Love, is love, which drives the development of the world.

- Publius Virgilius Maro (Roman poet)

It is said that on the night of the Battle of the Breakout of Rome itself; After Marius besieged Charles and Calle and their four thousand guards, the sky had begun to turn white. Antony and Octavian also led their troops to the ambush of Marius' army after resolving the breakout army led by Decius and Severus.

It was at this time that Marius had completely wiped out the breakout army in his encirclement, and after receiving the news from Antony and Octavian, Mallus learned that Marcus had fled with the family of Maxentius; Coupled with the fact that the 2,000 heavy infantry sent out to pursue last night had not yet returned, Marius immediately marched towards the port with a large army.

About seven miles from the port, they smelled a very strong smell of blood; Two miles further, everyone was shocked by the scene in front of them. All the 2,000 or so heavy infantry were slaughtered, and the corpses fell to the ground in all directions, and the scene was extremely bloody; However, this is not the shocking thing.

Who was not a general who had experienced the sea of corpses and blood in the war, and how could he be shocked by the mere 2,000 corpses? What really shocked them was the very small number of other corpses next to the heavy infantry corpses; If nothing else, these very few corpses mean that the enemy has completely annihilated these 2,000 heavy infantry at a very small cost!

Such a disparity in casualty ratio is simply unheard of and unseen; Just when Marius and Octavian were shocked, Antony came to the corpse of a Hidden Commando soldier with a solemn face, picked up the short piece next to the corpse, and lifted the black robe that was still wrapped on the corpse to carefully observe the corpse's outfit.

Then Antony came to Marius and said solemnly: "Your Excellency, if I am not mistaken, this extremely strangely equipped army should be the Hidden Commando Regiment that helped Rome cross the Apennine Peninsula in the early days of the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic!" It's just that this army should have disappeared hundreds of years ago; How did it suddenly appear here? ”

Antony's words also attracted the attention of Marius and Octavian; Although the two did not know what weapons and equipment were used by the Hidden Commando, they still knew about the Hidden Commando Regiment, which left a strong mark on the history of Roman expansion. In particular, the Hidden Commando's combat record and night combat ability can be described as terrifying; So where did this force in front of you, which may be the Shenyin Commando Regiment, come from?

Before Marius and the others could think about it, the scout cavalry came back with the news that the port had been completely burned; This didn't surprise Marliu and the others at all, last night's fire in the port, as long as the eyes are not blind, everyone knows that the entire port has been burned to ruins, do you still need to report it?

Until this time, Marius and the others had not connected the matter of the Hidden Commando and the burning of the port with the Augustus family; Because Marius didn't even know that his 1,000 guards had launched an attack on the Casa Star of House Augustus, and he didn't know that all the people of House Augustus had evacuated from Rome last night.

The reason why Marius was not particularly interested in the people and fleets of the Maxentius family who had escaped was because Marius had long been prepared to use the family members of the Augustan family in Rome to negotiate with Oscar; In Marius's view, as long as he can reach an agreement with the Augustus family, then Maxentius's people who run out will be completely lost dogs, and it is not a problem.

At this point, Marius did not blame the dead heavy infantry for not leaving behind the families of the Maxentius family who had broken out, but ordered his soldiers to bury all the heavy infantry who had died in battle; Afterwards, Marius returned to Rome with Antony and Octavian and the army.

It was naturally impossible to hide such a big movement outside the city last night from the people of the various Roman families in the city, and after dawn in the morning, everyone found people going to the empty mansion of the Maxentius family; Everyone understood everything in an instant. While these men were scolding Decius on the one hand, they began to hurry to contact the besieging army outside the city, preparing to surrender.

After Marius returned, the army of Scipio, who was in charge of besieging the city of Rome, informed Marius of all the changes in the city; Marius did not have any trouble with these aristocratic and wealthy merchants who were greedy for life and feared death, and sent messengers directly into the city to promise them that as long as they were willing to open the city gates and surrender, then he would not be guilty of the past, and the corpses of Decius and Sevious were also sent to the city.

