Rome must fall.

Chapter 326 Planning for East Village
"Chief, I... I can't write." As an ordinary member of the Pannoni tribe, it was normal for Gillicus to be illiterate, but he still felt a little ashamed.

This was within Maximus's expectations. He said gently, "If you can't write, just dictate to Quintus. But as the chief of intelligence, if you can't read or write, it will be very detrimental to your work in the Military Intelligence Department! You can take more time to audit the tribal school and work hard to learn how to read and write!"

"Don't worry, chief. I will work harder and learn to write as soon as possible!" Gillicus expressed his opinion again. He was full of energy.

"The Military Intelligence Department is scheduled to have five subordinates. The tribe will assign you a subordinate who can write and do math. For the other candidates, you can select the ones with outstanding abilities from those who are currently working for you. I heard that two of your subordinates died in the capture of the East Village. Do they have parents, wives, and children?"

"One has a wife and children, the other has only a brother."

"Tell all this to Quintus. The tribe will give them some compensation and care, and will not let those who work for the tribe die in vain!"

"Thank you, Chief!" Gillicus said gratefully. He suddenly remembered something and asked, "Chief, I obeyed Cassius' orders before. Should I still obey Cassius' orders in the future..."

Maximus waved his hand and said, "No need. Now the tribe has a military intelligence department. You are the chief officer. You are in charge of collecting intelligence. However, the military intelligence department is under the general staff. You must report any intelligence to Quintus in a timely manner and follow his advice."

"Yes, chief!" Gillicus responded loudly and confidently.

In fact, Cassius did a good job in the past few months when Gilicus was led by him. After the Nix army entered the territory of Segestica, most of the instructions made by Gilicus came from Cassius. Maximus knew it well, but he still decided to separate Gilicus.

In this way, the Military Intelligence Department of the General Staff will be mainly responsible for the Nix tribe, while the focus of the Intelligence Department of the Secretariat will be within the tribe. This will not only meet the needs of Maximus himself and the tribe, but also enable them to compete with each other and supervise each other, preventing such a secretive department from being controlled by one person for a long time and causing trouble in the future.

Maximus came back to his senses and emphasized, "You must set up the Military Intelligence Department as soon as possible and start collecting intelligence on the surrounding forces. The territory of Segestica in the north, the territory of Desitiatai in the east, the Gonamite Lake area in the south, the territory of Brochi and the territory of Mazii... Pay special attention to the territories of these forces and discover any abnormalities as early as possible so that the tribe can take precautions in time, just like you did before."

Gillicus immediately felt the pressure. He hesitated and said, "Chief, the Military Intelligence Department has only given us five subordinates now, but...but there are so many places where we need to collect intelligence, and we don't have enough manpower!"

“You don’t understand. These five members of the Military Intelligence Department are official officials of the tribe. They are here to assist you in managing this department, and the tribe will pay them salaries every month.

You can quietly recruit people from the tribe to collect intelligence. For example, those people who followed you before, although they are not formal members of the Military Intelligence Department, they can still get commendations from the tribe for their intelligence collection and meritorious service. I believe that based on this alone, some tribesmen will be willing to work for the Military Intelligence Department."

Gillicus suddenly realized what was going on, and immediately stated solemnly: "Chief, I understand. Please rest assured that I will set up a military intelligence department as soon as possible and send people to the areas you mentioned to collect more intelligence and ensure the safety of the tribe!"

"Good! Good!..." Maximus nodded repeatedly with satisfaction. He had been observing Gilicus's expression and felt that the other party had completely surrendered to Nyx. Compared with Cassinos, Gilicus was undoubtedly a better role model for the Pannonians!

Thinking of this, Maximus encouraged him gently: "Gillicus, I believe you will not stop at being a first-class tribesman. Work hard for the tribe. After you destroy Mazii and rescue your wife, let her enjoy the rich life and glory you have won in the tribe!"

Gillicus didn't expect that the young tribal leader still remembered what he said. He felt his nose sore and said in a trembling voice: "Thank...thank you, leader. I...I will."

Maximus patted him, then looked at the people around him and said apologetically: "Sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time. Let's cross the bridge now."

So, Carminus and the officers of the Third Legion led the way as guides, and Maximus followed closely behind with Capito, Volenus and other department officials, surrounded by the guards.

