The greed for money grows stronger as the amount of money increases.

- Jade Waina (ancient Roman satirical poet)

Naturally, it is impossible to have a false situation in the number of enemies reported by the Telma tribe, but the enemies of this scale are also a headache for the rulers of the Maasai tribe! About 17,000 enemy troops are coming, and they are all strong armies; How is this good for the Maasai tribe, which has an army of only 17,000?

Passive evasion of battle will certainly not work, once the enemy has taken the Terma tribe and the wooden bridge, then the attack on the Maasai tribe will definitely begin; Therefore, the Maasai tribe can only choose to fight. According to the predictions of the elders of the Maasai tribe, the 3,500 soldiers of the Telma tribe will definitely be able to consume part of the enemy's army by taking advantage of the terrain; The last remaining large army of the enemy may be around fifteen thousand.

Based on this analysis, the elders of the Maasai tribe finally negotiated a temporary solution to the problem; That's urgently recruiting more troops! As the largest tribe in extra-mountain Gaul with a population of 200,000, the Maasai tribe naturally had many young and well-trained hunters to recruit; Even if you want to recruit tens of thousands of temporary troops, it is possible.

However, the elders of the Maasai tribe did not think that the Maasai tribe had really reached that point; Their initial idea was to temporarily recruit 5,000 experienced hunters or other combat-fit men to serve as reservists for the army, and another 15,000 slightly inferior men to defend the city of Marseille with the remaining Maasai warriors in case of possible surprises.

Although many elders thought that the latter plan was just an add-on plan, they still approved it based on absolute security considerations; It was already late at night, and the elders, having discussed the two plans, immediately ordered a thousand cavalry of the noble Gallic nobles to light torches and begin the recruitment of the provisional army.

Because the first information sent back by the Telma tribe was delivered in the evening, the entire Maasai tribe inside and outside the city of Marseille was informed of this urgent information; None of them slept, but waited anxiously for the tribal leaders and elders to discuss their countermeasures, which was the key to the Maasai tribe's ability to recruit troops late at night.

After the tumultuous recruitment of the army had begun, the chiefs and elders of the Maasai tribes also discussed the plan of the expedition; The 17,000 troops of the Maasai tribe must not be able to go out in full, and the specific number of troops to be sent and which types of troops to send to the expedition need to be carefully considered.

After a night of urgent consultations, the Maasai tribe finally decided to send an army of 15,000 troops; This 15,000-strong army will consist of 7,000 Gallic infantry and 2,000 Gallic cavalry, as well as 5,000 Gallic warriors and 1,000 elite Gallic warriors. Only 1,000 Gallic cavalry and 1,000 cavalry of the Gallic nobility were left behind in the city of Marseille, as well as a temporary army of 15,000 that was about to be recruited.

As the largest tribe in Gallic outside the mountains with a history of hundreds of years, the Maasai tribe is naturally not comparable to the Terma tribe as a puppet; In addition to the 5,000 temporary troops who went out with the army, all of them used the weapons and equipment of the Gallic infantry, the remaining 15,000 remaining temporary troops were also equipped with weapons and equipment that were several times stronger than those of the Telma tribe.

Early the next morning, the leader of the Maasai tribe personally set out with this army of fifteen thousand and five thousand reserves; Also on this expedition were six of the twelve elders of the Maasai tribe. The role of these elders is to command a part of the army in order to cooperate with the leader to complete the layout of the battle; This is also a tradition of the Maasai tribe for hundreds of years.

Among them, the eldest elder was responsible for personally leading the five hundred De Iru orders to follow the leader's side; The three elders were responsible for commanding the largest number of Gallic infantry, the fourth elder was responsible for commanding 5,000 Gallic warriors, the seventh elder was responsible for commanding 2,000 Gallic cavalry, the ninth elder was responsible for commanding 1,000 elite Gallic warriors, and the last twelve elders were naturally in command of 5,000 reserve troops.

The Deyiru Order's expedition was originally not approved by the elders, after all, the 500-member Deyiru Order was the biggest hole card of the Maasai tribe, and it was also the foundation of the Maasai tribe's survival for hundreds of years; In the history of the Maasai tribe, apart from several existential crises, there has never been a case of sending the Deyiru Order out on an expedition!

The Grand Elders, however, insisted on using the Deyiru Order; This time, although the Maasai tribe faced a large-scale enemy army that was several times their size, they were also opponents with extraordinary weapons and combat effectiveness. According to the guesses of the great elders and chieftains, it is likely that the enemy army this time was the Romans east of the Alps; Therefore, they insisted on sending the Deyiru Order on the expedition.

At the insistence of these two people, the other elders finally agreed to the Deiru Order's expedition, and only then did the 500 Deiru Order's army go on the expedition. The Marseille army, of 20,000 men, under the leadership of their leader and six elders, set out for the location of the wooden bridge over the Rhône; At the same time, the follow-up army of Karabeth also arrived at the camp of the Terma tribe.

