When no one is willing to fall, people will not be praised for their honesty.

—Marcus Tulius Cicero (Ancient Roman statesman, orator, orator, jurist, and philosopher)

Prisca knew what Oscar was back for at this time, and Oscar knew that Prisca knew what he was thinking; However, neither of them was willing to talk about it. However, escaping will not solve anything; No one can choose to escape what will happen in the future. So, Oscar had to bite the bullet and say to Prisca:

"Prisca, you also know that the current situation in the republic is not optimistic; Especially this morning when Brother Marcus told me about the Greek fleet to Sicily, I had no choice. If I do not hasten back to Sardinia to preside over the situation, the Republic's fleet outside Sardinia may be in danger of being broken by Hannibal one by one at any moment; Whether for the sake of the Augustan family or for the safety of the Republic, I must return to Sardinia. ”

In order not to make his language too pale, Oscar exaggerated the situation; Because Oscar was well aware of the Romans' fear of Hannibal, and only in the face of this fear would Prisca relax in his heart to cling to Oscar. However, it is clear that Oscar's exaggeration did not make Prisca look of fear, but instead made Prisca's eyes red.

Finally, Prisca's tears still flowed, and he choked up while crying: "Everyone knows that Hannibal is a devilish enemy, why do you still have to face him?" Is there no one in the republic but you who can stand up against Hannibal? Why do you have to do all these dangerous things? The republic is so rich, can't Hannibal give him whatever he wants? Even old Scipio died at his hands, so why couldn't the republic compromise with him? ”

Prisca's crying question left Oscar speechless, at this moment Prisca was not the eldest lady of the Maxentius family, nor was she the wife of the leader of the Augustus family; She was just a wife who was worried and scared for her husband to go on the march. Oscar couldn't answer Prisca's question, the only thing he could do at the moment was to take Prisca into his arms, hug her tightly and kiss away the tears from her face.

But what Oscar did didn't make Prisca feel better, and Prisca still hugged Oscar tightly and cried bitterly; Suddenly, Prisca raised her head and said to Oscar, "Oscar." You are now the leader of House Augustus; You are already one of the most powerful men in Rome, and if I convince my father and my two older brothers, no one will be able to force you to fight Hannibal. I'm going to go to my father and brother now, don't you go to Sardinia, okay? ”

Let's talk about it. Prisca wanted to break free from Oscar's arms; But Oscar just hugged Prisca harder in his arms, and then sighed helplessly and said, "Prisca, don't do this, okay?" In fact, you and I both understand that no one forced me to go to Sardinia to fight Hannibal, all this was done voluntarily; And. Whether it is public or private, there is no one more suitable except me.

Personally, Hannibal and I have a father-killing vendetta; I must be fighting him to the death, so I must fight Hannibal myself. From the Republic's point of view, the last Liliba fiasco had deprived the Republic of all its famous generals and almost all of its experienced commanders; And I'm the only Roman who can play with Hannibal on the battlefield right now, so how can I back down at this time? ”

Oscar's explanation was already a bit embarrassing, and he was embarrassed to say that he was the only Roman who could compete with Hannibal on the battlefield; He had completely and selectively forgotten about his awkward escape in the decisive battle of Lili. Still, these were convincing to Prisca; Although Prisca was also a member of the Maxentius family, she was unaware of the Senate's plan to promote the Oscars.

Therefore, in Prisca's eyes, Oscar has always been a great hero who defeated Hannibal's generals on the battlefield and opened up the territory of the republic; He is a great man who truly has the courage to selflessly dedicate himself to the republic. How fortunate she was to be his wife. but could not stay with him; It was too much pain for a woman, Prisca thought and burst into tears again.

This time, Oscar did not comfort Prisca from a broad national and personal perspective, but comforted Priska from another perspective that women liked: "Prisca, do you know how much I love you? For me, from the first sight I knew you were a treasure from heaven; I will never let you leave me, let alone accept the loss of you. But now I have to choose to go to Sardinia.

Because I know that our parting now is for the next better goodbye; When I finish Hannibal, I'll be back with you forever and ever. If I don't settle Hannibal now, then he could land on our soil at any time; When I don't have a well-trained legion, how can I protect you? As for Hannibal's awesomeness. It is all falsehood; No matter how powerful Hannibal is, he is a man, not a god. Don't you believe I can beat him? ”

The lingering love words and confident promises made Prisca look at Oscar with a blurred look in his eyes; Oscar also looked at Prisca's delicate face with rain in his arms. Eventually, Oscar picked Prisca up sideways and walked towards the bedroom; After a few lingering sessions. When Prisca fell asleep, Oscar kissed Priska on the forehead and dressed and left. At the moment when Oscar left and closed the door, the sleeping Prisca suddenly opened her eyes, and tears rained down in an instant.

When Oscar arrived at the port with his brother from the mansion, it was already late at night; But the Latin port is still brightly lit. Because the march speed of the large army was relatively slow, the First Eagle Banner Legion and the Fifth Eagle Banner Legion led by Quintus had only just arrived at the port. Six of the forty-four transports Oscar brought back this time were already loaded with 2.7 million gold coins; The remaining thirty-eight transports were waiting in turn for the Legion officers to board.

