At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 654: Roman Civil War
June 50, 5rd year of the Han calendar.

"Sell newspapers, sell newspapers. The Xiqin Daily reports that civil war has officially broken out in Rome. The Genoa region is a river of blood."

"Sell newspapers, sell newspapers. The Xiqin Daily reports that civil war has officially broken out in Rome, and rivers of blood are flowing in the Genoa region."

Hearing the newsboy's voice, Zhang Pijiang couldn't help but sigh and said, "Daqinzhou is in complete chaos."

After the Roman Civil War, three of the four major countries in Daqinzhou had already broken out in war. The Seleucid Empire was in a royal civil war, and the Ptolemaic Empire was in constant uprising wars of the Mahasthamaprapta Theological Society. Although the Mahasthamaprapta Theological Society was repeatedly defeated, during this process Ptolemy VI could only continue to delegate power and win over local nobles and priests.

But the local nobles and priests had awakened, and they felt that instead of sharing the Ptolemaic Empire with Greek nobles such as Ptolemy VI, it would be better for them to build Egypt themselves and monopolize the wealth of Egypt.

So after the defeat of the Datong Theological Society, these local nobles and priests would secretly support the Datong Theological Society with manpower and material resources, so that they could continue to fight. It would be best to completely drive away Ptolemy VI and his men. Then they could form their own Egypt.

Only the Carthaginians ignored the unrest outside, devoted themselves to shipbuilding, monopolized the maritime trade of Daqinzhou, and then used the money earned from maritime trade to fully invest in the development of the three Celtic islands. The Carthaginians were in a huge incremental era. The annual increase in wealth could satisfy the Carthaginian nobles and cover the lower-class citizens. Therefore, the Carthaginians were the most organized and had the least conflicts during their golden development period.

Ding He, the governor of Yanzhou, said calmly: "Why do you care about the unrest in these small countries? Besides, war may not be a bad thing for them. After this war, the slave system in Daqinzhou will be completely disintegrated. How can such a system change without casualties? Only when blood flows like a river and the slave owners no longer dare to enslave others and recognize that everyone is human, this war can be considered to have a progressive meaning."

Ding He didn't care about the deaths in Daqinzhou. Since ancient times, there has always been a death in reform. Even though the Han Dynasty took advantage of the war to change the system, which was the least costly way, it still exiled millions of nobles and powerful people from the six countries. Among these millions of people, how many died on the way to exile? How many died on the land they opened up? Even if there were not millions, there were hundreds of thousands of people. However, no Han people thought that such a reform should not happen. Even if the Han Dynasty talked about this matter, they would only talk about its progressive significance, believing that it was the elimination of these powerful people that made the industrialization of the Han Dynasty unhindered.

To some extent, this war was promoted by the Han Dynasty. Whether it was the Seleucid rebel army, the Roman Assembly, or the Ptolemaic Theological Society, they were all promoted by the Han Dynasty. The Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Roman countries were also the three largest slave states in the entire Qinzhou. After the slavery in these three countries was disintegrated, the slavery system in the Qinzhou would eventually disintegrate.

Li Ji smiled and said, "Why worry so much? You won't be able to see it again anyway."

Fan Kang said with a smile: "When you go to Chang'an City and become the Prime Minister, don't forget to transfer us back."

After Zhang Pijiang returns to the Han Dynasty to attend the Sages' Meeting, he will become one of the new Nine Ministers, while Li Ji will become the Consul General of Daqinzhou and Fan Kuai will become a military officer. Both of them are positions of two thousand stones, and they can be regarded as high-ranking officials of the Han Dynasty. Ding He, the governor of Yanzhou, retires and is replaced by Meng Ju, a naval lieutenant.
Zhang Pijiang said with a smile: "It's not easy to be the prime minister. You two should work hard in Daqinzhou."

Then he looked at Xiqin City, which looked 50% like the Han Dynasty and 50% like Daqinzhou, and sighed, "I hope that after this war, Daqinzhou will be a place without slaves, otherwise the blood of so many heroes will be shed in vain."

