From the very beginning, Theodore had never trusted the Gatu, or the House of Alama – or the lords of the entire North, who wanted to be loyal to him. However, the Cato were more important to Theodore than others, so he had to hold the land of Marions in his hands.

The reason is simple – Marions has some of the best horse farms in the north, whether it's war horses, horses, cattle and sheep, which are not available anywhere else. The huge source of war horses is a necessary resource for the formation of legion cavalry, and although the Salion war horse is the best war horse in the world, its extremely low number and fertility doom it to be the companion of only a few knights. Even many Salion knights had to choose the way of foot combat because they could not afford to buy a lion warhorse, and the excessive pickiness of the war horse gave birth to this group of knights who were more adept at marching in formation.

After Salald pledged his allegiance to Theodore, there was no doubt that these excellent lions and horses also became one of Theodore's fortunes (of course, the ownership still belonged to the Ultok family), and the day after the establishment of the empire, he listed the lion horses as contraband, and strictly forbade any horse dealers to buy and sell such horses without permission. In return, the Ultok family received the title of "Royal Guard", which was responsible for the breeding and sale of Salion's war horses, and the biggest buyers were the imperial military, especially Theodore's imperial guards, and the emperor's guards naturally had to be fully equipped with such top-quality war horses.

As for these horses, Theodore was not ready to turn them into "aristocratic privileges", but had more other plans - one of the most famous cavalrymen in the Eastern Roman Empire in history, the ironclad paladier!

Fully armed, even the war horses have to be dressed in specially customized iron armor, real iron cans, and they are also the extreme of the heavy cavalry - too much weight brings that their speed is not destined to be too fast, but this kind of cavalry is destined to be used to charge head-on and tear the line. They don't even wear cavalry swords, instead choosing something like a mace or mace as their secondary weapon. As long as this blunt object hits it head-on, the chances of survival are slim!

However, such an extreme cavalry is destined not to be the mainstream, because his fighting style is too simple. - For an empire, she needs more hoplites, capable of flanking and attracting enemies, and if necessary, she can form powerful cavalry regiments that can tear through the line.

Thus Marions' pastures, and the Cato herdsmen, who were born cavalrymen, were treasures that Theodor had to keep in his own hands. On the other hand, the Emerald Savannah is just too close to the Kwen River region. The farmsteads in the Kwyn River region are under the threat of Marions' cavalry at any time! The grain here is related to the fullness of the entire imperial granary, and if Marions's threat cannot be relieved, Theodore cannot let them go so easily.

Duke Alama thought very well that he and Theodore had no friendship before, and that the relationship between them was not even very good, so he wanted to marry his daughter to Belisarius, so as to bring the two sides together, and he sent his eldest son to Caesarea without any hostages.

Duke Alama had a good plan - he preferred to maintain the same relationship between the Gatu and the Holy Pander Empire in the past, rather than become a complete part of Rome, but unlike the Holy Pande Empire, Caesarea and Marions were too close to each other. Pendragon's imperial hinterland was in the south. They did not fear that if they left Issos they would encounter the nomadic cavalry of the Cathus, Rome did not have such a great depth, and it would be a matter of days to get from the Croyn River to Marions if they were to hurry.

Compared to Duke Alama who wants to keep his distance. Adil Allama was a very good collaborator - as far as Theodore knew about him, the duke's eldest son was not absolutely stable, and the Cato did not seem to follow the rules of primogeniture among the southern nobles, and he had to prove his abilities in front of his father in order to maintain his current position. Or that he desperately needs a group of strong foreign helpers to make his father value him.

Thus he was well aware that Theodore's willingness to give him the title of patriarch was not entirely for the purpose of wooing the Catotes. But he accepted it very gladly, because he really wanted such an identity. Becoming a senator, especially a senator with voting rights, was enough to make his voice heard in the Roman senate, and even to win over other senators and slowly integrate into the group.

Unlike his father, Adil was well aware of the awkward situation of the Cato people today—wanting to remain independent, but unwilling to face the pressure of the entire empire. If this so-called Holy Roman Empire was just a formal empire, it would still be possible to form an alliance, but now that the three dukes are all supporting Rome, Theodore has obtained the Glorious Cross of the Sword of the Emperor, and even Her Royal Highness Helena, the widow of the Pendragon family, is willing to marry him, which is completely a collection of all the favorable conditions for him, and it is only a matter of time before it is completely unified!

