Listening to Crotocatactus's words, Assistes was silent for a while, his expression was a little gloomy, but he still said uneasily: "Regarding the current state of the coalition army, I still have to react to Your Majesty, hoping that he can send reinforcements as soon as possible." ”

……………………………………………

Patroclus wanted to get more information about the Gauls while he was ready, waiting for the best fighter to appear.

But there was a sudden change in Etruria. A few days after the fall of Florentia, the city of Aretium, which had not been affected by the fighting and which many had thought would not be attacked by the Gauls, was also attacked by the Gauls.

Aretium's territory was not actually bordered by the Gauls, but by the Umbria, and had been peaceful until the Gallics began to be harassed in the past two years. As far as they knew, the northern part of the Umbrian was also invaded by the Gauls, and some Gallic tribes fled through the border areas of Umbria to raid the territory of Aretium, after all, Areptium was much richer than the Umbrians.

Originally, the Dionian military ministry did not plan to build a military camp in this area, because the Gauls here were not rampant, but Aretium was one of the twelve Etruscan city-states and the center of the eastern region of the Etruscan alliance.

Of course, this was not entirely persuaded by the Aretiums, but Davers thought it would be beneficial for the kingdom of Dioonia to take advantage of the defense of the Gauls and gain land here, so as to strengthen ties and friendship with the Umbrians in the east.

In fact, over the past year or so, the Ionian border troops stationed here have repeatedly crossed borders to cooperate with the Umbrians and repel the Gauls who have come to harass them, winning the favor of the Umbrians. But what they never expected was that the Gauls would split up a large army and cross Umbria from the southernmost part of the territory to raid Aretium in the rear.

Although the Dionian camp urgently sent a messenger to inform the Aretiums, due to its long-term protection by the Dionian camp, it was not disturbed by the Gauls for more than a year, and the Gallic attacks on the northern Etruscan city-states did not make the Aretiums vigilant, so they faced a surprise attack by the Gauls, but the Aretium behaved worse than the Florentia, and the city quickly fell to the ground, and no one in the city escaped.

After capturing Aretium, the Gallic army took advantage of the situation to attack south, encircling Curtun and Clevsin, and then reaching Velzna, not far from the northernmost towns of the Dionian kingdom, Kesrera and Viai.

The population of Rome began to panic.

Patroclus could not remain indifferent, and soon gathered more than 50,000 troops of the coalition army, crossed the Roman vertebral bridge, and arrived at the city of Viai that night.

On the second day, a messenger from Turii had arrived in Rome, and Asistes received an order signed by King Davers himself: Asistes, the prefect of the Roman region, was asked to inform the allies to send troops according to the covenant as soon as possible to meet in Rome to form a coalition army, with Patroclus, the commander of the 14th legion, as commander-in-chief, to lead the coalition against the invasion of the Gauls. While securing the kingdom's territory first, he did his best to help the Etruscans. Since the situation of the enemy was unknown, the Ministry of Military Affairs did not give specific instructions, and Patroclus made his own decision according to the changes in the enemy situation. And the Ministry of War had informed the Twelfth Army in the eastern part of Campania (with its camp in Arbela) to go to Rome on the same day, under the command of Patroclus. At the same time, he also asked Assistes to do a good job of logistics support for the coalition forces, and report changes in the battle situation to the palace at any time.

After reading the letter with a complicated mood, Assistes handed the order back to the messenger and said in a deep voice: "Please tell Your Majesty, I will resolutely carry out his instructions!" Captain Patroclus has led his army north, and you should be able to meet him in Viai as you leave now. ”

When the messenger heard this, he bid farewell to Asistes and immediately rode north in pursuit. By the time he arrived at Victoria, Patroclus had already set out with his army.

The northern Dionian coalition arrived at dusk at Novi (a small Etruscan town), less than twenty miles from Wolcena, and the Gauls, who were besieging Wolcena, were so frightened to learn of the sudden appearance of enemy reinforcements, and hastened to withdraw from the siege, and sent sentries to investigate, reporting that "the enemy has a great number of reinforcements, and has built countless tents." ”

This Gallic army, which was the vanguard, was small in number, and seeing that the opponent was outnumbered, it did not dare to attack blindly, but retreated north.

On the second day, the Wolcenas, who had learned that reinforcements had arrived and that the threat had been lifted, arrived in Lowe with a large amount of labor supplies, expressed their gratitude to the allied forces, and invited them to camp near Wolcena.

