Rome Must Fall

Chapter 430 Gaul attacks

However, Vercingetorix would not do this. From a personal perspective, he would never allow the Romans who burned, killed and looted in Gaul to leave unscathed. From the perspective of his goal, he needed to eliminate the Roman troops that were still stranded in Gaul one by one to inspire the blood of the Gauls, restore their glory, and force the tribes to unite and continue to fight the Romans to the end. As the initiator of this war and the first to eliminate the Roman army, he would surely become a leader that convinced the tribes of Gaul!

Of course, this was also done to gain the trust of the Kingdom of Nix. After all, if he wanted to lead the people of Gaul to defeat the Romans and gain true independence, he still needed the continued support of the Nix people.

It was precisely because he had thought about this clearly that Vercingetorix had already made preparations. After learning that the Kingdom of Nix had taken action, he began to take action.

It was early September, the autumn harvest season, and the Arverni tribe had harvested early, and according to Caesar's regulations, they transported food to the Roman legions stationed not far from the Arverni tribe.

The transport team sent by Vercingetorix deliberately arrived at the Roman camp at dusk, because the food they transported far exceeded the stipulated amount, and they also brought a lot of wine and meat, which made the legion commander and the grain collector very happy.

You should know that after the outbreak of the civil war, food and supplies must first be supplied to the army fighting Pompey, which made the Roman army stationed in Gaul scarce.

The abundant food provided by the Arverni tribe this time was enough to improve their lives. Since Vercingetorix had been obedient to the Roman army for the past two years, the legion commander did not suspect that he had ulterior motives, but was grateful for his timely help at a critical moment. Therefore, he not only allowed the grain transport team to stay overnight in the camp, but also provided them with some food at the banquet in the evening.

When the officers and soldiers in the camp were full of food and fell asleep, the grain transporters of the Arverni tribe took out the hidden weapons from the carts that had not yet unloaded the grain, then set the grain carts on fire and turned to attack the Roman soldiers guarding the camp gate.

At this time, Vercingetorix had led the army of Arverni and the reinforcements of neighboring tribes to the vicinity of the Roman camp. Hiding in the forest, he saw the fire in the Roman camp in the dark night. He knew that the transport team had already started in the camp and immediately blew the attack horn.

Thousands of Gallic warriors rushed to the Roman camp like a tide, and seized the camp gate with internal and external cooperation.

The Roman legion commander who learned of the enemy attack was panicked, but some centurions reacted quickly and urgently summoned soldiers to fight back.

However, the Roman soldiers who drank too much and woke up from sleep were not only exhausted, but many of them did not even wear armor. Facing the Gallic warriors who poured into the camp and outnumbered them and doubled their strength because of revenge, they found it difficult to resist.

The battle in the camp lasted for several hours. At dawn, the Roman legion was finally defeated. Except for some officers and soldiers who escaped from the camp and some officers and soldiers who died in battle, the rest, including their legion commander, chose to surrender.

The Gallic warriors shouted victory excitedly.

Vercingetorix described the crimes committed by the Romans on the land of Gaul in front of them, and then loudly declared: The Gauls must unite and avenge the Romans for their dead clansmen and compatriots, and they will not stop until they kill them all!

Amid the shouts of the Gallic warriors, he ordered all the Roman captives to be killed as sacrifices to show their determination for revenge!

Vercingetorix's night attack this time successfully wiped out most of the Roman legions.

The news spread quickly, greatly encouraging the starving Gaul people everywhere (because of the outbreak of the Roman civil war, Caesar's army's exploitation of the blast furnace area was increasing). They responded to Vercingetorix's call, lit beacons everywhere, attacked Roman caravans, killed Roman grain collectors, and even united to overthrow the leaders and nobles who had completely surrendered to Caesar... In just half a month, the entire Gaul region was like a heated water pot, which was completely boiling.

Countless Gallic warriors joined Vercingetorix's army from all directions, and his team was growing rapidly.

After defeating the Roman legion, Vercingetorix quickly went north to attack the Aedui, Caesar's loyal lackeys in Gaul.

The Aedui were a powerful Gaulish tribe, and they became even stronger with Caesar's intentional support. However, the Aedui also had to pay tribute to Caesar, and even provide him with a large number of warriors to serve as Rome's auxiliary forces. Therefore, the tribes were also having a hard time. Not only were the people angry, but even some leaders and nobles were dissatisfied.

When Vercingetorix led his army into the territory of the Aedui, some Aedui tribes directly turned against Vercingetorix, and some tribes refused to respond to the military mobilization of the great leader.

The Aedui leader, who was deserted by his friends and relatives, did not dare to fight Vercingetorix, who was in high spirits, and led his people to flee, while sending people to ask for help from the Romans.

