Chapter 69 Victory in the First Battle

After listening to what Krotokatax said, Asistes was silent for a while, and his expression turned slightly, but he still said uneasy: "As for the current state of the coalition forces, I still have to respond to Your Majesty, Hope he can send reinforcements as soon as possible."

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Patroclus wanted to get more information about the Gauls while making adequate preparations, waiting for the best fighters to appear.

But there was a sudden change in Etruria. A few days after the fall of Florentia, an area that had not been affected by the war and many people thought would not be attacked by the Gauls - the city of Aretium was also raided by the Gauls.

The territory where Aretium is located is not actually bordered by the Gauls, but by the Umbria. It has always been peaceful before, and it has only been harassed by the Gauls in the past two years. According to their understanding, the northern part of the Umbrians also began to be invaded by the Gauls, and some Gallic tribes fled to the territory of Aretium through the border areas of Umbria to loot. After all, Aretium Mbey Umbrians are much richer.

Originally, the Dionysian Military Department did not plan to build a military camp in this area, because the Gauls activities here were not rampant, but Aretium was one of the twelve Etruscan city-state alliances, and also the Etruscan city-state alliance. The central town in the eastern region of the Trurian Union, under the active activities of the Aretium people (actively allocated a lot of land to Dionia), the Dionysian Military Department finally decided to settle in Aretium. Barracks were built not far to the northwest of Mu's territory.

Of course, this was not completely persuaded by the Arretiums, but after careful consideration, Davos thought that he could take advantage of the opportunity of defending the Gauls to gain the land here, so as to strengthen with the Umbrians in the east It is good for the Dionysian Kingdom to connect and enhance friendship.

In fact, for more than a year, the Dionysian frontier army stationed here has cooperated with the Umbrians many times across the border, repel the Gauls who came to harass, and won the favor of the Umbrians . But what they never expected was that the Gauls would split up a large army, cross Umbria from the southernmost edge of the territory, and raid the rear of Aretium.

Although the Dionysian barracks urgently sent messengers to inform the Arretiums, due to its long-term protection by the Dionian barracks, it has not been harassed by the Gauls for more than a year. The attack of the Trurian city-state by the Gauls also did not make the Arethiums vigilant, so they faced unexpected surprises from the Gauls, but the Arethiums fared better than the Florentias. Too bad, the city quickly fell, and no one in the city escaped.

After the Gallic army captured Aretium, it took advantage of the situation to attack the south, encircling Curtun and Clevsin successively, and the forward went straight to Velzna, a distance from the kingdom of Dionia. The northernmost towns, Caserera and Viai, are not far away.

People in Rome began to panic.

Naturally, Patroclus could no longer remain indifferent. He quickly gathered more than 50,000 soldiers from the coalition, crossed the Roman Vertebra Bridge, and arrived at the city of Weiai that night.

On the second day, the messenger from Turii had arrived in Rome, and Asisters received an order signed by King Davos in his own hand: he asked Asistes, the administrator of the Roman region, to notify the gangs as soon as possible according to the order. The Covenant sent troops to form a coalition in Rome, with Patroclus, the commander of the XIV Corps, as the commander-in-chief, leading the coalition to resist the invasion of the Gauls. Do your best to help the Etruscans while ensuring the safety of the kingdom's territory first.

Due to the unknown situation of the enemy, the Ministry of Military Affairs did not give specific instructions, and Patroclus made his own decision according to the changes in the situation of the enemy. And the Ministry of Military Affairs has informed the Twelfth Army in the eastern region of Campania (barracks in Abella) to go to Rome on the same day, under the command of Patroclus. At the same time, Asisters is also asked to do a good job in the logistical support of the coalition forces, and report the changes in the war to the palace at any time.

After reading the letter with mixed feelings, Asisters handed the order back to the messenger, and said solemnly, "Please tell Your Majesty, I will resolutely implement his instructions! Lord Patroclus has led his army north, you Going now, you should be able to see him in Wei'ai."

When the messenger heard the words, he bid farewell to Asisters, and immediately chased north on horseback. By the time he arrived at Wei'ai, Patroclus had already set off again with his army.

The Dionysian northern coalition arrived at Novi (a small Etruscan town) at dusk, less than twenty miles from Volsena, and the Gauls who were besieging Volsena learned that The sudden appearance of the enemy reinforcements was really startling, so he quickly retreated, and sent sentries to investigate. The report said: "The enemy reinforcements are numerous, and they have built countless tents."

This Gallic army as the vanguard was relatively small in number. Seeing that the opponents were numerous and powerful, they did not dare to attack blindly, but retreated to the north.

