Rome must fall.

Chapter 401 Caesar Becomes Governor of Gaul
Before leaving, Maximus repeatedly reminded everyone that all personnel must strictly keep the secrets of the tribe, and not even reveal to outsiders the fact that they are from the Nix tribe!

Onomabaitis led his troops along the route that the rebels took into the mountains and arrived at the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.

The place he chose to settle down was Pula on the Istria Peninsula, which had been an important place for selling stolen goods when he was a pirate. He was familiar with it and it was convenient for him to carry out his business there.

In addition to buying slaves, Onomabaitis also had another important task - to get news from Rome.

Originally, Maximus commissioned Chalcipompus to do this, but Pompey wiped out the pirates, and this channel for obtaining information from the outside world was cut off.

This was also an important reason why Maximus agreed to Onomabaitis' request.

More than a month later, the ten slaves, escorted by guards, traveled across mountains and rivers and arrived safely at the territory of the Nix tribe...

Oenomabaitis had established a trading post in Pula for more than six years. He had been rewarded by the tribe many times for the number of slaves he purchased and the important Roman news, and now he had been promoted to knight.

Onomabaitis, who walked in, was no longer the uneasy and decadent person he had been when he first joined the Nix tribe. He was wearing clothes that only Nix nobles above the rank of knight could wear: a dark red top made of fine linen fabric, double-breasted, embroidered with beautiful patterns, with wrinkled cloud patterns on the cuffs, and a knight badge on his chest, paired with tight breeches and a high straight collar, which made him look noble and spirited.

Maximus asked him to sit down, and then asked with a smile: "Oenomabetis, it has been about four months since you left last time, right?"

"Chief, I haven't seen you for four months and eight days." Onomabaitis replied respectfully.

"How's the situation at the merchant house?"

"The sales of cloth and pottery are as good as before. The wood carvings that we started selling last year and the new cloth dyed with new dyes in various colors are also very popular. Not only the Roman provinces of northern Italy and Illyria, but also some merchants from Italy have come to Pula to buy. They also complained that we have too few goods..."

The Nyx tribe had very little gold and silver coins left, so after Onomabaitis gained a foothold in Pula, Maximus allowed him to sell cloth and pottery and use the money to buy slaves.

The reason they sold cloth and pottery was that these two commodities were very common in towns across the Mediterranean. However, under the guidance of Maximus, the Nix tribe carried out technological innovations and adopted intensive production. Therefore, not only were the products of good quality and much cheaper than similar products, but also due to the large output, in addition to their own use and exchange with other tribes, there was still a lot of surplus.

After Onomabaitis sold these two items, they sold well. Last year, the Nix tribe added wood carving and dyed cloth. This is because Maximus has trained a group of carvers with certain modern carving skills (of course, the goddess statue in the Temple of Danu was still carved by Maximus himself), and the staff of the weaving workshop finally prepared high-quality plant dyes after long-term unremitting efforts, and the output is not low.

"It's hard to increase the amount of goods significantly, and it's very difficult to transport these things out of the mountains. You should know this. Karsi Pempas has complained to me several times, saying that helping us transport these goods has seriously affected their mining.

The key is that with more goods and more people transporting them, it's hard for us to keep it secret. By the way, there are so many merchants coming to your place, has anyone become suspicious of you?"

"Chief, I think there have always been merchants who are skeptical. Even though we claim that these goods are shipped from the East, and we occasionally send our ships out of the Adriatic Sea and around the Greek peninsula... there are always people asking questions, and some even told us directly that they have been to many ports in the East and have never seen similar goods..."

"If they want to doubt, let them doubt. As long as they don't say it, you can just pretend to be deaf and dumb. But if someone points it out to you and produces evidence, then you should admit that 'these goods are produced by the tribe in the Illyrian Mountains. I lied because I was afraid they would look down on me.' But don't say it's the Nix tribe! ... I think that given the quality and price of these goods, they will continue to buy them."

"Chief, I feel relieved when you say that. We are selling well now, but we are having trouble buying slaves."

"What trouble?"

"We have been buying slaves frequently in Pula in recent years, and in large quantities. We have become the largest customers in the slave market. The slave market in Pula is not big to begin with, and there are fewer and fewer good slaves, and the prices are getting higher and higher. Moreover, when the slave traders see us buying, they will raise the prices again. If this continues, we will suffer a lot. I want to buy slaves somewhere else?"

