Whoever wants to establish a nation and give it laws should first assume that people are evil. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

- Niccolò Machiavelli (Italian political thinker and historian)

Less than half a month passed quickly, and the combat effectiveness of the various legions in the city of Rome had not returned to their peak condition, and the six thousand longbowmen who had been trained by Perus were in good shape, and the salvo of arrows was quite large-scale.

Two days before the end of October, Bai Feng was ready to set out for the expedition, and the 6,000 longbowmen were transferred from Peris's command, and according to the previous concept, Bai Feng divided the 6,000 longbowmen into three parts, which were assigned to the three legions without longbowmen.

Bazel's Tigers, Eggers' Eagles, and Brono's Dragons were each supplemented by two thousand longbowmen, thus raising the total strength of these three legions from fifteen thousand to seventeen thousand.

Gamilios' Tasya Legion and Gatus' Cheetah Legion maintained their Macedonian phalanx, which somewhat weakened their legions, as the standard Macedonian phalanx consisted of only 8,200 soldiers.

Fortunately, their legions also had Spartan heavy infantry and Macedonian royal pikemen, as well as the reinforcement of the Macedonian royal cavalry, and the battle of a month ago allowed the soldiers of these two legions to be more proficient in the use of the Macedonian phalanx, and their combat effectiveness was only stronger.

More than half of the casualties in the last battle made it difficult for them to recover their original combat effectiveness within a month, and no matter how much one-on-one training they had, it was impossible for them to change qualitatively in less than thirty days.

In order to better take care of the allied army, Bai Feng personally ordered that the Icenian Legion be placed under his direct command, as well as the First Army of Licinius and the Doge's Guard of Antio.

The 12 Roman youth corps of the First Legion had long since been fully reinstated, and with the 10,000 longbowmen under the command of Peris, the total strength of the entire First Legion was nearly 12,000, and the Doge's Guard of Antio remained at 1,500 men.

In addition, there were only twenty warriors left, the Germanic berserkers, and the Parthian archers, two special groups of soldiers who remained with Bai Feng, the former Bai Feng intended to be used as his general guard, and the latter as always used to convey orders.

The total strength of the reorganized army of Rome and the army of Esine was about 100,000, of which the total strength of the three main field legions of the same formation was 51,000 soldiers, and the total strength of the two Macedonian phalanx legions was more than 16,000 soldiers.

In addition to the more than 67,000 soldiers of these five main field legions, the Essini Legion, the First Legion, and the Governor's Guard, which directly belonged to Bai Feng, also added up to nearly 34,000 soldiers, so that the army under Bai Feng's command exceeded 100,000 people.

However, Francis's army was far more than the original 150,000 troops, and Adrian, who was sent by Bai Feng to the hinterland of the Iceni Kingdom, sent two urgent pieces of information back to explain Francis's army expansion.

The first of these two pieces of information was that Adrion had discovered that Francis was recruiting warriors in various camps in the heart of the Aceni Kingdom, and by the time Adrion arrived near Francis's army, his army had exceeded 200,000!

When Bai Feng received this information, his heart was helpless, even bitter; 200,000 troops, that is not 20,000 troops! Even if 50,000 soldiers are newly recruited, the remaining 150,000 troops are all genuine elites!

If Francis only had 150,000 troops under his command, Bai Feng would still have the confidence to use Webster's spellcaster and Adrian's battlefield ghost to create chaos in the rear of the Aceni Kingdom to attract a part of Francis's army.

In addition, the army of Roman City has an absolute advantage in terms of troops, training, and top combat strength, and the difference in numbers of less than 50,000 people is not enough for Bai Feng to retreat, and even the commanders of various legions are not afraid of Francis's superiority in strength.

However, all this was based on the assumption that Francis had only 150,000 or less troops under his command, and once Francis could throw 200,000 troops into battle, the combined forces of Rome and the Aceni tribe had little chance of victory.

The army of Rome itself did not really surpass Francis's army in terms of combat effectiveness, and the reason why it was able to achieve such a brilliant victory last time was entirely because of the super long range of the longbowmen and the perfect combination of the muddy ground.

This time, Bai Feng didn't have any muddy land to cooperate with the longbowmen, so how could the army of Rome defeat the army of the Essene Kingdom, which was more than twice as large as his own? On the day he received this bad news, Bai Feng's decision to prepare to attack was shaken.

Out of the consideration of stabilizing the army's mind, Bai Feng finally did not release this information, nor did he tell anyone about his inner hesitation; on the third day after receiving this first information, Bai Feng received a second piece of information sent back by Adrian.

The arrival of this information brought good news to Bai Feng, it turned out that the death of Atabaz in the last battle and the annihilation of the army under his command made Assam and Nabazani, who were also generals, also feel sad about the death of rabbits and foxes.

In particular, after returning to the hinterland of the Aceni Kingdom, Francis immediately took over all the camps belonging to Atabaz, and deprived Atabaz of the inheritance of his eldest son, making Atabaz's family completely reduced to a third-rate family in name only.

From the point of view of Francis, the king of the Aeconian kingdom, his actions were completely reasonable, but from the point of view of Assam and Nabazani, it was a naked crossing of the river and the demolition of the bridge!

Atabaz died in battle for Francis' ambitions, but his family was denied the right to inherit the camp by Francis, forcing Assam and Nabazani to think about their family's future, as they were all but lost.

Francis, who had focused all his energy on expanding his armaments and accepting Atabaz's camp, did not care about Assam and Nabazzani's thoughts, so when Assam and Nabazani offered to recruit troops from other camps, Francis agreed.

Then came the natural outbreak of civil war, with Assam and Nabazani pretending to lead their troops to other camps to recruit troops, and then they quickly recruited troops in their own camps to regain their strength.

By the time Francis reacted, Assam and Nabazani had already gathered tens of thousands of troops and occupied their camps to regain their independence, so how could Francis, with an army of 200,000, tolerate the betrayal of the two of them?

Thus, a civil war between the kingdoms of Essini broke out in full swing, with 200,000 troops under the command of Francis on one side and 70,000 new troops combined by Assam and Nabazani on the other side, and the difference in combat strength between the two sides was simply huge!