The most important thing in the matter of love is to be honest with yourself and not to deceive yourself. In fact, love can only be tasted when you look at the happiness of others as the most important thing in your mind. Otherwise, it's a win-win deal at best. In such a situation, if your needs are not met, the so-called love will disappear.

- Sadhguru (Enlightened Being, Enlightened Yogi, Mystic, Visionary Humanitarian, Outstanding Spiritual Teacher)

The conditions for Rome to advance to the stage of a large city are: first, the population of the city of Rome reaches 500,000, second, the monthly treasury income of the city reaches 300,000 gold, third, the number of troops in the Roman system reaches 50,000, and fourth, the population of the city of Rome reaches 10 million.

Among the four promotion conditions, the first three conditions of Roman City have already been met, but the fourth condition has not been met, even if Bai Feng ruled tens of millions of people in the eastern provinces of the Heavenly Dragon Empire in the name of Duke Yulin, it could not be counted by the system.

To a certain extent, whether it is Bai Feng's own title of Duke of Yulin or his status as a member of the Bai family in the Heavenly Dragon Empire, they have no direct relationship with Roman City, unless one day, Bai Feng blatantly plays the banner of Roman City in the Heavenly Dragon Empire.

At that time, the people ruled by Bai Feng in the Heavenly Dragon Empire would be counted by the Roman system as the ruling population of Roman City; otherwise, even if Bai Feng actually controlled the entire Heavenly Dragon Empire as the Bai family, it would not have any impact on Roman City.

These things that Yue'er told Bai Feng have always played a crucial role in Bai Feng's decision-making, if it weren't for Bai Feng's determination that his power in the Heavenly Dragon Empire would be difficult to promote the development of Roman City, how could he be in a hurry to unify the eastern region?

With the Bai family's growing power in the Tianlong Empire and the Yanhuang family's strength in the Yamato Empire steadily increasing, Bai Feng's overall strength is developing with each passing day, while Rome City, which is still in the city stage, has gradually been unable to keep up with the development speed of Bai Feng's forces.

It is undeniable that the special training of soldiers, weapons and equipment, grain and grass materials, and high-quality war horses exchanged with the treasury funds in the Roman system do have an irreplaceable role in the development of Bai Feng's forces;

However, the Roman system has only thirty recruitment places every month, which really can't meet Bai Feng's needs, because the gradually expanding sphere of influence in Roman City determines that Bai Feng needs to recruit a large number of system troops, naval warships, and special people.

Thirty recruitment places per month, twelve months a year is three hundred and sixty recruitment places, even if Bai Feng uses all these three hundred and sixty recruitment places for a certain aspect, the limited number of places still can't meet Bai Feng's needs, not to mention that Bai Feng needs more than that.

Therefore, Bai Feng had been looking forward to the further promotion of Rome City for a long time, he was eager to see the legion recruitment that Yue'er said, he wanted to see how much the special training of the legion barracks was stronger than the urban barracks, and he wanted to recruit the five-column warships that were more powerful than the three-column battleships!

After years of waiting, the curtain finally came down after the end of the war, and now, all it takes is for Bai Feng himself to return to Rome and start building the unlocked consul's residence in his governor's palace, and in forty days, Rome will officially enter the stage of a big city.

As soon as he thought of this, Bai Feng felt the urge to return to Rome City as soon as possible, and the reason why he didn't have the idea of using the teleportation array to return to Rome City was because he still needed to lead the army back with the prisoners of war in the process of returning to Rome City.

Fortunately, the city of Rome had a powerful fleet that dominated the eastern region, as well as an extremely large fleet of ships, so that Bai Feng could lead his army to escort the prisoners of war to the banks of the Cangluo River, and then board the ships and sail south to the Roman port.

When he landed in southwestern Luzhou, the armies commanded by Bai Feng included the 1st, 2nd, and 7th Roman legions and the Spartan army, as well as the troops of Maxi and Darnell.

Licinius's First Army, Vermina's Second Army, Luculus's Seventh Army, and Leonidas's Spartan Army were all left on the north bank of the Cangluo River by Bai Feng and placed under the unified command of Luquis to maintain stability in the occupied area.

It was not until the Vipsani led the people to formally establish the twenty-seven directly subordinate towns, and the town guards and tuntian legions of each town were also formed and stationed, and with them to maintain the stability of these newly established direct towns, the huge army left in the occupied area of the Roman city would gradually withdraw.

Of course, in the barren land where all the people are soldiers, even if there are town guards and tuntian legions stationed, the newly built towns directly under the direct jurisdiction may not maintain the stability that the Roman city wants, so it is also an effective way to maintain stability by retaining a considerable number of Roman regular troops.

According to Bai Feng's agreement with Luquis before leaving, after the twenty-seven towns directly under the north bank of the Cangluo River were established, the number of Roman garrisons on the north bank of the Cangluo River would be reduced to five legions, and at least two of them would be Roman legions.

As for whether the number of troops in this garrison will be further reduced, it depends on the performance of the newly built towns directly under the direct control, as long as they show enough loyalty to convince Bai Feng, Bai Feng will give them a better living environment and a more relaxed management system, which is the rule.

Bai Feng's own expectation was that within the next two years, the assimilation of the twenty-seven directly subordinate towns on the north bank of the Cangluo River would be completed, and at that time, the army of the city of Rome would only need to keep two legions on the south bank of the Cangluo River and two legions on the north bank of the Cangluo River to protect the rear.

Four legions were only a quarter of the strength of the city of Rome, which had a regular army of sixteen legions, and if the Eighth Roman legion and three auxiliary legions were to be formed, four legions would be only one-fifth of the strength of the city.

In this way, only four legions would be enough to stabilize the city of Rome in the rear, and it would provide Bai Feng with sixteen legions to drive, and with the superior combat power of Roman soldiers and barbarian warriors, as well as longbowmen, it would be an extremely powerful military force!

Occasionally, Bai Feng dreamed of a bright future, and did not waste too much time in empty fantasies, and after Maxi and Darnell's soldiers were assembled, Bai Feng took them and the prisoners of war on the road back to Rome.

Considering that the total number of soldiers under the command of Maxi and Darnell was only 5,000, it was indeed quite risky for them to carry tens of thousands of unruly Lucy prisoners of war to the east, so Antio's Heavy Hammer Army was also temporarily taken by Bai Feng's side.

The Hammer Legion, whose hoplites had dropped to 2,000, were a butcher and a demonic presence to the unarmed Lucy prisoners of war, and with them roaming the flanks of the ranks, the unwilling Lucy prisoners of war would undoubtedly be much more peaceful.

After five or six days of marching, the large force finally reached the banks of the main stream of the Cangluo River, and along the temporary harbor established at the time of the landing of Luquis, the Luci prisoners of war were escorted by their Roman soldiers to the convoy and sailed south under the supervision of the fleet.