The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 604: Expeditions to the East and West
Richard did not deliberately suppress monotheism, but the belief in monotheism in his province of Gaul was becoming less and less.

The Druid faith, because of its ability to bring about a good harvest, swept across Gaul. Apart from the Druid faith, other faiths developed very slowly.

Other polytheistic beliefs are still spread among the temple guards, priests, some survivors and the army. There are no believers of monotheism in Richard's army.

All soldiers in the army either believe in Druidism, Athena, or Minerva.

In fact, Minerva and Athena are two aspects of the same deity, known as Athena in Greece and Minerva in Rome. She also has an aspect in Celtic mythology.

Richard would not allow believers of monotheism to join the army. The last Roman Emperor Julian was an example.

This emperor who declared himself a polytheist was killed on the battlefield by a monotheistic soldier with the Spear of Longinus.

This directly led to the complete defeat of polytheism and the resurgence of monotheism.

With previous experience as a lesson, Richard would naturally not give those monotheistic religions any chance.

After a year of recuperation, the province of Gaul had a good grain harvest. At the same time, trade with the Huns continued. At this time, the only country that could sell war horses in large quantities was the Huns.

Through trading with various Hun tribes, Richard spent a year purchasing 5,000 horses. Of course, only less than 2,000 of these 5,000 horses could be used as war horses.

The rest were sent to the stables for breeding.

In the end, Richard formed a cavalry team of 3,000 people, and each cavalryman was equipped with two horses.

Next, before he entered Rome, Richard planned to deal with the Germanic barbarians and the Visigothic Kingdom next to the Gaul province.

The Visigoths and the Germanic forces, one in the southwest and the other in the northeast of the Gaul province, have always been eyeing Gaul.

Richard didn't want these two places to attack him from behind after he went to Rome, so he planned to deal with them first.

Lyon, as one of the few large cities in the province of Gaul, gradually regained its former prosperity after Richard restored the economy of Gaul.

On the avenue, a group of cavalry were galloping.

The renovated Roman roads have resumed normal operation, with caravans traveling along them every day.

The Roman roads in the province of Gaul connected all the cities in Gaul.

Outside the military camp, the knight dismounted beautifully, and the leading Gallic cavalryman hurried into the tent and said to Victor in a deep voice: "The governor's order!"

Victor stood up immediately after hearing this and asked, "What instructions does the Governor have?"

"The Governor's decree: Order the Gallic Legion, the 4th Battalion to set out for the Rhine Province immediately."

Oh oh oh!
Along with the sound of conch shells, the entire military camp soon began to move, and teams of soldiers came to the parade ground and lined up with excitement.

The soldiers from each team quickly formed neat lines, and in just over half an hour, the entire army was assembled.

The assembled soldiers began to go to the quartermaster to collect supplies. When the army went out to war, each soldier would usually carry three to five days of food, as well as personal weapons, while armor and large shields were transported by carriage.

Normal marches only require wearing casual clothes and carrying swords or bows and arrows.

In the military camp, teams of soldiers were ready to go. War horses were neighing, drums were rumbling, and carriages and horses were rustling. The entire camp became busy.

After completing their preparations, the soldiers quickly headed to the Rhine Province in the north under the leadership of centurions from each team.

Richard dispersed the Gallic Legion throughout Gaul, and also had those extraordinary knights stationed in various places.

However, the two regions of Paris and the Rhine have the largest number of troops, accounting for more than half of the troops. In the remaining regions, the number of troops is much smaller.

After completing the assembly, the soldiers set off with high morale.

These soldiers have been waiting for this day for a long time. According to the new policy of the province of Gaul, the best way to obtain titles, rewards, real estate and land is through military merit.

Here, the awarding of titles for military merit has been deeply rooted in people's hearts. This is also the biggest improvement made by Richard in the past two years.

Many grassroots soldiers gathered their strength and tried to fight their way out.

The soldiers in the province of Gaul now have some of the same joy that the Qin soldiers had in the past when they heard about war.

In fact, the policies and taxation system implemented by Richard in Gaul collected more taxes than the previous Rome. Richard's taxation in Gaul was 45%. The taxation in Rome before was only 25% or 30%.

It seemed that the people under Richard's rule were poorer and had to work harder, but in fact, this was not the case at all. Rome's 25% to 30% tax was just a show.

The above regulations stipulate that the tax rate is 30%, but the tax officials at the lower levels decide how much to collect, so the tax rate is usually more than 60%, or even 70%. The taxes collected by these tax officials include not only regular taxes, but also various miscellaneous taxes. The amount of miscellaneous taxes is often one or two times that of regular taxes.

