My XX deal with Sister Nero

However, in a siege war, it is difficult to capture the city in a short time unless you use your military force to overwhelm it.

But I don’t have that many troops. What should I do?

"Let's count the troops first." Tony thought about it. Although he didn't know what means he would use to recapture Ephesus, one thing was certain, that is, he had to have soldiers in his hands to attack the city. No matter what method he used in the end, without soldiers, he could do nothing.

"Apamea has 20,000 troops, Miletus has 5,000 troops, and according to intelligence, Pergamon has 10,000 troops, and Aphrodisias has 2,000 troops... But there are 40,000 rebels stationed in Ephesus, and I can't transfer all the troops from the surrounding cities there, so... I still have to think of a way to avoid direct conflict as much as possible."

Tony muttered to himself for a hundred years and stood up a little irritably. What should he do to avoid the conflict?

Besiege the city and cut off its food supply? This is indeed a good idea. After surrounding Ephesus, it will easily fall into a food shortage crisis, and then Ephesus will have no choice but to surrender without a fight.

But the problem is that this will take a very long time. After all, even if there is no food left in the city of Ephesus, people can still survive for several days just by drinking water, so besieging the city is unrealistic.

Or...flying?

Tony's eyes suddenly lit up. Yes! A glider!

Tony vaguely remembered that when he was a child watching "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Genghis Khan seemed to have used a glider to attack Khwarezm.

"Someone come here!" Tony patted the table, looked up and shouted loudly to the outside of the door.

"Your Highness?" Just as the words fell, a guard standing at the door walked in with his head lowered.

"Go and look for it. I need a map of Ephesus." Tony said with a frown.

He now needed a map of Ephesus to determine whether there were any cliffs or the like around Ephesus, because a glider must have a relatively high "take-off site".

"This..." The guard replied somewhat awkwardly: "Your Highness, we checked this administrative residence when we first occupied it... All the books and materials in the study seemed to have been destroyed long ago."

Ok?

Tony thought about it for a moment, then realized why.

Logically speaking, the governor's residence in each city would store some information, including maps of the whole country, maps of nearby cities, troop deployments, and some situations in the city, covering all aspects of people's livelihood, economy, military, culture, etc. Presumably, just before the Pontic rebels broke through Apamea, the governor destroyed all the information in the study to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy.

Although I think the Chief Executive did a good job, this will put Tony in some trouble.

"Trouble, it looks like the tactics from heaven are no longer effective, so we can only... go underground." Lightly tapping the table, Tony quickly figured out a second plan, which was to rely on earthwork to dig a tunnel into the city of Ephesus. In this way, relying on the Roman army's powerful combat effectiveness, they could defeat the rebels in street fighting and recapture the city of Ephesus.

"Tsk, I didn't expect that after a few years, I still have the time to use my college professional skills..." Tony shook his head, feeling a little amused.

Although he worked in customs in his previous life, in fact, the major he studied in college had nothing to do with customs. In his previous life, Tony studied tunnel construction in college. According to Tony's major, he should have worked in coal mines or highway construction after graduation, but... Tony eventually applied for a civil servant exam and became a customs officer.

"Go, prepare a dozen pieces of paper for me, and give me a pen. I think I should do some math problems."

Tony flexed his wrist and said to the guard.

Because tunnel digging in this era was purely manual work, Tony had to first estimate a reasonable cross-sectional area of ​​the tunnel, as well as an average daily advance of how many meters he could dig. Finally, based on these data, Tony also had to make a reasonable ventilation and support arrangement.

Without a computer and unable to use CAD, Tony could only draw the drawings by hand. Fortunately, he had studied engineering drawing in college, and this time he only needed to draw a rough diagram that he could understand. He didn't need to draw it so standardized, so the drawing speed... could be a little faster?

"Let's set the total length to one mile first." Tony shrugged, picked up the paper and pen brought by the guard, and began to write and draw on the paper.

