Rome Must Fall

"1,000 cans! 1,000 cans!..." Crosibas' face was a little ferocious because he was too excited. These three high-quality wines from Campania are famous throughout Italy, but they are all supplied to the Romans first, and other Italian city-states There are very few that can be bought, and now a huge opportunity to make money is placed in front of him, but he scratches his head in great distress: "I don't have that much money! -"

"It doesn't matter if we don't have enough money." Pigris said in a gentle tone: "We can also barter. Chief Maximus said that our Free Italian Army needs weapons and equipment, leather, tents... As long as you can Get these, these wines will be sold to you at least half the price.

Take Falenia wine, for example. The usual price is 5 gold coins per jar, but this year due to our influence, the price will definitely have to double, and a set of leather helmets, leather armor, shields, and daggers only cost one or two gold coins. , a set of weapons and equipment can be exchanged for a can of the best wine in Italy, and then you can take the wine to any town and sell it, and you can earn 10, no, even 20 gold coins by changing hands. By then, you will all become Italy's richest man! "

Daltimas originally hesitated because of the issue of selling weapons and equipment to the rebels, but Pigris's tempting words finally made him make up his mind.

But Tigerchamos did not hesitate. It is natural for merchants to pursue the highest profits, not to mention that Sicilians are resentful of the Romans. Sicily also has Mount Etna, where grapes were once grown and good wine was produced. However, after the Romans took control of Sicily, they regarded Sicily as the granary of Italy. Successive Roman governors emphasized opening up more wheat fields, and also forced the Sicilians to Wheat was sold to Italy at low prices, and Roman officials were overbearing and did many bad things in Sicily.

Therefore, selling weapons and equipment to this group of rebels and letting them cause trouble for Rome, Tigerchamos not only had no psychological pressure, but also enjoyed hearing about it. He said: "Selling weapons and equipment to you, there is no problem, but I will return by boat now. Messina, it will take at least three or four days to transport weapons and equipment back here. It will take six or seven days. Will you still be in Pompeii by then? "

Pigrius smiled and said: "Just now you should have seen that our soldiers were asking the Pompeians to leave the city with their families, because the entire team of Free Italy will move in, and we will stay here for a long time, enough You have returned by boat many times."

Pigris gave everyone present a piece of reassurance.

Daltimas finally asked: "The town I am in does not produce weapons, but it does have pig iron ingots. Do you need it? If so, can the price of wine be halved?"

Tigerchamos glanced at him, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided not to expose the other party, because Regim and Messina are located on both sides of the Strait of Messina, and merchant ships gather at the port every day. Regim should be the same as Messina, not There is a lack of sales of weapons and equipment. The reason why Daltimas said this is probably because he is worried about selling weapons to the rebels. If the Romans know about it, he will be punished.

"Pig iron ingots." Pigris thought for a moment and said, "That's okay, but the price of wine won't drop that much."

As long as there is some surrender, we can discuss it in detail at that time. The deal with the rebels must be secure first... Daltimas looked back at Tiger Chalmers and said: "Next time I will bring a lot of pig iron Trade with you."

"Okay." Pigris nodded.

"Leather! And a tent! I will bring it to you soon, but you have to sell me the best wine!" Crosibas waved his hands and shouted, looking like he was going crazy with alcohol. , completely different from the situation before when they were nestled in the corner.

"This year, almost all the wine stored in all the grape farms in the Vesuvius region has been seized by our army. Not only are they large in quantity, but there are also many varieties, which can fully meet your needs." Pygris stood up with a smile. , said loudly: "To thank you for your trust in our army, I would like to invite you to visit our material warehouse, and each of you can choose 10 cans of wine to take away as a testimony of our friendship."

"Is this true?!" Crosibas was overjoyed.

"Chief Maximus said that if you are willing to trade with our army, you are our friends in Free Italy. We will never let our friends suffer. We hope that you can make big money every time, so that you are willing to Be friends with us for a long time and continue trading..." Pigris's words were very straightforward, but they were believable because of their straightforwardness. ,

"Your leader Maximus is such a sensible man! Let's go and visit your warehouse!" Tiger Chalmers stood up. At this moment, he no longer had any uneasiness in his heart. Instead, he was full of excitement: Thanks Thanks to the blessing of the goddess of luck, I slept in late the day before yesterday and did not leave in time, otherwise there would be no chance of making a fortune today!

Crosibas and Daltimas also stood up, urging Pigris to take them to visit the warehouse. At this moment, they all forgot about the thrilling encounter before, and seemed to regard themselves as distinguished guests of the rebel army. .

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Pigris stood on the dock, watching the merchant ship of Tygechamos leave the port, and heaved a sigh of relief: Today's matter is finally over. Judging from the performance of the three merchants just now, it is very likely that Tygechamos and Crosipas will return again in 10 days to trade. The cautious Dartimas is a little uncertain, but in any case, he has exceeded the task. I believe that after listening to his report, the leader Maximus can make this temporary assignment permanent... Maximus Military Commercial Officer - what a nice name! ... Pigris smiled happily, reached out to wipe off the dust on his robe, and turned to leave the dock. There was a cry in the port area. Pompeii families, with their elderly and children, carrying packages and pushing wooden carts loaded with property, walked tremblingly on the road leading out of the city under the surveillance of fully armed rebel soldiers...

This scene reminded Pigris of the tragic fate of his family in Asia Minor. He had no sympathy, but was a little indignant: compared with the cruel and greedy Romans, Maximus was too kind. He should have taken away the property of these Pompeii people and demoted them all to slaves, moving goods at the dock day after day or repairing the city wall under the scorching sun...

