Augustus Road

During dinner, Hebrida was summoned and received in person by Luculas.

Luculas's tent is easy to find. The top of the camp is decorated with a golden eagle statue. After Hebrida entered, she saw that Luculas had taken off his armor, and a shield-wielding slave was carefully wiping the valuables. Thirty thousand of the treasures of Sethtus. The commander-in-chief was wearing casual robes and sitting at a simple conference table. Surrounded by sergeants and commanders at all levels, including the commander of the Seventh Legion, "The Reckless Man" Xekdelius, and Uterius.

"Dear Centurion, I heard that you performed bravely in a certain battle a few days ago." After watching Hebrida perform the military salute, Luculas Jean's tone was very kind.

"Your Excellency, I must act according to the situation, and the senior centurion Uteris is not on the front line. Therefore, when I found that the enemies in the palace showed signs of escaping, I decisively asked the brothers to take attack measures. I hope that you can Understood." Haibrida has become very familiar with this rhetoric in the past few days.

"My subordinates are all like this. Even I didn't know that Mithridates had escaped beforehand, haha." Sexdelius told a very boring joke to relieve his subordinates. No one around him responded. He opened his mouth and laughed awkwardly a few times.

Luculas slowly raised his hands and supported his chin. In front of him was a poplar board full of words, "Centurion, I can understand your courage and determination, but the military commander and the military protector The list the officer presented to me is quite detrimental to you, maybe I should consider your punishment appropriately."

Hebrida remained silent and stood straight on the spot, with the air of a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water.

After a moment of silence, Luculas spoke: "Centurion, if you can fully capture the supplies and verify the identities of the prisoners, I can consider giving each of the soldiers in your regiment two hundred drachmas. How about a reward and immunity from military action?" Uteris wanted to say something, but Luculas stopped him with his eyes.

"Yes, Your Excellency, I have no objection." After a brief pause, Hebrida agreed.

"But you must promise to hide nothing from me. This is the basis of our deal - trust. Centurion, can you do it?" Luculas blinked his eyes with a compelling look.

"Yes, sir, I am willing to swear before the gods."

"But Centurion, you must accept the punishment - I prohibit you from participating in the next battle. You must be detained until the end of the next battle. Naturally, you will not have a share of the spoils."

Haibrida's face shook twice, and then she replied, "Your Excellency, I have no objection."

"Very good, take a rest!"

"Hey, may the God of War be with Rome!" Hebrida reached out and made a military salute, then turned and left.

"He is the core figure of the Fabria Veterans Gang, and he is a gangster who breaks his word!" Uteris protested dissatisfiedly after Hebrida left.

While everyone was talking, Luculas sat down and raised his voice: "Gentlemen, I remind you not to forget the goal of this expedition." The scene immediately fell silent, and several slaves brought the sand table. Looking at the map, Luculas raised his scepter and tapped the table. All the generals and staff gathered around him.

"Canceling this year's winter camp again." This was Luculas's first order, which immediately aroused a big "!" in everyone's hearts, and then a long "...", they were thinking sadly. I was thinking, does the commander really not understand what the soldiers are thinking?

This is the third time Luculas has announced the cancellation of the winter camp. During this long expedition, the soldiers of the three legions camped either in the desolate wilderness or in front of the enemy's fortress every winter. Luculas never let his soldiers set foot on those extremely prosperous Greek cities on the seashore.

Therefore, the soldiers nicknamed Luculas, "The Patron of the Greeks."

"Are we going to cross the Taurus Mountains and continue to pursue Mithridates?" Uterius saw that everyone was embarrassed and silent because of the cancellation of the winter camp, so he took the lead to speak to break the deadlock.

Luculas used the scepter to place a point on the sand table, which was the location of the Cappadocia mountainous area. "No, we go deep alone. It is easy for the Pontus and the Armenians to cut off the supply line here." Then the scepter moved upward on the sand table. In the last stroke, "I will leave four brigades of the 11th Legion, as well as my followers, fascists and eagle flags to act as suspects, making the enemy think that I am preparing to cross Taurus - but in fact I will be with the 7th Legion, Turn back and raid the Pontic city on the south bank of the Euphoric Sea (Black Sea), exhaust Mithridates' financial and military resources, burn the flames of war throughout his territory, and make him a loser, so that he can no longer support it. Gentlemen, I have decided that in three years at most, I will destroy this city."

Everyone expressed their approval of Luculas's strategy of "making an impact in the east and attacking in the west". Then the commander slowly sat down and said: "After the surrender of Pontus and Armenia, it will not be enough for Parthia to occupy Mesopotamia. I'm afraid, but I'm more worried about military discipline and the issue of tax collectors than the military."

The official system of the Roman city-state was very simple. The elders and some officials were born to adapt to the state of a small country with few people. However, when this republic miraculously became the dominant position in the Mediterranean in the past three hundred years, such a simple system could not digest and manage the vast newly conquered territories at all. Therefore, Rome adopted the "tax farmer" system and cooperated with some greedy tax companies: the company's tax collectors followed the army to various regions, responsible for squeezing oil and water from the local people, and after paying the agreed fixed tax to Rome, the rest belonged to the tax farmers.

It's very simple. Unlimited expansion of the remaining tax is the ultimate dream of all tax farmers.

It's also very simple. The people in the conquered territories hated the Roman army and hated them for killing their husbands and fathers; but they hated the tax farmers even more, hating them for depriving their children of the right to survive.

At that time, the Roman scholar "Lucky Sulla" imposed a fine of 20,000 talents on the cities of Asia Minor in order to punish them for supporting Mithridates VI, and sent legions and tax farmers to collect the fines. However, according to Lucullus's statistics, the tax farmers had already squeezed 100,000 talents from the cities of Asia Minor before they had paid 10,000 talents to Rome. This was the fundamental reason why Mithridates survived despite repeated defeats, because many people in Asia Minor regarded him as a savior who could overthrow the tyranny of Roman tax farmers.

Therefore, when Lucullus crossed the sea to Asia Minor, he prohibited the army from looting, cleared out the greedy tax companies, abolished and reduced the heavy local debts, and for this he did not hesitate to offend many knight groups in Rome (the wealthy class in Rome second only to the senators, whose qualifications were based solely on assets, and most of them were usurers and business owners), as well as many legion officers and soldiers. The Greeks loved him as much as the Romans hated him. There was already a strong rumor that the Senate was going to replace him. The recognized successor was "General Pompey", who was deeply supported by civilians and soldiers. The Pompey with a fake smile on his face and a humble background was now loved by the Senate and was granted great power to clear out the pirates in the Mediterranean.

"The next target is Amisus. The deployment must be completed in the early morning and set off." This was Luculas's unquestionable order.

When everyone left, Luculas looked at the slave who was wiping his armor and sword with slightly tired eyes, and then took out a book. Under the candlelight, it can be seen that the title of the book is "Memoirs", and the author is Sulla.

This deceased reader wrote at the beginning of the book "This book is dedicated to my best friend, my trustee, my warrior, Lucius Licinius Luculas", and then the next line read "Luculas, you are so favored by God, I can only remind you one thing, that is, always be in awe of gods and dreams.";