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"You're crazy. www.biquge.infoMaximus sneered, interrupted Arulinus's words, and slammed the wine bowl in his hand on the table: "We are barbarians in their eyes, how can we be emperors of the Romans?" ”

Arulinus was unmoved, but raised his eyebrows: "Why not?" The Severus family is also not authentic Romans, and ...... Alexander is not a descendant of Severus at all, he can be Roman emperor, why can't we. ”

Maximus was at a loss for a moment, it was a secret, but for someone like him, it was not a secret. Alexander and his dead cousin, Eragapas, told outsiders that they were both sons of Caracalla, but they had nothing to do with Caracalla. Momia's mother, Julia? Is Mesa Julia, Queen of Severus? Domna's sister, after the death of Caracalla, the bloodline of the Severus family has actually been broken, and it was Julia who sacrificed the name of her daughter Soamias for the throne, saying that Elagabarus was the illegitimate son of Caracalla, so she inherited the throne, and Alexander's situation was the same, and Alexander was nominally the adopted son of Esgarbalus, but in fact they were just cousins.

But such a thing is a secret, except for a limited number of people who know it, everyone thinks that Alexander is really Caracalla's blood, including people like Quintus, otherwise, Alexander's mother and son would have been knocked out of power a long time ago.

Of course, this is not unrelated to Maximus's support, but now that Maximus has become Alexander's enemy, he will naturally no longer cover up for Alexander. However, Maximus was still a little hesitant, as a barbarian, could he really be a Roman emperor?

"The people in the Senate only have interests in their eyes, and they don't care about the rest." Arulinus saw Maximus's hesitation and smiled easily: "Alexander gave the benefits he received from Yue to his cronies for his own benefit, and who else in the Senate got the benefits except for a few people who were close to him?" The Senate is now eager to remove Alexander from power. However, if Alexander did defeat the Sassanids and recapture Armenia, his exploits would have subdued the soft-boned nobles, and at that point, even if we made the secret known, it would be of little use. ”

Maximus nodded silently, the emperor of Rome did not pay attention to bloodline, whoever has the real power can be the emperor, this is how the throne of the Severus family came about, and now, the real power is in the hands of his Maximus, why can't he be the emperor? Although he was born as a barbarian, but now that he also has the status of a Roman citizen, who can say that he is not a Roman? Rather than waiting to be deprived of his rights by Alexander step by step, leaving gloomily or even dying in vain, it is better to fight, and maybe win the bet.

Maximus's eyes lit up, he tugged at his beard, scratched his rough skin, and said with some worry: "Now we are fighting with the Sassanids, we have to turn against Alexander, first defeat his 10,000 new army, in case the Sassanids rush out again, won't we clear the way for the Sassanids?" ”

"Sassanids?" Arulinus laughed silently, and smiled very proudly: "He is not our enemy, but our friend. ”

Maximus's eyes flashed, he pondered for a moment, and forced a smile: "When have you ever been in contact with the Sassanids?" ”

"Right in Axum." Arulinus said triumphantly, and drank the wine from his glass, not paying any attention to the sharp glint that flashed in Maximus's eyes.

…… Alexander stood in front of the map, Escanomi pointed to the map and was analyzing the military situation, he was very excited, there was a bunch of white foam on the corner of his mouth, Alexander was a little disgusted, but now Escanomi is very important to him, he still held back the nausea in his heart, and looked at Escanomi with a smile to explain.

Escanomi's meaning is very simple, seize the opportunity of the Sassanid army to return to the aid and fight Shapur, as long as you defeat Shapur's 20,000 people, this battle is a complete victory, you can get a large amount of booty, let the soldiers get rich, morale will be greatly boosted, and Alexander's throne will really sit firmly, at that time, even if Ardashir withdraws from Kushan, there is nothing they can do in the short term. If the time drags on too long, Ardashir gives up Kushan and goes back to fight Rome with all his might, then the best outcome of this battle is also a draw, and at that time, the morale that has just accumulated will be lost again, and Shapur may abandon Kushan and storm Rome, which is a fire for Alexander.

Alexander readily agreed, and immediately agreed with Escanomi on the candidate, and in order to monopolize the victory, Escanomi proposed that the Guards should be tasked with defeating and luring the enemy, with Maximus first fighting a bloody battle with the Sassanids, and then feigning defeat and retreating, while Escanomi led the new army to ambush the Sassanids at a dangerous point.

Alexander's heart was overjoyed, and he could not contain his excitement at the thought that after this battle, he would defeat the Sassanids, and according to the agreement between him and his mother Momia, he would become the true Roman emperor. Escanomi was also very excited, as long as Alexander grasped the power, he would also follow the soaring prosperity, official fortune, and enter the Senate is also just around the corner.

