The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 610 The last carnival
Aetius never imagined that the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, whom he regarded as cowardly and incompetent, would dare to kill him.

In Aetius's view, he was the pillar of the Roman Empire. It was he who saved the entire empire, which was on the verge of collapse, and it was he who maintained the empire's last dignity.

As the emperor of the empire, how dare Valentinian III kill him?
Aetius fell to the ground, blood oozing from his chest rapidly. He did not figure it out until the last moment of his life.

"How dare you kill me."

The burden of the two capitals and forty-five provinces of the Great Roman Empire rests on my shoulders. Why do you dare to kill me?
In the end, Aetius fell into complete darkness with confusion and doubt.

Aetius's idea was not wrong. Anyone who was sober enough could basically see that the current Roman Empire was maintained by Aetius, but after all, there were only a few sober people in this world.

The vast majority of people are mediocre, greedy, and short-sighted.

Just like the current Roman upper class, basically all of them are this kind of people. To sum it up with a saying from ancient Dongda, those who eat meat are vulgar and unable to plan for the long term.

Aetius himself was a sober man, and he thought that the king was also sober and the Senate was also smart and should know the current crisis in Rome.

As long as the Roman Empire existed, these talents were the emperors and nobles, the best of the best, and could enjoy a luxurious life that only aristocrats could enjoy.

Unfortunately, Aetius had no idea that the emperor he was facing was just a fool with high aspirations but poor skills. The Senate was indeed a group of smart people, but these nobles had long been blinded by interests.

In his opinion, they should tolerate each other for the sake of the country and maintain the rule of the empire in order to maintain their current status.

It's a pity that he didn't know that how could he govern a country well with a bunch of insects?

In the end, the Protector of the Roman Empire fell in the imperial palace he was guarding.

On this day, a riot suddenly broke out in the city of Rome. Shortly after Aetius entered the palace, a large number of soldiers suddenly appeared in the city and began to purge Aetius's men.

At the same time, some people went to the military camp with edicts from the Emperor and the Senate and took over control of the camp.

While the city was in chaos, Aetius did not show up, and soon in this leaderless state, the nobles of the Senate and the emperor joined forces to successfully seize all power.

Aetius' men were either killed or fled when they saw the situation was not favorable.

Even the troops outside the city were controlled by ministers sent by His Majesty the Emperor. It seemed that this coup was going very smoothly, even surprisingly smooth.

In fact, Aetius was too careless and never thought that the person who attacked him was the emperor of the empire.

In the palace, after successfully killing Aetius, Valentinian III was so excited that he could hardly control himself.

"Hahaha, Aetius, you old dog is finally dead!"

"I am the emperor of the empire! The supreme emperor of the empire, the master of the Eternal City! The king of all kings!"

Valentinian III stood in the hall, looking at Aetius's body and venting his dissatisfaction. It can be seen that he has been suppressed for the past two years.

After all, he was slapped down in the face when he was at his most glorious, and then Attila pressed his head to admit his fault. Even an ordinary person would feel aggrieved. What's more, he, the emperor of the empire?

After killing Aetius, Valentinian III directly ordered his men to purge Aetius' entire family.

Next, the emperor regained power, and the nobles of the Senate gathered around him to flatter him.

For a moment, the emperor once again felt his former majesty.

"Your Majesty, these are the policies of the empire that Aetius changed. He arbitrarily tampered with state affairs for his own selfish interests. Now the entire Roman Empire is in dire straits because of him."

"In the past, we were intimidated by Aetius' power and dared not speak out. Now, Your Majesty has restored order and punished the treacherous officials. We also ask Your Majesty to abolish Aetius's harsh rule and restore peace to the world." As he spoke, the imperial nobleman knelt on one knee, as if pleading for the people.

"Your Majesty, please abolish the tyranny"

All of a sudden, the nobles in the hall came forward and asked Valentinian III to abolish Aetius's decree.

Valentinian III, who was already dissatisfied with Aetius, heard the voices of the nobles below and immediately said, "Since it is Aetius's tyranny, then abolish it and restore the previous imperial policy!"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"Your majesty, your brilliance is comparable to the sun and the moon!"

"The people of the empire will offer you their most sincere blessings!"

When Richard announced the decree to abolish Aetius, countless voices of praise immediately rang out throughout the palace. At this moment, Valentinian III seemed to have become the greatest emperor in Roman history.

Valentinian III had no idea what the consequences of his actions would be.

