The meat that is eaten secretly tastes the best.

- Tacitus (the greatest historian of ancient Rome)

Enlisting the support of the Greek legions was only the first step in Tiberius' plan; How to assign the generals of the Brutus family to the command of these thirteen thousand Greek legions was the key to Tiberius's plan. Of course, if the generals of the Brutus family were appointed as the commanders of the legions at the outset, it would easily cause them to resist in their hearts; This would be counterproductive.

Therefore, Tiberius could not directly appoint the general of the Brutus family as the commander of the Greek legions; While this is understandable, it is not a good way to gain the full allegiance of the Greek legion. However, Tiberius could not have the Greek legions under the command of a single Greek; In this case, the Greek Legion will never be able to become the Greek Legion of the Brutus family.

To this end, Tiberius came up with the idea of having two parallel captains in the Greek legion; One of the two captains was naturally a commander appointed by the Brutus family, and the other was a commander promoted from among the original officers of the Greek legion. The two legion commanders jointly command the Greek legions, with the same status and power, and each has direct command of half of the legion!

Such a proposal was made by Tiberius when the soldiers of the Greek legions were eager to fight; Without thinking, the eager Greek legions agreed to Tiberius' proposal. After all, they were all captives of the Brutus family, and it was only his duty for Tiberius to be able to ask for their opinions; Naturally, they would not have been unamused to oppose Tiberius' proposal.

Eventually, the two commanders of the Greek Legion were decided; The commander appointed by Tiberius was General Max of the Brutus family, while the commander promoted from within the Greek legion was the Norman general who had a favorable opinion of the Brutus family. After the two captains were officially appointed, Tiberius asked the two captains to put the Greek legions in order and be ready to go on the expedition at any time!

In addition to the affairs of the Greek legions, the affairs of the leading legions also needed to be handled by Tiberius himself; As a combat corps, the establishment of the leader corps is too large. More than 14,000 soldiers, which is already the total number of soldiers of the two heavy regiments; Putting so many soldiers under the command of a single corps is simply too cumbersome in terms of operational and organizational structure.

Moreover, such a large corps establishment cannot give full play to the combat effectiveness of the legion soldiers, but will bind these soldiers; In order to be able to better play the role of this 14,000-strong army, and also for them to form a more powerful combat effectiveness. Tiberius finally decided to split the Legion of Leaders in two and form two Legions of Leaders of his own!

In this way, the formation of the Leader Legion would be broadly in line with the other Heavy Legions of the House of Brutus; From the point of view of the flexibility and mobility of the corps, this is also beneficial to the corps to fight. After the leader corps was divided into two legions, the number naturally became the first leader corps and the second leader corps; Among them, the commander of the First Leader Corps is still held by Rex.

As for the commander of the Second Leader's Legion, Tiberius did not have any suitable candidates; The lack of generals is not only a unique phenomenon of the Julius family, but also the lack of generals of the Brutus family. Max, the previously appointed commander of the Greek Legion, was also the lieutenant general of the First Legion; After his appointment to the rank of Legion, the Adjutant General of the First Legion was replaced by the Chief Captain.

When there were really no good candidates to appoint, Tiberius finally appointed Eden, the lieutenant of the Second Legion, as the commander of the Second Leader Legion; And the chief captain of the Second Legion was also promoted to the position of deputy general of the legion. In fact, Sulla and Pompey had a few good generals under their command; Unfortunately, their origins meant that Tiberius could not reuse them!

Ever since that open and honest conversation with Sulla and Pompey, Tiberius knew that sooner or later Sulla and Pompey would have to leave the Brutus family; In the same way, the Fifth and Seventh Legions, which are now part of the Sulla line, and the Sixth and Eighth Legions, which belong to the Pompey line, will also follow Sulla and Pompey and leave the Brutus family in the future.

Otherwise, do you think that Sulla and Pompey are really so willing to contribute to the development of the Brutus family? Too much of the things involved were an exchange of interests, and when Tiberius gave the appointment of the commanders of the Seventh and Eighth Legions to these two men, the two legions were exchanging other interests.

That is to say, the Brutus family ostensibly had a strong force of ten legions; But in fact, it was only the six legions that were truly loyal to the Brutus family. The remaining four legions were not part of the Brutus family army at all, they were merely troops under the orders of the Brutus; This is why Tiberius formed a legion of leaders.

