Osgiria, once the largest city on the continent and the most prosperous city in the world, has now almost become a huge boat barracks.

Inside and outside the city, the most common sights are soldiers wearing various imperial chalk uniforms coming and going, including patrolling city guards, military logistics transport teams, and local garrisons mobilized from all over the south.

In order to plan a counteroffensive, Adric drew local garrisons from the various counties in the south that were still in the hands of the central empire, and all these local armies converged on the imperial capital from all directions like streams. There are also some private armies of aristocratic and wealthy families, who also came to the imperial capital from all over the country under the call of the royal family.

It can be said that when the autumn of this year came, according to the statistics of the military department, the total number of troops of all colors gathered inside and outside the imperial capital had reached nearly 150,000.

That's a huge amount of data.

In other words, this was already the last force that the chalk could mobilize in the entire Byzantine Empire - the last fighting force of an empire.

However, such a huge military force, gathered in the imperial capital, brought a great burden to the logistics supply of the military department. These more than 100,000 troops, coming from all directions, were originally not under each other's control, and Adric almost forgot to sleep and eat to reorganize the army, and reorganized one local garrison army after another.

The Empire's 2nd and 9th Corps, the Imperial Capital City Guard, had been rebuilt, at least nominally.

If the local garrisons that were mobilized were relatively easy to command, at least they were originally the official army of the Empire. So...... The private armies of the various wealthy nobles who responded to the royal family's call to King Qin became Adric's biggest headache.

In fact, Adric himself was a staunch opponent of the mobilization of aristocratic private armies.

In his opinion, these private armies lacked formal training, and even many of them had never been on the battlefield, and their equipment was mixed. For a general like Adric, fighting such a thing, the amount of military strength is important, but this kind of miscellaneous soldiers, even if they are doubled, are just a bunch of useless numbers. Moreover, the total number of private armies of various wealthy nobles gathered in the imperial capital has also reached 50,000. These private armies raised by nobles are not good at fighting, but they bring great trouble in the imperial capital. Many of these aristocratic private soldiers who serve as officers are simply the children of aristocratic families.

In less than a month, there were at least twenty armed fights and bad law and order incidents in the imperial capital. Some nobles' children dare to pull their private armies out to fight for personal grievances or jealousy and other bullshit things. There were even some private soldiers with exceptionally loose discipline who actually connived at the soldiers to do evil in the city.

At the beginning, under his strict orders, the troops of the imperial capital security patrol taught these guys a hard lesson, and even arrested a number of them, and cut off some heads.

But soon, the leaders of the private army who had suffered so much ran back to their masters to cry, and the wealthy nobles immediately put pressure on the emperor.

Are we all loyal to the country, and we have traveled thousands of miles to the imperial capital to King Qin, but we are all for the sake of loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor! It's just a fight, bullying a few untouchables, and this is going to cut off our heads? Is there such a reason?

Emperor Garcia soon transferred this pressure to Adric, and the private army in the imperial capital soon became more and more arrogant with the support of the emperor.

Adrick was annoyed, but he couldn't really rush into the palace to find the emperor to dispute with his sleeves.

On the other hand, in fact, Adric was very aware of the emperor's intention to support the nobles' private army so much.

The emperor could not hold direct military power in his hands, and these aristocratic private armies were the emperor's most powerful forces. In a way, I am afraid that the emperor trusts these rabble in his heart even more than himself.

However, to Adric's surprise, on the issue of the nobles' private army, the prime minister Salon Bonili, who had always been against him, unexpectedly sided with him.

The Prime Minister's intention is also to oppose His Majesty's connivance with the nobles' private army.

In fact, in Salembonili's mind, he sees far more long-term than Adric!

After all, although Adric is capable, he is a soldier after all, and his vision is only limited to a military perspective, and Salumbonelli, the prime minister of the empire, sees a terrible hidden danger in this matter!

The empire was in decay, the authority of the Central Cretaceous was weakened, and its control over the localities had waned to the weakest point in the empire's history.

