Three Kingdoms Eschatology

When the books were about to be emptied, Feng Yu walked into the mansion surrounded by Dianqing, Simmons and other trusted soldiers.Feng Yu spread his hands and said: "We came back early, the mansion has not been completely vacated and cleaned. Let's wait in this garden for now."

At this time, a person dressed in plain clothes suddenly broke into the courtyard and rushed towards Feng Yu.Feng Yu's guard turned pale with shock, thinking that the other party had sneaked in while the workers were carrying the books, so he hurriedly stopped in front of Feng Yu and drew his sword from his waist.But in fact, this person was allowed to pass by showing a special badge to the guard just now.

Feng Yu hurriedly stopped the guard and said, "He is one of our own, so there is no need to stop him." It turned out that this person was a spy from the Sicily station of Chenbao.com, who was in charge of reporting directly to Feng Yu.The dovecote at the station immediately received the letter from Feige from Rome, and sent it to Feng Yu in a hurry.

Feng Yu unfolded the letter paper, glanced at the generals around him and said: "There is going to be a war again. Tell me to send the generals of the Liang Kingdom that we are currently stationed in Mesopotamia to come and bring their families with them." Come, because this war may be very long. The second is to assemble the First Army and its auxiliary army in Palermo, as well as the security army stationed in Nicosia. Ready to go?"

What he said made the generals puzzled. Dian Qing first said in Chinese: "My lord, didn't you say earlier that it is not suitable to transfer a large number of generals from the Liang Kingdom to this side? It will easily attract the attention and suspicion of the Romans. Why is this?" Can we use them in the first battle?"

Feng Yu said with a chuckle: "Because Rome is in chaos now, no Romans will pay attention to us anymore. Naturally, there is no suspicion. This morning, a large number of dignitaries and nobles wanted to assassinate Alexander, but the latter smashed this conspiracy. But some leaders have already fled, so there will be rebellions in many Roman provinces. In fact, even if these people did not escape, many provinces will also rebel."

Simmons said: "But what does this have to do with us? We just need to defend Sicily and wait and see what happens."

Feng Yu said calmly: "It doesn't matter at first, but Alexander will definitely let me send troops to drive away the Thomas Department in the Strait of Messina first, and then send troops to help him. So we prepared in advance."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier also broke into the house and reported to Feng Yu: "My lord governor, a letter from the Roman consul office was received in the dovecote of the governor's mansion. Please have a look."

After reading it, Feng Yu laughed loudly and said, "As expected!" As he said, he showed the letter paper to the surrounding generals ostentatiously.

Chapter 1111 Broken Empire

The development of the domestic situation in Rome was expected by most Romans.In just half a month, the provinces of Far Spain, Near Spain, and Transgaul in the west; the provinces of Lower Germany, the Alps, and Joricum in the north; the upper and lower Pannonia, and Thrace in the southeast. , Achaia, Asia Minor and other provinces and garrison legions all declared their opposition to Alexander's rule.The reason is nothing more than that Alexander was immoral, talented and arbitrary, betraying and destroying Roman political tradition and order.

But they have not formed a coalition with a common political goal.There were also various forms of non-recognition of Alexander's rule.Some no longer recognize Alexander as Roman emperor, and unite with other provinces to support a new emperor.Some of them established themselves as a country by themselves or united with neighboring provinces belonging to the same power.The funny thing is that all of these independent countries are exercising the kingdom of the monarch, which is contrary to their reason for opposing Alexander's dictatorship.

Although some provinces did not establish themselves as kings, nor did they support a new Roman emperor, they no longer recognized the power of Rome and Alexander to govern the land, forming an unnamed but actually completely independent regime.

There are only a dozen or so provinces that have not launched a rebellion. Among them, the only five provinces that have truly expressed their support for Alexander are Egypt, Britain, Sicily, Cyprus, and Judea.The rest of the provinces maintained a neutral attitude. Although they did not explicitly oppose Alexander's rule and declared independence and split the territory, they did not express their opposition to this national rebellion and their clear support for Alexander.Rome today is like a broken empire.

