Chapter 2325 - 2063: Irresistible Ambition (Part 2)

The Han Dynasty’s Liu Bei here also has only two hundred thousand professional soldiers, and this is due to the presence of Chen Xi. Moreover, if you really compare the income of Liu Bei’s soldiers to that of Severus’s Roman soldiers, the Roman side probably earns more, which is even more terrifying.

This is not because the Roman economy is exceptionally high or terrifying. To put it simply, Severus is indulging in warfare, similar to the Martial Emperor of Han’s actions in the past, where it didn’t matter about other industries at home; they only needed a large army.

This method sounds terrible, and its shortcomings are extremely clear. Economic collapse and national recession are considered good outcomes. The domestic situation after the Martial Emperor’s late period due to indulging in warfare is well known without much explanation, and Severus is actually following the same pattern as the Martial Emperor.

However, Rome flourished during the Severus Era, and even destroyed Parthia. The main reason for Severus’s arrogant behavior everywhere was that he destroyed Parthia and looted the most prosperous parts in Western Asia of the Parthian Empire, regardless of whether it was the Parthian Treasury or Parthian Nobles, Severus looted them all.

Then, such a large part of the Parthian Empire was left like discarded shoes by the Romans, and the army returned to Rome with hundreds of years of accumulation from the Parthian Empire.

Though Parthia was about to perish at the time, it was not poor. It can only be said that while the grand nobles had money, the state did not, a situation common when many countries perish.

If Rome wanted to occupy that place, they might have to compromise with the Parthian grand nobles, but Rome was only there to destroy Parthia and rob it. Without the protection of the Parthian Empire, the grand nobles of Parthia were just juicy targets for the Romans.

This is also why Severus managed to maintain decades of a large army and handed over Rome complete and intact to his son before dying. The centuries of accumulation of the Parthian Empire were all deposited in the Romans’ National Treasury, feeding Severus sufficient resources to maintain this large army!

Of course, later in Caracalla’s era, there was no such money pouch, and unlike his father who led armies to conquer everywhere, he only thought about reducing soldiers’ salaries, and thus it was natural when he ended up being killed. In short, the current Roman situation absolutely does not permit retreat.

The army was wiped out, their salaries no longer needed to be distributed, and this can be considered a significant reduction in national financial expenditure.

Though by the era of the Five Wise Emperors, Rome now had a flourishing Government Treasury, Severus was ultimately walking the same indulgent warfare path as the Martial Emperor. The Martial Emperor had exhausted the accumulations of several generations of the Han Dynasty, if without external support, Severus would basically follow the same path.

By relying on the pledges made to the soldiers, Severus successfully secured the Emperor’s Position. Powerful military force ensured that the country no longer faced division, but after several rounds of issuing salaries, Severus clearly understood that he was living off the past.

In other words, if he continued to keep such a terrifying military force, alright, Severus declared that the current military force had not even achieved his goals, and needed strengthening. In short, continuing like this, Rome’s spending exceeding its income was already inevitable.

Moreover, at the current pace, even the accumulations left by the Five Wise Emperors would be completely consumed by him. Then if he still does not solve the issues left behind by military expansion, the Roman Empire will definitely fall apart in his hands.

Severus was very clear that his previous methods indeed prevented Rome’s division, and the formidable military power greatly inspired the heart of the Roman Empire, successfully holding together the Roman Empire which was about to break apart in the late Commodus era, and now the nation seems to be thriving.

But this was merely an illusion. The huge fiscal deficit indicated that Rome had already reached the stage of consuming past gains. Although military power far exceeded the past, strong capabilities wiped out Europe’s Three Great Barbarians, solved the historical issues leftover by Rome for hundreds of years, and quickly established a Roman pride.

Nevertheless, Rome was also about to fall into its greatest trouble, meaning that mighty military power required around ten times more financial input than before to maintain. If Severus couldn’t solve this problem, this hero who prevented Rome’s division would soon be nailed to the column of shame because of his policies, causing Rome to fall into endless chaos.

