Chapter 45 Interests

The Vietnamese naval division half crossed and blocked Maximus in the strait. Maximus had 30,000 wolf-like main force in the sky. However, in the face of the Vietnamese warships, he did not have the strength to fight back. He even died on the spot under the concentrated blow of the Thunderbolt on the Vietnamese warship. General Ipagosus was heart-hearted and watched it being broken through. The warship kept entering the water, and there was no more fighting spirit. He immediately ordered to surrender.

The news came to the city of Byzantium. Arulinus, who was commanding two Roman legions and two mercenary corps against Gordion, was in a mess. The command was wrong. Gordian, who was experienced, seized the opportunity and suddenly launched an attack. A Teutonic mercenary battalion was the first to enter the battle, and they fought semi-crazy.** The fighting spirit of the rebels was defeated at the right time, and the battle soon ended. Arulinus was killed by a centurion of the Teutonic army, and the army collapsed, and then surrendered to Goldian.

Goldian solved the battle with unexpected ease, and stunned the old man. He looked at the kneeling rebels in front of him and couldn't believe his eyes.

The news immediately spread to Rome as quickly as possible. The Senate was ecstatic. They conveyed the news of victory to the citizens on the Roman Square, and the citizens were also overjoyed. They attributed their credit to Momia. It was she who strongly believed in the alliance with the Vietnamese, which turned the tide with the help of the Vietnamese warships. It saved Rome. They spontaneously gathered around the palace to sing and dance to pay tribute to Momia.

The Roman emperor Quintus happily walked into the palace, and his queen Momia was holding Alexander's bereaved son Philip? Seviru swayed and hummed children's songs. The chubby Philip lay in her arms. He was about to fall asleep. As soon as he heard Kuntus's footsteps, he opened his eyes again, grinned, opened his arms to Kuntus, and his mouth made a babbling sound in the morning.

Quintus greeted him with a smile, held Philip over, and raised him high. Philip laughed excitedly, and his saliva flowed down from the corners of his mouth and dripped on Quintus' face. Momia looked at the two of them playing with a smile, her face full of warm smiles.

Alexander's death was a great blow to her. She had been immersed in grief and regretted that she had not followed Alexander on an expedition as usual. For the first time, she was released. Unexpectedly, she regretted such a result. Now Quintus has sat on the throne of the Roman emperor with her help. He is grateful that he not only married her as a queen, but also gave her most of his rights. More importantly, he also adopted Philip as his adopted son and promised to wait for Philip to pass the throne to Philip when he grew up.

It is said that Philip is Alexander's bereaved son, the grandson of Quintus. It seems to be a little wrong to adopt him as an adopted son, but the Romans do not pay attention to these. Alexander is the adopted son of his former emperor Esgabalus. In fact, they are just cousins.

Quintus and Philip went crazy for a while, and then let the wet nurse take him away, take Momia's arm, go to the window, point to the boiling street and say, "We won."

Momia didn't say anything, just nodded with a faint smile on her face, but two lines of tears slipped from her delicate face. The Romans won, and the culprit, Maximus and his son, died, but her son Alexander, who was committed to cultivation, also died and could never come back. If Alexander had won the war, how perfect it would be.

It's just that she can't say to Quintus that although Quintus is not ambitious and humble enough, he is a man after all. Momia can only regret in her heart, but she can't show any on her face. What surprised her even more was that she thought that Sun Shao was fooling her, but only sent 10,000 sailors for a long journey. What could she do? Moreover, she heard that the number of warships in Vietnam was very small, large and small, only about 30. In order to get on the way, even heavy ships were thrown down. She was very worried that once the war was stalemate, the surnames of these Vietnamese sailors would suddenly lose their role, which would be very unfavorable to the war. For this reason, she specially assembled more than 100 Roman warships and sent them to Gordion's subordinates to assist the Vietnamese sailors in the battle.

