Whether or not there is true happiness does not depend on nature, but on human habits.

- Epictetus (famous Roman philosopher)

The journey of ten days was finally completed by the three thousand soldiers in front of him in just over four days under the frenzied rush of Rabinus; However, the army that now appears in Rabinus's sight can hardly be called an army, they are more like a group of refugees fleeing or a group of beggars begging in the streets.

The grizzled soldiers had lost their weight in just four days, but the results they had achieved were remarkable; The city of Ségistica, just five miles away from them, is proof of all this. The walls of Segistika are not very tall, but they are also stone walls, and it is definitely not easy to attack!

Apart from the city walls, there is nothing to be said about the city of Ségistica worthy of Rabinus's attention; The army that stood guard near the city gate was nothing more than a wine bag in the eyes of Rabinus, and what kind of army was the army that even the common people oppressed? Rabinus and his 3,000 soldiers remained quietly hiding in the woods, waiting for the time to come.

Of course, Rabinus's purpose was not only to wait for a suitable opportunity to attack, but also to give his three thousand brothers enough rest; Otherwise, it would not be easy to take Sedistika with these 3,000 tired troops! As time went on, Rabinus suddenly discovered an interesting phenomenon.

That is, the defenders at the gate of Segistica were not really guarding the gate at all, they were just abducted and deceived by the name of guarding the gate; Labinus disguised himself as a beggar and watched quietly not far from the city gates, and found that the guards would search the civilians and at least get a small amount of money before sparing them.

As for the large number of caravans and others, if they were willing to give the defenders enough benefits, the defenders would not care who they were and let them into the city; Rabinus even saw a caravan apparently barbarian smuggling, and after giving the leader of the defenders ten gold coins, he swaggered into the city with the nods of the defenders.

This situation allowed Rabinus to see his opportunity, and it also made Rabinus come up with a new solution; However, this method still needs the cooperation of the 3,000 soldiers under his command! Rabinus hastened away from near the city gate and returned to the grove; Seeing that his soldiers were still sleeping, Rabinus simply gathered the captain and centurion.

Rabinus's plan was to lead a hundred and twenty cavalry disguised as smuggling caravans from other countries, and to secretly carry weapons into the city and settle down in an inn; When night falls, he will quietly seize the city wall with his cavalry, and then put the army into the city, and take the entire city of Sedgistica directly to the palace!

There was no problem with the plan, the problem was that Rabinus did not have even a single gold coin on him; The cavalry only got eleven gold coins together, and if they didn't have enough gold coins, they couldn't even enter the city gate, so how could they enter the city? The reason why Rabinus summoned the captains and centurions was on the one hand to negotiate with them the coordination of the night's code; On the other hand, it is to borrow money.

Although Rabinus promised them that if they lent themselves gold, they would repay it a hundred times when they took Selgistica; However, the captains and centurions can't have many gold coins on them! Whoever goes out to war will carry a large amount of gold coins with him, which is a stupid thing that no one will do; Naturally, everyone didn't bring gold coins with them.

In the end, Rabinus, who was forced to do so, had to let the captain and centurion go one by one to loot the gold coins from the soldiers; After a full hour, the captains and centurions had scooped all the soldiers, and finally they had found ninety gold coins, plus the cavalry, and the captains and centurions had made up a total of one hundred and thirty-two gold coins!

With this gold coin, the next question is simple; Rabinus first discussed with the captain and the centurion the code, and decided to use three torches as the code after midnight, and once the code was lit, the captain and the centurion would quietly assemble near the city gate with three thousand soldiers.

When the assembly was complete, three more meows were used as a signal to indicate that it was ready, and then Rabinus opened the gates of the city and let three thousand soldiers into the city; After discussing the code, Rabinus set out with one hundred and twenty horsemen who had taken off their uniforms. Everyone soon galloped all the way to the vicinity of the city gate, looking at the defenders who signaled for themselves and others to stop; Rabinus took the lead in reining in the horses.

When the leader of the defenders walked up to Rabinus, he looked up at Rabinus and asked, "Where are you from?" Why come to Sedgistica? Also, don't you know that you are not allowed to carry weapons when entering our city of Ségistica? Why do you all have short swords? ”

As the tone of the defender leader became more and more severe, the defenders behind him also began to make a gesture of wanting to attack with their spears in hand; But Rabinus knew that these people in front of him were just bluffing for the greater good. Rabinus had been a caravan guard for so many years, and he had seen too many such people.

