Barely keeping a friendship is the most embarrassing.

- Plautus (the most important comedy writer of ancient Rome)

Do you know what one thousand one hundred and fifty-two horses mean to the Brutus family? The Brutus family had a total of ten hoplites, each with a standard cavalry hundred-man configuration; This shows that there are a total of ten cavalry hundred-man teams in the ten legions of the Brutus family, a total of 1,200 cavalry!

Well, that's the number of cavalry in one auxiliary legion of the House of Augustus, or the number of cavalry in two auxiliary legions of the House of Julius; However, this was already a considerable amount of cavalry for the Brutus family. Because the quantity of war horses produced in Rome is very scarce, and the quality is not far inferior to that of war horses in other countries; Therefore, the cavalry of Rome has always been scum.

You said that the combat effectiveness of the cavalry is not worth mentioning, will anyone still vigorously develop the industry of raising war horses? This was an endless cycle from beginning to end, with the poor quality of Roman horses, which led to poor combat effectiveness of Roman cavalry; The poor combat effectiveness of the Roman cavalry led to the poor quality of the horses raised by Rome, and the final result was a complete tragedy.

The Brutus family can have the current 1,200 cavalry, and they all rely on the strong support of Sulla and Pompey, where did you let the Brutus family get the 1,152 war horses that dragged the equipment? This number of war horses is simply an extravagant hope for the Brutus family; You can think about it, but you can't get it!

The embarrassed looks of the Brutus family also fell in the eyes of Sula and Pompey, and the two of them were naturally clear about the Brutus family's restrictions on horses; Previously, when the new seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth legions were formed, the nearly five hundred war horses needed were all brought by Sulla and Pompey, and the Brutus family was helpless against five hundred war horses, let alone so many war horses!

After Sulla and Pompey made eye contact, this time it was Pompey who stood up and said with a smile on his face: "Your Excellency Sulla and I have roughly calculated that if you want to drag all the equipment brigades belonging to the eight legions with war horses, you need at least one thousand one hundred and fifty-two war horses; Combined with the war horses used to replace them, a minimum of fifteen hundred war horses may be needed.

We also know that such a number of horses is not a small number for the Brutus family; Therefore, these 1,500 horses will be left to me and His Excellency Sulla to settle the matter. We will try to assemble the convoys in half a month, and at the same time collect fifteen hundred horses for the eight armoured brigades of the Brutus family; But before that, the various legions still had to transport the equipment to the port first. ”

Sulla and Pompey's promise solved a big problem for the Brutus family, and Tiberius naturally stood up and said gratefully: "That's really thanks to Your Excellency Pompey and Your Excellency Sulla, if it weren't for the strong support of your two families, we really don't know what to do!" The friendship between the two families will not be forgotten by our Brutus family! ”

Neither of them accepted Tiberius' thanks calmly, but each modestly took a look; Pompey was even more humble and excused himself: "Your Excellency the Leader is really too polite! Had it not been for the kindness of His Excellency the Leader, I would not have escaped the bloody night that Marius, the butcher, had created in Rome; To be able to do something for the Brutus family is also our gratitude! ”

Pompey suddenly mentioned the bloody night, which made the atmosphere in the conference room solemn; After all, the influence of this event on all the upper classes of Roman society was extraordinary. More than 1,000 noble and wealthy merchant families in Rome were slaughtered overnight, which is simply a barbarian act that even barbarians can't do!

No matter how this move is interpreted, it is unlikely to be forgiven by the Roman upper classes; Of course, there was no such thing as a class of society in Rome anymore, they had all been slaughtered by Marius, and their possessions and wealth had been plundered. However, the upper class of the Roman Republic was not limited to the city of Rome, nor was it just the Latin provinces.

Whether it is the Brutus family in the southern provinces, the Julius family in the northern provinces, or the Augustan family in the overseas provinces; Legally, everyone belonged to the upper class of Roman society, and they were all relatives and friends who were related to many aristocratic and wealthy merchant families in Rome.

You Marlius made such a play, which simply offended the upper class of the entire Roman Republic and the aristocratic rich merchant class; It is also a real offense to the other three major families to death. For Tiberius, Marius's move had a long-lasting impact on the Brutus family, and it was also a heavy blow to the Brutus family.

