Rome must fall.

Chapter 418 Preparation for War (Part )
Spukara said immediately: "Your Majesty, there is not much time left before the civil war in Rome next year. We must hurry up and prepare for war!"

"Yes, yes, attacking Rome is not as simple as attacking the Boii. It will definitely be a huge, difficult and long-lasting war. We will have to make a lot of preparations!" Sistos reminded anxiously.

"Yes, yes, my king, we must prepare for war quickly, otherwise it will be too late!" Others also echoed.

"Don't worry." Maximus waved his hand gently and said calmly: "I have already started sending people to make preparations. Vales, how is the road out of the mountain going?"

"Your Majesty," Minister of Works Wallace bowed and said, "Since last year, the engineering team has been following your orders to build a road out of the mountains, in the name of improving external transportation and allowing purchased slaves to enter the territory more smoothly.

So far, the engineering team has repaired several temporary camps along the road from the western mountains of the Ardi tribe to the Adriatic Sea, and built and expanded nearly one-fifth of the mountain road...

Well, because you, the king, have reminded us not to make too much of a fuss, so as not to alarm the people of Ardea and the Roman province of Illyria and arouse their suspicion, the engineering team is now short of manpower, resulting in a slow progress in road construction—"

"The Romans will not expect us to take the initiative to attack them, and only then can we achieve a surprise victory. But if they are prepared in advance, I am afraid it will be difficult for us to even set foot in Italy. The mountains protect our safety, but it also makes it more difficult for us to get out!"

Maximus pinched his chin and said decisively: "But time is running out, the progress of road construction must be accelerated! The manpower of the engineering team can be greatly increased!

Everyone, I have decided to impose a secret military curfew in the kingdom starting tomorrow, and the curfew will include the Ardei tribe! Except for those who are authorized, outsiders can enter, but they cannot leave! Additional patrols will be assigned to the engineering team, and anyone approaching the road construction site will be detained first!
Gillicus, the Military Intelligence Department must also take active action and actively cooperate with the city guards to strengthen the control of the kingdom's territory. In particular, you must also send more people to the engineering team. You must not let the news of the road construction leak out and arouse the suspicion of the Romans! "

"Yes, my king, the Military Intelligence Department will not let you down!" Gillicus responded confidently.

In recent years, Nix has been in a state of war for most of the time, and martial law has been implemented in the territory from time to time. Everyone did not think that the martial law order issued by Maximus was too abrupt, and no one raised any objections. However, Phesalus reminded: "Your Majesty, the Aldei side... We must first discuss with them and obtain their consent before we can smoothly expand the scope of the martial law. And with the cooperation of the Aldei people, we can better control the news from being leaked."

Maximus said calmly, as if he understood everything. "You are right. I have sent someone to inform Chalcidops. He should be here tomorrow. I will discuss this with him in person. I believe he will not refuse!"

Why do we need to discuss the affairs of the Ardei tribe with Calcipponpas? Because the current chief of Ardei is Calcipponpas.

As Nix became more and more powerful, Aldei became almost its vassal. Aristakas had completely lost the ambition he had when he first succeeded to the throne. He indulged in pleasure, had no interest in tribal affairs, and even drank heavily.

The Knyx's grain reserves became more and more abundant, and they began to brew liquor under the suggestion of Maximus. They used part of the high-proof grain liquor for themselves and sold part to friendly tribes around them. It was also quite popular among foreigners.

Aristakas was a fan of Knicks liquor, but he would go crazy when drunk and beat and scold his followers at will. One day, his wife couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to stop his bad behavior, but it aroused his anger and he accidentally beat his wife to death.

After he sobered up, he remembered that his father-in-law, who controlled the power of the tribe, often scolded him like he was scolding a dog. He became so angry that he wanted to kill his father-in-law as well. So he set an ambush, hoping to trick his father-in-law into the main house and then kill him.

Unexpectedly, Ambrasinos had already bribed the people around Aristarchus and got the news in advance. He killed the other party and supported Aristarchus' son and his grandson to succeed as the chief.

The tribes of Budokaribas, Cicelytesses and others moved to the Sava River and were almost assimilated by Nyx; Chalsipompus led the western tribes to settle in the eastern hills, far away from the power center of the tribe; Cleobrotus was tired of Aristarchus' distrust and suppression of him, and had long retired from his own tribe on the grounds of old age; therefore, Ambrasinus held the power of the tribe for many years, thinking that he could easily settle the matter of Aristarchus being killed by him, and let his grandson sit firmly on the position of the chief.

