Chapter 2443 2157: Capital for the Struggle

The Romans' short legs allowed them to finally appear west of Mesopotamia the day before the Han Dynasty's New Year. However, this time in the Central Plains is when weapons are stored, ready to welcome the New Year, as New Year's Eve is also a very important festival.

Even someone like Sun Quan, who has no consideration for soldiers, knows that on this day, he must give all the soldiers a good meal, and also knows that it's best to avoid any actions during this period. After all, upsetting people during the New Year is asking for trouble!

Generally speaking, in the Central Plains, it's typical that if you ruin someone's New Year, you'll be told they won't let you celebrate it ever again. Go enjoy some incense offerings instead!

Thus, after discussions among the high ranks of the Han Army, Zhuge Liang notified the Sassanid Fars and then formally handed a state document to Rome, signed by a group of marquises, very formally.

So much so that when the Romans received this highly formal state document, they thought the Han Dynasty had come to terms and was preparing to ally with them to eliminate Parthia.

As a result, when Severus had the document translated, there was mostly nonsense, except for the relatively important matter of a six-day truce.

In fact, Zhuge Liang and the others were completely unaware that even without sending this state document, the Romans would have had to seriously consider how to get through, as the vast water fog created by Sima Yi and Lyu Meng, and the marshlands concocted by Chen Gong in Mesopotamia were difficult for the Romans to fundamentally resolve without the ability to change the weather.

The Romans envisioned someone coming over to change the weather, only to be greeted by a Halo of Stupefaction, turning them into a wreck. In reality, the Romans had no ability to change the weather.

Thus, when the Romans marched into Mesopotamia and saw the vast fog, their first reaction was to wonder if the water vapor in the Two Rivers was too high this year, thus forming fog.

The Roman Advisory Group initially didn't think this celestial phenomenon was manmade, merely complained a few times, but they understood that combat in dense fog was dangerous. Therefore, they stopped the army outside the fog and dispatched a Barbarian Corps to scout within the fog.

They were also informed to retreat immediately if they encountered an attack or any strange situations. The Barbarian Army obediently entered the fog and ended up in the marshland when they couldn't see ahead.

After being inexplicably swallowed by the marsh a few times, the Barbarian Army realized that this year's climate in Mesopotamia might be particularly wet, with abundant rainfall forming the marsh. However, this had occurred before, so they weren't too concerned, conducting an upstream and downstream investigation.

The Romans were perturbed when they discovered that for a hundred miles up and down, it was all marshland, completely shrouded in fog. After dozens of Barbarians were inadvertently swallowed by the marsh, they finally determined its range but had no way across.

Faced with this environment, Romans were almost wooden-faced, wondering how Parthia managed to pass through before with both fog and marsh to contend with.

Alright, this issue wasn't deemed too serious. Benito, the legion leader of the Fourteen Combined Legion, volunteered to say, "Let me try. Our legion will directly walk across to find a path."

Severus thought the same, believing that with the capability of the Fourteen Combined Legion, it was irrelevant whether it was a marsh or quicksand; with enough talents, they could mix through.

Thus, Benito and his subordinates forcefully walked across the marsh, eventually determining that it was about seven to eight miles wide, with the fog just at the marsh's edge, even on the east side, marking the boundary of the fog.

Then there's no need to say that when Benito led the Fourteen Combined Legion across, they were immediately caught by the patrolling Ardashir. If not for the Fourteen Combined Legion's moderate combat ability and strong survival skills, they would have been killed by Ardashir at that time.

After Benito lost a few hundred men, ran back into the marsh zone, and then crossed back, he reported the marsh and fog areas to Severus, leaving the Romans visibly twitching.

At that time, Fabio commented that it seemed as if Parthia was divinely assisted.

To which Severus replied, "Divine assistance or not, even if the gods themselves descended, the Parthian Empire will be destroyed this time; there's nothing more to say."

A group of Inner Qi Separation and Breakthrough level experts was now hesitantly looking at the marsh and fog. While they had agreed on a Legion Attack approach, planned to cut mountains and stop waters in their path, they hadn't anticipated encountering things that even Legion Attacks couldn't resolve—like marshes and fog.

Of course, the Romans weren't foolish; in light of this unnatural celestial phenomenon, they had another possibility proposed in the Roman Advisory Group—that this phenomenon might be manmade.

The Romans were uproarious upon hearing it, cursing at the theft of the powers of the gods, claiming such a thing was impossible, and raging it was blasphemy. But amidst the shouting, the voices fell silent.

