Chapter 595: The Enemy is at Hand

"What did he say?"

A scolding question suddenly woke old Hans up. He was frightened and his whole body was shaking. His heart seemed to slow down for half a beat because of the shock. One second was heaven, and the next second was hell. The huge contrast dispelled old Hans' fatigue. He raised his head and looked at the Roman officer who was interrogating him, his eyes full of pleading.

The officer who interrogated Hans kept pursuing him. Old Hans' lips turned pale, completely bloodless. He looked like a mummy. Not only that, his exposed skin, which looked like dry tree bark, was covered with frostbite.

Poor old guy, even though he looks so miserable, God might have been merciful to him when he passed by him. But God is not common, so he is still the same, or even worse.

The new interrogating officer is not God. He is more likely just a pragmatic and cold-blooded guy who believes in God.

The interrogator always ignored what happened to Old Hans. He just wanted to get some useful information from the dying Old Hans.

"Huns, Huns, Attila! Attila!"

Old Hans was so weak that he finally lowered his head heavily after muttering the name Attila twice.

The soldier next to him came over and lifted his chin to observe him carefully for a moment. After confirming it, he reported to the interrogating officer: "Sir, he has fainted."

"Damn it."

The interrogating officer cursed inwardly, slammed the pen in his hand heavily on the table, and then dried the words on the parchment scroll. Then he handed it to the soldier and said, "Quick, present this parchment scroll to Caesar!"

"Caesar, this is the interrogation record of the deserter."

Andrew held the still slightly warm parchment scroll in both hands, walked quickly over and respectfully placed it on Luca's desk. Luca quickly spread out the parchment scroll and read it quickly.

At this moment, on the table not far in front of him, the soldiers responsible for drawing the situation map planted the blue flags representing the barbarians on Agrippina and Motiniacen.

"No, no, no, change it now!"

While the soldiers were busy on the deduction board, Luga jumped up from his seat, walked over quickly, pushed down all the blue flags that had been placed, and said to the soldiers with complicated expressions: "Change to black flags!"

Upon hearing these words, everyone present was stunned.

"Are you sure? Caesar, this is not a trivial matter." Ankus asked Luca in a low voice.

"This is absolutely true. I am very sure of it, my friend." Luga pointed to the parchment scroll in his hand, which was the interrogation record of the deserter Hans. "Attila Attila Attila!" Luga repeated quickly, and then urged the soldiers to change to black flags and put them in the place of the original blue flags.

"The combined forces of the Hungarians have broken through the Rhine defense line. Agrippina's defense was left empty because of problems with its proactive attack at that time." Luca was silent for a moment when he said this. He raised his head and looked at Ancus's red and swollen eyes. The old man had not slept well since the deserter came to Augusta-Treville. This could be said to be a tragic defeat caused by Luca's command mistakes, but could it have been avoided? It seemed unavoidable.

"I am very sorry about your child, Duke Cattus, Your Excellency."

"No, Caesar, Catus made the right choice for the Purple Chamber and Rome." Even though he was saying this, Ankus was holding back his tears. I'm sure Luca could also feel the grief that this old father showed when he learned that his child could not escape. "Please continue, Caesar, I can't disturb you here." Ankus said and walked out of the meeting room quickly. I'm afraid he needed to calm down at this time.

"Everyone, stand closer together." Luca quickly adjusted his state, called on all the officers present to gather together, and then said: "Now it can be proved that the Franks, the Alemanni who attacked Motyniac, and the Autogoths who tore through the long defense line from Agrippina to Motyniac are all Attila's vassal armies. Now they have completely occupied the Rhine defense line during the cold winter. Then, Strasbourg and Augusta-Treville where we are are completely exposed to Attila's spear."

"But now they have not made any moves since they took control of the Rhine Line. Are they waiting until the winter is over?"

"It is very likely that the snow at this time is our last barrier against Attila."

"Being able to launch attacks in three areas at the same time despite the severe cold shows the strong combat capability of Attila's army. It is hard to imagine that there are nearly 15,000 defense forces on the Rhine Line. It can be said that the vanguard troops sent by Attila alone are more than three times the number of our garrison troops."

The shocking statistics almost suffocated everyone present. No one knew how many tens of thousands of people Attila had invested, but it was not difficult to imagine that he really wanted the entire Western Roman territory and he had never been so eager before.

"The most important thing is that this is just a vassal army." Luca sighed, "You should know that Attila's vassal tribes are not limited to this. He must be waiting north of the Rhine, waiting to march south in large numbers after the cold winter and take all of Gaul into his possession."

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Luca drew a big circle with his baton throughout Gaul and said to the officers present: "In Belgian Gaul, the province of Greater Sequanorum can no longer be saved. We must organize the citizens and nobles of Augusta-Travel to retreat southward when the snow melts in the spring."

"So how far should we retreat?" Andrew could not understand Luca's conservative plan, because in his opinion Luca had always been on the offensive, even in Macedonia and Thermopylae he was actively fighting against Attila, but he did not think about retreating before even making contact.

"South of Ludinan." Luca was talking about Ludinan, but he was actually painting Narbonne Gaul. "We must concentrate our forces in a small enough area. I have already sent out scouts to ask the Iberian legions to go north with the Alans to join the battle. Of course, I will also look for Aetius on my way to the south of Ludinan. I must ask him to find a way to mobilize all the soldiers in the Gaul province under his control who can fight to join the battle against Attila. I believe God is on our side and will not let the pagans wash the land of Christ with blood."

"There is still a month left before winter. We should also notify the subjects of the entire city to prepare. After all, it will be too late to prepare by then." Luca's proposal made other officers nod their heads repeatedly. The biggest advantage of being Augustus is that his authority is unquestionable, which also makes it easier for him to give orders.

After the other officers left, Luca continued to look at the map in front of him. He picked up a small Laban flag and heavily planted it on an area marked as Chalons on the Marne River in the north of the Ludug Gallic province in southern Belgian Gaul. The red Laban flag was reflected in Luca's red eyes.

"I'll meet you here, Attila!" Luca said word by word in his heart.

(End of this chapter)