At the door of death, we need to think not about the emptiness of life, but about its importance. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

- Socrates (famous ancient Greek thinker, philosopher, and educator)

In fact, Mary herself did not expect that Oscar would announce her identity as his wife on such an occasion; However, Mary's heart was not shocked, but full of sweetness and happiness.

Perhaps, when Mary stood in front of the Spanish army, she was still the Joan of Arc who commanded thousands of troops; However, in front of Oscar, she is still the same Mary who silently loves Oscar.

Oscar was able to admit his identity in such a public; Such a move really moved Mary's heart, and also made Mary, who was already dead set on Oscar, even more unswerving.

In fact, with this seemingly redundant identity, those Spanish army officers and soldiers really turned to the Augustus family and Oscar; Even generals like Exsaka willingly expressed their loyalty to Oscar.

What is unacceptable for everyone to know that their allegiance to the House of Augustus and its family leader is not only to the family that will rule the Spanish people in the future, but also to the husband of His Majesty?

More importantly, Her Majesty is a great saint who selflessly gave everything for the Spanish people; With her wife as the head of the Augustan family, isn't the Augustan family still trustworthy?

The confrontation between the Augustan army and the Spanish army quickly ended, and the Exsaca and Iberian legions, which originally belonged to the Spanish kingdom, also turned into the Augustus army; In order to better facilitate the integration of these armies into the Augustus family, Oscar also made new adjustments to the structure of these armies.

The two thousand old units of Joan of Arc of the Iberian Legion were all drawn out by Oscar to form a Saintess Guard directly under Mary; The remaining 2,000 Iberian legionaries were also incorporated directly into the Third Legion of Exaca, so that Exaca's Third Legion had an army of 11,000, roughly the same number as a regular legion of House Augustus.

After determining the composition of the Exaca Legion, Oscar officially named the Exarka Legion as the Eighth Legion of the Augustus Family, and the commander of the legion was naturally General Exaca, and the deputy general of the Legion was General Iker.

In order to make the newly formed Eighth Legion adapt to the army structure of the Augustan family faster and better, Oscar also divided the Eighth Legion into two parts; Its main corps is 7,000 elite troops commanded by Legion Commander Exsaka, and the auxiliary legion is 4,000 soldiers commanded by Legion Adjutant General Ikkel.

Because Oscar did not bring more weapons and equipment with him to the Iberian Peninsula this time, the official weapons and equipment of the Eighth Army had to wait for the end of the war to be delivered by the weapons and equipment factory of the Augustus family in Sardinia.

In addition, the Eighth Army is now only a hasty army, and there is still some distance from its real formation; This is not only a question of weapons and equipment, but also a question of the quality of the army and the ability of officers, who must undergo more training.

According to the previous agreement between Oscar and Mary, the Spanish army persuaded to surrender would be organized into the regular army of the House of Augustus; However, more than half of the officers of the Spanish army were required to go to the Augustan Military Academy immediately after the end of the war, and the vacant position of captain of the centurion was filled by the graduates of the Augustan Military Academy.

When the half of the Spanish army officers had graduated from the Augustan Military Academy, they would re-enter their original legions as centurions and captains; The remaining half of the officers who did not study left the corps and entered the military academy for further study.

Due to the Augustusian family's control over the army, all the officers of the newly formed Spanish Legion were to be half of the cadets and half of the original officers of the legion; As for the remaining half of the legions, they will be added to the provincial and county guards that must be formed in the future to serve as commanders, in order to maintain the relationship between the Augustus family and the Spanish people.

Such an arrangement was just a plan that Oscar and Mary had negotiated in advance; However, when discussing the formation of the Eighth Legion with Exsaka and Ikkel, the two of them agreed to the plan, and the plan was finalized.

After putting in order the Eighth Army of Exsaka, the Samonai Army, which had been chasing after it, finally reached the border area; At this point, Oscar had a full three legions in his hands, while the province of Iberia was an undefended province, and even its capital, New Carthage, did not have a single garrison!

In such a good situation, the Oscars will naturally not be wasted; In order to better receive the entire Iberian province peacefully, Oscar ordered the lieutenant general of the Iker Legion to take the lead in driving to New Carthage with his auxiliary legions, and take New Carthage City in one fell swoop while the officials of the Spanish Kingdom in New Carthage City did not know the news ahead!

