Chapter 44 Half-crossing

On the east coast of the Bosphorus Strait, a team of guards are gathering on the shore to board the ship to cross the sea. Maximus has received the news that Momia successfully persuaded the senators to get their support, pushing Quintus to the throne of the throne of the Roman emperor, and at the same time, he recruited 40,000 troops to rush to the bathe. The court is ready to block his way and defend Rome. Now, Goldian is already in a battle outside the city of Byzantium to fight against him.

When he heard the news, Maximus smiled coldly. He admired Momia's wrist very much. In this case, he could persuade the nobles of the Senate to continue the rule of the Seviru family. Of course, he also regretted that if he hadn't slaughtered the new army composed of Escanomi and the 3,000 Roman youths and angered the Romans, I'm afraid that Momia would not have been able to do this. To some extent, he helped Momia again.

When I enter Rome and become a real Roman emperor, I must marry this woman as a queen and let her have some children for me. Maximus showed a yearning smile at the corners of his mouth. After all, his amorous feelings for Momia are unforgettable. In the past, Momia abandoned him, and he did not dare to think much. After all, in front of Momia, he had an indelible inferiority complex. Even if he held the power of the guard, the psychological gap could not be erased by the right. However, now that he is going to be the Roman emperor Yanjing, he naturally doesn't have that kind of inferiority complex, and the mentality of being on an equal footing with Momia has naturally arisen.

Looking at the blue sea, Maximus was intoxicated with an indescribable joy. Thirty years ago, when he volunteered to fight in front of Severus the Great, he never thought that he would one day become the high Roman emperor, and today, he is away from this once unattainable goal. One step away, as long as he defeats the 40,000 troops led by the opposite Erdian, he can **. Even if Momia has the ability to turn the sky, she doesn't have enough time to form another army.

Goldian used to be a person whom Maximus respected and feared, but now Maximus has only a trace of pity for him. Yes, Goldian has prestige and ability, but all he has now has 20,000 Roman recruits who have not been to the battlefield, and 20,000 barbarian mercenaries, while he has nearly 80,000 horses on hand, almost all of whom are composed of brave barbarian mercenaries. Goldian seems to have forgotten one thing. Maximus is of barbarian origin. For barbarian mercenaries, Maximus' appeal is much stronger than his old Roman aristocracy, which can be seen from those barbarians.

After killing the Bosphorus Strait, those barbarian mercenaries will definitely surrender. Even if they don't surrender, it doesn't matter. They have enough strength to defeat them. At that time, Goldian will have to commit suicide to apologize.

Momia, I'm coming. I want to show you what a real man is. Maximus's heart was surging, like the waves of the sea in front of him.

Arulinus walked over quickly with his sword and solemnly saluted Maximus: "Your Majesty, I'm about to cross the sea. Please listen to the good news."

Maximus smiled with relief. It was really good for his son to wear armor. In order to reward Arulinus, he made Arulinus a general. Now his men lead an elite regiment. This time, he crossed the sea and fought against Goldian. He sent Arulinus as a striker. At the same time, he equipped a general, Vitarianus, to give him a deputy. There are more than 10,000 people in the two elite regiments, only You have to stand on the opposite shore, and the task will be completed if you take over the army across the sea. In contrast to the power in front of him, this is simply a credit to Arulinus. Arulinus was very excited to know that his father had made him do the meritorious service.

"Be careful." Maximus nodded and sent Arulinus away with his eyes. He watched them board the warship converted from a merchant ship, split the waves all the way and disappeared into the depths of the sea.

Following Arulinus and others, two more legions set out. When the fourth group of people boarded the warship and waited for Maximus to set off together, the warship that sent Arulinus had returned and brought good news to Arulinus. They had landed smoothly and were hardly blocked on the other side. After setting up a position, Goldian stood behind the city and did not take the initiative to attack.

Maximus laughed and strode on the warship with the guard camp. His last trace of worry was gone. Goldian was really old and had no sharpness. If he didn't stop it when Arulinus and the others had just landed, the fighter had been lost, and it was impossible for him to win this battle.

The dense ship carried Maximus's army across the strait. When Maximus walked to the middle of the strait, he met the second batch of returning warships and got the news that the second batch of two legions had also landed. Maximus was even more relieved. He said to the generals around him that he had entered Byzantium and let Have a good rest. Everyone has worked hard these months.

