If something is really worth saying or doing, don't think twice about who you are.

- Marcus Aurelius (the only philosopher-emperor in Western history)

In order to deal with the aggressiveness of the Julius family, and also for the other four families to better develop against the Julius family; The Maxentius family, the Scipio family, and the Brutus family, after careful negotiations in the city of Rome, decided to let the Senate completely loosen the restrictions on the major families. That is to say, from now on, the Senate will no longer care how many troops the five major families have recruited, and what these armies are doing; Everything was decided by the respective families, and the Senate was officially reduced to a symbolic existence.

The original Senate set the names of each legion were also abolished correspondingly, and which legion belonged to which family was freely named by that family; Each family can recruit as many troops as they want, and the Senate will no longer care. More importantly, the five great families have since had their own diplomatic rights and the sovereignty of all provinces; In other words, Oscar can conclude an alliance with any other country on behalf of the House of Augustus, or start a war against any country, and the Senate will not interfere.

In this way, the five major families of Rome directly became their own five forces; In other words, the so-called Roman Republic was completely extinct in name only. Even if the five major families don't see each other for various reasons, they won't work together to help each other as before; The relationship between each other has all become purely independent. Of course, all these things given by the Senate belong to the category of intelligence; And the real orders were for the Fifth Eagle Banner and the Boar Legion, as well as the Falcon Legion.

After careful consideration by Maxentius and other three families, Decius stepped forward to make the decision; The three legions were officially placed under the command of the House of Augustus. However, in order to compensate for the two legions paid by the Scipio family, the Augustus family must unconditionally cede the province of Upper Sicily to the Scipio family after the success of the future counterattack on Sicily; Otherwise, the other three families will join forces to sanction the House of Augustus. After assuring this, Decius's opinion was for the four families to form a simple alliance to deal with the pressure of the Julius family.

In response, Decius joins the alliance on behalf of Oscar as Oscar's father-in-law; Of course, Oscar is also willing. However, these changes in Rome left the generals in the conference room speechless; The powerful Roman Republic was completely torn apart by the strong rise of a family, which inevitably chilled the hearts of these generals who had shed their blood for the republic. But. The facts are a foregone conclusion, and no one can change them; The only consolation may be that the major families are not on their own, and they are all nominally part of Rome.

In addition to the power that these families suddenly possessed, another serious problem arose; That is, with the decentralization of power in the Senate and the complete disintegration of the military belonging. The military expenses of the army were also borne by the respective families themselves. The Julius family can barely support an army of 90,000 with the land of five provinces and family heritage, and the Maxentius family occupies the richest Latin province and can easily support three legions; The Scipio family now had only two legions on its own soil, so there was nothing to worry about; Although the Brutus family has four legions, the two southern provinces are already rich and rich, and naturally they are more than enough.

So here's the problem. How can one Sardinia support the six main battle legions and four family legions and seven auxiliary legions of the House of Augustus? In particular, this is a huge army no less than the number of the army of the House of Julius, and there are also a large number of cavalry troops; The cost of feeding cavalry is much higher than that of infantry, and it costs a lot to feed the horses alone. In other words, the biggest crisis facing the Augustan family now is that they can't feed their own army!

This is not a trivial matter, once the army does not get paid and has enough to eat, then the Augustus family will not have to fight Hannibal at all; These angry soldiers alone were enough to tear the entire House of Augustus apart. Never think of the so-called spiritual beliefs as great; Except for a very small number of extremists, for normal people, eating a full stomach is far more important than faith. Thankfully, this year's military Senate has already given the Oscars; At the very least, Oscar has half a year to solve this problem.

Before this can be solved, there is one more thing that needs to be solved; That's the issue of the clan number. Now that the Senate has completely abolished the previous legion number. The naming rights of the clan were handed over to the major families; Naturally, Oscar will not continue to use the original clan number. Don't think that this is just a small change, but the other effects are far-reaching and long-lasting; If the soldiers of the Legion chant the name of the House of Augustus every day, can it have the same effect as using the Republic number? The subtle changes are huge.

Of course, before that, the Senate's official order to assign to the Legion must also be notified to Tetius of the Boar Legion and Segudus of the Falcon Legion; The other Legion Commanders will also have to come back to receive new titles. Immediately, Oscar ordered the guards to send cavalry to summon all the legion commanders back to Callaris and officially convene a new family council. Before the commanders arrived, Oscar continued to communicate with the main generals of the family present, wanting to hear their opinions.

As for the change of number, Luquis's suggestion was that when changing the number of the legion, the Guards Cavalry Legion, the Guards Infantry Legion and the Samonai Legion were excluded from the same formation; The remaining seven main battle legions will not only have to change their numbers. It was also necessary to disrupt and redivide all the subordinate hundred-man teams and brigades of the corps. In this way, there will be a great connection between each legion and the other legions, so that they can truly become one with each other; It also helped these seven legions to become an army loyal to the House of Augustus.

