Nova Roma Chapter 109 - Emergency preparations

Flavio received the news from the Nahual messenger about the attack by a tribe of Quinametzin and the possible siege by him on the line of defense of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
This was bad news because the death toll from an attack of only 50 giants was very high "I need you to bring Minister Artimer and Commander Valentino, he is in charge of supplies in the army and navy as quickly as possible, can use the methods you want."
After this, the Nahual messenger turned into a gigantic bird and undertook the flight to quickly look for the ministers that the emperor needed, Flavio for his part began to massage his temples.
In just an hour two gigantic birds arrived at his office carrying Artimer and Commander Valentino, he could see that none of them were happy on the contrary they seemed afraid of falling and dying.
Once they were left in the office, the Nahual messengers withdrew, Artimer and Valentino were afraid because they did not understand why he had been taken that way to the emperor.
Flavio noticed the fear on their faces "Do not worry and sorry to call them that way but there is a situation of great importance in the defensive line of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
A few hours ago, Amancio, the leader of the defensive line in sector B, suffered an attack from a tribe of giants that inhabit the volcano of the Iztaccihuatl, the problem is that with 50 giants they managed to cross part of our defenses and killed brave defenders.
If that could do with only 50 warriors armed only with obsidian swords an army of thousands can collapse the line, I brought them because I want to ask how many guns we have available and if we have gunpowder to withstand a somewhat prolonged battle in the three sectors of the defensive line. "
After hearing the situation, the fear they originally had was replaced by a hatred of the stupid enemies of Rome, the two had on their sides some backpacks from which they took out a large number of papers.
The first to speak was Artimer "Emperor because the defensive line is large and is completed for the most part we can use horses to transport materials, food, and ammunition.
We are currently using Tamemes people who transport the valuable merchandise to the defensive line but it is not enough for our soldiers to defend properly.
The first shipments of copper and tin have come from Insulae Canibalium, with them we can increase the production of 4-pound cannons that can be placed in the trenches. "
At that time Artimer arranged his glasses and took out a document from his bag "The dwarves after much work managed to create a small shot of ammunition as the emperor had asked.
Respecting his wishes this ammunition is called shrapnel, during the week they planned to inform him while preparing a demonstration of his destructive power but seeing the situation can not be expected. "
Flavio was glad for this news, for a long time he tries to make the ammunition of Shrapnel but could not do it for lack of time, if he gave the plans of a shrapnel ammunition of the eighteenth century to the dwarves to adapt it to the cannons that were they could do with the little technology that existed.
But before Flavio could be happy Valentino interrupted "Sorry Emperor but there is not enough gunpowder to support an increase in hot weapons at the moment, we currently only produce 3 tons of gunpowder per month throughout the empire and we are consuming 90% of that amount.
The main problem is that we do not have a very large source of saltpeter so we cannot produce large amounts of Gunpowder, I recommend using other kinds of cold weapons otherwise we will not be able to keep the weapons we currently use. "
Flavio tapped his desk "If we don't have gunpowder for the new guns we can use that 10% leftover to make grenades we have to do it fast because we don't know when they want to attack us.
Artimer you have a green light for the use of horses, I also hope you can inform the dwarves that we need to increase the number of chips and grenades for the defensive line troops.
As an additional measure, every soldier in the line of defense will have to have a crossbow with 10 shots this measure can help us a lot to reduce the number of casualties.
To avoid the assault quickly in the trenches due to the limited time we have to buy all the wood and iron waste that is in the cities and towns, all that material will be placed in front of the trenches and forts.
It is a simple measure but the pain of having something on the foot must be enough for the attackers to reduce their speed and can be shooting targets waiting to die but even if all this does not work
We have the Roman cavalry as a shelter, I want all cavalry to be waiting in the back of the defense line, any enemy that manages to pass I want to be hunted.
I also need all the snipers, musketeers and crossbowmen available in the empire to go to the defense line to support the defense, that's all we can do at the moment. "
Artimer and Valentino nodded their heads and withdrew from the emperor's meeting room, Flavio on his part lit his tobacco pipe "Giant enemies this time, come on American continent I'm sure you have something better than launching the empire of Nova Roma"
While this was happening the Cuauhtli tribe learned that Nova Roma had defended their sacrifices, so they began to prepare to invade and take by force the survivors of the Malinalli tribe, otherwise, their tribe would suffer a fate worse than the from them.
This is because they performed a ritual where they offered the Malinalli tribe as a sacrifice, thanks to the explosion of the Popocatepetl volcano they fulfilled part of the deal but not all the members of the tribe died, they have no choice but to go for them otherwise it will be the end ...