Rome must fall.

Chapter 388 Aging and Rebirth
"What's the situation?" Maximus asked immediately with concern.

"Lord Quintus' fever is now gone. He just needs to rest for two more days and he should be fine," the doctor replied.

"Great!" Maximus breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. He opened the tent curtain and saw Quintus hunching over and pacing slowly in the tent. He hurried in and said gently, "Quintus, you've just recovered from your illness. You'd better continue to lie down and rest until you have fully recovered before getting up."

"Chief, I know my body, I'm fine." Quintus waved his hand stubbornly, "I've been lying down for almost two days. If I don't get up and move around, my body will become stiff. By the way, Chief, you're back now. Has Xinbei Isbaed been captured?"

Although he knew that Quintus was trying to change the subject, Maximus had to nod and say, "Yes, we have captured Simbey Isbaide and captured all the people in the village. We suffered no losses. This is a complete victory!"

"It seems that the Wrath of the Giant played an important role in this battle. It's a pity that I didn't see it display its power." Quintus said with longing: "So I can't miss the next battle."

Maximus understood that Quintus was telling him in a tactful way that he would continue to serve as an advisor to the army and would not return to Ophidalia to recuperate.

Because Quintus caught a cold and fell ill with a high fever when the army entered Lake Gonamite, Maximus had planned to send him back to Ophidalia Hospital for treatment, but he stubbornly refused, so Maximus was not going to persuade him again this time.

He said, "The plan is going smoothly. We will stay here for a while. After Xinbei Isbad is completely under control, the army will continue to move south and capture the camps built by the enemy in the past few years along the river..."

"We have just harvested in autumn, and we can get more food and supplies from Brochi's village. In addition, we can use ships to transport food, which consumes less food. We don't have to worry about the food supply this time." Quintus nodded in agreement: "We can calmly conquer and stabilize each place, so that we can ensure the safety of our retreat.

What is more important is to make the chief of Brochi understand that the defense plan he has formulated against us is completely unworkable, so that he has enough time to ask other Pannoni tribes for reinforcements.

When our army approaches the main camp of Brochi, we may be able to have a decisive battle with the Pannoni coalition. After winning this battle, it will be easier for us to attack Mazii in the east or Andizeti in the south."

"I hope the war will develop as you expected, Quintus."

"When this battle is over, it will only be a matter of time before the entire Pannoni is completely annexed by us. The next enemies we will face will be either the Boii or the Dacians..."

Quintus said, and sat down in front of the bed. He pressed his numb legs with his hands and sighed sadly: "I am old and my body is not good. This is the last time I will accompany you to the battle. I am afraid I will not see the day when we, the Nyx, defeat the Boys and Dacians and become the true masters of this vast river plain!"

Maximus wanted to comfort him, but swallowed the words back, because Quintus, who was almost sixty years old, had been in worsening health in recent years. Therefore, Maximus did not want him to go with the army before this expedition, but he insisted and finally agreed reluctantly. As a result, he caught a bad cold after being exposed to the wind, which showed that his body could not withstand the hardship.

Minjunus, who had treated Quintus many times, told Maximus privately: According to his judgment, Quintus was extremely angry and sad for a long time during the years when he lost his son and daughter-in-law, which consumed his mind too much and caused his body functions to decline too quickly. If it were not for his affluent life in recent years and adequate medical care, his body would probably have failed long ago.

Although Frontinus, who was of similar age to him, had also endured many years of hard slave life, he was in much healthier condition than him and was still as strong as a middle-aged man.

Maximus was silent for a moment, then he said, "After this war is over, Simbey Isbad will become an important town for our Nix tribe in this area. I plan to appoint Vales as the chief executive of Simbey Isbad."

Quintus was surprised and delighted, and said hesitantly: "Chief, Vales is still young, and is currently only the head of the Religious Administration Department. He has never managed a town. I am afraid that the officials will have objections to his promotion to the town chief executive..."

Why did Quintus say that this was a promotion beyond one's level? Because the Religious Administration Department was not subordinate to any department, but was directly led by Maximus, just like the Intelligence Department, the Attendant Department, and the File Department. When Maximus determined the ranks of the officials of the Nix tribe, he considered that the Religious Administration Department had few staff and was not too busy, and out of a desire to avoid suspicion, he finally gave the chief of the Religious Administration Department a rank of Level 4, and the town administrator was at least Level 5 (Ophidilla's Administrator was Level ), so from the chief of the Religious Administration Department to the town administrator, he was promoted two levels in a row.

