Three Kingdoms Eschatology

Feng Yu was surprised: "So when was it, why are they suddenly gone now?"

"It was hundreds of years ago before Rome conquered Greece. Many people in Greece were keen on the study of natural sciences. For example, there was Hippocrates, the great medical master. Euclid, the author of "Elements of Geometry", pioneered physics , Aristotle of zoology and botany. And Archimedes, a genius of mechanics, oh, by the way, Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily. Here, there is also alchemy. These Greek schools They even tried to combine alchemy and philosophy, thinking that the material reactions in the alchemy furnace are actually regular. Hey, their philosophy is natural philosophy. Needless to say, Aristotle, this Socrates, Plato's philosophy is also essentially natural philosophy..."

Feng Yu quickly interrupted his chatter and said: "Old man, I know all this. I asked, can such a person be found if he is alive now? For example, let's go to the original Greek region, which is now Thrace, Macedonia Wait for the province to search and see if you can find it?"

Varo shook his head like a rattle drum and said: "The Greeks today are no longer the Greeks of the past. Most of the people with Greek blood there are slaves, or low-level civilians who are illiterate. Two. Some wealthy civilians have long lost interest in exploring nature."

Feng Yu raised his eyebrows and said: "Could it be that the knowledge of Greek civilization has not been passed down at all, even if this knowledge has not been passed down from generation to generation. There will always be things like written manuscripts."

When Varo heard this, his eyes lit up and he said: "Hey, I think of a place. In Alexandria, Egypt, there is a huge library. This library has a history of more than 500 years. After the Lord Alexander conquered Egypt, it was built by the dynasty founded by his general Ptolemy. Since the establishment of the museum, it has collected books from all over the world. It is said that when the Ptolemy dynasty was conquered by Julius Caesar, its collection reached its peak , there are as many as 70 volumes..."

Before he finished speaking, Feng Yu slapped himself on the head violently.Feng Yu thought to himself, I should have thought of this Alexandria library earlier.In the history of the original world, the Renaissance in Medieval Europe had a great boost, that is, after the Arabs conquered Egypt, some of the books in the Library of Alexandria that were lost to the people were copied and translated by the Arabs and then introduced to Europe.

Although the Alexandria Library was burned once during the civil war between Caesar and Antony in Rome and the last queen of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the main library was completely destroyed.But the branch library located in the courtyard of the Sarabem Temple still has half of the books.

Feng Yu then ordered his entourage: "Go get ready, I'm going to travel to Egypt, and I'll meet the governor there, Aurelian."

Chapter 1101 Aurelian's request

In Alexandria, the Roman province of Egypt, several Roman warships with red sails were slowly approaching the port.Upon seeing this, the local warships in the Egyptian province immediately raised their semaphore and confirmed the identity of the other party in a short while.These local warships opened the way ahead, introducing ships from the future port into the port.

There were already hundreds of people waiting in line at the pier. The leading Roman general riding a tall horse and wearing a red robe was Aurelian, the governor of the Egyptian province.At the same time, he is also the supreme military officer of the Egyptian province, and both the field army and the security army stationed in Egypt are under his command.

He received a letter from Feng Yu to visit Egypt two days ago.Of course he didn't know that the purpose of Feng Yu's trip was mainly for the collection of books in the library of Alexandria, and he thought that Feng Yu came to contact him according to the arrangement of the Roman Emperor Alexander.

Aurelian was originally the general promoted by Alexander's mother Amias when Alexander was in charge of the military power in Egypt.Therefore, both he himself and others regarded him as Alexander's man.Therefore, he did not dare to neglect Feng Yu's arrival, and made preparations to welcome Feng Yu early.

When the ship approached, Aurelian dismounted from his horse and went to meet it.Although he had never met Feng Yu, Feng Yu's identity was confirmed only from Feng Yu's typical appearance and the Roman official uniform he wore.

Aurelian gave Feng Yu a salute and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this is General Feng Hu who quelled two large-scale rebellions in Rome in less than a year."