The area of ​​the tunnel section is easy to calculate. In just twenty minutes, Tony calculated a relatively reasonable cross-sectional area. The only problem is the excavation speed... This is not easy to calculate.

If it was mechanized construction, Tony wouldn't have to do any calculations at all, he just needed to set fixed values, but if it was manual work... who knows how many meters they can dig every day?

PS1: I thought I wouldn't be able to update today... Here's what happened. I didn't wear enough clothes when I was communicating with the relevant department yesterday. After I came back, my cold got worse. I coughed all night and couldn't sleep. I said I would go for a part-time job in the morning, but I didn't go. I came back, took a shower, and barely felt better and didn't cough so much, so I went to sleep. I woke up at around four in the afternoon and received a message saying that there was a part-time job in the evening and we should gather at five, so I went. Oh my god, that part-time job was also weird. They told others that we should arrive at seven, but we went there at six forty and they were very dissatisfied. They thought we were late and didn't want us, so I'm back to write.

PS2: I will only update once tonight because I have a cold and can’t stand it. I will update slowly after I recover from the cold…

Chapter 122 The Takeover Has Come

According to our understanding, if a tunnel that is one person high is to be dug, based on the soft soil of the Anatolian Peninsula, one person can advance two to three meters per day on average. If two people are digging at the same time and working in three shifts to maintain the fastest speed, then eight meters should be able to be dug per day. Of course, in addition to the people advancing in front of them, several more people are needed to widen the tunnel and lay ventilation and support facilities.

The support facilities are easy to deal with. Although there are no support tools such as wire mesh and hydraulic anchors in this era, these things can be replaced by wood. As for the ventilation ducts... we can only make the tunnel shallower and then open ventilation holes above the tunnel as a temporary replacement.

If the excavation progress is eight meters a day, it will take 188 days to dig a mile, which is about six months.

"No wonder no one has invented tunnel warfare in this era. The excavation speed is really too slow." Tony shook his head with a wry smile. It took Tony half a day to calculate the excavation, widening of the tunnel, and then support and ventilation operations on the tunnel. It would take almost half a year before this one-kilometer tunnel could be used.

"Six months, what a joke!" Tony patted the table and stood up with a frown. He didn't have many soldiers now, and digging tunnels to attack the city was the safest way, but the speed was too slow. Tony had planned to resolve the war and return to Rome within a few days, but now it seemed that he would not be able to return to Rome before the war was over.

"It seems that now we can only disgust the city of Ephesus." Tony thought as he called a messenger: "Go and inform all the cities around Ephesus to block all roads leading to Ephesus and prohibit any personnel or materials from entering or leaving Ephesus. At the same time, all cities should send one-third of their troops here. I am preparing to conquer Ephesus!"

"Yes, Your Highness."

There is no other way. We don’t have many troops and the troops on the front line cannot be mobilized. Now we can only trap the city of Ephesus temporarily.

"I feel like I'm just a younger brother among younger brothers." Tony shrugged, helplessly laughing at himself.

There's no way. Normally, I still dare to rely on the fact that I knew some military tactics in my previous life to mock those idiots like Ebeny who know nothing. But if I encounter a real general... I'd better forget it.

"Your Highness." Looking at Tony who was pacing back and forth anxiously in the main hall, Zero walked out from the shadow of the room, still looking at Tony with indifference, and said, "I think Your Highness should first find a general, tell him your idea, and let him execute your war plan."

She has been with Tony for several months, how could she not guess what he is thinking?

If Tony really intends to launch a forceful attack, as long as he gives the order, a hundred thousand national troops can be gathered for him in the Balkan Peninsula within a month at most. In addition, the Thracian Kingdom has now surrendered, so it is not impossible for it to withdraw some troops to assist Tony.

With superior military strength, Tony could eliminate the defenders of Ephesus in a month or two at most. There was no need to spend six months preparing.