At present, Alexander has no time to take into account the situation in these provinces. He must first consider quelling the rebellion in the Apennine Peninsula.At the moment, two Roman field legions on the Apennine Peninsula are declaring that they will attack the city of Rome and cut off the tyrant Alexander.One of them came from the Gaul province in the northwestern tip of the Apennine Peninsula, and the other was stationed in the Perugia military camp less than a hundred miles away from Rome.

Although the province of Alpine Gaul is located in the plains at the southern foot of the Alps, it is also on the Apennines Peninsula, but it is separated from the southwestern plains of the Apennines where the city of Rome is located by a very wide and long hilly area.As long as Alexander wiped out the Perugian army before they went south, he could rely on the terrain of the central hills of the Apennine Peninsula to set up a defense line, easily intercept and repel the rebels from Shannan Gaul.

But now Alexander can't send out his own guards, because behind him---the southwestern tip of the Apennine Peninsula, Sicily across the Strait of Messina, and a rebel army---Thomas Legion.Once the main force of the Guards leaves the city of Rome, the Thomas Legion is likely to take advantage of it.All he can do now is to keep urging Feng Yu to defeat the Thomas Army and cross the sea to the north.

……

Strait of Messina, Sicily side.Flames blazed through Thomas' barracks.From time to time, fire dragons with trailing flames and thick smoke streaked across the air, leaving behind parabolic smoke trails, smashing into the camp of the Thomas Legion, and a column of flames rose from where it landed.That was naturally the Greek fireball fired by the ballista of Feng Yu's army.In addition, many ships of the Sicilian Fleet under Feng Yu's command were shuttling back and forth in the strait, and their fleet commander Gan Ning personally took command of the battle on one of the flagships.From time to time, these warships and warships fired a round of fire or stone bombs into the barracks on the shore.

In the strait, half of the pontoon bridge that had just been burnt down was faintly visible, and the sea was covered with scorched and broken wood.In order not to affect navigation, the pontoon bridge in Messina is not durable. The pontoon bridge built by Feng Yu when he marched into Sicily in the early years has long been demolished.This is the pontoon bridge that Thomas had just built in order to transfer troops to the Apennine Peninsula when Thomas received the news a few days ago.When the pontoon bridge was not halfway built, Feng Yu's navy rushed over and completely destroyed it without saying a word.

The horn of the Roman bugle on the shore sounded again, and Feng Yu's army launched a new round of attack.

The wall of Thomas’ barracks is actually a low wall about five feet high and three feet thick, made of earth and rocks. There is a trench in front of the low wall, and a three-foot-high wooden stacked wall with gaps for intensive shooting and observation is planted on it. .

At the moment, Feng Yujun blasted several gaps in the wall of the camp with a heavy-duty trebuchet.Seven or eight groups of thousands of soldiers approached these blasted gaps slowly under the cover of sculls, shields and walls, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

However, these gaps have also been filled by Thomas' soldiers with scull shields, repelling horses, and messy wood as obstacles and shelters.Inside and outside the gap, including in the trench in front, the bodies of soldiers from both sides can be seen everywhere, which shows the intensity of the previous battle.

Some defending soldiers hiding on the low walls on both sides of the gap and behind the barriers of the gap occasionally used scorpion crossbows to secretly shoot cold arrows from the wooden fence or gaps in debris on the earth barrier.However, Feng Yu's army was under the cover of the shield wall, and these direct arrows had little effect on them.The arrows shot down from several arrow towers caused casualties to Feng Yujun who was attacking.

A defender poked his head out from behind the shield of the arrow tower, quickly locked on to a target, and raised the loaded scorpion crossbow with an arrow.However, just as he shot the arrow, a heavy arrow more than four feet long pierced through his head.In the distance, dozens of longbowmen from Feng Yu's army stood on a high platform relying on the super long range of their bows and arrows, and shot all the enemies they could see with their longbows and heavy arrows.

The shield wall formed by several scull shield vehicles of Feng Yujun's army formation suddenly stopped when it was less than fifty battles away from the gap, and then remained silent.Just when the defending soldiers who were hiding behind the gap and preparing to defend were greatly surprised.Suddenly there was a shout from an arrow tower on the camp: "Attention! The enemy has set up ballistas behind the shield wall, and they want to bombard them at close range with ballistas!"