"It's not uncommon for people in our Nix tribe to be promoted beyond their level. Theopompos was originally just a market manager, but in the blink of an eye he became the chief executive of Snotia. And Magus, who was born in the same batch as Valles and is about the same age, has been the deputy chief of the finance department... They have all been doing this for many years, and no one has raised any objections."

Maximus persuaded earnestly: "You are young, don't be afraid, as long as you have the ability! You should know that there are now four Danu temples built in the tribe, with dozens of altars, hundreds of priests, and other auxiliary personnel, a total of more than a thousand people, and there is also a Danu Goddess School... All of this is done under the control of the Religious Management Department.

Our people come from all over the place and have their own beliefs, but under the guidance of the Department of Religious Management, in just a few years, the belief in Goddess Danu has taken root in the tribe, with 80% of the people fully following it. At the same time, it has expanded outward to affect our friendly neighbors. During the entire development process, there have been no conflicts of faith, and no priests have violated any regulations or disciplines. This is not easy, and Wallace, the chief officer of the Department of Religious Management, has made an indelible contribution!

A tribal talent like Wallace who has great abilities should be given more power so that he can make more contributions to the tribe!"

"Thank you, Chief!" Quintus stood up again and bowed respectfully to Maximus.

What he said before was just to express his concern for his grandson, but Maximus told him clearly that "he wanted to train Vales vigorously!" With the firm support of the leader, it was not long before Vales became the head of the department and an important official of the tribe, so he was completely relieved.

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The Nix army stayed in Simbei Isbad for five days. During this period, they stabilized the order in the village and appeased the captured Brochi warriors and the people. The village was also built into a logistics base.

At the same time, the craftsmen repaired the damaged catapults one by one.

Maximus led his army to continue marching southward, successively conquering several riverside camps along the way. Because he adopted the strategy of "conquering and stabilizing a place", the army did not approach the main camp of Brochi until early December.

Brochi's territory is roughly rectangular, with mountains on the east and west sides, Lake Gonami on the north, and Andizeti on the south. It has the Sava River running through it and fertile plains on both sides of the river.

The main stronghold of Brochi is located on the east bank of the Sava River, close to the southern border. The terrain is relatively flat from here to the east. Every time the Pannoni Tribal Alliance holds a meeting, the leaders and followers of the three major tribes, Segestica, Brochi and Andizetti, must pass through here first and then go east to the main stronghold of Mazii.

Soon after the Nix army captured Simbei Isbad, Brix learned from spies that "the village fell within a day". Shocked, he realized that the defense system he had worked so hard to build was nothing but a piece of cake under the attack of such terrible siege weapons of the Nixes. The defense facilities of the main village were not much stronger than those of Simbei Isbad. Holding on to the main village was just waiting for death.

Therefore, Brix had to urgently send messengers to ask for help from the rest of the Pannoni tribes.

The chief of the Mazii, Metilis, was the first to respond. Although his tribe suffered heavy losses in the battle of the Korana River and later suffered some losses in assisting the Pannoni tribe in the east to fight against the Boyi, he urgently summoned 5,000 warriors and led them personally to the main camp of Brochi, considering that Brochi was adjacent to the Mazii and the main camps of the two tribes were very close to each other.

The second large tribe that showed active performance was the Andizeti. In fact, it had never participated in the war with the Nixes before, but Brochi had provided a lot of help in its war with the remnants of the Scodischi tribe to the south. Moreover, once Brochi was destroyed, it would face attacks from the north and south by the Nixes and Scodischi. Its strategic situation was worse than that of the Mazii. Therefore, the Andizeti, which had never sent reinforcements to other Pannoni tribes, ignored the threat from the Scodischi tribe to the south this time and tried its best to urgently summon most of the tribe's troops - nearly 8,000 warriors, and rushed to the main camp of Brochi.

In comparison, the three major tribes in the north performed much worse. They had a hard time dealing with the invasion of the Boyi people, so naturally they could not spare much manpower to assist Broch.

(End of this chapter)