Chapter 255 Change of Plan
But Kabdus is still cautious. If Amlotas's tribe is wiped out by the Nyx or suffers great losses, it will help him avoid a big problem. Even if he will be criticized by other leaders for this, as long as he is finally eliminated If he defeats the Nix people, recovers the lost territory, and rescues the tribesmen who were once captured, then the tribesmen in the entire territory will cheer for him, and by then his prestige will be as high as that of Andres!
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Maximus led three full infantry legions and the newly formed Fourth Legion of less than 4,000 men, as well as crossbowmen and other auxiliary troops, totaling more than 24,000 people, to heavily surround Amrotas's stockade. , but the fleet was not used to blockade the river side of the stockade and the river port, just to allow the people in the stockade to continuously send messengers to urge Pannoni's coalition forces to come to the rescue as soon as possible.
For this reason, Maximus ordered all the troops to begin tentative attacks on the stockade, and at the same time built camps in the harvested fields near the stockade, as if they would never give up until the stockade was destroyed.
However, after waiting for one day, the enemy did not come; after waiting for two days, the enemy still did not come; finally, news of the spies came.
Maximus, who received the news, immediately convened a military meeting.
Attending the meeting were the three chief officers of the Ministry of War - Frontinus, Quintus and Lepilus, and the four legion commanders - Pheasalus, Toreligo, Carminus and Aulus. In addition, there was Pecot, deputy commander of the Fourth Army.
"Everyone, I just received the exact news that Pannoni's coalition forces have been stationed at Linkou Village for the past few days and have not moved at all!"
Maximus' words surprised some people, while others were thoughtful.
"No wonder the Pannoni haven't appeared until today. It turns out they haven't moved at all!" Tolerugo suddenly said.
"Did the Pannoni see through our plan, so they allowed us to attack this stronghold?" Pheasalus asked.
"It's also possible that the Pannoni want to wait for us to attack the stronghold with all our strength before coming to the rescue. We have carefully explored this stronghold in the past two days. It is not that easy to conquer. If we want to capture it, we may have to There will be some casualties," Frontinus said with some concern.
"Aren't the Pannoni going to attack us in a big way? Now it seems that they are waiting for us to attack?" Aulus was a little confused.
"Chief, have our spies found out the situation of this Pannoni army?" Quintus asked.
Maximus responded: "According to the information found, this Pannonian army is composed of warriors from the two tribes of Segstika and Desitiatai. The Desitiatai army is composed of their The main camp of Segostika, led by the great leader Temagis, arrived four days ago;
The Segostika army is led by their new chief, Kabdus. The two tribes have about 15,000 troops. They set out three days ago and have been stationed there since arriving at Linkou Village... …”
"The actions taken by the Pannoni army and us on the same day this time show that our previous judgment was correct. The Pannoni people are indeed going to declare war on us after the armistice agreement ends!" Frontinus analyzed: "It's just that there are only two big tribes here with armies, and they only have 15,000 people. I don't think the Pannonians will be so arrogant that they want to defeat us with this small number of troops, so -"
Frontinus looked at his colleagues: "Quintus, your judgment is correct. The Pannonians are indeed divided into two groups, and the main force should be in the east. After all, they still have five tribes of troops here. "
Quintus did not show the slightest hint of self-importance. He walked to the wooden table and looked down at the map of the surrounding situation of the Nyx tribe placed on it (this was based on the information Maximus had continuously explored over the past year about the Pannoni, Al The intelligence of the Dee and Yabod people was drawn by myself, which is not very accurate), then he stretched out his finger and gestured: "From this picture, the armies of the other five large tribes of the Pannoni people gathered together. It will save time and make food transportation more convenient. After all, the Sava, Drau and Danube rivers connect the territories of these tribes. "
"If this is the case, the Pannoni have two large tribes with an army of 15,000 people here, then they have 5 large tribes in the east, which is more than 40,000 people!" Pheasalus reminded with some surprise.
"I'm afraid it's more than that. Don't forget that Segostika suffered heavy losses from us. It is impossible to have enough soldiers, otherwise it would not take the initiative to cease war with us." Pecot reminded.
"Whether there are 40,000 or 50,000 people over there, it's within our expectations, and we are confident of defeating them!" Torrelugo cheered loudly.