After saying this, Zhang Pijiang boarded the ship.

"Toot, toot, toot!" The steamship slowly sailed away from the port, and the people on the dock waved goodbye to the people on the ship.

Zhang Pijiang also looked at the city with mixed feelings and said, "Goodbye, Daqinzhou."

On the other hand, the Roman Civil War officially broke out, but it was not the Roman Council that instigated the war, but the Roman Senate.

Rome's original military system was the citizen army. These people were all wealthy Romans with considerable fortunes. They could provide their own weapons and equipment, and they didn't even have a salary. Naturally, the cost of such an army was low.

However, the citizen army's many advantages were based on a prerequisite, that is, the Roman system must be fair and protect the interests of citizens. Maintaining the number of citizens meant maintaining Rome's military strength. In the agricultural era, the most important wealth of Roman citizens was land.

However, the Han Dynasty started the Age of Exploration ahead of time, and Rome was in a trade surplus, which resulted in a large amount of gold and silver being lost every year. At the same time, the Han Dynasty's industries were also hitting the Roman citizen class. A large amount of land was lost by Roman citizens, and various industries gradually died out under the attack of comprador senators. Under such circumstances, it was a joke for the Senate to want to form a citizen army.

At the suggestion of the 10 consuls Marcus Valerius Messala and Gaius Faenius Strabo, the Senate carried out a militarized reform, which was to change the original citizen army into a volunteer army. In this way, there was no need to worry about the property of the soldiers. As long as they were young Roman men, they could join the army and fight. The Senate's troops expanded rapidly, and before the war, the army was increased to more than , and there was no need to worry about rotation issues.

But there is a huge flaw in recruiting soldiers, which is that it is extremely expensive. People are recruited, and the Senate has to pay for their weapons and equipment, as well as their salaries. Morale is high when they have money, and low when they have no money. A large part of these people are hooligans from all walks of life, so naturally there can be little military discipline. Rome's already low military discipline declined rapidly. In the past, Roman soldiers could only rob enemy cities at most, but now, as long as these soldiers have less money, they will even rob the city of Rome. The Roman senators enjoyed the treatment of their descendants hundreds of years in advance.

Because of the reform of the conscription system, the consumption of the confrontation between the two sides was different from before. With the continuous expansion of the northern territory, the Gauls began to recognize their identity as Roman citizens. In a few years, the number of citizens under the Roman Pax Romana and the Senate opened up a huge gap. The Roman Pax Romana had millions of citizens, who could maintain 100,000 soldiers and rotated every six months. Except for paying some weapons costs and daily expenses of the army, the expenses of this 100,000-strong army were very low.

But the 300 soldiers under the Senate were different. Every month they stayed there cost money. Although recruiting soldiers solved the problem of manpower, the Roman senators did not expect that the speed of recruiting soldiers was ten times that of the citizen army. Although this money was from the Roman treasury, Rome belonged to senators. Spending the treasury money was equivalent to spending their money. These senators saw the treasury money disappearing like water, and they were all in pain.

What made the Roman senators even more annoyed was that because there was no land restriction for recruiting soldiers, these soldiers were naturally more loyal to their commander Marcus Valerius Messala, who paid them a salary. This made the senators begin to fear this military consul.

Originally, this kind of thing could be done by ending the war in a short time and then disbanding the army, just like Marcus Valerius Messala, the former consul of the Roman Republic, did when he used it up and discarded it.

But this war could not be ended in a short time. The two sides had been confronting each other in their respective strongholds for more than two years. Small-scale battles even continued to occur. Marcus Valerius Messala had been in charge of an army of 100,000 for two years. They were afraid that Marcus Valerius Messala would send someone to yell, "Whose food are you eating!"

"From the Consul Marcus Valerius Messala!"

"Whose clothes are you wearing?"

"From the Consul Marcus Valerius Messala."