The reason why Tony chose to do this was, on the one hand, to reduce the casualties of Roman soldiers, and on the other hand... to minimize the casualties of ordinary people.

If the city was attacked head-on, the Roman Empire's siege equipment would most likely injure civilians by mistake. If it were another country, it would be fine, but now that Tony was a prince of the Roman Empire, he naturally had to find a way to reduce the casualties among Roman civilians.

"I can find a general to execute my follow-up plan, but the question is, who should I find to execute it? Who can I find to execute it?" Tony shook his head. The generals he could mobilize now, except for the commander of the 20,000 national army, were mostly garrison generals who led the militia in the city. What kind of people were they? Although these people might have higher military literacy than himself, Tony still didn't trust them.

"Tsk, trouble." Tony walked back and forth in the hall with an irritated look on his face. If all else failed, he could only pick a taller guy from among the short ones.

However, at this moment, a guard suddenly ran in from outside the door, knelt on one knee in front of Tony and said, "Your Highness, General Vespasianus is here!"

Vespasianus? Vespasian?!

Hearing this name, Tony subconsciously raised his eyebrows. What a coincidence! Just when I was about to fall asleep, a pillow was delivered to me!

"Hurry! Come in!" Tony shouted excitedly.

Are you kidding? He's a famous general who conquered Britain! But this guy... didn't he come too fast?

Logically speaking, shouldn't Vespasian be still traveling in the Balkan Peninsula with his 50,000 troops at this time? How come he has already arrived in Apamea?

Just as Tony was thinking about this, a middle-aged man wearing typical Roman general armor walked into the hall with vigorous steps, stood in front of Tony, and then put his right hand on his chest and bowed slightly: "Your Highness, I am Titus Flavius ​​Vespasianus, and I greet your Highness."

Tony grinned at the middle-aged general with gray hair in front of him and patted his sturdy biceps. "I was just thinking how nice it would be if I had a general in my hands. I didn't expect that General Vespasian would come just as I finished thinking about it. It's really... a coincidence."

"Haha..." Vespasianus laughed dryly and raised his head. "I was originally planning to lead 50,000 troops to station in Byzantium, but I heard that Ephesus was occupied. I thought that there would be no extra troops to mobilize on the front line at this time, so I simply let my son Titus take over the command of the army temporarily, and I came here alone to see if there was anything I could do to help. Halfway through, I heard that Your Highness had recaptured Apamea, so... so I came here."

"You're just in time!" Tony grabbed Vespasianus and pulled him to the desk. He pointed to the map of the Asia Minor Peninsula on the desk and said, "I just happened to have a bold idea. I want to remove the nail of Ephesus and completely stabilize our rear area."

"Hmm? Please go ahead, Your Highness." Vespasianus nodded and said.

On the way here, he heard about how the prince recaptured Apamea. To be honest, in Vespasian's opinion, the tactics Tony used to recapture Apamea were not replicable. After all, you don't always meet a fool, right?

Therefore, in the eyes of a famous general like Vespasianus, Tony's recapture of Apamea was just a matter of luck, a blind cat catching a dead mouse.

It’s just that the child in front of me is a prince, the emperor’s most beloved brother, so there are some things... that I can’t say directly.

After all, it is already very good for a child to achieve this. His two sons... may not be able to do better than this prince.

PS: First update. My part-time job tonight is the night shift, so I have to get ready to go out. Bye.

I'm poor and have a hard time. I don't have much time to write. I can't work as hard as before. If I want to write with peace of mind, I'm afraid I can only wait until the income from this book can really support myself, or until my business is revived...

Chapter 6 Sister's Basic Exercises, Don't

"Is this... Your Highness's tactic?" Standing in front of the map, listening to Tony's endless talk about his plan to dig a tunnel, Vespasianus pondered for a moment before slowly speaking: "Actually, Your Highness, you don't need to be so restrained in fighting. After all, there are not many citizens here."

