The arrival of Luga broke the silence of New Carthage, and at night, the silence of the streets had been broken by the rolling wheels.

"Oh God, has the devil come?"

The townspeople, who were woken up by the noise, complained, and they shouted to open their windows to take a look, and they were greeted by one carriage after another. As the white horses flashed before their eyes, the attendants, armed with torches, rode out of the rich quarters, and they walked through the streets and alleys along the final goal, the council hall.

"Hell today, aren't these rich people tired?" Bearing such an unbearable thing is already the greatest misfortune felt by these citizens, but what makes them even more unbearable is that they can only dare to be angry and dare not speak.

The townspeople were angry, but the nobles were no better, and Luga summoned them late at night, and no one knew what that meant.

Luga sat on the lecture table in the council hall and watched the nobles in the audience hurry in, their clothes disheveled and haggard, as if they had just gotten up and hurried in. They sat down in the audience, staring at Luga on the stage with wide, bloodshot eyes, and the scepter he was playing with. They are all knowledgeable people, and they know that this thing can't be faked.

As the minutes ticked by, the crowd grew larger, but it didn't meet Luga's expectations, for the nobles seated didn't reach half of the seats in the entire council hall. That is, half of the nobles did not come, probably being notified, but still sleeping in their own homes.

"It seems that all the colleagues in New Carthage are still used to the distant days of the Emperor of the Sky, so the feeling of sudden nervousness will make you uncomfortable!" Luga stood on the podium, and all around him, except for the nobles seated, were all Luga's soldiers. Among them, the clerks were writing down one by one on parchment with a reed pen, and they had a detailed list of the local nobles, so their job now was to record the nobles who were present.

Luga was very patient at the moment, and he stood and sat on the main podium, waiting without saying a word, waiting for the nobles of the son of a bitch to arrive, but the minutes and seconds passed.

The nobles sitting in the audience staggered, and several of them even fell asleep with their heads tilted for days. Still on the podium, Luga saw a hole in the ceiling above him shine a ray of sunlight on him.

Probably unaccustomed to it, Luga still shivered under the sun, and then his whole body couldn't help but warm up. However, the number of people in the audience did not increase much, but it hurt these nobles who had been waiting here for a long time.

Andrew's eyes were also red, he cheered up, approached Luga's side and said to Luga: "Lujia, we have waited until dawn, is it okay?" ”

"Of course, Andrew." Luga nodded, and continued, "Now you can take the soldiers out of the list, just do what we planned!" ”

"Yes, Luga!" Andrew nodded in agreement and turned to leave the chamber.

"Okay, okay, guys!" Luga finally spoke after Andrew was gone, smiling at the nobles in the audience. They sat up straight in a hurry, not forgetting to wake up the sleeping nobles beside them, and a group of people pricked up their ears and locked their eyes on Luga, engrossed.

"Of course, you don't know how long it has been since you stepped out of the walls. I don't know how much I know about the situation outside. Lu Jia said this, and the audience was surprisingly quiet, and no one made a sound.

"Now, I have found a very, at least very disturbing, phenomenon that it is at the time of the autumn harvest that the Alans have appeared outside our walls, and they seem to be very interested in the money and food of the Roman people. I have seen many of these things along the way, but the only thing that surprised me was that I did not see any of our patrol soldiers, and even when I came here, I found that there was no garrison duke in New Carthage, so it was all in the hands of your nobles. ”

The nobles looked at each other when they heard this, and they didn't know what Luga meant.

Luga was not in a hurry when he looked at their shocked appearance, but he casually raised the soldier's scepter in his hand, and then said unhurriedly to the nobles in the audience: "Don't be nervous, everyone, I am just here to exercise my authority as the Roman soldier captain. Of course, I mainly wanted to know about the fact that there were Alans all over the city. I would like to ask you, then, how much do you know about the unscrupulous Alanin riders in Roman land? ”

"There are many of them, my lord!" One of the nobles spoke, "We are doing our best to keep our manor from being occupied by the Alans, and our guards have lost a lot!" ”

"In order to maintain the safe harvest of food, some nobles even mobilized soldiers to defend the city! Let them guard their estates! ”

At this point, the voice stopped abruptly, but it was clearly heard by Luga alone.

"Didn't I just say that there is no garrison duke in the city of New Carthage!" Luga leaned on the stone podium and looked down at the seated nobles. Then he asked, "Ladies and gentlemen, who has the right to mobilize the garrison defending the city?" ”

The nobles were silent for a moment, and then one of them stood up and said, "It's been a long time since the empire has given us money to maintain the army, but we ourselves know that if we want to be protected, we must maintain the army, so we have taken it upon ourselves to maintain the army's salary. ”

"Is it just that you don't have a pay here?" Luga then asked.

"It's not just us?" Another nobleman, who was a little older, sat down in his seat and said, "The cities of Numidia are basically not paid, so they are guarded by the personal guards of the local nobles. ”

The nobles' words silenced Luga, he didn't know how to answer the nobles' questions, it seemed to give them a good explanation for their disloyalty, you don't protect me, why should I work for you.

"Malenius." Luga turned back to Malenius and said to him, "Let Andrew come back, and tell him that I have changed my mind." ”

Seeing Malenius leaving, Luga puffed up his chest and said to the crowd in the audience: "Everyone, I understand the situation you are talking about, just as you are worried, the Purple Room is already stretched, and we have reached the point where it is gradually unsustainable. ”

"So what should we do?" One of the nobles in the audience couldn't help but stand up and questioned Luga: "Now the rampant Alans are getting more and more fierce every year, if we don't do anything more, then Rome will lose New Carthage!" ”

This was a naked threat, even if it sounded uncomfortable, Luga still had to endure it, after all, they were all suffering, and he began to repent of his thoughts at the time, after all, it was the Purple Room who failed them.

"Of course, don't panic!" Luga smiled and said to everyone: "I am not here, standing in front of you, of course, I promise, I will solve the problems you encounter." ”