Feng Yu also hurriedly returned the salute: "Then your Excellency must be His Excellency Aurelian, Governor of Egypt. I have heard of your name for a long time. Now when I hear your name, it is like being filled with the roar of thunder. People are shocked."

The words made Aurelian's heart elated, thinking that Feng Hu is too flattering.Immediately, his affection for Feng Yu doubled, and the polite words kept pouring out of his mouth.In fact, he didn't know that this was just Feng Yu's Latin expression "I have admired you for a long time, and the king's name is like thunder." This is a common courtesy in the Eastern Central Plains.

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then they went to the Aurelian mansion together surrounded by their respective entourage.After the host and guest sat down in the banquet hall of Aurelian's mansion, Aurelian noticed that there was an old man with a white beard beside Feng Yu.This old man is the first dean of the Sicilian Academy, Xue Varo, who came with Feng Yu.

The two sides started chatting about the civil, military, and political affairs of the two provinces of Egypt and Sicily, and chatted for a long time.Although they knew each other's background and believed that the other was in Alexander's camp, the conversation at the beginning was still very restrained, and many topics were deliberately avoided.But as time went by, they chatted more and more speculatively, so they relaxed their guard against each other.The topic of conversation became more and more straightforward, and became more and more in-depth.Finally, they shifted the topic to the political situation in the city of Rome and even the whole of Rome.

Feng Yu found out from the conversation that Aurelian was a very special person and a character.At this moment, Aurelian suddenly changed the topic and turned to the topic of military affairs: "Feng Hu explained, I know that your army is very special, and even uses long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows as the main battle weapons. But unless you keep the short sword, you have abandoned traditional weapons such as spears and javelins. However, if the opponent uses the shield as a wall and forces your army to attack less than a few feet in front of the formation, isn't your army completely at a disadvantage? Next. In addition, with bows and crossbows, every time a shot is fired, it takes time to go up and down, which will further magnify this disadvantage."

Feng Yu didn't answer Aurelian's words directly, but asked his entourage to fetch an individual ballista, and explained to Aurelian: "With the power of this thing, it is made of ordinary cowhide and bakelite. The big shield can't prevent the crossbow gun from penetrating at all. Therefore, if you want to block it with a shield, you can only use a shield made of thick hardwood, which can barely be effective. In addition, when this thing is attached to the crossbow gun, you only need to pull the crossbow hard. The crossbow gun in the magazine can be automatically loaded with a single lever, so even in melee combat, soldiers at the back of the formation can use it to continuously attack the enemy who is fighting with the soldiers in the front row. Its only shortcoming The five rounds of the crossbow in the magazine have been used up. At this time, we must completely rely on the soldiers to fight with swords..."

Aurelian didn't have the heart to listen to Feng Yu's explanation, he had already taken this thing from the other party's hand and studied it carefully.In the end, he sighed unhurriedly: "General Feng Hu, it's no wonder that your subordinates are so powerful in battle. It turns out that they are assisted by such magical weapons. Uh..."

Speaking of this, he paused, and said to Feng Yu with a pleading tone: "General Feng Hu, you see, we are all members of the Roman Legion, we are all serving Rome, and we are all loyal to His Majesty Alexander. You Can you provide me with such a weapon. Of course, I know that there is a cost and price, and you also purchased it from Liang Guo. So I am willing to pay for it. Your Excellency, General, just report it .”

Feng Yu chuckled and asked, "How much does General Aurelian need?"

As soon as Aurelian heard that there was a door, he was overjoyed and said, "Of course, the more the better, the general I want as much as you can give me?"

Feng Yu stretched out a slap, and Aurelian opened his mouth with joy and said, "Five hundred?" He never thought that Feng Yu could sell him five hundred individual ballistas in one go.Unexpectedly, Feng Yu smiled slightly, shook his head and said, "No, I said five thousand!"

Aurelian blushed.It turned out that he thought that such a powerful weapon would definitely be very sensitive to the other party, and it was impossible to sell him much, and he might even refuse it politely.

