Beyond our "visible world" there are "other worlds" inhabited by "other races of humans and beasts."

- Lucretius (Roman philosopher)

The departure of the army should have been an extremely solemn event, and at the very least, a grand departure ceremony and a general ceremony should be held in the barracks; But this time Flavis was unusual, not only did he not hold these ceremonies, but he did not even blow the most basic horn of the expedition, so he quietly set off with his three legions.

This decision was not Flavis' own opinion, but the result of a joint discussion among the military top brass of the entire Julius family; Ever since the Julius family successfully defeated the Gallic barbarians of Shanuchi and the kingdom of Regulia, and brought all three provinces owned by these two forces under their rule, the Salzburg barbarian tribes of Norikum and the kingdom of Illyria have become vigilant.

It's not that they're planning for the Julius family to attack them, it's just that having a strong neighbor isn't a good thing for the weak; They always have to be defensive. As it turned out, their defensive intentions were extremely reasonable; But unfortunately, they have the heart to defend against people, but they still haven't done a good job of defending people.

Whether it was the Salzburg barbarian tribes of Norikum or the Illyrian kingdom of the East; They all believed that after the Julius family occupied the two provinces of the Gallic barbarians and the kingdom of Regulia, it would take a long time to digest these three provinces and completely turn the provinces of the three barbarians into the provinces of the Romans.

As a result, the most optimistic estimate made by the Salzburg barbarian tribes and the Illyrian kingdom is that it will take two years for the Julius family to completely annex these three provinces! Based on this judgment, although they already have a wariness of the Julius family, they have not really taken many precautions, and it can even be said that there are almost none!

However, this is not the case; The Julius family completed the occupation of the three provinces with unprecedented speed, and completely brought them under the rule of the Julius family with the same speed. In this way, the new actions that the Julius family was able to make were not expected by the barbarian tribes of Salzburg and the kingdom of Illyria.

The original precaution of the Salzburg barbarian tribes and the Illyrian kingdom was to send enough spies and spies to reconnoiter the situation of the Julius family when the two new provinces of Gaul were not stable and tight, so as to prevent the possible large-scale attack of the Julius family in the future.

In fact, with the final capitulation of Lugotorix and the swift capture of the provinces of Gallic and Veneto in the mountains; The occupation of the two provinces of Gaul by the Julius family did not cause much confusion. And those spies and spies who took the opportunity to infiltrate the Julius family naturally could not avoid the fate of being discovered; To this end, the Julius family captured a total of nearly 500 spies.

These spies and spies, with the exception of a very small number of people who were killed for resistance when they were captured; Most of the spies were still captured in the prison of the Julius family. In the end, more than 150 spies who were willing to betray their homeland to help the Julius family survived; All the other spies were secretly executed.

These surviving spies did not regain their freedom, but only saved their own lives; And the price they paid for this was to pass back some false news to their homeland and tribe every few days that Flavis wanted them to pass on, so as to achieve the goal that Flavis wanted to confuse the enemy.

Of course, Flavies wasn't much of a man to cross a river and tear down bridges; He also wanted the spies to assure them that they would cooperate with the Julius family to complete their plans. Once the Ulius had taken over Norricum and Illyria, the spies and their families would be granted citizenship by the Ulius; From now on, live a decent life under the rule of the Julius family!

Such conditions are very tempting for the vast majority of spies whose lives are not good, and people from well-to-do families would not choose to be very dangerous spies, at least in this era; So they succumbed very easily to the coercion and temptation of Flavies; As for those who love the Motherland, patriots should go to the gods, and not stay in the dirty world.

Now that the Julius family has completely controlled the initiative of the war, it is naturally impossible to announce it to the world by holding a grand expedition ceremony; Otherwise, where is the value of letting those spies pass on the false news? As soon as the grand expedition ceremony was carried out, the news would soon reach the barbarian tribes of Salzburg and the kingdom of Illyria.

As long as the Julius family did not hold a grand departure ceremony, it was impossible for outsiders to know where the army was marching; Even if some of the spies who slipped through the net passed information about the army back to their home country or tribe, they would soon be drowned in the false information that Flavies ordered the spies to send back.

