Riding and Slashing

Chapter 206 The Price of Reform

Sheila Yuzas is probably one of the few generals who has served in both the Legion of Shadow and the Legion of the Immortals.

He was originally the lieutenant general of the Shadow Legion.

After Emperor Marius established the Immortal Legion, he served as the lieutenant of the Immortal Legion—he was the first intermediary between Emperor Marius and the Shadow Legion.

Mario used to trust him a lot. In fact, General Agathon was only Sheila's successor.

Unlike Agathon, Sheila Yuzas is actually a native of the southern part of Pendor.

But his family defected to the empire when General Osa established New Bacchus. It was a military family of Bacchus, so Sheila was also considered to be from a famous family and was regarded as a member of the Bacchus.

Therefore, Sheila has always called himself a Bacchus-even though his ancestors have no Bacchus blood, he still insists on doing so.

His family has always kept a large number of slaves, and during his tenure, he kept killing enemies to obtain trophies and slaves. It seems that his thirst for wealth will never end.

This kind of behavior is actually quite normal in Bacchus, and it's not a big problem, at least it's not like Levius bullying men and women and harming civilians, and being greedy for money is a good thing for the emperor.

It is precisely because he is from Pendor's native land and a nobleman of the Bacchus Empire that Mario gave him such a heavy responsibility—the Shadow Legion and the Immortal Legion will both consider Sheila to be their own, and such a person is actually helpful. To ease the antagonism between the two nations.

In the first half of her life, Sheila really worked hard for the empire.

Whether facing the D'Shar Principality or the Sarleon Kingdom, he has killed countless enemies during his 20 years of military career, and made great military exploits for the empire.

Although he was a lieutenant most of the time, so he was not well-known abroad, but as the lieutenant of the two core legions, he was undoubtedly one of the most important commanders of the empire.

And inside the empire, everyone knew that he was the real warrior of the empire and the best general in Bacchus!

Probably the only flaw is that he is too greedy for money - he is very aggressive in order to plunder the spoils, and sometimes he will cause massacres in the enemy's territory...

However, it is not a general's shortcoming to regard the enemy as a enemy and take spoils from the enemy.

Originally, he was able to retire as a top general and leave his portrait forever in the palace corridor of the Bacchus Empire.

But no one expected that he would suddenly lead a rebellion after Emperor Marius vigorously promoted the reform policy!

It wasn't until he launched the rebellion that everyone knew that the massacre that Xila had committed before was probably not because he regarded the enemy as a bandit...

Purely because of his brutality and bloodthirsty.

And his so-called 'greed for money', the constant acquisition of loot, is just a by-product of his love of killing.

Yes, Sheila is not greedy for money. He keeps making money not for his own enjoyment, but for gaining the approval of the Shadow Legion and launching his big plan of 'returning to the Osa era'!
Sheila Yuzas did not support Emperor Marius' reforms.

Or it should be said that he was extremely opposed to Marius' reform...

It stands to reason that, as natives of Pendor, most of them would support Mario's reforms.

But Sheila Yuzas is different, he insists that he is a member of the Bacchus nation.

This probably means that I can't stand up after kneeling for a long time, similar to some people who still have pigtails in their minds, and always feel that Mr. Yang is superior to others.

And Marius' reform, in the view of Sheila Youzas, is a betrayal of the Bacchus!
Or rather, a betrayal of a native military family like him...

It took his family more than 100 years to abandon Pendor's relatives, endure the infamy of traitors, endure the oppression and ridicule of the Bacchus, and pay countless prices. similar.

From a Pendor to a Bacchus, and in his generation, he was finally accepted by the Bacchus, entered the Shadow Legion, and became a general through his hard work in the first half of his life.

At this time, the Yuzas family has finally become a master and a member of the highest class!
But the first item of Emperor Mario's reform was to treat the Pendors and the Bacchus equally... Since then, no one has come out on top? !

Sheila Youzas felt that this was tantamount to turning half of his life's hard work and the humiliation and dedication his family had endured for a hundred years into a joke...

He cannot accept such a policy...

He believes that under the reforms of Emperor Marius, the empire has gone off track!
In Sheila's view, Emperor Marius is not worthy of sitting on the throne of the empire, and he will overthrow the false emperor Marius, lead the empire to order out of chaos, and return to the Osa era!
As a result, Sheila Yuzas broke away from the Bacchus Empire and became an independent armed force.

He distributed most of the money and slaves he got to cronies who had been planted in the imperial army for many years, and got many officers to support him in the way of General Osa - he said he would implement civil law, and by military rank 'Army and other law' for grades...