As soon as they saw the corpses of Decius and Sevious, those nobles and wealthy merchants had the courage to continue to fight against Marius, and directly opened the city gates and surrendered. Marius himself was not willing to break the rule that the army was not allowed to enter the city of Rome, which is why Marius did not attack the city directly yesterday; There are some things, some rules, that are very useful if they are not broken.

But it was not possible for Marius to enter the city of Rome alone; Therefore, Marius chose a thousand of the most elite warriors from his army to serve as his bodyguards, and entered the city of Rome under the banner of guards. As for the tens of thousands of rabble formed by the families in the city of Rome, they were ordered by Marius to disarm and temporarily imprisoned in the barracks outside the city.

After entering the city of Rome, Marius took the lead and rushed to the Star of Casa of the House of Augustus with a thousand of his guards; You must know that those talents in the Casa Star are the key to whether you can implement your plans in Rome in the future! As soon as he arrived near the Star of Casa, Marius was completely confused.

As far as the eye could see, the entire vicinity of the entrance of the Casa Star was full of corpses, as well as dried blood flowing on the ground; The door to the Star of Casa was also open, and blood and corpses spread all the way inside. After walking into the interior of the Casa Star, although there was no damage inside, there was still a shadow of a person when people went to the empty building!

Now Marius was really angry, and he didn't know what was going on in the Casa Star and why it happened; Also, why all the guards he had arranged by himself were slaughtered, all this needs to be explained, but Marius doesn't know who to explain to himself!

The enraged Marius directly ordered a thousand soldiers under his command to search for a live hole near the Casa Star, even if it was three feet into the ground, to find a live hole! Naturally, the warriors did not dare to disobey Marius's orders; So, they began to gather enough strength to search for possible live openings in nearby places and in the corpse piles.

I didn't expect them to find a living mouth, and it just so happened that this live mouth was still a small commander among the guards sent by Marius before; He was lucky enough to be knocked unconscious in the battle last night and fell in a pool of blood, saving his life. Because of his position among the guards, he was able to know the cause and effect of the attack on the Star of Casa; So, he told Marius 1510.

When Marius heard the little commander's description, he almost exploded in anger; He really never expected that the overall situation he had worked so hard to manage would be mixed up by a small servant. Ma Luo couldn't stand it anymore, so he pulled out the short sword on his waist and slashed it to the ground on the side, breaking the short sword!

After venting his anger, Marius left five hundred guards to clean up the corpses and traces of battle at the gate of the Casa Star, and he himself took another five hundred guards to the seat of the Senate; Under the watchful eyes of the cowering senators, the unscrupulous Marius demanded that the Senate formally vote to elect him as dictator for life of the Roman Republic.

The senators, under the swords of Marius's guards, easily voted on them; All the senators present voted unanimously in favor, and Marius thus became the de facto dictator for life of the Roman Republic. Knowing this, Marius immediately ordered Antony and Octavian to come to Rome and negotiate with him about the next strategic plan.

When Antony and Octavian arrived at Marius's mansion at the same time, Marius did not say anything, but ordered the little commander to repeat what had happened in the Star of Casa last night; After saying this, Marius sent the little commander down to recuperate, and he himself asked Antony and Octavian:

"Now, the cooperation with the House of Augustus, which we had originally intended, is impossible; If nothing else, the group of Hidden Commando soldiers who appeared near the port should have been sent by the Augustus family. It has come to this, and it is useless for us to regret it; Let's figure out how to make a new plan together.

You know, the Maxentius family didn't leave us anything, and neither did the Richards and the Carters; The three families left us with three mansions, and never left a single gold coin left. The treasury of the republic had long since been depleted in the previous wars; If we can't get enough gold, we're in trouble.

The House of Augustus burned our harbor last night, and although the port of the House of Scipio was still usable, it was impossible for the fleet of the Roman mainland to sail out of the port without a strong naval fleet; Therefore, our maritime trade will soon be completely blocked. The profits of trade on land are much smaller, and with the obstruction of both the north and the south, our mood is not optimistic.

Of course, the more important issue is the gold coin; If we don't have gold to pay for, the legions under our command won't necessarily remain loyal to us. The people of Rome were also those who only knew gold coins, but not people; If we don't have gold to get their approval, then the crisis is really coming. Is there anything you can do? (To be continued.) )