Every time he touched his completely powerless left leg, hatred for the Romans burned in his heart. He walked through the sea gate with a little effort and entered the city. He did not immediately go to the city hall to see Maximus, but walked along the road beside the city wall and went straight east.

Fully armed rebel soldiers also stood on both sides of the road, and the middle of the road was still filled with crying Pompeii people, but compared to the port area, there were much more people here, so the rebel soldiers responsible for monitoring and maintaining order were extremely nervous. If it weren't for a team of soldiers following Pigrus, he would probably be regarded as a Pompeii person and forced to join the exiles. After all, these rebel soldiers came from various teams, not just Maximus's army, and they might not know him.

After walking for a while, Pigrus turned north and then east.

This street was wider. It was the commercial street of Pompeii. To the north was the rich area, and to the south were the arena and theater. Every day, hundreds of people gathered on this street to buy goods from all over the world. It was bustling and extremely prosperous, but now it was very deserted.

Pigris walked slowly on the street, looking at the shops on both sides of the road: fruit shops, butcher shops, vegetable shops, fish shops, bakeries, olive oil shops, wine shops, pottery shops, vase painting shops, gold and silverware shops, competitive equipment shops...

Seeing these closed shops, Pigris was full of regret: if the Pompeii people were not allowed to leave, these shops would be under his control, and he would do his best to make this street prosperous again! Now that the entire rebel army has entered Pompeii, the soldiers who are used to looting and whose supplies are distributed by the baggage camp will not come here to pay for things...

What a pity! ... Pigris sighed lightly and made up his mind secretly: since he is already a business officer, if there is such an opportunity in the future, he must advise Maximus! He believes that Maximus will listen to his advice, because compared with other leaders, this young man is more courageous and far-sighted, otherwise he would not make the decision to trade with Italian merchants at this time.

Pigris walked halfway down the street and heard a "ding-dong" sound coming from the front. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a building with three chimneys standing alone at the end of the road, next to the city wall, a short distance away from other shops. Its chimneys were emitting black smoke, and two fully armed soldiers stood in front of the door, and several other soldiers were walking towards it...

Pigris knew that it was a blacksmith shop, and it was also the only shop still in operation in Pompeii. Unfortunately, it had belonged to Maximus' army and was not open to the public, but only met the needs of the army.

Seeing this, he was already somewhat bored, and stopped strolling around. He turned around and walked towards the city hall to report his achievements to Maximus.

And the soldiers had already walked to the door of the blacksmith shop. A soldier guarding the door immediately asked loudly: "Hey, this is a military stronghold, no one is allowed to enter without permission, which unit are you from?!"

Another soldier quickly stopped him and said: "Arius, don't shout so loudly, I know these people, they are all from our second battalion." After saying that. He smiled at the people who came to the door again: "Tinibazus, I heard that you refused to be a decurion and were scolded by our captain?"

"Being a decurion requires worrying about so many things, how tiring it is, and it is more comfortable to be alone, but there is no other way. The captain knows that I am capable and forced me to be the decurion. In the end, I had no choice but to be the decurion." Tinibazus shrugged, showing a very helpless look.

The soldier smiled and said: "Tinibazus, you are still as talkative as before. Letting you be a decurion is not because you are very capable, but because this time in Pompeii, we accepted too many new recruits, recruiting more than 400 people in the city and more than 1,000 people in the port area, so anyone with a little combat experience was promoted to a team officer, and our brothers from the Pontic army are now decurions."

"Myertilas, so you are also a decurion now, why are you still standing here guarding the door?" Tinibazus said jokingly.

"Being on duty at the blacksmith shop is a task that every team in our second brigade will take a turn for. Soon you will also take a turn, don't you know?" Mel Tiras asked with a smile.

Patriarch Tiniba was at a loss for words. He had been worried about becoming a centurion for the past two days and did not pay attention to the orders conveyed by the centurion.

"Okay, let me introduce to you. This is Arisius of our team. He just joined yesterday. He was originally working as a coolie at the Port of Pompeii."

"Hello, Captain Tinibazus." Arisius nodded with a stiff expression.

But Tinibazus acted like an elder, stretched out his fist and punched the opponent's chest, nodded and said: "Well, not bad, very strong, he will be a good soldier in the future! Let me also introduce him, this is a member of my team Soldier Samoras, he is not a new recruit. When we raided Pompeii that night and we fought with the Pompeii Guards, he killed three enemy soldiers by himself! "

"That's really awesome!" Arisius looked at Samoras standing in front of him like an iron tower and admired sincerely.

Mel Tiras suddenly remembered something and asked in surprise: "Why are there veterans in your team?"

"Didn't I just say that the captain valued me very much, so he specially gave me preferential treatment." Tinibazus boasted proudly.

Mel Tiras was stunned by him.

But the actual situation is that Tinibazus, under the urging of the centurion, agreed to serve as the centurion of the new recruits, but Samoras strongly demanded to follow him and be his subordinate because of the battle with the city guard that night. At that time, Samoras advanced too far and was almost surrounded by the enemy. Thanks to Tinibazus' clever rescue, he was out of danger. Although Samoras was straightforward, he knew how to repay his kindness and insisted on joining Tinibazus's recruit team. The centurion finally agreed.

At this time, Zamoras couldn't help but said: "Tinibazus, when are we going back? I'm hungry and want to eat."

Tinybazus stopped bragging and turned back to coax: "We will finish it soon and go back soon."

"Hurry up." Zamoras urged pitifully, rubbing his belly.

"Myr Tiras, I don't have time to chat with you here. Our dagger is broken and needs to be repaired as soon as possible." Tinibazus said, pulling out the dagger he carried, and the blades on both sides of the dagger were It was full of big and small gaps, as if it had been gnawed by a dog.