After seeing off Saab's mother, Li Bida quietly wandered in the hall where he and Saab first met, when Saab was not even twenty years old, but a young man named in the city council, who spent his days with financial slaves, but was seriously busy with his work; He was not yet thirty years old, and he was just starting out in the Roman military scene.

Now, the layout of the place has changed too much, the original patio has been sealed, a new courtyard has been opened outside, some shrubs and common flowers have been planted, the benches where the slaves have finished their work, and the floor and closet full of straw and wine jars have also been removed, but the huge rough wooden table is still in the distance, and Sabo, who was a little thin at that time, sat there, with stubborn and serious eyes, holding a hook pen in his hand, and replied to him with a board and a glance, At that time, it was just all the problems of a temporary provincial treasurer. Now it is only an attached rest place of the government hall, and few people come on weekdays, only a few handymen, sitting on the steps, lazily drinking crude drinks, this scene really evokes Li Bida's memories.

"Time has passed, like this hall, some have changed, but some have never changed."

Four days later, the patrol party of Li Bida arrived in the city of Cadiz, and at the same time, the expedition of Paruma and Hitius also came in triumph by boat.

King Saputaros of Mauritania rebelled and committed suicide by poisoning himself in his palace, his head being cut off by his attendants, and the kingdom surrendered to Paruma's army; Pocus was caught up by Paruma's cavalry as he fled further into the desert, and he was even more desperate. Or that he tried to take advantage of Caesar's battle with King Juba. Assisted the Caesars in their old exploits. "I can sit in a cage, I can follow the high priest back to Rome for a triumphal ceremony, or I can give the kingdom to the Republic, but I hope that I will not be executed in the mountains of Veria, as long as I keep my assets of 200,000 dinars of silver, and I will live the rest of my life in Rome." ”

In front of the Temple of Hercules in the city of Cadiz. Pocus in the cage, ragged, disheveled, with chains around his neck, begged pitifully. "In that case, then I will grieve you for a few days, and when I get back from the ship, I will have your chains loosened." The High Priest, who stood in front of the cage, said this as if he were looking at a strange beast that could talk.

Then. The high priest slowly ascended the temple and unveiled his gift to the city. and a new statue of the temple of heroes, a huge bronze statue of a sword and a plough, "This statue already represents the present situation in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, that is, under my conquest, all peace and order have been restored, nay, more tranquil than before, and all the tribes of the whole peninsula, all the soldiers who had been recruited beforehand, will be dismissed, and this is the meaning of this statue, and henceforth not only in Spain, but in the whole country, the sword will be cast into a plowshare." ”

Then he hung the wreath of olive branches under the statue, and turned to the thousands of soldiers and centurions who were neatly lined up at the foot of the steps, and said, "But we must not discard the sword in our hands lightly, for in the far east the enemy's armies and ships are still raging, and Brutus and Cassiyo, whose deeds are even more odious and despicable than those of the younger Pompey brothers, is still calling me, and that is to cut off the heads of these men and send them to the temple of great love in the city of Rome. Tribute to His Excellency the former dictator who died. But then, the consul and high priest suddenly changed the subject, and in front of everyone, he took out the scroll, "Ladies and gentlemen, since I have sworn out from the city of Rome, I have fought for four months, used fifteen legions, fought tens of thousands of miles, destroyed the enemy and fifteen legions, captured and destroyed two kings who were enemies of Rome, pacified four provinces, and two kingdoms, and before me, all the generals of the republic fought against such a powerful enemy, There is no one who has not been in a tug-of-war for three or even more than ten years, so now in the Senate, some people are attacking me in a private corner, saying that I have spent too much of the public money of the state, which is the nonsense of fools or people with ulterior motives - I hope that most of these people belong to the former, and if the latter is the latter, I will have to use some extraordinary means to protect my honor - but. ”

The high priest on the steps raised his hand, "Compared with the clumsy incompetence of the Illyrian governor Caesar in the Greek war zone, I have not raised this group of people to cause too much danger to the country." It is well known that Caesar the Young had seven legions, which was only half of my in terms of numbers, but Brutus, who was directly opposed to him, had only four legions, but he was repeatedly defeated, and some people told him that when he confronted the enemy at the front, he would only give orders, and then he would be in a daze in the camp. I am not prepared to protect anyone, even if I am his guardian, even if my daughter Corinna is engaged to him, and I have never judged people on the basis of personal connections, or on the basis of impeachment, as evidenced by Paruma, who is about to be promoted to the new province of Mauritania. Then the time will soon come for me, as consul, to take over the affairs of the Greek theater of war, and there is no need for the republic to continue to spend endless time on a young man who has not been in battle, and perhaps time and opportunity have proved that Caesar the Young is not a man suitable for the affairs of the war array, and perhaps other places are more suitable for him to hold public office and win other glory for the republic. ”

Hearing this, all the generals had a feeling of chilling in the back of their heads, and said a direct word, the high priest "turned his face ruthlessly", although the commanders and lieutenants in the fifteen legions, most of them understood that this was Li Bida taking the opportunity to play, but everyone knew in their hearts that Li Bida was going to take away the power and army of the rest of the "former allies" immediately, but what he didn't expect was that he was the first to shoot was Octavian.

Only the commander of the Tenth Legion, Sekedilius, was still listening carefully to every word of Li Bida's words, and kept nodding sincerely,

"The High Priest is right."

"Young Caesar does seem to have such a problem."

"If you look at it from the point of view of the law and the national focus, I support the high priest."

"Yes, that's it!"

Eventually, he openly stated that he would return to the city of seven hills in the second half of the campaign season with the threat of victory, and continue to run for consulship for the next year, because the Senate had approved a new law granting him, Antony, and Octavian five years of equal powers as consuls or administrators, and their candidacies were no longer limited by age and interval—according to the previous Lex of Pumpey when he was still alive, the consuls would not be able to nominate themselves again until the end of their ten-year term. (To be continued......)