Fortunately, Severus had thought of dealing with it from the start, two approaches: one was that the current nation had returned to stability, gradually disarm, letting the financial input on the soldiers reduce year by year.

Of course, the gradual disarmament approach might not work. Now the Romans had strong thoughts about enlisting, and Severus’s army achieved incredible victories in stabilizing national conditions and defeating the northern barbarians in previous years, disarming might shake the foundation of the nation, so some methods were needed in this aspect.

Of course Severus had his methods. Since conventional disarming would not work, then modify it into war damage, no matter what the opponent, fight, after all, compared to the Roman soldiers’ salaries, that little bit of compensation after death is not unacceptable.

The other is to destroy Parthia, looting the accumulations of the Parthian Empire through hundreds of years; during this process numerous soldiers would definitely be lost, but as long as the Parthian Empire is conquered, then Severus’s position would not be shaken by anyone.

By then, even if disarming quietly, with his great prestige, it would not cause too much unrest in Rome. In addition, by gaining the accumulations of the Parthian Empire for hundreds of years, it is virtually a win-win situation, so for Parthia, Severus definitely intended to strike.

Whether the Han Dynasty transfused blood or not, even if the Han Dynasty brought three Military Spirit Legions, even if the Han Dynasty sent a Celestial God, it could not stop Rome’s determination.

For Severus, for Rome, they could not continue to wait because continuing to wait, eventually Parthia would use the victory of the Two Rivers Battle to establish Vologases V’s prestige, and then purge the worms at home, it would not be easy for Rome to defeat Parthia.

After all, no matter what, Parthia is an Empire, although the accumulations of more than a hundred years have greatly weakened the nation’s strength, but as long as a wise ruler appears one day, the greatest advantage of the Emperor System will explode, given enough time for Parthia. Although it may not be able to return all the defeats Rome gave Parthia, Rome should think twice about wanting to vanquish Parthia.

This is why Papinian proposed to revamp the army for battle, and when Severus returned, to attack Parthia and capture Taysi sealing, completely vanquishing Parthia.

Parthia cannot be allowed to survive anymore. If before Parthia was gradually weakening, now with the existence of Vologases V, Parthia would gradually strengthen, and such tactics like the Han Empire placing a nail by their Roman side cannot be accepted.

More importantly, Rome spent two hundred years, from failure, to mutual victories and defeats, to about to achieve victory, to picking the fruits, the heart power spent was absolutely significant, cannot tolerate the Han Dynasty picking the peach in such a way.

Therefore though Rome was shocked by the quality of the Han Dynasty reinforcements, they would absolutely not stop the war against Parthia. The Han Dynasty can send three Military Spirit Legions to support Parthia, and Rome will send enough power to defeat all three Military Spirit Legions to engage in the war.

The Han Dynasty brought out the Celestial God, Rome has none, but Rome can send out six Demigods. Currently, Parthia has two Dual Talent Legions, the Han Dynasty also supported two Super Elite Legions, totaling about twenty thousand people, then Rome will send five Super Elite Legions totaling forty thousand to teach you a lesson.

Parthia has hundreds of thousands of Elite Troops, then Rome will send twenty thousand Elite Troops with Eagle Banners reinforced to fight you. Anyway, the Han Dynasty is willing to participate, then come. You are willing to transfuse blood to Parthia, then come. Anyway, the Parthian Empire must be destroyed by us Romans!

In summary, the Romans would not care whether the Han Empire joined or not, though they are shocked by the military force of the Han Empire, but thinking they could keep Parthia with a Vice Army, the Romans say you are thinking too much. Since you want to preserve Parthia, and we want to destroy Parthia, fine, let’s bring out each other’s stakes, transform Parthia into a battlefield for a decisive battle, let’s see what capital you have in the Han Dynasty to preserve Parthia!