Rome must fall.

Chapter 333 Snowtia and Toddlido

Theopompos, once a servant of a noble in Sarapija, was forced to join the rebel army. When he was ordered to sell looted pottery in the Sarapija port market, he was valued by the commercial officer Pigris because of his outstanding performance and gradually won over to the rebels.

After the establishment of the Nix Tribe, he was promoted to deputy director of the Ministry of Commerce, mainly responsible for the establishment and management of the market. In just over a year, the market of the Nix Tribe went from nothing to something, and it became more and more lively. He made an indelible contribution to this.

Therefore, when the heads of various departments recommended candidates for administrative heads of several towns, Pigris wrote his name on the list.

The reason why Maximus chose Theopompos to be the chief executive of Snotia was, first of all, that as the original center of the Nix tribe, Snotia had been built and managed with great effort, and the order had always been good. In the future, they would try to move in some law-abiding new residents, so the management would not be difficult. This just avoided the shortcoming of Theopompos's lack of administrative experience.

But the handicraft area that Maximus valued most was in the territory of Snotia. Although some of it would be moved away in the future, it was still the core of the tribe's interests and needed an executive who was familiar with this area and willing to support its further development. Theopompos came from the commercial town of Sarapia, where the handicraft industry was relatively developed. When he was a slave, he was engaged in matters related to the handicraft industry. He was undoubtedly a suitable candidate.

Furthermore, Snowtia borders the Ardei tribe, and the Ardei tribe's coal and iron ore are regularly transported here. In the past, the Ardei tribe members would occasionally come here to the market to trade. Maximus intends to strengthen trade with the Ardei tribe and develop Snowtia into a commercial town in the west of the tribe, which can not only earn more profits for the tribe, but also better win over the Ardei tribe members. This happens to be the job of Theopompos, who came from the Ministry of Commerce.

As for the fact that the Nix tribe's current development focus is on the Sava River, the Kupa River needs to remain stable, and the relationship with the Ardei tribe needs to be maintained. The diplomatic ability of the Snotia chief executive also needs to be taken into consideration. This is not a problem at all for Theopompos. From his experience, he is good at pleasing customers and then selling more things.

In addition, there is another point that Maximus did not mention, that is, the chief executives of the four towns cannot all be recommended by Volenus, so Theopompos is the most suitable candidate for the chief executive of Snotia.

In fact, shortly after Theopompos took office, he did something that made Maximus happy.

When Kephisophon led the team to Snotia to deliver gifts to Aristarchus, Theopompos asked for a few chairs and recliners made by the woodworking workshop (Maximus drew the design of ancient Chinese furniture for the woodworking workshop to make it more comfortable for him to sit on) and long-necked thin-eared pottery jars made by the pottery workshop. Although the quality of this pottery jar is far from comparable to the exquisite Greek pottery, there is one thing that Greek pottery cannot compare with, that is, vase painting.

The figures that the vase painters carefully painted on the jars with mineral pigments were no longer the wood figures or line figures in traditional pottery vase paintings. Instead, they were drawn after Maximus's careful and repeated guidance, strictly in accordance with the requirements of three courtyards and five eyes in modern painting techniques. Although the portraits they painted were not favored by Maximus, they were enough to amaze the era.

When Maximus learned that Theopompos had increased the gift, he felt that he had chosen the right person.

However, Theopompos had not had an easy time during his time as the chief executive of Snotia, because he had too many mothers-in-law: the chief's wife, the chief steward Akonis, officials from various departments who had not yet moved out, and the families of the heads of various departments... Whenever they encountered any difficulties, they would come to him first, and with his personality he dared not refuse, and as a result he was exhausted by these trivial matters. Now he finally has some peace and quiet.

Theopompos turned back to the village, thinking about two things in his mind: first, to quickly move the administrative office to the main house so that he could no longer work together with his subordinates, which was too cramped; second, to immediately send someone to the Mreznica River to inquire about the news and see if the news about the wooden chairs and pottery jars had spread among the people of Ardei. If not, he would not mind secretly fanning the flames.

The Nix team was walking in front, and the Ardi team was following behind. Although the two tribes together, including children, had only more than 2 people, this slowly eastward, intermittent team stretched from the south bank of the Kupa River to the east bank of the Korana River, all the way to the north bank of the Mreznica River, a full ten miles long.

