Over a month's march away from Ceicil laid the city of Turin. It was ruled by Count Greco.
Turin was originally the target of a raid that the previous Count Brutus was leading, but unfortunately for him, the Polo Army was made aware of his incoming raid and promptly dealt with him.
This time around, Marquis Polo and his army were too far away to make it to Turin in time. The Polo Army was currently in the south-west, preparing to march to Madena and join in the siege. Victor's presence forced Marquis Polo to keep his army in the West.
Count Greco knew the Luxenberg Army was coming and prepared his city accordingly. Resources were funnelled from nearby villages to ensure they would not be starved out or run out of ammunition. Conscripts were also recruited from those villages to help defend Turin.
Those poor conscripts did not know what they would be getting into when the siege began.
Victor had not fired a single shot during the capture of three cities, and thanks to that, he had plenty of ammunition to be used. Greco was the first city to defy him, and as such, Victor wanted to make sure that other cities opted to surrender to him. With that in mind, Victor turned to his best weapon: The Luxenberg Rockets.
The screeching sounds of the rockets were heard on the first day of the siege. Victor's siege camp was not even finished, and yet he sent forth his rockets. "Bang!... Bang!.... Bang!" Each rocket rose high above the wall and rained down fire from above.
Many of the conscripts ran for cover, screaming and praying. Count Greco could not marshal his conscripts, nor could he fire upon the rocket ramps that were out of range. His garrison was 60,000 strong with 200 cannons. It was an ample garrison, but useless when bombarded with rockets.
Half of the Turin garrison was either fleeing to the western side of the city to escape or hiding in buildings near the wall. Victor only had 20 pieces of rocket artillery, but 3 volleys had the garrison's morale shattered.
Seeing the state of his soldiers, Count Greco, in a state of panic, ordered the raising of a white banner. Surrender was his only option. It was pitiful for him to raise the white flag so easily, but with most of his garrison being conscripts, he could not put up a good fight.
Victor, who was peering through his spyglass, saw the white flag raised and clicked his tongue. "How disappointing. Here, I thought we would have an actual siege. Marshal Davout, get Lefebvre to lead the infantry into Turin and truly capture it. No plundering."
Marshal Davout, who was standing next to him, nodded and sent a messenger to him to inform Lefebvre. With the go-ahead from Victor, Marshal Lefebvre and the men of his 4th Corps marched into Turin.
With a white flag in hand, Count Greco gave the flag to Marshal Lefebvre. Turin was now in the control of the Luxenberg Army. Count Greco and his family were placed in a dungeon, and all of the conscripts that were taken from villages were let go. General Tauentzien and Tuchkov were assigned to garrison the city while the rest of the army would move on.
Given that the siege was so quick, Victor felt no need for his army to rest. They would move on to the city of Bari, which was two weeks away. Bari was ruled by Marquis Polo's vassal, Count Vella.
Turin was the northernmost city in the western region. Below that was Bari, which was almost in the heart of the region. From Bari, all the other cities in the region were within striking distance, including Marquis Polo's port city of Imperata.
Losing Turin made Marquis Polo worry that Victor would now look towards his territory. Marquis Polo, who was acting commander of the Western Forces. Combined Marquis Polo had 150,000 infantrymen, 10,000 cavalrymen and 300 cannons.
Marquis Polo did not wish to rush into battle, but instead fortified his own city of Imperata. He would wait until Victor and his army came. There was no need to go into a pitched battle when he could have the advantage of a defensible position.
Turin's fall not only had caused the Marquis to change his plans, but the Pope's as well. With no support from the West, Madena remained in a deadlock, and the supplies were dwindling for the Pope's army.
Victor's attack in the west had caused the Pope to break off the siege. His army had made zero progress, and they would starve within a month. The army would retreat to Florenzia were they would re-evaluate their situation and devise a new plan of attack.
It would not take slightly under a month for the army to return to Florenzia, but during that time, Victor had already conquered Bari. It was a short siege; the Luxenberg Rockets had earned a certain notoriety in the west since the Siege of Turin. Count Vella was a young man, but a smart one. He did not want his people to face the same fate as Turin.
Count Vella was also captured alongside his family and put into a dungeon. Given how the city peacefully surrendered, Victor left Marshal Soult to garrison the city. Bari was not hostile towards the Luxenberg invaders, but it was not necessarily warm towards them either.
Marquis Polo's city of Imperata was now within striking distance. But the garrison would be formidable. They had 215,000 infantry, 17,000 cavalrymen and 500 cannons. It was a large garrison to say the least. But Victor had his rockets.
The only issue was that Victor did not have a strong numerical advantage over the Polo garrison. He had 240,000 infantrymen, 42,000 cavalrymen and 1,000 cannons. Over half of the original army that he brought with were garrisoned in conquered cities.
Victor knew that this siege would make or break his campaign, so a bulletproof plan was needed to conquer Imperata.