Armatoconloscudoposteriore, osdraiatiincimapersempre (return with this shield, or lie on it forever)

—A Spartan woman to her son

The conversation between the two in the cabin did not alarm anyone, and Oscar's polygamous plan was completely stillborn; As for how to solve the problems of Mary and Shi Xiu, Oscar thinks that it is better to leave these problems to his future self, why should he not get along with his current self? The two-hour voyage was over in a blink of an eye, and Oscar was finally back in Sardinia once again!

As the master of Sardinia, Oscar will take the generals as the first people to land on the island; As soon as the ship docked, Oscar saw Luquis, who was waiting for him with his guards. This made Oscar a little puzzled, the people of Sardinia should not know about the fiasco of the Battle of Lilipa, and it is even more impossible to know that they will return to Sardinia today; Why was Luquis waiting for him at the port? Isn't he supposed to be in charge of the big picture in Calaris?

Oscar walked off the Shixiu with a stomach full of doubts, and Oscar felt that since Luquis was waiting for him here, something big must have happened; So, without any delay, Oscar walked straight towards Luquis. After seeing Oscar get off the boat, Lucis did not continue to stand still, but walked towards Oscar.

After the two met, Luquis handed Oscar a piece of silk the size of a palm without saying a word; Oscar quickly picked up the silk and looked at it in detail. After reading this, Oscar turned to Luquis and asked, "The Senate means that we should leave for the city of Rome as soon as possible, and they will give me a triumphal ceremony on October 1st; But how can I, Oscar, enjoy the triumph of the Republic? What does Senate mean by this? “

Hearing this, Luquis frowned and analyzed: "With the means of the Senate, if nothing else; They wanted to make you, the head of the family, a legendary general of the Republic, by hyping up our exploits in the capture of Sardinia after the defeat at the Battle of Lilipo. Hoping to boost morale and motivate the people of the Republic; So, the Senate asked us to prepare the splendid army, the Sardinian booty, and the prisoners. It is not so much to give us the family of Augustus a grand triumphal ceremony, but to establish the Roman faith in war through this triumphal ceremony; That's all. “

Luquis's cautious analysis allowed Oscar to understand what the Senate meant; Actually, Oscar himself knows it. Under the absolute superiority, the Republic suffered another heavy defeat, which had made the people of Rome lose faith in defeating Hannibal; Unless there is a good commander who can defeat Hannibal, the people of Rome really can't afford to continue fighting Hannibal.

And at present, the entire Roman Republic; Only the Augustan family captured Sardinia in this victory. Needless to say, this victory would be the best propaganda material for the Senate; When the time came to present the harvest from Sardinia at the triumphal ceremony, the people of Rome would choose to continue the fight against Hannibal, stimulated by victory and **. All this is an opportunity for the Augustus family and Oscar himself, as long as they firmly grasp this opportunity, the Augustan family will grow by leaps and bounds with the support of the Senate.

After all, the crowded port is not a place for conversation, after all the admirals have landed; Oscar led everyone to the military camp prepared by Luquis outside the port. At this time, the barracks were already full of well-equipped officers and men of the First Legion; But the crowd didn't have time to inspect the army, but went directly to Luquis's Chinese army tent. Oscar sat on the seat of the main general, which originally belonged to Luquis, and signaled that Luquis could report.

Luquis took out a stack of parchment rolls from his bosom and placed them on the handsome case in front of Oscar's seat, and reported, "Since the head of the family set out on the expedition, the Carters and Richards have begun their migration, and now they have all completed their migration; The family also selected new land for them in suitable places for the construction of new shipbuilding and equipment building areas.

As a result of the upcoming reforms; Therefore, all the technicians and equipment of the two families were donated to the family in the name of a private person. From now on, all the personnel and equipment transported to Sardinia by the two families belonged to the Augustan family; The two owners, the Carais and Charles families, remained in the city of Rome to continue their remaining estates in Rome.

In addition to this, the progress of other affairs is also very fast; The Augustan Academy has been established, and 1,000 students have been selected for admission. The renovation of the original port has not yet been carried out, but the opening of the new port has already entered the construction stage; In particular, the family's work of establishing authority in Sardinia has been extremely successful under the strategy of the head of the family. As for the military aspect, the status quo has been maintained since the reform has not yet begun. ”

Luquis's brief report, combined with the detailed data records on the parchment scroll, gave Oscar a general idea of what was going on in Sardinia; In general, everything is developing rapidly. The remaining generals lived up to Oscar's expectations, and in some respects even exceeded Oscar's expectations; This made Oscar very satisfied. So, the Oscar complimented:

"Yes, you are doing a good job; Because of the urgency of time, I will leave for Rome after this impromptu meeting. Therefore, I did not have time to go to Calaris to explain many things one by one; Luquis, let you deliver the order on my behalf. First of all, I would like to greet the generals on my behalf, for I am grateful for their contribution to the House of Augustus; The Augustans will not forget their credits, and so will I, Oscar.

