Augustus Road

"If anyone has the slightest doubt about their sacrifice, he will definitely suffer divine punishment." - Alexander's father, Philip, shed tears after seeing the 150 pairs of gay comrades of the Theban Holy Order dying together in each other's arms. Evaluated.

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Such conditions are naturally very favorable, because in the past two years, the residents of the city-states throughout Asia Minor and Greece have been taxed by tax knights (mostly sent by Pompey and Scipio to collect war expenses for them). ) and suffered deeply from it, and in this situation, there were so many "Quarterous Monarchs" (Quarterly, originally refers to the four sub-regions of the Kingdom of Thessalia in Greece, and later the Romans conquered every powerful Kingdom, they will split it into many small kingdoms for control. Each small kingdom has an independent monarch, collectively known as the four-quarter monarch.) also took the opportunity to take advantage of them, because they no longer had the restraint of the Roman governor on their heads, so they were also in the territory. The local people and chamber of commerce are taking advantage of this. Therefore, under such a situation, the immigration request issued by Fort Lepidus is no different from a timely rain in the dry season.

Lepidus thought so highly in the novel that he also learned lessons from Cyrenaica. After several years of development, the city of Cyrenaica has made great progress in trade and shipbuilding, but the total population of the city-state has always hovered around 30,000. , because the long and difficult sea and land routes blocked the pace of immigrants, forcing the city-states to "purchase" the remaining population from neighboring desert tribes to support agricultural production. Since Lepidus Castle was born in the land of Byzantium, it was inhabited by people. The convergence of dense Asia Minor, Macedonian and Greek islands, then within a short period of five years. The population has made encouraging progress. It shouldn't be an unattainable dream.

There is another thing that Li Bida did not expect. The first person to come to Fort Lepidus to pay allegiance to him was actually Macmillan, the "Purple Sail Pirate" who had been traversing the oceans for more than ten years. He brought about fifty warships and parked at Kuanion Reef like a polite guest. He "knocked on the door" on the sea in front of him, begging to be let into the strait.

Macmillan, after the end of Pompey's Eastern Campaign, has always been hidden in several ports in Dacia facing the Black Sea (Euxine Sea), and the barbarian king of Dacia or Thrace. He also needed a role like his to act as a helper in trade and plunder, so he directly leased three or four seaside towns to him to form a "pirate kingdom", mainly with Bosporus and Colchis. When doing business in the kingdom, if you can't reach an agreement, you can directly rob it by force. Life is also quite nourishing.

Now he heard that Lepidus, whom he had met before, had become a Roman cavalry commander and was keenly aware of it after building a city in Byzantium. I have reached the peak of my glory on the Black Sea, and it is time to "continue to sublimate my dream." It has become an urgent need for Macmillan to turn to Caesar's deputy in time to clear himself, and to rely on Lepidus Castle to expand the family business and extend it to the rich Aegean Sea and even the African coast.

The request for a docking meeting was granted, but Lepidus requested that "only you and your flagship be allowed to enter." Macmillan's five-row rowing ship flagship entered the narrow Bosporus with drumbeats. Standing on the deck, he was shocked to see Lepidus' men, like tiny ants, clinging to the big wooden pillars standing in the turbulent sea water, busy up and down, reinforcing the wooden pillars, preparing to connect the iron chains that would block the strait in the future. , and then he saw that on the beach along the coast, people were operating various lifting and lifting equipment, stone walls and various buildings were piled up, and hundreds of soldiers were either coming in and out of the camp, or dining on the ground, and the atmosphere was solemn. , solemn and dignified, which could not help but make Macmillan feel afraid. Finally, by the curved and extending trestle, he saw the honor guard of the cavalry commander, arranging on the towering hill, with twelve girders carrying batons on their shoulders. The ax was shining with terrifying light in the sun. Several military slaves ran down quickly, waving to Macmillan and shouting:

"Before the cavalry commander gets angry, quickly lower your arrogant purple sail!"

"Damn it, hurry up, lower it!" Macmillan came to his senses and hurriedly scolded the sailors. He hurriedly pulled down the horizontal purple sail, then made a humble gesture, and with a group of confidants, under the purple sail Putting a rough brown cloak on his robe, he climbed up the stairs and fell at Lepidus' feet on the top of the hill.

"Perhaps you already know that your little Barb has been murdered by a despicable villain in the previous internal strife and vendetta in Rome." Unexpectedly, Lepidus' first words to Macmillan were about Crow Di's death.

MacMillan's rough face suddenly shed tears, "I hope to hear that the enemy who killed little Babu is still alive in this world."

"There are two enemies. One of them has been killed by me. The other is called Ignatius. It is said that he served as a cavalry captain under Pompey in Africa. In addition, the person who instructed these two people to kill Claudius, That's Pompey. How about you, are you willing to offer your loyalty to Caesar and me to defeat our enemies together?" Lepidus continued to ask.

The other party raised the small flag commanding the fleet, kneeled in front of Li Bida, and held up his hands, "From now on, the Purple Sail Fleet is at your disposal."

"Very good, I hereby appoint you as the commander of Lepidus' fleet, and also as my vice-admiral." Lepidus raised his hand, indicating that he could stand up, "Nicomedia is the anchorage of your ship, and there will be Rich supplies and wages will be given to you, on the condition that you cannot plunder surrounding cities. After the main body of the fortress is completed, your task is to go south to the Aegean Sea, control the sea channels leading to Crete and Cyprus, and support and protect Caesar. The eastward sea route.”

At this moment, several cavalry messengers hurriedly arrived and handed the bronze cylinder containing confidential military information to Lepidus's retinue. After Lepidus took it out for inspection, he learned that Caesar had marched straight in, crossed the sea directly towards Ephesus, and the rest of the legion Caesar had been left behind. Following him were only the 3,200 infantry and 800 cavalry of the Tenth Legion, and the twenty ships that had been cobbled together here and there, and there were no projectors or armor.

Scipio's three legions fled to Ephesus in Asia Minor five days earlier than Caesar.

"Bald man is really brave. With these troops, he actually chased Scipio's fifteen thousand men!" After reading it, Lepidus rolled up the letter and stuffed it into a tube, and said to the staff next to him, "I took ten The second legion, and all the cavalry, crossed the strait directly and cooperated with the dictator to attack Ephesus. The remaining legions stayed here, under the command of Petheneus and Sabo, to continue the work of building the city and recruiting. The fleet also immediately went south to seize control of the Gallipoli Sea."

The next day, when the land of Byzantium was just shrouded in the golden sunlight reflected from the sea, the Balantian Mountain Falcon flag was raised from the military camp. All the soldiers of the Twelfth Legion excitedly shouted, "It is an honor to Can continue to serve under the command of General Lepidus." Then he walked out of the camp in a mighty manner, took a boat, arrived at the two promontories on the other side of the Hellespont and set up camp. The smoke was rising, and he was ready to rush south quickly and attack with a blitzkrieg. The city of Ephesus. (To be continued...)