The Roman senators lived in this kind of fearful fantasy every day. To many senators, Marcus Valerius Messala, who had held military power for two years, was even more threatening than Claudius. Don't think this is ridiculous. This is the true human heart. Take the East as an example. Which general with a large army was not suspected by the emperor? How many famous generals died in such suspicion?
In the East, there was only one emperor, and in the best of times, one could find a broad-minded emperor. But in Rome, 300 senators were 300 emperors. How could there be 300 broad-minded emperors? There might be very few senators who would trust the generals on the front line like the famous monarchs in history, but most of them were like the mediocre monarchs in history, and were very afraid of the generals who held heavy troops.

In Roman history, there were too many military consuls who were killed as an example to others. In order to get those consuls to voluntarily give up their military power, they even promoted that this was the victory of democracy. After hundreds of years of propaganda, this had become a stamp of thought for most Romans.

Just looking at the superstructure of Rome, the term of office of the senators is unclear, but the term of office of the consuls is only one year, and they are restricted by the dual consul system. The senators will only appoint or release a dictator when the enemy is particularly strong, but the dictator will arrange 36 executioners, saying that it is for the majesty of the dictator, but who knows who these executioners will point to? It can only be said that Rome was able to grow step by step, and the military advantage provided by their citizen army was too great to offset the gap in the superstructure.

The current situation in Rome is extremely unfavorable to the senators. If they do not fight, Marcus Valerius Messala's prestige will become higher and higher, and he will become a dictator sooner or later. Although fighting may fail, it is also possible to succeed, and this time the number of their troops is not worse than that of the North.

Therefore, the Roman senators kept ordering Marcus Valerius Messala to attack the north, but Marcus Valerius Messala knew clearly that although conscription could solve the problem of the number of the Roman army, these soldiers came from too diverse sources, not only did they not have much military training, but they also cheated during training and had extremely weak fighting will. They were not superior to the North in weapons and equipment, and military training, so they were more likely to be defeated.

Every time the Senate ordered Marcus Valerius Messala to launch an attack, he continued to delay the outbreak of war on the grounds of insufficient training and equipment.

But his words made the Roman elders increasingly impatient. Just in April of this year, the Senate issued twelve orders to attack, ordering him not to make any excuses. In April, even the salaries of the Roman legions were stopped.

This forced Marcus Valerius Messala to lead a large army to attack the Genoa stronghold in the north.

Starting in May, the Roman armies of the north and south fought on a battle line of hundreds of miles in Genoa and Modena. Facing the attack from the south, the north chose to stay in the fortress trenches, consuming the military supplies and morale of the south. On June 50, 6th year of the Han calendar, in Modena.

Claudius used the high-powered telescope purchased by the big man to look at his own battle line. "Boom boom boom" hundreds of shells hit the northern position, but because Claudius and his men dug the trenches very deep, these shells only smashed some sacks and trenches, and the lethality was very limited.

The Roman generals on the opposite side seemed to know that such bombardment was ineffective. Soon, a group of Roman soldiers rushed to the front of the position, set up mortars, and wanted to bomb the position in the north.

But the mortars and muskets in the north opened fire in advance. After a cloud of dust, the Roman soldiers in the south quickly fled the battlefield, leaving behind only dozens of tattered corpses and a pile of smashed mortars.

In the second half of the day, no one from the opposite side attacked this position anymore, as if to say that today's war mission had been completed and it was time to get off work.

"How long has the bombing lasted today?" Claudius asked.

The soldier said: "In one hour, the South fired about 5000 shells, which is less than one-fifth of the first ten days of the war. The morale of the Southern soldiers is generally low. A month ago, they could still rush to our position, but in the past half month, they don't even have the courage to approach us."

The artillery and muskets of this era gave the defending side a huge advantage. After Claudius built complete fortifications, the casualty ratio between the two sides reached 1:7. This was an extremely large advantage. The soldier wondered, "General, why don't we take the initiative to attack? In terms of morale and military spirit, we have the upper hand."

