My XX deal with Sister Nero

So he could guess a little about the situation in the city of Ephesus, but he really knew nothing about the situation in the Temple of Artemis.

"Temple of Artemis?" Although he didn't know why His Highness asked this, Corneus still answered truthfully with the information he had.

"The Pontus rebels looted the temple under the pretext of being in urgent need of funds. After all, the empire holds a grand sacrificial ceremony there every year, and there are a lot of treasures in the temple."

"In other words, they really looted the temple?" Tony reached out and pulled Atalanta, who was about to leap, and shook his head slightly at her.

"How many troops are stationed near the temple now?" Tony asked with a frown, looking at Marcus who was following beside him.

"Because the temple is in the suburbs, it is not a strategic point, and there is nothing valuable inside, so the enemy has no more than two hundred troops stationed there."

"Two hundred rebels..." Tony nodded and said nothing more.

After entering the Chief Executive's residence, Tony pulled Tamiao in front of him and asked in a low voice: "Sister Ata, if I let you deal with these two hundred enemies alone, can you eliminate them in a short time?"

"It's possible." Ta Miao nodded and said.

Two hundred enemy soldiers, no problem.

"Well, although the temple is not a strategic point, it is very close to the enemy stationed in Ephesus. It can be used as a frontline fortress to help me recapture Ephesus. Rest in the city tonight. Tomorrow I will give you, Sister Ata, a team of 100 men. You will lead them to attack the temple and then station there. Afterwards, I will lead part of the army to recapture Ephesus. But you have to be careful, sister. Don't destroy the temple and don't let any enemy escape."

"Leave it to me." Atalanta patted her almost nonexistent breasts and said proudly.

"Well, I believe in Sister Ata's ability~" Although he had almost never seen Ta Miao's fighting ability (he didn't see the first half of the fight when capturing Katniss, and he didn't see the second half because she was protected in the tortoise shell formation), but as a demigod, this fighting ability should not be lower than that of Zero, right?

Dealing with a group of armed peasants, tsk tsk, isn't that a piece of cake?

"Pergamon is in our hands, and Apamea is in the hands of the enemy. Is that why they dare to stay in Ephesus so brazenly?"

Holding a map of the entire Anatolian Peninsula, Tony frowned and tapped the table rhythmically with his fingers.

According to the map, Ephesus is surrounded by the sea to the west, and the north and south sides are in the hands of the Romans. Only the east is controlled by the Pontic. If they send troops to capture Apamea, then there is no doubt that the entire 40,000 troops in Ephesus will be trapped!

PS1: I suddenly want to get rich by reporting cults, so is there anyone who knows how to tell me whether those so-called spiritual practices in China are considered cults? If so, I can become a millionaire by reporting them.

PS2: Did I offend someone? Why do I feel like everyone around me who plays FGO has an Abyss, but I don’t? Damn, everyone comes to me to show off that they have an Abysss.

Chapter 112: So coquettish that it makes people helpless

"That person, yes, it's you." Tony looked up, waved to a guard standing at the door, and said to her, "You, go and call your General Marcus. I have something to ask him."

"Yes!" the soldier responded and retreated immediately.

Soon, he brought Marcus back to the main hall.

"Your Highness?" Marcus was puzzled when he heard that the little prince was looking for him. Could it be that the little prince felt that it was not fun here and wanted to have some fun?

But during the war, most of the shops in Miletus were closed, so where could he find entertainment?

"Well, do you know how many enemy troops are stationed in Apamea?" Tony pointed at Apamea on the map and asked Marcus.

Ok?

When Marcus heard this question, he was stunned for a moment.

Marcus certainly knew the purpose of this young prince's coming here, which was to command the entire army on the front line. However, this "command the entire army"... I'm afraid it needs to be put in quotation marks.

After all, the imperial government has made it very clear that the commander-in-chief of the legion this time is Prince Tony, and the deputy commander is the imperial veteran Vespasianus.

In other words, the actual person in charge of this 200,000-strong army is Vespasianus, and this prince is just a person who comes here to gain experience.

After all, what can a little kid do?

This can be seen from the fact that His Highness just asked about the Temple of Artemis.

A commander who knows a little about military affairs would ask about the number of local troops defending the city, whether there are reinforcements around, and if so, how many? And where these enemy reinforcements are stationed, or whether there are any strategic points nearby.

Who would come up and care about a temple?

So from the very beginning, Marcus treated Tony as a newbie who knew nothing, so when Tony asked a relatively critical question, Marcus was a little confused.

