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

Chapter 627: Surprise Attack at Sea
In North Africa, more than tens of thousands of craftsmen completed the construction of hundreds of warships after more than a year of construction.

This speed was almost unimaginable for previous shipyards, but with the improved ships and various shipbuilding tools provided by Richard, this scene became a reality.

The speed of ship construction was greatly improved, which allowed Alea to successfully complete the task.

Near the shipyard, a naval force of 20,000 people was training here. These people were all newly recruited troops by Richard. Most of them were fishermen, sailors, and former naval officers.

After training, the navy's combat effectiveness is very good.

After the ship was built, these people took turns boarding the ship to conduct long-term experiments. Richard even sent people to pretend to be merchants to trade in the Visigothic Kingdom.

These people followed the caravan to the Visigothic Kingdom, and after a lot of sailing, they successfully mastered the hydrological conditions of the main ports of the Visigothic Kingdom.

In order to destroy the Visigothic Kingdom in one fell swoop, Richard prepared for this battle for two years. He collected intelligence through a large number of merchants. Richard had already obtained all the information about the Visigothic Kingdom's road conditions, water sources, major military towns, etc.

The overall strength of the Visigothic Kingdom was not that strong. After all, if the Goths were really strong, they would not have been beaten and fled in disgrace by the Huns.

The Goths split into the Eastern and Western Gothic Kingdoms. The Eastern Gothic Kingdom became a vassal of the Huns, while the Visigothic Kingdom swallowed up the Roman province of Spain. After obtaining a large amount of supplies and craftsmen from the Romans, the Visigothic Kingdom grew rapidly.

The current population of the Visigothic Kingdom is only one million, and many of them are not Goths, but slaves and civilians when the Roman Empire ruled the Spanish province.

These people were later ruled by the Visigothic Kingdom, and some fled there as exiles and were plundered by the Visigoths.

The Visigothic Kingdom became truly powerful because of the collapse of the empire and the collapse of the province of Gaul. The Visigothic Kingdom gained a large population from there, as well as the rebels who hid in the mountains and forests. It was precisely because of the legacy after the collapse of the Roman Empire that the Visigothic Kingdom became truly powerful.

However, the Roman Empire and the Gaul province had not collapsed, and the rebels were incorporated by Richard, so the strength of the Visigothic Kingdom did not expand.

However, the power of the Roman Empire continued to increase.

The Roman Empire now has a standing army of more than 100,000 people. Of course, many of them are new recruits who have only been trained for less than a year, so their combat effectiveness is not high.

The most powerful ones are Richard's 30,000-man Gallic Legion and Rhine Legion.

The other soldiers were used for defense and to train elite troops. Anyway, the empire was implementing a similar system of soldiers, which kept the empire's military expenditure low.

After the navy in North Africa was formed, Richard immediately ordered people to go to Sardinia. In the past two years, Richard has been regularly transporting supplies to Sardinia.

The quantity shipped each time is not large and does not look noticeable, but there is a batch every month. Over the past two years, a large amount of supplies has been stored here.

Enough military rations for 30,000 troops for half a year as well as various equipment, medicines, etc.

This is Richard's outpost for attacking the Visigothic Kingdom.

The naval training was completed and the supplies were prepared. Richard calculated the time and ordered the army to assemble. At the same time, he ordered the Gallic Legion and the Carthage soldiers in North Africa to mobilize immediately.

Richard prepared three armies to attack the Visigothic Kingdom.

After his order was issued, the troops of the province of Gaul immediately began to gather in the Pyrenees, and the North African troops also began to gather in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Strait of Gibraltar is very narrow, and in good weather one can even see the other side directly, so this strait cannot stop a large army.

When Thorismund, the king of the Visigothic Kingdom, received intelligence from spies in Rome, he could not believe that the Roman Empire would take action against him.

Richard wanted to declare war on the Visigothic Kingdom on the grounds that the Kingdom sold weapons to the Germanic peoples in northern Gaul.

When Torismund received the news, he was completely stunned. He was not ready to go to war with the Roman Empire, but the Roman Empire attacked him first.

It can only be said that Richard's strategic deception during this period was too good, and Torismund never expected that Richard would suddenly declare war.

By the time he received the news, the Roman Gallic Legion had already completed its preparations for deployment in the Pyrenees, and the North African Legion was also eyeing them covetously.

Thorismond immediately ordered a national mobilization, letting his trusted generals lead part of the army to the Strait of Gibraltar, while he led the main force to the Pyrenees Mountains. At the same time, he sent envoys to the Germanic tribes, asking the Germans to take the opportunity to attack northern Gaul.

