In a bungalow in the dock of Termoli Port, all the regimental and regimental officers of the Marine Cavalry Division of the Great Qin Navy Fleet arrived, and Balhan sat on the top and looked at the officers present and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, the port of Termoli has been taken by us, before coming here, the general received an order from His Majesty, let us capture the port of Termoli and leave a battalion to garrison, and then the general himself will lead the army along the official road to Rome City, if it is infantry, it will take at least seven days to reach Rome from here, But we are cavalry, the general's requirement is to rush to Rome within two days at most, it is best to take the opportunity to seize the city of Rome, smash the central command system of the Western Roman Empire, so that the defenders of the Western Roman Empire will fall into chaos if they lose their unified command, this is the best time for us to fully occupy the Western Roman Empire, this is the ultimate strategic goal of our southern expedition, do you have the confidence to arrive under the city of Rome within two days, and capture the city of Rome in one fell swoop? ”

"Yes!" All the officers were enthusiastic when they heard Balhan's words, and they all stood up and answered loudly.

"Good!" Balhan also stood up with his hand on the hilt of his sword and said: "The first battalion of the first regiment has just captured the port wharf, and it has a big battle with the Western Roman defenders, and it is already very tired, and it is not suitable for the next rapid march and forced march, let alone participating in the battle to attack the city of Rome, so it is necessary to stay and garrison the port, here to meet the main army of the southern expedition, and to prevent leakage of news, so as not to attract the attack of the Western Roman defenders in the surrounding towns."

The commander of the 1st Regiment stood up and said, "Yes, General." I'll pass on your orders! ”

Balhan nodded and asked Hans, the deputy division commander, "Have all the horses disembarked?" ”

"Just got off the ship!" Hans replied, and then asked, "Order the fleet to return to Priest now?" ”

"Immediately. Return now! ”

"Understood!"

"That's it!" Balhan looked at the officers on his left and right and said, "Now all of you go back to your divisions, count your men and horses, carry three days' worth of food and grass, and after half an hour, except for the first battalion and their horses, the whole army will set out for the city of Rome!" ”

"Yes, General!" The generals agreed and dispersed.

Half an hour later. Balhan personally led his troops to attack the city of Rome, from here to the city of Rome can be described as a smooth horse, there are no passes on the way. Otherwise, fifty years ago, the Visigothic king Alaric would not have been able to kill several times in Italy from east to west, and then from south to north.

The naval fleet returned north overnight after unloading all the men and horses of the Marine Cavalry Division, and when Qin Dong boarded the dock of Termoli Harbor, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

The commander of the 1st Battalion who remained behind led his troops to meet him on the dock. After seeing Qin Dong, he immediately knelt down on one knee and reported: "Your Majesty." General Barhan had already led his troops to attack the city of Rome overnight at about ten o'clock last night, leaving our battalion to garrison here, and the port was safe during this day, and all the ships and people of Western Rome who came to the port had been seized by our army, and no news was leaked! ”

"Very well, get up!" Qin Dong stretched out his hand to signal, and then said to Felton: "Ma Chuan Zhe left to see me!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

After receiving the summons, Zheli immediately rushed to meet the emperor. Qin Dong was looking at a map in a bungalow in the port, and when he saw him, he immediately ordered: "Zheli." Come here! ”

After Zhe left, Qin Dong pointed to two locations on the map and said: "On the Adriatic coastline, the Western Roman Empire now has a total of three large ports, I want one of your cavalry divisions to be divided into three, and each regiment will raid a port, and these three large ports must be taken within three days, and not a single enemy ship will be allowed to run, and I will keep the sea passage open after three days, so as to facilitate the logistics troops to transport grain and grass materials!" Can it be done? ”

Zheli immediately said: "If you run away from an enemy ship, the last general will come to see you!" ”

Qin Dong nodded and said, "Okay, you go and prepare, bring enough supplies, and set off in two hours!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zhe left to receive the order.

Looking at the map hanging on the wall, Qin Dong's gaze moved to the bottom of the map, in the southeast of mainland Italy, in addition to the cavalry division taken away by Zheli, he still has six divisions of the direct army of the empire, 75,000 people, and four divisions of the servant army, about 50,000 people, two of the six divisions of the empire's native army were transferred from the empire mainland after the occupation of Dalmatia, led by Muren, a cavalry division and a cavalry division.