The reason is obvious.Although Aurelian's army and Feng Yu's army seem to be friendly forces now, who knows how the generals will be.As long as Feng Yu maintains his monopoly on this unique weapon, he will always maintain his advantage over other legions. If he sells a large number of similar weapons to others, this advantage will not be lost, but it will be reduced a lot .

That's why Aurelian said "give as much as you want", completely unaware that his financial resources could not afford it.It wasn't until Feng Yu offered to give him [-] individual crossbows that he realized that he couldn't afford so much money.He instinctively estimated that the single cost of this thing is at least ten gold coins, and five thousand pieces is [-] gold coins.

Aurelian murmured, "I just don't know how many gold coins the price of this one is?"

Feng Yu laughed loudly and said, "Don't worry, General Aurelian, you won't be charged for the [-] individual catapults. They were given to the general for free. As for the arrows used by the individual catapults, the Egyptian craftsmen must refer to them." It is not difficult to imitate it."

Chapter 1102 The Seeds of Civilization

Aurelian couldn't believe his ears, opened his mouth wide, and after a long time came back to his senses and said, "It's just such an important gift, I accept it for nothing, and I will definitely feel uneasy for a long time!"

But Feng Yu said: "This is easy to handle. I happen to have something to ask Your Excellency Aurelian for help."

When Aurelian heard it, it was true that there was no free lunch in the world, but with such a heavy gift, it must be difficult for the other party to do.So he asked cautiously: "General Feng Hu, what should I do in Egypt, as long as I, Aurelian, can do it, general, don't worry, even if there are many difficulties, I will help you to do it."

Feng Yu said bluntly: "It is not difficult for Governor Aurelian at all. Brother, I am currently running a school in Sicily and need a lot of classical books. I heard that there is a library in Alexandria with hundreds of thousands of volumes... "

Before Feng Yu could finish speaking, Aurelian let out a sigh of relief and laughed loudly: "What's the matter with me? What's the difficulty? I will order someone to take you to the library tomorrow. And I will also arrange for a scribe, you guys Whatever book you fancy, the scribe will make a copy for you on the spot and take it away."

Feng Yu smiled again and said: "Your Excellency, I misunderstood. I want to transfer all the books in the Alexandria Library to my Sicily. If it is manually transcribed, the speed is too slow. Even if hundreds of thousands of copies are arranged Thousands of people don't know what year and month they copied it. I mean to use ships to transfer all the books to Sicily."

"This..." Aurelian hesitated for a moment before he said decisively: "There is no problem with this, but you need a written guarantee from His Excellency Feng Hu to ensure that these ancient books will be properly placed in Sicily and will not be damaged."

After finishing speaking, he immediately said: "General Feng Hu, don't get me wrong. I don't care about these books. But if these books are damaged, I will bear the infamy."

Feng Yu responded: "This is natural. I will vacate the Governor's Mansion to house these books. After the big library on Sicily is built, I will put them in it. I guarantee that no one will be damaged."

Feng Yu now understands that the Romans today are different from the Romans hundreds of years ago. They also pay attention to culture, although they are still very "disciplined", not as enthusiastic about various subjects as the ancient Greeks , are diligent in research, but they can't tolerate the destruction of ancient books.Even if these books are not interesting to them.

The next day, Feng Yu and Valo went to the Alexandria Library accompanied by a special person.When they reached the gate of the library, Feng Yu found that this is not a library, it is clearly a huge castle.A fence stretched out from both sides of the main entrance hall, enclosing an area with a radius of hundreds of battles.There are various building facilities of different sizes distributed inside.

When they passed through the hall, they found some ruins in the compound.The person who led them explained that there was a civil war between Caesar and Antony.When Caesar led the navy to attack Alexandria, the flame bombs fired by the ship's ballista caused a raging fire on the port shore.The library was also affected by the fire, and most of the books in the main library were burned. Fortunately, there are still a large number of books stored in the branch library.The war is over.The main library was only slightly repaired, and all the books in the branch library were moved over. Today, more than 300 years later, some traces of the burned ruins of the library can still be seen.

