Maybe it was because of the proximity to Ankara, maybe it was because the defense was in place, in short, the night was peaceful, there were no bandits on the road, maybe there were thieves who were not dead to spy in the distance, but they did not touch the surrounding vigilance.

It cannot be said that the Byzantine Empire did not control this land effectively, but the world was too big for the population of this era, and most of the people lived in cities or on the edge of cities, which was the best way to protect themselves in the face of war.

As a result, slightly more remote places are deserted, and places that ordinary people don't go to often become shelters for bandits. For the vast land, it is difficult to sort out the little strength of the Byzantine Empire. What's more, there are some ill-intentioned aristocrats who help bandits, just for the benefit of the trade route, or unknown people cultivate bandits on the trade route, in order to test the bottom line of a country, and the invasion between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab world in the east has never stopped.

However, all this has nothing to do with Lao Luo and his party for the time being, and everyone who had a good night's sleep got out of the tent early, washed and ate early and took care of their bags, because their plan today was to rush to Ankara early, which is what the Romans (Byzantines) called "Metropol".

The day before, Alk explained that twenty li means twenty romana, which means that the actual distance is about thirty kilometers, which can be reached in about half an hour under the wheels of the cars of later generations, and the footsteps of horses and camels in this era are actually not slow, and it takes about two hours for everyone to reach the outskirts of Ankara.

Despite many imaginaries of the city, Lao Luo found it different, a military town that was markedly different from the later capital of Turkey.

From a distance, in the center is a huge bastion enclosed by a tall wall, and you can see the towering minaret-like buildings inside the wall, not the Arab minaret, but the Roman-style watchtower. Not far away, there are also scattered fortresses of various sizes, which are fortified castles for obvious military purposes.

Most of these forts are built on high ground, or simply on a hill not far away.

In the open space between the fortress and the fortress, there are all kinds of tents or temporary buildings densely arranged, the style of the tents is very messy, but the arrangement is not messy, which shows that there is still a management order here. Looking at the tent from a distance, there are passages of different widths and narrows, and in addition to the pedestrians on the passage, there are soldiers patrolling in columns, and it seems that these soldiers are the ones who maintain daily order.

As soon as Lao Luo's group of people appeared on the road, they attracted the attention of many people, not that there was something wrong with the military horses in his team, on the contrary, ordinary horses were not rare materials here, and the problem was the tall horse that no one cared about in Smyrna.

These tall horses are not favored in Smyrna, so the whole body is skinny, because of the amount of food Dalian as a horse no one wants, Lao Luo took more than 30 horses, these horses have been well cared for, become tall and strong, domineering, compared to the same war horses, these big guys are on average half a meter taller, standing out from the crowd is such a situation.

Lao Luo had a headache when he looked at the crowded crowd in front of him, and at this time, Helton, who had been promoted to the deputy leader of the scout group, turned back from the front, "Master, we are surrounded, and it seems that we can't enter the city, and the patrolling soldiers said that we can only set up tents outside to find a campsite." ”

"Okay, let's go back and find a spacious place to camp on the periphery." Looking at this situation, even if he could enter the fortress, Lao Luo would not want to enter it again, and these onlookers must have bad intentions. His order was addressed to Gonzas, and he was responsible for all this matter, "Gonzas, take care of security. ”

Of course, Gonzas understood what Lao Luo's order was, and the defense that was specially emphasized was the meaning of active defense, and all those who were close to the station controlled first and then spoke, and those who held gold to pass through the market did not have a strong guarantee, and they would be plundered.

With Gonzas's shouting, the rear team of the whole team changed to the front team, and withdrew to be surrounded by onlookers.

In addition to snooping, there are naturally patrols to maintain law and order, and of course, it is inevitable to alarm the sheriff of the city. That's right, the term sheriff, the title of the head of the day-to-day order in the Roman style, a position equivalent to the later chief of police and commander of the garrison.

The current sheriff in Ankara, whose name is Hex, is struggling with the endless number of security incidents.

The situation in Ankara is complicated, the Arabs in the east are engaged in internal strife, the royal family of the Abbasid kingdom has weakened to control the area around Babylon, but it was once a big empire, and the various tribes that have fallen apart are still not weak, and some are even encroaching on the sphere of influence of the Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire is later called, they call themselves the Roman Empire, and European scholars call them the Eastern Roman Empire), and the Seljuks further east are rising, Their merchants are already spying on the reality of the country, and the kingdom of Fatimid is also rising in the south, and it is said that they have recently annexed the kingdom of Hamdan, and the recent news from Mai Rana in the south indicates that the Fatimid kingdom is conducting a new round of testing of Rome.

If it could, Rome should have taken advantage of the weakness of the Abbasid kingdom to attack eastward, but unfortunately His Majesty Bashir II was too busy dealing with the Bulgarians to look east.

There was a sound of the guard's footsteps, followed by the report of his own guard, and Hux dropped the quill in his hand, cheered up, and beckoned, "Come in." ”

The first thing the guards said when they came in was: "Your Excellency, there is some trouble in the outer square, and the nephew of His Excellency the Governor has a dispute with the caravan from outside, and he has been detained. ”

The Governor's nephew? At that time, the governor of Ankara was an outsider, named Augustus Farrell, a family member of an old fellow of the Senate, a typical gold-plated fellow, although the governor had jurisdiction over the eastern county, but the local officials did not admit it, he was a hollowed out character. As for Hux himself, he's the guy who overthrew the Governor.

Hex had risen to his current position by virtue of his many years of military exploits, and had expected to be the governor in charge, but Basil II went to teach the Bulgarians a lesson, and the old fellows of the Senate reached out everywhere in state affairs, sending such a bastard as Augustus Farrell.