The Legion of Leaders, as the name suggests, is a legion loyal to the leader of the family, and it is also a legion that is absolutely loyal to the Brutus family; Naturally, non-descendant generals cannot be used in such a legion. Rex was the captain of the Third Eagle Banner Legion, and this aspect was guaranteed; Eden was also a loyal general to the Brutus family, and Tiberius would use him again.

After the matter of the Greek legions and the leading legions was taken care of, Tiberius began to think about the next war against the city-state of Semon, or the fighting power against Pyrrhus and his main army; The half of the Epirus kingdom west of Tulbo was garrisoned by the Fifth Legion of Osdis, and the half of the Epirus kingdom to the east was garrisoned by Tiberius, who decided to have Alvin's Fourth Legion garrisoned.

As for Apollonia, the capital of the kingdom of Epirus, Tiberius would leave his elite Third Legion to garrison; After all, the commander of the Third Legion, Helenius, was the confidant of the Brutus family, and he led the army to garrison the rear of the Brutus family, and Tiberius could rest assured that he would boldly go to Semon without worries.

In addition to these three legions, Gnieus had already set out with the First and Ninth Legions, and Nero was about to set out with the Second and Tenth Legions; The rest were Amos' Sixth Legion, the two newly formed Legions, and the newly surrendered Greek Legions, and the other 10,000 archers, Tiberius, had no intention of taking them with them.

These ten auxiliary legions of archers were formed to deal with the war elephant troops under the command of Pyrrhus; Now that they had completed their mission, Tiberius was not going to take them on their march towards Semon. While archery units can also play a role in warfare, they are not very useful for the hoplites under Pyrrhus; You might as well keep them.

The army of 10,000 archers was divided into two parts by Tiberius; Of these, five thousand men of the first part were to be stationed in Apollonia with Helenius, and five thousand men of the second part were to be stationed in Tulbo with Alvin's chief brigade. In this way, the Brutus family could firmly control the kingdom of Epirus in their own hands without fear of losing it.

When the day's feast was over, Nero took General ****** to the barracks to prepare for the march of the army early tomorrow morning; Tomorrow's banquet will be held by the 3rd, 4th, and 6th Legions, as well as the newly formed Leader Legion and the Greek Legion. The reason why the soldiers of the Greek legion also participated in such a banquet was to promote friendship between them and the soldiers of the Brutus family.

The good times of the banquet always pass quickly, after the end of the three-day banquet; Early in the morning of the fourth day, Tiberius marched east with the Sixth Legion and the two leading legions, as well as the Greek legions. At the same time, the Third Legion and five thousand archers, led by Helenius, marched towards Apollonia to the southeast.

Alvin did not leave Tulbo, and his mission was to take his Fourth Legion Chief Brigade and Cavalry Hundreds, as well as 5,000 archers, to take Tulbo, and recruit nearby civilians and craftsmen to repair Tulbo's walls and other defenses; The other eleven brigades under his command were scattered and stationed in various cities east of Tulbo.

The four legions led by Tiberius himself were nominally only four legions, but they had a strong army and an elite army; Needless to say, the soldiers of the two leading legions, based on their experiences and encounters, they are definitely the most elite army of the Brutus family now, the Greek legion is also the army trained by Pyrrhus, and the sixth legion is the elite of Pompey's family.

These four legions, a full army of thirty-four thousand; If you encounter Pyrus's 30,000 hoplites on the frontal battlefield, it is unknown who will kill the deer! Even if the army of Brutus was defeated, Tiberius believed that the 14,000 soldiers of the two leading legions would fight until the last moment; The same army will not surrender to another army twice!

Coupled with the 14,000 troops under Gnaeus and the 14,000 troops under Nero, Tiberius was full of confidence in this expedition; Even with 30,000 hoplites and 2,000 ironclad cavalry under Pyrrhus, Tiberius felt that the Brutus family would be victorious!

After a twelve-day march with his army of four legions, Tiberius finally reached the border between Epirus and Zemon; By this time, the armies of Gnaeus and Nero had already arrived in the border area, and they were stationed in one place, waiting for the arrival of Tiberius's army.

After the three armies converged again, Tiberius did not allow his army to stay and rest for two days; But the day after the meeting, Tiberius ordered all the armies of the Brutus family to march again in the direction of Semon! (To be continued.) )