Under the blue sky, the breeze floats softly, rowing across the calm water, bringing up ripples, from time to time there will be a few calls of water birds, so that the fishermen sitting on the small fishing boat have a little more fun, the honest smile floats on the hard face, and then cover the head with a shabby straw hat, go down, and pull up the fishing net that sinks to the bottom of the water with one force, which contains the family's food and drink for two or three days.

Fishermen rarely stay until noon, and their working hours are limited to the early hours of the morning until lunch. When the sun rises in the middle of the day, the ever-hurried traders in the harbor rush to Caesarea in carts to haul the freshest fatty fish, and some other aquatic products, in the hope that they can sell them for a good price, and the worse ones are made into dried salted fish and the like, and sold to the farmers and workers who have no money to buy good fish but want to try it, and they don't care too much about the taste or whether it is too fishy.

After finishing work, most of the fishermen will not go home immediately, but first go to the tavern to have a drink, although the beer mixed with water is light but enough, usually will bring one or two fresh fish, let the boss help him make a current drink, the other is even if the wine money plus boiler money, and when the drunk (only two or three times) is drunk, they will laugh and shake home, lie down on the bed and fall asleep, waiting for the early morning of the next day.

So compared to Caesarea, where there seems to be something new every day, people are busy with work, busy with the improvement of the city, busy with this, busy with that, the life of the port is much more leisurely, you can always see a few smiling and chatting people in the tavern and under the shade of the trees, carrying tinkling clay pots, or playing with small cups, talking and laughing, so lively.

In this place, it seems that even time has slowed down, and most of the people here are happy to see it.

But some people don't think so.

At the entrance of a fairly well-decorated tavern near the docks, stood two Roman soldiers in red uniforms, different from ordinary infantry or cavalry, with only a half-body of leather armor, a helmet replaced by a red turban, no shield, a one-handed sword hanging from his waist, a pair of cloth boots, a straight back, and a piercing eye.

Inside the tavern, a large table was leaned against the wall, and in the distance sat a group of vendors and fishermen drinking small wines, pointing at the wooden signs hanging on it.

-- "Registration of Recruits for the Roman Fleet" --

Behind the table sat a man who was clearly an officer, leaning in the front, and next to him, probably a colleague, lying lazily in a reclining chair, with his eyes closed as if he were sleeping.

Unlike many officers, although they also had beards, they were all neatly repaired, but he was covered all over his chin, including a large neck, his beard was long and short, his hair was a little brown, and he was slightly burly, but not tall.

A shy teenager was standing in front of them, standing in place helplessly, his eyes a little evasive.

The officer sighed, then asked with a very professional smile, "Excuse me, are you going to join the glorious Roman fleet?"

"Ahh ”

"Can you talk about weishenme? Ah, if it's difficult, you don't have to!"

"It's fine. The boy scratched his head shyly: "Actually, my father was once one of the sailors of the Roman fleet, and of course he is now a seafood merchant. ”

"Oh," the officer sighed, "It turns out to be a child of a family!"

"Actually......" The young man became more and more open, and replied with a smile: "Because there is already an elder brother in the family, and I am the younger brother, I don't have to think about inheriting the family business, so I decided to join the Roman fleet like my father and become a sailor of Guan Rong!"

"Uh-huh, good!" the officer nodded affirmatively: "Ambitious, ambitious!"

"Come on, kid, go ahead to a bright future!" the officer stood up and patted the boy on the shoulder so hard that he almost didn't stand still. Then he took a small sign from the table and handed it to the young man without saying anything: "You take this now and gather at the gate of the naval camp, where someone will be responsible for receiving you!"

"Xiexie, I'll do my best!" the excited teenager solemnly took the small sign with tears in his eyes, and then ran out of the tavern with red eyes and disappeared at the end of the street.

"What a good boy!" the officer shook his head, and when he saw that he was gone, he sat down in his chair, exhaled heavily, and leaned back.

"Eloquence is getting better and better, do you want to consider learning to debate or something?"

The lazy emphasis came from behind him to the officer's ears, making him frown, and there was a little old wine jug stretched out with him, and as soon as the officer reached out and grabbed it, he couldn't help but take a sip first, and looked at the "colleague" behind him with a sneer:

"Without my eloquence, you would not have been able to recruit a single sailor, my dear fleet commander, Lord Konstantin!"

Konstantin shrugged his shoulders, sat up with the hilt of his dagger propped up, patted his face to sober himself up, and then took back his flask from the officer, poured it hard, and then opened his eyes, looked at the empty table in front of him, and squinted at the officer: "How many people have you recruited?"

"It's been four days, and it's only sixteen!" said the officer angrily, and made an exaggerated gesture: "This is even counting the one just now!"

"Oh-!" Konstantin covered his face in despair: "When will it take to recruit a hundred and twenty people?

"A day and a half, in fact. The officer continued to strike at him: "You weishenme don't think about going to the city to think of a way?"

"Come on, if I dare to do this, Quintus will have to skin me alive. Konstantin shook his head vigorously: "Not in our base camp, let alone in the city!"

"You're a commander, second only to Mehimus!"

"Have you seen a few commanders with only six hundred men under his command?!" Konstantin used wine to play drunk there: "And an important general like me hasn't even appeared in Chapter 20?!"

"Didn't you show your face in Chapter 2?"

"That doesn't even mention the name. Konstantin interrupted him and raised his hand to stop the officer who was still trying to speak: "Stop, don't say any more, if you say more, the reader will be scolded for making up the word count." ”

Because of various problems, Caesarea can not afford to raise an incomparably large fleet, downsizing and reorganization is imperative, a large number of sailors changed jobs, these professional sailors began to do their old jobs, fishermen, some people and haode did aquatic product merchants, they activated the port economy, promoted the development of towns, for a time the military and the people were happy, all happy.

