Rome Must Perish

Hemijias pondered for a moment, the indifference on his face disappeared, and his expression became more relaxed. He slowly said, "Emmerich, even if I take your advice and join the Nix Tribe, I am still a Segestica man, a Pannonian. Now there is an unresolvable hatred between the Nix Tribe and Panlonians. Will they allow me to continue as a Druid, or even a Priest in the Nix?"

"You don't need to worry about that at all!" Emmerich said confidently. "The Nix Leader once told me that whether it's Illyrians, Panonians, Skodisqi people, Boyi people, or Taurisci... they are all beloved children of the Danu Goddess. The killing between races causes pain to the Goddess, so these races must be united under one tribe, mutually respecting the Danu Goddess, living harmoniously under the guidance of the sole Druidism, and creating a better life together!... What a grand and wonderful plan this is. I don't think it is the idea of a tribal leader only twenty years old, but because it is an oracle of the Danu Goddess. What do you think?"

"The sole Druidism..." Hemijias' eyes sparkled as he turned and walked into the house, saying, "Come in, tell me in detail about the Divine Canon you're compiling and the Danu Goddess Temple you're about to establish."

.............................................

At dusk, in the hall of the Chief House of Segestica West Village, Maximus and the chief officers of various departments gathered to discuss the issues that arose today.

"Gentlemen, today, several villages where the First Legion has stationed reported the same issue," Maximus said. "Some family members of the Segestica citizens fought against us last year following Andres and have not returned yet. They want us to confirm whether their families are still alive. If they are, they will do their best to persuade their families to join our tribe. What do you think about this?"

"Last year, those Segestica who fought against us... If they weren't killed in battle and were captured instead, they should be slaves in the Alde Tribe mining, right?" Capito asked uncertainly.

"Exactly. Most of the captives given to the Alde Tribe became miners, and a small part became slaves of Aldean elders and nobles. That small part mainly consists of the relatives of tribal leaders and clan leaders of various Segestica tribes. The Aldeans like to vent their hatred on these people to find satisfaction," Pigeris said with a hint of disdain, being quite familiar with the treatment of captives after several visits to the Alde Tribe.

"Last year, in our first war against the Segestica, we captured their two villages and over 4,000 warriors, along with more than 1,000 family members of Segestica warriors. They firmly refused to join our tribe and were eventually all handed over to the Aldeans.

Later, in the battle against Andres-led troops, nearly 7,000 warriors were captured. Except for a very few who were released, the remaining captives were handed over to the Aldeans. Later, the Panoni Alliance Army besieged our camp and was ultimately defeated, and this time we didn't capture many prisoners...

Then, some Segestica family members persuaded over 1,000 captives to join our tribe, and subsequently, we signed a year-long ceasefire agreement with the Segestica and released 3,000 people in exchange for food. Now, if the Segestica prisoners in the Alde Tribe are still alive, there should be over 7,000 captives." Volenus spoke eloquently, "According to the leader's requirement, I recorded a simple registration of those captives at that time. If we agree to this request, I can have subordinates return to Slodia and bring those records to identify if the family members they are looking for are among those captives."

After listening, Maximus's thoughts became much clearer, and he sincerely praised, "Well done, Volenus! Your meticulous work has saved us a lot of time and effort, worthy of everyone learning from!"

"I... I merely did as the leader instructed," Volenus responded humbly.

Gaius felt his face flush, quickly stating, "Leader, I think we should agree to their request. After all, we have previously allowed Segestica family members to persuade their family members captured in this war. Of course, we should treat the family members of previously captured warriors fairly; otherwise, they will surely harbor dissatisfaction, affecting our persuasion of all Segestica citizens.

Besides, judging from the situation in recent days, the Segestica Tribe now has more women than men. We need more young men to cultivate this vast fertile land and more young men to strengthen our army.

Moreover, these captives endured a year of hardship in the Alde Tribe. After regaining freedom, they should be more willing to submit to us than their compatriots."