Even so, before receiving the news of victory, Momia was not very sure. Her calmness in front of Quintus, her confidence in front of the senators, and her composure in front of the Roman citizens were all pretending to calm their hearts. I didn't expect that I really won now, and it was so easy to win.

"Jiang Gan, the envoy of the king of Yue, said that once the news of Maximus's defeat reaches Aksum, Aldahir will definitely withdraw. In that case, our Rome will be greatly damaged by indulgence, but Aldahir has no loss, and the situation will still be unfavorable to us in the future." Quintus explained softly, "He hopes that we can let Goldian rush to Egypt with a large army and ambush Aldahir's army."

Momia's eyes flashed and turned to look at the crowd celebrating on the street. After a moment, she said, "He is going to ambush Aldahir?" Is it necessary?"

Quintus hesitated for a moment, and he also felt that Sun Shao's request was a little excessive. Although Goldian won a complete victory, after all, this was a civil war in Rome, which was a great blow to Rome's vitality. Goldian had lost more than 5,000 people in the battle with Arulinus outside the city of Baizantium. If it hadn't been for Maximus's death. The news hit the morale of Aarulinus, and it was really uncertain who would win or lose in the end. In this case, Sun Shao asked them to cross the Mediterranean Sea and rush to Egypt to stop Ardahir's return, which seemed to be a little difficult.

However, he has been dating Sun Shao for so many years and has great confidence in Sun Shao. Since Sun Shao has such a request, he must be reasonable, so although he doesn't understand, he still takes the initiative to discuss with Momia.

Momia sighed, and she vaguely guessed Sun Shao's intention. The civil strife in Rome quickly subsided, and Aldahir's plan had failed. If he did not rush back to Tesiphon in time, in case the Romans and the nobles went hand in hand and attacked Tassifeng, Tesifon would be in danger. It was inevitable for him to withdraw his troops, but Sun Shao did not want him to withdraw smoothly. He asked the Romans to ambush Ardahir in Egypt, which should be a abacus of the two tigers. The Romans and Sassanids fought a bloody battle, and the two sides consumed their strength. In the end, it was the Vietnamese who benefited.

Isn't it enough for him to get the right to garrison in the Mediterranean? Momia is angry and annoyed.

"Even if Goldian has nearly 80,000 troops now, it seems that he is not strong enough to rush to Egypt to stop Aldahir?" Momia said lightly, "Most of these 80,000 people are barbarian mercenaries, and it costs money to let them go to war. Even if you have money, is it too late to go so far? The Sassanids are mainly cavalry, and the speed is very fast.

"Not only us, but also Vietnamese people." Quintus whispered, "It is said that it is the concubine of the king of Yue, a general named Lu Xun, who leads the army. I listened to the tone of the king of Yue. He values this general very much."

"Lu Xun?" Momia frowned: "Where is he now and how many are there?"

"Listen to Jiang Gan, Lu Xun seems to have rushed to Egypt for a long time, with more than 50,000 people." Quintus explained: "It is not difficult for them to go by boat directly from the Red Sea. The Sassanids don't have warships, and it's not easy to find them.

"Fifty thousand people, so to say so, there are indeed some opportunities." Momia breathed a sigh of relief, thought for a moment, and then asked, "What do he have any plans after this battle?"

"Not yet." Quintus shook his head and said slowly, "If this battle is won, the Sassanids will be hit hard, but it will be a good opportunity for us to regain Armenia and Syria. It is not impossible to join hands with Guishuang people to enter Taixifeng. It's just that the Sassanids have nearly 100,000 troops, and we don't have much chance to win. What I'm worried about is that we ambushed the Sassanians and paid a great loss, but let the Guishuang people take advantage of it, which is a little difficult to tell the Senate.

Momia nodded. Quintus has been doing diplomatic work over the years, and he can see the general situation clearly. Since Sun Shao has asked Lu Xun to rush to Egypt with 50,000 troops, it shows that he has a long plan for this battle, and it should be possible to calculate that the Sassanians may break through their blockade and return to Taisifeng. Naturally, there should be further arrangements for the following things.