The centurions who commanded the defenders at various gaps suddenly turned pale with fright.Before they had time to order the soldiers to retreat, the enemy's scull shield vehicles had already separated, revealing the portable ballistas and vehicle-mounted ballistas that had just been erected behind them, as well as the blazing braziers erected in front of their exits.Fiery fireballs spewed out, projecting towards the obstacles at the gap at close range.This pile of temporary fortifications, mainly composed of wood and wood products, was immediately engulfed in flames.The defenders who were close behind were also unfortunately licked by the flames, and screamed in pain.They retreated in a panic, because some of them were pushed to the ground by their own people because of the panic.Those centurions and lower-level officials shouted desperately: "Calm down, stay calm. Get your javelins ready, and throw them as soon as the enemy approaches!"

Chapter 1112 They Are Not Necessarily Friends

Thomas stood on the watchtower in the center of the camp and observed the battle situation. When he saw his own soldiers retreating in the face of the flames, he couldn't help frowning.He can predict what the enemy will do next--when the obstacles in the gaps are almost burned, Feng Yujun will use the scull shield to forcefully push away the charred obstacles in the gaps, and the soldiers behind will step on them. With embers pouring into his camp.

The defenders can use dense javelins to throw the enemy's scull shields to attack.These javelins cannot be completely blocked by ordinary large shields in the hands of enemy soldiers, so after they cross the shield wall, they can somewhat cause some damage to the attacking enemy army.However, whether this will repel the wave of enemy attacks is unknown.Even if you can repel the enemy's attack this time, the remaining javelins in your army will be exhausted, and the next wave of enemy attack can only be fought with the opponent at close range.

Thomas knew that the level of the opponent's soldiers in hand-to-hand combat with short swords was much higher than that of his own army, which had just turned into a field army for a short time.Moreover, the individual ballista equipped by everyone on the other side is even more powerful in close combat within ten battles, so the enemy army can break through their camp at the latest in the next wave of attack.

When he was extremely anxious, the lieutenant general and some cronies beside him shouted joyfully: "General, look, there are many ships on the sea! They seem to be our own, because the enemy ships are retreating."

"That's our fleet. Admiral Mallor's ship is coming."

Thomas turned his head and looked towards the sea to the northwest. In the distance, there were indeed thousands of sails stacked in the distance, and a huge fleet with ten thousand masts like a forest was pressing towards the Strait of Messina.The red mark on those white sails is the logo of the Apennine fleet.Who else could this be the fleet of his brother Mallor.He was suddenly excited and relieved, shouting and cheering.

And Feng Yu's dozens of warships cruising the strait saw that the situation was not good, and then fled towards the east exit of the strait.The enemy soldiers on the shore also slowed down their attack on the camp, and they began to mobilize many ballistas and soldiers that could be mobilized to the coast.Their unused cavalry also galloped along the coast.Evidently they were very much afraid of a sudden landing of Mallor's fleet, copying their rear.

However, Mallor's fleet had no intention of landing, and these ships approached the shore directly on the side of the Thomas Legion's camp that was close to the coast.Because Thomas only set up a very small ferry terminal here.So most ships cast anchor far from the shore.Only a few ships docked on that small pier.

From a long distance, Thomas saw a familiar figure jumping from the deck of the ship to the pier three or two times. It was Mallore.He hurriedly went up to him and patted Mallor on the shoulder, saying: "Brother, you came in time. If you come later, my legion will definitely be lost here today, and I may never see you again in this life."

Without allowing Mallor to answer, he immediately said: "Now is the best time for us to defeat Feng Hu. Hurry up and lead people to land behind them. We will attack them back and forth, and we will definitely defeat them in one fell swoop. That way We might take all of Sicily!"

Mallor spread his hands and said, "Brother, it's not as easy as you said. Feng Hu has tens of thousands of troops in Sicily, and the ones who came to attack you may only be seven to eight thousand of them. Besides, I came here on a special trip to When you withdrew from Sicily, you didn’t bring many soldiers, let alone land infantry. How do you land and fight? Don’t hesitate, let’s take advantage of the opponent’s delay in attacking and let the troops board the ship to evacuate. Otherwise, it will be too late .”