On the second day, the Volsena people who learned that the reinforcements had arrived and the threat was lifted came to Lowe with a large amount of labor supplies, expressed their gratitude to the coalition forces, and invited the coalition forces to station near Volsena.

After examining the surrounding terrain, Patroclus firmly refused, and ordered the army to build a barracks near the city of Lowe.

A day later, the Gallic army reappeared in the territory of Volsena, and by the second day increased to more than 30,000 people and re-encircled the city.

The Dionian coalition army stationed in the south of it did not make any movement. Instead, the Gallic army took the initiative to come to the Dionian coalition barracks and launched an attack on it.

Although the camp was not completely built, the command of Patroclus was determined, and the coalition soldiers had the advantage of defense, and the number of them was larger than the opponent, so the Gallic warriors fought bravely, but they fought hard until dusk and were repelled. , which made the Dionian coalition soldiers, especially the Allied soldiers, a little more confident.

Although the Dionian coalition won a small victory, they quietly retreated early the next morning, leaving only an empty camp that had been initially built with great difficulty.

Having determined that the enemy had retreated, the Gauls began to think that the enemy, who had been lucky yesterday, had in fact been so frightened by their attack that they had given up reinforcements to Volsena for fear.

In the days that followed, the Gauls made a move to storm the city of Volsena, but their sentry scouts found no sign of Dionysian reinforcements nearby.

Gradually, the Gauls became more certain of their previous thoughts: the Dionysian army seemed to be quite numerous, but it was cowardly and probably had already retreated to Rome.

As a result, they began to attack Volsena with confidence and boldness.

The attack for several days made the city of Volsena crumbling, and it was about to be destroyed. The people of Volsena cursed the untrustworthy Dionians while praying for the blessing of the gods.

Perhaps prayer played a role. In the early morning of the fifth day, the Dionian coalition forces that had disappeared before suddenly reappeared and quickly approached the Gallic camp.

At this time, most of the Gallic warriors were too tired from the siege of the city for days and fell asleep in the camp. When they learned that the Dionysian coalition forces suddenly attacked, the camp was in chaos.

Patroclus used 20 ballistas to blast away the barriers set up by the Gauls for the simple camps - wooden fences, and the main force of the attack was the heavy infantry of the XIV and XII (just arrived from Campania) armies. The Dionian coalition quickly crossed the not wide ditch and fought fiercely with the Gauls in the camp.

Although the Gauls fought bravely and wielded their great swords quite threateningly, their lineup was not neat and their organization was chaotic.

On the contrary, the main force of the Dionian coalition was like an iron wall, advancing slowly, and while constantly killing and wounding the Gauls, it also gave them a lot of psychological pressure.

In addition, the Dionysian coalition was almost twice as strong as the Gauls at this time, but Patroclus did not send the allied troops up at the beginning, but waited until the two legions and reserve soldiers were attracted from the front. After the Gauls were settled, the Allied soldiers were ordered to break in from both sides of the barracks and attack the Gauls.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Dionian coalition forces almost encircled the Gauls in the camp, and the Gauls had to turn around and flee, desperately trying to make a bloody road.

Patroclus immediately ordered: the coalition cavalry, light infantry, and light armor, who had been recharging their batteries, pursued them with all their strength.

The coalition forces pursued and fought furiously, and did not withdraw their troops until dark, killing, wounding and capturing countless Gauls.

On the second day, the Volsenas, who learned that the Gauls were defeated, were overjoyed, and immediately forgot their previous resentment against the Dionysians, and once again came to the coalition camp with a large amount of labor supplies. Knowing that Patroclus had left with his army.

The defeated Gauls were divided into two parts: one fled northeast to Aretium, and the other fled to the northwest.

Patroclus sent 10,000 reserve soldiers to pursue the Gauls fleeing to Aretium, while he himself led nearly 50,000 coalition soldiers to the northwest.

During the period of stationing at Camp Lowe, in addition to strengthening the camp, Patroclus also dispatched a mountain reconnaissance team and a reconnaissance cavalry team to investigate in detail the activities of the Gauls throughout the Etruscan region.

Therefore, after defeating the Gallic army of Volsena, Patroclus immediately led the main force and went straight to the territory of Fufluna, because the main force of the Gauls was entrenched here.

Fufruna was the wealthiest city-state in northwestern Etruria, so it became the focus of the incoming Gauls attack. However, because the Fufruna people had already learned of their tragic encounter from the fled Florentia population, and learned a lesson from it, they closed the city gates early and strengthened their defenses. In addition, the city of Fufluna has a special location. It is built on a promontory and is only connected to the land by a narrow isthmus.