Chapter 62: The Greedy Commander
(Thanks: freestar00 rewarded 588 starting coins, book friends 1302041... Rewarded 100 starting coins, another collection, recommended, brothers)
Alfald left with two people, he wanted to go back to his lair and bring more than 200 mercenary cavalry there to join Qin Dong's camp, ten of the remaining twenty or so captives were selected as spies to be sent to the Germanic settlements in the southwest to spy on the news, and the other dozen captives were being sent by Qin Dong for recruit training.
For the person of Alfard, Qin Dong is holding that it is best to be able to bring back the two hundred cavalry, it doesn't matter if that guy never comes back, there is no loss for him, even if Alfald is unwilling to surrender, killing that guy will not do him any good, it is a waste of food to raise, it is better to let him find someone, and he can earn it if he can find it.
Qin Dong handed over the jurisdiction of the ten Germanic captives who were selected as spies to his hometown Ding Liu San, and such secret institutions still let their own people control the safest, speaking of spies, Qin Dong remembered the hairpin he stole from the hair of the widow of the chief secretary Constantius in the Xiongnu royal court, and the hairpin was reduced by Qin Dong to a gold leaf, on which were engraved with extremely small words with a knife, These texts record all the European strongholds, the names and contact details of Constantius, an intelligence organization under the former Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II and the mayor of Constantinople, and the name of this intelligence organization is called "Black Mist".
The Black Mist organization has a total of more than a dozen large and small strongholds throughout Europe and Asia, and these strongholds are deployed in Constantinople, Izmir, Ankara, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Damascus, Carthage (now Tunisia), Fstaad (now Cairo), Martris (now Madrid, Spain), Tolosa (now Toulouse, France), Lyon (the capital of the Roman Empire Gaul), Milan, Ravenna, Rome, Venia (now Vienna), Buda (the court of the Huns), Sedicka (Sofia), Athens and other eighteen cities.
There is a stronghold of the Black Mist Intelligence Organization in Saidika, and the name of the person in charge is Issurid, Qin Dong decided to contact Issurid, the head of the intelligence officer of Saidika, by the way, when he went to visit his immediate superior, the commander of the Thousand Commanders, to find out the situation here.
How to get in touch? There is a contact information on the gold leaf, in what capacity? Naturally, in his capacity as the supreme leader of the Black Mist Organization, the persons in charge of each stronghold of this intelligence organization only recognize tokens and contact codes, which exempts Qin Dong from the problem of checking the identity of this uninvited guest.
As soon as the affairs of the camp were on the right track, Qin Dong summoned a few officers to give an explanation, and asked them to strictly guard against the sneak attack of the Germans, and then left the Pazar camp with Liu San and Batu and the fifty-man escort team led by him to the northwest Panaguri to meet with the commander Vatur.
Set off early in the morning, speed up the horses along the way, change horses when they are tired, and arrive at Panaguri at noon, Qin Dong asked Liu San to take most of the guards and knights to rest and cook on the periphery of the Vatur camp, and he himself took Batu and four guards and some gifts to the camp to ask for Vatur.
A few people rode horses and soon found Vatur's big tent, and after explaining their intentions to the guards and enclosing gifts, they waited outside the big tent, and it didn't take long for the guards to come out and say proudly: "The master is eating, you are waiting outside!" ”
As soon as Batu heard this, he was about to step forward to theorize, Qin Dong grabbed him and told him not to make trouble, this is other people's territory, and it is absolutely impossible to make trouble here.
There is no way, Qin Dong can only take Batu and the other five people to wait outside the big tent, although the weather is not very hot, but it is a little unbearable to stand standing outside at noon, but Qin Dong's heart is active, anyway, he is also a centurion directly sent down by Da Shan Yu, Vatur does not look at the monk's face but also looks at the Buddha's face, right? This gift was also accepted, but Vatur put on such a big shelf, could it be that Vatur himself is a very arrogant and domineering person? Why didn't Modo say it before?
It is estimated that after waiting for more than an hour, a woman came out of the big tent, seeing that this woman's clothes should be a Roman, this woman opened the door curtain and said coquettishly: "Who is the centurion of Qindong?" ”
Qin Dong was stunned for a moment, and then saluted: "I am Qin Dong!" ”
"Master Thousand Men let you in!"
"Thank you, ma'am!"