"Apamea... According to intelligence, there are about five thousand enemy troops stationed there," Marcus replied.

In fact, Marcus had thought about Tony's strategic idea, but the troops he had were not enough to support him to occupy Apamea and besiege Ephesus, so he had to give up in the end. However, as a qualified general, he had many strategic ideas in his mind, and Tony's strategic idea... was simply the most conventional.

"Five thousand people..." Touching his chin, Tony began to think.

According to ancient military books, in the cold weapon era, in a siege, the besiegers should have five times as many troops as the defenders. By the Da Meng period, the development of firearms had reached a peak level, and the besiegers had to have more than three times the number of troops to forcibly attack the city.

Although Tony has 20,000 national army troops, which is four times the number of the defenders, considering the quality of the troops, if these 20,000 people really want to take over the city of Apamea, they can still do so. But the question is what will happen after they take it over?

After the siege, he would certainly lose troops, and he would have to divide his troops to garrison there. If he went to attack Ephesus at that time, how many troops would he have left?

"It seems like I have to think of a way to minimize my losses... Damn, it would be great if I had the fighting power like Monkey King..." Tony muttered to himself while tapping the table rhythmically.

Speaking of Monkey King... forget it, let's not bloom anymore.

Ahem, in short, this matter still needs long-term consideration.

"General Marcus, I need a map, a map near the city of Apamea." Tony thought about it for a while. Since he was going to fight a war, he must at least have a map near the combat area.

"Yes, Your Highness, I will prepare it right away." Marcus nodded and then stepped back.

As a qualified general, Marcus already knew Tony's strategic intentions, so when he came back again, he not only prepared a map near Apamea, but also prepared intelligence on the garrison in the city of Apamea.

The commander-in-chief of the Pontic rebels was the former King of Pontus, Polemon II. Although this king did not have any outstanding achievements, and even the throne was just a symbolic thing when he succeeded to the throne, but as a king, he still had a good strategic vision.

At least, commanding the army to occupy Ephesus and threatening all cities along the Mediterranean coast of the Roman Empire was a good strategic layout.

However, although His Majesty the King has a good strategic vision, he has a lot of stupid teammates.

The general defending the city of Apamea was named Ebenis. He was originally just a favorite of Polemon II, an uneducated man. Of course, during the reign of Polemon II, the entire Kingdom of Pontus was basically in name only, so this favorite could not learn anything.

Ahem, that’s too far off topic.

Polemon II took advantage of the Roman army's confrontation with Armenia at the front and commanded the army to occupy Ephesus. At the same time, in order to protect Ephesus from being surrounded by the Roman army, he specially asked his favorite minister Ebenius to stay in Apamea. His Majesty's original idea was very simple. Even if Ebenius was ignorant and didn't know anything, it was okay to defend the city, right? Anyway, no one would come to fight you. Even if someone came, you just need to close the city and not fight for a while, and then let the garrison of Ephesus send troops to surround the enemy and kill them, isn't it OK?

You see, His Majesty the King personally came to formulate tactics for the general. You can imagine how incompetent this Ebennie is.

As for Ebenis himself, according to the reports of the spies, he was also a capable man. In Apamea, he basically spent all his time in the bathhouse, having a lot of fun. He even said some naughty words when he was drunk, like "It's a good thing the Romans didn't attack us. If they did, I would bury them all under the city of Apamea."

To put it bluntly, he was a man who had never actually commanded a war, and who became quite arrogant because he had fought too many battles beside Polemon II.

"Is that all? You just let him occupy Apamea?" After reading all the information about Ebenezer, Tony felt a headache. After reading novels for so many years in his previous life, he could have worked out a fairly reliable battle plan against Ebenezer in a minute. But why did Marcus, who could be called a general in front of him...just let Ebenezer jump around like that?

"Your Highness, it's not that we leave him alone, but we are helpless. Whether it's Miletus or Pergamon, or even Aphrodisias, which is closest to Apamea, we don't have many troops. If we send too few, it won't be enough to threaten Apamea. If we send too many, our cities may be attacked by Ephesus at any time. So now we are helpless."

PS: That’s enough! Everyone has Aby, right? ! ! Since the Aby pool was released, my classmates, my friends, and even my ex came to me and told me that I had Aby! Then I updated the novel, posted in the forums that I had Aby! The group also started to urge me to have Aby! Yes, yes, yes, everyone has Aby and everyone has seals, but I don’t have Aby! I’m angry, I’m autistic, what are you typing, I’m just mumbling! I don’t have money to play games, but I still don’t have Aby, bye!