As soon as Thomas heard this, he immediately ordered the soldiers to order all the ministries to board the ship and evacuate.

In the distance, Simmons, who was in charge of commanding the battle in Feng Yu's army, saw a large number of enemy soldiers wading on the beach and boarding the ship.Before the fires in the gaps in the walls of the camps were extinguished, he ordered a new round of attack.But in order to prevent the enemy fleet from landing and raiding from behind, he had to leave half of his troops and all ballistas to defend the flank on the coast.

When the soldiers of Feng Yujun pushed away the still burning fire with the scull and shield cart against the heat wave, the javelins in Thomas' army were thrown out one after another.At this time, they no longer considered saving javelins, but only wished to throw all the javelins at once.

These dense javelins flew over the shield wall formed by Feng Yujun's scull shield vehicles in a high-angle parabola, then turned around at the highest point, and finally hit the attacking Feng Yujun army like a torrential rain of these javelins.Feng Yujun's soldiers had raised the large shields they carried over their heads, but most of the shields were still pierced by these javelins.Although some were stuck on the shields, the spear heads passing through the shields still pierced the arms of the soldiers holding the shields, and some simply passed through the shields and pierced the corpses of Feng Yujun's soldiers.There was a sudden scream in the army formation.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of stone bullets were ejected from Thomas's barracks, and shot towards Feng Yujun's oar shield wall.With a few muffled bangs.The scull shields on more than a dozen scull shield vehicles were pierced and shattered by stone bullets.These are Thomas's last few dozen catapults that have not been destroyed and the only surviving stone bullets.The power of the stone bullet piercing through the oar shield remained undiminished, and it flew more than a dozen battles away among the crowd of Feng Yujun's army, killing many people in succession before falling to the ground.

A large number of casualties caused Feng Yujun's attack momentum to falter, and the oar shield chariot was also scattered because the soldiers behind retreated one after another, making it impossible to move forward.The fire that was not pushed away in time ignited these scull shield vehicles as well, and these scull shield vehicles that were supposed to be Feng Yujun's barrier became their obstacle instead.

Simmons saw that this was not going to work, so he had to order the troops to withdraw and suspend the attack.After waiting for an hour, he attacked again.Mallore's fleet had left the coast in large numbers, and it was obvious that Thomas' main force should have withdrawn to the sea.Sure enough, Simmons's attack seemed to go very smoothly this time, and he broke into Thomas' camp without encountering too much resistance.It's just that except for a small number of enemy troops who resisted in the rear, there is nothing left here.

On the flagship deck of Mallor on the sea, Thomas looked at his barracks engulfed by the raging fire, and said through gritted teeth: "Feng Hu, just wait, this debt will be settled with you sooner or later!"

After finishing speaking, he suddenly noticed that something was wrong—the ship did not head toward the Apennine Peninsula in the northeast but headed west.Hastily said to Mallor: "How can we go west, aren't we going to the Apennine Peninsula to get rid of Alexander?"

Mallor sneered and said, "Think about it with your brain, aren't you going to the Apennine Peninsula to die? When you were asked to go to the Apennines, it was a bet that Feng Hu would remain neutral. Because we analyzed that this person came to Rome for ulterior motives." On the surface, he seems to be loyal to Alexander, but he will not help Alexander at the critical moment. It’s just that our judgment is obviously wrong. Now you have to land in Apennines, that is, there is a lone army that is intercepted before and followed by pursuers. I can't even save you. Besides, many people are against Alexander now, and those who oppose Alexander are not necessarily friends with each other, so don't do the thing of pulling your own stake and letting others steal your donkey."

Chapter 1113 Very Fast

On the southwestern outskirts of Rome, thousands of Guards soldiers lined up on both sides of the road.And the road was close to the city gate, and Alexander in costume was waiting there with many officials.Three days ago, he knew that Feng Yujun had driven the Thomas Army entrenched in Messina into the sea seven days ago. If Mallor hadn't come to rescue them, the Thomas Army would have been wiped out.

