A few jackals in the desert were tearing at the corpse of a dead traveler, scattered with the bones and dark red flesh of the white forest, the more than a thousand soldiers left behind the Hormahi legion, wearing linen soft armor and short swords, walked slowly in front of this corpse in the unobstructed sunlight, and which jackals raised their heads slightly, staring at the cloudy yellow eyes, looking at these people without fear, the Holmahi legion had completely lost its prestige, when the men of Lybidaeus were before the expedition, When they were rewarded by the Pharaoh on the spot, and rewarded with mountains of wine and delicacies, these proud sons of Egypt were nesting in the fortress of Idaui, nibbling on sour bread and drinking muddy well water, looking at their own pity.

When marching towards the desert of southern Cyrenaica, Li Bida did not even come to personally transfer them and join them in the expeditionary force, but only sent a few centurions and pulled them out of the fortress with a cane. First, they were always followed by more than a thousand elite Vibicinas cavalry, who were fed with swords, spears, bows and arrows, and ample camel caravans, and kept an eye on them; The second reason is that these Holmahir, because of their previous pampering, did not dare to rise up and fight against unfair treatment.

In front of them were the Illyrian Thirteenth Legion and the Serapian Legion, 12,000 men, plus the baggage men who accompanied the army (Li Bida fulfilled his promise and freed all the slaves, each of whom received a bounty, plus a small plot of land. But they still have to guard the baggage for the army). There are about 30,000 people. And the Restoration, who had slain a thousand knives, nay, was now the Vizier of Egypt, a friend of the king, plus the successor to the title of General Dege, "Military Chief of the Defense of the Nomads", and with the chief thousand-man brigade he had brought with him from Gaul, and three hundred Madjie guards, walked behind the most of the entire army.

So the officers and men of the Hommahi Legion. Seeing Alexandro drifting away, and the desert landscape becoming more and more desolate, the fear in his heart quickly thickened, since only daggers were issued to us, then Li Bida pulled us out not to fight against the chiefs, but the greatest possibility: it was to be ordered by the pharaoh who hated us deeply, to kill everyone in this uninhabited desert, just as Antigonus killed those treacherous silver shield armies.

Fortunately, when camping, Li Bida's subordinates just surrounded their camp. There was no direct mixing of people, so the officers of the Holmach Regiment could still gather together to discuss matters. At this time, the night wind of the Libyan desert was already sluggish, and many down-and-out officers wrapped in coarse cloth blankets, first reminisced about the glorious years in the royal city, and then began to angrily denounce the unbearable life now, "I knew that Lu Dao was like this, and we should have maintained a formation of 5,000 people and not escaped, followed Arcilaus, and fought a big battle with the ragtag pheasant-born Lipidaus, and we were sure to win." An officer named Eumenis said hatefully.

Several other officers in the shadows made mocking voices, "Eumenes, at the beginning, your camp baggage was full of gold and silver plates, amber and turquoise necklaces, and a few beautiful Greek and Asian dancers to accompany you, and you still have the strength to fight the Romans?" ”

Ignoring the ridicule of the others, Eumenes kicked over a few clay pots and shouted loudly, demanding that all the Holmach legions follow him in the "rebellion", but not against Lypida's troops, which would be tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, but fleeing from this damned desert and going forward under the guidance of the stars of the north, "Let's go to Cyrenaica, a rich Roman autonomous city." ”

"You are crazy, it is said that this Lybidaeus is from Rome, and if we go to Cyrenaica again, we will not fall into the net?" Several others loudly retorted.

"No, the city of Cyrenaica is only a city attached to Rome, half Greek, half Jewish, with its own city-state and judicial power, and its own army, so we go to the city, and the city of Rome will not be able to control us." This sentence is not wrong Eumenes, Cyrenaica was originally a Greek colony in Africa, and later ruled by the tyrant House of Valletus, the Ptolemaic dynasty rose and was annexed by the other party, and the title of "King of Cyrenaica" was established, which was held by a member of the royal family, similar to the governor (administrator) of Rome, but as time went by, the centrifugal trend of Cyrenaica in Egypt became stronger and stronger, and about fifty years ago, the last king of Cyrenaica, Ptolemy. Appión gave the country to Rome in his will, and since then it has been separated from Egyptian rule and has become a gray area between the two countries, a free port city with rich agriculture and water, with no less than 50,000 inhabitants, most of whom are of Greek and Jewish descent, and a relatively small number of orthodox Egyptians.

I have relatives who work as mercenaries there, and according to him, there is a growing danger of Jewish revolt, because the power of the cities is in the hands of the Greeks, and these usurers from Judea (the Roman name for the ancient Jews) are very dissatisfied, so the city-statens will be in dire need of mercenaries, and we will go to the head of the church or the officers, and we can all get rich!

It is undeniable that Eumenes's demagoguery did work, and by the early morning of the next day, more than 200 men of the Hormahi legion, led by him, had killed some of the baggage guards of the stables in the camp, and had fled with a number of horses and camels. The rest of the people who did not dare to flee stayed in front of their tents tremblingly, watching Li Bida walk into the camp with the fierce guards.

But unexpectedly, the commander-in-chief's receptacle reads, "I forgive the Holmahich regiment that is still willing to remain in the camp, and when you return to the army at once, you will restore your honor, form a new Holmach regiment, and go to Memphis to garrison." But those who escaped could not accept the experience at all, and what I now want to know is, where is the destination of the Eumenis gang? ”

The trembling Holmach soldiers said in unison, "It's Cyrene, my Excellency Commander!" ”

Li Bida sneered, and then told the weighing officer, "From now on, the Hormahi Legion will be temporarily reduced to a brigade, which will accompany the chief brigade of the Twelfth Legion, commanded by Tagus. They were immediately given broad-edged swords, shields, helmets, and white shirts, and the Men's Council was ordered to pay them a month's salary, yes, as they were to be treated equally with the other troops. ”

"Aren't you going to send me and General Dussonville in pursuit with cavalry? In less than a thousand stadias, I will be able to kill all the apostates. Next to the flag, Anthony on horseback asked, taking a sip of beer from Thebes. (To be continued......)