My XX deal with Sister Nero

"Twenty thousand people..." Tony smacked his lips.

Speaking of sieges, there is a passage in "The Art of War" which roughly says that if you want to encircle and annihilate the enemy, your troops must be ten times more than the enemy's, and if you want to capture a city, your troops must be five times more than the enemy's.

According to this calculation, the enemy would need about 100,000 people to capture this city.

"How many cavalry are there in an army of 20,000?" Tony thought for a moment and asked.

Lius said, "There are about thirty cavalrymen in a battalion. So, there should be about three hundred cavalrymen in the main battle legion, six hundred cavalrymen in the auxiliary legion, and if you add my direct guard, there are about a thousand cavalrymen."

One thousand cavalrymen, how should we use them?

Tony frowned and thought for a long time, and finally said to Nero: "Your Highness, can you tell me what kind of country Thrace is?"

Nero smiled and said, "That's no problem."

Although I don’t know whether the Thrace in the world I originally lived in is the same as this Thrace, the Thrace in this world is a bit like a nomadic people.

The Thracians, originally from the southern Russian steppes, were a typical nomadic people. Later, they settled in Thrace and established the Thracian Kingdom. The country seemed to be a whole, but in fact there were more than 40 tribes in the country, which followed the practice of "the emperor takes turns, and today it's my turn."

That’s right, whoever has the bigger fist is the emperor.

This is also the reason why the Kingdom of Thrace became a vassal state of the Roman Empire.

Their combat effectiveness is very strong, but they do not have the qualities to fight in large groups. At the same time, they are extremely good at infighting. These 20,000-plus troops are probably the entire assets of one of the tribes.

"No wonder Her Royal Highness the Princess only brought a joint army this time. So this is what's going on." Tony suddenly realized.

Obviously, Nero already knew the approximate strength of the enemy, and he also guessed that the 20,000-plus troops should come from one of the tribes. What Nero wanted to do was not to annihilate these 20,000 people, but just to defeat them. Then, as for the rest, other tribes in the Kingdom of Thrace that had grudges against this tribe would help Nero deal with it.

"That's much easier now." Tony smiled and asked Lius, "General, are the Thracians besieging the city now?"

Lius shook his head and said, "No, the enemy only has 20,000 people. If we choose to besiege the city, these 20,000 people are not enough."

Tony nodded and said, "I think cavalry is of little use in a siege, so the enemy's cavalry will probably continue to harass other villages and towns soon, right?"

Lius nodded and said, "It is very likely that the infantry will be used to surround us, and the cavalry will be used to plunder our citizens. This is generally the strategy of the barbarians."

Tony glanced at Nero, then at Leonius, and said, "General, please gather all the cavalry and form a cavalry unit. Let them leave the city at night and hide nearby. The enemy just arrived outside the city today and is exhausted, so they should not attack the city today. But I guess they will attack the city tomorrow, so we can use the cavalry to charge at them while they are attacking! This way, at least it can weaken the enemy's morale and relieve the pressure on the soldiers defending the city."

PS1: Historically, the Thracians actually came from Macedonia. After the establishment of Macedonia, Thrace could no longer survive, so they fled to the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula and established the Thracian Kingdom.

PS2: Now the total collection is 204, the recommendation votes are 188, the monthly ticket is 10, the reward is 500, and there are 52 more chapters to be updated. The condition for the next update is that the total collection is 214, the recommendation votes are 191, the monthly ticket is 11, and the reward is 1000. Just meet one of the conditions

Chapter 31 Let’s have a football game!

Concentrate cavalry to attack the enemy's infantry?

This is a good idea!

On the battlefield, cavalry is better than infantry. This is an ironclad fact that applies to both ancient and modern times, both inside and outside the country. However, the Roman Empire has always attached great importance to infantry, and cavalry can only be regarded as an auxiliary branch of the imperial legion. Therefore, this city with nearly 20,000 troops had to fight for their lives to gather less than 1,000 cavalry.

If one thousand cavalrymen raid these twenty thousand infantrymen, not only can they cause great casualties if used properly, but even the soldiers in the city can fight back as long as they cooperate properly. It will be difficult for you not to win a great victory in this battle!

