CHAPTER 461: CHAPTER 329 BRICKS’S ANXIETY

The chief officers of the nine departments were directly promoted to knight by Maximus, without accumulating military merits, while Legion Commander Pequot was just one merit away from being promoted to a third-rank Viscount, and Maximus specifically encouraged him for this. Camillus, Fesaros, Torrelugo, Oluus, and a few team officers with outstanding battle merits were also just a few merits away from the third-rank Viscount...

Maximus maintained balance by not focusing on allowing one or two troops to win the entire war; instead, he divided the large pie of this war equally among the four legions. Of course, the four legions performed very well on their own, and there was no lagging behind.

In any case, this tribe commendation ceremony was a big bonus Maximus gave to his loyal followers, not only awarding them 20 acres, bringing each individual’s land to 100 acres, but also announcing publicly:

These tribesmen who were promoted to knights are the nobles of the Nix Tribe. In public, other tribesmen must greet them formally, give them the right of way, and address them as "Sir So-and-so." They have priority in places like boarding boats, riding in carts, purchasing items, and have the rights to assist the village chief in resolving disputes among villagers, supervise the village chief and subordinates, and make recommendations where they live...

Even though the Legal Department had previously dispatched subordinates to various villages to read out the detailed content of the Twenty Peerage System, Maximus’s public speech impressed the tribesmen more deeply.

Finally, Maximus announced that in the future, the Nix Tribe will hold a grand Danu Goddess festival every midsummer to pray for the coming of a bountiful harvest. Additionally, each town must select an oliveball team to compete in Ophelia, and the final winner will represent the entire tribe in the temple to offer sacrifices.

After the meeting, the tribesmen returned to their towns (villages) and recounted the grand occasion of the meeting to their neighbors and friends, greatly inspiring their ambition to earn merits for promotion and leaving them full of anticipation for next year’s summer festival.

At the same time, all the newly joined tribesmen had the same question: what is oliveball?

While they were actively seeking advice from the old Nix tribesmen, a new decree came from the Political Affairs Hall: the oliveball team members participating in the summer festival sent by each town must consist of one-third old tribesmen, one-third new Segestica tribesmen, and one-third new Skodisqi tribesmen.

Subsequently, the Ophelia administrative chief, Sicropus, conveyed the decree to each village: starting next year, Ophelia will hold an oliveball tournament, and each village must send a team to participate, with the team members consisting of one-third old tribesmen, one-third new Skodisqi tribesmen, and one-third new Skodisqi tribesmen. The final winning team must be determined before the summer festival begins, and this team will represent Ophelia in the tribe festival oliveball tournament.

Thus, while urging tribesmen to plow fields, village chiefs in each village also began racking their brains to form the teams.

.....................

Brochi Leader Bricks now regrets deeply.

He was the first to escape back to his territory, but to facilitate the safe return of the remnants and defeated troops from other tribes and to rectify his own mistakes, he stayed in a temporary military camp on the western edge of his territory for over half a month.

During this period, he learned about the "Nix Army invading Segestica Territory and occupying its Main Camp." He was surprised but not anxious because he did not believe that the relatively small Nix Army could swallow the enormous Segestica Tribe.

After discussing with several other major leaders, the Pannonian Tribe Alliance sent an envoy to Segestica’s Main Camp, intending to temporarily negotiate and ceasefire with the Nix people. The goal was to retrieve Pannonian warriors captured by the Nix Army, allowing major tribes to recover faster and better comfort the warriors’ families.

Over the 10-plus days the envoy took to travel back and forth, Bricks had already stopped searching for the remnants. Of the initially mighty main force of over 40,000 in the Pannonian Alliance Army, only about 13,000 survived and returned. Due to Bricks exhausting the entire tribe’s grain reserves to ensure the army’s expedition, they couldn’t support the returning army’s stay in Brochi Territory, so the warriors gradually returned to their respective tribes.

Only a few major leaders did not leave; they were waiting for the envoy’s return.

However, the envoy brought back bad news: the Nix people refused to negotiate peace talks with the Pannonian Tribe Alliance.

