Chapter 418 Preparation for War (Part 2)

Spukala immediately said: "Your Majesty, there is not much time until the civil war breaks out in Rome the year after next. We must seize the time to prepare for war!"

"Yes, yes, attacking Rome is not as simple as attacking the Boii. It will definitely be a very large, difficult and long-lasting war. We will have to make a lot of preparations!" Sistos also said reminded somewhat anxiously.

"Yes, yes, Your Majesty, we must prepare for war quickly, otherwise it will be too late!" Others also echoed.

"Don't worry." Maximus waved gently and said in a calm tone: "I have already started sending people to prepare. Valles, how is the road out of the mountain being repaired?"

"Your Majesty." Minister of Works Valles bowed and said: "Since last year, the engineering team has been following your order to build roads out of the mountains on the grounds of improving external transportation and allowing purchased slaves to enter the territory more smoothly.

So far, the engineering team has repaired many temporary camps along the road from the western mountains of the Aldie tribe to the Adriatic Sea, and built and expanded nearly one-fifth of the mountain road...

Well, because your Majesty once reminded us not to make too much of a fuss, so as not to alarm the people of Ardea and the Roman province of Illyria and arouse their suspicions, so the engineering team is now short of labor, resulting in a somewhat slow progress in road construction——"

"The Romans will not expect that we will take the initiative to attack them. Only then can we achieve a surprise victory. But once they are prepared in advance, it will be difficult for us to even enter Italy. The mountains protect our safety. , but it also makes it more difficult for us to go out!”

Maximus pinched his chin and said decisively: "But time is tight, and the progress of road construction must be accelerated! The manpower of the engineering team can be greatly increased!

Everyone, I have decided to implement undisclosed military martial law in the kingdom from tomorrow, and the scope of martial law will include the Ardei tribe! Except for authorized people, outsiders can enter, but cannot leave! More patrols will be assigned to the engineering team, and anyone approaching the road construction site will be detained first!

Gilicus, the Military Intelligence Department must also take active action, actively cooperate with the city guards, and strengthen the control of the kingdom's territory. In particular, you must send more manpower to the engineering team. You must not let the news of road construction leak out and cause the Romans to Suspect! "

"Yes, Your Majesty, the Military Intelligence Department will not let you down!" Gillicus responded confidently.

In recent years, Nyx has been in a state of war for most of the time, and military martial law has been implemented in the territory from time to time. No one thought that the martial law order issued by Maximus was too abrupt. No one raised any objections, but Pheasalus reminded: "Your Majesty , on the Ardiyi side... We must first discuss with them and obtain their consent before we can successfully expand the scope of military martial law. And with the cooperation of the Ardiyi people, we can better control the information from being leaked. ”

Maximus had an understanding look on his face and said calmly: "You are right, I have sent someone to inform Carlsipimpas. Calculating the time, he should arrive tomorrow. I will personally Talk to him about this and I’m sure he won’t refuse!”

Why do you want to discuss the affairs of the Ardei tribe with Chalsy Pampas? Because the current great leader of Ardei is Chalcy Pempas.

As the Knicks become more and more powerful, Ardey has almost become its vassal. Aristarchus had completely lost the ambition he had when he first succeeded to the throne. He was addicted to pleasure, uninterested in tribal affairs, and even drank heavily.

Nix's grain reserves became more and more abundant, and he began to steam and brew liquor under Maximus's prompts. Some of the higher-alcohol grain liquor he produced was for his own use, and some was sold to surrounding friendly tribes. It was also very popular among foreigners. .

Alistakas was a fan of Nix liquor, but when he was drunk, he loved to go crazy, beating and scolding the followers around him at will. One day, his wife couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to stop his bad behavior, but instead provoked Out of his anger, he accidentally beat his wife to death.

After he sobered up, he remembered that his father-in-law, who had the power of the tribe, usually scolded him like training a dog. Evil comes from cowardice, so he wanted to kill his father-in-law too, so he set up an ambush and wanted to trick his father-in-law into the main house. Behead him.

Unexpectedly, Ambrasinos had already bribed the people around Aristakas and got the news in advance. As a result, he killed Aristakas and supported Aristakas's son and grandson. Successor to the great leader.

Tribes such as Budokaribas and Siceliteses moved to the Sava River and were almost assimilated by Nyx; Kalsipempas led the tribes in the west to settle in the hills to the east, far away from the power center of the tribe; Creole Brotus is tired of Alistaka Due to his distrust and suppression of him, Ambrasinos had long retired from his own tribe on the grounds of old age. Therefore, Ambrasinos had been in sole power of the tribe for many years and thought he could easily quell the murder of Aristarchus by him. Let his grandson sit firmly as the leader.