When Feng Yu and Walo walked into the lobby of the library, they found that there was no one there. Feng Yu asked the person leading him, "Why is there no one? Is the library not open to the public on weekdays?"

The man replied: "Return to Your Excellency General. Usually, it is also open. It's just that there are very few people who come. We only borrow a small number of transcripts from outsiders. Originally, books are not borrowed. Therefore, the administrator Rarely, these administrators should be going to sort out the book catalog for Your Excellency the General. Anyway, there is still time, how about I take this time to show you this library?"

The man led Feng Yu and Walo back and forth through the labyrinth-like buildings.Feng Yu found that there are huge bookshelves in these houses and buildings, and books in different categories are piled up on the bookshelves, although these categories are not very scientific.

Most of the books are parchment books, but Feng Yu was surprised to find that there were many bamboo slips from the East, and even clay tablets from ancient Sumer.It's just that no matter whether it's a sheepskin scroll, a bamboo slip or a clay tablet, thick dust has accumulated on it.Obviously, they must have been untouched for hundreds of years.Feng Yu believes that some ancient books that have been lost in the Eastern Central Plains may be found here.For example, the "History of the Six Kingdoms", "Book of Luban", "Guiguzi" and "Mozi", which have been burned by Qin Shihuang, are lost.

Walo next to Feng Yu took out a roll of parchment from the bookshelf from time to time, shook off the thick dust on it, and flipped through it with relish.Then, he alternately screamed and laughed happily, like a child intruding into a room full of toys.These books are available in various languages, so Feng Yu can't understand them naturally, but it's hard for Varo, who is proficient in several languages, including ancient Greek.

Feng Yu asked in surprise: "Varo, you are so rare about these books, why don't you come to this library on weekdays? With your status and income, it is not difficult to come to Alexandria from Rome or even live in Alexandria for a long time. "

Walo replied: "General, didn't you hear that just now? In order to reduce management costs, they only copied a small number of popular books for borrowing. The rest of the books are hidden in the warehouse. You also know me, and I don't like to make friends. Nobility, how can there be a way to sneak into the Alexandria Library on weekdays?"

Only then did Feng Yu nod his doubts, thinking in his heart that if the Romans who possessed this treasure of knowledge could be as keen on thinking about philosophy and exploring nature as the Greeks were hundreds of years ago.I am afraid that human beings will enter the modern society nearly a thousand years earlier.

Finally, Feng Yu and Walo were led to the most magnificent building in the garden.The leader pointed to the building and said, "This is the Greek Pavilion, and all the books in it are books or private notes from Greece..."

Before he finished speaking, Walo had already rushed in, followed by Feng Yu.Feng Yu can't understand ancient Greek, he can only understand the category labels of books marked in Latin.The entire collection of books is divided into several categories such as philosophy and logical speculation, mathematical geometry, zoology and botany, physics, medicine, alchemy, and craftsmanship.Two hours later, Varo, whose face was full of dust, cheered happily again: "Look, what I found! The original of Archimedes' "On Floating Bodies"! There is also "Parabolic Quadrature". And this ..., my God! The original notes of Alexander's teacher Aristotle..."

Varo exclaimed, the library of Alexandria was to him a child's playroom.But in Feng Yu's eyes, it is a seed.The seeds of most of the achievements of human civilization in the future in this world.Whether it is a spacecraft traveling in space or a computer chip that can do hundreds of millions of operations per second, it will all originate from this seed.

Chapter 1103 chaos is coming

When the autumn wind came, the streets and alleys of the city of Rome were relatively deserted.A secret gathering with a large number of people is going on in the mansion of Chief Elder Gaius.But this gathering was not initiated by Gaius, but by the official Augustus.These people are not the same political force, but belong to different factions.