Adil also had his own ambitions - he wanted to be the ruler of Marions, to be the Duke of Alama and to have his place in this new empire - to put pressure on his father as a senator and to befriend the Romans with the help of the Catu.

People with greedy ambitions, often dancing on the tip of a knife, are keen to gamble for their own desires, but no one can know whether they are geniuses or fools until they are completely defeated.

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While the whole of Caesarea was getting noisy because of Theodore's decision to codify a new code, a group of veterans of the Roman legions were boarding a merchant ship bound for the north at the same time. According to the agreement signed between Theodore and the Grand Chief of the Ryan Tribe, Gado, these men will become the instructors of the Ryan Tribe, responsible for training the local Highlander warriors and farmers into a real army.

The military tribune of Ustan Konstantin was very confused—he could not understand why Caesar insisted on taking the post of chief instructor. First of all, he is certainly not a veteran, and as for the training of recruits, he has indeed trained the auxiliary wing of Haringos, but in Urstein's opinion, the level of those guys is not really "legionnaires".

"If you still want to go back to the Legion and not just take care of some accounts or soldier disputes, I advise you not to refuse. And, I heard you've always wanted to get a job in the Legion for that elven girl, right?

Before leaving, General Belisarius frowned and made Ustan believe that he must have known something, and the more he thought about it, the more depressed he felt. He was called around like a fool, but no one was willing to explain to him that he was not a big soldier who didn't know anything, and he didn't even have the right to know anything? This was quite difficult for Ustan to accept.

Born in the north, she was not uncomfortable with the cold climate of the Arctic Ice Field, and even wore a very light leather armor. Being able to travel to the north to fight the legendary barbarians of the Misty Mountains made this girl who had been idle for too long a little overexcited.

The only regret is that I can't bring my longbow with me - the water vapor floating on Lake Valen will cause the longbow to be damaged by moisture, so I can only hope to get a good guy when I get to the Roman military camp. Despite this, the female ranger was still very excited, and it became quite a clear inverse with Ustan who was frowning on the side.

The veterans of the Roman legion, who were in charge of serving as instructors, were quite silent - they had all left their legions for various special reasons, and their experiences and insights were far beyond those of a newcomer like Usstein, and they were naturally quite aware of this kind of thing.

Caesar wants to reuse a new legion like Ustan but can't let him appear too abruptly, so the best way is to let him have more meritorious opportunities than others, and enough military merit can also block the mouths of most people - the northern misty mountain barbarians are obviously one of the best opportunities at present, and the empire has no plans to start a war with the orcs immediately, even if it is transferred to the south, it is difficult to make meritorious contributions.

The most important thing is that the fundamental purpose of this group of people going to the north is to train new soldiers - the possibility of encountering a battle is extremely low, and even if there is a real problem, there are tens of thousands of warriors from the Ryan tribe who can protect them, so there is no need to worry. What's more, the commander of the northern military camp is Commander Konstantin, with this uncle here, plus his own ability is quite outstanding, will Ustan still lack the opportunity to make meritorious contributions?

"Pop, pop, pop......" The crisp sound of footsteps came from the aisle of the cabin, although the sailors had previously reminded these veterans to walk as casually as possible when on the ship, and not to step too hard to avoid any accidents, but the habit that has been cultivated over the years is still not easy to break.

"Konstantin tribune, the ship has docked. The soldier respectfully raised his right hand to Ustan and gave him a Roman military salute: "The sailors of the fleet are ready to meet us on the shore." ”

"Then let's come along. For the veterans of the Legion, Ustan still showed due respect, and did not simply regard them as big-headed soldiers, and stood up and walked towards the door with a calm face, followed by the slightly lively figure of Igo.

Maybe it was some kind of delusion, but Ustan always felt that he had just arrived in this far arctic ice field, and it was unlikely that it would be smooth sailing—as if something had been waiting for him in that snowfield all along.

"It should be, delusion, right?" (To be continued......)