Rome must fall.

Chapter 416: Kingdom of Nix

In the summer of that year, a major event happened in the Knicks tribe.

After the annual summer harvest festival, the leader Maximus claimed to have received an oracle from the goddess Darudanu and officially became king...

A sacred coronation ceremony was held in Yelipoli, the center of the Nix tribe.

In order to avoid provoking surrounding forces and causing them to have bad associations, no friendly tribe was invited to send envoys to watch the ceremony. However, the ceremony was very grand on the day, and the people in various towns were also caught up in the celebration.

After Maximus put on the crown, he first announced that August 25th would be the National Day of Knicks, allowing the people of all towns to hold celebrations and have fun on this day. Then he issued some new decrees and adjustments to the political system to adapt to the establishment of the kingdom, and vigorously promoted the positions of officials...

Since then, the Nix tribe, which owns the plains of the middle and lower reaches of the Kupa River, Sava River, Drau River and the western great plain of the middle and lower reaches of the Danube River, covers an area of ​​nearly 90,000 square kilometers and has a population of over one million, officially entered the kingdom era.

After the autumn harvest, King Maximus announced a meeting of the kingdom's top leaders.

The Knicks originally had two important traditional meetings: one was the Council of State meetings, attended by the chief and heads of nine departments; the other was the tribal assembly, which was initially attended by the chief and officials from various departments and held once a month. However, as the territory expanded and the number of officials increased, it eventually became a meeting attended by officials above level four in the tribal center.

The tribal high-level meeting only appeared in the past few years. In addition to the chief and the heads of the nine departments, the participants also include tribesmen with the title of third-class viscount and above. This means that this meeting includes not only officials of the kingdom, but also outstanding talents from all walks of life who have made significant contributions to the kingdom, thus highlighting the superiority of the twenty-title system.

The meeting was held in the Council Hall of the Royal Palace, which was one of the places where King Maximus handled government affairs and was also the fixed venue for Council Hall meetings. Although the main dining hall was smaller than the palace hall, it was more than enough to accommodate forty or fifty people.

The most prominent symbol in the hall is the huge three-dimensional sand table map of the Mediterranean Sea placed in the center, which was painstakingly sculpted by Maximus himself with clay and paint. The undulating mountains, winding rivers, dense woods, tranquil oceans... are like a living geographical picture scroll, which amazed the Knyx officials and tribesmen who saw it for the first time, and increased their awe of King Maximus (they believed that this was a divine gift from the goddess Danu).

Time flies, and most of the nine chief officials when the Nix tribe was first established have been replaced: Minister of Agriculture Cersonius, Minister of Works Wallace, Minister of Finance Magus, Minister of Personnel Cassius, Minister of Justice Laclede, Minister of Commerce Minas, Minister of Military Affairs Phesalus, Minister of Staff Pequot, Minister of Armaments Carminus... Only Minister of Etiquette Kephisophon and Minister of Medicine Horace are still in their original positions, but they are both gray-haired.

Compared with the original nine chief officers who were all middle-aged and elderly, half of the chief officers now are only in their thirties and in the prime of life. However, during the period of rapid development since the establishment of the Knicks in the past twenty years, they were repeatedly tested by Maximus in wars and turmoil, and finally stood out and were entrusted with important tasks.

However, most of the former department heads are also in this hall.

Quintus died long before the Nix tribe crossed the Drao River to attack the Boii.

Cornelius was not in good health before joining the rebels and died the year before last.

Volerus, Capito, Sidonius, Frontinus, and Lebilus, the former department heads, were all relatively old when they joined the rebels. They had all been slaves and suffered, and had some illnesses in their bodies to varying degrees. As time went by and the workload became heavier, they became increasingly unable to cope, so they all resigned in the past few years.

Although Pigris was younger, his condition was even worse.

His lame foot was caused by repeated beatings by the steward when he was a slave, leaving a big hidden injury. Since he was still relatively young at the time and with the careful care of medical staff later, it didn't show any big problems. But as he got older, his energy and physical strength gradually declined. He still worked hard to run back and forth as usual. Suddenly one day his foot cramped and he fell to the ground. After rescue, he was already paralyzed on one side and had to stay in bed for a long time.

It was this incident that alerted Volenus and others, which led to the department heads resigning and resting one after another.

Another relatively young department head, Karina, was no longer the Minister of Personnel because she made a mistake. A few years ago, the Intelligence Department of the Secretariat submitted a secret memorial to Maximus, which pointed out that there might be favoritism and corruption in the Ministry of Personnel. Maximus decisively ordered a thorough investigation, and the results were shocking: many officials in the Ministry of Personnel took advantage of their power, accepted bribes, gave credit to their relatives, friends or acquaintances, exaggerated their achievements, and made them receive undeserved promotions and rewards.