"Why have you stopped cursing?" Severus calmly asked those who had been swearing earlier.

"Your Majesty, do you think this strange fog and marsh are manmade?" Pipunannus stepped forward to ask.

In fact, when Pipunannus mentioned this to the advisory group, it had fundamentally been determined, as many in the group were well-versed in weather patterns and historical hydrology. Upon his mentioning, they realized this marsh and fog were rather unnatural.

"If it is manmade, what of it?" Severus said coldly, "Cross the marsh and defeat our opponents."

Others were silent; if the Han Dynasty truly possessed the ability to summon wind and rain, then the cost and difficulty of warfare would increase significantly.

"Your Majesty, whether this celestial phenomenon is manmade is irrelevant; what matters is how much of an impact it has on us," Fabio began to speak slowly.

Without waiting for others to reply, Fabio continued, "If this capability truly could command the elements like nature, then in Syria, the Han Army wouldn't have needed to retreat. They might indeed have acquired divine authority, but they're still far from that height."

"Even ordinary manipulation of the celestial phenomenon is very troublesome, especially for an army, as it greatly suppresses us," Novelli slowly began to speak. "We don't have the ability to counter celestial phenomena."

"No, we have it." Fabio looked at Novelli very solemnly and said, causing others to pause.

Pipunannus was also puzzled and after a moment said, "Indeed, we have the ability to counter this power. While our advisory group can't change the celestial phenomenon, we can thoroughly activate the Eagle Banner through Thought Connection."

"Since we consider the Han Dynasty as an equal opponent, there's no need to hold back our own power," Fabio said calmly.

"The full activation of the Fourteen Combined Legion's Eagle Banner? But are you sure it can cover the entire army?" Novelli exclaimed in shock; such a thing had never been tested before. How can you be so certain it will work? This is gambling with lives.

"Of course, it is possible. Although flexibility will decrease, and the effect will diminish, and other legions' Eagle Banners will be covered, achieving the basic effect is absolutely possible," Pipunannus laughed. "Since we consider the Han Dynasty as an opponent, we should give our all."

"In that case, let's have you practice first and then attempt the attack tomorrow," Severus slowly said.

There are only thirty-three Roman Eagle Banners, which is the number of Eagle Banners created. Initially, they were just banners, standards, symbols. Later, as the Romans infused their belief, will, and undeveloped talent into them, they came close to Legion Talents.

But the difference is that there are only thirty-three Roman Eagle Banners. They cannot be more, only less, and those not destroyed can be passed down. Similarly, the Roman Eagle Banner Legion's highest number is thirty-three; there could be no additional numbers; and the biggest issue with the Eagle Banner is that once destroyed, it's lost permanently.

Of course, at this time, the Romans hadn't realized this problem. In their impression, the thirty-three Eagle Banner Legions were never fully staffed.

So even after completely losing the 13th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Legions, the Romans only felt sorry for the legion, not for the lost Eagle Banners.

In fact, up until now, the Romans hadn't realized that their Eagle Banners were lost forever because their Eagle Banner numbers exceeded their legion numbers. Although the Barbarian Army has Dual Talent, the Romans wouldn't bestow Eagle Banners upon them either.

Because this item is considered a pride only befitting a Roman Citizen.

Based on the Roman Eagle Banner, the Romans also developed several abilities, like the Eagle Banner's self-capability. Of course, this ability could be sealed by Sima Yi's Spiritual Talent.

But this is only the simplest application, and there are more advanced applications, such as using the Roman advisors' consciousness to connect to the Eagle Banner, thereby activating the Eagle Banner's power to grant an augmentation, which Sima Yi couldn't seal.

Of course, the ultimate sublimation of this ability is a group of Roman advisors using consciousness to connect to the Eagle Banner, based on the Romans' absolute recognition of the Eagle Banner and the advisory group's ability to connect intellectually, projecting the Eagle Banner's power limit to the soldiers' consciousness.

This approach is somewhat similar to Chen Xi and Zhou Yu's belief resonances, but the fully activated Eagle Banner enhances soldiers differently than Chen Xi and Zhou Yu's method, which can repeatedly enhance. In the Eagle Banner's case, it can only support one type of enhancement.

This means that if you choose one type of Eagle Banner enhancement, you cannot undertake another. Moreover, while there are no quantitative limits to Eagle Banner enhancement, effects will significantly diminish if it exceeds a certain number.