Life is a long struggle in the dark.

- Lucretius (Roman philosopher)

Flavis saw that none of the seven legion commanders below were willing to stand up and express their opinions, so he directly named his third son: "Captain Vibius, you are the leader of the first legion of the family, and one of the most important family members of the Julius family; It's up to you to take the lead and share your opinion. ”

Vibius had always been counted down by his father for some time, and even his father looked at his son more than he looked at himself; This undoubtedly made Vibius jealous of his own son. Later, because of this incident, Vibius was scolded by Flavis again; Flavies scolded in excitement and slapped Vibius with his scabbard!

Although Vibius was no longer jealous of his young son Caesar afterwards, he was weak when he saw his father; Even Vibius, in order to hide from his father, took the initiative to take his legion to Milan and station. So, after Flavis called Vibius, the cold sweat on Vibius's face flowed out.

However, Vibius stood up and said tremblingly: "Returning to my father, my opinion is that it is best to gather a large army from the west and attack the Maasai tribes in Gaul beyond the mountains. Because our family's army has accumulated considerable experience in fighting with the Gallic barbarians outside the mountains; In addition, our family army also has a large number of Gallic auxiliaries.

These auxiliaries of the Gauls, though unable to fight against the hoplites of our House Julius, could not be fought on frontal battles; But it is still possible to deal with the Gallic barbarians outside the mountains who are similar to them in terms of combat methods and inferior in weapons and equipment. More importantly, we have an auxiliary army composed of Gauls, which can be regarded as knowing ourselves and the enemy in Gaul; It is undoubtedly easier to fight.

In addition, there were four legions under the command of General Calabes, who was stationed in the southern part of the Alps, and among these four legions, there were two real Gallic infantry legions and one Gallic cavalry corps that was not weak in combat; We can almost complete the conquest of Gaul beyond the mountains with a maximum of two legions, which should be the easiest war for the family. ”

Vibius's opinion was detailed, and Flavis listened with satisfaction; So, after Vibius had finished speaking, Flavies complimented: "Vibius, what you said is very good; It seems that you have worked hard in Milan during this time, and you have not continued to live in chaos all day long without learning and without learning like before. I have to work harder in the future, don't let my father down. ”

Flavies' praise made Vibius laugh and cry, and Vibius didn't know whether his father was praising himself or spurring him; had no choice but to show a smile to his father that was more ugly than crying. After praising Vibius, Flavies turned to the other six legion commanders:

"Vibius is in favor of the way of westward expansion, are there any of you who are in favor of westward expansion? If you have one, just stand up and say it; Today each of you has to say your thoughts, one by one, and no one can escape! However, you can rest assured that this is just a discussion, and it doesn't matter who says what, it's important to say your opinion. ”

Flavies's words confused the legionnaires, who had planned to be ostriches without saying a word, but they didn't expect Flavies to have such a trick; However, since Your Excellency the Leader has already said that you don't care, let's bite the bullet! The second to stand up was none other than the commander of the Second Legion, Gallerius, who, after standing up, said to Flavies:

"Your Excellency, Leader, I agree with His Excellency Captain Vibius; I think westward expansion is not only the easiest war a family can fight, but also the most promising war a family can fight! The land of Gaul north of the Alps is not just one or two provinces, but a huge territory of seven whole provinces!

Although the barbarian provinces of Gaul are not as rich as our Roman provinces; However, the provinces of the Gallic barbarians were much larger than our Roman provinces. It is no exaggeration to say that the seven provinces of Gaul, north of the Alps, are at least three times the size of the six provinces of Rome proper!

This also means that this vast land has more abundant resources and space for development, as long as the owners of this vast land are no longer the Gallic barbarians, but our Julius family, who control the advanced civilization; So, what does this mean for the entire Julius family? We can rely on this land to lay the foundation for our family's overlordship!