Chapter 113: Battle of Apamea (I)

"To put it bluntly, it's because we don't have enough troops, right?" Tony touched his chin and thought for half a minute. "You, go to the military camp outside the city and tell them to have a good rest. The day after tomorrow morning, select 10,000 men to follow me to attack Apamea. Also, find a few soldiers who are familiar with the geography near Apamea. I can use them."

"Yes, Your Highness, but...are ten thousand people enough?" Although he realized that this young prince was much smarter than he thought, but only ten thousand people to attack the city...this force should not be enough, right?

"In a siege war, who would be stupid enough to besiege a city?" Tony rolled his eyes at Marcus's puzzled expression and said, "Do as I say. I'll take care of the rest myself."

"...Yes." Marcus looked at the young prince with some concern, and finally stepped back.

Although this little prince showed a higher IQ than normal children of the same age, this does not mean that this little prince can command a battle. You know, these are 10,000 soldiers and 10,000 lives. What does this little prince want to do? Want to just waste the lives of the imperial warriors?

But even if he wanted to stop His Highness, how could he do it? Would His Highness listen? The only thing he could hope for now was that the general who followed His Highness to conquer Apamea was a smart man and would not listen to His Highness's blind command.

Defeat in a war is a minor matter, but losing a large number of troops for no reason is a big deal.

Forget it. I'll go to the camp and talk to those generals later.

"It seems that General Marcus does not trust your ability, Your Highness." After Marcus walked away, Zero walked out from the shadows in the room, came to Tony and said.

"It would be strange if he trusted my ability." Tony lowered his head, his eyes fixed on the map. This was his first time commanding a war in the true sense, and he didn't want to make any mistakes. So even though he was sure of victory now, he had to plan every step in detail to ensure that there would be no unexpected situations in this war.

Ideals are full, but reality is very skinny. Tony knows that he has mastered a lot of advanced strategic and tactical thinking, but these things are not his own, and he has no way to master them immediately. Now he is like playing a game. Not only does he open the cheat code, but he also chooses the easiest game difficulty. Well, this is not being cowardly, this is called being cautious.

On the other hand, just when Tony was planning how to capture Apamea, in a Roman bath in the city of Apamea.

A middle-aged fat man who looked to be in his forties was sitting in the bathtub with an obscene smile on his face. His hands were moving up and down the bodies of two girls at the same time, and from time to time he made some understandable laughter.

"General." Just when the fat man was having fun, a young general in armor walked in and said to the middle-aged fat man, "General, the spies in Miletus sent us information that the younger brother of the Roman emperor, Prince Odenis, has led 20,000 troops into Miletus."

"Prince Odney?" After hearing the report from his subordinates, the middle-aged fat man waved his hand, drove the two girls beside him aside, and then frowned and said, "I remember this prince... seems to be a dragon-slaying hero, right?"

"Yes, it is said that this prince successfully slayed a dragon in Britain some time ago, but... but I think this should be fake. How old is this prince? He seems to be less than thirteen years old? Just a little kid, and he slayed a dragon? It's funny, right?" The young general said with some disdain.

"You can't say that." The middle-aged fat man... or rather, the middle-aged fat man named Ebeny waved his hand and said, "This is necessary political propaganda. This prince is the only male in the empire and the only heir to the throne, so the empire will definitely exaggerate him to a certain extent, such as slaying a dragon or something. Tsk, who knows if he actually killed a rabbit?"

"It's possible." The young general smiled and didn't take the prince seriously.

If it was Vespasian who came now, Ebenezer would probably have been thinking about how to escape, right? After all, Vespasian was a veteran of the Roman Empire who had participated in the conquest of Britain and personally commanded the army. He fought more than 30 battles, captured more than 20 towns and the island of Vectis. Such a record was enough to scare Ebenezer.

The one coming now is just a kid, only twelve or thirteen years old. How big a wave can he make?

In order to better fool the enemy, Tony found Marcus and asked him to prepare two thousand sets of militia uniforms for him.

"Your Highness, what do you want the militia uniforms for?" Marcus asked somewhat confusedly.

"Of course it's useful." Tony said without raising his head, still looking at the map on the table.

it works?

This really touched upon Marcus' blind spot. He couldn't figure out what the militia's uniforms could be used for at the moment.

"Oh, right." At this moment, Tony suddenly raised his head and said to Marcus, "You should handle this matter yourself. Don't let too many people know. Also, tomorrow you should arrange for a few trusted subordinates to go to the city to spread the word that His Royal Highness knows nothing but wants to make achievements. You and General Flex outside the city have tried to persuade me but it's no use. Then I will lead 2,000 militiamen to recapture Apamea City."

