Man is the most outstanding of all animals when he attains the perfection of virtue; But if he insists on doing his own thing, without law and justice, he becomes the worst of all beasts. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

- Aristotle (one of the great philosophers, scientists, and educators in the ancient history of the world)

The Greek peninsula, which had been quickly stabilized by the plague, was once again in chaos due to the distant threat of the plague; The fall of the Macedonian kingdom was already a foregone conclusion, and the Macedonian and Paionian regions had also become taboo places that the Brutus family would not easily touch, and the Illyrian province of the Julius family was straddled to the north of the Brutus family, and the Brutus family could only expand to the south.

To the south of the Brutus family were the city-states of Athens and Sparta, which were formed by the Greeks; These two city-states completely occupied the most fertile land and the best ports on the Greek peninsula, and even the Peloponnese, which originally belonged to the Macedonian kingdom, has now been divided between these two city-states.

If it weren't for the outbreak of the plague, the city-states of Athens and Sparta might have fought each other over Corinth, the most prosperous city on the Greek peninsula; However, this timely outbreak of the plague not only completely destroyed the Macedonian kingdom and the main body of the Thracian barbarians, but also gave the Athenian and Spartan city-states time to relieve.

After the plague had passed, it was difficult for the Athenian and Spartan city-states to quarrel over the Corinthian question; The reason for this is also very simple, because the growing strength of the Brutus family made the only remaining city-states of Athens and Sparta on the Greek peninsula feel a huge threat, and under the pressure of the Brutus family, the two city-states of the same Greeks had to put aside their previous suspicions and come together.

The military strength of the Spartan city-state was beyond the reach of the Athenian city-state; And the strong economic power of the Athenian city-state was not possessed by the Spartan city-state. The existence of the Brutus family just gave these two city-states that had never been in contact with each other in the past an opportunity to unite; As it turned out, the rulers of both city-states did not waste such a good opportunity in vain.

As soon as Tiberius returned to the Brutus family with the remnants of the army that had succeeded in surviving, the Brutus family immediately began to replenish the seven legions that had suffered heavy losses; In particular, the Fifth and Seventh Legions, which belonged to the Sulla family, and the Sixth and Eighth Legions, which belonged to the Pompey family, recovered their combat effectiveness even faster.

In order to show their support for the Brutus family, Sulla and Pompey not only did their best to restore the strength of the four legions under their family's control, but also took out countless weapons and personnel funds to help the three legions of the Brutus family; Naturally, Tiberius would not refuse such a free benefit, and the seven legions of the Brutus family were quickly recovered.

Harold's cavalry corps originally consisted of only 1,800 ironclad cavalry and 2,000 javelin cavalry, as well as 3,000 Greek cavalry; Among the nearly 7,000 cavalry, in addition to the extraordinary combat effectiveness of the ironclad cavalry, the combat effectiveness of the javelin cavalry and the Greek cavalry was far behind.

Although the most elite royal legion of the Macedonian kingdom has been wiped out by the plague, the royal cavalry training methods of the Macedonian kingdom have not been lost; The Thessaly region occupied by the Brutus family was previously the production area of the Macedonian kingdom's war horses, and it was also one of the important training bases for the Macedonian royal cavalry.

According to the explanation of the capitulated governor of Macedonia Thessaly, the most elite and unique army of the Macedonian kingdom compared to the successor states of the other Alexander empires was the royal cavalry and royal pikemen of the Macedonian kingdom; These two troops, which were also the guards under the personal command of Alexander the Great, were not trained in a way that the Diadochi could know.

More importantly, the training places of these armies, which were most loyal to Alexander the Great, have always been Macedonia and Thessaly, which are the native Macedonian regions of the Macedonian kingdom, which is also the special treatment that Alexander the Great gave to his homeland; All the Macedonian royal pikemen and royal cavalry soldiers were also Macedonian warriors recruited from the native territory of the Macedonian kingdom.

Even after the sudden death of Alexander the Great in Egypt, his descendants who succeeded to the throne of the Macedonian kingdom did not lose the allegiance of the royal cavalry and the royal pikemen; The Macedonian and Thessaly regions have continued to train the most elite royal cavalry and royal pikemen for the Macedonian kingdom for hundreds of years.