From another perspective, if Aldahir is allowed to return to Taixifeng smoothly, there is no harm to Sun Shao. He has justifiably obtained the sea power of the Mediterranean Sea because he helped the Romans. Even if Aldahir is dissatisfied, he has no choice, because he does not have a navy to compete with Sun Shao. Rome is different. They have to face the threat of Aldahir. Instead, it is better to cooperate with the Vietnamese to hit Aldahir. Aldahir's strength is damaged, and there is no strength to provoke Rome. Rome may be able to get a few years of respite. On the contrary, if he does not cooperate with Sun Shao's actions, Rome will be hit by Ardahir again in the future, and he may not lend a helping hand again.

For Rome, sending troops to cooperate with Sun Shao may not be beneficial, but there must be disadvantages. Perhaps it is for this consideration that Sun Shao proposed to ask Rome to cooperate in the battle, because he knew that with Momia's eyes, he would not see the benefits. Momia sighed. Although she knew that Sun Shao was threatening, she didn't have much choice but to accept this request. I hope that this joint battle can achieve its goal. In case of attacking the lockdown of Taixi, it will also be an exciting victory. With this victory, the throne of Quintus will be more stable, and the Seviru family can inherit and continue, and the lovely Philip will have a bright future.

At the thought of Philip, there was a warm current in Momia's heart, and there was a trace of warmth in her resentment for Sun Shao.

"For such a big event, it's better for His Majesty the Emperor to discuss with the senators. As a woman, how can I know the importance of these?" Momia changed her gentle smiling face and smiled softly. Quintus breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Momia had agreed, and the rest of the problems would be solved. The senators were not very interested in him as the emperor, but they had great respect for the queen of Momia. Several powerful members of the legislators were supporters of Momia. If Momia didn't nod, they would definitely not agree. On an expedition.

Jiang Gan watched Kuntus come out briskly, and the hanging heart was finally released. He now admires Sun Shao, as if he would agree with Momia thousands of miles away. In this way, with the participation of the Romans, the plan to ambush the Sassanians will be more perfect.

Quintus quickly informed the plan of the expedition to the Senate. With Momia's nod, the legislators did not stop them too much, but just asked that the royal family should provide certain funds to deal with the mercenaries, not all of which could be paid by the nobles. Quintus knows exactly what they are thinking. When Alexander was alive, most of the benefits of cooperating with the Vietnamese were in the hands of Alexander and his father-in-law Escanomi. The senators of the Senate had limited oil and water and had a lot of opinions. Now that Alexander and Escanomi are dead, those benefits should naturally be taken out and redistributed. This 80,000 expedition to Egypt is a good opportunity to blackmail the emperor.

After discussing with Momia, Quintus transferred some of the businesses originally controlled by Escanomi to some members of the Senate, which satisfied their desire and allowed the expedition plan to pass smoothly.

A month later, Goldian's army, together with Cui Qian's fleet, set out from Byzatin and rushed to Egypt. After floating on the sea for more than a month, they rushed to Egypt and joined the army led by Lu Xun. Lu Xun had got the news from Jiang Gan, who came first, and arranged the camp. With him were the governor of the Egyptian province of Rome and the kings of several dependent countries. Some time ago, they were disturbed by the Sassanids. This time, they were ordered by Rome to cooperate with the Vietnamese army to ambush the Sasans, and they soon came.