Hearing this, the generals were overjoyed and urged the sailors to row hard. Since 20,000 people have landed, the battle has been won steadily. There is nothing to worry about. The rest of their task is to cross the strait, steadily enter Byzantium, and then enter Rome.

"Your Majesty, there is a warship ahead!" The soldiers in charge of the bow looked upstairs and suddenly shouted loudly.

"What's the name? Isn't it the warship that returned from the front?" Caperianus, the trusted general of Maximus, snorted dissatisfiedly. Another trusted general, Ipagosus, was about to scold them, but Maximus stopped them, and his eyes flashed puzzled: "Warship? Didn't the second batch of warships just return? Why did the warships return so quickly?

Caperianus was stunned for a moment and hesitated, "Is their landing particularly smooth this time?"

"It's impossible. Those Germans are not familiar with ships. They will only be slower and not faster." Maximus pushed away Caperianus, strode to the side, raised his hand to cover his eyebrows, blocked the dazzling sunlight, and stared into the distance.

On the rippling sea in the distance, more than a dozen dots were lined up and rushed in. Maximus has excellent eyesight. He has recognized that these should be warships, but he can't see what kind of warships they are for a while.

"Your Majesty, they rushed to the warship in front of them, as if to attack them." The soldiers on the tower shouted in horror again.

Maximus was shocked and rushed into the watchtower. As soon as he stretched out his hand, he pulled out the soldiers in the watchtower and got in by himself. Standing high and looking far away, he could see more clearly this time. More than a dozen warships of unknown origin really rushed to the warship in front of them. With the sea breeze, their speed was very fast. Just as Maximus was puzzled, the front warship had collided with a warship carrying troops.

Maximus's expedition was full of infantry and cavalry. There was no navy at all, otherwise he would have entered the Mediterranean directly. The warship used to move troops this time is actually not a real warship, but a merchant ship. Each ship is loaded with two or three hundred people, but there is no battle extortion and the speed is not fast. The reason why he used such a ship as a warship was that Maximus knew that Goldian did not have a real warship, and he had the courage.

However, now more than a dozen real warships have emerged from nowhere, and they have begun to attack those troop carriers that have little power to fight back, which is equivalent to a few wolves suddenly breaking into the sheep. Maximus, who had been fighting for many years, understood what it meant. His face suddenly turned blue, and his original excitement suddenly disappeared.

Just when Maximus's mind was blank, there was a scream behind him. Maximus turned his head and looked back. He saw that there were also more than a dozen such warships in the back, rushing to the advancing fleet at a very fast speed.

Maximus' face became very ugly. He clearly knew that he had fallen into an extremely vicious trap. Now he was a tiger forced to the suspension bridge in the middle of the cliff. Although he had sharp teeth and claws, he could only watch two despicable mice bite off the rope of the suspension bridge, and then The hope falls into the abyss.

"Prepare for war--" Capelianus followed Maximus for many years. Knowing what Maximus's face meant now, he subconsciously pulled out his dagger and roared loudly. Hearing this, the guards on the ship pulled out their weapons one after another, but then they looked at each other blankly. Where was the enemy? You can't even stand on a narrow boat, so how can you line up to fight?

Hundreds of pairs of eyes on the ship looked at Maximus in unison. Maximus' forehead sweated coldly, blown by the sea breeze, his whole body was cold, and the heat subsided.

Cui Qian, with an indifferent expression, sat on the top of the building boat with a sword in his hand. His building boat broke into the Roman fleet with the wind and knocked over several warships one after another. Looking at the frightened Romans fluttering in the clear water, his heart was full of pleasure. At the beginning of last year, he followed Sun Shao from Ceylon, but did not land in Aksum. Instead, he obeyed Sun Shao's order and took 10,000 sailors and two years of supplies from the Gulf of Aden to the south. After more than a month of sailing, he reached the southernmost point of the mainland. In order to break through the devil's sea, he lost nearly a thousand generals. Shi and 30% of the supplies, and then walked all the way north along the coastline for half a year before reaching the Strait of Gibraltar at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Just as he was about to sneak into the Mediterranean Sea to repeat his old business, he met Jiang Gan who was waiting for him there and conveyed Sun Shao's latest order: to help the Romans suppress the rebellion and intercept Maximus' rebels in the Bosphorus.