"Where do you want to go?" "To the coastal towns in southern Italy, such as Sarapia, Tarantum, Crotone, Reggio Emilia... The maritime trade in these port towns is much more prosperous than in Pula, and there must be more slaves bought and sold."

"Well... don't consider going to the south for now. You can first explore Padua and Milan in the west."

"Chief, the two towns you mentioned are both inland. I don't think there are more slaves there than in Pula."

"Maybe, but in half a year or a year, the situation will be very different. By the way, is there any new news about the Caesar in Rome that I asked you to pay special attention to?"

"Chief, yes!" Onomabaitis perked up and responded loudly, "I came back early this time mainly because of him. I heard that Caesar has resigned from the post of Roman consul and became the governor of three provinces: Northern Italy, Illyria and West France! He has already taken office, and as soon as he took office, he began to recruit a large number of soldiers to form an army."

"Chief, is this Caesar planning to use force against us, the Nyx?" Onomabaitis asked with some concern. The reason why he had such an idea was that Maximus not only paid special attention to this Caesar, but also listened very carefully to his news about Caesar every time.

Maximus shook his head and said comfortingly: "Don't worry, he probably hasn't thought of this yet."

After Onomabaitis left, Maximus's expression became solemn: Caesar is finally here! In the next eight years, this man will conquer Gaul, beat the Germans, and even attack Britain, and finally ascend to the throne of dictator, shaping the prototype of an empire for the loosely managed and weakened Roman Republic, and rejuvenating it. By then, the Knicks tribe will be in danger! Time is getting tighter and tighter, and the Knicks must speed up their actions!

"Inform the three chief officers of the Ministry of War immediately and tell them that I want to convene an emergency military meeting to discuss crossing the river and attacking the Boyi people!"

"Yes, chief!" the servant responded excitedly.

Watching the servants leave, Maximus fell into deep thought again: It took so many years to completely conquer the Pannonian Tribal Alliance. The Boii tribe is stronger than the Pannonian Tribal Alliance in terms of land area, population and strength. If we want to conquer the Boii before Caesar ends the Gallic War, time is still a bit tight...

Thinking of this, Maximus couldn't help but laugh at himself: Back then, he had been ambitious to unify the Danube Plain and then fight Rome with all his might, but now he even found it difficult to conquer half of the Danube Plain, not to mention that the other half was occupied by the more powerful Dacians...

Through the intelligence on the Dacians that I have specially collected in the past few years, I know that Brebiste, who is revered as the king by the Dacians, is not a simple person. It is not easy to defeat him and conquer the territory of Dacia. If I get stuck in the quagmire of war with the Dacians and miss the best time to attack Rome, I will regret it! ...

Maximus tapped the back of the chair with his fingers and suddenly said to another attendant: "Go to the Ministry of Commerce and call Pigris. I have something important to discuss with him!"

"Yes, leader!"

Because there are many Scodisci people in the Nix tribe, the relationship with the Scodisci tribe has been getting better and better in recent years. Maximus decided to send Pygris to the Scodisci tribe to convey friendly messages to the Dacians through them.

In Maximus's previous life memories, he did not have a deep impression of the historical figure Brapiste, but he remembered one thing - before Caesar was assassinated, he was preparing to send troops to conquer Dacia, so he decided to give up treating the Dacians as opponents and try to make an ally with Brapiste.

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The Spartacus rebels once severely damaged the Seventh and Eighth Legions of the Northern Italian Province. Later, these two legions were rebuilt. Together with the Ninth Legion of the Illyrian Province and the Tenth Legion of the Western France Province, there were a total of four legions in the three provinces where Caesar ruled. Moreover, these four legions had been seriously understaffed due to long-term non-combat, and the actual strength of one legion was less than 5,000.

After Caesar arrived in Ravenna, the capital of the northern Italian province, he immediately demanded a large-scale recruitment of soldiers, just as he had done when he took over as Governor of Spain. He not only wanted to fully staff the four legions, but also to build two more legions.

For Rome, the three provinces in northern Italy had four legions, which were gradually built up over a long period of time. They were more than enough to ensure the security of the provinces and defend against barbarian invasions.

(End of this chapter)