“……Ah?” What is this?

Although the concept of tactics still exists in the Roman Empire today, the tactics of the Roman Empire at this time are still relatively superficial. Unlike the Orientals, those who play tactics have dirty hearts!

Although he did not fully understand what His Highness wanted to do, Marcus at least knew one thing: His Highness should have a plan in mind now, a plan to recapture the city of Apamea, and this so-called propaganda should be a part of His Highness' plan.

"Yes, Your Highness, I understand." After understanding, Marcus nodded in a deep voice and then stepped back.

Tony's strategy is actually very simple.

He knew that he was still a child, and adults often looked down on children. In addition, Ebenezer was uneducated, so he should be one of those who looked down on him.

There must be spies from Apamea in this city. After the news of Marcus's attack spreads tomorrow, the spies in the city will definitely report the news back to Apamea. When they learn that he will lead two thousand militiamen to attack the city, Ebenezer will definitely have some ideas.

This prince is really just a child!

Once he really underestimates me, the next things will be much easier!

PS: Let me tell you something. I have a friend who set up a training class, probably in the field of psychology. But because it is relatively unpopular and niche, he got together with some people who are into spiritual practice and planned to expand the scale of enrollment. Then yesterday, a big guy reported some cults similar to the "Galactic Federation" and attached a list. My friend's training class was on the list.

Although this big guy is not famous, he is organized and it is a non-governmental organization with relatively large influence. So this matter caused an uproar. I had said this afternoon that I would find a way to explain and get my friend out. After all, he didn't do anything bad, he just took a too easy path. Then today, I saw this list and it was on the Purple Light Pavilion.

That's the central party journal... Who can get it? I'm not being ungrateful to my friends, I just can't get it...

Chapter 114: Battle of Apamea (II)

According to the plan, while Marcus was preparing two thousand sets of militia uniforms, some strange discussions suddenly came from the city of Miletus.

"Hey brother, have you heard about that little prince?" On the side of the road, a civilian stopped a friend passing by, greeted him casually and asked in a low voice.

"Ah, that matter you're talking about." The young man looked around alertly, and after making sure that no one was paying attention to him, he whispered, "I heard that this young prince was a little eager for quick success and wanted to take over Apamea, but General Marcus and General Flex outside the city disagreed, saying that this young prince was just fooling around."

"Isn't it!" Another young man also looked around alertly, and then lowered his voice again: "How old is this little prince? I mean, he is still a child, what can he understand? If Apamea was really so easy to conquer, General Marcus would have led his troops there long ago."

"That's right." His friend nodded in agreement and said, "Both generals are against it. What does this mean? It means that your Highness's decision must be wrong. After all, these two generals have led troops before. Their strategic vision must be much better than that of this young prince."

"That's right." The young man nodded and said, "But have you heard about that?"

"What's the matter?" The young man's friend was stunned for a moment and asked in confusion.

"Come here." The young man looked around and motioned his friend to come closer. When his friend had almost put his ear close to his mouth, he whispered mysteriously, "I heard that His Highness is very dissatisfied with these two generals. I heard that he has gathered 2,000 militiamen and plans to lead his troops to attack Apamea."

"Isn't this ridiculous?" When the young man's friend heard that His Highness was planning to lead his own troops, and to lead 2,000 militiamen at that, he subconsciously exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down!" Seeing his friend startled, the young man stretched out his hand to his friend, signaling him to be quiet: "Aren't you afraid of attracting patrol soldiers?"

"Oh, oh, oh." The friend subconsciously lowered his body a little and asked in disbelief, "Are you sure?"

The young man nodded and said, "How can I not be sure? This matter has spread all over the city early in the morning."

Yes, just as the young man said, the news spread all over the city.

"You said that His Royal Highness the Prince intends to bring two thousand militiamen to attack us?" In the city of Apamea, Ebeny looked at the soldier kneeling in front of him and asked with a smile.

"Yes, General, this matter has spread throughout the city of Miletus." The soldier knelt on one knee, not daring to look up.

"Children are just children." Ebeny smiled and shook his head. Although the fighting power of the Roman militia was slightly stronger than that of the army under his command, the other side was still the attacker. Couldn't he defend against your two thousand men relying on the convenience of the city walls?

However... looking down at the soldiers, Ebeny suddenly thought, if he operated properly, could he capture this Prince?