And then just last night, he had to learn that Feng Yujun had crossed the Strait of Messina and was heading towards Rome, and it was expected to arrive this morning.Hearing this news, Alexander was taken aback.

There is a distance of nearly a thousand miles from the coast of the Apennine Peninsula in the Strait of Messina to the city of Rome. Even at the fastest marching speed recorded by the Roman Legion, it would take at least nine days and ten days to arrive.This is the limit of the marching speed of the Roman legion, which is dominated by infantry.And Feng Yujun first crossed the Strait of Messina seven days ago.Neither Alexander nor his generals and officials believed that Feng Yujun could go so fast, and all speculated that Feng Yujun had miscalculated the time.

But as the news came one after another, by the evening, Feng Yujun who came to support Rome was less than a hundred miles away from the city of Rome.Only then did Alexander and his subordinates believe in Feng Yujun's marching speed, and only then did he decide to go out of the city the next day to meet this army that sent charcoal in the snow.

When Alexander and the others stretched their necks to look around, a messenger galloped over: "Report, the Sicilian Legion is approaching the city of Rome, less than five miles away."

In fact, Alexander and others didn't come to report, but they also saw billowing dust rising in the distance.One of them said in amazement: "It's raising so much dust. Could it be that they are all cavalry? It's no wonder..." Before he finished speaking, another person interrupted: "How is it possible, that small island of Sicily can't support many people?" Cavalry. In addition, if it is cavalry, we can already hear the sound of rumbling horseshoes at this distance."

Soon, they saw a group of people's banners, looming and moving quickly in the floating dust.That speed is obviously beyond the reach of normal walking on foot.There were voices of debate again among the crowd waiting to be greeted.

"Look, I'm just talking about cavalry. How can normal infantry walk so fast?"

"You have never seen what a large group of cavalry looks like. With such a short distance and so many horses, the sound of horseshoes has long been rolling like thunder."

"What? I haven't led the cavalry before? When I led the cavalry, you were still wearing crotch pants. Let me tell you, the reason why there is no sound must be that the horseshoes of the battle cavalry in Feng Hu's army have tampered with, such as wrapping something soft things to silence the sound."

"Then he is full, and it's not a sneak attack. Ordinary marching also needs to wrap the horse's hoof?"

Soon, these voices disappeared without a trace, because everyone was surprised to find that the Feng Yujun who came was indeed "cavalry", but the riders were not horses, but a huge bird.Most of them know this kind of bird. It is an ostrich produced in the southern region of the African Desert. After all, that region is not far from the mainland of Rome, and it is said that it is separated by a large desert.

Someone began to recover from the astonishment and sighed: "My God, Feng Hu trained an ostrich as a riding tool. How many weird things can he make? He is almost as good as Archimedes." Another person He said disdainfully: "Those rare gadgets made by Archimedes are all legends, and no one has really seen them."

When Biao Feng Yu's army found the formation lined up to welcome them, and learned that it was Alexander who greeted them, they immediately slowed down, lined up, and drove along the road neatly.

Douglas was leading the team. When he saw Alexander, he jumped off his mount from a distance, trotted to Alexander, and raised his hand respectfully: "Douglas, the commander of the Second Army of the Sicilian Army The administrator Feng Hu ordered to come to reinforce the city of Rome, assist His Majesty the Emperor in defending Rome, and put down the rebellion in the Apennine Peninsula."

Seeing that it wasn't Feng Yu who came in person, Alexander was a little disappointed, but he still jumped off his mount and gave Douglas a military salute specially for heads of state.Then he straight to the point asked a series of questions: "Why didn't Feng Hu personally lead the troops here? How many soldiers and horses did you bring for reinforcements?"

"Return to Your Majesty. Governor Feng Hu believes that Sicily is located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea and guards the southern tip of Apennine Island. The location is very important. At present, many rebel forces have sea routes connected to Sicily, so it is easy to attack by sea. Once Sicily The island is lost. In addition to the entire Apennine Peninsula’s sea routes leading to the outside world being threatened by the island, the rear of the city of Rome—the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula will also be threatened. Therefore, the governor is safe, and he will personally guard Sicily. The troops I brought this time, in addition to these infantry riding ostriches, including cavalry, chariots, and chariots equipped with baggage carriages, there are a total of nearly 5000 people."