Tony was about to open his mouth to refute, but he suddenly remembered that the man in front of him was a traditional Roman general.

A traditional Roman attached great importance to blood ties, so based on blood ties, "people" in the Roman Empire were divided into two types: one was "citizens" with Roman blood, and the other was "commoners" from various conquered areas.

Vespasian was a traditional Roman general, so in war, he might care about how many Roman citizens there were in a city, but he rarely cared about how many Roman civilians there were in the city.

But Tony is different. Tony comes from the future, from the future where "everyone is equal". Nine years of compulsory education tells him that people are not divided into different classes, so he subconsciously puts citizens and civilians on the same level.

He even regarded slaves as "people".

"Although civilians are not citizens, they are still His Majesty's subjects after all. I think... we should not distinguish between citizens and civilians too much." Looking at Vespasianus, Tony spoke slowly with a serious face.

"...Yes, Your Highness." Since Your Highness has decided to reduce the casualties of civilians in the city, as a general of the empire, Vespasianus can only try his best to follow Your Highness's wishes. After looking at the map carefully and pondering for two seconds, Vespasianus can easily figure out that Your Highness's tactics are highly feasible, except that it will take a little longer to siege the city.

"But Your Highness, according to your estimation, it will take us half a year to dig a one-mile-long tunnel. How can we avoid the enemy discovering our tactics during this half year?" Although relying on his extremely high military literacy, Vespasianus had completely perfected the battle plan in his mind in a very short time, after all, this plan was proposed by Your Highness. Vespasianus felt that he should... let Your Highness have more room to play?

Ever since he fell asleep at His Majesty's concert last time, Vespasianus became a little sensitive. He was afraid that if he upset His Royal Highness or His Majesty again, then... a song of "Liang Liang" for himself?

"I think we can surround Ephesus first, and then use the front-line camp as the starting point of the tunnel and dig a tunnel there. On weekdays, we can maintain a certain intensity of attack on them to paralyze them until the city is broken." Tony said with a smile.

"That's a good idea." Although Tony's idea was still a little whimsical, it was pretty good for a twelve-year-old kid to think of it.

Isn't it his job as a deputy general to rationalize this fantastic idea?

"So, everything is up to you." Tony looked at Vespasianus's somewhat sturdy body, thought for a moment, then stood on the chair next to him, patted Vespasianus on the shoulder with a hypocritical smile on his face.

Decisively ignoring the fact that His Highness was standing on the chair and patting his shoulder, Vespasianus asked curiously, "Will Your Highness not command this battle personally?"

He knew before he came that the Senate and His Majesty the Emperor had reached a strange tacit understanding for their own reasons, that is, no matter whether it was to suppress the Pontic rebels or resolve Armenia and Parthia, all battles would be centered on His Highness Tony. So he had thought it through along the way, no matter how brilliant his military ideas were, he would push them all onto His Highness's head and first establish His Highness's image as a "young hero".

But why did His Highness run away when I just arrived here? How could I flatter him?

"There's nothing I can do." Tony jumped off his chair while speaking, picked up a folded letter on the table and handed it to Vespasianus: "Well, my sister asked me to return to Rome as soon as possible, so I can only ask you to take over."

"This..." After taking a quick look at the letter, Vespasianus didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was wondering why His Majesty would agree to let Your Highness come here alone to suppress the rebels. It turned out that Your Highness had sneaked here on his own!

"Then... Your Highness, have a safe journey?" After returning the letter from His Majesty to Your Highness, Vespasianus spoke cautiously.

"Tsk." Tony shook his head, called Mary over, and began to arrange the handover of the matters at hand.

Vespasianus is a man of both civil and military talents. Although it is a bit of a waste of talent for him to be the temporary chief executive, now is the time to recruit people and Tony can only use Vespasianus to replace him for a while.