At this time, Trebonius in the province of Cephalus had learned about the rebellion of the Arverni tribe, and the destruction of the Roman legion in southern Gaul made him feel very sad.

Just as he was gathering his troops and preparing to march north to quell the rebellion, he received two more groups of messengers.

He was shocked by the news that the Kingdom of Nyx had invaded northern Italy and besieged Aquileia in the east, and he was even more nervous by the news that the Aedui, Caesar's loyal vassal, was about to be exterminated in the north.

Should we rescue Aedui first? Or rescue Aquileia first? ... Trebonius did not weigh the pros and cons for too long before making a decision.

After all, both Aedui and Arverni were very close to him, and there was a legion in northern Gaul that he needed to rescue, and stabilize the order in Gaul - this was the primary task Caesar gave him.

As for the invading Nix, he had to wait until he solved the problem in Gaul before turning back to deal with it. Aquileia had high walls and thick walls, and even if there were not many troops, it was believed that the barbarians would not be able to conquer it in a short time.

After making the decision, Trebonius still had a question in his mind: Why did the Nix and Arverni so coincidentally provoke wars in the east and west at the same time when Caesar led the main force away, the Roman civil war broke out, and the northern provinces of Italy were short of troops?

Although he decided to go north for rescue, Trebonius now only had one legion of more than 6,000 soldiers and more than 3,000 auxiliary troops composed of Gallic warriors. In the past few days since the outbreak of the Gallic rebellion, some people in the auxiliary troops have been secretly defecting, which made him not very confident about the auxiliary troops, so he forcibly recruited the guard troops of Massilia and barely put together 12,000 people.

Trebonius had no confidence in defeating Vercingetorix, who had much more troops than himself, so he wanted to use the method of besieging Wei to save Zhao. Instead of fighting Vercingetorix head-on, he attacked Gogovia, the center of the Arverni tribe, and wanted to force Vercingetorix to return for help, so that the great leader of the Aedui could escape the danger of being pursued and destroyed, and be able to regroup and then join him, strengthen his strength, and then look for a chance to fight Vercingetorix.

It is necessary to pass through the Cevennes Pass to go from the West French province to the Arverni territory. If Vercingetorix had sent troops to block the pass in advance, it would undoubtedly be very difficult for Trebonius to pass there.

But according to the report of the spies, there was no army stationed at the pass.

Trebonius breathed a sigh of relief. He led his troops quickly and not only passed the Cevennes Pass safely, but also arrived at the edge of the Arverni territory smoothly.

Just as the army was about to camp and rest, the horns in the surrounding mountains sounded loudly, and countless Gaul warriors roared like a tide and rushed towards the Roman army.

Trebonius was shocked and realized that he was ambushed by Vercingetorix.

It turned out that the Roman army in the province of West France had been under the close attention of the Nix spies lurking in Massilia. When Trebonius was still planning to pass through the Cevennes Pass and raid the Arverni territory, the Nix spies had already judged Trebonius's intentions through various signs of the Roman army, and tried to notify Vercingetorix in advance, so there was such an ambush.

Trebonius wanted to lead his army to resist tenaciously, but there were too many Gallic warriors attacking, and the army he put together was not united. Some auxiliary troops turned against him first, and the city guards of Massilia saw that the situation was not good and fled before the battle... This greatly shook the morale of the army.

The Roman legions fought tenaciously, causing the Gallic army to suffer heavy casualties, but they were outnumbered after all. Except for Trebonius who escaped with a very small number of guards, all the others died in battle.

Vercingetorix's destruction of the Roman army won him more prestige, and also made those hesitant Gallic tribes finally determined to join the rebel team led by him.

For the great leader of the Aedui, this was bad news. Faced with the advance of Vercingetorix's army and the increasing hostility of the surrounding tribes, he had no external aid and had to surrender to Vercingetorix in the end.

Vercingetorix, who had conquered southern Gaul and had no worries, immediately led his army to the north, where there was still a Roman legion.

Since northern Gaul was far from Roman civilization, when Caesar was about to conquer the entire Gaul, the resistance of the tribes there was the most intense. Of course, Caesar's revenge was also quite fierce. Many tribes' settlements were completely burned down, and the people of the entire tribe were either killed or sold as slaves, resulting in a large area of ​​no-man's land in the north...

Even though Caesar implemented these cruel policies in northern Gaul and shocked the tribes there, he was still a little worried, so he arranged a legion to garrison in the north.

The Gaul tribes in the north surrendered on the surface, but their hatred for the Romans in their hearts was growing day by day. When the news came that Vercingetorix had raised an army and destroyed the Roman legions in the south, they rose up and began to attack the Roman garrison.

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