He thought that if the Marine Cavalry Division led by Balhan captured the city of Rome, or besieged the city of Rome, the defenders from all over the Western Roman Empire were likely to rush to the city of Rome from all directions to relieve the siege, which was very possible, but there was another possibility, that is, the defenders of Western Rome turned a blind eye to the siege or capture of the city of Rome, which is also very likely, after all, after the first few times the city of Rome was breached, the generals from all over the Western Roman Empire did not bring troops to help, and this time is likely to be no exception. Historically, after Odoases conquered Rome and Ravenna, the generals of Western Rome also acted on their own, and did not care about the fact that Rome was broken, which shows that the Western Roman Empire at this time was indeed in a state of fragmentation, so that when the city of Rome was broken, there was no local governor and general to lead the army to the king. However, if you are not afraid of 10,000, you are afraid of what happens, in order to be on the safe side, Qin Dong still decided to send an army south to attack southeastern Italy to prevent the Western Roman army in the southeast from going north to King Qin.

For this reason, Qin Dong issued an edict to summon Muren, and Muren immediately rushed to the edict and said: "Your Majesty, the last general Muren will meet you!" ”

"Get up, there aren't so many rules outside!"

"Thank you!"

Qin Dong smiled and said, "Muren, if I remember correctly, this is the third time you have led the army to fight outside!" ”

Muren nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty is not mistaken!" ”

Qin Dong stood in front of the map and beckoned to Mu Ren, and when Mu Ren approached, he said: "Su He led an army alone in the north to attack from the north to the southwest, and now that you are here, I will not favor one over the other, and I will also give you a chance to lead the army alone, do you see this piece?" This is the southeastern part of Italy, I want you to lead the army to sweep the southeast of Italy, in addition to the two divisions you brought this time, I will give you two more divisions, a total of four divisions of 60,000 people, and give two more divisions of servant troops, allow you to act cheaply, my only request is to fully occupy southeast Italy within two months, do you have this confidence? ”

Mu Ren was in full swing, and immediately knelt down on one knee and said loudly: "Your Majesty trusts, and the last general will definitely use all means to fulfill Your Majesty's wishes!" ”

Qin Dong picked up Mu Ren and said: "This time you led nearly 80,000 people to fight alone, this is an experience that no general has ever had, I hope that you will not only maintain the speed of your attack, but also be cautious, in addition, I sent McLean as one of your lieutenants, after all, he was a general of the Western Roman Empire before, and he is more familiar with the situation in the Western Roman Empire than we are, which is beneficial to our military operations, you must pay attention to unity with him, and you can't discriminate against him because he is a Western Roman, understand?" ”

Mu Ren nodded and said: "The last general understands, this amount of belly will still be there, please rest assured!" ”

"Then you go, give you two days to prepare, this time I can give you not too many supplies such as food, grass and materials, and the missing part still needs to be raised by yourself during the battle along the way!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Muren said yes and withdrew.

On the third day, Muren led the army to set out, and the army of the Great Qin Empire led by him quickly marched inland to the central region of Italy, like a sharp sword cutting Italy into two sections from the middle, and in just a few days, the southeast of Italy was cut off from the north.

Soon after the departure of the Muren army, the good news came, the army of the North Road led by Su He had advanced all the way to Venice, and before the battle began, the city of Venice on the water surrendered.

Another piece of good news was that the first cavalry division under his command captured the three large ports of the Western Roman Empire on the Adriatic coastline, and none of the Western Roman naval ships escaped, so that the sea passage of the Qin army was unimpeded.

There is another news that is not too good, Balhan led the Marine Cavalry Division to be discovered as soon as he entered Rome, and he failed to take the opportunity to capture the city gate and conquer Rome at the first time, this news made Qin Dong a little regretful.

Qin Dong gave Balhan an order to let his troops besiege Rome, only besiege but not attack, and sent reconnaissance cavalry to attack from all sides, if reinforcements were found to rescue Rome, they would choose a place to ambush. Subsequently, Qin Dong led two local main divisions and two divisions of servant troops to march towards Rome.

Since he led his army to cut off Italy from the middle, it was difficult for the Western Roman army and people in the southeast to get news from the north, and even if the Western Roman army in the southeast got the news that Rome was besieged, they were powerless to rescue them, because they could not protect themselves.

The news of the Great Qin Empire's attack on the Western Roman Empire reached the ears of the Vandals on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, and Geseric decided that this was the best time to reap the benefits of the Western Roman Empire, so he decided to make a move, so he immediately led his pirate fleet to Sicily in the Western Roman Empire.

Two days later, Geseric's pirate fleet landed on the southern coast of Sicily and killed the island's Western Roman defenders, and after two days of resistance, the Western Roman defenders were finally defeated and wiped out by Geseric's army, and Sicily was occupied by the Vandals. (To be continued......)