After the 14,000 men of the 2nd and 4th Legions arrived at the camp, Carabis did not immediately send them to the front positions of Tursus and Phorkus, but put them on the spot. After that, Carabes gave orders to Cadoradu and Brigo; Order them to stay in place and wait for their next order.

Carabeth's order to Cadoradhu and Brigo was that as soon as he received the order from him, he would immediately begin a full-speed march in the direction of the Rhône and take part in the battle against the Marseille army; The Terma camp was only ten miles away from the Rhône, and it took less than thirty minutes for the army to reach the battlefield and participate in the battle at full speed.

As for the twelve mastiff brigades under Grace's command, Carabis ordered them to follow him to the vicinity of the Rhône; Grace's mastiff troops, along with his two thousand fanatical warriors, would take part in the battle against the Maasai tribe as Karabes' own direct forces. Carabess's arrangement and trust moved Grace after receiving the order.

In this way, after arranging everything, Karabes set out with two thousand fanatical warriors and two thousand seven hundred mastiffs, and four thousand light infantry under his command. Having said that, the movement of more than 2,700 war mastiffs gathered together was still 'extraordinary', and at least the roars of the war mastiffs had reached a certain level of torture on human ears, making Carabis almost crazy.

Arriving near the wooden bridge over the Rhône, Carabis ordered his 4,000 light infantry to begin setting up a simple barracks for his 1st Army and Itami's 7,000 cavalry. As for the 2,700 mastiffs under Grace's command, in order not to arouse the suspicion of the approaching Marseille army, Calabes ordered them to be stationed in the jungle not far from the barracks.

This is also a good way for Grace's mastiff troops to be stationed, compared to the barracks that are bound, those mastiffs still prefer the free jungle; Karabeth's move can be regarded as giving the mastiffs a more comfortable place to live. After these trivial arrangements, Calabes began to wait quietly for the arrival of the Marseille army.

The 20,000-strong army led by the chief of the Maasai tribe and the six elders did not keep Calabes waiting, and only a day and a night after Calabes's arrival here appeared in great force on the east side of the wooden bridge of the Rhône. The Marseille army, with its 20,000 men, could not surpass the Carabes's army, which had 7,000 cavalry troops; But at the moment Calabes had only 3,000 cavalry under his command.

The other four thousand cavalrymen had been sent out to patrol the left and right flanks of the barracks, and had not returned for a while; The 13,000-strong Calabis army is more than a step in strength compared to the 20,000-strong Marseille army. However, the Marseille army did not attack blindly; Instead, the advance was halted a kilometer from the wooden bridge.

The leader of the Marseille army did not attack a completely unfamiliar enemy in a daze, and his strategy was to first camp on the east bank of the wooden bridge of the Rhône, and wait until he had enough knowledge of the enemy before launching a real attack; This is in line with Carabes's thoughts, and Carabis has no intention of starting a war now, and he also wants to wait until he has a certain understanding of the enemy before going to war.

So, with the same aim, the army led by the two men began to confront each other across the wooden bridge over the tributary of the Rhône; Two hours later, the 4,000 cavalrymen who were responsible for patrolling the two wings of the barracks also returned to the barracks, and this time Karabes directly canceled their task of patrolling the two flanks and ordered them to conduct a guard patrol near the barracks.

The return of the 4,000 cavalry was naturally not small, and the leaders and elders of the Marseille army across the river on the opposite side could also see it clearly; In this way, the army under the command of Calabes was once again restored to the size of 17,000 men, which was not much different from the Marseille army on the opposite side. This reality is not good news for the leaders and elders of the Marseille army.

The number of enemies is still about 17,000, which means that Telma's army of 3,500 did not consume a certain number of enemy troops, and even did not play a role in inflicting certain losses on the enemy army; This undoubtedly proves the strength of the enemy army from another angle. In order to ascertain the strength of the enemy army, the Marseille chieftain decided to launch a tentative attack on the enemy forces on the west bank.

Such a small-scale tentative attack was naturally suitable for cavalry troops; At the behest of the tribal chief, a hundred Gallic cavalry of the Marseille army began to march towards the wooden bridge. Of course, Carabis did not miss such a good opportunity to spy on the strength of the enemy army, and he immediately ordered a hundred Gallic cavalry under Itami's command to meet the enemy's one hundred Gallic cavalry.

Both sides of the battle were Gallic cavalry, and everyone used the same weapons and horses, and even the clothes on their bodies were the same, plus they were the same in number; The battle between the two is a real contest of strength. The two hundred cavalry did not fight on the wooden bridge, but after the cavalry under the command of Carabis and the enemy's cavalry crossed the wooden bridge and lined up, the two sides began a fierce battle! (To be continued.) )