In addition to letting Iker lead the army first, Oscar led the rest of the army and Mary in the direction of New Carthage with great fanfare; Along the way, the news of Joan of Arc's return was unscrupulously promoted, so that all the towns that passed by did not resist and directly opened the city gates to greet their crown.

No matter how much Oscar overestimated Mary's influence, he ultimately underestimated the importance of Joan of Arc to the Spanish people; Not only did the towns open their doors to welcome the saint without resistance, but even the villagers in the remote mountain villages, after learning of the return of the saint, they were not afraid to run out to express their loyalty and longing to their holy crown.

These were what Oscar wanted to see, but the overzealous Spanish people greatly delayed the march of the Augustan army; Originally, it only took seven days to reach the city of New Carthage, but Oscar walked for twelve days!

Well, in the course of twelve days, Mary's own Virgin Guard swelled rapidly from two thousand at the time of departure to five thousand; There is no way, there are too many people who want to contribute their children to protect the saint with tears. If it weren't for Oscar's rather strict standards, I'm afraid Mary's Saintess Guard would have been able to form two legions!

Of course, the occurrence of these things made Oscar at least certain of one thing, that is, as long as Mary existed, the Spanish people in the Iberian Peninsula would be the most loyal force of the Augustan family, far more loyal than the Romans!

When the army arrived in New Carthage, Iker's auxiliaries were stationed on the walls, but the flags of the Kingdom of Spain on the walls of New Carthage were all replaced by the lion banners of the House of Augustus; Perhaps, this is just a little cleverness of Iker, and it is also a small means to express loyalty, but Oscar's heart has raised the evaluation of Iker to a higher level!

After all three legions were stationed in New Carthage, Oscar began to discuss the next plan of action with the legion generals; Oscar believed that now that he had taken the province of Iberia, it was imperative that his army go around from the interior of the Kingdom of Spain to the rear of the armies of the Dukes of Botricott and Dinoir to complete the previous siege plan.

Mary, however, disagreed; Mary believed that her army now had more troops than originally estimated, and that it was possible to deploy them in two ways to complete the Augustusian family's plan to conquer the Iberian Peninsula more quickly.

Mary's advice was this: the garrison of New Carthage was to be served by four brigades of Samonai's legions; The remaining soldiers of the Samonai Legion marched north with Iker's auxiliaries to the Spanish province of Tarragonanis.

The auxiliary legions of Iker were enough to confuse the garrison legions of the province of Tarragonanis, plus the cooperation of half of the Samonai legions led by Antio himself; They will definitely be able to storm the city of Oscar (a city) and take the province of Tarragonanis!

Even without the 8,000 soldiers of the Samonai Legion and the 4,000 soldiers of the Auxiliary Legion, there are still 7,000 main legions of the Eighth Legion and the Fifth Legion each left in their own army, plus Nusis's family guards and the Holy Maiden's Guard, that is still 20,000 troops.

An army of 20,000 men, combined with an army of nearly 30,000 on the southern front led by Luquis, launched a siege of about 30,000 troops against the Duke of Hubert and the Duke of Dinnoy, which was more than enough; More importantly, Mary was confident that at least a third of the Spanish army would be persuaded to defect on the battlefield!

Ever since Oscar had seen Mary's army of Exaca and Iker surrender, and had seen the Spanish people on the march; Oscar's confidence in Mary's persuasion of the Spanish army is unquestionable!

Even, Oscar felt that Mary's persuasion was too conservative; Based on Mary's personal prestige and the presence of Exacaca's troops, Oscar believed that at least half of the Spanish army would have defected on the battlefield.

In view of this, Oscar naturally abandoned his previous plan and agreed to Mary's new plan; There was no way, in the lands of the Kingdom of Spain, Mary's voice was unquestionable, and her advice was the most beneficial to the House of Augustus.

After discussing the specific division plan, Oscar took the main force of the Eighth Army of Exaca and the main force of the Fifth Army of Longkina, as well as Mary's Saintess Guard and Nussis's family guard, and went deep into the interior of Spain; At the same time, Antio and Iker, each with their own 4,000 soldiers, marched to the northern province of Tarragonis Nannice! (To be continued.) )