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Chapter 1122

After listening to Crotocatax's words, the Asistes was silent for a while. His expression relaxed a little, but he still said worriedly, "I still have to report to His Majesty about the current state of the allied forces. I hope he can send reinforcements as soon as possible."

… …

Patroclus wanted to make sufficient preparations while obtaining more information about the Gauls, waiting for the best opportunity to appear.

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

The territory of Aretium was not bordered by the Gauls, but by the Umbrians. It had been peaceful until two years ago, when it began to be disturbed by the Gauls. According to their understanding, the northern part of the Umbrians had also begun to be invaded by the Gauls. Some Gaulish tribes had fled through the border area of Umbria and plundered the territory of Aretium. After all, Aretium was much wealthier than the Umbrians.

Originally, the Ministry of Military Affairs of Diónia did not intend to build a military camp in this area because the Gauls were not rampant there. However, Aretium was one of the twelve Etrurian city-states, and it was also the central town of the eastern region of the Etrurian Federation. Under the active activities of the people of Aretium (who took the initiative to give a lot of land to Diónia), the Ministry of Military Affairs of Diónia finally decided to build a military camp not far northwest of the territory of Aretium.

Of course, this was not completely convinced by the people of Aretium. After careful consideration, the Devers believed that they could use the opportunity of defending against the Gauls to obtain the land here, thereby strengthening ties and friendship with the Umbrians in the east. This would be beneficial to the Kingdom of Diónia.

In fact, for more than a year, the border troops of Diónia stationed here had cooperated with the Umbrians many times to repel the Gauls who came to attack them, winning the favor of the Umbrians. But they never expected that the Gauls would send a large army through Umbria from the southernmost part of their territory and raid Aretium in the rear.

Although the Diónia barracks urgently sent messengers to inform the people of Aretium, due to the long-term protection of the Diónia barracks, they had not been attacked by the Gauls for more than a year. The previous attack by the Gauls on the northern city of Etruria did not raise the vigilance of the people of Aretium. Therefore, they faced an unexpected surprise attack by the Gauls. However, the performance of the people of Aretium was even worse than that of Florentia. The city quickly fell, and no one in the city escaped.

After the fall of Aretium, the Gallic army took advantage of the situation and attacked south. They surrounded Curtun and Clevsin, and the vanguard went straight to Velzna. They were not far from the northernmost towns of the Kingdom of Diónia, Casrella and Veille.

The people of Rome began to panic.

Naturally, Patroclus could no longer remain indifferent. He quickly gathered more than 50,000 soldiers of the coalition army, crossed the Bridge of Rome, and arrived at Veille that night.

On the next day, a messenger from Turií had arrived in Rome. The Asistes received an order signed by the King of Devers: the governor of Rome, the Asistes, was requested to inform the various alliances as soon as possible to send troops according to the alliance agreement. They were to gather in Rome and form a coalition army. Patroclus, the commander of the Fourteenth Legion, would be the commander-in-chief to lead the coalition army against the invasion of the Gauls. Under the condition of ensuring the safety of the Kingdom's territory, they would do their best to help the Etrurians. As the situation of the enemy was unclear, the Ministry of Military Affairs did not give specific instructions. It was up to Patroclus to make his own decisions according to the changes in the enemy's situation. Moreover, the Ministry of Military Affairs had informed the Twelfth Legion in the eastern region of Campania (the barracks were in Abella) to rush to Rome on the same day and be under the command of Patroclus. At the same time, they also asked the Asistes to provide logistical support for the coalition army and to report any changes in the war situation to the palace.

The Asistes finished reading the letter with mixed feelings. He passed the order back to the messenger and said in a low voice, "Please tell His Majesty that I will carry out his orders! Lord Patroclus has already led the army north. If you set off now, you should be able to see him in Veille. "

Upon hearing this, the messenger bade farewell to the Asistes and immediately rode north. By the time he reached Veille, Patroclus had already set off with his army.

The northern coalition army of Diónia reached Novi (a small Etrurian city) at dusk. It was less than 20 miles away from Volsena. The Gauls who were besieging Volsena were shocked by the sudden appearance of the enemy's reinforcements. They quickly retreated and sent scouts to investigate. The scouts reported back, "The enemy has many reinforcements. They have built countless tents."

The vanguard of the Gallic army was smaller in number. Seeing the enemy's numbers, they did not dare to attack blindly. Instead, they retreated north.