Alexander, who was curious about asking about ostriches, frowned slightly when he heard that only less than five thousand soldiers and horses had arrived, "Only less than five thousand..."

Douglas quickly explained: "Your Majesty. The Governor specifically asked me to explain to Your Majesty that it was not that he was unwilling to send more troops. It was just that in order to quickly reinforce Rome, the Governor used all the domesticated man-carrying ostriches on Sicily. But these ostriches There are only about three thousand, so I can only bring so many soldiers and horses.

However, the nearly 5000 soldiers and horses are all well-equipped veterans.Most of the soldiers were the group of people brought by Governor Feng Hu from the old Milan camp, and they were all equipped with Yishui's Liang Guo weapons and equipment.In addition to the individual ballistas and ostriches, there are also longbowmen and longbow chariots with a range of up to a hundred battles and arrows that can penetrate heavy armor.Cavalry is also a heavily armored cavalry with people and horses all over the body.So although we have less than [-] people, our combat power can exceed the comprehensive combat power of a large field army. "

His words immediately caused dissatisfaction among some people, especially those generals in the Guards.Someone already said disdainfully: "It means that if your mere [-] people fight against the [-] soldiers and horses of our entire guard army, you can also beat us to the ground? This is too exaggerated. We chat every day You can brag in Kanzhong. But what time is it now?"

Only then did Douglas realize that he had said something unpleasant, and quickly explained: "I am only comparing with the ordinary legion in Rome, and I definitely don't mean to compare it with the Guards. Besides, the Guards are also elite legions, and they can be It’s not an ordinary field army!”

Douglas's explanation just calmed down those unhappy Guards generals.At this moment, from behind Alexander and the others, a horse galloped out of the city gate and came galloping...

Chapter 1114 Military Order

When Alexander saw clearly that the person who came was a messenger from the Guards Corps, he couldn't help but thump in his heart.He knew that at this time, it must be extremely urgent news for the soldiers to come here to report the news instead of staying in the mansion and waiting for him to return.

Sure enough, the commanding soldier said: "Your Majesty, there is an urgent report from our forward scouts. The rebels in the Gaul province in the south of Shannan dispatched about [-] soldiers and horses, and began to advance south. At the moment, they should be passing through the central Apennines. Hilly terrain."

Before Alexander could speak, Quintus on the side said confidently, "They didn't come to attack Rome, they just came to seize Florence, the pass in the central Apennines."

Alexander asked back: "Why are you so sure of their purpose?"

Quintus said: "They only have more than 2 soldiers and horses. In the plains in the southwest of the mountains, only Perugia has a [-]-strong rebel army stationed here. Together, they only have [-] soldiers and horses. Breaking through the city of Rome, which is guarded by [-] elite guards and has a strong city wall, is tantamount to daydream! No, it is not a daydream, but moths to the flame. In addition, the governor of Shannan is only self-reliant, not Supporting another Roman emperor, he didn't even dare to establish a country and become a king himself. So there is no reason for him to come and capture the city of Rome. They came only to..."

Speaking of this, Quintus found that he could not speak clearly by himself, so he whispered a few words to Wei Wei beside him.The guard then unfolded a map on the lawn beside the road.Not only Alexander, but everyone including Douglas poked their heads over.Quintus pointed to the map and continued:

"The entire Apennine Peninsula is roughly divided into two plains by the Central Apennine Mountains from northwest to southwest. If their army wants to attack Rome, or if our army wants to attack Gaul in the south of the mountain, they must cross the Central Apennine Mountains. And this Among them, the most convenient passage is the road connecting Florence and Bologna. This road almost passes through the bottom of a certain valley, which is flat and wide. Therefore, they occupy Florence. On the one hand, they can effectively prevent our army from attacking Shannan Gaul. The other side can attack the city of Rome when the time is right in the future."