In two years, from Augustus coming here to meddle indiscriminately, to now being completely overridden by Hux, Hux has spent a lot of effort.

As for this nephew of Augustus, the name was Antiano Farrell. Half a year ago, this playboy came here, and he didn't cause much trouble, and Hux had to turn a blind eye to this guy in order to stabilize the governor of Augustus, but he didn't expect this guy to start making trouble again. The bastard wasn't a fuel-efficient lamp, and Hux asked his guard a little strangely, "That bastard is being detained?" ”

"That's right," said the guard, who was naturally a close confidant of Hex, "the new merchant is said to have come from Smyrna, riding very tall horses, which are at least an elbow tall (cubitus Roman unit of length, one Roman ruler and two small palms wide, equivalent to about 44.4 centimeters)! The people in the caravan were all very strong guys, and they said that Antiano wanted the lady of the ** chief, and as a result, Antiano was tied up and hung on the flagpole. ”

"Well, a very interesting bunch," Hux asked with a smile on his face, "You said those guys' horses are an elbow taller than the average horse?" ”

"That's right, at least an elbow long," said the guard, with an envious look in his eyes, and approached the sheriff very doggedly, "Your Excellency, I suspect that Antiano is trying to steal the horse, and it turns out ......"

"Well, don't talk nonsense, take me to see ......" Hux stopped the guard's next words, there are some things that can be known but can't be said, it is more appropriate to go to the scene to see for now, although he has a dispute with the governor, but watching the governor's nephew being caught, how to say it is also a shame for the Roman officials.

As for Lao Luo's side, it is really lively.

The camp is actually very easy to find, because Ankara belongs to the military town, for security considerations, caravans with unknown details are not allowed to enter the city, but there are often caravans trading here, so a trading ground was opened in the empty field between the fortress and the garrison fortress, and at the same time the army was auctioned to collect taxes and daily management.

The caravans often stop back and forth in this way, so many caravans leave a vacant field, Lao Luo and they found such a relatively large empty field, the surrounding is very spacious, far away from other caravan stations, and there is a small river for water next to it, and there is even a flagpole for hanging caravan flags on the side of the road in the station.

Lao Luo led everyone to camp here and planned to hide quietly, but some people didn't want him to be idle.

Most of the people who watched Lao Luo's team before were people who liked to watch the excitement or the strange, but it was not the one who blocked the road in front later, and a few of them were instructed by others. Lao Luo ordered to withdraw and find a place to camp, and Gonzas ordered everyone to retreat in a team, naturally squeezing a few people.

Now these doglegs came to the door with their owners behind them, and under the defense of Gonzhas and the others, they didn't dare to rush in, but just made noise outside the camp.

Li Ji's relationship with Lao Luo is now beginning to normalize, and she has begun to stay by Lao Luo's side again: "Third brother, it's so noisy outside, why don't you ask Gonzas to send them away?" ”

Lao Luo felt that something was a little wrong, according to Gonzas's temper, this matter should have been solved a long time ago, look at Li Ji, Lao Luo said: "Siniang, let's go, let's see the excitement." ”

The chaos at the entrance of the camp was already heating up, and even Gonzas held the hilt of the scimitar at his waist with his hand, and several warriors around him pointed their spears forward, as if only Gonzhas could say a word and immediately stab through it.

The dozen or twenty people on the opposite side were all talking foul language in their mouths without care, Lao Luo's hearing was very keen, and he heard that something was wrong from a distance, and he took Li Ji's hand and walked faster.

When Lao Luo walked to the entrance, a guy probably saw Li Ji from a distance, "Hey, there is a Persian dancer here, give it to me to compensate for the loss." ”

The fire in Lao Luo's heart ignited suddenly, and he pointed to the one who spoke and said directly: "Gonzas, hang this kid on the flagpole, and everyone will tie up the rest and throw it aside." ”

All the people who are angry have come to their senses, and they have pounced on it, even if the other party has weapons, it is not easy to use, which of these people under Lao Luo does not have a few lives in their hands? Where can these gangsters who are gangsters on the street resist?

Soon, there was a burst of ping-pong, and all the people who were shouting around were tied up with ropes, and the one who said that the Persian dancer was also tied to the flagpole, and even so, the guy kept saying, "Dare to do it, do you know who I am?" Governor Augustus is my uncle, and you all want to die? ”

There were people next to him who saw the excitement and retreated a long way back, and there were also people who understood who this kid belonged to and pointed at the side. Lao Luo couldn't help but pat his head, why is it unfavorable to be a teacher today, and when he encounters such a superlative, can it be said that the so-called "second generation" is also abundant in this era?

Lao Luo walked in front of the guy who was tied to the flagpole, this guy had golden hair on his head, but his eyes kept turning, and he knew that he was scheming when he looked at it, Lao Luo patted the other party's face, "So you are still a big man?" ”

"What? Scared? If you don't hurry up and kneel down and beg me, I'm not called Antiano. "Lao Luo really didn't see that this Antiano was still a bastard.

"Yes, I know your name, Antiano, you're a big man we can't mess with." Lao Luo smiled playfully at the corner of his mouth, turned his head to Gonzas, who had just finished his work, and said: "Gonzas, find two brothers to work hard, hang this big man on the top of the flagpole, so that we can all appreciate this big man on the top!" ”

The flagpole on the edge of the camp is about eight meters high, but it is not the kind with pulleys in later generations, it is the kind that needs to be put on the base and then stuck with a clip, Gonzhas and a few soldiers are happily busy, and Li Ji, who has always followed Lao Luo, finally reacted, "Third brother, you are really necrotic." ”

Lao Luo squeezed his eyes nonchalantly and said: "Siniang, I am an adult beauty, this kid is not a big man, a big man should be high." ”