The two sides have been fighting for more than a month, and they already know clearly the combat effectiveness of the other side. Their combat effectiveness is far inferior to that of the North. This is the result of the difference in the number of soldiers on both sides. The South recruits citizens, and the combat effectiveness of citizens has always been the lowest in the feudal era. After all, citizens are knowledgeable and experienced in city life, and will not easily sell their lives. They think that the few hundred money given by the Senate is not enough for them to risk their lives.

The situation in the north was different. Although the Gauls were barbaric, they were simple and honest. With a little training, they could become the best soldiers. Even for Roman citizens, the North gave them land as a guarantee, which was much more valuable than a few hundred coins a month. Therefore, the rewards in the North were much more generous than in the South. This naturally showed the difference in combat effectiveness.

"This is a civil war, and for Rome it's a mutual consumption. If the two sides fight until rivers of blood flow, how many people will die." Claudius sighed. He didn't expect that under the chaos of those senators, the fighting effectiveness of the Roman legions would drop so quickly. Recruiting those gangsters and scoundrels as soldiers, how could such an army be strong?

The soldier said: "But this is a war, and people are bound to die."

Claudius smiled and said, “We have also learned a way to kill fewer people in the Han Dynasty.”

"Polo!"

"Yes, General!"

"Transport the hot meals we prepared to the position."

"Yes, General!"

Soon a group of cooks came to the battlefield carrying prepared meals. The food in the north was very good. The staple foods included freshly baked white flour buns, stewed beef with potatoes, vegetables and fried eggs.

There are too many farms in the north. In the past ten years, the Roman Datong Society has reclaimed hundreds of millions of acres of land and hundreds of millions of acres of pastures. In terms of food supply, the Datong Society, which occupies the entire north, has more sufficient food. In addition, there are a large number of international students in the Roman Datong Society. They have learned Han cuisine. In terms of food, the north has far surpassed the south.

The aroma of white flour buns and stewed beef with potatoes from the north wafted across the battlefield, and soon the soldiers on the southern Roman positions not far away could smell the aroma.

Although the Roman soldiers did not know what steamed buns were, they could smell the aroma of wheat flour. They did not know what beef stew with potatoes was, but they could smell the aroma of beef.

These aromas made the Roman soldiers immediately dissatisfied when they looked at the black bread in their hands.

"Is this for humans to eat? The hard ones can be used as stones to hit people. Inside are either stones or sawdust. I ate sawdust and black bread before I joined the army. Now that I am a soldier, I still eat black bread. Do you treat us as human beings?" a soldier cursed.

Instead, an old soldier beside him said calmly: "What is there to complain about? We don't eat sawdust and black bread. How can the legion commander's dog eat fresh meat?"

"We are human beings, not dogs," the soldier said angrily.

The old soldier laughed at himself and said, "We are not worthy of being dogs."

At this moment a voice came: "Citizens across the street, we made white bread from the big man today, and beef stew with potatoes, and we will send some to you as well."

The old soldier was stunned and asked, "You won't poison me, will you?"

"We are all Roman citizens. How could we do such a thing?"

"We have placed our things on the battlefield. It's up to you if you want to."

Then these Roman soldiers in the south saw that on the northern battlefield, soldiers were carrying huge iron barrels to the center of the battlefield and then putting them down.

These soldiers looked at each other, wondering what the Northerners wanted to do?
But the fragrance wafting from the iron barrels was the most real. Soon the soldiers could not help but say, "Let's go see what conspiracy the north has. Come on, a few people, come with me and move those iron barrels over."

Soon dozens of soldiers rushed out and carried the iron barrels back to their positions.

Then the soldiers opened the iron barrel and found small white breads inside, and the aroma was even stronger.

One soldier couldn't help but take out a small piece of bread and took a bite, then said happily: "It smells so good!"

Now the other soldiers couldn't help it and started to grab the steamed buns.

As for the beef stew with potatoes, most of the soldiers had no spoons and could only eat it with black bread. The taste made the soldiers burst into tears, it was so delicious.

(End of this chapter)