After completing the task at hand, Tony took a group of his men to Miletus, where they boarded a ship and returned to Rome.

"Speaking of which, did we forget something?" After sailing on the ship for two or three days, Tony always felt that he had forgotten something and had not explained it to Vespasianus. However, he thought that as the founder of the Flavian dynasty and one of the famous generals of the empire, Vespasianus should not need any extra reminders from him, right? Even if he really forgot something... Vespasianus should be able to find out the omissions and make up for it himself, right?

Well, never mind, it all depends on Vespasianus.

After half a month of sailing, Tony's ship finally entered the port of Rome on the Tiber River.

"Brother, you still remember to come back!" Just after stepping into the palace hall, before he had time to greet his sister, he saw Nero standing up angrily from behind the desk, walking up to Tony, and grabbing his ear with an angry look on his face.

"Stop, sister, it hurts!" Tony screamed subconsciously when Nero suddenly grabbed his ear.

"I told you not to run around and go to dangerous places!" At this time, Nero didn't care whether there were servants around. She just sat cross-legged on the ground, pulled Tony down and threw him into her arms, then stretched out a hand and started spanking his butt hard.

???

At this time, Tony was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

I was spanked by a 17-year-old girl?

What a joke! Although Nero was my wife in my previous life, although Nero is my sister in this life, and although Nero may be my sister and wife in the future, but!

but!

But! Nero is only seventeen years old now! Seventeen years old! Dad, I'm already in my twenties! How dare you spank me?!

PS: I found a part-time job the night before last, moving parcels at Yunda, but when we got to the door of Yunda, they told us they didn’t want us anymore because we arrived at the wrong time. They started work at 7 o’clock, but we didn’t arrive until 6:40...but the recruiter said we had to arrive at 7 o’clock! It’s not our fault, so we scolded him and left. It was hard to find a part-time job because it was too late, so we went back to our own homes. Then yesterday, we went to look for a part-time job, moving parcels at the post office, but when we left the door at around 5 o’clock, they said they didn’t want us anymore because they were full. What the hell...I didn’t expect was that we actually found Yunda in the end. Yes, it was the company we scolded the night before, and then we went there to move parcels...I scolded him right before I went to work, it was a bit embarrassing

Chapter 124 Come, come, I'll show you a treasure

Customs is one of the three military units in the country that have been awarded military ranks. Apart from Customs, the other military units that have been awarded military ranks are the army and the police.

The army and police are militarized forces, while customs is a paramilitary force.

As a member of a paramilitary force, although Tony worked from nine to five with weekends off in his previous life, due to work needs, he still learned some grappling and fighting techniques, such as the most basic grappling fist in the army.

Although Tony had never received any systematic combat training in this life, he had been a customs officer for so long in his previous life, and he practiced the grappling fist every day. He had already memorized the basic routines of the grappling fist by heart. Logically speaking, he could easily subdue a 17-year-old girl like Nero if he really got serious. But he didn't expect that she would just pull him into her arms, and then Tony fell into Nero's arms, unable to even stand up.

So now, Tony was confused. Really, in his two lifetimes combined, he had never been so confused, except for the time when he got 100 points in both exams in the first grade of elementary school in his previous life but was still beaten by his father.

I was spanked by my sister!

Live two lives as human beings, comrades, live two lives as human beings!

This little boy in front of me, who is less than thirteen years old, has the soul of an adult in his early twenties living in his body!

Really, Tony never dreamed that Nero would hold him in his arms and spank him.

After struggling for a while, he wanted to stand up and get rid of this embarrassing situation. However, what made Tony even more embarrassed was that it seemed that his strength was not as strong as Nero's...

"I'll let you run around, I'll let you run around! Do you know how worried your sister is about you?" Nero said loudly angrily while spanking Tony's butt hard.

"Sister, I..." Tony wanted to explain, but when he turned his head and saw the tears in Nero's eyes, he just opened his mouth and said nothing.