Chapter 526: Conflict 2

Aetius, who had no idea about the situation in Italy, saw the autumn harvest season approaching a month after Litorius set out.

Due to the influence of the cold climate, the wheat harvest in Gaul and other places is not only small in quantity but also matures late. Therefore, maintaining regional livelihoods has become the primary problem that each region now faces.

"Flavius ​​Luca's current situation is much worse than ours." Looking at the slaves being harvested in the fields, Aetius thought secretly in his heart. This was also what he planned.

The people at the bottom of society suffer from hunger. The hungry people and the helpless rulers. Such a balance is like a stone pillar with cracks at the bottom. As the days of hunger increase day by day, such conflicts will become bigger and bigger, and the conflict between civilians and rulers will become more and more intense.

If you want to appease hundreds of thousands of hungry and angry civilians, you must have a military force that is strong enough to scare them.

Unfortunately, Luca had such power, but he had to face the angry people. This group of military forces made him unable to take care of himself, so as long as Littorio took down the Italian field army and dealt with the problem of being isolated, it would not only seriously damage Luca's vitality, but also allow him to have no troops to deploy to defend Greater Sicily and Iberia.

In this way, Aetius could openly declare Luca an enemy of Rome, defeat Luca just as he had defeated his previous opponents, and become the only captain of the Roman soldiers.

Inheriting the land conquered by Luca and becoming the preeminent force in Western Rome, Valentinian was just a puppet, and Aetius was willing to wait for his death.

"I have to admit that you are very smart, Flavius ​​Luca." Aetius, who led the army out of Ludinan, looked north with a face full of joking. "You must be in a dilemma about appeasing the civilians, but the subordinates who obey your orders in Rome will never have a carefree life!"

Because he had 15,000 men, Aetius was so confident. Everything was just like his past, like a script that had already been written. He followed the script step by step, and everything went so smoothly. Perhaps the most climax and thrilling moment was when he gathered the Italian army to attack the "traitors" who were resisting stubbornly.

The army moved south along the Via Agrippa, rested briefly in the town of Arelata, then moved south along the Via Julia Augustus, eventually leading to Rome. All roads lead to Rome, and a simple road system connected the various cities of Rome.

"The end of the road is Rome. How are Litorius and the others doing?" Aetius still didn't quite trust Litorius. It was not because of his disloyalty, but because it was still unknown whether he could impress the Praetorian Guards with his aristocratic rhetoric and well-educated speech.

He needed the strength of the Central Field Army, which was the basis of his strength. When he got here, he would extract a field regiment of soldiers from the garrisons of the towns he passed by and join the expeditionary army.

By the time he reached Genoa, his army had reached more than 25,000 people. The huge army slowed down Aetius's progress. However, the increase in numbers did not make Aetius more confident, but made him more nervous and uneasy.

"Littorius, please don't let anything go wrong!" Aetius prayed silently in his heart. This time, as they got closer to Rome, his heart trembled even more violently.

Finally, trembling, he led his army to Luna, which was an important junction. To the east was Florence, further east was Ravenna, to the south was Pisa and then Rome.

It was so close that Aetius wished his men could grow wings and descend on Rome at dawn the next day.

"Littorio, don't waste time, you must wait for me in Rome!" As he thought about it, he clenched the hilt of the sword, his heart was filled with mixed feelings, twisted into a ball.

As they approached Luna, they saw that the gates of Luna City were closed, and the soldiers on guard drew their swords and stood ready. This was not a welcome, at least they should open the gates and stand on both sides of the road in front of the soldier commander, and bow their heads and tremble in fear when facing the soldier commander's carriage.

But look at his subordinates. The soldiers who should have obeyed his orders turned their weapons against him. This would be intolerable for any general.

There were barely a few hundred guards on the city wall, while he had more than 25,000 people behind him. Such a huge army was naturally his confidence, and he dared to fight against a rock with an egg.

"Well, even if it's just an event leading to Rome, it can be considered as a gift to the rebels defending Rome. Let them see what happens to my army when faced with those who betray Rome!"

With this in mind, Aetius waved his hand violently, and the guard officer beside him immediately turned around and shouted to the army behind him: "Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle!"

Twenty thousand soldiers immediately moved at the sound of rumbling trumpets. They took an offensive posture. Without siege weapons, they could only launch catapults and scorpion crossbows and aim them at the impossible to shake city walls. This was also a scary posture. What could really make Aetius win was the inner fear of the soldiers defending the city.

“Squeak!”

As Aetius had expected, they opened the city gates, but what they welcomed was not the panicked nobles who came rushing to apologize, but teams of Roman soldiers. They were fully armed, their armor was extremely gorgeous, and their towering iron horns sparkled in the sunlight.

They advanced step by step, and the vanguard soldiers lined up outside the city holding huge square shields. Almost at the same time, the horn sounded crisply, "Boom!"

The shields smashed to the ground and formed a wall with countless "black ear" (Χρ) symbols painted on it.

The subsequent soldiers followed up and stood behind the "city wall". The second and third rows held spears, and the subsequent soldiers drew out their javelins and put them on their shoulders, ready for battle.

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Thousands of troops poured out of the city. The soldiers originally guarding the city walls retreated and were replaced by heavy armored soldiers wearing chain mail and scale armor. They held composite bows, put arrows on the strings, and pulled them in circles at Aetius.

This was not negotiation or surrender; they were clearly prepared for battle, and their target was Aetius and his army in front of them.

"My lord." Tereus came to Aetius' side, his brows furrowed, as if he couldn't understand such a move. No one knew why. "Their armor is very special. Ordinary soldiers would never have such weapons."

"Of course, Tereus, they are certainly not ordinary troops." Aetius gritted his teeth and continued to explain: "They are the Guards, the First Italian Legion, the real main force of the empire."

"What?" Tereus felt incredible. It turned out that the army that Aetius wanted to win over was this group of well-trained field troops in front of him. They were so well-trained that they were not used to fight against foreign enemies. As expected, they were the army defending the capital of the empire. A few thousand people showed the momentum of tens of thousands of people.

At this time, the "city wall" in front of the army was seen opening like a city gate, and a team of cavalry rode out slowly. The leading man was wearing a white toga, and beside him was a general wearing heavy armor and a bright red vertical horse harness on his head.

"No, it's impossible!" Seeing the man in white slowly approaching, Aetius widened his eyes and exclaimed.

(End of this chapter)