I believe that the attack on the Maasai tribes in Gaul beyond the mountains was only the first step taken by our family; As long as we occupy the bridgehead of Gaul outside the mountains to the west, we can rely on this to continue to go deeper into Gaul and expand our family's land in Gaul until one day our family can include the entire land of Gaul under our rule! ”

Since the last time Gellerius was severely humiliated by the Alpine barbarians, it was also a long time before he was appointed by Flavies as the commander of the Second Legion; Through these rather far-sighted words, it is enough to see that Gallerius's lying salary is still useful, at least it has made Gallerius's insight much longer-lasting.

Flavies also nodded frequently to Gallerius's opinion, if it weren't for the fact that Flavis already had a comprehensive plan in his heart, Flavis and Vebius's plan for a westward expedition would still be very tempted; Fravis motioned for Gallerius to sit down with an appreciative face, and then turned his inquiring eyes to the next legionnaire.

As if they had been discussed, the Legion Commanders present began to speak in their own order; The third to stand up was Appius, the commander of the Third Legion, who did not agree with Vibius and Gallerius's plan for the westward expedition, but instead stood up and made a new analysis:

"Lords, generals, I myself feel that the opinions of His Excellency Vibius and His Excellency Celestius are very correct and perfect; However, the actual implementation may not achieve such a perfect expected effect in the future. My reasons are threefold; The first point is that, as Captain Gallerius pointed out, the land of Gaul is too large!

The vast land contains not only rich resources and space for development, but also the extremely large number of Gallic barbarians raised on this land; The conquest of these Gallic barbarians could not have been as easy as that of the Gallic barbarians in the mountains, after all, they were the real Gallic barbarians whose combat strength was far superior to that of the Gallic barbarians outside the mountains!

second, it is a matter of knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent; The Gallic army under the command of our family Julius is made up of Gauls from beyond the mountains, and are they really familiar with the real Gallic barbarians in the Gallic lands north of the Alps? I don't think so, but let's talk about the differences in terms of terrain.

The Gallic barbarians south of the Alps, the Gallic barbarians we see today, lived in the provinces of Gallic in the mountains, Veneto, and Regulia in the vast plains; There are no large-scale forests or rivers in these three provinces, and almost all of them are plains.

And what about the Gallic barbarians north of the Alps? They lived in a land of Gallic with dense jungles and rivers; They can easily hide in a jungle under our attack, but we can't hide our whereabouts under their watch. Knowing oneself and knowing oneself may end up being someone who knows us and knows oneself, rather than us knowing oneself and knowing oneself.

Third, after the end of the war; As we all know, the reason why our Julius family was able to successfully annex the three Gallic provinces south of the Alps was based on the premise that those Gallic barbarians had been changed by the civilized world. And what about those Gallic barbarians north of the Alps? They are still the same unruly Gallic barbarians, will they be easily conquered?

Even if we successfully conquered several of the main Gallic barbarian tribes, and slaughtered these Gallic barbarian tribes who dared to confront us head-on; However, we can't kill all the Gallic barbarians. The remaining Gallic barbarians will use their terrain to become the most unstable factor under the rule of our Julius, which will be the greatest burden for our family!

Therefore, I am not in favour of the present expansion of the land of Gaul north of the Alps; My idea is to attack the Salzburg barbarian hordes in Norikum from the northeast! As long as we can occupy all of Norikum, then we can completely eliminate everything that can threaten the family in the north!

If the Germanic barbarians, whether they are Gaulic barbarians, want to attack our family Julius from the north and south; They had to take Norikum first, or they would have to choose to cross the entire Alps. The latter is an impossible task, and the former must fight against our family; This is the most beneficial direction for our family to expand! ”

Appius's ideas were theoretically much more secure than westward expansion; As Appius said, the benefits of westward expansion are obvious, but there are so many unpredictable factors that Flavis was the first to reject westward expansion when he was thinking about strategy.

However, Appius's answer was far from satisfying Flavis; Although his arguments against westward expansion were close to Flavis's heart, the direction of expansion he advocated was not perfect, or at least not satisfactory to Flavis. Flavies didn't express his regret, but continued to look at the next person. (To be continued.) )