Thorismund was not worried about the war. In his opinion, the Roman Empire could not capture Spain without a navy. Toulouse was surrounded by a large number of rivers and canals and relied on river defenses. It would be very difficult for the Gallic Legion to break through the defense line.

The two sides fought many small-scale battles here, and Thorismund was confident that he could hold off the Romans.

On the other hand, the Strait of Radda was far away from the capital, so even if they failed, it would be difficult for the Romans to continue their cross-sea attack. So Thorismund was not worried. He had planned to defend first and let the Roman army attack. When the Roman army failed to capture the city after a long siege, suffered heavy casualties, and had low morale, he would launch a counterattack together with the Germans.

This time we must take over the province of Gaul.

Although now is not the best time to start a war as planned by Thorismund, since the Romans want to attack, let them suffer.

The defenses of the Pyrenees are very complete, and attacking here will inevitably come at a heavy price.

Richard was also very clear about this, so this direction was just a feint, and the same was true for the North African Legion. His real trump card was the newly formed navy.

The Gallic Legion and the North African Legion soon went to war with the Visigothic Kingdom. With the assistance of catapults and crossbows, the Gallic Legion's attack was fierce. The Visigothic Kingdom could only passively defend, but because of the river barrier, the Gallic Legion's advance was very slow.

On the other hand, the North African fleet began to leave North Africa and head for Sardinia one month after the war broke out.

Richard directly requisitioned a large number of merchant ships in Rome and used them to transport supplies and soldiers.

In the past two days, Roman shipyards have been building merchant ships. These merchant ships have slow sailing speeds, large cargo capacity, and are not easy to capsize, making them very suitable for transporting soldiers and supplies.

Richard had planned this two years ago. The purpose of building these merchant ships was to transport soldiers and supplies when attacking the Visigothic Kingdom.

The war lasted for more than a month and the fighting between the two sides was still fierce, but whether it was the Gaul province or the North African province, the results were not very significant.

After stabilizing the front line, Thorismund began to rotate the troops on defense, preparing to consume the strength of the Roman Empire.

He didn't know that Richard's navy had already assembled and was heading towards Spain.

In order to keep it secret, Richard's fleet set out directly from North Africa and then went directly to Sardinia. At the same time, Sardinia was also under martial law, and all ships could only enter but not leave.

After the army was assembled, hundreds of ships began to advance towards North Africa. Twenty thousand naval forces joined with ten thousand land forces to attack the largest port of the Visigothic Kingdom.

The Visigothic Kingdom had never imagined that the Romans had secretly built such a powerful fleet. When the fleet arrived at the sea outside the port, the port defenders were stunned.

Tens of thousands of ferocious troops launched a direct attack, and the port only resisted for half a day before being occupied by Richard's army.

After occupying this place, Richard immediately ordered a part of the army to stay behind, and the rest were divided into land and sea forces to head directly north, taking ten days of food and supplies and immediately attacking Toulouse, the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom.

Toulouse is not far from the landing port, and in order to facilitate the transportation of materials to the port, a canal was built between this port and Toulouse, which can directly connect to Toulouse.

Now Richard wanted to create a time difference and not give the other side time to react, and the army went straight to Luz.

Richard had been preparing for this day. He left some people on this road through a merchant caravan. These people were the guides prepared by Richard.

Under the guidance of these guides, the army selected elite naval forces and headed northward from the canal to Toulouse. At the same time, the land army did not stop and headed northward along the canal. They did not attack any city they encountered. They would bypass it if possible and attack it if they could not.

After landing, the subsequent army also did not rest but directly followed the vanguard. This army was slower and would occupy cities along the way.

The logistics troops recruited a large number of coolies at the port to transport supplies.

The coolies at the port docks have no sense of patriotism. It can be said that in the whole of Europe, only ordinary people in a few places such as Rome have this concept.

After Richard spent a large amount of silver coins, he immediately recruited a large number of laborers to help with transportation.

The army marched very fast, especially the 5,000 cavalrymen in the vanguard, who, led by Cruz, galloped all the way, traveling day and night, and arrived outside Toulouse in just one day and one night.

When the people of Toulouse saw the Roman army outside the city, the entire city was stunned, and many people even thought that the northern defense line had been breached by the Gallic Legion.

Even the Visigothic king Thorismund was confused. He had not received any news that the northern defense line had been breached.

Just yesterday, the messenger from the front had sent a message saying that the defense line was impregnable and the Gallic Legion had no chance to stop it. But the next day, the Roman army arrived outside the city?
The Romans did not give Thorismund time to think further. After arriving outside the city, they quickly launched an attack. At this time, there were not many troops in Toulouse.

Fortunately, Thorismund was not stupid, but wise and courageous. He immediately led the guards to the city walls to defend the city and recruited the people in the city to defend it.

(End of this chapter)