"It's just...... Will Maximus agree? In the past, the Guards had always been the main force. Escanomi said excitedly, a little worried. Alexander was dismissive: "The Guards are my Guards, and they are not his Maximus's Guards, can he still disobey my orders?" ”

"Maximus has been in control of the Guards for many years, and many of his generals are his cronies, except for him, I am afraid that even His Majesty may not be able to command it." Escanomi said sourly: "In the opinion of the minister, it is better to discuss it with him first, lest he oppose His Majesty's opinion in front of everyone at that time, which will not be good." ”

Alexander was a little embarrassed, but it was also true that most of the officers in the Guards were promoted by Maximus, and they respected Maximus far more than he as emperor. He asked Maximus to be invited and told him what he was going to do, and Maximus was in the middle of it, and he agreed, patting his chest and saying that he would definitely obey the orders of His Majesty the Emperor, which made Alexander a little overjoyed.

With Maximus' cooperation, Alexander quickly set the time for a decisive battle, and on that day, Maximus led 30,000 guards to engage Shapur, and Alexander and Escanomi led 10,000 new troops to lurk in a valley five miles behind.

Standing on a hill that was not very tall, Alexander was in high spirits. He was thrilled to think that he would become the true Roman Emperor after this battle.

Half an hour later, Maximus led the army with a feint defeat through the valley, Shapur came after him, Escanomi led the army out, intercepted Shapur's back road, prepared to fight with Maximus back and forth, completely swallowed Shapur's 20,000 horses, but he fought with Shapur for a long time, and did not see the shadow of Maximus, although the 10,000 new army was heroic, but in front of the Sassanid iron cavalry twice as large as it was, it still failed to hold out to the end, almost all the army was annihilated, Escanomi died on the spot, and Alexander was also trapped in it, Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, Alexander realized that he had fallen for Maximus, and he was ashamed and drew his sword to kill himself.

Shapur won more with less, and Maximus declared that Alexander would not die if he had taken the lead and undermined the Roman army, and then led his army back, and after receiving the support of his generals, he crowned himself Roman emperor, and at the same time sent emissaries to pressure the Senate to recognize his status as emperor.

When the disappearance reached Rome, Rome was in an uproar, and the clamoring of the Senate was divided into two factions, some insisted on reorganizing the new army, crusading against Maximus, and maintaining the dignity of the empire, while others believed that only Maximus could not block the attack of the Sassanids at present, and if Maximus was forced to hurry, he might surrender to the Sassanids, and the fall of Rome was imminent.

While they were arguing, the grief-stricken Momia decisively summoned the Roman nobles who had relatives who had died in the war, asking them to put pressure on the Senate together, and at the same time united with the main war faction in the Senate to address the Roman citizens in the square, denouncing Maximus for being ungrateful and colluding with the Sassanids in an attempt to overthrow Rome. Although she did not know the truth, this statement was supported by most of the Romans, after all, the Sassanids did not take advantage of the great victory to attack Rome, this matter seems very strange, at the instigation of Momia, the Senate had to pass a resolution to reorganize the new army, crusade against Maximus, and defend Rome.

Maximus was furious and led his army to Rome, preparing to seize the throne by force, the Romans were panicked, Momia decided to ask for help from the Yue Kingdom, and the envoy Quintus hurried to Axum.

When Sun Shao received the news, he was speechless, he had reminded Alexander to guard against Maximus, but at that time it was to prevent something that would not happen, but he didn't expect Maximus to be even more ruthless than he imagined, and he actually united with the Sassanids to kill Alexander and become the emperor himself. It seems that the Roman throne is not all good if it is not bloodline, if this happened in the Han Dynasty, I am afraid that Maximus would not be so bold, whether it was Dong Zhuo or Cao Ying later, he did not dare to do it in one step and claim himself emperor. And Maximus dared to be crowned emperor by himself as a barbarian, which made Zhao Taizu, who was later in a yellow robe, much more courageous.

"Want my help?" Sun Shao scratched his head: "I only have a water master, I don't have any powerful foot soldiers and cavalry, even if I want to help, I have no heart." ”

Quintus kowtowed repeatedly, but Sun Shao just sighed, the development of things was beyond his expectations, the original plan to contain the Sassanians with Kushan and Rome all failed, Rome has fallen into the whirlpool of civil war, and it is already in danger without the Sassanians attacking, the Sassanids can now free up their hands to clean up the Kushan, with the strength of the Kushan, it is estimated that it will not last long before they will succumb.

