain roads and marched northward, successively capturing Tulsa Tica and the Istria Peninsula, and joined forces with Nicholas' army besieging Aquileia.

Two days later, Maximus arrived in Aquileia with the rear guard, kingdom officials, auxiliary troops, etc.

The vanguard troops had already set up camp outside the city of Aquileia. Maximus did not enter the camp to rest first, but instead took Pequot and other military personnel and generals of each legion to circle around the city of Aquileia and explore before entering the barracks. He then immediately convened a military meeting of the kingdom and invited the German and Japodic leaders to attend.

In the central army tent, the commander of the Third Legion, Staggs, introduced the previous battle situation: "... the leader of Isidy led the Abed warriors to attack the Roman caravan and lured out about 2,000 Roman soldiers.

While the enemy was rescuing the caravan, I led my soldiers out of the mountains and forests and surrounded them. However, although there were not many cavalrymen in this Roman army, they were quite alert. When they saw us, they did not engage in battle and immediately turned around and fled to Aquileia.

Because we had to cross the mountains and set up an ambush, we didn't have cavalry, so we couldn't stop them, but I sent a small part of my troops to pursue them. By the time we eliminated the Roman reinforcements and rushed here, the defenders in the city had already pulled up the drawbridge, closed the city gates, and prepared to defend the city. However, because we were chasing them so quickly, the enemy had no time to let the people outside the city hide in the city...

According to the prisoners’ confessions, there are only about 2,000 defenders left in the city, more than 6,000 permanent residents, and at most 1,500 young and strong men who can participate in the battle—”

"So you think there are about 3,500 defenders in the city now?" Pequot interrupted.

"Yes."

"I'm afraid it's more than that." Pequot shook his head and reminded, "Don't forget that Aquileia is a military fortress that has been built for decades. The residents here have military experience for generations and have been fighting against foreign races like us for a long time. I'm afraid that not only the elderly, but even women can go up to the city to defend when there is a shortage of soldiers.

Fortunately, you were more cautious and did not give them time to let the people outside the city hide in the city, otherwise we would have encountered greater trouble when attacking the city."

"The enemy has so few people, and we have so many people, there is nothing to worry about." Someone in the big tent couldn't help shouting: "Let's attack the city together tomorrow, it will only take half a day to capture it!"

(End of this chapter)