The next day, the people of Volsena who learned that the reinforcements had arrived and the threat had been lifted brought a large number of military supplies to Novi. They expressed their gratitude to the coalition army and invited them to set up camp near Volsena.

After Patroclus studied the surrounding terrain, he firmly refused and ordered the army to build a camp near Novi.

A day later, the Gaulish army reappeared in Volsena's territory. On the second day, their numbers increased to more than 30,000 and they once again surrounded the city.

The southern part of the Diónia coalition army did not make any moves. Instead, the Gaulish army took the initiative to attack the Diónia coalition camp.

Although the camp was not completely built, Patroclus was calm and composed. The coalition army had the advantage of defense and they outnumbered the enemy. Therefore, even though the Gaulish warriors fought valiantly, they were still defeated by dusk. This gave the Diónia coalition army, especially the allied ones, a little more confidence.

Although the Diónia coalition army had won a small victory, they quietly retreated the next morning, leaving behind only an empty camp that they had painstakingly built.

After confirming that the enemy had retreated, the Gauls began to think that the enemy had won the previous day by a fluke. In fact, they were so frightened by their attack that they gave up on sending reinforcements to Volsena.

A few days later, the Gauls assumed that they were going to storm Volsena, but their scouts did not find any traces of Diónia's reinforcements in the vicinity.

Gradually, the Gauls became more certain of their previous thoughts. The Dionysian Army seemed to be large in number, but they were timid and had probably gone into hiding in Rome.

Therefore, they began to boldly attack Volsena with all their might.

The attack lasted for a few days, and the city was on the verge of collapse. The people of Volsena cursed the Diónia who did not keep their word and prayed to the gods for protection.

Perhaps their prayers were answered. In the early hours of the fifth day, the Diónia coalition army that had disappeared suddenly reappeared and quickly approached the Gauls' camp.

At this time, most of the Gauls were too tired from the continuous attacks and were sleeping soundly in their tents. When they learned that the Diónia coalition army had suddenly attacked, the camp was in chaos.

Patroclus used 20 ballistae to blast open the wooden fence that the Gauls had set up for the simple camp. The Diónia coalition army, with the heavy infantry of the 14th and 12th Legions (who had just arrived from Campania) as the main attacking force, quickly crossed the narrow trench and began a fierce battle with the Gauls inside the camp.

Even though the Gauls fought valiantly and the greatswords in their hands were quite threatening, their formation was disorganized and disorganized. They were not much of a threat to the heavily armored Dionysian army, who covered each other and cooperated well.

On the contrary, the main force of the Diónia coalition army was like an iron wall, slowly pushing forward. While they continued to kill and injure the Gauls, they also put a lot of psychological pressure on them.

In addition, the Diónia coalition army's strength was almost twice that of the Gauls, but Patroclus did not send the coalition army in at the beginning. Instead, he waited for the two legions and the reserve soldiers to attract the Gauls from the front, then ordered the coalition soldiers to break in from both sides of the camp and attack the Gauls.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Diónia coalition army had almost surrounded the Gauls in the camp. The Gauls had no choice but to turn and flee, desperately fighting their way out.

Patroclus immediately ordered the coalition cavalry, light infantry, and light armored soldiers who had been resting to give chase at full force.

The coalition army gave chase and only retreated when it was dark. They killed, wounded, and captured countless Gauls.

On the second day, the people of Volsena were wild with joy when they learned that the Gauls had been defeated. They immediately threw their resentment towards the Diónia to the back of their minds and once again brought a large number of military supplies to the coalition army's camp. Unexpectedly, Patroclus had already left with his army.

The defeated Gauls split into two groups. Some fled northeast to Aretium, while the others fled northwest.

Patroclus sent out 10,000 reserve soldiers to pursue the Gauls who fled to Aretium, while he personally led nearly 50,000 coalition soldiers to advance northwest.

During the time he was stationed at Lowi's camp, other than fortifying the camp, Patroclus also sent out scouts and cavalry to investigate the Gauls' activities throughout Etruria.

Therefore, after defeating the Volsena Gallic army, Patroclus immediately led the main force straight to the territory of Fauferuna, where the main force of the Gauls was entrenched.

Fauferuna was the wealthiest city in northwest Etruria, so it became the main target of the Gauls when they entered the country. However, the people of Fauferuna had learned of their tragic fate from the people of Florentia. They had learned their lesson and closed the city gates early and strengthened their defenses. Moreover, the city of Fauferuna had a special location. It was built on a promontory and was only connected to the land by a narrow isthmus.