Once upon a time, the royal family of the Byzantine Empire had always united the aristocracy, after all, the royal family itself was the largest nobility of the empire. However, in order to ensure the rule of the royal family, the royal family has always adopted a lot of restrictions for the aristocratic class.

Especially on the issue of the development of their own private armies by various wealthy nobles, there have always been strict restrictions.

There are few emperors in the past who are really fools. They are very hard, and the power of the aristocratic community can certainly be borrowed, but it also needs to be guarded against.

The private armies established by the aristocratic and wealthy families have strict restrictions on their size, so as not to cause the aristocratic class to control too much military power at that time, so that the tail is too big.

But now, in such a chaotic situation, the control and authority of the royal family are at an all-time low.

And the measures taken by Emperor Garcia to vigorously support the aristocratic groups and rely on the aristocratic groups are, in the eyes of the prime minister, really an extremely unwise move!

Because of the emperor's strong order, which was an omen to the noble and wealthy private army, the Byzantine Empire's various restrictions on the private army of the aristocratic and wealthy for hundreds of years were suddenly broken!

Salumbonelli is well aware of how chaotic the situation is right now!

All aristocratic wealthy families, with intentions, unintentional, ambitious, or without ambitions, just want to try their best to protect themselves in troubled times, almost any wealthy family has accumulated enough strength to expand their own private army!

Originally, these things were still limited by the private military decrees of the nobles in the empire for hundreds of years, and even if these people acted quietly, they didn't dare to do too much.

But the emperor suddenly expressed his stance like this, vigorously attacking the aristocratic group, and openly signaling the nobles' private army to serve the king. In this way, the former restriction decree suddenly became a piece of waste paper!

Those aristocratic families below had an excuse and began to openly expand their private army!

In the long run, these aristocratic families have so much military power in their hands, if something happens in the future, what will the royal family use to control them?

If you're not careful, you're afraid you'll become a new warlord!

Imperial decrees were originally extremely broad for the nobles' territories, and the nobles' own territories, like small chalk kingdoms, except for the need to pay a tax to the chalk every year, were almost a form of complete indulgence, and the nobles could tax and issue decrees in their own territories. Now, even the mouth of the private army has been let go one by one, once the door is loosened, I am afraid that it will not be so easy to close it again!

The news that Salembonili has grasped is said to be down there, and the situation is almost erosive! A small baron dares to pull up an army of 1,000 people to a duke, and the number of private troops in his hands can reach tens of thousands!

This is already ten times the amount limited by the previous aristocratic decrees of the Empire!

Even His Majesty the Emperor made a promise to those noble and wealthy families:

In the future counteroffensive and Northern Expedition war, if they can win, then as long as the aristocratic private army participating in the war can borrow military merits and divide the land that belongs to them in the land subjugated in the north!

You must know that for hundreds of years in the empire, the development of various wealthy nobles has been deeply rooted, but at the same time, it has also reached a bottleneck Among many wealthy nobles, according to the imperial decree, the family title is inherited by the eldest son, so the other noble children can only retreat.

If you are lucky, you can also use the influence of the family to seek a good official position, rich and noble for a lifetime, if you are unlucky or dare to be really mediocre, you can only work all your life, and even because you can't inherit the family title, you only get a little bit of family property, and finally because of your own incompetence, resulting in bankruptcy and bankruptcy, there are also many people.

As soon as the emperor opened his mouth, he immediately gave many people hope!

Anyway, he is not the eldest son, and he can't inherit the title, so if he wants to fight for some wealth, he simply leads the private army to the war! If he wins, he won't worry about rewarding his merits and getting his share! When the time comes, he will be knighted, wealth, and land......

For those wealthy families, they also supported the emperor's promise, and also supported their own children to bring private troops into the war. After all, if there is a final war and your own children get knighthoods, it will be regarded as a branch for your own family, expanding the influence and power of the family as a whole.

-- M Salembonili knows very well that the present situation is a complete gamble!

