Rome must fall.

Chapter 429: Siege of Aquileia
Maximus looked up and saw that the person who spoke was Icarobio, the leader of the Germanic tribe of Osiris. This tall, sturdy, strong and powerful man was a militant and had a high prestige among the Germanic tribes. It was he who had gathered a Germanic army to invade the territory of the Boii in the south, but was finally defeated by Maximus. Later, Maximus used conciliatory means to make them accept peace with the Kingdom of Nyx.

This time, the Kingdom of the Nyx declared war on Rome and sent envoys to invite the Germanic tribes to join. He was the most active one and helped the envoys persuade other leaders. That is why as many as 6,000 Germanic warriors followed the Nyx army here.

Facing such a special person, Maximus carefully considered his words and said: "Captain Icarobio is right. If we attack the city with our entire army, we will be able to capture Aquileia in half a day.

But you just saw that Aquileia was a military fortress built by the Romans to defend against us. It had a wall more than ten meters high, and it was all made of stone, so it must be very strong; it had a deep and wide trench, making it difficult for our soldiers to easily attack the city; there were also many towers on its walls, and I saw that they were equipped with ballistae and crossbows, which could easily attack our attacking soldiers...

So if we rush into a strong attack, even if we take the city, we will suffer heavy casualties. We have just entered Roman territory and have not yet officially fought the Roman army. Isn't it not worth it to pay such a price?"

Icarobbio was stunned for a moment, and felt that what Maximus said made sense, but he was unwilling to compromise: "So what do you think we should do? Should we just keep surrounding it?!"

When Icarobbio said this, many of the Knicks' generals looked at him with dissatisfaction, because his tone was really disrespectful to the king.

Maximus had been marching with the German army for some time and was used to their way of speaking. Before his men could start to reprimand him, he calmly replied, "As far as I know, Aquileia is a Roman military fortress and the food reserves in the city have always been sufficient. It is impossible for the soldiers in the city to run out of food and surrender in a short period of time just by siege.

However, there are few enemies in the city and they are completely surrounded by us. The Roman army is unlikely to come to rescue in a short time. We have plenty of time to make siege equipment, remove their traps and obstacles, fill the trench, and blast a hole in the city wall... It will be much easier to attack the city then.

However, the Third Legion and auxiliary troops are enough to do these things. During this period of siege preparation, before the arrival of the Roman army, other troops can occupy as much territory as possible in the Roman northern Italian province, collect food supplies and weapons and equipment, and prepare for our next battle with Rome.

Pequot, please tell us what to do next."

"Yes, my king." After bowing, Pecot came to the large map in the center, looked around at the generals, and drew a circle on the map marked with Aquileia with his finger: "Next, Staggs will lead the First Legion and the Yapod team led by Chief Isidy to clear all the villages around Aquileia, try to capture the people in these villages, and drive them to fill the trenches and pull out the traps, so as to reduce our casualties in the siege.

Moreover, these people are related to the defenders in the city, so the defenders may not have the heart to attack them, which will help us complete the final preparations for the siege faster. We may even be able to lure the enemy out of the city to rescue, creating a good opportunity for us to capture the city."

Maximus listened calmly without making any comment. As the supreme ruler of a country, after twenty years of war, he was already indifferent to the practice of using the enemy's people as cannon fodder.

"What should I do with the supplies we seized after leading our team to capture these villages?" asked Chief Isidi.

"Of course it's as we agreed beforehand. The spoils you seize belong to you," Maximus responded.

"Thank you for your arrangement. We, the Yapodes, are willing to obey!" Isidi bowed happily to Maximus. The territory of Aquileia is adjacent to the mountains where the Yapodes live. Isidi and his men can send the supplies they seize here directly back to the tribe.

"King Nix, what about us? Which town do you arrange for us to rob?!" Seeing that Yapod had gained the advantage, Ikarobio immediately shouted anxiously.

"Don't worry, it will be your turn next." Maximus said in a calm and comforting tone.

Pequot took over the conversation, pointing to the map and continued: "Padua is the most important town in the eastern part of the Roman Province of the Ordovician Continent. It has a large population and prosperous trade, but it has few troops and weak city defenses... Tinibazus, you lead the Second Legion; Chief Icarobbio, you lead the Germanic troops, and rush to Padua together to capture this town." "Yes, sir!" Tinibazus stood up and saluted.

"This town sounds pretty good. We'll accept the order." Ikarobio responded happily.

"Captain Icarobbio," Maximus reminded him earnestly, "Padua is a wealthy town that can meet your needs. However, this town also has a large number of slaves. Most of them come from various tribes in Gaul, and some are even Germanic. I hope you can be careful to distinguish them after entering the city and try not to cause any accidental injuries."

"Damn the Romans!..." Icarobbio cursed a few times, and then responded seriously: "King Nix, you don't need to remind us again, we will abide by our 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 news of your victory soon."

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

They didn't even think about informing the Roman Senate of the news immediately, because after the civil war broke out, the power of Rome was concentrated in the two warlords Caesar and Pompey, and the Senate, which had no soldiers and no power, became a complete decoration. Moreover, if the news of Caesar's rear base being attacked spread, it would only make the senators on both sides lean more towards Pompey, so they wanted to block the news temporarily and repel the enemy as soon as possible.

After Caesar went south, he successively dispatched troops from the Gaul province to fight in Greece. Now the troops in Caesar's rear base camp are deployed as follows:
The province of Illyria was garrisoned by 15 cohorts led by Lucius (Antony's younger brother) in order to prevent Pompey from recruiting reinforcements from Greece. So when Pompey crossed the sea to Greece, Lucius led his army southward, but was defeated by Pompey and eventually surrendered. Since Pompey had to concentrate on dealing with Caesar, he did not occupy the province of Illyria. This is why the main force of the Kingdom of the Nyx could easily cross the mountains, pass through the northern part of the province of Illyria, and enter the province of northern Italy.

The province of Northern Italy originally had two legions stationed there for mobility, but since the province had been stable during Caesar's tenure as governor and had the Alps as a barrier, after the civil war broke out, the two legions were successively withdrawn by Caesar to fight in the south. 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 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 northern Gaul and the other to guard southern Gaul.
In addition, after Massilia surrendered, Caesar was worried that it would relapse, so he stationed a legion in the province of West France as a deterrent.

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Because Legion Commander Trebonius had performed well in the siege of Massilia and was considered capable among Caesar's many legion commanders, Caesar promoted him to lieutenant general of the Gaul province, with the power to command the three remaining legions and auxiliary forces formed by 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 lieutenant general was fully capable of repelling the invading barbarians.

Trebonius was shocked when he received the order, but he did not dare to delay. He immediately sent a messenger on horseback to Gaul to recall the legions there, but the situation in Gaul had changed by then.

When Maximus was preparing to send troops, he asked Onomabaitis to send someone to inform Vercingetorix. On the day when the Nyx army attacked and besieged Aquileia, Onomabaitis once again used the channels he had painstakingly established over the past few years to quickly let Vercingetorix, the young leader of the Arverni tribe, get the news that "the Nyx Kingdom has attacked the northern Italian province" several days in advance, even though he was ahead of 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.

(End of this chapter)