Chapter 334 The Final Battle to Recapture Ludugu Gaul (Part 2)
Luca did not rush the army forward, but took Andrew with him to scout at the forefront of the army.
Obviously, such a huge project attracted Luca's attention, and he wanted to find out. Now he was one thousand meters away from the defense line of the Bagauda rebels, and he was in a position far enough that he didn't need to worry about them discovering him from such a long distance.
"It seems that they are also serious about this last city." Lujia looked at the long temporary wooden wall and then said: "They are using this defense line mainly to consume us outside the city. I think they are fighting a desperate battle."
Although this is a line of defense, the entire line of defense is nothing more than a huge fence made of wood lined up side by side, and then fixed with stones underneath. I don't know whether such a line of defense can be considered solid, or whether these people just want to use this to block the Roman attack.
"Let's go." Lu Jia looked for a while, and when he felt that he could not find any useful clues, he shook his head and said, "Then let's just stop here. Anyway, we can't see anything clearly from such a distance."
Andrew had no objection to Luca's proposal. The two of them returned to the legion's camp under the escort of the guards. There was a large open space between the two sides, which was full of tree stumps. The walls of the defense line were made of felled trees. There was a simple watchtower every fifty meters, and soldiers on it were constantly looking at the nearly one thousand meter open space in front of them. The tree stumps could slow down the army's attack speed, so even if they ran to them for such a long time, they were almost ready. A forced march of one thousand meters was really a big burden for heavily armored soldiers. They would be exhausted when they arrived, and the enemy who was ready would naturally hit the vanguard soldiers head-on.
Luga was unwilling to see the soldiers suffer huge casualties without doing anything. After all, judging from the situation, it would be extremely difficult to break through the first line of defense.
When they returned to the meeting tent in the military camp, they unexpectedly found Sebastianus, Alessio and Martinius who had come with them were discussing something while looking at a huge white cloth on the table.
"You're back just in time, Luca." Aresio saw Luca and Andrew coming in, he waved and called Luca over, and said to him: "Look, this is the deployment map of the enemy's defense line prepared for us by our insider in the rebels."
"Defense line deployment map?"
Just when Luca was at a loss, Alessio actually said something that even Luca had not expected. He hurried forward to watch with everyone.
Sure enough, the white cloth clearly showed the rebels' detailed defense line locations and deployments.
"They took advantage of the city's high geographical location and formed a semicircle facing us, or maybe we arrived too suddenly and their project was hastily put to use before it was completed." Aresio said to Luca while drawing the defense line marked on the map.
"Then we can take advantage of the night to bypass the front of the defense line and attack from the undefended back side, which will make their painstakingly built defense line useless," said Martinius, pointing to the back of the city.
"No, they must have a purpose for doing this." Alessio continued: "The west of Durotorcoram is close to the Gothic territory. If we let the Goths know that we are fighting on the border of their territory, they will have a sufficient excuse to attack us from behind."
"Although the Goths are likely to do so," Sebastianus said, "but it is unlikely that the Goths can gather a team that can attack us in such a short time. After all, if we do this, we must ensure that we can capture the city within a day. Perhaps we have succeeded before their scouts have conveyed the news to us?"
"But Sebastianus, don't forget!" Alessio didn't seem to be very willing to accept Sebastianus' proposal. He kept tapping the picture of Durocortolam on the table with his fingers and said, "Don't forget that there may be more than 20,000 rebels in this city, and the army we brought can barely reach 20,000."
"Yes!" Luca finally spoke at this time. He agreed with Aresio's statement and said, "Although they don't seem to be as well-equipped as us, using the advantages of bunkers and terrain will cause our fully armed soldiers to pay a heavy price in casualties. However, I still tend to bypass this line of defense, otherwise we will really pay a heavy price."
Since Luca has already agreed, Aresio has nothing to say. If he has something to say, he must come up with an opinion and propose a better way to bypass the defense line, otherwise he will not be able to convince everyone present.
"General, there is a Gothic messenger outside the door."
The messenger suddenly stood at the door and said this to Luca and the others in the tent, which surprised Luca. He hurriedly confirmed again: "What did you say? Is it the messenger of the Goths?"
The messenger didn't know why Luca was so sensitive about the Goths. Despite his surprise, he nodded and confirmed the news with Luca again. He then said, "The man is waiting outside the tent. He said that according to their king's order, he must hand it over to you personally."
"What's going on? Why are the Goths here? Do they also know that we are going to attack here?" Aresio also felt incredible.
"The Bagauda rebels must be afraid of being defeated by us, so they asked the Goths for help." Sebastianus said with a puzzled look on his face: "But then the question arises again, what is the intention of the Gothic King Theodoric to send a messenger to interfere with us? Could it be that they have gained absolute benefits from the rebels in this city?"
"I don't know." Lu Jia shook his head, then left the table and said, "The content of the letter sent by the messenger is exactly what they intended. I'll be back soon."
As he spoke, Luca walked out of the tent and saw a decently dressed Goth at the bottom of the stairs. He held a parchment letter tightly in both hands. When he saw Luca walking out with Andrew, he asked, "Are you the general of this Roman army?"
"Yes, it's me." Luga nodded, slowly walked down the steps and came in front of him.
The messenger handed the letter to Luca and said, "This is what our great king asked me to give you. It contains all the meanings our king wants to convey to you."
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When Luca took the letter, he saw the messenger bow slightly, then turn around and leave without looking back.
"What a barbarian!" Andrew couldn't help but curse inwardly behind Luca.
Luca opened the parchment letter directly and read it carefully.
"Well, what did Theoderic say?" Andrew asked from the side.
"He asked us to negotiate with them." Luca put away the letter, sighed, and said slowly with a serious expression, "It's just outside the city of Durocortorum."
(End of this chapter)