Alas, it's a pity that Lao Tzu has worked hard. As soon as he thought of this, Sun Shao hated Maximus so much, it was this barbarian who beat his wishful thinking to the ground in one fell swoop.

"It's not that I don't help you, it's that I'm powerless." Sun Shao said helplessly to Quintus: "I only have 10,000 horses here now, and they are all foot soldiers, even if I rush to Rome, what is the use?" Can you stop that traitor from Maximus? ”

Quintus just sobbed, knelt down, and finally held out a map: "If the king is willing to help, we are willing to open the Mediterranean Sea to the king, and from now on the Mediterranean will be free for the king's fleet to come and go." ”

Sun Shao's eyebrows jumped, and he said in his heart that the Romans were really anxious, and they were willing to open up the Mediterranean, if they really accepted this condition, then the Mediterranean Sea would be their own, not to mention anything else, those islands in the sea were a lot of wealth.

"This ......" Sun Shao hesitated a little, although he was moved, but he was also very clear about the difficulties in front of him, with his current strength, he couldn't deal with the Sassanids at all, he went to the sea, he was the boss, but he went ashore, that was the world of the Sassanids, it was not a big difficulty to help the Romans deal with Maximus, but it seemed too early to fight against the Sassanids.

"My lord, this is a handwritten letter from the Empress Dowager Momia." Seeing that Sun Shao didn't speak, Quintus hurriedly took out a letter from his arms and handed it over. Before coming, Momia told him that if Sun Shao still refused to agree to the conditions he proposed to open the Mediterranean, then take out this letter, whether it succeeds or not, he will fight here. Quintus didn't know what Momia was saying in it, and he was very skeptical that it would work, but for now, only dead horses were used as live horse doctors.

Sun Shao took the letter with some suspicion, opened it and glanced at it, his eyebrows couldn't help jumping, then he stood up, took two steps towards Quintus, opened his eyes, wanted to ask something, but didn't say anything, held the letter in both hands and looked at it, and finally gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Okay, I'll help you, I will immediately order the fleet to enter the Mediterranean, whether it can stop the Sassanids, I don't know, but to help you repel the traitor Maximus, I'm still sure." After you go back, tell your queen mother, let her not panic, Maximus killed the king and was self-reliant, unpopular, as long as you survive this period of time, when his sharpness is weak, you will have a chance to counterattack. Eight hundred years after the founding of Rome, it was not destroyed by a single barbarian. Alexander's unfortunate early death was appreciated by him and regarded me as a friend, and I would do whatever it took to help him keep Rome. ”

Quintus was ecstatic, he couldn't believe his eyes, Sun Shao had never been so excited about the sea power in the Mediterranean, why was he relieved when he saw Momia's handwritten letter? It seems that the Queen Mother is a heroine among women, and there are things that are difficult for ordinary people to reach. After receiving Sun Shao's promise, he was overjoyed and immediately rushed back to Rome.

Momia was rewarded and her confidence was reassured, and she announced to the Senate the alliance with the Viet Nak, which strengthened the Senate's confidence. Hearing that the powerful and wealthy Yue would send a fleet to help them resist Maximus, the uncertain Senate slowly believed Momia's words, and they immediately took action, speeding up the formation of a new army, conscripting Roman citizens into the army, and cobbling together more than 50,000 people, and handing them over to the old nobleman Gordian to lead. Gordian was a prominent father, a descendant of Gracchus, and a mother from the Tulajan royal family, who himself was the governor of Armenia and had extensive political and military experience. At this time, he was nearly eighty years old, but he was still appointed as the supreme general, and the morale of the Romans slowly stabilized.

In order to encourage people, Momia ordered the news of the alliance with Vietnam to be widely disseminated to further stabilize people's minds. When Ardashir heard about it, he gave up his plan to besiege the Kushans, signed an alliance with the Kushans, and then hurried back to Ctesiphon with a large army, and after a short rest, he gathered an army of 100,000 into Egypt and went straight to Axum.

When the news reached Aksum, Axum suddenly became a mess, not only the Aksumite people were scared, but even the Han merchants were a little nervous, although Axum had 10,000 elites from the Yue Kingdom, but there were 100,000 Sassanid iron horsemen, and there must be no hope at all in the field battle, even if the city was defended, there was a huge disparity in troops. Now it is seen that the Sassanid fight against Rome is fake, and it is true that the Yue country is the richest, but the army is the weakest, and if the Yue country is defeated, the Sassanids can fully control the trade routes, completely reverse the situation, and no one can resist their troops anymore.