"Chief, what's the situation in the east? Hasn't our sentinel rushed back to report?" Pheasalus asked a little anxiously.
Maximus shook his head: "Not yet. After all, there are mountains to the east and the distance is longer... But if we count the time, it should be here soon."
"Chief, we missed one thing." Quintus suddenly showed a regretful look: "I remember that Kabdus, the new leader of Segostica, once led his army into our ambush and finally lost the enemy. His village became our Westney.
I heard that he is not as courageous as Andres, and has suffered such losses. Now he does not have as many troops as us. This should be the reason why he has been staying in Linkou Village. He does not dare to come to the rescue at all! "
"Even if we break through this village, they won't come?" Toleruge asked.
"...Yes." Quintus hesitated for a moment, then said affirmatively.
"In this case, we can't waste any more time here! We should lead the army back to the south immediately, concentrate all our efforts first, and defeat the main force of the enemy coming from the east!" Toleruge suggested directly.
"But if we leave, the enemy here may not stop, but will quickly march into our territory and surround Westney!" Phesarus was a little worried.
"It will take at least one day for the Pannoni army to get here from Linkou Village, and it will also take one day for them to reach Westney from here..." Aulus said confidently: "As long as we can quickly defeat the enemy from the east and rush back, we will be able to stop the Pannoni army here from breaking through our Westney."
"Do you think the Pannoni will only attack Westney Village!" Feisalus reminded: "They will also burn our houses outside the city! Destroy the land we have just planted! ——"
"There will always be losses in war, but as long as our losses are far less than the enemy, it is worth it!" Aulus was a little unconvinced, after all, he had experienced many such things in his decades of war career.
"But they may also destroy the wooden bridge, waterwheel, and water mill that we have built with great effort... They may even send a troop along the north bank to destroy our important workshops! Are these all worth it?!" Feisalus asked with a stronger tone.
Aulus was speechless for a moment. He certainly knew how important these buildings were to the tribe compared to some fields and houses, and how much manpower and time the tribe spent to build them.
"Stop arguing," Maximus finally said.
He just listened to what Quintus said and realized that he had made a mistake. He did not carefully analyze the situation of the commander of the Pannonian army. As a result, he made such a plan, but the other party did not take the bait. Of course, this was also related to the fact that the major tribes of Pannoni almost arrived at the gathering place at the same time and set off immediately in order to save food, which made it impossible for him to understand the other party's troop deployment and generals in time.
Maximus blamed himself a little, but he would not show it. Instead, he racked his brains to think of a way to get out of the current predicament. Soon he had an idea.
He looked at the generals confidently and said, "If we are sure that the enemy in the east has sent troops and the direction of their advance, then if we want to lead the army to intercept and defeat them, and at the same time we don't want the enemy here to march immediately after we leave and invade our territory, I have a way, that is deception!"
"Deception?!"
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Maximus's method convinced everyone, and everyone also gave ideas and improved it. After the meeting, the whole army began to act according to the newly formulated plan.
Reduce the number of people who made tentative attacks on the enemy camp, and most soldiers are involved in the construction of the camp. The newly built camp forms an encirclement of the camp on land...
At the same time, Nix's fleet raided the dock in the camp, burned the ships on the dock, blocked the waterway, and sent a thousand-man team to garrison on the south bank of the pontoon not far from the camp, posing as if ready to intercept Pannoni's reinforcements at any time.
At noon, spies lurking in the mountains and borders in the west of Brochi's territory and sentinels stationed in several watchtowers in the mountains in the south of Nix's territory successively sent back news: In addition to Andizeti, the other four major tribes of Pannoni, Brochi, Mazii, Peruste, and Disione, gathered an army of more than 40,000 people, led by the chiefs of their respective tribes, and set out from the confluence of the Kupa River and the Sava River in the west of Brochi's territory, marching westward along the Kupa River. After about half a day, their vanguard left the Kupa River and continued westward along a tributary of the Kupa River...
From the marching movement of this Pannoni army, they were not prepared to continue westward along the Kupa River and eventually enter the middle Kupa River Plain to join the Pannoni army here and attack the Nix tribe together; nor did they want to take the route that Pekote led his troops through the mountains before, but really wanted to cross the hills and reach the east bank of the Korana River.