The Brutus family was able to become the four great families of the Roman Republic, and their connections within the city of Rome must have been extensive; It is also conceivable how many wealthy nobles and merchants in Rome were openly or implicitly loyal to the Brutus family. There must have been a part of the merchants who represented the interests of the Brutus family, who were nothing more than puppets that the Brutus family had planted in the city of Rome.

But with the raising of Marius's butcher's knife, all of this came to naught; From this point of view, Tiberius's hatred for Marius is simply indescribable. However, there are no eternal friends or eternal enemies between families, but only eternal interests. For the sake of the development of the Brutus family, Tiberius could not cope with this.

In any case, Pompey's unexpected mention of this sensitive topic made the atmosphere in the entire conference room not very good; Coupled with the fact that today's meeting had already discussed everything that should be discussed, Tiberius decisively chose to end the meeting. After sending all the generals down to prepare for the affairs of the legions, Tiberius left Sulla and Pompey behind.

When the other generals had left, only Tiberius and Sulla, and Pompey were left in the room; Tiberius then turned to Sulla and asked, "Your Excellency Sulla, in the previous discussion, Your Excellency said this:

Although the vast majority of the people of Epirus supported their king Pyrrhus, there were some powerful people who were unwilling to support Pyrrhus. They opposed Pyrrhus against the attacks of the Brutus, preferring to be protected by the powerful Brutus. ’

If I understand correctly, what your Excellency means is that there are also quite a lot of forces within the Kingdom of Epirus that do not support Pyrrhus, and they are more willing to oppose Pyrrhus's resistance to our Brutus family driven by interests, right? ”

Of course, this passage was said by Sulla before, and it was Sulla who deliberately said it to Tiberius; In fact, Sulla and Pompey had already contacted a considerable number of aristocratic and wealthy merchants of the Epirus Kingdom who opposed Pirus and started negotiations. And the reason why the two were reluctant to take the initiative was to let Tiberius take the initiative so that he could have more initiative for himself.

Now that Tiberius had raised the question, it was only natural that Sulla and Pompey would have to talk to Tiberius about it; Immediately after Tiberius's question, Sulla replied:

"His Excellency Tiberius is indeed a man of great wisdom, and it is admirable that he can deduce the general facts from my few words! Yes, there were indeed a considerable number of nobles and wealthy merchants within the kingdom of Epirus who were very opposed to Pyrus fighting against the Brutus family with the power of the whole country; In their opinion, this is a purely thankless task.

Moreover, they believed that sooner or later the mighty Brutus would defeat Pyrrhus and conquer the entire kingdom of Epirus; After all, how could the tiny kingdom of Epirus have been able to resist the attacks of the Roman Republic? In the future, if the kingdom of Epirus is forcibly conquered by the Brutus family, then this will bring devastating disaster to the kingdom of Epirus.

In view of this, those true patriots hope that we can come to an agreement with the Brutus; They were willing to support the Brutus family against Pyrus in this Macedonian war, and the demand for this was that after the Brutus family conquered the kingdom of Epirus, they must give them the status of nobility and promise not to infringe on their wealth! ”

Sulla's answer was right in the hands of Tiberius, who was so happy that he didn't know why; If the Brutus family had received the full support of these people when they attacked the kingdom of Epirus, the result would have been completely different. This is not just a simple comparison between the increase in the strength of the Brutus family and the decrease in the strength of the Epirus Kingdom, but a real opportunity!

As long as the Brutus family can grasp this rare opportunity, then before the war begins, the balance of victory has already tilted in favor of the Brutus family; How could Tiberius not seize this opportunity? Tiberius's expression became visibly excited, and he said to Sulla with a smile on his face:

"Lord Sula, you can tell the nobles and wealthy merchants of the Epirus Kingdom through your channels; As long as they are willing to support our Brutus family in the war and make substantial contributions, then our Brutus family will not only agree to their terms, but also repay them well after the war, and they will become the only nobles in the province of Epirus! ”

Well, before the war began, Tiberius had already turned the kingdom of Epirus into a province of Epirus; However, Sulla was not debunking Tiberius' self-confidence at this time, after all, the success of the Brutus family would also lay a solid foundation for his own success, and Pompey also showed a satisfied smile at this! (To be continued.) )