He didn't know that when there are no external enemies, internal conflicts will arise.

The Ardei tribe gained a lot of benefits by following Nix, and Ambrasinos and his tribe obtained a considerable share of them. Long-term unfair distribution would naturally lead to dissatisfaction among other tribes, even the tribes along the Mreznica river who were once regarded as one.

As a result, many tribal leaders not only disagreed with letting Ambrasinos' grandson succeed to the throne, but also wanted to hold him accountable for killing the chief.

The two sides were arguing and turned to their ally Nix for help. Maximus declared on the surface that he would not interfere in the internal affairs of the Ardei tribe.

However, he secretly sent people to instigate several southern Aldei tribal leaders who had close relations with the Nix tribe to use force to solve the problem.

Soon, the verbal dispute turned into a physical conflict.

Ambrasinos was naturally stronger and quickly defeated his opponent.

Just when he thought the situation was settled, Chalcephemus, with the slogan of "revenge for the great chief, and restoration of tribal peace", summoned the tribes of the eastern hills, formed an army, and suddenly marched south to intervene in the fight.

At the beginning, after Chalsipompus led the tribes from the western mountains to move to the eastern hills, with the help of Maximus, after ten years of recuperation, their strength was no weaker than that of the southern tribes. In addition, with the weapons and armor donated by the Nyx tribe, they easily defeated the tribal army of Ambrasinus, and Ambrasinus himself died on the battlefield.

Chalsipompus led his army into the main stronghold of Ardea, and, on the grounds that "the new chief was appointed by the rebel Ambracinus and violated tribal traditions", he obtained the consent of the elders and began to re-elect the chief.

This time, the election of the chief not only allowed the retired old elder Cleobrotas to return, but also tribal leaders such as Budokaribas and Cicelitses, who had not attended tribal meetings for many years and lived far away on the Sava River, rushed to the main village (even though most of their people had been assimilated by Nix).

Finally, Chalsipompus was elected as the new chieftain of Aldei with a high vote, which made the relationship between the Kingdom of Nyx and the Aldei tribe closer and was more conducive to Maximus' control of Aldei. Otherwise, he would not be able to summon the chieftain of a large tribe for secret discussions as if he were summoning his own men.

Everyone in the hall was accustomed to this.

"How is the military training specifically for the Roman army planned by the Ministry of War going?" Maximus asked again.

"Your Majesty, after you approved the military plan submitted by the Ministry of War to attack Rome, we began to carry out the spring training in March according to the plan. We practiced the legion formation confrontation between heavy infantry and heavy infantry, the defensive tactics of javelin shooting, the harassment of heavy infantry by light cavalry, the impact of heavy cavalry on heavy infantry, the coordinated attack of heavy crossbowmen and heavy infantry, and the frontal attack of armored soldiers on shield formations with the cooperation of heavy infantry... and many other tactics."

Chief of Staff Pecot said: "There has been no war in the kingdom in the past two years, and the legions have added some new soldiers. In addition, the tactics they are practicing are new. Both the officers and soldiers are unfamiliar with it. The Ministry of War has ordered the legions to continue to train in the town drill grounds in their free time after the spring training ends and they return to their towns. After the autumn training begins, they will be assessed first, and the worst performing teams will be punished.

So far, judging from the responses from the various towns’ training grounds, their training attitude is still very positive, but I found a few problems in the previous spring training, which I am afraid need to be solved as soon as possible! ”

"what is the problem?"

"The power of heavy cavalry charging a dense array head-on is indeed terrifying, but there are only eighty cavalrymen, which is too small to play an important role in a major battle."

"To what extent do you wish to increase the number of heavy cavalry?" Maximus asked.

"It would be best if we had 300 cavalrymen. This would form a powerful attack force, making it easier to break through the Roman shield formation and greatly deterring the enemy. However, I heard that the only horses that can serve as heavy cavalry are the stronger Boima. Do we have enough Boima?"

"There are enough horses, but some of them have to wait until next spring when they are three years old before they can be trained to become war horses," said Sexippus, chief of the Animal Husbandry Department.

Maximus nodded and said, "Then do as you said and increase the number of heavy cavalry to 300. However, you must train them as soon as possible so that they can be combat-ready when we go out to fight."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Pequot bowed and continued, "Also, our original crossbowmen can't pose much of a threat to the Roman heavy infantry, but the heavy crossbowmen can do quite a lot of damage to the Roman heavy infantry. I hope to reduce the number of light crossbowmen in each legion and increase the number of heavy crossbowmen."

(End of this chapter)