Thinking of this, Lius said, "Your Highness, the method this young man mentioned is of some reference value, but many details are difficult to handle, such as the issue of timing. Your Highness, please allow me to discuss this with the governor in the city later. After all, we will need the cooperation of their national army at that time."

"Well, okay, I hope you can give me a more satisfactory plan later." Nero nodded to Lius.

"Yes, Your Highness." Lius bowed.

"Let's go, little Tony." Nero smiled at Tony, turned and left the council hall.

"Is this the end of just sitting in?" Tony asked in surprise after he walked out of the council hall.

Nero shrugged and said, "What else? What do you think it will be like?" At this point, Nero paused for a moment and said, "I have never learned how to lead troops in battle, so I will leave this aspect of the battle to General Lius. After he and his subordinates have summarized and discussed and come up with a more detailed battle plan, I will review it and then I will judge whether this plan is feasible."

"...Okay." Tony rubbed his face hard and said.

"Well, let's continue studying." Nero said with a smile at Tony.

For a poor student, the most painful thing is to study, and this is the case with Tony. You are obviously a poor student, but facing a genius who is willing to teach you how to read and write, it is hard for you not to learn!

Tony estimated that it would take Nero a few days to summarize a lot of teaching experience.

Fortunately, General Lius came to rescue him near lunchtime.

"Your Highness, this is the battle plan we have summarized." General Lius knelt on one knee, holding a piece of papyrus in his hand, and said.

"Well, let me see." Nero nodded and said indifferently.

The moment General Lius handed over the papyrus, he quickly glanced at the desk not far away.

The Iliad and some papyrus with writing on it? What's this for?

General Leius had known about Tony's existence and that he was with Nero, but as a subject, he wisely chose not to say anything. He knew what he should know and pretended not to know what he should not know. This was the way of a subject.

At the beginning, he always thought that Nero raised this child to accompany her to do some unspeakable things. After all, the princess was sixteen years old and sensible enough. But now it seems that this is not the case.

After taking the papyrus, Nero carefully read the plan written on the paper, and finally asked: "There are three uncertain factors in the whole plan. First, are the enemy cavalry still in the camp? Second, will our surprise attack be effective? Third, how can the defenders in the city seize the opportunity to kill the enemy? How do you plan to solve these three uncertain factors?"

Lius said in a deep voice: "Whether the enemy cavalry is in the camp, we only need to send a large number of spies to investigate. As for whether a surprise attack is useful, I think it should be useful. We can surprise them from the rear or the side and attack them unexpectedly. At that time, the enemy's formation will be disrupted. Once there is a big chaos, it will definitely give us an opportunity to take advantage of. As for the third point, I want to lead the counterattack myself. Your Highness should be able to trust the ability of the veteran, right?"

After Levius had said so much, could Nero say he didn't believe it?

Moreover, Leonius had served as legion commander for more than twenty years and had fought for the Roman Empire for more than fifty years. If Nero did not even trust him, then there would probably be few people in the entire Roman Empire who were trustworthy.

"Well, General Levius, I wish you a successful battle!" Nero said as he took two glasses and a bottle of wine from the bookshelf next to him. After pouring the wine from the bottle, he handed one of the glasses to Levius. After Levius took the glass, Nero gently touched his own glass against this glass, tilted his head back, and drank the wine in the glass.

Lius smiled and then drank his glass of wine.

After Leus left, Nero said to Tony, "Little Tony, what do you think of this plan?"

Tony rolled his eyes and said, "What can I do? You told me on the road before that this Lius is the most experienced general in the empire. Even if the tactics he formulated are wrong, do you think I can see it?"

"That's true... Well, let's continue studying." Nero said with a smile.

"No, no, no, let's forget about reading. Let's discuss something interesting!" When Tony heard that he had to study again, he felt his head get bigger.

"What do you want to do?" Nero asked with a smile.

Tony rolled his eyes, then slapped his forehead and said, "Sister Nero, what do you think about us organizing something similar to the Olympic Games?"

"Olympic Games? What a good idea!" Nero's eyes lit up when he heard Tony's suggestion!

As we all know, the modern Olympic Games originated from the ancient Greek Olympic Games. From 776 BC to 394 AD, a total of 293 ancient Greek Olympic Games were held. Nero, who had a great interest in art and sports, always wanted to hold an Olympic Games of his own, but what competition events to set up was a very headache problem.

