Cornelis was an old man. His voice was not loud and even trembling. It was impossible for the people at the back of the hall to hear him clearly. However, there were several voice messengers in front of him who repeated his words in a loud voice.
At this time, he took out a papyrus scroll from his arms and carefully unfolded it. He coughed softly and began to read, "Respected senators of the Kingdom of Diónia! Representatives of the local councils of the Kingdom of Diónia! I am deeply sorry that I am unable to attend the meeting when the kingdom's general assembly is about to be held! The war with Carthage, Rome, and Sammonae was not provoked by us, but we have to fight on because it concerns the survival of the Kingdom of Diónia and the fundamental interests of every citizen!
Up until now, this war has lasted for a year. In this year, our soldiers have been fighting on the frontlines, and you have been working hard to maintain the stability of the domestic order and tirelessly preparing a large number of materials needed for the war. We were able to defeat Rome and Sammonae one after another because of your painstaking efforts!
Some time ago, our Sicilian fleet and the Third Fleet almost annihilated the Carthage fleet. And just yesterday, our land army severely damaged Carthage's 100,000-strong army at Serinus and captured Carthage's military commander, Margo — "
When Cornelis read until here, he deliberately paused. As he expected, thunderous cheers erupted in an instant.
"Great! Another great victory! "
"We won! We won! We won this war! "
"We won Carthage! We are the new overlords of the Western Mediterranean! "
…
The people danced and hugged each other. Their joy was beyond words. Carthage had dominated the Western Mediterranean for many years. Most of the people present, including the elders, did not have much confidence in this war. However, it was this unexpected result that made them particularly surprised.
At this time, even the disciplinary officers in charge of the order of the hall had a smile on their faces. They did not immediately stop the commotion in the hall. After a while, they asked for silence again.
Cornelis then continued to read, "… We defeated Carthage's navy, and now Carthage's army. Carthage has basically lost the ability to fight against us, Diónia. So, they sent an envoy to ask for peace talks with us.
Everyone, I know that this year's war has had a great impact on the kingdom. The treasury is almost depleted, food prices are soaring, and a large number of young citizens have been removed. There is a lack of labor, and many soldiers have been injured or killed. Some territories have also been ravaged by the enemy and are in urgent need of reconstruction. Many of you may hope that after some benefits, you can negotiate with Carthage and restore the kingdom's order.
However, although the Western Mediterranean Sea is vast, it can't accommodate two powerful countries. Do we hope to see the heavily injured Carthage learn a lesson, recuperate, and challenge us again after it regains its strength?
I think your answer must be 'no!' So, we can't stop at the current victory. We must continue to fight until we finally achieve the ideal result we want. That is, we, Diónia, must obtain an absolute advantage so that Carthage can never challenge us again. There will always be only one overlord in the Western Mediterranean, and that is us, Diónia! "
When Cornelis read this, his voice could not help but become loud. The eyes of the people present were bright, and they held their heads high.
"… So, I hope that you will continue to unite and do your best to continue to appease the people, maintain the stability of the kingdom, and do your best to provide sufficient supplies for the army until we achieve the final victory! … This is the content of the letter written by His Majesty. "Cornelis finished reading the letter and handed it to Lucias next to him.
At this moment, someone in the hall suddenly shouted, "Victory to His Majesty Devers!"
Once again, the hall became lively. "Victory to His Majesty Devers!"
"Victory to the Kingdom of Diónia!"
…
Publius, who was sitting in the front of the hall, was shrouded in this passionate atmosphere. He never thought that on the first day he stepped into the highest temple of power in the Kingdom of Diónia, he would feel the ambition of this kingdom — to become the only overlord of the Western Mediterranean.
Although he was not as excited as the others, he felt a little more proud. At the same time, he breathed a long sigh of relief. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to become a citizen of this kingdom in time!
At this time, Cornelis took the opportunity to say, "It seems that not only does everyone have no objection to the decision made by His Majesty, but they are also very supportive. In the next two days, we will discuss how to better fulfill the request made by His Majesty. But now, we will first invite the chief officials of each department to make a summary of the situation of the kingdom last year. Since everyone is interested in the military situation of the kingdom, let's first invite Minister of Military Affairs, Hilos, to the stage. "
According to the previous procedure of the Kingdom Conference, first, the King's Devers would make a comprehensive summary of the situation of the kingdom last year. Then, the chiefs of each department would make a specific introduction of the situation of their department. But now that the Devers were away, the steady Cornelis and Lucias did not dare to overstep their authority and simply skipped the first part. The speeches of each department usually started from the finance department. After all, money was the issue that everyone was most concerned about. But now, the military had become the issue that everyone was most concerned about. So, Hilos was the first to speak.