It's just that his so-called "military law" that "returns to the Osa era" is not very complete.

Because there are no people in his structure.

He intends to use the military system to manage everything and build a pyramid with the military system.

Slaves, Pendor Soldiers, Bacchus Soldiers, Pendor Officers, Bacchus Officers, Generals - the Bacchus above the Pendor, the General at the top of the pyramid.

Jurisdiction is determined by class, and there is no other means of governance. The soldiers below are slaves, and there is no civilian class—this kind of structure is not even a warlord government, and it is far worse than the empire established by Osa.

In Sheila's logic, starting from the soldiers, the upper class can own everything in their territory, and the official rank can be hereditary.

This is probably a stitch monster form that combines warlord thinking, feudal logic, and nationalism. It seems that there is no major problem, but if it is implemented, it may be no different from the Jatu people...

Oh, there is a difference. The Jatus actually don’t think that their nation is nobler than other nations, but Xila, a native of Pande, insists that the Bacchus nation is inherently superior to other nations...

However, there is indeed a market for Sheila Youzas' logic of the two devils in Bacchus.

Restricted by Bacchus' strict military regulations, legionnaires can only get a small salary during their service, and they have to serve for 16 years. After the service period expires, even if they have made great achievements, they can only become officials like tribunes , unable to become a hereditary nobleman.

Especially the soldiers of the Immortal Legion, although nominally pro-military of the emperor, they would not get any extra benefits under Emperor Marius. After all, Emperor Marius would strictly implement his own reform policy.

Therefore, many imperial soldiers, especially some elite and middle-level officers who have served for many years, do have illusions about the logic of Sheila Youzas.

Those who came out of the civilian population due to policy reasons got opportunities that they would never have had in their lifetime, but after they turned around, they were actually more eager to become oppressors than traditional nobles, and they would be more greedy...

Human nature is like this, since ancient times.

And the traditional nobles, that is, the people of the Shadow Legion, feel that Sheila's ideas are actually in line with their original tradition...

Especially those shadow centurions who suffered losses due to military system reform.

Therefore, when Sheila announced her separation from the Bacchus Empire, there were indeed many people who followed him, basically all of them were veterans or officers who had served for many years.

But in fact Sheila Youzas did not raise the flag of rebellion at the beginning. Maybe he is not good at governing the country, but he is definitely not a fool. He knows that direct rebellion must be a dead end-he just declared that he will lead the veterans to retire , and became a free man from the Empire.

The Emperor Marius did not regard them as rebels at first, but only allowed them to secede from their nationality and expelled them from the territory of Bacchus.

After all, these fighters have made a lot of military exploits for the country, and they didn't cause chaos in the country at that time, but they just didn't want to be citizens of the empire anymore, and there was no reason to directly exterminate them.

Marius was promoting reforms at the time, and if he went to war because of this, the conservatives would attack him for it.

As a result, this hidden danger gradually grew into a cancer.

Under the instigation of the Senate of the Bacchus Empire, Augustus, a rebel leader who had been lurking in the empire, approached Sheila Youzas.

In fact, Augustus was the emperor elected by the Senate of the Bacchus Empire 20 years ago, but in the end Marius used some "small tricks" to make the Senate change its mind, and Augustus became a rebel because of this .

Augustus himself is a politician and does not have strong leadership skills, so he can only hide all the time.

But Sheila Youzas was a battle-hardened general.

So, the two sides united and started their journey——Augustus 'defected' to Sheila Youzas, and they planned to join forces to capture Siyuan City, change the world in one fell swoop, and implement Sheila's warlord ideal.

But the situation was not so good at the beginning, because it was Marshal Kairos who had been ordered to exterminate them...

The rebels were chased and ran around, and they didn't dare to fight a frontal war, let alone conquered...

Sheila Youzas was in luck, though.

Not long ago, he unexpectedly received a large amount of funding from the Sarleon Kingdom - countless dinars and food, as well as a lot of equipment!
As a result, many people who were still on the sidelines defected to the rebel army after Sheila dropped a large amount of dinars.

These include hundreds of centurions of the Shadow Legion-these people lost their authority to lead farmers and soldiers under Mario's New Deal.

It also included [-] Immortals—the Immortal Legion built by Emperor Marius with great efforts, and nearly one-third of them were devoted to him!

There were even [-] imperial knights—they were only the cavalry of the Imperial First Legion after Emperor Marius implemented reforms, and they were not considered real noble knights.

This rebel army quickly formed a large scale, plus it was a cold rebellion...