Konstantin alone was extremely mad.

Theodore only reserved him a quota of ten warships, that is, six hundred, and the warships were not allowed to leave the port in peacetime. Later, in order to establish the guard of the port, a part was transferred, so he was allowed to form a new unit, of course, only one hundred and twenty men.

"Clean and tidy dormitories and sanatoriums, a wide variety of recipes, one and a half times the pay of the army, and sixty days of vacation every year!" Constantine became more and more angry, and he was so angry that he convulsed all over his body, and kicked the bucket next to him and flipped it: "How can you find such haode conditions? Why is no one willing to join the Roman fleet?!"

"Well, well, young people are very dreamy, and very admirable. The officer wiped the sweat from his head and said with a cautious smile: "You know that this is unbelievable, there is a tradition and a long history. ”

Indeed, compared with the historical Roman heavy infantry, Roman legions, and even cavalry, although the Roman fleet has existed for a long time, it has basically made no achievements in terms of combat performance, and almost all of them exist as auxiliary troops, which is also related to shipbuilding in the early years, although the Roman Empire has always had a strong fleet, but there is no opponent at all, and there is no way to reflect its value.

By the time the shipbuilding industry arose and developed, it was already after the fifth century AD, when Western Rome fell and Eastern Rome dominated the two continents. But after that, the Mediterranean was rampant with the Venetians on the Italian peninsula, the Sicilian navy, and the navy of the Eastern Rome was a kind of existence 80% of the time, just a decoration, and with the loss of Cyprus, little by little with the Eastern Rome sank into the abyss of history.

Glorious infantry, cavalry who has performed miraculous feats, and sailors who are not very famous. It is needless to say which one the young people of Rome with dreams and the future will choose.

"Oh, yes. The officer suddenly called out and took a scroll from the table: "Recently, many merchants have been looking for them, wanting to go to the north, and ask the fleet to escort their merchant ships. ”

After the Grand Duke of Brenus and Theodor signed an alliance agreement, he also politely told Theodore about several nearby trade routes by the way, purely doing a favor, anyway, Theodore would know sooner or later, so it is better to sell face to him first, so it can also strengthen the relationship between the two sides.

Therefore, many Roman merchants began to sit still, the foundation of commerce is only about circulation and communication, and many times the more distant the more business opportunities. Of course, limited to the road conditions and traffic conditions of this era, it is unrealistic to be too far away. But the waterway is different, and the sea trade can greatly reduce the loss and time, and the profit-seeking merchants will naturally not let go of such an opportunity.

The construction and growth of Rome was not enough to rely on local resources, and communication with the outside world was also imperative.

"Let them go to Caesar, I can't call the shots. Constantine didn't have a good attitude, and took a small sip of his wine: "The Roman army only obeyed the orders of Caesar, not the merchants. ”

"It's a request, not an order. The officer shook his head: "Then I'll just reply to them?"

"Change two more pleasant rhetoric and tone as kindly as possible. Konstantin shook his head and said, "At least we must not say anything until Caesar gives the order." ”

Constantine was well aware that the Roman fleet, at least for the time being, was to protect these merchant ships - because Caesarea did not have any "territorial waters" at the moment, and it was unlikely that anyone would attack Caesarea with warships, thanks to Caesarea's geographical location, below the lake, flanked by two horn-like protrusions, making it difficult to attack it directly.

"Actually, I think that if we can get the support of the merchants, maybe the fleet can be stronger. The officer tilted his head: "Everything is only temporary now, in the future this will definitely be a commercial port city, or...... It was simply incorporated into the city of Caesarea and turned into a district. ”

"That's all in the future, and we're thinking about the present. Constantine could not deny: "We are the Roman fleet, so we only follow the orders of Caesar, I have already said this once, you know." ”

"Uh-well, well!" the officer stood up and walked out of the tavern, "I'll go tell them, do you want to go back to the barracks?" Commander Constantine?"

"Of course, but that won't be until I've had enough. Konstantin laughed: "Anyway, Caesar won't come in the near future, he's too busy!"

"That's right. The officer smiled and strode out of the tavern, as for the commander, he was not worried, and there was no one else but himself who could destroy this gentleman without knowing it.

Perhaps, the great Neptune could, the officer jokingly thought.

He hadn't taken two steps before he heard the sound of galloping horses' hooves behind him, and he hurriedly turned his head - this is a port, and very few people gallop on horseback, and if there is, it must be from the army!

Red uniforms, oval shields - it's the men of the cavalry wing!

"Stop!Cavalry, this is the port, no hurry!" The officer stood in front of him: "I'm the fleet commander's deputy!"

"Understood!" the cavalryman quickly reined in the reins of his horse, turned over and dismounted, and handed the document in his hand to the officer.

"This is really ......" Glancing at him in astonishment, the officer let out a long sigh and saluted the soldier: "Thank you for your information!"

"Then I'll go back to my life!" the cavalry nodded, saluted again, stepped on his horse, and left the place with a loud shout.

Looking at the figure of the cavalry in the distance, the officer sighed again, turned around and walked into the tavern again, and stood in front of Konstantin with a frown.

"Uh? Why are you back again?"

"Thanks to your crow's mouth, my sir. The officer frowned and replied in an irritated tone, "Caesar has come to inspect the harbor and deal with questions about the trade routes, and he is already outside the gates of the town!"

“...... What do you say?!"