Now that the Macedonian region has been turned into a place of complete death by the plague, not only the royal cavalry and royal pikemen of the Macedonian kingdom have been destroyed, but even the military camp responsible for training them must have been destroyed; The training camps in Thessaly were not destroyed, and the royal instructors loyal to the Macedonian kingdom did not die.

After receiving this explanation from the governor of Thessaly, Tiberius, who had just escaped, began to send people to find the former royal instructors of the Macedonian kingdom with a face full of excitement; Tiberius wants to make the invincible army of Alexander the Great a powerful weapon for the Brutus family to build a vast empire!

However, it was not easy to gain the loyalty of the royal instructors who were loyal to the Kingdom of Macedonia; The guards sent out by Tiberius were attacked by the soldiers in the training camp, and several guards were even killed on the spot!

If other hostile forces dared to slap the face of the Brutus family so nakedly, Tiberius would not hesitate to send a large army to directly set foot in this training camp with only two or three thousand defenders; However, the two or three thousand men were the key to the Brutus family's formation of a formidable royal cavalry and royal pikemen, and Tiberius was reluctant to attack them.

Since the persuasion of the guards was not approved by the royal instructors of the Macedonian kingdom, Tiberius personally led a thousand soldiers to the training camp to persuade the instructors, despite the opposition of the members of the Brutus family.

Tiberius, two hundred meters from the heavily defended training camp, declared himself to the instructors who were waiting inside; After that, Tiberius asked for negotiations with the representatives of the instructors a hundred meters from the entrance to the training camp.

In the face of such a conciliatory attitude of the Brutus family, the royal instructors in the training camp also chose to agree with Tiberius's opinion and sent representatives to negotiate with Tiberius; In this difficult negotiation, Tiberius showed his sincerity as much as possible, and sincerely invited the royal instructors to join the Brutus family.

These royal instructors of the Macedonian kingdom are not fools, and they all know the news of the large-scale plague in Macedonia and the death of all members of the royal family of the Macedonian kingdom; The reason why the Brutus family came out like this is just to increase their value and then surrender, otherwise, the Macedonian kingdom will not be buried with everyone?

After the intended purpose had been achieved, the instructor's representative took the opportunity to present Tiberius with three conditions for surrender; As long as the Brutus family guarantees that every instructor in the training camp will soon gain a certain amount of money and status, and promises that the Brutus family will not persecute any instructor and will not hold any instructor accountable, everyone in the training camp is willing to surrender.

These three conditions were too simple for Tiberius, who promised on the spot the status of nobles to each of the instructors in the training camp, and gave them a reward of five hundred gold coins each; As for what would not be pursued or persecuted, Tiberius agreed to every condition put forward by the deputy.

Tiberius, on the other hand, had only one condition, that is, after all the instructors in this training camp surrendered, they must wholeheartedly train qualified royal cavalry and royal pikemen for the Brutus family; In addition, every year, the camp trains at least 5,000 Royal Cavalry and 5,000 Royal Pikemen.

As long as the instructors in the camp could complete this task, Tiberius also promised to pay all the instructors a salary of 300 gold coins per year, and their nobility could be further promoted according to their merits.

The price offered by Tiberius was not undeniable, at least for the instructors in the training camp, it was the most sincere persuasion they had ever seen in their lives; Even in the past, when they served the Macedonian kingdom, each of them could only get twenty gold coins per year, which was still a nominal number, and after a few layers of deductions, it was only ten at most.

As for the status of the nobility, it is even more difficult for these so-called instructors to imagine, and they will not have any unrealistic illusions about the nobility of the Macedonian kingdom; Now the Brutus family has offered such a generous treatment, which has to make these instructors excited, and their representatives immediately expressed their willingness to surrender to the Brutus family.

With Tiberius personally on the horse, the Brutus family's persuasion of this training camp was completed so smoothly; From the day after Tiberius persuaded the instructors to surrender, 10,000 young men recruited in Thessaly were sent to the camp by the Brutus family for training.

This training camp could provide the Brutus family with thousands of attacking royal cavalry and thousands of well-defended royal pikemen a year later; However, it was difficult to solve the fact of the lack of cavalry strength of the Brutus family in a short time.

Thus, the Brutus family put their new hope on the Estonian rebels of the Seleucid Empire; This time, the Brutus family did not want to hire any troops from Governor Alexander, but wanted to buy the ironclad cavalry directly from him at a high price, so the Brutus family envoy went to Estonia with a full three million gold coins and weapons and equipment worth five million gold coins. (To be continued.) )