Fortunately, the Yue people have boats, they can still run if they can't beat them, as long as they run to the sea, no matter how strong the Sassanid iron cavalry is, they can't chase them into the sea, if they want to attack the Yue country from the land, then they can be separated by Guishan and Tianzhu, no matter how powerful Ardashir is, can he be stronger than Alexander back then? When he hits Tianzhu, it is estimated that there will be nothing he can do.

All of a sudden, the Han merchants of Axum City evacuated one after another, and when the king of Axum heard this, Warrag, immediately became anxious, if Sun Shao ran away, what else would he do to ask Shapur for credit? He immediately rushed to the palace, knelt in front of Sun Shao with a handful of snot and tears, and asked him not to abandon Axum no matter what, if he left, Axum City would definitely not be able to stop the attack of the Sassanids, and at that time, the brutal Sassanids would definitely slaughter the city, and the innocent Axumians would fall into a miserable hell.

"The Aksumites are also the king's people, please protect them." Valag kowtowed.

Sun Shao's expression was very complicated, he thought about it, and finally reluctantly agreed. Warag was afraid that Sun Shao would regret it, so he immediately asked Sun Shao to issue an edict to appease the people in the city and announce his life and death with them.

In June of the sixteenth year of the Republic, Ardashir's vanguard of 30,000 light cavalry rushed to the outside of Axum under the leadership of Prince Alpha, first cut off the connection between Axum City and the seaside, and half a month later, Ardashir personally led a large army to Axum, looking at the battle flag of King Yue fluttering on the city, Ardashir finally showed a satisfied smile.

After more than half a year of planning and tens of thousands of miles of travel, I finally caught the real prey. Ardashir couldn't suppress his excitement and couldn't help but look up to the sky and howl. If he hadn't made trouble in it, neither Kushan nor Rome would have been able to suppress the rise of Sasanian, but he had just created a four-nation alliance to unite Kushan and Rome to flank the Sassanids, thanks to the blessing of Ahula, Shapur had laid a secret chess as early as a year ago, and the most powerful Rome had fallen apart at once, and now Sun Shao was trapped in the city of Axum. At the thought of the city's Varagh, Ardashir couldn't help but turn his head to look at Shapur, and the father and son smiled heartily.

Alpha saw it in his eyes, and pouted inadvertently, Shapur killed the Roman Emperor Alexander in a battle, made great contributions, and his position was even more unshakable, he was already the self-evident deputy commander of the 100,000-strong army, worthy of the name of one person under one person, above ten thousand people.

"Father, I don't have Shapur's strategy, only a body of bravery, I am willing to be the vanguard of the siege, the first to climb the city, capture the king of Yue and kneel in front of my father's horse." Alpha said majestically and proudly patting his chest.

Ardashir was in a good mood, and his eyes were very eager to look at Alpha, he could understand Alpha's current mood, but he also knew that this son's bravery, if he could use his bravery to shock the morale of the Yue people before the battle, it would not be a good thing.

"Alpha, I give you the opportunity to show your courage, let the people of the Yue country see how heroic the descendants of Ahura are, let them know how unwise it is to fight against us, and surrender the city as soon as possible. Go ahead and don't let me down. ”

Alpha was overjoyed, bent over, and turned away. In a short time, he rode a tall horse, with two close men, to a place about a hundred paces from the city wall, and raised his scimitar in his hand.

The Sassanid army behind him burst into a tidal roar, like a raging wave, rushing towards the city.

"What is this stupid bird going to do?" Sun Shao leaned on the city wall and looked at the Sassanids demonstrating under the city, laughing and laughing. Could it be that the Sassanids still advocate this kind of competitive heads-up, where individual martial arts are used to determine the winner? If that's the case, then why send 100,000 troops, just send the best one to fight.

"This is Alpha, Prince of Sasansan, who is said to be the bravest of Ardashir's sons." "He must have wanted to boost our morale and undermine our confidence with his bravery," he explained with a smile. However, he came by mistake this time, the king has countless warriors, how can he be afraid of him as a Sassanid. ”

Sun Shao glanced at him, patted him on the shoulder, and laughed: "Those who know me, Warag also." You're really right, I'm not afraid of this method, since he is in a hurry to send him to death, then I might as well fulfill it, so that the people in the city can rest assured that we have enough power to defend the city of Axum. ”

"The king's words are very true." Wallag smiled flatteringly.

Sun Shao turned around and hooked his finger at Tu Hu: "You are also a prince, go and meet this prince, see which prince is more awesome." ”

Tu Hu bowed expressionlessly and received the order: "Huh." ”

(To be continued)