The lobby was already packed with dozens of people, and they were talking to each other in low voices.Although the convener Augustus and the proprietor Gaius had already sat down at the top, they did not speak for a long time.Prosecutor Proseus was the first to speak: "Why did the officer summon us here? Is there anything that cannot be discussed publicly in the Senate?"

A sneer twitched at the corner of Augustus' mouth and said, "Of course we can't discuss it publicly in the Senate. Because we can't let Alexander and the woman behind him know what we're discussing."

Proseus originally wanted to ask why he couldn't let Alexander know, but thinking that this was nonsense, he swallowed the words again and waited for Augustus to make a formal speech.

Augustus walked to the center of the lobby and said loudly: "Although you represent different families, interest groups, and have different political ideas. But no one wants to see all the power in Rome being concentrated in the hands of one person. Right. Wouldn’t that mean that we all become this person’s slaves?”

At this time, a person stood up and said: "Your Excellency, since Caesar, the consuls in Rome have also served as dictators and were given the title of emperor. He already has extraordinary powers."

Augustus sneered again: "What I am accusing is not that His Majesty the Emperor is in power. Of course I know that this is a system that has been formed in Rome since Caesar and is clearly stipulated by laws. What I am talking about is that someone wants to seize the Roman Empire. All the power is in the hands of one person, just like the monarchs of some empires in the East. As you know, in those countries, except for the monarch, the rest are essentially no different from slaves in front of the monarch. Are you willing to be someone else's slave? What's more, this person is actually a woman. That is, the woman behind Alexander—Amyas. We Rome cannot be ruled by a woman! We cannot become slaves of others!"

When he was speaking, someone was already muttering, "If it is like those countries in the East, if the emperor centralizes power, everyone will be almost like a slave." It seems that he has heard the saying before.In fact, this statement was what Feng Yu said when he came to Rome at the beginning of the year, and it spread over time.

As soon as Augustus finished speaking, someone echoed: "Yes! Recently, the Consul's Office has abused its financial power and allocated a large proportion of the budget funds to his own Guard Corps for military expansion. But Weakened the funds allocated to other legions. I heard that his guards will be doubled in size. You know, his guards have been expanded from a single legion to a large legion before. Doubling the army, counting auxiliary There are nearly 5 soldiers and horses. As we all know, the Guards Corps is only used to provide security for His Majesty the Emperor, so why do we need so many troops? This is obviously a preparation for the future deprivation of our power. "The person who spoke was Mallor, the commander of the Apennine Fleet.

The chief elder Gaius also straightened up his fat body with difficulty and said slowly: "Actually, this is still a trivial matter. How much can he expand his army? Fifty thousand soldiers and horses are compared with Rome's 27 field army and more than [-] troops. Compared with the border guards, the law and order does not play a decisive role. But one of the things His Majesty Alexander has done recently is that he has done too much. He let out the wind that he wants to carry out local military and political reforms. He said that the local government must The military and government are separated..."

Before he finished speaking, there was a sneer from the crowd and said: "That's because he said that we can separate. At present, except for a few special provinces, the governor and military chief of most provinces are the same person. Needless to say, the security corps stationed in a province, their money and food are distributed by the province. Even those field corps are often the old subordinates of the governor. The money of these corps is allocated from the imperial financial office in name, but It is still distributed through the governor's hand. So even if Alexander sends new legion commanders or generals to these legions, the thousands and centurions in those legions will still obey the governor's orders, and these newly transferred officials will be put aside. next to."

Gaius shook his head and waved his hands anxiously: "Hey, you think it's easy. You have to know that Alexander started with the transfer of money and food. In the future, these money will no longer go through the provincial government office, but by Alexander. Your confidant, Julius, who is in charge of the financial bureau, directly allocated the money to the financial officer of the field legion. You said, after a long time, are these legions loyal to their old chief or to Alexander?"

After Gaius finished speaking, the hall fell into a temporary silence.Behind these people, there are people subordinate to their forces arranged in various provinces and places.Alexander now wants to gather the military power of the local provinces, which is equivalent to taking away their power.

