Chapter 450 Conflict and War

"You've softened your heart."

Andrew watched everything that happened carefully from a distance, so he asked him this when Luca came back.

"No!" Luca shook his head firmly, and then explained: "It must be God who took away my mind at this time, making me make such a decision that was not in line with my inner thoughts under irresistible circumstances."

"Ha, it seems that God is really kind and always provides help after the fact. What does this mean to our poor supplicant?" Andrew shook his head and followed Luca.

At noon, the troops of the Fourth Auxiliary Legion finally arrived. They could only clean and rebuild the fortress when they came here, and they could not leave. Luga was worried that the Vandals on the sea were unwilling to leave, especially Gaiseric, who had enough cards to compete with Luga. In the current situation, Luga was more worried about the Alans on land, who would definitely respond.

Being attacked from both sides was the scene that Luca was most reluctant to see, but it was also the scene that he had to face. He began to get nervous. After hastily finishing the arrangements here, he led the cavalry detachment back to New Carthage quickly.

News always spreads quickly, at least faster than Luca's return.

"The Vandals are coming! The Vandals are coming!" The news spread from one person to another, and the whole city of Carthage was in a panic, as if there was a plague. The usually spacious and deserted church was crowded with citizens, including nobles and commoners. It was always at such a critical moment that they thought of God, and thought of praying to him for mercy, hoping that he could show mercy to the believers in heaven, thinking that they had been atonement for their sins all their lives and should not die, at least they should not die, but they firmly believed that only God could save them.

It seemed that at that moment, the whole world changed, and everyone was wandering on the streets like zombies.

Luga and his group appeared in front of the city gate. The soldiers opened the gate, and the first people to come out were groups of refugees. They were ragged and crowded around Luga, loudly telling about their hardships and the unequal treatment they had received.

The guards at the city gate raised their sticks and shouted loudly, trying to disperse the "disgusting" refugees in front of them. Not only the guards at the city gate, but also the soldiers patrolling the streets joined in, trying their best to block the refugees on the side of the road and leave a path for Luca and his men to pass through.

"Save us! Sir, save us!" When passing through the city gate, citizens on the street would stop and shout at Luka from time to time. "We have not committed any faults, and we should not bear such punishment, Sir, save us!" Looking at them, Luka didn't know what to do, he just raised his head, simply ignored them and walked through quickly.

"Everyone is immersed in a drunken dream of confessing to God, and only we understand that the Vandals will never give up." Luca walked and looked at the citizens who thought they were pitiful. "Confessing to God will not bring salvation. It was impossible before and now. We must actively prepare for war. If possible, we should mobilize these citizens and refugees. We must have enough strength to fight against the Vandals and Alans in front of us."

When I returned to the Governor's Palace, I saw Fitanius pacing anxiously in the hall. He looked so flustered, and it seemed that he had not expected such a problem to occur before he left.

The Vandals disregarded their former alliance with the Romans and attacked Roman territory and fortresses and even massacred Roman civilians. This was no small matter. Fitanius was very worried about the serious consequences that such conflicts and frictions would bring to Rome and the Vandal-Alan alliance.

Luca's intention of landing in Iberia was very clear. His goal in New Carthage was to go west in order to open up a passage from Iberia to Numidia. In this process, he had to get rid of the biggest obstacle, the Alans.

In the eyes of Gaiseric, the king of the Vandal Alans, it was clear who was being targeted in terms of opening up the road to Numidia and getting rid of the Alans. As an envoy of the Purple Chamber, on one side was the captain of soldiers who maintained the Roman territory, and on the other side was the "ally" who provided taxes to Ravenna. No matter which side failed, it would be an irreparable loss, and the only way was to fall into an endless war. This was the biggest difficulty he was facing now, which gave him a headache, because he was ordered to come here to collect taxes from the provinces under Luca, but now there was a turnaround, and the Vandals showed up halfway, and the captain of soldiers Luca might use the war as an excuse to refuse to pay taxes, so no matter how hard he tried, he would not be able to complete his mission.

Logically speaking, this place is not far from the landing site of the Vandals, but half a day has passed and Luca has not come back. Could there really be a conflict? Nothing is known. At this time, Fitanius is like an ant on a hot pot, anxious and running around.

"Squeak!" There was a sound of the door being pushed open. Fitanius and the other members of the delegation turned around and saw Luca with a tired look on his face and an unpleasant smell of blood. Fitanius roughly guessed what had happened, but he still pretended to be confused, hoping that there might be a turnaround. That was hard to say, after all, it was still unclear what level of conflict this was.

"Mr. Luca! Mr. Luca!" Fetanius hurried over, came to Luca, and asked with wide eyes: "How is it going, Mr. Luca, how is it going?"

Looking at Fitanius's puzzled face, Luca smiled and shook his head, looking very helpless. Then Luca said, "I'm afraid your return trip will be interrupted."

"Why do you say that, Lord Luca?" Fetanius pursued relentlessly, but his heart skipped a beat. He could vaguely infer that things were not as simple as he naively imagined.

"There are Alans' marauding troops on land, and the sea is full of Vandal warships. I have to tell you this good news, Sir Fitanius. We are surrounded!"

Fitanius looked at Luca's serious face and knew that this was not a joke.

"Really, it's really so incredible?" Fetanius whispered, then raised his head and asked Luca: "So, sir, what are your plans?"

"This is what Gaiseric asked for!" Luca said, his face suddenly turned ugly. He clenched his fists, patted Fetanius on the shoulder, and said to him: "War, war!"

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Looking at Luca's back, Fitanius didn't know what Luca meant by war. He was thinking hard, and the courtier beside him asked him: "Sir, if the Vandals really fight with our captain, what should we do?"

"Mediate." Fetanius pursed his lips and said helplessly, "The landing of the Vandals is no longer a conflict. To be precise, it has reached the stage of war. So whether it will be war or peace is in the hands of Gaiseric and Luca. As long as one of them firmly chooses war, the war will continue until one of the two sides can no longer continue and kneels down to beg for peace."

"So what does Lord Luke mean?"

Fitanius was speechless for a long time. Finally, he whispered, "War!"

(End of this chapter)