Cui Qian was very excited about the war, but coming all the way made him and the soldiers suffer a lot. In the past, sailors rarely sailed long distances for more than two months, but this time, he walked at sea for eight months. To get from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Strait of Bosphorus, he has to cross the Mediterranean Sea, and the straight distance on the map is nearly ten thousand miles, but Sun Shao left him only two months. In order to arrive in time, he gave up most of the feeding boats and took the sailors day and night. It can be said that in order to rush here to intercept Maximus, Cui Qian even exerted his strength to breastfeed and held back the evil fire for nearly a year, and this time it was all poured on Maximus's head.

With the start of the Vietnam Marine Division, nearly a hundred Roman warships from Rome were then divided into two routes, one from east and one west into the fleet of Maximus, which had no power to fight back. They did not seek to injure the enemy, but drove the fleet to the middle of the strait like a sheep. Maximus' warships were modified from merchant ships. The so-called modification was just a watchtower at the end of the head and added some sailors. There were not too many other changes, because the ships were limited. In order to transport the army as soon as possible, Maximus almost every ship was fully loaded or even overloaded, and the soldiers could only squeeze. Together, let alone pulling out weapons to fight, it is difficult to turn around. In this case, they have no way to face the armed Vietnamese warships. In terms of volume, these ships can only be compared with those medium-sized battleships. In the face of huge buildings, they can't even talk about the courage to fight. There is no way to think of anything but to avoid.

After the building ships rushing in front of him continuously sank more than a dozen warships, Cui Qian successfully completed his goal and trapped more than 300 warships in the sea. More than 30 Vietnam warships and more than 100 Roman warships were surrounded in a circle, staring at them.

"Let them surrender, or send them to the sea to feed the sea monsters." Cui Qian waved his hand and said lightly, not even looking at the little Goldian standing beside him. Little Gordian got on Cui Qian's warship for the convenience of contact. As soon as he got on the ship, he found that the general of Yue was not easy to speak, and he could hardly see him laughing. He either scolded or blew his beard and stared. He was originally very unconvinced. He felt that Cui Qian did not understand etiquette and was no different from those barbarians. He had no good impression of Yue people. Now when he saw Cui Qian's moral surname, he looked down on Yue people even more. He felt that it was really shameful for a dignified Roman nobleman to fight side with such people.

But now watching Cui Qian trapped Maximus and his nearly 30,000 main force in the sea, he knew the reason why Cui Qian had a bad temper. Not to mention dealing with the troop carriers of Maximus, even in the face of the real Roman warships, I'm afraid Cui Qian will not frown.

"The general was brave, but he didn't expect to really succeed." Little Gordy said with peace of mind and sincerity.

After listening to the translation, Cui Qian glanced at little Goldian with slanted eyes, curled his lips and said, "I think it's a little invincible. We, the sailors of Yue, are the best in the world. We have never met the enemy. Dealing with these ships is no different from bullying a child. The general will not mention it again in the future.

Little Goldian touched a cold buttocks with a hot face. He felt bored and was a little embarrassed by Cui Qian's arrogant words, but the strength of the other party was in front of him. He could only bear it, so he had to pretend not to understand and turn around and let people hit the flag.

Maximus sweated coldly. He didn't expect such a strange thing to happen when success was in sight. Where did these Yue sailors come from? Maximus only knew that the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were not connected. He couldn't even think of where these ships came from. Did they come from heaven? At this time, he thought of Momia. No wonder Momia was so bold, and Sun Shao was so arrogant. It turned out that the people of Yue really had the ability of ghosts and gods.

The flag language has been urged twice, and Maximus is still dumb and has no reaction at all. He was blinded by this huge blow, and he racked his brains and couldn't think of a reason. Speaking of it, there was only one reason that seemed to be true, that is, the Roman gods were angry and helped the Vietnamese fly from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to punish him, a bold barbarian with the hands of the Vietnamese.

People's greatest fear still comes from unknown forces. If Maximus knew that he could bypass the South African continent from the Mediterranean to the south, he would not be as frightened as he is now. In fact, not to mention him, almost all people don't know this channel. They are very surprised at how the Yue sailor suddenly appeared here, and only divine power can explain it.

Cui Qian was a little angry when he saw that the other party did not respond. He waved his hand and ordered the warship to reduce the encirclement within fifty steps. With an order, more than a dozen stone throwers on several building ships began to show their power, focusing on Maximus's ship. In order to show the prestige of the Roman emperor, Maximus specially replaced the sail with purple, which matched his Roman emperor's robe. Unexpectedly, this became the most eye-catching target.

Ten catties of stone cut through the blue sky and went straight to Maximus's ship with awe-inspiring murderous spirit. The screams made when breaking through the air attracted the generals who were persuading Maximus to raise their heads. Looking at the flying black spots, they suddenly looked pale.