Finally someone said: "Then we can't sit still, we should put aside any differences we had before, and now we should unite to save Rome and ourselves. Since the officials summoned us here, there must be some countermeasures." "

Augustus stood up again and said: "I have two strategies. This is the simplest strategy. Just get rid of Alexander and Amias in Rome, and then establish a new emperor. The new emperor does not have to be a member of the Severus family. Yes, as long as you are a veteran noble class with both ability and political integrity..."

Prosecutor Proseus didn't wait for him to finish speaking, but he poured cold water on him: "But now there are 2 legions in and around the city of Rome, and the two regular legions have more than [-] people. What we can use is horses. Lore's Apennine fleet and five or six security corps in and around the city. The most elite Thomas corps had been transferred to monitor Feng Hu in Sicily earlier. By the way, when it comes to Feng Hu, everyone knows that he is Alexander If there is any change in the city of Rome, he will be able to kill the city of Rome in ten days."

A gloomy smile appeared on Augustus's face, and he said, "But don't forget that there are tens of thousands of knights in Rome. Most of them are from our side, and they are against Alexander's behavior." .And most of them have military experience, as long as they are armed, they will be a considerable army. Moreover, we don't necessarily need to get rid of Alexander, we can use the method of assassination..."

Chapter 1104

When Augustus finished his plan to get rid of Alexander and Amias in detail, everyone present showed excitement and geared up one by one.Only the chief elder Gaius said worriedly:

"Officer, your plan seems to be flawless, but what if... I mean what if it fails. If it fails, our wealth and life will be wiped out. Don't say it failed, think about the assassination of Caesar back then. The March [-] incident, right? That was when they successfully killed Caesar and once controlled the entire city of Rome, but what happened in the end?"

What he said poured cold water on everyone's heads, and the hall fell silent again.When Caesar was in power alone, a group of republican aristocratic elders in the Senate tried to restore the republican rule of the aristocratic oligarchy, and stabbed him to death on March [-]th.But in the end, Caesar's giant Antony and Caesar's adopted son Octavian regained control of the city of Rome and launched a bloody hunt throughout the city.As a result, one-third of the patriarchs and nobles in Rome, and thousands of knights and nobles were all killed.

In the end, it was Augustus who broke everyone's silence. He said disapprovingly: "How can this little boy Alexander be compared with Caesar? Everyone in Rome knows that the one who actually holds power in the consul's office is His mother Amias. At that time, Antony and Octavian relied on Caesar's high prestige among the people to make a comeback. Is this kind of prestige something that a kid like Alexander can possess today?"

He paused and then said: "Besides, we still have a fallback. As I said before, this is only the best strategy and the least costly way. But in case of failure, we still have a lower strategy as a retreat, which can still overthrow Alexander and The tyranny of Amias. That is, we retreat to the provinces controlled by our respective forces, and we will fight together, no longer recognize the emperor Alexander and break away from his rule. I have also formulated a detailed plan for this strategy..." Then, Augustus told everyone present his plan in detail.

In the end, Augustus glanced over everyone one by one, and seeing that no one had any objections, he said: "Then if everyone agrees with my plan, I will swear to the three gods of Rome..."

After they finished their oath, Proseus tentatively said to Augustus: "Why didn't you invite Quintus, the tribune today? He is also responsible for the security and defense of the city of Rome, as well as foreign intelligence. If He can also join our alliance, which will have a multiplier effect."

Before Augustus could answer, Gaius snorted coldly and said, "The Ombudsman really has no news, and now Quintus has followed Alexander with all his heart. How could he still call him?"

……

A few days later, one gloomy afternoon, the tribune's office was so dimly lit that it had to be lit in broad daylight.Quintus was sitting in a soft leather chair, leaning his head against the back of the chair, with his eyes slightly closed, listening to his subordinate's report.

One by one, his subordinates reported to him anomalous events that might be of intelligence value in various places.Quintus, as a tribune, accused him of covering the entire border of Rome, but in fact he could only manage the city of Rome.