"Projects? Isn't that easy?" Although Nero was having a headache about what events to host, Tony, who had watched so many modern Olympic Games, didn't know?

100-meter sprint, 400-meter sprint, 4x100-meter relay, 800-meter sprint, 1500-meter race, marathon, 110-meter hurdles, Tony can come up with a lot of tricks for you in just one track and field event, not to mention basketball, football, and table tennis, which Nero doesn't understand at all.

Oh, yeah, why not have a football or basketball game first?

Tony doesn't know much about football. The reason he knew about football was simply because he played FIFA and learned about the rules of football. But he thinks that's enough.

The only problem now is where to get a ball.

"Sister Nero, how about this? After this war is over, let's hold a football match!" Tony said excitedly!

He once read an online novel about a protagonist who found the world he traveled to boring, so he organized a football match and fireworks to make a small fortune. Tony thought that this could be applied to himself, and he could also host a football match, right?

"Football match? What is that?" Nero was curious about this new game.

"You'll know when the time comes. Our top priority now should be to kill the Thracians outside the city!" Tony said with a mysterious smile.

The total collection is 210, the recommendation votes are 193, the monthly votes are 10, the rewards are 500, and there are 53 more chapters to be updated. The next update will require a total collection of 214, a recommendation vote of 196, a monthly vote of 11, and a reward of 1000. You can satisfy any one of these conditions.

Chapter 32: Prelude to the Great War

When the Thracians arrived at the city of Thessalonica, it was almost time for lunch. They were exhausted from the journey, so their leader ordered them to set up camp on the spot and have lunch first.

The Thracian Kingdom did not bring too many large siege weapons this time. According to general practice, when attacking a city, especially a large city like Thessaloniki, the siege weapons carried are mostly large catapults, ladders, towers and battering rams. However, this time the Thracian Kingdom only dispatched battering rams, ladders and small catapults.

After lunch, Tony, wearing the leather armor specially made for him by Nero and with a dagger hanging on his waist, followed many generals to the north wall of Thessalonica, gazing at the busy Thracian camp not far away. It seemed that the Thracian army would not be able to attack the city today.

"Everyone, do you have anything to say?" Looking at the busy enemy troops, Nero looked back at all the generals present and asked.

Lius smiled and said, "Although the enemy outnumbers us, I am not afraid of more enemies like this who can delay our chance to fight."

The Thracians are notoriously powerful and do not understand legionary warfare, so if a real fight breaks out, they will probably rush forward all at once and will not attack in stages.

"Then let's eat on this city wall today." Nero looked at the soldiers on the city wall who were busy preparing city defense weapons and spoke.

Eating with the soldiers on the city wall simply expressed the willingness of the leaders above to share the hardships with the soldiers below, although the food these leaders eat is much better than that of the soldiers...

Tony ate while watching the movements of the Thracian army. Soon, he saw the Thracians set up tents and sent some people to cut wood nearby to build walls. At the same time, they also dispatched cavalry to plunder other small villages and towns.

"The enemy's cavalry is moving out." Tony quickly swallowed the pork chop in his mouth and spoke.

"I saw it." Nero said unladylikely as he tore off a piece of pork chop with his mouth.

The Thracian cavalry's deployment was not good news for other towns, because it meant they were in trouble, but for the generals in Thessalonica, it was very good news.

This means that when your cavalry is dispatched, the enemy does not have enough cavalry to hold you back!

Nero glanced at the Thracian cavalry going away, and asked Lius beside him: "General Lius, how many enemy cavalry have been dispatched?"

Lius stood up and took a closer look, then said, "Your Highness, there should be three thousand."

Veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time would use various means such as observing the dust to estimate how many troops the enemy has sent out. Levius is one of them.

"About three thousand? This means that almost all the enemy cavalry have been dispatched!" Nero was delighted.

"Yes, Your Highness. I will arrange for the cavalry to assemble and stand by so that they can arrive at the designated ambush site at night." Lius replied calmly.

Nero nodded and said, "Then I'll leave it to you, General Lius."

Nero didn't command the battle not because she was not good at it. On the contrary, as a genius student, she could teach herself any skill she wanted in a very short time.

For example, if you throw Nero into the real world, even if it is her first time seeing an airplane, as long as she is willing, she can learn how to fly an airplane in a very short time.

