Noicombattiamopervincerelapace (We fight to win peace)

- Aristotle (one of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece)

In addition to the above recommendations, Mary also disputed the existence of the Blue and Red Armours; Mary believes that the existence of the Red and Blue armies is irrational and may even become the biggest drawback of the Augustan reforms in the future. Because the Red Armor Army and the Blue Armor Army themselves are the private armies of the other two families; After the new expansion, their most primitive elite will become the middle and lower rank officers of this army.

Moreover, their commanders are still members of the Carters family and the Richard family; As a result, their allegiances have always been to these two families, not the House of Augustus. Also, it must not be because their family has made a great contribution to the House of Augustus; Loosen the control over them and allow them to interfere with military power.

Otherwise, once the precedent of this non-conformity system is opened; The House of Augustus will never be able to strictly carry out the plan of the army as a leader. Of course, the efforts of these two families cannot be denied praise; However, the form of commendation can be a knighthood or a position, but it cannot be military power. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately recover the military power of Ules and Gabriel; And make up for them in the form of generous knighthoods.

All in all, after a thorough and thorough discussion with Mary; Oscar worked out a new round of military organization plans for the Augustan family. In the new military plan, the entire House of Augustus will have four full legions and two special legions in Sardinia; In addition, all clans will use the same black equipment.

This point is emphasized by Mary, who can see from the equipment of the Guards and the Wolf Legion that Oscar is actually a person who prefers to distinguish armies by different colors of equipment; However, this practice is extremely unreasonable. Mary believed that no matter what kind of army it was, as long as it was an army under the command of the House of Augustus, it should use the same standard of equipment; In this way, the army will have a centripetal force and cohesion towards the Augustan family.

In this regard, Oscar is also ashamed to agree. As Mary said, only a unified standard of equipment can make all the Augustan armies full of centripetal force and cohesion towards the Augustus. These are also evident in the daily life of the earth, and the armies of the governments of all dynasties have used uniform equipment; Only rebel and motley armies use a wide variety of weapons and equipment.

As for Oscar's careful thinking, it's purely an earth's otaku's color preference and collection**; It's a child's mind that can't be put on the table. Why did the armies of the Roman Republic have five colors of standard equipment; The purple of the Maxentius family, the red of the Julius family, the green of the Brutus family, the blue of the Scipio family, the black of the Augustus family. Isn't it because everyone is not united at all and goes their own way? So, Oscar must have followed Mary's right advice on this point; The Augustan army had to use a uniform system of equipment.

The four complete legions are: the Legion of the Wolves, the First Legion, the Legion of Samonai, and the Legion of the Lions, which were formed by the merger of the Red and Blue Armies; The two special legions are the Guards Cavalry Legion, which was expanded from the original Guards Regiment, and the Guards Infantry Legion, which will be formed by Mary herself. Having witnessed the great role played by the elite cavalry group of Hannibal's legions in this Armageddon, Oscar decided to assemble an elite cavalry belonging to the Augustus family; Used against the cavalry of Hannibal's legion in the future in the war with Hannibal.

Actually, in addition to these changes; Mary also points out another overall drawback of the Roman legions: they were too small. The current war for hegemony is no longer a city-state war in which thousands of city-state armies fought each other a few decades ago or even longer, but a large-scale war fought by concentrating the strength of a single country. Tens of thousands of huge armies fought on the battlefield, and the army of more than 4,000 people was no longer suitable for such a war; The size of the legion must be expanded to cope with the current large-scale war.

For Mary's suggestion, Oscar made an exception and chose to refuse. It's not that Oscar thinks it's bad to expand the size of the legion, but that the matter of expanding the size of the legion affects the whole body; It's definitely not something that the current Augustus family can mix. There was no shortage of elites and talents in the Roman Senate, and someone would certainly solve this problem; There is no need for Oscar to worry about it, and Oscar can't worry about it.

When Mary heard this, she naturally understood Oscar's distress; After all, the current House of Augustus is not strong enough to surpass the other four major families. If the ambitions of the Augustan family are exposed prematurely, the Augustan family will definitely face the blows of the other four families; Making a fortune in obscurity was the foreign policy of the Augustan family. Therefore, the House of Augustus should not have been involved in such a major event concerning the future of Rome at all; Even if the standard Roman legions were no longer able to cope with the current war situation, the Augustans could have quietly expanded the number of their own legions without having to arouse the suspicion of others by increasing the size of the legions.