Now Quintus has become a reliable person for Alexander and Amias, and he even helped the latter plan a roadmap for Rome's transformation.It was his idea to separate the local military and government.It's just that even if Alexander gathered his military power, he still couldn't hold great power, because the Romans had a tradition of opposing the monarch for 700 years.So this is only the first step. In the second step, they have to rely on these troops to eliminate the noble oligarchs of the Senate internally, win a few big victories externally, conquer more areas, and bring actual benefits to Roman civilians. established prestige.Finally, the law was changed and Alexander was given supreme power, becoming a monarch with absolute power similar to the Eastern Emperor.

At this time, Quintus, whose eyes were slightly closed, suddenly opened his eyes.Because one of his reports caught his attention.

"On the afternoon of October 26, dozens of high-ranking officials and elders were entertained in the mansion of the chief elder Gaius. According to the information we found in his mansion, they had been gathering for nearly two hours before the banquet. What was discussed. But the content is unknown, because Gaius removed all the servants on the spot. Those who participated were the officer Augustus, the inspector Proseus..."

Originally, it was not uncommon for dignitaries and nobles in Rome to entertain each other.But the names of these participants surprised Quintus.Because these people belong to various political factions, some are not likely to be people who pissed in a pot at all.The banquets between dignitaries and nobles in the city of Rome are generally for people from the same political faction as themselves.What's more, they are still so mysterious.

Quintus said to himself: "There must be something wrong here." Then he ordered his subordinates: "From today onwards, we will strengthen our efforts against Augustus, Gaius, Proseus, and Mallor. Surveillance of personal mansions. Not only the monitoring of themselves, but also the recent abnormal movements of their housekeepers and servants. In addition, the checkpoints at the gates of the city should be strengthened, especially those merchants who sell weapons and armor, and they must be strictly checked , registered. Every shipment entering and exiting the city is clearly recorded."

The attendant of Quintus made a promise and was about to leave the hall, but he stopped him and said, "Wait, you were asked to investigate the material of Feng Hujun's single-armed ballista before. How is your investigation going?"

His attendant quickly responded: "My lord, we have used all the resources in Mesopotamia to investigate this matter, and we haven't made much progress yet. The only thing we know now is that this thing is made of a material called rubber." And rubber is extracted from a plant called the rubber tree. But what kind of plant the rubber tree is, and what process the extracted rubber goes through to make this bowstring, we have no way of knowing.”

Quintus frowned and said, "It's been several months, why is the progress so slow?"

The attendant said with a sad face: "My lord tribune, the furthest our intelligence network reaches Mesopotamia, which is completely blank for the Far East. The subordinates are trying to extend their tentacles to the farther East, but This expense..."

Quintus had a headache when he heard about the funding. Now that all the money is being invested in Alexander's expansion of the Guards, how could there be spare money for this place.He had no choice but to wave his hand and said, "Then let's put this matter aside for now, and wait until the funds are sufficient."

Chapter 1105 Pocket Scorpion Crossbow

On November 280, [-] in the Julian calendar, the Colosseum in Rome was full of voices again.It's time for another important finale of the gladiatorial season.According to tradition, Alexander will definitely attend this event.

Carriages of a large number of veterans, knights and aristocrats passed through the streets and alleys of Rome and gathered in the arena.Many of them had sharp daggers and pocket scorpion crossbows hidden on their bodies.Although these two-foot-long pocket scorpion crossbows are very small, they still have extraordinary lethality against people without armor at a short distance.

According to their plan, when the game starts, nearly a hundred veteran knights sitting on the noble seats will attack at the same time, and each of them will bring two of their most loyal servants to the seat.These servants also held daggers and pocket scorpion crossbows and followed their masters to Alexander's box.There will only be twenty or thirty guards guarding there at most, let alone when they are caught off guard.Even if they are always on high alert, it is impossible to block this dozen times, fully armed enemies.Of course, outside the gate of the arena, Alexander's personal guards will also be stationed.If there are many, there may be hundreds of people.