Qin Dong walked into the big tent and saw a bald man sitting on a wolfskin chair opposite, this big man had a huge nose, a mouth full of buckteeth, but a pair of eyes were pitifully small, with a fierce gaze flashing in his eyes, and his feet were dangling on the table.
"Meet the elder Qianfu, Qin Dong came to report!" Qin Dong stroked his chest and bent over to perform the daily etiquette of a Hun people.
The big bucktooth Vatur took a sip of wine from a wine glass made of bones that he didn't know, and looked at Qin Dong with slanted eyes: "You are Qin Dong?" ”
Qin Dong saw the appearance of this Vatur and knew that this guy was only afraid that he was not so easy to get along with, but he was afraid that he was a difficult character to serve, he thought that his strength was still small now, so he could only hold back his anger, so he saluted again: "Yes, Master Qianfu!" ”
"Well, I heard that you are a centurion personally promoted by Da Shan Yu, and you defeated the Wu Zhu, who is known as a warrior, at the succession ceremony of Da Shan Yu, very good, but you are a famous warrior to my hands, very good, I am very happy, by the way, I heard that you won a lot that night, why did you send me a few gold pounds and a few barrels of broken wine today? You came to meet me, a Shangguan, and you can take such a thing, and you can handle it? ”
Qin Dong couldn't imagine that Vatur's appetite was so big, and the hardware pound gold was about forty-five taels, which was definitely a huge fortune in this era, and the five barrels of wine were all top-notch wines, which were generally only drunk by the nobles of the Roman Empire. This guy's eating appearance is too ugly, right?
However, he knew that now was not the time to be angry, people had to bow their heads under the eaves, and for the time being, they did not have the capital to do anything against this direct superior, so they could only pretend to be pitiful: "My lord, I won a lot that time, but you don't know that I spent a lot of money to get here, and I was looted on the way here, and now I can take out so much It is already a hollowing out of the villain's family, and the villain also wants to express his heart to the adult, but the villain really can't take it out, but don't worry, wait for me to settle down, The villain must honor the adult! ”
After all, this is just a gift, even if Vatur is thick-skinned, he can't blatantly ask for money, seeing Qin Dong's pitiful appearance, he shook his hand impatiently: "Forget it, forget it, I don't know how much money you have, and I, the commander of a thousand, can't ask for bribes from my subordinates, remember to hand over a hundred sheep, sixty cows, thirty sheepskins, and twenty cowhides in three months, this is this year, next year, next year, next year!" That's it, I won't keep you anymore! ”
Qin Dong gasped after hearing this, and hurriedly said, "My lord, don't you only need to hand over thirty sheep, ten cows, twenty sheepskins, and three cowhides?" Why do I turn in more than three times as much? ”
In the Xiongnu Empire, if the superior and the subordinate were not slave owners and slaves, under normal circumstances, the centurion with a territory only needed to pay thirty sheep, ten cows, twenty sheepskins and three cowhides to the superior thousand-commander every year, which was equivalent to taxes, and it could also be said to be an annual tribute, but the current situation was that Vatur actually asked him to hand over more than three times the original amount of tribute, which was too large for him to bear.
Vatur looked at the top of the tent and said: "This is the amount that other centurions have to hand over, but you can't just pay so much, you are not our Huns, of course I have to charge you more, besides, you are now the centurion of our Huns, shouldn't you pay a little tribute to our Huns?" And you have soldiers under your command, you can go south to fight the autumn wind of the Roman Empire, as long as you have the ability, no matter how much you rob, I don't want you more, as long as you hand in 100 sheep, 60 cows, 30 sheepskins, 20 cowskins this year, even if you have completed today's tribute! ”
Yes, this is obviously making things difficult and blackmailing, Qin Dong's face turned blue with anger, but he still held back, now he is in Vatur's big tent, not a place for him to go wild, he can only endure it, he took a few breaths and smoothed his breath, bowed down and said: "My lord, I agreed to the amount you said, but you see that I have just arrived here and have not yet gained a firm foothold, can you tolerate me for some more time, six months, you allow me six months, I will pay according to the amount you said!" ”
Vatur wanted to agree, but when he thought that he was a centurion after all, he couldn't let his centurion handle it, so he said: "Six months is too long, five months, at most I can only give you a few months!" ”
Qin Dong couldn't, so he could only agree to talk about it, as for whether to pay it after five months or not, it would depend on the situation when the time came.