He didn't know that when there were no external enemies, internal conflicts would arise.

The Ardei tribe has received a lot of benefits from following Nyx, and Ambrasinos and his tribe have obtained a large share of it. Long-term unfair distribution will naturally lead to dissatisfaction with other tribes, even those who were once regarded as one. Tribes along the Mreznica River.

Therefore, many tribal leaders not only did not agree to let Ambrasinos' grandson succeed to the throne, but also wanted to hold him accountable for killing the big leader.

The two sides were at loggerheads and turned to their ally, the Knicks, for help.

Maximus declared on the surface that he would not interfere in the internal affairs of the Ardei tribe.

But secretly he sent people to instigate several southern Ardei tribal leaders who had close relations with the Nix tribe to use force to solve the problem.

Soon, the verbal dispute turned into a violent conflict.

Ambrasinos was naturally stronger and soon defeated his opponent.

Just when he thought the overall situation was settled, Chalsipompus, with the slogan of "revenge for the great leader and restore tribal peace", summoned the tribes of the eastern hills, formed an army, and suddenly went south to intervene in the fight.

At the beginning, after Chalsipompus led the tribes of the western mountains to move to the eastern hills, with the help of Maximus, after ten years of recuperation, their strength was no weaker than that of the southern tribes. In addition, with the weapons and armor given by the Nix tribe, they easily defeated the tribal army of Ambrasinos, and Ambrasinos himself died on the battlefield.

Chalcipempas led his army to the main camp of Ardei, and with the consent of the elders, he began to re-elect the chieftain on the grounds that "the new chieftain was appointed by the rebel Ambracinus and violated the tribal tradition".

This time, the election of the chieftain not only allowed the retired elder Cleobrotus to come back, but also tribal leaders such as Budokaribas and Cicelitses, who had not participated in tribal meetings for many years and lived far away on the Sava River, rushed to the main camp (although most of their people had been assimilated by Nix).

In the end, Chalcipempas was elected as the new chieftain of Ardei with a high vote, which made the relationship between the Nix Kingdom and the Ardei tribe closer, and was more conducive to Maximus' control of Ardei, otherwise he would not have been able to summon the chieftain of a large tribe to discuss it like summoning his own men.

The people in the hall were accustomed to this.

"How is the military training specifically for the Roman army planned by the Ministry of War going?" Maximus asked again.

"Your Majesty, after you approved the military plan submitted by the Ministry of War to attack Rome, we began to carry out spring training in March according to the plan, practicing legion formation confrontation between heavy infantry and heavy infantry, defensive tactics of javelin shooting, harassment of heavy infantry by light cavalry, attack of heavy infantry by heavy cavalry, coordinated attack of heavy crossbowmen and heavy infantry, and frontal attack of armored soldiers against shield formations with the cooperation of heavy infantry... and many other tactics."

General of Staff Pecot talked freely: "There has been no war in the kingdom in the past two years, and the legions have added some new soldiers. In addition, the tactics they are practicing are new. Both the officers and soldiers are unfamiliar with them. The Ministry of War has issued an order After the spring training ended and the legions returned to their towns, they continued to train in their free time at the town drill grounds. After the autumn training began, they would first be assessed, and the worst performing teams would be punished.

So far, judging from the reactions from the drill grounds in various towns, their training attitude is still very positive, but I found several problems in the previous spring training, which I am afraid need to be solved as soon as possible! "

"What's the problem?"

"The power of heavy cavalry to charge dense arrays head-on is indeed terrible, but there are only eighty cavalry, which is too few to play an important role in a war. "

"How many heavy cavalry do you want to increase?" Maximus asked.

"It would be best to have three hundred cavalry, so that a powerful attack force can be formed, which will make it easier to break through the Roman shield formation and greatly deter the enemy. However, I heard that the war horses that can serve as heavy cavalry can only be stronger Boima. I wonder if we have enough Boima?"

"There are enough horses, but some of them will have to wait until they are three years old next spring before they can be trained and become war horses." Sexippus, the chief officer of the Animal Husbandry Department, said.

Maximus nodded and said, "Then do as you said and increase the number of heavy cavalry to 300, but you have to train them hard so that they can be combat-ready when they go out to fight."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Pequot bowed and saluted, then said, "Also, our original crossbowmen can't pose much of a threat to the Roman heavy infantry, but the heavy crossbowmen can do a lot of damage to the Roman heavy infantry. I hope to reduce the number of light crossbowmen in each legion and increase the number of heavy crossbowmen."