Someone immediately shouted: "Then what are we waiting for, hurry up and send troops to occupy Florence first, and then attack the incoming enemy head-on."

Alexander snorted coldly: "It's not that easy. Don't forget that there are about [-] rebels in Perugia, which is less than [-] miles away from Florence. Once we send troops to Florence, they have many options, such as attacking us from behind. Send troops to Florence, or directly take advantage of the vacancy to attack Rome."

Quintus took over the conversation and said, "I have a plan. Our Guards Grand Army will use two legions and an auxiliary auxiliary legion to go to Florence to face the enemy. Isn't General Douglas's 4000-odd troops more powerful than a large legion?" , you can go to the vicinity of Perugia to monitor the rebels there. Once they make a move and leave their camp, they will immediately intercept them and force them to retreat to Perugia. After we repel the Florentine army, we will Come and join General Douglas, and together we will wipe out the rebels in Perugia. We have only one auxiliary army left. Let them stay in Rome, in case of accidents."

After that, he turned his attention to Douglas, and asked with a smile: "General Douglas, do you think this plan is feasible? If you think that there are insufficient troops, we will send you another auxiliary corps from the reinforcements in Florence."

Everyone, like Quintus, looked at Douglas together.They were all waiting to see Douglas's jokes. They still didn't believe that Douglas could really stop the large army of more than 4000 people in Perugia with more than 2 soldiers and horses, including the auxiliary corps.

Douglas said: "This plan is good, but it would be better if it is slightly modified..." When everyone heard this, they thought Douglas was asking him to deploy troops, but he pointed to the map on the grass and said:

"Why don't we arrive at Perugia, if the enemy retreats from the camp, follow the plan of His Excellency Quintus. If they leave the camp, then our department will completely defeat the rebel army. Then our department Then attack Bologna as quickly as possible from the mountain pass in the central mountain range, cutting off the rear route of the rebels attacking Florence. Annihilate them all!"

Everyone heard a voice of doubt, and Alexander shook his head again and again in doubt and said: "Douglas, you want to use more than 4000 troops and [-] troops?"

Douglas vowed, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, as long as they leave the camp, our department will be able to defeat them in a short time. Then we will take a detour from the mountain road in the northwest of Perugia to Bologna, and then return to Gaul in the south of the mountain. the enemy's rear."

Quintus took over the words again: "Perugia's rebels will definitely leave camp, I can guarantee this. But according to your plan, we will deliberately delay the time to repel the enemy in Florence to buy time for you. If You're going to ruin the whole plan if you don't do what you say..."

Douglas immediately understood what Quintus meant, and he said solemnly: "Your Majesty, and Your Excellency Quintus, don't worry. I can issue a military order. If I can't complete what I said, I am willing to execute according to military law. And, You don't need to deliberately delay much time in Florence, my troops ride ostriches and have a very fast marching speed."

Then Douglas introduced the concept of "military order" from Team Liang to the doubtful crowd.

After listening, Alexander said: "If I can really see your plan, it will make my goal of stabilizing the entire Apennine Peninsula at least half a year earlier. The Perugia rebels only have one base in Perugia. Once they are defeated, It is impossible to gather together again. I am afraid that most of the troops of Shannan Gaul participated in the attack on Florence. Once they are wiped out, they will fall into a situation where there are no soldiers available. We can go straight to Turin, its capital , and then occupy the entire territory of Shannan Gaul. In this way, there will be no trace of rebels in the entire Apennine Peninsula. We can rely on the northern Alps and the oceans on three sides, and of course Sicily, which is our southern barrier, to firmly defend against all possible attacks Rebels. In this environment, we can rest in peace and recuperate for a while, and reunify the whole of Rome after growing our military power."

Speaking of this, Alexander looked at Douglas again and said meaningfully: "And the key to all this lies with you, General Douglas!"

Douglas still said calmly but confidently: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, if I can't do it, I will let my head come to meet Your Majesty."

Chapter 1115 The Expected Encounter

More than [-] miles northeast of Rome, some slave farmers were busy in the farmland for their manor owner.However, they are basically half-workers who don't work hard, and they seem to be busy but chatting in low voices.