Secondly, after I returned to Rome; Everything went according to plan. Without worrying about the Carthaginian counterattack and the possible attack of Hannibal, I will leave a strong fleet to protect the absolute security of the Sardinian seas. In addition, my naval advisor, Miss Mary, will be the new Captain of the Guards; All the recruits to be recruited in Sardinia are trained by her, and you are responsible for meeting all her requirements.

In the end, there were still 300,000 gold coins in the fleet we came back from; Luquis, you are responsible for secretly transporting this huge sum of money to the Doge's palace in Calaris, and we will make arrangements when I return from Rome. Also, Thales has changed his name to Spartacus; Later, slavery and gladiator systems were abolished in the family domain. The 10,000 slaves who were originally in the construction corps were selected by Spartacus at one time; All those chosen by Spartak will join Spartak's Samonai Legion. As for those who are not chosen, there is no need for labor in the construction corps; They were directly granted civilian status, and were divided into two acres of land each, just like everyone else. “

Naturally, Oscar's order was all agreed upon, after Oscar had finished speaking; Luquis went on to say on the question of triumphality: "The head of the house, the senate also mentions in its order the question of armies and booty; So, I brought five battalions of the First Legionnaires and 1,000 prisoners, as well as all 20,000 barrels of wine originally in Sardinia, to the port.

The soldiers of these five brigades will be the heads of the families to participate in the triumphal parade of troops, and the captives will also be for the necessary sacrifice procedures; As for the loot. The 20,000 barrels of wine were only part of the trophies, a gift distributed directly by our family to the people of Rome at the triumphal ceremony; In order to make this triumphal ceremony more convincing, the Senate has secretly prepared gold and silver jewels worth 500,000 gold coins for us.

As soon as our fleet enters the open sea of the ports of the Latin provinces, two transports laden with gold, silver and jewels join our fleet; In the end, these treasures will be presented to the Republic in the name of our family. The senators of the Senate even promised that if we did our best to cooperate with them in this grand triumphal ceremony; The wealth of these 500,000 gold coins will still belong to us, and they will make a decision in triumph. “

As soon as Luquis's words came out, everyone present immediately became calm; That's a fortune worth 500,000 gold coins, not 50,000. How could the senators of the Senate be so generous? Quintus, who was the first to react, sneered and said: "The Senate is really calculating, they exchanged 500,000 gold coins for the Augustus family to fight to the death with Hannibal; Not only bought time for the republic to solve the crisis, but also became a good person. “

I see! The generals present did not have the insight of Quintus, and their birth made it difficult for them to understand the game arrangement between the upper echelons of the Republic; Quintus is a member of Scipio's family, the son of the conqueror Scipio the Elder, and his sense of smell is naturally sharper than that of ordinary people. However, Quintus's words did not make Oscar feel any resentment about the Senate; Oscar was happy to say: "The relationship between me and Hannibal is not endless; Now, with the support of the Senate and the Republic, I can have more power to take revenge, is there anything wrong with that? From the Senate's point of view, the Senate was indeed using me and the House of Augustus against Hannibal; But from my point of view, why wasn't it that I was using the resources of the Senate and the Republic against Hannibal? It's just a matter of mutual benefit. “

Maybe it's really free, maybe it's also a different heart; In short, Oscar did not have any grievances against the Senate on this matter. The next step was to arrange for the navy, and Gatsi's fleet had already returned to the port of Sardinia after the end of the transport; In other words, at this time, the Gatsi and its fleet were already the family of Augustus. In addition, after this portage, the Richard family handed over another batch of ships to the Augustus family unconditionally; So, now the naval strength of the Augustus family is quite large. The large number of ships anchored in the ports of Sardinia is a testament to this!

Naturally, the parchment scroll also recorded the family's naval situation at this time; fourteen twin battleships and sixteen transports of the Gatesi fleet; Oscar brought back eight trilees, nine twins, nineteen transports (one sunk by the storm); The Richards family finally offered five twin battleships and nine transports. That's a total of eight trigrams, twenty-eight doubles, and forty-four transports!

Oscar was thus assigned: Gatesi led four triremes and ten twinships to be responsible for the security of Sardinia's ports and patrolling the western and southern seas of Sardinia; Anne and Shi Xiu led four triremes and ten twinships to defend Sicily and patrol the waters east of Sardinia. Oscar himself returned to Rome with eight double ships and all the transports.

There is no doubt about Oscar's arrangement; Oscar himself led not so much a fleet as a fleet. This is because, on Oscar's voyage back to Rome; The naval fleet of the republic will provide escort for Oscar. Moreover, when Oscar returns, he will definitely bring back several brand-new recruits and a large amount of military supplies; More carriers are a must.