Out of nowhere, and still out of nowhere.

- Lucretius (Roman philosopher)

This time under the gaze of Flavies stood up to the head of the Fourth Legion, Farius, who did not make any earth-shattering opinions, nor questioned anyone's ideas; It is simply a superficial position that supports Appius' opinion and favors expansion to the northeast, and the reason is also a retelling of what Appius said.

Flavies did not embarrass Farrius, and sat him down after he had finished speaking briefly; In fact, Flavis also knew that people like Farius were not suitable for such a meeting. Because Farius was only one of the generals who followed him from the beginning, it was because of his loyalty that Flavis promoted him to the position of commander of the legion.

Such a person, you let him obediently obey orders, and he has no opinion at all; If you ask him to express his opinion, his opinion is nothing. No one is perfect, and Flavis never had too many requirements for Farius; As long as he can always maintain a pure heart that is loyal to himself, that is enough.

Everyone knew of Flavis' preference for Farius, but they were not jealous at all; After all, it's not easy to live a life as simple as Farius. After Farius is the new legion commander Rabinus, this Rabinus is not simple, he is also a general personally dug by Flavis like Calabes!

Rabinus was originally the head of the guard of a caravan in Rome, but was stranded in the city of Aretion due to the sudden outbreak of the Roman-Gallic War; As time passed, his caravan was leaving the city of Arethion, which was under martial law. Of course, this is not allowed, but the owner of the caravan can't just watch all the fruit he was lucky enough to buy rot like this!

Thus, a fierce conflict broke out; Rabinus, who was in his thirties, with a hundred of his bodyguards, under the orders of the caravan owner, fought directly with the patrol in the city of Arethion. The five hundred members of the Julius family of the patrol were carelessly beaten by the hundred guards of Rabinus.

This was not the end of the matter, the caravan owner trusted Rabinus; After the patrol was over, they rushed to the city gate, and the 1,000 soldiers of the Julius family who were guarding the city gate were caught off guard and defeated by Rabinus. The owner of the caravan, who had successfully escaped from Arettien, was shocked by the scene before him before he had time to rejoice.

The leader of Flavies, returning from a great victory, was returning to Aretion with his army, and the two sides met unexpectedly; Looking at the large number of Roman legionaries behind Flavis, the caravan owner wisely chose to surrender. Flavies, after learning what had happened, did not punish the caravan owner, but was willing to let him go.

However, Flavis is also conditional; That is, the caravan owner must immediately fire Rabinus, and Rabinus must swear allegiance to the House of Julius and Flavius himself. It didn't matter what Rabinus himself was, and under the pressure of the caravan owner, he had no choice but to swear allegiance to the Julius family and Flavis.

After receiving the allegiance of Rabinus, Flavis took him very seriously, and even appointed him as the commander of the newly formed legion of the Julius family; This incident caused an uproar within the Julius family. After all, everyone had never heard of Flavis appointing a legion commander so casually, but Flavis disdained it.

A month after the formation of the new legion, Flavies held a legion review within the family; During this review, Rabinus's Fifth Legion, which had just been formed for a month, became famous. This fame in one fell swoop was not obtained out of thin air, but by oneself; Both the First Legion of Vibius and the Second Legion of Gallerius were defeated at the hands of the Fifth Legion, and it was a crushing defeat!

In this way, Rabinus's position within the Julius family was recognized by all; Rabinus also became the second envied existence within the Julius family after Carabes. After Flavis' gaze turned to Rabinus, Rabinus stood up very calmly and said:

"I myself do not approve of the westward expansion of the Lords Vibius and Gallerius, nor the northeast expansion of the Lords Appius and Farius; Personally, I think the best expansion plan is to expand to the Northeast and East at the same time.

Whether it is Noricum in the northeast or Illyria in the east, they are all existences that may pose a threat to our Julius family's homeland; The Germanic barbarians in the north were a threat, and the Dacian barbarians in the east were also a threat. In order to prevent these two powerful barbarians from threatening our homeland, the best way is to take Norikum and Illyria in one fell swoop.

