Aldarik, the leader of Gepid, who thought he was smart, did not expect that he refused to send troops to help the Ostrogoths in order to protect himself, and let the Ostrogoths face the troops of the Great Qin Empire alone, so that the Ostrogoths were wiped out by the Great Qin Empire, and since then the Ostrogoths have been annihilated in the torrent of history, and the situation in which the Gepid people are in at this time is also extremely dangerous, but Aldaric did not realize it.

Dalmatia, where the Gepid people are now located, is the land of the Western Roman Empire, and their occupation of Dalmatia is an invasion, although the Western Roman Empire is now weak, but the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, is it really so easy to bully when the Western Roman Empire?

The senators of the Roman Senate began to think after learning that the Lipids occupied Dalmatia and the Ostrogoths occupied Illyria, Dalmatia was occupied by warlords in the past, and the army was strong, and the emperor and the Senate were restrained by warlords in other places, so naturally there was no way to take Dalmatia, but now the shape is different, Dalmatia is close to the Italian mainland, but it is occupied by the Gelpidians, which is a great threat to Italy, and if Dalmatia is not recaptured, Italy itself will face the invasion of the Epics at any time, this is equivalent to those noble lords in Rome is like a fish in the throat, if not removed, it will be difficult to sleep.

The nobles of Rome began to panic, and they began to prepare to gather troops to attack the Epidics occupying Dalmatia, and at the same time prepare ships to attack the Ostrogoths occupying Illyria from the sea, but before they could send troops, they got the news that the Qin army had captured Illyria, which greatly frightened the nobles of Western Rome.

There used to be Alps in the way. There were rivers everywhere in the east and west, and it was not so easy for the Great Qin Empire in the north to send troops south, but now because the Ostrogoths and Gerpides crossed the Alps and invaded Dalmatia and Illyria. Let the Qin army seize the opportunity to take the pass that blocked their southward footsteps, so that Qin Dong could raise troops to invade the south at any time, which was definitely not good news for the Western Roman Empire.

The plan to attack the Gepid people stopped, and the nobles of Western Rome clearly realized that now the Gepid people had become a good shield to block the Qin army, and if the Gepid people were eliminated, then the Western Roman Empire would directly face the troops of the Great Qin Empire. Now it seems that they can't attack the Gepid people, not only can't they fight, but they also have to unite with them to resist the Great Qin Empire. But they forgot something. They only considered the land, but not the sea, and the current Great Qin Empire was no longer a purely land country, and already had a naval fleet that could fight.

September 463 A.D. Qin Dong left part of his troops to defend Illyria and appointed officials to pacify the local people. He led a large army to the west to attack the Gepids in Vadalmatia.

Half a month later, the army arrived at the Dalmatian border and camped there, ready to rest for a few days before launching an attack on the Gepids, but at this time Qin Dong got a message.

"What? You say that the Western Romans and the Gepides are talking about union? ”

Qi Muge bowed and saluted: "Yes, Your Majesty, this is the news that has just come from Rome, and the messenger of the Gerpid is already in the Roman Senate!" ”

"Hmph, this Gepid is really shameless. He had just taken possession of Western Rome, and now he had gone back to say that he wanted to form an alliance with them. The stupid pigs in Western Rome were so shameless that they were beaten up, and now they are warmly welcomed, hey! After hearing this, Qin Dong couldn't help but curse loudly.

The prime minister of the army, Felton, said with a smile: "Your Majesty, they are not stupid, they know that if the Lipids are destroyed by us, they will be in danger, so they have forgotten all about the previous invasion of Dalmatia by the Lipids, for them, it doesn't matter if Dalmatia is lost, but if even Rome is lost, then they have nowhere to play!" ”

Qin Dong was noncommittal, frowned and said, "That being said, if they join forces, it will be much more difficult for us to capture Dalmatia!" ”

At this time, a clerk came to Feltun's side and bowed down and handed over the parchment scroll, Felton took it and looked at it, his face changed slightly, and then said to Qin Dong: "Your Majesty, the Western Roman Empire has sent a note, they say that Illyria is the inherent territory of the Western Roman Empire, and now that we occupy Illyria, it is a provocation to the Western Roman Empire, and I hope that we will do our best to evacuate the army and return Illyria to them!" ”

Hearing this, Qin Dong sneered: "Illyria was snatched from the Ostrogoths, and now it is ours, they want to go back, let them go to the Ostrogoths!" Felton, you reply to them like this, and tell them separately, we are just looking for the Gelpid people to take revenge, and it has nothing to do with their Western Romans, if they must join in, my Great Qin Empire would rather let the Gelpid people go, but also let the Western Romans not be able to eat and walk around first, don't think that they can sit back and relax with the Gelpid people in front of them, and make me anxious, I will send troops from northern Gaul directly into his Italian mainland, I will see how they still play! ”

"Yes, I obey!" Felton agreed, and bowed out of the tent.