If the empire's counteroffensive against the rebels goes well, can successfully defeat the rebels, and achieves a huge victory in the counteroffensive war, then at that time, with the power of a great victory, it may be able to use the huge impact of victory to make those noble groups tremble and dare not move!

But in case...... What setbacks are encountered in the course of a counteroffensive war, and once the situation takes a bad turn...... At that time, those nobles who had money, food, land and army in their hands would continue to bow down to the royal family, I am afraid......

Because of these worries, Salembonili has actually put on an attitude of working with Adric these days. He was in charge of the affairs of the empire, and he actually made a show of support for Adric. Even the connection with Adric has become much closer.

Whether this point will cause the emperor's dissatisfaction or not is beyond the control of Salembonili.

But Salembonelli also had his own ideas, and he repeatedly urged Adric to march into the war as soon as possible. Such a situation, every day that is delayed, the more erosive it becomes!

However, several months have passed since the recovery of the imperial capital, and the counteroffensive is still unseen, and Adric is still busy with the reorganization of the army, the mobilization of supplies, and the formulation of battle plans every day.

But the day of sending troops is far away.

Salembonili argued with Adric several times about this, and the reasons given by Adric were also irrefutable by Salemboni.

Adric's point of view is very clear: What has been mobilized now is the last combat strength of the empire! Such more than 100,000 troops are already all the resources of the empire now, and all the materials that can be mobilized in the southern counties are already here. It can be said that this is the last point of national power of the Byzantine Empire!

There is only one chance to win or lose!

"We must be foolproof! Because we can't afford to lose, Prime Minister! Once we send troops, we must win all, and any defeat will cause us to collapse and collapse completely! If we fail once, we will not have any strength! Our national strength has been exhausted, and the southern counties have almost been hollowed out! We have no room for half a step back! There is no chance for us to come back after defeat! Therefore, before sending troops, I must accumulate my strength to the extreme! Adjust the military strength to the best and make the battle plan foolproof! In a word: we just have such a chance, we can't afford to lose!"

Salumbonelli knew this very well and understood, and he knew that Adric's idea was reasonable and correct.

However, watching the days go on day by day, the situation below is becoming more and more erosive, and the anxiety in his heart is still better than day by day.

In order to support this armament rectification, in order to support the military expenses of this counteroffensive war, in order to mobilize materials from all over the country, Salumbonili, as the prime minister, knows very well what the south has become!

The northern land of the empire has been completely lost, and the only source of military expenses is only those counties in the southeast of the empire that are still in the hands of the chalk in the empire...... All this has become a heavy guts on the Empire!

Several counties in the south have already raised taxes to the highest point in the history of the empire! In one of the counties in the worst situation, in order to raise military expenses, the additional war taxes collected have reached more than 10 times the pre-war tax rate! The burden on the common people has increased by nearly 20 times compared with before the war! In some places, local officials have had to collect taxes until 10 years later in order to make up for the military expenses they had paid!

It was as a brilliant creature that Salumbonelli knew very well how bad the situation had been!

It can be said that the old man looks up and down every day, and it is a post-apocalyptic atmosphere!

The only way to break this apocalyptic atmosphere is to support Adric to win this war, successfully defeat the rebels, recover the lost territory in the north, and then use the great power and aura of the war victory to deter all other unstable dangers, so that the empire can get precious time to breathe, so that it can have the time and spare energy to clean up this mess of leaks.

And another important reason for Salembonili to change his attitude and start to cooperate with Adric is the Duke of Minas!

It's just because, regarding the emperor's behavior of indulging the nobles' private army, this Duke of Minas actually acquiesced in approval!

Such an attitude of the Duke of Minas aroused great vigilance and uneasiness among the old prime ministers.

He didn't believe that, with the knowledge of Duke Minas in his lifetime, he would not see the chaos and evil consequences that would be caused by the proliferation of private armies of aristocratic groups - but this old duke supported the emperor like this!

Moreover, the old prime minister secretly investigated, and the news also made his uneasiness more and more intense.

