I am the son of the traveler

Chapter 103 "Warrior"

"Your Majesty, this is the summary of financial expenditures for this month..."

A few days later, the clerk, holding a stack of books with Arabic numerals, reported financial matters to Antigonus. (Don’t ask, it’s the late king who did it)

Although this should have been the responsibility of Hephaestion, the clerical chief, he is still in Larissa to organize the construction of the town, so the matter is handed over to Eucrates, Antigonus' personal clerk.

"... Military expenditures for this month are as follows: 90112 drachmas for soldiers' pay, 24500 drachmas for foundry equipment, and 36860 naval maintenance expenses, for a total of 151472 drachmas."

"...The monthly income of 89562 drachmas cannot cover the huge military expenditure. Your Majesty, I think you should abolish the army, reduce military pay, or find another way to increase taxes."

Antigonus had already expected what Eucrates said. When there were only more than 3000 soldiers, the military expenditure was already more than 3. Now that the total number of the army has increased to about 126972, the military expenditure will definitely increase crazily. If calculated, The maintenance fee of the Shanghai Navy, the monthly military expenditure is a considerable 4 drachmas. After subtracting the monthly income of about [-] drachmas, he still has to pay more than [-] per month.

hiss--

In this way, his treasury may not last long.Because the storage in the national treasury is only 257800 drachmas (the income of more than two months is basically used in military expenditures and the construction of immigrant towns), if he does nothing, he can last for six months at most time.

Of course, it was impossible for Antigonus to allow this kind of thing to happen. He planned very carefully. After the heavy infantry was able to enter the battlefield, he recruited a group of auxiliary light infantry and cavalry, and then marched westward. The timing of the civil war between the barbarian tribes made a lot of money. The savings of the barbarians over the past hundred years must have been a lot, and the elimination of a few tribes will return the capital.

Seeing Antigonus's absent-minded look, Eucrates put away the report in his hand and asked tentatively, "Your Majesty?"

"Huh?" Eucrates' shout brought Antikola's consciousness back to reality, he came back to his senses, responded, and looked at the clerk.

"what happened?"

"Your Majesty, I heard that you will carry out another military expansion. I don't know if this is true."

"It's true." Antigonus didn't deny it, but nodded: "You also know that the army cannot have only heavy infantry without other units to cooperate with each other."

Hearing this, Eucrates' complexion changed a few times, and soon he returned to his normal expression. He paused and said, "Your Majesty, the registered population of the kingdom is 43069, and the number of new troops you will form is about to exceed [-]. It’s a kind of militaristic meaning, so I think you should abolish part of the army appropriately and let the economy return to normal.”

After all, Eucrates is not a soldier, he only cares about things within the scope of his responsibilities.

Antigonus smiled slightly, and said: "Eucrates, I can understand what you mean, but now that the barbarians are in civil war, it is the best time for us to reorganize the army, as long as we can fight back before the second wave of invasion comes." Form a strong army, then we will not only be able to defeat the invading enemy, but also take advantage of the victory to conquer the hostile barbarian tribes and expand the territory of the kingdom."

"Besides, the barbarians must have accumulated a considerable amount of wealth during the more than a hundred years of plundering. If our army defeats them and conquers their tribe, doesn't this wealth belong to us?"

"but……"

"There are no buts." Antigonus interrupted him, "Eucrates, we can't limit our eyes to the present, but to the future, and expand your horizons so that you will not miss opportunities. "

"You only see the disadvantages of expanding the army in a short period of time, but you don't see the rich harvest of the kingdom's army after winning the war against the barbarians. But I don't blame you, Eucrates, because you are just a clerk and need to be taken care of What I need is only my own scope of responsibility, and I need to grasp the future course of the big ship of the Kingdom of Macedonia."

After being taught so bluntly by Antigonus, Eucrates blushed slightly. He knew that he could not speak against Antigonus, so he shut his mouth and stopped trying to persuade Antigonus to give up his intention to expand the army.

……

In the afternoon of the same day, Antigonus ordered the army to be recruited again, but this time it was not a standing army, but in the form of conscripts. Because it was to cooperate with the heavy infantry to fight, he gave the type and number of troops to be recruited. .

As an experienced Total War player, Antigonus's favorite archer is the well-known Cretan archer. In addition to the Spanish Bariani slingers, the Rhode Island slingers are the slingers. Of course, there are no Bariani slingers unique to the Spanish region to recruit, so he can only choose the latter.

However, during the second military expansion, Antigonus discovered an embarrassing thing. The first military expansion allowed a large number of freemen and citizens to join the army, and the remaining soldiers who did not join the army were only 2000 people. , Antigonus can only start from Hot Spring Pass, but in this way, the entire supply of troops in the pass will be wiped out. If there is any accident, there will be no supply of troops to mobilize urgently.

Only then did Antigonus realize the difficulties of a small country with few people. The manpower accumulated over more than 30 years was about to be exhausted in just a few months after he took the throne, so he had to think of ways to increase the population.

However, after thinking about it, he still felt that conquering those barbarian tribes was the best choice. It seemed that only by conquering the barbarians on the Oglell Peninsula could he truly break the situation.

After thinking clearly, Antigonus focused all his energy on this second expansion of the army.

Although it was not the recruitment of the standing army, under the banner of the Western Expedition given by Antigonus, many young people responded together, and the target number was recruited in just one week:
500 Cretan Archers

500 Rhode Island Slingers

Agyrian Axemen 800

500 Thracian light spear throwers

150 Thracian light cavalry

200 Thessalian cavalry

300 Macedonian citizen cavalry

Sarisa Lancers 200 men

300 Macedonian noble cavalry

……

I forgot to mention that Antigonus has never taken into account the source of troops from the noble class. Even if he thinks about it later, he does not plan to recruit infantry from the nobles to join the battle. The number of heavy infantry in his army is already enough. The arrival of infantry won't help much either.

A total of 3450 soldiers were recruited for this second expansion of the army, which almost exhausted the supply of soldiers in the pass. If something happened when Antigonus led the army to the west, the only ones who could rely on were those nobles who did not participate in the war.

(End of this chapter)