After years of training, this mercenary minister of military affairs stood in the middle of the venue with a calm and dignified bearing, attracting everyone's attention.
He spoke in a comprehensive and concise manner, describing the whole process of the war between Diónia and Rome, Sammonae, and Carthage from the beginning, development, and current situation. He also briefly talked about the strategies and tactics formulated by the King of Devers and the Ministry of Military Affairs against these three hostile forces. At the same time, he also mentioned the contributions of various legions and fleets in the war.
Even though everyone had a general understanding of the war last year through various channels, Hilos's comprehensive and professional presentation was still refreshing, so everyone listened carefully.
For Publius, he finally understood why Diónia dared to ignore the attack of Carthage in the beginning and let the King of Devers lead the army to attack Rome first. It turned out that they had already seriously discussed and deduced, made careful preparations, and formulated a perfect plan. And how could Rome not be defeated in a hurry?
Publius vaguely felt the horror of the Ministry of Military Affairs established by the Kingdom of Diónia. A group of people with rich war experience did nothing else but deal with military affairs. They only studied how to defeat the enemy every day. How could the nobles of Rome, who usually spent a lot of time on city-state affairs and diplomatic affairs, only gather citizens and think about tactics during the war?
What surprised Publius even more was the series of data that came out of Hilos's mouth. In the past year of war, the Kingdom of Diónia had used a total of eleven regular legions, one reserve legion, four cavalry legions, four fleets, more than 700 warships, and 110,000 soldiers on the ground alone (not counting the reserve soldiers that were added later). What a powerful military force! And the fact that this powerful military force could operate normally for a year also showed the strength of the Kingdom of Diónia!
Publius, who had been a senator of Rome for many years and had always been involved in the tedious government affairs, was deeply aware of this. Now that he thought about it, the Senate of Rome rejected the request of the Diónia's emissary to reach an armistice with Wolsey, and arrogantly claimed that they were not afraid of Diónia joining the war. Now that he thought about it, it was ridiculous.
Of course, at the end of the speech, Hilos also mentioned with a heavy expression that although the Dionysian Army had won a great victory in the war this year, they had also paid a lot of casualties. So far, a total of nearly 30,000 people had died, and more than 40,000 were injured (including the sailors of the navy, who accounted for the majority of the casualties). The Ministry of Military Affairs would try its best to arrange the funeral of the soldiers who died in the war, send pensions to their families as soon as possible, and properly solve the livelihood problems of the families of the soldiers who died in the war in the future, so that the soldiers who were still fighting would not have to worry about their families.
When Hilos finished his speech, basically no one asked any questions, and everyone responded with warm applause.
The second person to go on stage to sum up was the finance minister, Merces. His style of speaking was obviously different from that of Hilos. As soon as he opened his mouth, he complained that the war had turned the kingdom's national treasury into nothing. The heartache on his face was definitely not an act.
Throughout the whole speech, he mostly complained about the large amount of gold and silver that the war had consumed. Even though he mentioned that they had obtained a lot of spoils from the conquered cities like Rome and Syracuse, as well as the precious metals that had been mined from the mines in Corsica and Sardinia, which in fact made up for a lot of the national treasury's deficit. However, his tone and his expression seemed to indicate that these were not worth mentioning at all. If the kingdom did not stop the war immediately, the kingdom would fall into trouble because of the lack of money this year.
From the whispers of the people around him, Publius knew that this was the usual style of the greedy finance minister of the kingdom. He would always complain about the lack of money in the national treasury.
However, Publius was still shocked by Merces' statement. The monthly tax revenue of the Kingdom of Diónia was 700 to 800 Taliente, and this year, it was close to 10,000 Taliente. This was also due to the impact of the war, which caused the tax revenue to drop significantly. Even so, compared to Rome in the past, its income was only about a fraction of the Kingdom of Diónia's. If in terms of military strength, Rome still had the strength to fight, but in terms of financial strength, it was not worth mentioning at all. Perhaps the destruction of the Kingdom of Diónia was expected.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
