"Great idea, sir!"

Upon hearing Li Ru's suggestion, the Slavic governor nodded with shining eyes.

In particular, Li Ru's suggestion to establish a state and become king struck a chord with him.

The day after the banquet, the Slavic governor, following Li Ru's advice, had fabricated stories about Rome's harsh policies towards the Slavs and Commodus's misdeeds.

With the release of the official document, the Slavic governor also blamed all the suffering the people had endured in the past on Rome and Commodus.

The Slavic people, who were originally indifferent to independence, began to support Slavic independence and actively signed up to join the army.

Meanwhile, the official documents issued by the Slavic province also reached several neighboring provinces.

While the surrounding provinces did not openly support the actions of the Slavic province, they secretly expressed their approval.

After all, Commodus is currently expanding his military in Rome, and until there is a result, few provinces would dare to jump out unless they are forced to a certain extent.

After a month of building momentum, seeing that the time was right, the Slavic governor announced the establishment of the Slavic Kingdom and appointed himself as its first king.

After ascending the throne, the Slavic king formally declared war on Rome and dispatched 40,000 newly recruited soldiers to follow the Xianbei and Xiongnu cavalry into Roman territory.

November of the nineteenth year of the Kaiyuan era.

Throughout Rome, undercurrents were already swirling.

The three kingdoms of Gaul, Germania, and Britain in the west have united and are recruiting soldiers to resist Commodus's attack. The Slavic province in the northeast has also suddenly declared independence and sent a large army to march eastward toward Rome.

Faced with this situation, Kang Maode also felt somewhat overwhelmed.

After ascending to the throne, he first launched a campaign against Gaul to establish his authority, and then used Gaul to eliminate the threat posed by the Senate, thus gaining sole control of Rome.

Everything was developing as he had envisioned, but now, the successive independence of the four provinces made him feel uneasy.

Looking at Li Boming and Zhang Bao standing to the side, Kang Maode asked with a troubled expression, "Sir, Celestial Master, I have also read through those historical books before the Han Dynasty."

Even during the Eastern Zhou period, when various states successively declared themselves kings, they still acknowledged the emperor's status and never considered splitting off their own territories to form their own independent states.

But why did the Gallic and Germanic nations do this? Didn't they know that only by being subservient to Rome could they enjoy the prestige and status of a great power?

"Your Majesty, this place is different from the Central Plains. During the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the various lords of the Central Plains were one, all respecting one person, and their culture, food, and language were almost identical."

After nearly two thousand years of integration and exchange through the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, people have long regarded all parts of the Central Plains as an inseparable part of the land.

Therefore, those with great ambitions all aimed to unify the world and never split off to form their own country.

As for Rome, those provinces were forcibly united after being conquered by force, and the Augustuss of each dynasty regarded each province as Roman territory to be conquered and taken at will.

When distributing fiefdoms and rewards, Rome was often biased, giving more to Roman citizens and less to non-Roman citizens.

All of this naturally made it difficult to increase the recognition of Rome among the various provinces. Many local people still identified themselves as Gauls or Germans based on their birthplace, but never as Romans.

Therefore, without sufficient military force and shared interests, each province will eventually embark on the path of independence.

"I see!"

After hearing Li Boming's analysis, Kang Maode nodded in understanding.

Li Boming then said, "Therefore, if Your Majesty wants to transform Rome into a country like the Han Dynasty, you must first resort to force, and then follow the example of Qin Shi Huang to unify the country by starting with culture, food, and language."

In this way, no matter how turbulent Rome may become in the future, it will not be in danger of splitting apart!

"What you say is true, sir. Qin Shi Huang was indeed a great emperor!"

Upon hearing Li Boming's suggestion to emulate Qin Shi Huang, Kang Maode nodded in agreement.

However, what he didn't know was that in terms of personal ability, the fighting power of his soldiers, and his prestige in the country, he was no match for Qin Shi Huang.

Having ambition without substance will only lead to failure in the end.

Of course, Commodus was not in the mood to think about those things at this moment.

Given the current situation, he could only first organize an army to defeat the Gauls, Germans, and Slavs, and then use force to purge the remaining provinces one by one.

After nearly half a year of frantic recruitment, Commodus formed sixteen more legions in addition to the original fourteen.

Commodus now commands an army of 300,000, making him undoubtedly the strongest in Rome.

Just as Commodus was busy mobilizing his troops, Helian and Liru led 40,000 cavalrymen, also under the banner of the Slavic Kingdom, and marched triumphantly all the way to a place 200 miles northeast of Rome.

The Royal Palace in Rome.

Looking at the battle report sent from the front, Kang Maode's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

In fact, long after the imperial guards he had sent to deliver the imperial edict were killed, he had arranged for nearly 40,000 people to be deployed in several key cities in the northeast.

It was truly hard for him to accept that the city had been breached so easily.

"Where did these cavalrymen come from? How could they be so powerful?"

Commodus frowned as he looked at the cavalry with black hair, black eyes, and yellow skin mentioned in the urgent report.

According to the description, the appearance of these cavalrymen was indeed very similar to that of the Han people.

However, Commodus shook his head again, thinking of the distance between Rome and the Han Dynasty.

In his view, no matter how powerful the Han Dynasty was, it would never have sent so many cavalrymen all the way here.

Moreover, he had no conflict with the Han Dynasty, so it was impossible for him to attract an attack from the Han army.

After some careful inquiry, Commodus finally learned the origins of this cavalry force.

When Commodus learned that this cavalry had actually been defeated by the Han Dynasty and had fled all the way here, he couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

A group of people who had been defeated by the Han Dynasty were able to invade the heart of their own country as if it were empty, and were only two hundred miles away from the capital.

If we convert this out, doesn't it mean that Rome's strength was far behind, or even incomparable to, that of the Han Dynasty?

This slap in the face left Kang Maode feeling utterly devastated.