In a moment, three stone balls hit the big ship of the purple sail, and two hit the crowd. Several Roman soldiers who were hit were killed without humming. The wooden shields they raised in a hurry were not even as good as the paper sold by the Vietnamese merchants in front of the flying stone balls, and they were easily smashed. The film punctured several companions next to him.

A stone ball flew over Maximus's shoulder and broke through the wall of the watchtower. The sound of wind made Maximus's face hurt. The board wall was hit with two round holes, and the flying wood chips pierced Maximus's face. The blood flowed, and the pain made Maximus wake up from the wandering soul state. He He jumped up and jumped down the watchtower. He was quickly supported by Caperianus and Ipagosus and looked at him anxiously: "Your Majesty, what should I do?"

"What should I do?" Maximus responded blankly. .

Just between their questions and answers, two stone balls hit the big ship, one of which hit the mast. The tall mast groaned and broke from the middle. The wide purple sail shook a few times and slowly fell down. The soldiers on the ship screamed loudly and pushed away their companions to avoid. Although this ship is not as supported as other ships, it is not easy to avoid it. Several soldiers standing on the edge were pushed down the sea. Then, more and more people jumped into the sea, as if it was safer to jump into the sea than on the ship.

The equipment of these guards is good. They not only wear lock armor and scale armor, but also carry an iron sword. Only the wooden shield in their hands can provide a little buoyancy. As soon as they reach the sea, many people can't help sinking. The people behind them look at it and hurriedly want to take off. He dropped his armor, threw away the sword at his waist, and jumped into the sea with a shield, but there was not much space for them to make these preparations calmly on the chaotic ship. Often, as soon as they threw away the helmet, they were pushed into their hands by their companions behind them, and they didn't even have time to take the life-saving shield.

The ship, which was originally in good order, was suddenly in chaos. At this time, the soldiers could no longer care about any military orders, bosses and companions. In order to survive, they pushed and kicked, and the stone balls that flew from time intensified the chaos. In order to survive, many soldiers actually pulled out their weapons and began to kill themselves. People on the side.

When Caperianus and Ipagosús saw each other, they quickly pulled out their daggers in front of Maximus and cut down the soldiers who tried to rush to Maximus one by one. However, the massacre could not calm the chaos now, but aroused greater chaos. More and more soldiers rushed over, and they even pulled out their swords. , attacking Capelianus. After Caperianus cut down two soldiers one after another, he was stabbed by a soldier with a sword. The pain surged like a tide and drowned him in an instant.

Ipagosus was shocked. While shouting the name of Caperianus, he waved his sword to hold the long sword stabbed by a red-eyed soldier in front of him, but he could not prevent another soldier. Seeing that he was about to follow in the footsteps of Caperianus, Ipagosu opened his eyes in despair. Just as he thought he was going to die, suddenly there was a flower in front of him, and the soldier with a ferocious smile flew backwards. Then there was a loud noise, and a big hole suddenly appeared on the deck.

Ipagosus was so scared that he was shocked. He turned around and was even more shocked. Maximus was still standing there, but his head was missing, and a stream of blood was coming out of his cavity, like a fountain.

"Ah--" Ipagosus threw away the dagger and screamed hysterically. The chaotic crowd heard his heartbreaking cry and looked this way. When they saw the body in a purple robe but without a head, they couldn't help holding their breath.

Maximus's body shook, slowly tilted, turned over the side of the boat, and fell into the sea. The column of water stirred up and watered Ipagosus soaked it.

"Surrender, surrender!" A soldier raised his dagger in his hand and shouted.

"Surrender, surrender!" The other returning soldiers also shouted.

The shout woke up Ipagosus, who was close to the madness. He quickly climbed up the watchtower, held the tattered wooden pillar, and raised the white flag tremblingly.

I saw that the emperor's ship was raised with white flags. Although the attacks on other ships were not as dense as this ship, they also raised white flags one by one. When Cui Qian saw the signal, he waved his hand and ordered to stop the attack. He turned around and said to the excited little Goldian, "Maximus has surrendered. Inform your father that he can attack and force the rebels who have landed."

"Great, great." Little Goldian was so excited that he rubbed his hands repeatedly. Suddenly, he knelt down with his eyes closed and one leg. He stroked his chest with one hand and muttered that he didn't know which Roman god came to thank.

(to be continued)