Maximus pondered after hearing this.

"I also think we should agree to their request," Capito chimed in, reminding, "But if we do so, the captives in the Alde Tribe might all want to join our tribe. Firstly, will the Aldeans agree? Secondly, where do we get the iron ore we need without them mining it?"

"I think this problem is easy to solve," Quintus said. "In this war, didn't we capture more than 10,000 warrior captives? The number of Segestica warriors is less than half; the other Pannonia tribe captives can't surrender to us now. Why not hand them over to the Aldeans to replace the previous batch of captives?

The newly exchanged captives are young and strong without injuries or illnesses, and the Aldeans are certainly willing. Meanwhile, we can significantly reduce food consumption because these last year's Segestica captives can return to their homes and consume their food. Isn't this a win-win situation?"

"But if we do this, the tribe won't have enough labor. Next comes road building, bridge building, and new village construction... and other essential public facilities the tribe needs people, strong laborers!" Capito reminded loudly again.

"I believe that our top priority is to quickly occupy the territory of the Segestica Tribe, conquer the Segestica citizens, and stabilize the order here. Therefore, I think agreeing to the Segestica citizen's request is necessary, and exchanging the newly captured captives for the previous ones is also necessary. This way, our anticipated food shortage problem can be significantly alleviated..."

Senaluss said loudly, doing his best to present himself: "But if we retain so many captives, we will not only face the problem of food shortage but also spend more manpower managing them. Until next autumn's harvest, all members of our tribe will live very hard and tense lives because if a strong enemy attacks or some significant accident occurs, the tribe will be in big trouble!

Capito, the leader once said, 'A snake shouldn't dream of swallowing an elephant in one bite.' We can't be too eager! The roads can be built slowly, at least the current ones are still usable. The bridge connecting the East and West camps should be hurriedly repaired, but I think with your Public Works Department, the skilled craftsmen of the tribe, and the many newly joined Scodisqi slaves in the West Village, among whom there are also some craftsmen, the manpower to repair this bridge is more than enough, but as for other bridges, I don't think it's necessary right now.

As for building new villages, there are already enough along the banks of the Kupa River. As for this place, we already have this Main Camp. Before totally occupying this land and stabilizing order here, I think it's impossible to build new villages. What do you think, Capito?"

Capito turned his head to look elsewhere, mumbling under his breath, "What do you know?"

Gaius, instead of feeling displeased by the other's rudeness, earnestly said, "Actually, Capito, you don't need to worry about a labor shortage. Among those few thousand Segestica warriors captives we captured, some won't be willing to join the tribe, even if persuaded by relatives, and also those Segestica citizens unwilling to join our tribe. We have enough foreign auxiliaries—"

Capito sneered, "You forget we also need enough labor to help tribal officials like you and me, departmental subordinates, craftsmen working for the tribe, various workshop personnel, and market personnel in farming."

"Well… we can still, during idle farming times, summon reserve tribe members and some official tribe members to assist your Public Works Department in road building," Gaius proposed another way.

"What kind of department chief officer are you? During idle farming, the tribal decree requires military training. Furthermore, summoning official tribe members to help with road building, I don't recall such a clause being in the tribal decree," Capito scoffed.

"Didn't all of us in Snowdonia work together to build that camp!"

"At that time, we had just settled down, and everyone worked together, or there wouldn't be any place to live. But now it's different. Everyone has their own house, land, and their own things to do. Asking them to spend their time serving the tribe, I'm afraid over time, there will be discontent."

"..."

"Alright, let's end this discussion here," Maximus said. "It seems everyone agrees to grant the Segestica citizens' request, so let's settle on this matter. Tomorrow, notify the various villages where the First Legion is stationed to allow Segestica citizens to submit this application. However, they must wait until we bring back those captives initially left in the Alde Tribe before they can visit their relatives and persuade them. Otherwise, they can only be foreign auxiliaries of the tribe."