Most of the overseers who carried the whips turned a blind eye, because their manor owners who lived in Rome had not been in touch with the manor for a long time.However, the news of the turmoil in the city of Rome has already reached this place, so they are not sure who the current manor belongs to.

Suddenly these people who were busy in the field heard a strange rustling sound.They looked up and found a scene that shocked them.Thousands of fully armed Roman soldiers rode a big bird with a back height of five feet, galloping along the avenue Like rushing across the road.

Most of the slaves who had never been out of the Apennines or even the manor didn't know this thing.But a black Linong from the southern part of the African desert exclaimed: "Ostrich, this is an ostrich. I saw it when I was a child. Seeing it reminds me of my hometown full of prairie..." The overseer murmured, "Look at this, the throne of the Roman emperor is still Alexander's. I wonder if our master is on the right side in this turmoil in Rome?"

……

Nearly a hundred miles to the northeast of the city of Rome, in a huge military camp next to the small city of Perugia, there are also large-scale troops pouring out of the military camp, heading for Florence in the northwest direction.

The large army of Perugia originally belonged to the faction represented by the chief elder Gaius.But the faction of Gaius is different from other forces, and the distribution is relatively scattered.In addition to the legion of Perugia, the province of Mauritta in North Africa and the province of Far Spain across the sea from Mauritia also belong to the sphere of influence of this faction.Now Gaius has fled to far Spain, which is far away from this place, separated by thousands of miles by sea and hundreds of miles by land.So Perugia's large army has become a lone army that can only ask for more blessings.

The scope of its control is the small and medium-sized towns and manors within a radius of [-] miles from Perugia.It is difficult to support [-] troops in such a large area, and it is only a hundred miles away from the city of Rome, and it is surrounded by plains, so there is no danger to defend.

The chief general of the Perugia Grand Army also knew that this was not a place to stay for a long time, but he couldn't find a good place to go.When he was in a panic, the news reached him that the rebels in the province of Southern Gaul had occupied the northern plain of the central mountain range and were heading south along the valley between Bologna and Florence.

He immediately decided to drive the army to the vicinity of Florence.No matter what the purpose of the Shannan Gaul army going south, he has reason to do so.If the opponent wants to attack the city of Rome, then he will assist the opponent to capture Florence, and join forces with the opponent to attack the city of Rome.If the opponent is only defending Alexander in order to occupy Florence, an important strategic location, then he can also reopen a base in a place adjacent to Florence.This also gives myself a way of retreat. In case of a critical moment in the future, I can also retreat along the valley to the north of the central mountain range and even go to Gaul in the south of the mountain.

It's just that the general left the barracks with a mighty army of [-], and after traveling for more than [-] miles, the scouts in front of the road had returned to Ma and reported: "Report, a small group of enemy cavalry was found [-] miles ahead. ! There are about ten or so riders!"

The general didn't care, he thought it was just that the scouts encountered a light cavalry patrol from a nearby security regiment.He said casually: "Take a cavalry squad from the First Legion and kill them! The army continues to move forward, don't be disturbed by this trivial matter."

But not long after, another commanding soldier with a bloody face came to report: "Report! A large number of enemy troops appeared in front of us. Our cavalry squad was attacked by a large group of cavalry from the opponent, and the entire army was almost wiped out."

The general's heart skipped a beat, and he asked anxiously, "How many troops have they come? Is it the security army or the regular army?"

The messenger wiped the blood and sweat from his face and said, "General, I don't know the exact number of troops. But when the opponent's cavalry surrounded us, they sent out countless banners and billowing dust. Look at their The war horses, equipment and weapons cannot be the security forces. Their war cavalry, men and horses are all wearing excellent chain mail! I was able to break through the interception and report the news only after my brothers rushed desperately. "

The chief general secretly said that this is impossible. In the entire Apennine Peninsula, except for the regular field army loyal to Alexander, there is only the Guard Army.But now the guards in the city of Rome should go to Florence to intercept the army from Gaul in the south of the mountain, so how could they still have the mind to beat themselves.In addition, even if they guessed that I would go to Florence to threaten their rear and send troops to intercept them.It's impossible to be so fast.