Along the way, Highbrida and Luculas were not at peace, because Luculas was now full of disappointment and dissatisfaction with the soldiers he had commanded, and did not want to mingle with these ungrateful fellows, and he would distance his team from the ranks of the soldiers who were going to the winter camp.

When they entered the Lydian plain of Sardis, the wind on their faces softened, the ground beneath their feet was soft and moist, the trees on the hillsides and hills began to sprout, the grass and wheat poked their heads out of the soil, and the egrets skimmed over the lakes and farmsteads, leaving a string of white shadows on the rippling waters. Everything foreshadowed the arrival of spring, the smell of intoxicating fragrances, the brisk footsteps of soldiers and slaves, and for the children of Highbrid, a rare winter camp that could last until the most pleasant April.

"Hey, Calabis, we'll have to fatten this Scythian doctor a little more, and we'll be in Bithynia soon." Every time they met him on the road, Hebrida did not forget to shout twice, because he had completely "fostered" Timothy here in Calabis.

Finally, in the courtyard of a farmhouse adjacent to the Bithynian entry, Potty was holding a copper kettle of hot water, and Arminius and another legionary soldier held down the shouting Timosius, and Calabis held a razor in his hand, and shouted "Don't move", and cut off Timothy's messy beard and braids. "Calabis, you are good at your craft, I heard that you are going back to Rome soon, you may consider becoming a barber." Highbrida on the side, sitting on the table, was satisfied with the salt peas, "Well, this guy looks a bit like a Greek doctor, well, well, he looks pretty good." When the time comes, if my brother moves out the name of the Mithridates Imperial Doctor, he may really be able to sell it for one or two thousand cesdes. Then, the eternally low-ranking centurion let out two loud farts and slowly paced out.

Timosius, whose hair had been cut off, was alone in a depressed corner, and Calabis was washing his razor in the sink in front of the barn. "May the god of snow and the god of wind of the steppe punish you, you bad person! Maybe I should bite you with a poisonous snake. Timothy said, and groped with his hand in the urn, causing Calabis to jump in fright, but the fellow touched it for a while, and hung his head, and it seemed that his precious little vipers were still in the snowfields of Rikdania.

Seeing that Timosius couldn't go crazy, Calabis breathed a sigh of relief and brought him half of the remaining peas dipped in salt, and Timosius began to eat them. "Since I'm going to Rome soon, after all, I have to follow the customs, in fact, I used to have long hair." Calabis pointed to his short hair and gestured. Then he saw the skeleton beside Timosius, and he couldn't hold back his curiosity, and asked, "Who is this skeleton?" ”

"It was a Roman who was killed in the Temple of Medicine during Mithridates' attack on Rhodes." As he spoke, Timothy fiddled with the skeleton with great interest, "Because thousands of Roman colonists were killed in the Temple of Medicine - when Mithridates rebelled against Rome, he killed 80,000 Romans, including women and children. I don't know the name of this guy, but it's a perfect corpse, and it must be even more perfect to make a skeleton, and I'll have to carry it, and when I'm free, I'll make a plaster copy of it. ”

Calabis thought to himself, you don't understand the mad doctor's shijie - and then he heard the bugle as the team moved on.

A few days later, on the shores of Bithynia, Lucuras's own ship docked, with an intricately carved bronze statue of Apollo at the bow, and while Calabis was helping the patron to load the clay pots and luggage on the docks, Hebrida approached him with a gloomy face, and asked him to go to the bazaar with him to see the twenty slaves who had been deposited with the slave traders.

"I can't go to the rest of the Triple Wing, because Brother owes money to everyone in the Triple Wing, the living and the dead, either a hundred or three or five hundred Cestrith, the one my brother recognizes, and the only one who is not in debt, you are the only one left - in case all the slaves die of typhoid fever, Brother will be finished, and Brother doesn't want the rest of the Triple Wing to see this scene."

When the two men walked to the market, there were dogs, pigs, chickens, ducks, and slaves locked in wooden cages, as well as traders and citizens coming and going, and the stench mixed with the smell of the dirt was burning people's minds. At this moment, a middle-aged man with a Phrygian hat, as soon as he saw Hybrida coming, hurriedly threw down his stall and tried to run - Hybrida threw a stone in the crowd, hit the man in the back of the head, and then held down and took the man.

"Tell me, what happened to my slaves!" Highbridar pressed the man's head into the mud puddle and yelled.

"You are like this, so how can he answer you!" Calabis pushed away from Hebrida and helped the middle-aged man up, the man kept coughing, wiping the mud from his face, and said in a panic: "Centurion, you have to forgive me, you have to not be angry, this typhoid fever is terrible, and the money you left in advance is not enough to give them medical advice, so"

"What, you say it again, my brother has paid three thousand five hundred cestrickens in deposit, do you feed the pig slaves hazelnut stewed civet all day long!?" Highbridas grabbed the peddler and dragged him in the direction of the stall's warehouse, then threw his sword at Calabis, "Listen, Calabis, if you go in right and see something that doesn't suit your brother's liking, you're going to kill this guy, and you're going to leave here and go back to Rome, and no one can control you." ”

When the three of them pushed open the door of the warehouse, the stench of decay came to their faces, the ground was full of rats scurrying, several wooden cages that were about to rot on the ground, and there were many people tied up on the chains inside, no, many people who had died, men and women, flies and bed bugs lying densely on their corpses, enjoying a delicious feast, and Hebrida counted them one by one, getting more and more angry, "Weishenme doesn't sell them at a low price when they are sick, Even if one only sells ten to twenty drachmas. The man wept and said, "Centurion, you must understand that this is Bithynia, and there is no shortage of slaves, and that a slave has been sold for only two drachmas in the local area, and only as much as an axe or a saw. These slaves can only be sold for a suitable price if they are sold to Rome or Africa, but you also know - the tax collectors and the great slave traders have been expelled by your former commanders, and there is no transit dealer to be found, and only simple cargo ships have docked on the seashore for a year or two. ”

In the smoky stench, Calabis saw Hebrida slowly holding his head, squatting down, and actually cried, thinking about it, this guy fought in Xiaoya for seven years, not to mention that his position was not promoted, and he also paid pensions for soldiers who died in battle, and as a result, he owed more than 10,000 ceth retreats, and his wife and children in Rome were still waiting for him to send money back to live

The peddler, leaning slowly against the wall, looked fearfully at the dagger in Calabis's hand, and did not dare to move it when he was in the doorway. Zuihou, Calabis glanced at him and told him to run quickly, and the dealer woke up like a dream, threw down the keys, and slipped away, never to be found again.