This led to the local people being exploited by taxes and suffering greatly.

On the other hand, Richard improved farming and increased grain production. After the grain production increased, even if a 45% tax was levied, the money and grain in the hands of the people were far more than before, and their living standards improved by several levels.

This made the soldiers grateful to him and happy to hear about the war.

At the same time, military merit is also the easiest way to cross the class. As long as you gain military merit, an ordinary soldier can also rise to the top in one step.

Victor led a cavalry force galloping along the avenue, with the infantry following closely behind, and finally hundreds of carts transporting supplies.

He now personally led the light cavalry and infantry to rush to the Rhine Province, because he was very worried that if he arrived too late, all the military achievements would be snatched away by others.

As for defeat? That was not even within their consideration. These extraordinary knights were all monsters at the limit of human nature. Who could stop their attack?

This time, Richard took action against the Germans and prepared to divide his troops into two routes. The western route would start from Paris, and the eastern route would start from the Rhine. The two armies would attack from both sides and finally meet up.

This time he was planning to clear the land in the north near the Gaul province, and also clean up the areas of Germany, the Netherlands and other places in the future.

The eastern army was led by Drenos, and the western army was led by Cruz. They captured cities and strongholds along the way and completely wiped out the surrounding Germanic barbarians.

As for himself, he was preparing to deal with the gods believed in by the Germanic people. These Germanic people had a mixed faith, some believed in the Norse gods, and some believed in monotheism.

He planned to convert these people's beliefs to polytheism. He did not intend to provoke the Norse pantheon for the time being, but he could not keep monotheism.

Anyway, these Germanic people are barbarians, and even if they change their faith to monotheism, they will not care about this place.

The province of Gaul has lost a lot of land over the past few hundred years. The earliest province of Gaul relied on the Rhine River as a line of defense in the north.

The current Rhine River defense line has long been breached by the Germans. When Richard recovered the Gaul province, he did not drive the Germans to the other side of the Rhine.

The minimum goal of this operation is to drive the Germans back to the other side of the Rhine.

In fact, in the past two years, the Germans have realized that something was wrong. First, the Huns invaded and beat them all the way. Then, Richard went north in the Rhine Province and almost turned that area into a vacuum.

Later, Richard replaced the Franks, and the Germans went south to plunder but gained almost nothing and suffered heavy losses.

Many Germanic people seemed to have realized the change in the situation. Some Germanic people had left Gaul and returned to their old nest in the north, but there were still many Germanic people who were unwilling to give in and wanted to fight again.

The Germanic people occupied a lot of areas in Gaul, built large towns, gathered thousands of troops, and planned to fight Richard's Gallic Legion.

In fact, the Germanic people moved south partly because the northern climate was cold and all the areas suitable for survival had been occupied, so they had to move south to find it. The reason why many Germanic people were fearless was that if they did not fight hard, they would really have no choice but to die.

Richard's army was divided into two routes. The Eastern Army attacked along the Rhine River and could move northwest along the Rhine River into the sea, just in time to cut off the retreat of the Germans.

Cruz led the Western Route Army to launch an attack.

As soon as the army of Paris set out, the Germans were not given any time to react. The cavalry quickly penetrated and soon cut off the traffic between the town and the outside world, and then the army launched an attack.

The Gallic Legion, which had already replaced its bows with new ones, rained arrows down on the Germans, causing them to be in a miserable state and suffering heavy casualties.

After three rounds of covering shooting by the archers, the Germanic army formation was in chaos, and at this time, the cavalry seized the opportunity to launch a charge.

Under the leadership of the Extraordinary Knights, the Germanic army formation was torn apart in an instant.

Sean took the lead. As a gladiator, he had superb martial arts skills and excellent physical fitness. Wherever he went, there was no enemy willing to negotiate peace.

Clad in armor, he charged like a tank, charging forward recklessly, with a large number of knights following closely behind him, guarding both wings.

Under the leadership of Sean, the cavalry directly broke through the Germanic army formation, and then the infantry pressed forward and quickly divided the Germanic soldiers into pieces.

By this time, the battle was basically over.

Except for a few lucky ones who escaped when they saw the situation was not good, the rest of these Germans were all surrounded.

The surrounded Germans were soon faced with a continuous rain of arrows. They wanted to rush out, but they were surrounded by shield walls on all sides.

For these Germans, the only option was surrender or death.

At this time, the Germanic troops were completely panicked. Some of them wanted to fight their way out, but unfortunately, they were either shot into hedgehogs by rain of arrows or pierced by spears. It was only a matter of time before the army was wiped out.

(End of this chapter)