Not long after Goldian and Cui Qian arrived, Xia Hourong also arrived, with more than 10,000 Arabs who came with him. As soon as Goldian saw the Arabs, he couldn't help frowning. The Romans called the Arabs the Bedouines. One of the deepest impression of them is that they are good at doing business. They sell goods from the Gulf of Aden and can go all the way to the boundary of the barbarians in the north. The other is that they like robbery, and this seems to be more prominent than doing business. It can be said that they are inseparable from doing business and robbery. There are a lot of goods. Things may have been robbed, and robbery seems to have become their natural name. It is rare for single merchants who are close to them. Now Sun Shao actually pulled these people over, which made Goldian feel very uncomfortable. Cui Qian was originally a pirate, but now he is a general of the State of Yue. Regardless of their status, the Bedouin people are all robbers. Isn't it a great loss of status to fight side by side with such people?

Lu Xun saw Goldian's unhappiness and pulled him aside to explain that the general was relieved that these people were just our temporary allies, and they would not act with us. The purpose of inviting them this time is to give full play to their strengths in robbery and robbery, and let them scratch the food channel of the Sassanids. The generals are a decent battle, they are regular soldiers, they are roosters and dogs, and they are strange soldiers.

Lu Xun is gentle and elegant, which is different from the Vietnamese people that Goldian met before. The elegance that can't be disguised is in line with the taste of the old aristocracy of Goldian. Goldian couldn't understand the meaning of chickens and dogs, so Lu Xun explained it again. Goldian smiled and stroked his snow-white beard and said, "The wisdom of you Han people really can't underestimate it. I didn't expect that such a villain could play such a big role. It's really eye-opening. General Lu, it's my honor to fight side by side with you.

Lu Xun hurriedly said a few words. Cui Qian, who was sitting aside, hummed disapprovingly. He was the least interested in these so-called nobles. Along the way, he quarreled with Little Gordian and wanted to throw all the Romans into the Mediterranean to feed the sea monsters several times. Goldian and his son didn't like him, and he didn't like Goldian's father and son. Instead, he met those barbarian mercenaries. Along the way, they drank a big bowl of wine and ate a lot of meat. They were very ripe. Several German leaders and Gothic became his good friends.

When more than 100,000 troops gathered in Egypt from several directions, Aldahir was still in the dark. After besieging the city for several months, he had not been able to capture the city of Aksum. Under the guard of the Han people, Aksum was unbreakable. The sassanids who were invincible in the world in the war horse met each other under the city of Aksum again and again. Liu, the more people's strong crossbow made them suffer a lot. Most of the Sassanians wear lock armor and only cover plate armor in key parts. Such equipment has enough protection ability in front of bow and arrow-based enemies. They are used to this kind of equipment and have always thought that this kind of lock armor is enough to prove their safety, but they didn't expect that in front of the crossbow of Yue people, the lock armor lost its power. The wind and casualties have greatly increased. Once you encounter sharp weapons such as crossbows, they are even more vulnerable and often shot through.

The crossbow of the Yue people has become a nightmare for the Sassanian cavalry. Although the Sas are many, every time they attack the city, they have to rush forward with the other party's arrows. It is already extremely lucky to be able to rush to the city. In the process of attaching the city, they have to be **. Even if they climb up the wall, there are also heavily armed soldiers and eagerness. The meritorious Aksum slaves were waiting to take their heads. Several times the Sassanids excitedly attacked the head of the city, but finally found that it was Yue Ren who released water and deliberately let them rush up, so that the itchy destroyer camp and the Aksum gladiators were greedy.

Aldahir was so violent that he ordered Shapur to ask Wallag to open the gate as soon as possible to welcome the Sassanids into the city. Otherwise, the consequences would be at his own risk.

Wallag was also very distressed when he received the news. He saw that the Sassanids had suffered heavy losses in several sieges. He didn't have to think about it and knew that Aldahir must be very popular, but he did not dare to act easily. He seemed to feel that someone was watching him. Out of caution, he secretly investigated and learned that it was the work of Yu An, the military marquis who destroyed the front camp around Sun Shao.