Because the size of the Latin port is limited. Only ten transport ships can be docked at a time (which is already twice as many as the ports of Sardinia); So there were only eight brigades of troops per batch of ships. Combined with the carriage of the horses of the cavalry brigade and the ballistae and stone crossbows attached to the legion, the whole embarkation operation was very slow; And you need someone to be in command, otherwise it's easy to get confused.

When Oscar arrived, he saw that a war horse was suddenly frightened when he boarded the ship, and kicked several soldiers off the ship into the sea one after another; If Quintus hadn't sent someone to shoot this crazy war horse in time, and the soldiers on the ship were not wearing battle armor, the consequences would have been unimaginable, at least a few soldiers who fell into the sea would have died before they could get out of the army.

However, after the madness of this war horse, all the soldiers began to do things carefully, and no one dared to be careless and cause unnecessary disasters; So. The ensuing boarding operation went well. After a sleepless night's boarding of the ship, all two legions and a thousand guards of the Augustus family were finally sent onto the transport ship before the sun even appeared.

In fact, there were still five hundred well-trained guards left in the family mansion, and those were all the powers that Oscar had left for Prisca to use; Even Oscar had already ordered Nussis, the new commander of the guard (Thales was the deputy commander of the Guard's time), to obey the orders of the old Carabes and Prisca before leaving. In particular, we must protect Prisca, and we must not let go of anyone or anything that is not good for Prisca; No family or force was allowed to enter the Augustan mansion. Including the Maxentius family.

Of course, it was a bit whimsical for the five hundred guards under Nusis to fully carry out Oscar's orders, so Oscar also gave Nusis and Old Carabes another order; That is to ask the old Calabis to cooperate with Nusis to select five hundred new guards in the Latin province, and make up the number of guards in the family mansion by one thousand. Moreover, in order to avoid any conflict of orders between old Carabes and Prisca, Oscar also greeted old Carabes in advance; As long as it doesn't involve the Maxentius family. Everything is under Prisca, after all, she is the mistress of the House of Augustus.

Everything in the city of Rome has been arranged, and Oscar has nothing more to worry about; So after entrusting Quintus to return to the barracks to take command of the Falcon Legion and the Boar Legion, Oscar and his two younger brothers boarded a trirem and set out in the direction of Sardinia. The fleet that returned to Sardinia this time was much larger than it had been, and in addition to the fleet brought by Oscar himself, there were six triremes and fourteen twinks from the Senate to support the Augustus; The size of the entire fleet is not weak in the entire Mediterranean.

Unfortunately, this formidable fleet did not give Oscar much confidence to defeat Hannibal; Unlike Tuka and Raka, who saw such a large fleet for the first time, Oscar is also a person who has seen naval battles. Therefore, Oscar knew that the combat effectiveness of the fleet under his command was far inferior to that of the combined fleet of Greece and Carthage under Hannibal; Moreover, the gap between the two is still relatively large. The main reason is that Oscar really lacks good admirals and experienced captains.

But it's useless to be anxious, these are things to be cultivated slowly; If you really can't think of a good way. Then Oscar had no choice but to use the fire of Rome, which he thought was unreasonable. That's just a last resort, though; Until he really gets to that point, Oscar won't take this most extreme approach lightly. After all, the existence of the Roman fire is really against the harmony of heaven, and its power is too domineering; Even the enemy, as an enemy, can feel unbearable.

The days of sailing at sea are still boring, and there are too many things to think about in Oscar's heart, Oscar stays in the cabin all day and thinks about his own things, even if he comes out, he is just a person blowing the sea breeze on the top deck; On the contrary, Tuca and Racca, who walked out of Rome for the first time, not only did they not feel bored about the boring voyage along the way, but they were interested in everything everywhere, and they were two very curious babies.

The departure time of the fleet was the morning of October 22. After a six-day voyage; Oscar finally saw the outline of Sardinia before the night of the twenty-eighth. Just when Oscar was surprised why he didn't see the patrol fleet, a huge fleet of more than fifteen warships appeared in front of Oscar; The flagship of the fleet is the lion flag of the Augustus family and the general flag of Shi Xiu!

After a brief exchange between the flag-bearers of both sides, the huge patrol fleet escorted Oscar's transport fleet slowly towards the port of Sardinia; Soon, the port of Sardinia was within easy reach. This moment. Oscar forgot all the doubts and thoughts in his heart; There is only a real feeling of coming home. Oscar is back in Sardinia again!

(To be continued.) )

PS: Finally back in Sardinia, the next plot development will be more exciting and fast; Fierce battles will also take place one after another. Of course, it wasn't just the House of Augustus who were fighting, but the other families of Rome and other nations; Heroes emerge in troubled times, who is the real hero? The one who has the last laugh may be the hero, and the one who falls early may also be the hero; I hope that book lovers can continue to support Chasing the Wind. Keep supporting Empire, thank you!