The Knicks soldiers on the roadside fields no longer ignored the marching troops. They all turned around one after another, stood up straight, and saluted the wives of the chiefs and the families of the department heads who passed by them. This was out of respect for the tribal leaders.

When seeing the huge and bloated Knicks team behind them, most of the soldiers showed joy on their faces, especially the new recruits in the Second and Fourth Legions, because they knew that only after these comrades and their families moved away, the vacated houses would be occupied by them, and the remaining fields would be redistributed to them who had just been promoted to formal members of the Knicks tribe, and soon they would live a rich and happy life like the old members of the Knicks tribe!

In the afternoon, the front of the team arrived at Westney. Thousands of families of the Second Legion living in the village also had to move. They had been waiting by the road for a long time and joined in, making the moving team even larger and more bloated. At the same time, other residents of Westney, led by Chief Executive Reius, prepared some drinking water.

The team took a short break here, ate something, recovered some strength, and reorganized the team before continuing on their way.

At dusk, the front of the team finally arrived at Todlido.

However, Nessia and the others could not go in to rest, because although this village, which had just been occupied, had been established as a town of the tribe by the Council of Government, it was now temporarily serving as a residence for the foreign vassals of the Nix tribe on the Kupa River.

At that time, the Nix army surrounding the village deliberately relaxed its guard and lured the people of Segestica in the village to escape at night, thus capturing them in one fell swoop. Except for the execution of the leader of the village, Antalos, his relatives and other clan leaders on the pretext of an excuse, more than 7000 people of Segestica were captured and detained again in the village.

Together with the more than 12 Pannoni warrior prisoners who were detained in the nearby camp and the more than 000 prisoners captured after the capture of the village to the east, this place once concentrated more than 1000 prisoners, making supervision extremely difficult.

But soon, as the Centuriae of the First Legion on the other side of the Sava River entered various villages, the Nixes also launched a full-scale surrender work among the captives here. The most obvious effect was among the people of Segestica in the Todlido village. They witnessed the bravery of the Nixes and the tragic defeat of the allied forces with their own eyes, and saw the high-ranking chief Antaros and other clan leaders being beheaded in front of them. Their despair for Segestica and awe of the Nixes had reached the extreme.

At the same time, since the village borders the Nix territory, they also witnessed with their own eyes the Nix people working hard on their fertile and vast fields, the joy of the harvest, and the amazing wooden bridges and water wheels... So when the Nix people announced to them the benefits of joining the Nix tribe, soon more than 6000 people responded to the call, leaving only a few people who were hesitant.

Those people who joined the Nix tribe were relocated in batches to both sides of the Sava River.

The next were the captured Segestica warriors. The disastrous defeat in the battle, the death of their chief, and even the surrender of the chief's son... This series of blows made them lose confidence in Segestica. Coupled with the repeated persuasion of the Segestica recruits who were once members of the tribe, soon more than 1000 people chose to join the Nix tribe. Of course, they would be sent to their homes along the Sava River to reunite with their families.

After a while, when the families of other captured Segestica warriors come to persuade them personally, I believe that most of them will change their minds. However, by then they will need to work hard and wait for a long time before they can become a member of the Knicks' reserve tribesmen.

The most stubborn were undoubtedly the captive warriors from other large Pannonian tribes except Segestica, because their territories had not been captured by the Nyx and their families had not been captured. Although they had suffered a disastrous defeat this time, they believed that their tribe still had the strength to continue fighting against this small foreign tribe that had just settled here. Therefore, although the Nyx promised various benefits for surrender, except for a very small number of captive warriors who chose to join the Nyx for some reason, the vast majority of them were stubborn.

After discussion, Maximus and the commanders of various departments made a decision: the Second and Fourth Legions would select prisoners who were stubborn, difficult to control, and able to deceive and incite others, and take them to the iron mines of Ardea to exchange them with Chalsipompus for the Segestica prisoners who were sent there a year ago.

Finally, in the past few days, more than 3000 strong prisoners were escorted to Ardei by the soldiers of the Second Legion. Due to the short time, the escort team has not returned with the exchanged prisoners.

At this point, there were only about 10,000 prisoners here, which was much easier to manage than before.

Then, Snowtia and Westney each took away more than 1000 foreign auxiliaries to make up for the lack of strong labor caused by the transfer of reserve recruits from the British First and Third Legions.

(End of this chapter)