So, Rabinus turned over and jumped off the horse; He grabbed the arm of the leader of the defenders, dragged him to the side of the horse despite the captain's struggle, stuffed two bags of gold coins into his arms, and then said in a loud voice: "General, we are all small merchants who walk in the barbarians, and we live by doing some small business on weekdays; Carrying a sword is just for self-defense. ”

After saying this aloud, Rabinus whispered to the leader of the defenders: "This eldest brother is a brother in the four seas, and it is convenient for him to be with others; There were ten gold coins in each of these two bags, one for the brothers to drink a little wine, and the other for the younger brother to pay homage to the elder brother and later go to Sedgistika to do business, and I hope that the eldest brother will take care of him! ”

The leader of the defenders naturally did not embarrass them anymore when he saw that Rabinus was so good, but some things were still done in person; So, he threw both bags directly from his bosom, opened them and looked at them, and after taking them back into his bosom, he also took Rabinus's arm and whispered:

"Brother, it's not that the eldest brother doesn't want to help you with this; It's just that the above has been checked more strictly recently! Your band of hundred-and-ten men are still armed; If this is found by the people above, I won't be able to explain it. Or would you leave the weapon with me first, and I'll give it to you when you go out?" ”

The greed of the leader of the garrison was enough, and the caravan that Rabinus had seen before had entered the city with weapons, and had only given ten gold coins; Now it's going to go up, it's really dark! However, Rabinus didn't care about such a small amount of money; Rabinus again took a money bag from his bosom and put it into the arms of the leader of the defenders, and said in a loud voice pretending to be angry:

"Cousin, no matter how strict the investigation is recently, then you can't check our own people, right? I am your distant cousin, and I have come to visit you on the orders of my mother; If you hadn't reported to your house just now, I would almost not have recognized you. ”

After saying this, Rabinus whispered again: "Big brother, you can rest assured, we are all serious merchants; There are thirty gold coins in this bag, which is considered my personal filial piety to my eldest brother. After we finish the goods in the city, I will give my eldest brother a big surprise when we go out of the city! ”

Thirty gold coins?! The leader of the defenders opened the money bag in disbelief, and found that it was indeed a piece of bright gold; The point is, this is not to take it out and share it with everyone, but to honor oneself! Thinking of what Labinus said about leaving the city after completing the goods, there was a big gift for himself, and the excited leader of the defenders hurriedly put his arm around Rabinus's shoulders and said loudly:

"Cousin, we haven't seen each other for five years, so it's no wonder the form didn't recognize you just now! Of course, you and my brother don't need to mind this, so go to my house and see my mother; Her old man is also okay to talk about you! ”

"Cousin, then I'll go and visit my aunt first; Let's drink again in the evening! With that, Rabinus also turned on his horse and carried the one hundred and twenty cavalry behind him through the city gate guarded by the defenders. After seeing Labinus leave with the so-called caravan, the defenders naturally gathered around and asked the leader who the man was.

The leader of the defenders just smiled and did not speak, and casually threw out the bag containing ten gold coins; The defenders who took the bag opened it and immediately took it happily and left. They did not know that when they took the ten gold coins and went to divide them; Their leader smiled and pinched the other two bags in his arms.

Rabinus, who had successfully entered the city of Ségistica, did not leave immediately, but took his cavalry to take a good stroll near the city walls; The confession between Rabinus and the leader of the defenders just now was naturally seen by the defenders on the city wall, so Rabinus's deliberate observation of the city wall did not arouse the vigilance of the defenders on the city wall.

After carefully observing the geographical position near the city wall and the distribution of the defenders on the wall, Rabinus began to look for an inn where he could stay for a while; A luxury inn not far from the city walls caught the attention of Rabinus. The hotel's floors are high enough for travelers to stay on the upper floors and enjoy the views of the city; Naturally, Rabinus won't miss it.

After checking into the inn, Rabinus asked for twenty common rooms for a hundred horsemen, and spent forty gold coins; The remaining twenty horsemen, along with Rabinus himself, asked for two rooms on the top floor, and spent twenty gold coins. Once in the room, Rabinus began to observe the layout of the entire Ségistika city from the window of the room! (To be continued.) )