Sheila Yuzas' ability to command combat is indeed very strong. He led the rebel army and caught Kailos by surprise-Kailos didn't expect that the shadow centurion under him would suddenly turn against him!

Thanks to this accidental funding from the Sarleon Kingdom, the rebel army won several unbelievable victories in a row, and even attacked to a position less than thirty miles away from Siyuan City!
In fact, even if the rebels of Sheila Youzas won a temporary victory, it was still not enough to hurt the empire.

King Ulrik provided him with money and food only in order to prevent the Bacchus Empire from launching an attack while taking advantage of the civil strife in the Sarleon Kingdom.

However, in the territory of Bacchus, a huge storm was set off because of this rebellion.

While the rebel army of Sheila Yuzas was attacking aggressively, a group of gladiators took advantage of the attack of the rebel army to launch a slave uprising in the royal arena of Siyuan City.

When the defenders of Siyuan City were mostly busy with defense and rebellion, the gladiators broke the shackles and rushed out of the city.

The Royal Arena in Siyuan City is the highest-level slave arena in Bacchus. Naturally, all those who can participate in the competition here are highly skilled fighters. When these gladiators are freed, their fighting power is quite terrifying...

This team of gladiators conquered seven or eight villages and towns in a short period of half a month, from Siyuan City to Boshi City.

The gladiators continuously liberated all kinds of slaves in Bacchus, continuously expanded their team, and finally formed a terrifying scale of nearly ten thousand people under Boshi City!
Although they were short of food and clothing, and most of them had no reliable equipment, the number alone was enough to make all the lords of the entire empire helpless.

The fame of this slave rebel army led by gladiators even spread to Sarleon in a short time.

At the same time, due to the large-scale riots of the rebels and slave rebels, the Snake Worshipers in Bacchus also began to make troubles.

The entire southeastern part of the Bacchus Empire was full of Snake Cult troops, and countless villages were destroyed.

Since Governor Kairos was leading an army to wipe out the rebels, he was unable to return to his division to resist, and Emperor Lingang was attacked by a large number of Snake Worshipers.

Most of the surrounding lords fled, and there were not a few high-ranking officials who were forced to attach themselves to the Snake Cult.

Emperor Lingang is now crumbling. It is said that civilians and serfs spontaneously organized troops to resist with difficulty.

As the hub city between the three core cities of Siyuan City, Boshi City, and Emperor Lingang, Marasburg has even been captured by the Snake Worship Cult.

Almost the entire Bacchus Empire was caught in the flames of war, and there was no normal communication between several major cities.

In this case, let alone dealing with the Sarleon Kingdom, the Bacchus Empire's self-protection will become a problem...

……

Siyuan City.

Emperor Marius stood in front of the map in uniform.

This is the palace hall, but the current layout is more like a military headquarters.

"Where is Kailos now? There's no reason why he can't send back the news, right? The rebels of Sheila Youzas haven't completely defeated him..."

Emperor Mario looked at the map and asked General Agathon beside him without turning his head.

"When I received your order, Marshal Kairos was in Finlad Village with the main force of the Shadow Legion. Your Majesty, Marshal Kairos probably didn't dare to send you a detailed military report... There are many traitors in the Shadow Legion! Sheila Youzas is always one step ahead of the movements of the imperial army!"

General Agathon frowned tightly, looking much more anxious than Emperor Marius.

"Hey... not only the Shadow Legion has traitors, but also the Immortal Legion has many traitors. The number of immortals joining the rebel army is far beyond my imagination..."

Emperor Marius said a little helplessly, but did not show the slightest frustration: "Agason, the situation is urgent now, you must immediately recover Marasburg, which is between Siyuan City, Dilingang and Boshi City." The hub, there must be no loss..."

Marasburg is located between the three core cities of the Bacchus Empire, and it is indeed an extremely important connection hub.

The sight of Emperor Marius has also been wandering around Marasburg on the map.

"But...Your Majesty, Oleg Fort has fallen, and the rebels and the Snake Cult heresy may attack Siyuan City from two sides. If I leave with the army at this time, you..."

Agathon looked quite worried.

"I believe Kairos will kill the rebels. As for the Snake Cult in Fort Olega, I have already recalled Titus...Compared to Siyuan City, I am more worried about Emperor Lingang."

Emperor Marius pointed to the location of God's port on the map: "The Snake Worshipers who rebelled this time are not pure believers. They have a strict organization and army order, and they have formed a real army! This is not just within the empire. The Snake Worshipers, their army actually came from the sea, from the continent of Amara!"

