"Unless the king's tabernacle falls, we cannot be considered victorious against them." Saladin at Hardin.

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In the palace of Nicomedia after dark, in a small quiet dining room, full of luxurious frescoes and potted plants, the hostess Adiana was in a very good mood, and Eujit's seat was beside her, and Lybida was on her other side, while the servants kept bringing the wine and delicacies, and dined with her husband and children, Adiana could not help but feel a feeling of joy, she had grown up in the court of Sinop, and had never had family affection and trust at all, until this moment, she could say, " This is my man, and this is my child and his child, and the borders and authority of the Pontic Empire, nay, have been re-established by my hands. ”

Spencers, on the other hand, dressed in elegant robes, sat respectfully on the couch and received the tray from the servant only with the permission of the mistress.

When he was drunk, Li Bida suddenly put down his wine glass and said to everyone, "I am tired of the Latin banquet mode, to be honest, it is always musicians and waiters coming and going, full of meaningless noise and short flights. So, my dear Calabia, I have a novelty of Seris, which I have brought with me from the previous Roman city, and you are the first to pass it. May I ask my dear Calabia, are you interested? ”

Queen Eubertenia smiled like a flower, and said with a butterfly sleeve in one, "Maybe you can take it out, and the banquet can end here anyway, because there are not many guests, and we can use Seris's novelty toys to dissipate the long night." ”

Li Bida snapped his fingers, and Matthia behind him immediately held a small enamel box, "No, the table in the middle is not big enough, change it to a big one." As soon as Li Bida's words fell, several waiters hurriedly brought another large side table, "Yes, now I will also invite the venerable Spencers to join this game, and we will each use a small couch to sit in four directions around this table." ”

The court teacher was flattered by these words, and after sitting down according to the high priest's arrangement, Matthias opened the box and rolled out more than a hundred crystal-clear ivory squares from it, from which Adiana took one, but saw that the front was still engraved with a pattern

"Hey, there are still dice, isn't this just gambling?" When she picked up the dice again, she looked a little uninterested.

"No, Mother, we can bet on each of us, as long as Father can be happy." Over there, Uegit reminded empathically.

"What's this blogger called?" Adiana asked, leaning her neck over.

"Montanus, Montanus!" Li Bida replied seriously.

"Isn't that a sparrow? Good vulgar name. Adiana muttered under her breath.

"It's not as simple as Latin betting or sparrows, it's no fun at all, but this one is different!" Li Bida introduced in a deep voice, and then he held up one of the ivory squares, "This is a game of four people, I now occupy the position of the main god, then call me 'Jupiter', if I win, all three of you will need to give me the bet, and Adiana is sitting in the 'Juno' seat, Ejit is sitting in the 'Apollo', and Spencers is sitting in the direction of 'Neptune', if any of the three of you wins, I will also pay double the bet." ”

"But how should this be done?"

With this question, Li Bida skillfully built a row of "Montanus" in front of him into a double-walled appearance, so fast that Adiana's mother and son and Spencers were dumbfounded, "There are a total of one hundred and thirty-six Montanus, and the four of us will surround them in a balanced manner, similar to the appearance of the winter camp of the Roman legions, fast." So the other three could only keep their doubts in their hearts for the time being, and they were clumsy and busy.

Finally, after the foundation was built, Li Bida put a few Montanus, with his fingers separated between them and raised, "Look carefully, Montanus's cards are divided into four kinds, one is 'arrow', one is 'helmet', one is 'shot put', and then each has four copies at the same time, from one to nine, of which the first arrow is made into the shape of 'peacock', to please the queen of heaven Juno; 'Celtic chieftains', 'Germanic chiefs', 'Egyptian pharaohs', and 'Persian rulers'. Immediately after the game starts, I roll the dice, and then in order, everyone takes turns to grab Montanus, in front of them, and when it comes to the twelfth, I jump the cards, and you take one from each in order, and finally I have fourteen Montanus, and all three of you are thirteen. Then I'm going to play the cards, and then there's three modes, you can keep touching the rest of the Montanus, or you can eat the other players' Montanus, which is 'Queue', 'Start', 'Rest'. ”

"So how do you win?"

"It's simple." Li Bida crossed his hands and placed them on his chin, "Let me explain that there are many ways to win."

Adiana and Eugit, both extremely intelligent men, quickly understood the rules of victory laid down by the High Priest, and only Spencers, whose face was a little pale, was still struggling to catch up with Lybida's steps.

"Of course, there's a series of terms here, and I need to make it clear - if you're one Montanus away from winning, shout poi; If you've won, shout GIA; Also, if you touch Montanus yourself and the guide wins, you can shout Dio! Li Bida continued to speak solemnly, and Adiana next to him was really practicing "poi, poi" there.

At this point, the high priest looked at the court teacher and smiled incomprehensibly, "I will ask Matthias to score behind him, and in the end, the one with the highest score is the real Jupiter, and he has the right to punish the one with the lowest score." ”

The slaves around them also laughed quietly, they thought the game was really interesting, but in their minds, the so-called "punishment" should be a little money or some ridiculous clown-like behavior, like Saturnalia.

Only Spencers remembered this afternoon, by the stream, and felt a chill in his back, and his fingers trembling a little as he touched Montanus.

"Dear friends, you may also come up and watch from behind any of the gods who are engaged in the war of Montanus, but you shall not speak." Li Bida waved his hand, and the servants really surrounded him.

In the first game, Adiana took a closer look at Montanus after touching it, and then shouted "Dio!" After saying that, he spread out all the Montanus, "I have no group of 'Macedonian Imperial Battalion Commanders' who have played in battle, and then they are all complete 'shot put', and I am dio." ”

"Very well, dear Adiana, you have a high score, it's called 'mixed colors'." It's really hard for the high priest to say this "mixed color" in Latin. R1152