The army of three legions, from Aretion, crossed the Rubicon all the way north, and then passed through the province of Veneto; After the supply of food and grass in Padua, the capital of the province of Veneto, it officially began to move out of the territory of the Julius family and towards the east.

After another seven days of marching, the army of the House of Julius finally reached the northeastern passage of the Alps; At this point, an important decision was made before Flavis and the three legion commanders. If the march continued eastward, it would only take ten days for the army of the House of Julius to reach the city of Ségistica, the capital of the Illyrian Kingdom.

However, the price of this is; When the Julius army succeeds in taking the Illyrian kingdom by surprise, the Salzburg barbarian tribes will learn of the information and begin to prepare for war. With the barbarian personality and the social system of all the people being soldiers, Norikum, with a total population of only about 300,000, could eventually raise an army of at least 50,000 people.

Although such an army lacks sufficient weapons and equipment, and the training is completely inadequate; However, the barbarians were already stronger than Rome and were agile enough to inflict heavy casualties on the army of the Julius family. This is not so easy for the Julius family to accept; After all, the Julius family fought this war to reduce the risk.

If Julius's army suffered too many casualties in the battle with the Salzburg barbarian tribes, it could affect Julius's future strategy in Rome; For Flavis, this is simply more than worth the loss. So, this choice of offensive line is impossible for Flavis to accept!

If they had given up on continuing their march to the east and had chosen to march northeast, it would only take twelve days for Julius' army to reach Salzburg, the core of Salzburg's barbarian tribes. However, the price was that the Kingdom of Illyria began to prepare for war at the same time that the Julius family succeeded in conquering the unprepared Salzburg barbarian tribes.

Compared with the Salzburg barbarian tribes with a population of only 300,000 and low production capacity of weapons and equipment; The overall strength of the Kingdom of Illyria is much stronger. The population base of nearly 400,000 is the basis on which the Kingdom of Illyria can recruit more than 40,000 troops, and the relatively small production capacity can also provide sufficient weapons and equipment for the newly recruited army of the Kingdom of Illyria.

With sufficient weaponry, with a little training, the Illyrian kingdom's army of 40,000 recruits could play an extremely effective role in the defense of the city walls; Coupled with the relatively elite standing army of the Illyrian Kingdom, such a lineup is enough for the less than 30,000 siege troops of the Julius family to drink a pot.

In the same way, based on the premise that the Julius family could not pay too many casualties in this crusade; Flavies was also reluctant to accept such an option. You know, in Flavies's mind, expectation; The main purpose of this crusade was twofold. First, completely eliminate the worries of the Julius family; Second, to train the team for little Caesar to inherit the position of family leader in the future.

And the price that Flavis was willing to pay for these two purposes was no more than five thousand casualties; Once it exceeds 5,000 people, it will really cause a lot of damage to one of the legions of the Julius family. Even if the Julius family can immediately recruit new soldiers to replace the fallen soldiers, can the gap between veterans and recruits be bridged?

It took a lot of time to accumulate, and now the seven legions of the House of Julius were formed by veterans mixed with new soldiers; It took several months of diligent training in the middle, coupled with Rabinus's personal ability, to finally form a combat effectiveness. It was impossible for Flavis to allow Julius' army to suffer heavy casualties when things could happen to Rome at any time.

As the saying goes, one person counts short, and ten people count long; Flavies, who couldn't think of a good idea, decided to call a military meeting tonight while the army was stationed for the night, and he wanted to hear what the three commanders had to say about it. Especially Rabinus, maybe a talent like him with the qualifications of a famous general can come up with a better plan!

More crucially, Flavis felt that he should have a good talk with the three captains; After all, they were the ones they had chosen to serve Caesar as Caesar's team in the future. If they don't want to, they will have to re-allocate it as soon as possible; Seeing the three legion commanders come to his military tent one after another, Flavis glanced at Caesar beside him and began to deliberate! (To be continued.) )