Luquis's rather explicit remark did not make Quintus raise any objections, because in a sense, the transfer of the three legions to the Augustan family also transferred the generals of the three legions to the Augustus family; In addition, Quintus had previously accepted the knighthood conferred by the Augustus family. Now Quintus didn't know whether he was from Scipio or Augustus. Quintus is not the only one who is confused, and when Tetius and Segudus come, they will be as confused as Quintus.

At the moment, everyone's brains are chaotic and clueless; In order to better convene the next family meeting in which all the generals participated, Oscar announced the end of the meeting at this time. The generals who left the conference room all found a quiet place to digest information and organize their thoughts. Oscar and Mary were left to walk together in the gardens of the Doge's Palace once again. Unlike the last time they talked about their feelings, this time their thoughts were on the change in the situation in the republic; No one has time to think about anything else.

Over time. Oscar sighed helplessly and said, "At this moment, the new pattern of the Roman Republic has been formed; The Maxentius and Scipio families were difficult to develop due to geographical limitations, and even if they continued to develop, they would no longer pose a threat. The enemies of the House of Julius were the barbarians of the north, and the enemies of the House of Brutus were the countries of the Greek peninsula; Our enemy is the mightiest of all, Hannibal. ”

Oscar's lament caused Mary to take her flying thoughts back. Looking at Oscar with a sad face, Mary smiled and said, "What do you have to lament?" No matter how strong Hannibal is, there will be a day of failure, as long as we work together to defeat Hannibal; The vast expanse of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula is yours. When that time comes, you will have the granaries of North Africa, and the horses and elephants of Numidia and Carthage. If you want troops, it will be even more inexhaustible; If I want you, your location is the best! ”

"Indeed, it's good to think about the future; But the current crisis is not easy to overcome. Neither the mighty Hannibal and his army, nor the question of military spending that weighed on his head, could not be solved in a moment; The future is very beautiful, but whether you can go to the future is the key. ”

"Actually, you don't have to be so pessimistic, the war between Numidia and Carthage is almost inevitable; As soon as war broke out between them, Hannibal and his elite army were bound to be recalled to Carthage. At that time, we will be able to seize the Balearic Islands of Carthage and Betica, the most important base of the Hannibal family; When Hannibal finishes fighting Numidia in North Africa, we will grow up. Who knows who will kill the deer? ”

"That being said, Hannibal is no ordinary opponent; We can take advantage of his efforts against Numidia to conquer Carthage's overseas territories, and he will also continue to expand his power in Carthage. When the Numidian War was completely over, who knows what the size of Hannibal's army had at that time; More importantly, the formation of the new pattern of Rome has also caused us to lose the greatest advantage in population and support, and I hope that the Maxentius family will keep the alliance with us. ”

"You can rest assured that the Maxentius family needs this covenant more than we do; Decius would not change his covenant with us at will, not to mention that you are his son-in-law. With Prisca alone, the covenant between the Augustus family and the Maxentius family would not be easily torn apart; And the two sons of Decius were also generous men, which is guaranteed. ”

After the topic came to Prisca. Oscar and Mary didn't go on much; The silence between the two returned to the previous one, leaving only the sound of footsteps. Because the legionnaires relied on war horses to get on the road, plus the construction of Romanesque roads in Sardinia; It was only a few hours' journey from the barracks to Calaris, and the generals soon gathered at the Governor's Palace. Oscar returned to the conference room once again. Looking at the conference room where all the generals were gathered; Oscar didn't say anything, but first showed the information and orders of the Senate to the generals to circulate.

After the last general finished reading, the generals, including Oscar, turned their attention to Tetius and Segudus; The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became solemn. In the end, the two chose to be loyal to the House of Augustus and Oscar himself, as Oscar expected; Quintus didn't make his own decision. After dealing with the ownership of the two generals, the next step is the issue of the new number of the legion; Regarding the matter of this legion, Oscar respected Luquis's advice.

In addition to the Samonai Regiment and two Guards Regiments. The remaining seven legions were reorganized into seven Augustan legions; The numbers are also the 1st Augustan Legion to the 7th Augustan Legion, and the commanders are: Luquis, Quintus, Segudus, Tetius, Longkina, Gumus, and Cassiyo. The commanders of the seven auxiliary legions were: Raqqa, Narsi, Marcus, Scorry, Gabriel, Ulles, and Cocles (former Falcon Adjutant General).

The Guards Cavalry Regiment and the Guards Infantry Regiment remained unchanged, and the Samonai Legion was temporarily led by Lucis as the acting commander; The Chengguan Corps, which is about to go to North Africa, is still headed by Spartacus, Tuka is the adjutant general of the legion, and the former deputy general of the Boar Legion, Li Lias, is also going to North Africa to serve as the deputy general of the cavalry corps under the United Legion. At this point, the matter concerning the army of the House of Augustus was settled; The immediate reshuffling was to be carried out by the two deputy commanders, Lucis and Quintus. (To be continued.) )