Chapter 547: Enemies and Friends before the Final Battle [Subscription Request]

Rome reached its largest territory during the reign of Trajan, a hundred years ago.

Its borders span three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa.

The vast Mediterranean Sea became the empire's inland sea.

The peoples they ruled included Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Celts, Jews, Germans, North Africans, and many more.

At its peak, the population exceeded 60 million.

At this time, Severus, the king of Rome, was ambitious.

He didn't expect that he would have a historic opportunity when he was sixty years old.

He once again expanded the empire's territory eastward to the upper reaches of the Euphrates River and even beyond.

If he could win the next battle against the Wei people, he would have achieved unparalleled achievements, surpassing the greatest emperor in Roman history and hoping to annex all of Parthia.

That was what he had always dreamed of.

The Wei people were obviously a strong enemy, but they were not without weaknesses.

Severus was confident that he could lead Rome to new glory and make those hateful Orientals leave their heads forever on the land of Asia Minor.

At the end of March, the breeze brings warmth.

Two months ago, Severus personally came to the front-line city of Weite.

This is an important Roman border town, not far from the battlefield, close to the port in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea, and a hub of sea and land.

Severus had maintained a firm grip on military power for many years and had personally led many military campaigns.

He likes to personally command battles at the front lines to demonstrate his powerful dominance.

in the afternoon.

Severus was sitting in a hall, looking at the people in front of him.

He was holding a pre-war meeting.

Even the great senator, who seldom left the Senate, came in person and sat at the other end of the long desk.

In addition, there were dozens of commanders of the main Roman legions who were transferred to the front line this winter sitting in the hall.

Most of these chief officers came from different aristocratic families in Rome.

They represented the collective interests of the Roman elite.

After defeating Parthia, every Roman noble was ambitious about how to divide the cake.

This is also the reason why Severus was confident that he could defeat the Wei people.

Because of this war, Rome saw the opportunity to swallow up Parthia, and Rome’s internal conflicts turned into external conflicts.

All the nobles, the Senate and Severus' power were thus tied together.

"For several months, we have focused on collecting information about the Wei people."

Severus spoke in a deep and slow voice, and the faint scar on the corner of his left eyebrow seemed to glow, revealing his extreme excitement.

"We must be aware that the Wei people may be a stronger enemy than we have ever encountered. It is worth us to use all our strength to deal with them, so I have summoned you all."

"Your Majesty, you just said that the Wei people are very strong? Did I hear that correctly?"

A lazy voice sounded.

The speaker was Augustus Plan, a representative of the Roman noble family of Augustus.

He was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, with a neatly groomed mustache and sideburns, brown curly hair, and a handsome face dressed in a neat suit.

The Augustus family controlled the Roman Third Legion and had great influence in finances, making them Severus's most steadfast ally.

"Yes, you heard that right."

Severudo explained:
"The Wei people were stronger than the Parthians, so they defeated Parthia and came to Asia Minor."

Augustus Plan smiled and said:
“I have just been transferred to the front line, so I may not be very clear about the situation there, but wasn’t it us Romans who took action to hold back the legions in the Parthian defeat?

Otherwise, how could the Wei people defeat the Parthians?"

"Besides, have you ever considered another possibility for the Wei people to defeat Parthia? Perhaps it was a plot by King Vologases?"

"You mean he deliberately lost the battle and lured the Wei people to fight us in order to gain an advantage."

"What Augustus said makes sense. I think so too." Another voice sounded.

Severus pinched his eyebrows and felt a little headache.

The pride and arrogance of the Roman aristocracy seemed to be innate.

They had suffered a lot of losses because of this, such as in their confrontations with the Germanic peoples in the north.

But no one ever adjusted for this.

Severus waved his hand, and the eunuchs handed out leather scrolls to everyone in the hall.

These scrolls contain all the information they collected about the Wei Dynasty.

The Wei people defeated and annexed the Xianbei, and then marched westward, defeating the Kushans and then Parthia.

These defeated generals of the Wei people were all powerful nations that were once the most powerful.

As the scroll was passed around, the hall quickly became quiet.

Several newly promoted legions or heads of large families transferred from various parts of the Mediterranean obviously did not know much about the Wei Dynasty. When they saw the contents of the scroll, they all frowned.

"Uh...it says here that the Wei army broke through Parthia's eastern defense line in three days?"

"And Parthia has three fully staffed legions on the eastern defense line."

"The commander is Woz, the commander of their second legion. I know that guy. We've fought against him before. He's very difficult to deal with!"

"Woz is dead. Killed by the Wei people?!"

"Look, this news also says that the Parthian general Timor was also killed by the Wei people."

"Gods above..."

The hall suddenly became quiet for a moment.

The Parthian general Timur was very famous.

The Romans also knew how powerful he was.

"Timor is dead. Died at the hands of the Wei people?!"

The discussion in the hall changed from being light-hearted and teasing to being solemn and serious.

This is exactly the effect Severus wanted.

He had to make these conceited nobles realize that the Wei people were no ordinary opponents, so as to unite the power of Rome and defeat the Wei people.

Rome had eleven fully-strength legions, but their strength was not uniform.

Most of them were controlled by Severus himself, and the Senate also controlled a small part.

This time, in order to deal with the Wei people, all the Roman nobles must concentrate their strength.

"Okay, now that you have seen the Wei army's achievements, let's summarize the strength of each legion."

