Chapter 590 Winter of Despair

Wars have never stopped since the Latins appeared and gained a foothold in the Apennines, sending men to graves and conquering women under their crotches. This is the process of Rome's transformation from a city-state to an empire.

It's just that hundreds of years of conquest finally began to be returned to the former conquered when the conflicts became most serious.

The two sides standing on the side of the "demolition team" and the "nail households" are, in any case, two sides that are fighting and cannot compromise. They have exchanged roles from invader to invaded, and are staging a bloody and cruel tug-of-war on the land once conquered by Rome.

Fortunately, God bless Rome, and this crumbling empire saw the emergence of two generals who could turn the tide: one was Luca, the Spear of the Empire, and the other was Aetius, the Shield of the Empire. One attacking and the other defending, they reversed the unimaginable pressure that the super legions of the Germanic tribes brought to Rome at that moment.

After the autumn, the benefits of the consolidation wars of previous years finally emerged. The Gaul region finally got a good harvest under relatively stable conditions. Under the dual pressure of the two Augustus, the nobles handed over a considerable amount of grain to cope with Attila's attack at any time. This also made up for the previous embarrassing situation of the empire's finances being unable to make ends meet.

Ludinum, the capital of the Ludugou Gaul province, was regarded as a base camp or even a forward post for dealing with Gaul issues since Aetius led his army to recapture it. He controlled Gaul when advancing and guarded the gap in the Alps when retreating, which was equivalent to firmly controlling the Gaul region and central Italy in his hands.

He was the captain of the corps in the Western Roman Empire and enjoyed great power in military dispatch. But even so, he still had to stay outside the city of Ludinum, leading his soldiers and waiting for the distinguished guests coming from afar on the southern road.

Not far away, I could see an endless army coming slowly towards here. They were fully equipped and I could tell from their attire that they were troops from Italy. They were now under the command of Luca, and they were heading north along the Agrippa Avenue and passing through Ludinum.

Here, Luca's army did not stop, but the chariot escorted by Luca's guards stopped in front of Aetius.

Compared to this guy who is full of legends, their status is now incomparable. As a subject, although Aetius can consider himself the captain of the soldiers of Western Rome and not obey the orders of Augustus of Eastern Rome, he still has to put himself in the right position.

"Caesar!" Aetius saluted slightly and gestured with a smile towards the carriage in front of him, which was not gorgeous but large enough.

"It's been a long time. To be exact, it's been several years since we last met, Lord Aetius."

After a while, the curtain of the car window slowly opened, and Luca poked his head out and glanced at Aetius and his subordinates behind him. When he saw Litorio, Luca couldn't help but smile and said, "It seems that Mr. Aetius is still a nostalgic and sentimental person."

"I don't understand, Caesar." Aetius looked puzzled.

Luca did not explain Aetius's question, but changed the subject and asked, "So, how are the preparations going?"

"The soldiers are training day and night and are ready to fight at any time."

"How many people have you prepared?"

"Twenty thousand people!"

"Twenty thousand people?"

Luga lowered the curtain, and at this moment bursts of sneers were heard in the carriage, which showed Luga's attitude at the moment.

"Sir Aetius, 20,000 people may not be enough."

I heard his voice before I saw him. Before the carriage window was opened, Luca's gloomy voice had already come out from the carriage, which sounded so meaningful.

"Your old friend will not be intimidated by 20,000 people, Master Aetius."

As soon as Luca finished speaking, the driver sitting in the front of the carriage pulled the reins and steered the carriage slowly forward, leaving Aetius and the others behind.

"Twenty thousand men are far from enough. What does this mean?" Tereus behind Aetius couldn't help but ask, "Can he form a legion comparable to Xerxes?"

"I don't know. Also, that's Caesar, not him." Aetius turned around and reminded.

Luca's army moved into Augusta-Treville, which was well connected to various cities south of the Rhine. Also, as one of the original capitals of Rome, it was in line with Luca's status at the time, so that people would not feel that Augustus' power was too cheap if he went to a small city.

Luga was constantly monitoring the area north of the Rhine, but the promised attack was delayed. All the outposts south of the Rhine had been on alert for more than three months, only to see an empty northern Rhine.

The reports that came back were always normal, which made everyone present very strange. After all, this was not like Attila's style. Since he had launched a sneak attack and had clearly informed the Romans of their existence, he was reluctant to attack.

There had already been a huge quarrel within the party over this matter. In the Senate, the elders even demanded that Aetius and his army be mobilized to the Alps to monitor the areas where Attila might appear.

But soon, when the first snow fell in winter, the border garrisons, wearing thick sheepskin coats to keep warm, sat by the campfire in the camp and chatted. In addition to watching the gradually freezing river and the dense woods on the other side from the sentry tower, the rest of their work was to deal with the patrols that could come at any time. The report was not simple: "I haven't seen those Hun bastards these days."

The heavy snow fell, giving the earth a silvery white color. Both the ground and the trees contrasted with the gloomy sky above, revealing a bit of heaviness.

It was time for another shift change. After seeing off the patrolling cavalry, the old centurion Hans returned to his camp by the river.

Here, several soldiers wrapped in thick fur coats were sitting in front of a campfire. They were roasting their iron helmets next to the flames. Strangely enough, when the weather got cold, the helmets couldn't stand it and even "ate" people's hair.

"This thing must have been frozen alive, otherwise it wouldn't be like this. Let's warm this old friend up, too. After all, no one can stand this weather."

"Hey, kid." Hans returned to the camp and saw a child sitting there warming his hands. The weather was really bad for the child, and his whole face was red from the cold.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Hans came over and mercilessly slapped the boy on the back of his head with his hand, and shouted at him: "God, you lazy guy, hurry up and hold off the barbarians on the other side of the river. If they come, none of us will be able to escape!"

“This is not my job,” the child protested, rubbing his head. “I’m still behind Baya.”

"I said you are you, you lazy bastard!" Hans didn't care about that. He was tough and fully exercised his limited power. "Get out of the way, you bastard. Now, go up and watch. You're taking my place."

The angry child seemed helpless. He could only mutter a few words and stand up. Before he looked up, he was slapped again. He had no choice but to swallow his anger and walk to the proposal, sticking out his tongue at Hans' back, and climbed up very reluctantly.

But halfway up the mountain, he suddenly stopped, standing there in a daze, as if he had seen something extraordinary.

"Oh, Hail Mary, what are you doing, you lazy wretch? Is the wood freezing you?" Hans turned around and saw that the child was motionless, and he was immediately furious.

“Someone, there is someone!”

The child stood on the ladder, pointing at the Rhine River in front of him, and spoke hesitantly.

"What?"

Hans stood up suddenly, walked over quickly and pulled the child down, then climbed up the watchtower himself. When he looked at the surface of the Rhine River again, he couldn't help but gasp.

Somehow, a large number of barbarians appeared on the bank of the forest on the other side of the river. They were riding in small boats and moving slowly towards here along the river which had not yet frozen.

"Barbarians! Barbarians!"

Hans immediately lost his previous spirit. He suddenly jumped down from the watchtower while muttering "barbarians" and told his remaining subordinates to escape.

God knows how many people crossed the river, but at least it was not a good sign.

(End of this chapter)