But if she is not interested in this and is unwilling to learn it, then she will definitely not learn anything.

After walking down the wall with Tony, Nero said with a smile: "Brother, let's discuss those sports you mentioned!"

Nero would not pay too much attention to a war that was sure to be won. Although Tony was a little worried about whether he would capsize in the ditch or something, he still answered when he heard Nero's question: "Then let me talk about football first. In fact, the rules of football are simple and difficult. It is a competitive sport with strong confrontation. There are two teams on the field. Each team has 11 players on the field and 7 substitutes, which means 36 people are needed. 36 people kick a ball. Each team has its own goal. If the ball is kicked into the goal, it wins."

Tony spoke and gestured as he told Nero some simple rules of football.

"It sounds interesting! The central square is big enough, I will ask someone to set up two goals. Oh, by the way, what materials are the football made of?" Nero asked curiously.

Tony replied, "This is very simple. The outside is made of leather and the inside is filled with hair, like a horse's tail or something."

Let’s put aside Tony and Nero’s discussion of football for now and talk about the other side.

After a midday rest, the Thracian army launched a small-scale exploratory attack on Thessalonica that afternoon.

Facing such an attack, of course, Levius could guess that the main force responsible for the defense that day was the National Army whose combat effectiveness was weaker than that of the field army. You know, a considerable number of the National Army recruited this time were new recruits who had never experienced any war. It was also a good idea to use this small-scale war to let them see blood.

The war was not large in scale and lasted only about half an hour. Both sides suffered less than a hundred casualties, and the war ended with the Thracians hastily withdrawing their troops.

"It looks like this test wasn't very successful." Nero said while looking at the battle report during dinner.

"It is said that there are less than a hundred casualties?" Tony was a little surprised. If the less than a hundred casualties Nero mentioned just now refers to today's battle, then the enemy's test is really not that good.

In ancient wars, which one did not result in the death of thousands or tens of thousands of people? Less than a hundred people, considering that the death toll of the attackers accounted for the vast majority, so the death toll of the Roman Empire this time was less than fifty?

"What about the damage on the Empire's side?" After thinking about it, Tony asked directly.

"There are less than 20 casualties, and one person is missing. I think the missing person must have accidentally fallen off the city wall and was hacked to death by the enemy." Nero shrugged and put down the battle report in his hand.

...How unlucky one must be to fall off the city wall!

"Well, I guess the cavalry will leave the city soon, right? In other words, success or failure depends on tomorrow? Oh, by the way, I have been thinking about one thing. Although we will send the cavalry out of the city under the cover of darkness at night, will the enemy's spies see the cavalry leaving the city?" Tony frowned.

"No, the tribe that attacked Thessalonica this time was the Ister tribe of the Thracian Kingdom. Although this tribe is brave and good at fighting, it is only because their individual strength is high. They basically know nothing about marching and fighting. They believe in rushing forward in a rush and dispersing in a hurry. I guess they don't have the habit of sending spies at all."

The Ister tribe? Was there such a tribe in ancient times? Tony was a little puzzled, but after thinking carefully, Tony's knowledge of Thrace was limited to the name of Thrace. Who knows if there is really such a tribe in Thrace?

But to be honest, Tony has been reading history books for so many years and has some knowledge of ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, but this is the first time he has heard of not sending spies before a war!

There was a power outage in the afternoon, so there might only be one chapter tonight.

Now the total collection is 218, the recommendation votes are 197, the monthly ticket is 10, and the reward is 500. Currently, 54 more chapters are owed. The next additional chapter will require a total collection of 224, a recommendation vote of 201, a monthly ticket of 11, and a reward of 500. Any of the conditions will be met.

Chapter 33: War Begins

Nero did not pay too much attention to the Ister tribe. Firstly, it was because she had the most capable and warlike General Leius by her side, and secondly, it was because it was really difficult for this tribe to become a force to be reckoned with.

In the entire Thracian Kingdom, the Ister tribe was very capable, and their individual combat capability was among the top three among all Thracians. Even the Spartans would frown when they met them, but they had no coordination. According to Nero's description, this tribe could not even form the most basic infantry phalanx, let alone any other battle formations.

At that time, they just set up ladders and rushed forward.

Instead of paying attention to them, it is better to pay attention to the sports competitions proposed by Tony.