The Minas family, in their southern territories, have raised more than 5,000 private troops. Although this number is not too obvious in the overall situation of the flood of aristocratic private armies, after all, there are many people in some dukes' houses who have pulled up tens of thousands of teams.

However, the Minas family is a family of chalk generals! The Duke of Minas has been fighting horses all his life, and even among his generals, there are quite a few generals in the army who fought with him in the south and the north! Although the Minas family has only raised 5,000 private troops, the combat effectiveness of these thousands of people is far stronger than that of those other families!

The old duke had gone out of the mountains to regain control of the empire, and His Majesty had also taken advantage of him, and strongly supported him in dividing Adric's authority in the army. Under such circumstances, what is the intention of the old duke to develop his own private army so quietly?

If you just take the opportunity to expand your own strength in order to protect yourself in the troubled times, then that's it.

But if it is......

Whenever he thought of this, Salumbonelli couldn't help but shudder, and didn't dare to continue thinking deeply.

However, because of his cooperation with Adric, the emperor has been dissatisfied with himself recently, and even when they met, the attitude of distrust and dissatisfaction has become more and more obvious, and the emperor seems to be unable to listen to it.

At this time, Salembonili was well aware that His Majesty's prejudice against himself had been formed...--I am afraid that there may not be a shadow of the old Duke of Minas. It's not so easy to defend yourself, the only way is ...... Only by fully supporting Adric's march into the Northern Expedition as soon as possible, as long as he wins a few good battles, then perhaps the situation can be alleviated.

※※※

On the morning of this day, Salumbonelli personally went to the dock port area, and the Kingdom of Landis brought ten more ships of aid.

Although in order to get such assistance from the Landis Kingdom, Salembonili had to pinch his nose and sign a harsh treaty with the Landis Kingdom on debt, but at the moment, even if he drank to quench his thirst, he couldn't care about it.

At least, these more than ten ships of supplies can solve the urgent need of the current Northern Expedition of the imperial capital, because the south of the empire can't squeeze out any energy at the moment.

The arrival of these 10 truckloads of supplies will be able to fill the largest gap in military supplies at present. Adrick has solved this future concern, and he can also start his army as soon as possible.

For the sake of this support in his heart, the old prime minister dragged his old body and rushed to the wharf in person, standing in the sea breeze for a full morning, watching the cargo fleet enter the port safely, and the unloaded materials piled up, and his heart was a little relieved.

The anxiety in his heart eased slightly, and the old prime minister collected his mood, reluctantly lifted his spirits, and ordered his subordinates to go to a ceremonial banquet for the leading officers and generals of this Lantis fleet.

Although according to etiquette, as the prime minister, he should personally meet with the other party's officials.

But now Sarumbonelli is not in the mood for such a thing.

Moreover, these materials were all borrowed from the Landis Kingdom on extremely harsh terms, such an unequal treaty, if you ask for it, you can endure it if you pinch your nose, and you have to force the old man to smiling and spirit and be polite with the officials of the other party, the old prime minister is really not in a good mood at this time.

However, the arrival of military funds still made the old prime minister's mood a little better, and he was about to leave the dock to go back, thinking in his heart, whether to go to the imperial capital to persuade His Majesty again, or to go to the military headquarters to meet with Adric to talk about the plan of the Northern Expedition......

While he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard a commotion on the road leading to the city in the distance, and the sound of horses' hooves struck like thunder on people's hearts.

Because of the transportation of such important supplies, in order to ensure that there are no accidents, Salumbonelli has ordered martial law in the port area today. The city has deployed city guards to shoot checkpoints around the dock and port area to prevent idle people from entering and leaving.

At this time, there were several horsemen from afar, rushed to the checkpoint, and were stopped by the city guards, the two sides were shouting, and the knights who flew from the horses were slanted in their helmets and armor, and were stopped by the city guards.

In the distance, Salembonili could only hear a few words drifting in the wind.

"What about the Emergency Army...... Delay...... You...... The surface is ......"

The old prime minister wrinkled his brows slightly, he was quite calm at the moment, and waved his hand to the entourage beside him: "Go and bring that person here." What is the noise and yelling!"