After the abolition of Aetius's decree, the empire's financial situation, which had been improving, took a sharp turn for the worse. Most of the fiscal revenue disappeared. What was more serious was that the empire did not have enough money to maintain these troops. Aetius had originally recruited several troops to make up for the losses caused by the last Hun invasion, but before the end of a year, these troops were facing disbandment.

At the emperor's command, these armies were disbanded. On the surface, these armies were disbanded, but what about in reality? The Roman Empire did not even give much severance pay, nor did it prepare a way out for these soldiers.

The result was that although these soldiers were disbanded, they gathered in various places.

The bigger problem lies with the Roman army. During the reign of Aetius, he paid all the military salaries and distributed all kinds of military equipment and supplies.

The soldiers had a good time, but before long, the Roman emperor announced the abolition of these policies and their original military pay was reduced.

At the same time, various logistical supplies were also in short supply.

If these soldiers had not enjoyed their previous lives, they could have tolerated the current situation. But since they had been given hope and now were kicked back, it was naturally unbearable for these soldiers.

I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light.

Valentinian III did not understand this logic at all. In his opinion, he was the emperor of the empire, so you must listen to me.

As an emperor, he didn't know what these soldiers wanted.

Under these circumstances, just three months later, the army became increasingly dissatisfied with Valentinian III.

On the other hand, the consequences of Valentinian III's disbanding of the army began to erupt. The disbanded troops, without money and food to survive, began to gather together as bandits and plunder everywhere.

For a time, a large number of bandits appeared in the north of Rome, and these bandits trained by Aetius were far superior to ordinary bandits.

These bandits were actually regular troops, and the garrisons from various parts of the Roman Empire were no match for them.

It was more than half a month later when Richard learned the news that Aetius had been killed.

"Valentinian III killed Aetius? Is he crazy?" Alia had an expression of disbelief on her face.

Richard shrugged and said, "That's the truth."

"Doesn't he know that Aetius is the pillar of the empire? Without Aetius, who will guard Italy for him? What about the nobles of the Senate?"

"Maybe they thought that without the Hun Empire, Rome would be at peace!"

"Naive!" Aleiya snorted coldly: "As expected, they are all a bunch of good-for-nothings who only know how to make money from the outside world!"

"Order the preparation of various supplies, we are about to go to war!" Richard shook his head and ordered.

"Fight?" Alea's eyes lit up. She had long been eager to fight back to Rome. This time she wanted to return to Rome in glory.

The death of Aetius basically marked the end of the Roman Empire. The only reason the Roman Empire has not perished is because no one set it on fire.

At this point, the Roman Empire would collapse with just a slight push.

The Hun Empire was mired in a civil war that would not end for at least two or three years. The Eastern Roman Empire in the east was also recuperating, while also needing to deal with rebellions in various places.

The Visigothic Kingdom was blocked by Richard, while the Vandals on the other side of the Mediterranean had not yet discovered the weakness of the empire.

This allowed the Empire to continue to maintain its rule, but things were about to change drastically.

Valentinian III abolished all of Aetius's decrees without any consequences, resulting in the empire's treasury being out of money and the army's salaries being in arrears, which inevitably led to dissatisfaction among the soldiers.

When the army's patience reaches its limit, that will be the moment of the empire's demise.

Richard ordered his men to prepare logistical money and food to supply the army for the expedition. In addition, after he occupied Rome, a large amount of food would be needed to stabilize Rome.

Over the past two years, Gaul has undergone tremendous changes. With the Druids promoting agricultural technology, Richard encouraging the reclamation of wasteland, and the power of the fertile field, the grain output in Gaul has increased year by year.

By this year, the grain production in the province of Gaul was more than three times what it was three years ago when he first occupied Gaul.

Through various trades, Richard exchanged war horses from the Hun tribes and slaves from the Visigothic Kingdom. Now the Gaul province can be said to have well-trained soldiers and sufficient food.

The number of troops in the Gallic Legion has also increased from more than 10,000 at the beginning to 30,000 now. Richard formed a cavalry army of 3,000 people, and also equipped the army with a large number of horses for transporting supplies.

Although there are only 30,000 people, Richard is confident that he can use these 30,000 people to conquer the whole of Europe.

Under Richard's orders, food was transported to designated locations throughout Gaul, and various military supplies were also produced as quickly as possible.

Although no mobilization order was issued, the senior generals in the province of Gaul had already noticed something.

(End of this chapter)