Severus said sternly: "I repeat, the Wei people are a powerful opponent that we have never encountered before, and they deserve our full efforts." "Well, Your Majesty, as you wish."

Augustus shrugged his shoulders.

"I need a strong opponent to train my army.

I must admit that what you said about the Wei people shocked and excited me. The fact that they were able to kill Timor, no matter what means they used, has aroused my interest. I will take it seriously. "

The other person sitting next to Augustus was Lucius, a truly famous Roman general.

He had been silent until now, and finally spoke:

"My First Legion has a total of 32,000 elite soldiers, with an actual number of 25,000, including 10,000 armored soldiers, 6,000 cavalry, 5,000 archers, and 2,000 elite armored cavalry. The rest are shield soldiers..."

"The Second Legion actually has 22,000 men... The Third Legion has 20,000 men..."

In the past, Rome's eleven legions were scattered and difficult to act in a unified manner.

However, this time, because the Parthian pie was big enough, eight legions participated in the front-line war eastward.

There are still a few legions that have a long way to go, but they have also sent some of their forces and are on their way.

The eight legions that have arrived include the Senate's divine legion and the first to fourth legions under Severus.

At this time, each legion reported one by one the situation of the troops they brought.

A smile slowly appeared on Severus' face.

After listening to the reports from the various legions, he waved his hand to signal others to disperse.

Finally, only the Grand Senator and Severus were left in the hall, sitting across the table from each other.

"According to the information I collected, the Emperor of Wei is coming to the west to fight. Perhaps we should give him a small gift."

"what gift?"

"A gift to let him know that he must get back to the East as soon as possible."

Severus said: "I heard that the Wei people used more than four divine generals in the battle to kill Timor."

"So we have to be careful this time. I invite you, the great elder, to join us and concentrate all our strength to deal with the Wei people."

The elder was silent for a moment, "Okay..."

This was the first time in more than a decade that the two of them had discussed something together.

----

The city of Arbil was a fortress on the western side of Parthia.

To the southeast are the Zagros Mountains, to the south is the Tigris River, and continuing west is the plain battlefield where the battle against the Romans took place.

The two armies were hundreds of miles apart and a war was about to break out.

Cao's army advanced to the city of Arbil and set up camp there.

Cao Cao personally went to the battlefield to conduct on-site inspections, and after returning he made some minor adjustments to the specific strategy.

Night is falling.

Cao Cao returned to the city lord's mansion where he was staying and summoned Huang Zhong, Jia Xu, Guo Jia, Zhuge Liang, Lu Su, Xi Zhicai and others to discuss a strategic mission.

After the meeting, Lu Su left the city overnight and went to the military camp outside the city.

Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun each led their troops, relying on the city of Albil, and commanded the troops outside the city, ready for battle.

Lu Su went out of the city to join them.

The night is getting darker.

After everyone else had left, the light in the study remained on.

Cao Cao still has some things to consider.

His focus is not only on the battle situation.

He led the Wei army on an expedition not to defeat Rome, Parthia and other countries in a superficial sense, but for more practical strategic purposes and what he needed to gain.

He brought the troops from the Wei Dynasty here, but he also wanted to minimize casualties and take them back.

In the room next to Cao Cao, Jia Xu, Zhuge Liang, Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai and others were also busy with their own things.

Jia Xu was busy writing notes.

He has always had the habit of recording some things:

"…I have been accompanying His Majesty on an expedition recently. There have been constant battles along the way. It is too dangerous."

“Although your majesty is in control of the situation, I still feel it’s dangerous. If something goes wrong, things might go wrong.

For example, the situation within Parthia, Vologases surrendered on the surface, but the forces opposing him within Parthia were growing rapidly, which could cause Parthia to deviate from your Majesty's control at any time...

And Vologases himself is restless, he has already made a lot of small moves..."

Jia Xu listed every single thing in his little notebook.

Then I thought about them one by one and listed the response plans.

If something unexpected happens, how should we respond to ensure safety?

He analyzed the overall situation and determined that it was still stable and the situation was under Cao Cao's control, so he felt somewhat relieved.

Then I started writing other things:
"I've made some special discoveries recently."

"The power formed by the vertical and horizontal school of thought that I cultivated, as well as the civil and military strategies of Confucianism and the military strategists, resonated with the heaven and earth, and entered a new realm.

Some things that didn’t work before can now be used.”

"But... I have hidden all the changes. They may be useful at a critical moment."

"I can also see that Guo Fengxiao has also undergone relevant changes. Zhuge Kongming, though still very young, seems to be about to reach the state of harmony between heaven and earth. He is a genius..."

“Well, there is one more thing. The information I have gathered shows that the Romans are quite powerful and we need to be cautious in dealing with them.

I guess that with the war imminent, Rome might take action in advance to test us, perhaps tonight or tomorrow."

"Your Majesty should have the same judgment."

Thinking that something unexpected might happen tonight, Jia Wenhe's sense of insecurity suddenly increased.

He put away the notebook and decided to stay with Cao Cao.

As soon as he went out, he saw Dian Wei and Xu Chu, who were like door gods next door, and felt at ease, so he quickly walked into Cao Cao's room.

As he entered the room, he saw another person floating in like a ghost.

That's right, it floated in.

Jia Xu's heart skipped a beat, and he thought to himself: Change has come...

The person who came in was Wang Yue.

He had just returned from an expedition.

"What happened?" Cao Cao asked.

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(End of this chapter)