The discussion revolving around other nations and the wars of the world began to wind down.
The peace negotiations had yet to take place with the Greecian Alliance, meanwhile our Western border was with an ally so our only real options were to look east or south for further gains.
Pathria, and the recently conquered Carthaginian kingdom were the most promising options but for that Romanus would need more forces, with two legions already on expedition, and the rest either required for home defence or in training under the new military tactics.
"Put out the word within the kingdom, we are expanding the legions, I want to get another 50,000 into the army within the year and we’ll be keeping this expansion as the ongoing with the state the world is in right now we’ll need the military might to withstand the volatility."
"Would that mean your considering another conquest already?"
"That’s right Serena, once we’ve got the core of the newest legions formed we’ll be setting out with half the veteran and half the new force to invade."
"Oh? Where would we be going?"
"Zeff, the option would be either to return and reclaim the lost Carthaginian kingdom and liberate what remains of it’s peoples, or go the land route first and claim the Parthian territories and perhaps the tribal states as well."
This declaration from their lord was ambitious.
Retaking Carthaginia was not out of the question since as liberators most of the locals would be on their side and would possibly even rebel against the occupiers especially if Queen Sernena the rightful ruler was known to be alive and well.
But that being said performing a massive naval invasion would be incredibly difficult even with the naval supremacy they already held in the souther seas.
While Romanus was clearly stronger on land the time it would take to roll over Parthia and the Tribal states would mean Ramie could prepare for the eventual retaliation, or worse yet call in for help, though this was also true of the reverse if they went for Ramie first, the land nations could run to Visigoth for protection and annexation to avoid conquest by Romanus.
Secretly however Julius had another plan instead.
He would never let his advisors know but he actually planned to invade all three at the same time.
Greecia was in an exhausted state and even if the Spartans could not maintain hold of the region they could easily protect themselves at least for a few years at which point Romanus would be in a much better position to protect and further police the southern continent.
"Now... As for intelligence gathering."
"Yes... with how things are now we’re in the dark aren’t we."
"Quite. And so I recommend we send some of our agents currently working as counterspy’s and have them immigrate to neighboring nations and from their begin to create a web with cells recruiting the local orphans and slum dwellers would also be to our advantage."
"That sounds like a good idea milord but, how do we send or receive intel from these agents of ours?"
"We’ll establish a code and one that will change regularly such that if ever the messages are intercepted and broken they’ll have to start all over again from the beginning before to long without many if any of our secrets being exposed."
"Excellent, who should run this new division?"
"Well actually I was thinking of Ms. Miri here, though she shows impeccable talent for administrative work I also feel her talents are being misused since we could have her put in the managerial role of routing the intelligence and sending up those verified to be acted upon."
"Wah Wah Wha What!!! Your majesty I’m only a clerk I cant run an entire department myself!"
"Don’t worry you wont be alone Miri, you’ll have support but I need someone I can trust to run this department given it’s nature."
"I want you to train the agents themselves, you’ve had experience in close quarters combat more than even Elheat here when it comes to street brawling which will be an asset to our agents."
"And we’ll be providing them all with new weapons that can allow for simple assassination and attacks from afar while remaining hidden as needed."
"That will be perfect your majesty."
We continued on with the meeting at least until the palace staff intruding to announce that dinner was served and so we moved to a dining hall and for the first time in a while I was able to feast properly on good meat and bread.
After that I retired to my penthouse room, it was true I was exhausted and the bed within was calling for me but first I had to complete the tasks I had set for myself since returning to the Kingdom.
That’s right, allocation of Tech Points, I could only deal with the military specific ones before but now, the nation would be advancing as a whole.
[Treasury 12,009,612,223 Denari]
[Current National Relics] None
[Population] 19,966,444 [Military] 115,000 (50,000 buildup assigned)
As I gazed at my status I was pleased, the nation as a whole was growing up nicely, the number of Tech points I had gained would certainly help me in my future endeavours and the growth of our new intel unit.
Next let’s see just what we can do to upgrade the nations technologies.
Kingdom Of Romanus Tech Tree
Ammunition Stores lvl 2
Manipular Organisation lvl 2
Weapon Proficiency lvl 2
Supply Lines lvl 2 *New*
Physical Conditioning lvl 1
Training Reforms lvl 2
Naval Manoeuvres lvl 2
Tactical Training lvl 3*New*
Weapons Training lvl 3 *New*