After surveying the surrounding terrain, Patroclus firmly refused, and ordered the army to build a barracks near the city of Lovey.

A day later, the Gallic army reappeared in the territory of Wolcena, and by the second day it had grown to more than 30,000 men, and the city was again besieged.

The Dionian coalition stationed to the south of it did not make any movement, but the Gallic army took the initiative to come to the Dionian coalition camp and launched an attack on it.

Although the camp was not fully built, Patroclus was in good command and the allied soldiers had the advantage of defense, plus there were more people than the other side, so the Gallic warriors were repulsed despite their bravery, but they fought hard until dusk, which made the Dionian allied soldiers, especially the allied soldiers, a little more confident.

Despite a small victory, the Ionian coalition retreated quietly early the next morning, leaving only an empty camp that had been built with great difficulty.

The Gauls, having ascertained that the enemy had retreated, began to think that the enemy had won yesterday by chance, and in fact had been frightened by their attack, and had abandoned reinforcements to Wolcena out of fear.

In the days that followed, the Gauls made a gesture to storm the city of Wolcena, but their outposts found no sign of Dionian reinforcements nearby.

Gradually, the Gauls became more convinced of their previous thoughts: the Dionian army seemed to be outnumbered, but cowardly, and probably had taken refuge in the city of Rome.

So, they began to attack Wolcena with confidence and boldness.

After several days of attack, the city of Wolcena was crumbling and about to be breached, and the Wolcenas cursed the untrustworthy Dionians while praying for the protection of the gods.

Perhaps prayer had worked, and in the early hours of the fifth day, the previously disappeared Dionian coalition suddenly reappeared and quickly approached the front of the Gaul camp.

At this time, most of the Gallic warriors were too tired from the siege of the city for several days, and they slept soundly in their tents, when they learned that the Dionian coalition had suddenly attacked, and the camp was in chaos.

Patroclus used 20 ballistas to blast through the wooden fence set up by the Gauls for the improvised camp, and the combined Dionian army, with the heavy infantry of the 14th and 12th legions (just arriving from Campania) as the main attacker, soon crossed the trench and engaged the Gauls in the camp into a fierce battle.

Despite the Gauls' bravery and threat to wielding their broadswords, their disorganized and disorganized lineup did not pose much threat to the heavily armoured, shielding, and cooperating Dionian formation.

On the contrary, the main force of the Dionian coalition was like an iron wall, slowly advancing forward, constantly killing and wounding the Gauls, but also giving them a lot of psychological pressure.

Coupled with the fact that the Dionian coalition was almost twice as strong as the Gauls at this time, Patroclus did not send the Allied troops at the beginning, but waited until the two legions and reservists had attracted the Gauls from the front, and then ordered the Allied soldiers to break through from both sides of the camp and flank the Gauls.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Dionian coalition almost formed a siege of the Gauls in the camp, and the Gauls had to turn and flee, desperately fighting their way out.

Patroclus immediately ordered: the cavalry, light infantry, and light armor of the coalition army, who had been recuperating all their strength, pursued with all their might.

The allied forces pursued and fought fiercely until dark, killing, wounding, and capturing countless Gauls.

On the second day, the Wolcenas, who had learned of the defeat of the Gauls, were overjoyed, and immediately put their previous resentment against the Dioonians behind them, and once again came to the coalition camp with a large amount of labor supplies, but Patroclus had already led his army away.

The routed Gauls split into two parts: one fled to the northeast to Aretium, and the other to the northwest.

Patroclus sent 10,000 reservists to pursue the Gauls who had fled to Aletium, while he himself led nearly 50,000 allied soldiers to the northwest.

During the period when he was stationed in the Lowe camp, in addition to fortifying the camp, Patroclus also sent mountain scouts and scouts to scout the activities of the Gauls throughout the Etruscan region.

Therefore, after defeating the Gallic army of Wolzena, Patroclus immediately led the main force and went straight to the territory of Forfruna, where the main force of the Gauls was entrenched.

Forfruna was the richest city-state in northwestern Etruscan, so it became the focus of the incoming Gauls. However, because the Phopronas had learned of their tragic plight from the fleeing Florentians and had learned from it, they closed the gates early and strengthened their defenses. In addition, the city of Forfruna is located on a promontory, with only a narrow isthmus connecting it to the land.