His men passed, and in a few moments they brought the knight of the flying horse.

The knight was full of heat and cold, trotting all the way, Xu was too tired, his steps were a little staggering, but in front of the prime minister, his legs were weak, and he fell directly to the ground, raised his head, his face was full of anxiety and panic, and he gasped and said: "My lord, my lord...... The military situation is urgent, we have passed it on to the twenty horsemen, one to the military department, and one to you here, please, please ......"

"Pick it up. Salumbonelli took a deep breath. I thought in my heart: What happened again? The rebels came to harass again? Or did those noble troops outside the city make trouble again? The Second Corps made a fuss for a while a few days ago because of the lack of military salaries, so could it be that something happened again? Well, fortunately now that we have such a batch of supplies in our hands, we can solve this urgent need......

Just thinking about it, his subordinates presented the military intelligence document on the messenger's body, and when he got it, the prime minister's heart suddenly jumped!

There were still blood stains on the roll sealed with the newspaper!

I don't know why, at this moment, Salembonili suddenly had a panic in his heart for no reason, palpitations and shortness of breath, and suddenly there was some hair in front of him, and he took the roll, and the feeling of dizziness could not be suppressed, and he stuffed it into the hand of a civil official next to him, and said in a low voice: "I am a little dazzled, I can't see it, you read it to me." ”

When the civil official next to him took the roll and unfolded it, Salembonili had already sat down with the support of the attaché beside him, and a cup of hot tea was brought to him, and the old prime minister had just taken a sip. Cha was about to take a breath, and suddenly his expression froze there!!

I only heard the civil official on the side, his voice trembled, his face was full of horror, but he read the newspaper intermittently.

“...... It was reported that ten days ago, bandits broke out in the city of Effenwether Dubod, the county soldiers were insufficient, the field battle was defeated, the county guard and the governor of Effenvet County were martyred, and within three days the bandits had spread throughout the county, and the bandits swept the whole territory with the outcasts, reaching hundreds of thousands of people, affecting the three neighboring counties, conquering the county town, and looting the official warehouse.

The situation is rotten, and it will become uncontrollable! The southern counties are empty of military strength and are powerless to suppress them, so they can only defend the county towns and wait for reinforcements! If the reinforcements do not arrive in ten days, I am afraid that the three southern counties will fall into the hands of the rebels......

Rise!!!

Before the official finished reading, the prime minister Salumbonelli had suddenly jumped up from his chair, and the old man's face was pale, his eyes were wide, and he stared at the official who was reading the newspaper, and he took two steps forward sharply, pointed at the official, opened his mouth, as if he was about to drink something, but his mouth opened and opened, but his throat only made a voice of "Gege, where can he say half a word?"

The attendant next to him saw that something was wrong with the old man, and hurriedly went up to try to support him, but Sarunbonelli suddenly had a lot of strength, shook off the hands of others, and went up and snatched the newspaper in the official's hand, staring at it with his eyes......

For a moment, there was silence all around, and everyone was so shocked by the news that they couldn't say a word.

Finally, the old prime minister gurgled in his throat a few more times, and suddenly opened his mouth, and with a poof, a ball of blood sprayed on the newspaper in his hand.

The old man didn't say a word, and just fell straight back. The people next to him immediately shook their hands and feet, and swarmed over to surround the old man, and an anxious cry sounded.

The old man woke up quietly, he lay on the ground, looking at the officials at all levels who were kneeling or standing in a circle around him, everyone had an anxious and panicked expression, and no one could still maintain a calm appearance.

The old man sighed in his heart.

I don't know why, but when I woke up at this moment, Salumbonelli's heart seemed to have lost the horror and panic that I had just heard the contents of this newspaper, and my heart seemed to have been numb, and there was no longer half a wave.

In my heart, only a calm thought emerged that I could no longer be calm.

This calm, even he himself did not understand where it came from.

The thought was:

Could it be that this Byzantine Empire is really going to die?