As long as we take Norikum and Illyria, we of the House of Julius only need to station an army in Noricum and Illyria, and we can form two barriers to the east and north of our homeland; It is not necessary to divide the troops to the east and the north, as is the case now. Whether or not they can concentrate their forces is crucial for the future Julius family.

Because the key to the future competition among the powerful families of Rome is not how many provinces the family occupies, nor how powerful the army the family has; It's about who takes control of Rome proper! If nothing else, Marius would soon take control of the Latin provinces; He's a man of all kinds.

If we cannot guarantee that we will concentrate a strong army for the time to come, it will be meaningless for us to occupy the whole of Gaul; Not to mention whether the Gallic barbarians in the land of Gaul will become our people, and even if they wish, how many people will the whole land of Gaul have?

The six provinces of Rome proper, except for the city of Rome and the Latin provinces, which had an unusually large population; Each of the other five provinces will have a population of less than one million. What does this mean? This means that whoever controls Rome itself can control a population of 10 million; Even if only one of the fifty out of these 10 million people can join the army, an army of 200,000 can be formed without pressure!

In war, it is always the population who fights in the end; If you have more people, you will have the capital to win, and if you have fewer people, you can only face the final defeat, even if you have won a hundred times before defeat! What was the size of the population in Gaul? Million? Million? It can't be more than three million at most, and it is still distributed over a vast land, how much of a role can it play?

For the Julius family, the best way to develop is to take Norikum in the northeast and send an army there; Then take Illyria in the east, and also send an army to be stationed there. As for the land of Gaul, we don't need to do it ourselves; All it takes is to send General Carabes with a large army out of the Alps.

Once we have taken care of everything in the homeland, the House of Julius will be able to assemble an army and return to Rome itself; At that time, the Julius family controlled the two northern provinces of Rome proper, the three provinces south of the Alps, and the two provinces to the northeast and east.

As long as the Julius family finally took the remaining four provinces of Rome proper, then it was not only the wild Gallic land that belonged to the Julius family; As long as we wish, we can concentrate the manpower and material resources of Rome to build the most powerful fleet in the shortest possible time, and march to the rich and fertile East, to the commercially developed Greece, to wherever we want!

And before that, what we should do is send a strong army to Illyria in the east and Norikum in the northeast, and that's it. ”

Rabinus's analysis does not focus on the specific direction of attack, but directly stands on the height of the family's future strategy; Although Flavis tried his best to hide his excitement, his slightly trembling right hand betrayed him. Caesar, whose face had remained unchanged all along, also looked at Rabinus in shock after he finished speaking.

Others don't know, but Caesar knows; What Rabinus just said was basically what his grandfather had said to him last night. If it weren't for the fact that Labinus couldn't have known about last night's conversation, Caesar would have thought that it was Labinus who overheard what his grandfather said to him last night.

Flavis's performance was not hidden from the generals present, and the four who had already expressed their opinions were naturally annoyed that Rabinus had been recognized by Flavis; The Sixth Legion Commander Varus and the Seventh Legion Commander Cecil would not have wasted this great opportunity, and their opinions naturally catered to Rabinus's opinion.

Flavis knew that the latter two had deliberately expressed their opinions, but he did not spoil his elation in the slightest; The fact that the Julius family could have such a Rabinus in the same mind as themselves was enough to make Flavies happy. At this time, Flavis felt deeply lucky; Perhaps, being able to 'pick up' Calabes and Rabinus is the greatest contribution he has made to the Julius family!

So, after all the generals had finished speaking, Flavies did not continue to make senseless cover-ups; Flavies did not hesitate to express to the generals that he also agreed with Rabinus's expansion plan. At this point, the plans of the Julius family for the crusade were formalized; The next step is to arrange the specific troop corps! (To be continued.) )