Maximus was furious and immediately ordered the arrest of the offenders. Although Karina was not involved, as the head of the department, she failed to supervise and lead the department well, and eventually resigned.

After this incident, Maximus took the opportunity to set up an inspection office under the secretariat, which was specifically responsible for supervising illegal activities in the Knyx officialdom. He quickly launched a large-scale investigation and actually found some staff members from various departments who violated the law, which brought order to the official atmosphere of the entire Knyx tribe.

The reason why Volenus and others were able to appear at today's high-level meeting was not because of their former identities as department heads, but because they all held the title of third-class earl.

After Maximus was crowned king and founded the kingdom, he declared: Knysna was able to develop into a kingdom in just twenty years. The original nine department heads and the original legion commanders made great efforts in it, so the kingdom should give them due rewards!
The reward he gave to Volenus and his men was the title of third class earl, and even though Quintus and Cornelius had died, they were posthumously awarded the title.

Previously, the highest title in the Kingdom of Nix was the first-class viscount, and no one had any obvious objections to this. On the one hand, the tribesmen recognized their achievements, and on the other hand, for them who had completely retired, being awarded the third-class earl was already the top, and others still had the opportunity to continue to make meritorious contributions and advance to surpass them.

The initial legion commanders were similar to the original department heads: Phesalus was the youngest among the original legion commanders. Twenty years later, he was still less than fifty years old. However, due to the retirement of Frontinus and the vacancy of the position of Minister of War, Maximus thought about it and felt that Phesalus was the most suitable. After the appointment was issued, Phesalus, who was not obsessed with charging into battle, happily took up the position.

Pequot's situation was just the opposite. He liked to lead the army and defeat powerful enemies, but Quintus strongly recommended him to be the chief of the staff when he was dying. At that time, the tribe was at a critical moment of conquering the Boii. Under the persuasion of Maximus, Pequot had to agree. After that, the tribe successively conquered the Boii and the Tauricians and defeated the Germans. He played a significant role in the planning.

Carminus was in his thirties when he joined the rebels. Now he is less than sixty years old and in good health. There is no problem for him to continue leading the troops. However, Maximus took into account that he is serious about his work, considers things more comprehensively, and is more able to take the overall situation into consideration, so he asked him to replace Lebinus as Minister of Armaments, and he did not refuse.

Aulus and Rufus were both veteran Roman soldiers, and now they were both old and frail, so it was natural for them to resign from their military command positions. Of course, they also came to the hall today.

As for Tolergo, he had been a gladiator for many years and had some hidden injuries. He was seriously injured when he first joined the rebels. Unlike Maximus, he did not know how to take care of his body. He always liked to charge into battle and overexert himself. As a result, in a battle to conquer the Boii, he was over 60 years old and extremely exhausted. He was caught in a heavy rain and had a high fever that night and fell into a coma. The medical battalion tried their best to rescue him, but in the end, they could not make him open his eyes again...

In addition to the former and current department heads and old army commanders, there are several special figures in the Political Affairs Hall.

Spukara, the most outstanding engineer in the Kingdom of Nyx, has made many contributions in many applied sciences such as engineering design, equipment manufacturing, mining and smelting... Even at an old age, he is still constantly learning and practicing, trying to turn some of the inspirations and "fantasies" given by Maximus into reality.

For example, the hydraulically driven blower he invented a few years ago has greatly improved the combustion efficiency and temperature control accuracy of the smelting furnace. Another device he improved and perfected - the parallel multi-row hydraulic hammer forging machine, can not only adjust the hammering force, but also form a flow operation. It not only greatly saves labor and improves efficiency, but also increases the steel output rate of iron smelting, and the weapons and equipment of the Kingdom of Knys are improved.

Because of these contributions, he is now a first-class viscount.

Mingjunus, a great medical expert from the Kingdom of Nyx.

At Maximus's suggestion, he began to dissect corpses and study the mysteries of the human body ten years ago. In the following years, he wrote "Human Skeleton Diagram", "Primary Explanation of the Human Body", "Inferences on the Human Blood Circulation"...

At the same time, with the support of Maximus, he also began to try to use surgery to solve some diseases that could not be solved by medicine, from the initial use of splints to promote the healthy recovery of patients with fractures, to stitching up large wounds with needles and thread, to cutting open the abdomen and trying to remove internal organs. He even performed a caesarean section on a pregnant woman with a difficult labor...

(End of this chapter)