The group crossed the newly built wooden bridge and successfully reached the other side and entered the East Village. The East Village of the main village of Segestica was the center of the tribe during the rule of the Skodishchi people. In fact, Andres later began to transfer some administrative functions of the tribe to the West Village for the needs of war, but in just a few years, it still could not change the important position of the East Village in this land.

From the outside, the East Village is larger, and the village is almost entirely filled with houses, with courtyards arranged in an orderly manner and roads straight and level. Especially the main house, there are more than a dozen houses within the high wooden walls, like a small military camp. There are all kinds of tribal buildings, including the Holy Stone House, the Holy Forest Courtyard, the Square, the River Port, etc., and even the roads outside the gate are built flatter and wider than those in the West Village.

After Maximus and his party inspected the East Village, they all felt that this place was more suitable than Snowtia as the center of the Nix Tribe. With just a little renovation, all departments could move in and work directly.

Maximus and the heads of various departments did not need to worry about the acceptance and management of the entire East Village, because the chief executive of Ophidalia had already been appointed, and he was the former chief executive of Westenni, Cecrops.

As the new main stronghold of the Nix tribe, Ophidili has a vast territory and many villages under its jurisdiction. It has a large number of tribesmen and a complex population. It needs an official with strong ability and rich administrative experience to take charge. Since Maximus is unwilling to replace the heads of various departments who are easy to use, the most suitable candidate is Xicrops.

Cecrops was a small businessman in Pompeii. He was unable to repay the debt owed to the Areius family, so he was forced to sell his family into slavery and work as an accountant at the Areius family's private dock. After Maximus led his army to capture Pompeii, Cecrops' family was rescued and joined the rebels. Because of his writing and math skills, he was valued by Volenus and became a capable assistant. When the Ministry of Agriculture was first established, Volenus appointed him as an adjutant, and later recommended him to Maximus to become the chief executive of Westene.

At that time, Westney and Segestica bordered each other. Although the two sides signed a truce agreement, some friction was inevitable. In addition, there were deep contradictions between the Skodischi and Segestica reserve tribesmen in Westney Village, and conflicts occurred from time to time...

The position of Westney Chief Executive was not easy, but under the management of Xikrops, the order of the town was always relatively stable. Moreover, in the past year or so, the people in the territory under his jurisdiction had a good harvest, no one evaded taxes, and the military training was also very good, which led to the good performance of the next two legions...

In short, Xikrops performed excellently during his more than one year as the governor of Westney, and everyone at the council meeting unanimously agreed to let him serve as the governor of Ophidillia.

Maximus' deepest impression of Cecrops was his extreme diligence and conscientiousness in his work.

After receiving the inauguration order from the Political Affairs Hall, he quickly completed the handover and then rushed to Ophidalia alone. In the past few days, he has been familiarizing himself with and handling the affairs of the West Village with his new subordinates day and night. Today, he followed Maximus to the East Village and was busy counting the real estate, supplies, and population in the village...

After a rough inspection of the East Camp, Maximus did not disturb Xicrops from doing his work, and followed Carminus to the temporary military headquarters of the Third Legion.

Carminus was more cautious and did not use the main house as the military headquarters. Instead, he chose a large mansion not far away.

After entering the living room, Maximus walked to the main seat and sat down. He looked at Carminus and asked in a deep voice, "Yesterday there was a conflict in Village 81, and two Segestica civilians were killed. The messenger you sent yesterday was rather vague. Now tell me in detail what happened?"

Calminus was shocked. When he met Maximus before, Maximus praised him. He thought Maximus was satisfied with his handling of the matter and did not take it seriously. He did not expect that Maximus would seriously talk about this matter when there were few people around.

"Chief, this is what happened..." Carminus began to narrate nervously.

Village No. 81 is a village close to Dongzhai. A hundred-man team from the Third Legion entered the village. After some efforts, nearly half of the villagers joined the Nix tribe. Except for a few who escaped, the rest of the villagers were escorted back to Dongzhai as foreign auxiliary people. Later, some of the new Skodischi slaves who joined the tribe were assigned to the village... The whole process was the same as what happened in various villages on the west coast during this period.

But then a newly arrived Skodischi slave and a Segestica member met in the village. Because of the other's contemptuous look, they took the initiative to punch each other, which led to a conflict between more than a dozen people on both sides. By the time the soldiers of the Third Legion stationed in the village arrived and quelled the conflict, two Segestica people had been beaten to death...

(End of this chapter)