Qin Dong thought for a while, and said to Su He: "Go and send an order to Balhan, let his naval fleet come quickly, and be careful to avoid the naval fleet of the Eastern Roman Empire as much as possible along the way, and don't clash with them!" ”

Su He did not expect that Qin Dong would use the navy to rush from the naval port of Constantinople to Dalmatia, which was not close, and it was difficult not to be detected by passing through a large area of the Eastern Roman Empire. However, the Eastern Roman Empire generally did not take the initiative to provoke the Great Qin Empire, mainly because it was afraid of being beaten and had always been afraid of the Great Qin Empire.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

A few days later, a note came from the Roman side, and those Roman lords still maintained their previous tough attitude, obviously although they were afraid of the Great Qin Empire, they knew that the Apid people could not stop the troops of the Great Qin Empire, they were not intimidated by Qin Dong's cruel words, but began to form an alliance with the Apidians, and the Roman army began to march towards Dalmatia, and many strategic materials were transported to Dalmatia.

Qin Dong didn't get angry after learning the news, he had long expected that this would definitely be the result, although the group of Western Roman nobles and senators had a strong sense of interest, but not only were they not stupid, they knew that Rome would have nothing without them, so keeping Western Rome was the first priority.

Qin Dong had already issued an order before, and the army would start attacking after resting for a few days, and now the time was almost up, and it was time to attack, so Su He came over and asked: "Your Majesty, the Erlang have finished resting, and now they are all alive and well, will they attack tomorrow?" ”

Qin Dong asked, "Where is Balhan's fleet?" ”

"It's not clear for the time being, but according to the time, it should be about seven or eight days before it arrives!"

Qin Dong thought for a while and ordered: "Don't want a large-scale attack, order the cavalry division to disperse and harass the attack in companies, prohibit the cavalry from attacking the city, and send no more than ten companies per day, so as to arouse the high vigilance and attention of the Copids and the Romans!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Su He agreed, launched the big tent, and issued an order.

In the following days, the cavalry of the Qin army entered Dalmatia in groups to attack the villages and towns occupied by the Gepids, but did not fight with the main force of the Gepids, which made Ardaric furious, the army supported by the Western Roman Empire had not yet arrived, and the strength of the Gepids could not defeat the main force of the Great Qin army alone, so that those groups of Qin cavalry went deep into the hinterland and kept attacking villages and towns. It's really a dilemma.

In this way, another seven or eight days passed, and just when the Gerpides were about to be unable to hold on, reinforcements from the Western Roman Empire arrived, a total of ten legions, a total of more than 60,000 men, including 60,000 hoplites.

To Qin Dong's surprise, the leading commander of the Western Roman Empire this time turned out to be Aegidius, the governor of Gaul Province, seeing this trouble, the old guys in the Roman Senate really couldn't find a military talented, and respected general as the commander of this reinforcement, so he could only invite Aegidius, who was far away in Gaul, to be the commander of the reinforcements, after all, this reinforcement has ten legions, and the strength is huge, and ordinary generals can't command so many troops at all, it seems that the Western Roman Empire is really talented to a terrible Cheng dù, It is really a pity that a great country could not find a general who could command ten officers, and could only invite Aegidius!

Ironically, Egidious surprisingly agreed, appointing his son to handle the affairs of Gaul, and his deputy, General Paul, in charge of the affairs of Gaul, in case the Great Qin Empire invaded Gaul from the west.

After learning that reinforcements from the Western Roman Empire had arrived, Qin Dong ordered the recall of the cavalry squads that had gone to harass him and concentrate all his forces. The combined strength of the Gepid and the Western Roman army was almost equal to that of Qin Dong's commander this time, and both sides were elite.

Before the decisive battle, both sides are trying to rest and prepare, so that their own army can appear on the battlefield in the best condition, this time the 60,000 heavy infantry of Western Rome made Qin Dong a little jealous, if it was only one or two legions, Qin Dong was not afraid, but the concept of ten legions was not the same.

For example, a heavy cavalry regiment can kill two or three heavy infantry legions, but it is absolutely impossible to penetrate five or six heavy infantry legions, after all, there is a limit to the distance that a war horse can charge with heavy armor and the weight of a warrior. Once the heavy cavalry regiment is surrounded by heavy infantry, it is definitely a dead end.

(My new book "Greater Shanghai 1909" was first uploaded on the starting point Chinese network, you can click to read, remember to add the bookshelf collection Oh, there are recommended tickets or something, the more the merrier!) (To be continued......)