Soon, Oscar and Mary ended their secret conversation for the day; And it's already sunset. So, Oscar invited Mary to go to the deck to watch the sunset; Mary, of course, was smiling but disrespectful.

At this time, after a day and a night of soaring; The eagle that had come out of Messi had finally landed in the backyard of the Maxentius family. The falconer who was in charge of the eagle immediately brought food to the eagle and removed the secret letter tied to the eagle's feet; The falconer knew that this secret letter must be about the war between the Republic and Carthage in early Sicily, and did not dare to delay, so he immediately went to the study of the family leader Decius and presented the secret letter to Decius.

In the past few days, Decius and others have been anxious to wait for the outcome of this decisive battle; Originally, a plan was made to launch a war against Hannibal on September 18, but I don't know why the old Scippi and others have not sent back the news until now. In order to relieve his pressure, the restless Decius specially summoned his two sons and son-in-law to his mansion and asked them to pay attention to him.

As for the two adopted sons whom Decius had always favored, they had thought that this war against Hannibal would be won with certainty; So, they begged in front of Decius for a long time, and finally got Decius to agree to allow the two of them to serve as commanders of the Eagle Legion and the Second Legion, respectively, and follow Scipio the Elder into battle. The original captain of the Eagle Legion, Marius, served as the new administrator of the Republic; In order to gain the support of the Julius family, the new state minister gave Flavis, the leader of the Julius family.

It was because of this time that Decius connived at Julianus and Caissaud, and Marcus and Sevius lodged a serious protest against their father; Especially Marcus. He even asserted that Decius's act of changing generals on the spot would definitely cause the two legions of the family to fall sharply on the battlefield; Moreover, the fact that the family leader actually connived at the behavior of Yulianus and Kaisso to steal credit would also make the soldiers of the legion lose trust in the family.

Decius, of course, was furious at this, knowing that he was more than Marcus's father; He was also the leader of the great family of Maxentius, the supreme high priest of the Roman Republic. How could he allow his son to be so presumptuous in front of him? Annoyed and angry, Decius reprimanded Marcus for his head and face, and even accused Marcus of trying to seize the position of family leader; The angry Marcus immediately left the mansion of the leader of the Maxentius family.

Even today, when he was called back to the mansion by Sevious, Marcus, who had always been filial, faced his father coldly; No one cares about anyone. Naturally, Marius, who had always been very indifferent, would not interfere in these matters, but Sevious was sandwiched between his father and younger brother to comfort him. It was said that the two of them would no longer be-for-tat, and there was a knock on the door.

When the head of the family holds such a core meeting within the family, no one will dare to disturb it casually; Unless something earth-shattering happens! And the only big thing in the current Roman Republic is the Armageddon that the Republic is going on in Sicily with Hannibal's legions of Carthage; Could it be that the result of the decisive battle is out?! This is the voice of everyone at this moment.

Immediately, Decius ordered the men to come in; The falconer who walked into the study felt the oppressive atmosphere in the room, and did not dare to look at it, but after handing over the secret letter to Sevios, he took the initiative to leave the room. Sevios saw that the seal of the Scipio family was indeed on the cover, and immediately opened the secret letter under the eager gaze of everyone; Sevious, who had finished reading it in a hurry, sat down on the chair with a pale face, and his right hand holding the secret letter fell weakly.

Sevios's expression made everyone understand that the horrors of war were not as good as everyone imagined; Decius said to Marcus in a trembling voice, "Mar, you...... You...... Read me what is on MeTson...... Listen to it. Marcus also stood up cautiously and took the secret letter from the eldest brother's hand, and then said to his father with a dead face:

"Messina Urgent: On the 20th, a decisive battle broke out between the two sides on the north bank of the Caldus River; In one day of fierce fighting, the 40,000-strong army of the Roman-Greek coalition army and eight legions were killed and wounded. Commanders and above were also killed and wounded, and only half of Hannibal's 15,000 troops were killed or wounded. At dusk, the Oscar leader took over as supreme commander; He led the commander of the Quintus Legion and hundreds of remnants of the army to fight their way out of the siege and escape. ”

As soon as Marcus finished reading, Decius leaned back in his chair with a dead face; Even Marlius, who had always been pampered, became pale and frightening. For everyone knew that the result of the total annihilation of the expeditionary corps was that the whole of Sicily was already under the control of Hannibal and Carthage; The sky fell for the Romans......

Silence, dead silence, became the only atmosphere in the study; At this moment, no matter how many other thoughts the four of them usually have, they are only thinking about the future and fate of the republic.