Ajiasong's eyes widened: "Your Majesty! If that's the case...I'm afraid Di Lingang..."

"It's because you have lost contact with Dilingang, so you must control the surrounding area of ​​Marasburg, and then ensure the safety of Dilingang! I will personally go to battle in Siyuan City..."

Emperor Marius nodded, and patted Agathon on the shoulder: "You go now, don't worry about Siyuan City!"

"As ordered!"

Agathon took the order and left, he was confident in Emperor Marius' judgment.

Mario looked at the map again, turned around and poured a glass of wine from a metal wine cup on the table: "Is there any problem with Justus?"

"Currently, I can't contact Boshi City, but if there are no accidents, my father should be able to convince those slave rebels... If all of them are recruited, the food in Boshi City may not be enough."

A young girl came out from behind the side screen: "Your Majesty, why didn't you let Brutus take the gladiators to deal with the rebels of Sheila Yuzas? Didn't you think so?"

The girl looked quite young, but she looked very calm and bookish.

"Luciana, I didn't expect that Sheila Youzas could persuade so many troops to rebel... I know that many centurions of the Shadow Legion may rebel, but I really didn't expect that there are so many of my Immortal Legion The elite took refuge in him. Now that the rebels are too close, I can no longer send officers to guide them. The army of slaves that Brutus has drawn up is too large, and it may not be easy to drive them smoothly now. It is better to Hurry up to recruit security, so as not to cause more trouble..."

The Emperor Marius was patient with the young girl, and treated him like a friend—just as he had been with Justus, if not more so.

"Your Majesty, my current name is Alina... In fact, those gladiators are quite cooperative, and Brutus is still their leader. I think I can let him try..."

The girl corrected what Emperor Marius called her. It seemed that she didn't regard Mario as an emperor at all, but more like a close elder.

"Alina, child, you haven't really dealt with gladiators—they will only obey those who can beat them in combat, and Brutus may find it difficult to make all of them completely obedient... "

Mario shook his head and changed his address, explaining like an elder teaching a child.

"That's really the only way to recruit in advance, I still haven't considered it thoroughly enough..."

Alina sighed as she said, "It can be said that the current chaos in the empire is caused by me... Sorry, Your Majesty, I didn't expect this to happen."

"Alina...it's not your fault, your plan is fine. Using Sheila Yuzas's rebel army to drive the gladiators to launch a slave uprising, this was originally a good plan that could promote the reform of the slave system in one fell swoop... ...But no one expected that the Snake Worship Church in the Amala continent would suddenly make an expedition across the sea..."

Emperor Marius drank the wine in his glass in one gulp, sighed: "I hope there will be no bad news from the north."

"The Sarleion Kingdom can't take care of itself, so it won't happen... However, Your Majesty, the Noldor Elves seem to be cooperating with Baron Leon from the Sarleion Kingdom. The poisonous snake troops lurking there sent back a message that there are Noldor Elves following Leon and Baron Leon. The Jatus fight."

Alina lowered her head, looked at a booklet in her hand and said.

"Huh... this is probably considered good news, at least that guy won't come here to make trouble... It seems that it is really unusual that Leon can control the Noldor elves. By the way, Alina, I heard that Leon The Baron is not yet married..."

Emperor Marius looked back at Alina, and his eyes suddenly seemed to light up.

"I'm only interested in the hero that Madigan foretold... Your Majesty."

Alina shook her head expressionlessly.

"Your argument... how many times have you said it since you used this argument when you were 16 years old? You can't stay unmarried forever, Alina, you will be 20 years old next month."

Emperor Marius also shook his head and smiled: "Or, are you planning to stay with me as an intelligence officer? Justus will definitely blame me..."

"... Your statute restricts women to marry at the age of 28, Your Majesty. Besides, it's not that I don't want to marry. Those men dare not propose to me. What can I do... Instead of worrying about my marriage, You might as well worry about the domestic situation..."

Alina pursed her lips and retreated behind the screen.

"Ha, you can't be pessimistic at any time... As long as Agathon cleans up the enemies near Marasburg, everything will be solved. Titus has also contacted the Ashborn... Alina, isn't this chaos Bad thing, the empire will wipe out all Shen Ke in one fell swoop! Bacchus will be reborn from the ashes, and will become extremely powerful!"

Emperor Marius poured himself a glass of wine again, drank it in one gulp, and then picked up his sword and left the hall.

A bright red liquid slowly dripped from the metal wine glass, which looked like fresh blood.

(End of this chapter)