This made several major leaders furious: a year ago, the Nix people agreed to Segestica Great Leader Cabdes’ peace talk request, signed a one-year ceasefire agreement, and released many captives. Yet, today, this budding small tribe ignores their peace talk request, which means it’s determined to continue opposing the Pannonian Tribe Alliance.

As for the other message the Nix people asked the envoy to bring back, "The Nix are willing to negotiate individually with other major Pannonian Tribes except Brochi and Mazi..."—the envoy did not say it in front of the five major leaders, but envoys from each tribe naturally told their major leaders privately.

Although the Pannonian major leaders gritted their teeth in hatred for the Nix Tribe, the current situation of their own tribes made them incapable of launching another war.

Upon Pulikas’ numerous pleas, they only reached a rough agreement at the alliance meeting: the Nix people have become a significant threat to the Pannonian Tribe Alliance, and they must find a way to eliminate them! Each Major Leader should return to their territory to comfort tribesmen quickly, gather military resources, and strive to form another army after the autumn harvest to defeat the Nix people, recapture Segestica’s territory, and wait for an opportunity to annihilate the Nix.

When bidding farewell to the four major leaders, Temagis, Demikas, Maitilis, and Pagiras, Bricks felt their expressions were a bit strange, perhaps influenced by what their envoys told them privately.

A month had passed from Bricks’ escape back to his territory to all the major leaders’ departure. During this month, he increasingly felt the threat from the Nix people to his territory.

The Segestica citizens, who fled from various villages, first arrived in the Gonami Lake region, and since no tribe around Gonami Lake accepted them, they gradually streamed into Brochi Territory, leading to some conflicts with Brochi citizens.

Bricks did not expel these refugee Segestica people from the territory because Brochi suffered significant labor losses during this war, causing a labor shortage. Hence, he tried hard to persuade the tribes to accept these refugees and employ them for tribal work.

Due to the Nix’s vigilance, the tribal alliance envoy entered and exited Segestica Territory blindfolded and was not allowed outside while in Ophelia Village, so Bricks could not learn about the Nix’s status in Segestica Territory from them.

Conversely, he learned some information from these refugees: the Nix people offered more land and tribal noble status to attract Segestica tribesmen to join their tribe; those who wouldn’t yield had to sneak south to escape the tribe, and those who wouldn’t yield but didn’t want to flee became Nix’s slaves. Many greedy and ignorant Segestica people joined the Nix... Since the Nix stationed fully-armed detachments in various Segestica tribes, the tribes dared not resist due to the lack of warriors. At least when they fled, no conflicts occurred in their tribes...

The information he gathered made Bricks uneasy. Though these refugees did not have a comprehensive understanding of Nix’s methods in the Segestica Territory, the fragmented stories showed that the Nix’s invasion of Segestica Territory was not driven purely by revenge and plunder; the Nix had greater ambitions—to annex the entire Segestica!

They stationed troops in various Segestica tribes and devised laws to lure Segestica citizens... Clearly, this was a carefully plotted plan from the start, and it seemed effective because these refugees came from Segestica’s core areas, from tribes near Segestica Main Camp to those near Gonami Lake, indicating that the Nix already controlled Segestica’s core areas, and their speed was beyond Bricks’s expectations.

Bricks’s misjudgment of the Nix’s invasion intentions, hopes that the Nix Army would dwindle in strength amidst continuous clashes with Segestica people, dealing with post-defeat affairs, plus the anticipation of good news from the peace envoy... Thus, over a month was wasted.

Bricks was now growing anxious: if the Nix were allowed to gain a foothold in Segestica Territory, it would be a disaster for Brochi!

But as soon as he hinted at "wanting to help Segestica people drive away the Nix Army" in a tribal meeting, it was unanimously opposed by the leaders for one simple reason: no troops, no food.

Some leaders even criticized him due to the severe losses led by his tribal army, demanding compensation for all tribes and proposing to strip him of his command over the tribal army as Brochi Leader.

Fortunately, the stable development and order he maintained in the past decade made the major tribe gratitude, preventing enough votes to unseat him and allowing him to narrowly pass the crisis.

However, this was Bricks’s first major rebuke since becoming Brochi Leader, causing him anger and caution. For this reason, he did not dare discuss it with his directly managed tribal citizens but instead targeted Pulikas and others lingering in Brochi Territory.