But before the guards outside the gate could react, Alexander had already turned into a beehive, and the veterans and knights who participated in the assassination of Alexander had already calmly retreated from the side gate of the arena.Afterwards, a security corps in the city of Rome will drive to the arena in time to clean up the mess.

At the same time, thousands of knight aristocrats who have participated in the plan will gather in the streets. They expect tens of thousands of knight elders who have not participated in the coup but are dissatisfied with the status quo. They will respond in groups after seeing the incident.As for ordinary citizens, there should be quite a few civilians who can respond to this coup.

It is expected that these people will cooperate with another security army to surround and attack Alexander's palace, financial office, tribune and other official offices, and kill Alexander's mother Amias.

Of course, the most important thing for them is to solve Alexander's Guards.If you only look at the strength and combat effectiveness, they cannot be the opponents of the Guards Corps.However, several capable generals in the Guards have been arranged by Alexander.Alexander's heirs were also minors.These nobles who were preparing to launch a rebellion were expected to only need the death of Alexander and Amias.In the absence of a leader, they will surely recognize the legitimacy of this coup d'état if they offer comfort and promises of huge sums of money.

……

Among the carriages heading for the dignitaries of the arena, one belonged to the tribune Quintus.At this time, he was carefully playing with an exquisite pocket scorpion crossbow in the carriage, which was exactly the same as those carried by the nobles who were about to assassinate Alexander.Why Quintus was able to get this thing has to be said from three days ago...

That evening, Quintus was still having dinner.One of his subordinates rushed to report, saying that there was a disturbance in the bond market on Moon Road, and the price of bonds suddenly soared that day, and some even doubled.It's been a long time since the bond market saw that in its early days.The prices of various bonds basically fluctuate around [-] points above and below their actual value.

Quintus put down his knife and fork and said disapprovingly: "The financial officer Ulysses should be in charge of the money. You should concentrate on doing what I asked you a few days ago."

The official under Quintus said urgently: "Your Excellency, the tribune, you don't know something. This is precisely because the Finance Office found it suspicious, so it sent someone to report to your subordinates."

"Oh? What's suspicious?" Quintus became alert then, put down the knife and fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and listened attentively to the official's report.

"People from the Finance Office said that they found this situation very suspicious. Because if there are chaebols who want to raise bond prices to make a profit, then they should clear the stock exchange before raising prices. However, when When the market price of Moon Road soared, there was still a large amount of inventory on the official exchange for sale at the listed price, which was much lower than the price that was raised in the Moon Road market that day. So much so that a set of spread speculators lined up in front of the exchange long dragon.

If someone still wants to destroy the bond market at any cost, it is completely unnecessary now, because there is no plan to issue new bonds in the near future.Also, if someone wanted to destroy the bond market, they wouldn't be doing it, or they would be stupid.

Treasurer Julius did not believe that there would be such a stupid person.After much deliberation, he thought that there was only one possibility. It was just that someone exchanged a large amount of cash into bonds for the convenience of transferring the bonds out of Rome.Then he sent someone to investigate carefully.This investigation unexpectedly found that in the past month, many dignitaries and nobles had exchanged their family property into bonds, but their exchange was relatively slow, so the price was only showing a steady rise.But in the past two days, a large number of gold bars suddenly poured out on Moon Road, causing bond prices to skyrocket..."

Before the official finished speaking, Quintus understood and said: "I understand. Julius has two meanings. One is that many high-ranking officials and nobles have transferred their family properties, which means that they have a premonition..., Well, it should be said that an upcoming riot was planned. Coincidentally, the last secret gathering in Gaius’ mansion happened nearly a month ago. One day someone got a large amount of shady money, all of which was gold, and it was inconvenient or unsafe to take it out of the city with them, so they were eager to convert the gold bars into bonds. But because of the shading, it was impossible to go to the official exchange Exchanges can only be exchanged in large quantities at the civilian market on Moon Road!"

"My lord tribune is right. That's what the financial bureau wants its subordinates to report to your lord."