Varaga was scared into a cold sweat. He didn't know whether it was Sun Shao's instruction for Yu An to do so. He carefully recalled what he had done in the past few months and couldn't find any flaws, and Sun Shao didn't seem to have any doubt about him. Every time he saw him, he was very enthusiastic and discussed something with him. A few days ago, he proudly told him that the reason why he dared to stick to Aksum was because he knew that Sassan He is not good at attacking the city. He has enough control of Aksum City. The current situation is exactly what he expected at the beginning. The Sassanians look at Aksum City but there is nothing they can do. He also said strangely to Varage, "Wait, the Sassanians are going to be unlucky. Their main forces are all trapped outside the city, and the city of Taixi is empty. I have sent people to land in the Persian Gulf separately and cooperate with the Romans and the Guishuang people to besiege Taisifeng. This time, the Sassanids not only couldn't get any benefits, but also suffered a lot.

At that time, Sun Shao's eyes were already confused, and his whole body almost fell into the arms of the beautiful woman offered by Varage. Varage was skeptical of his words. He felt that Sun Shao was a little self-talking, but he felt that it was not all drunken words. Sun Shao had been surrounded by Aksum for nearly half a year. He has never come. Several ships have come, and he has been wandering on the sea. He has never really worked hard to attack. It seems that he is indifferent to the king's siege. If it is true that Sun Shao said, he has confidence in defending Aksum and let people sneak up on Taixifeng in turn, which seems to be reasonable.

At least, if Sun Shao can talk to him in this situation, it shows that Sun Shao is not wary of him, and Yu An's behavior is probably not from Sun Shao's instructions.

Varage thought hard for a long time and felt that he would take a risk. He found an opportunity to accuse Yu An of spying on him in front of Yu An. He knelt down in front of Sun Shao with tears and said, "If the king believes me, don't let people spy on me anymore. If you don't believe me, please remove me, the king of Aksum. I am willing to be an ordinary person and live the rest of my life safely, and I don't want this kind of worry.

Sun Shao was very surprised. He glanced at Yu An, who was embarrassed, and lowered his face: "Is there such a thing?"

Yu An didn't care for a moment. He hesitated for a moment and nodded.

Sun Shao was furious and shouted at Yu An, "Have you ever found any misconduct of King Aksum now?"

Yu An shook his head and looked very embarrassed. He felt ashamed. Not to mention that he had not finished his achievements for so long, he was actually discovered and exposed in front of so many people. Now that Sun Shao is angry, he may not be dissatisfied with his surveillance of Varage, but disappointed with his ability to do things. Of course, it was not easy for him to push Sun Shao on his head, so he had to admit it in a big way, saying that he did it himself.

Sun Shao was very angry and couldn't help saying that he ordered Yu Allah to go down and hit twenty sticks. After the twenty sticks came down, Yu An could no longer get up. He gritted his teeth and said nothing. Sun Shao was calm and ordered to deprive Yu An of his position as a military marquis on the spot. He treated him as an ordinary sergeant and made contributions, and then asked someone to pull him out.

Varage looked on coldly and was relieved to see that Yu An was taken away by two sergeants. It seemed that Yu An's surveillance of him was indeed a personal act, not at the instruct of Sun Shao. He thanked Sun Shao with gratitude, and then pretended to visit Yu An. Yu An didn't see him, but just asked him to tell him to be careful not to fall into his hands.

Varaga sneered, put down the gift, and walked away. After waiting for another two days, he was sure that no one was following him, and then he personally went out of the city through the secret passage and came to Shapur's camp.

As soon as he saw Shapur, he felt that the atmosphere was wrong, and Shapur's face was so gloomy that it could drip.

"Have you finally figured it out? I thought you had repented when you saw us Sassanids leaving.

"Do you want to go?" Wallag was shocked: "Are you leaving?"

"That's good." Shapur looked at Wallag for a moment and saw that he had no hypocrisy. Then he calmed down and explained with some regret, "We just got the news that Maximus was defeated and killed. The Romans had put down the civil strife, and the situation was very unfavorable to us. We can't delay here any longer, otherwise the country is likely to be retaliated by the Romans. What's more, Aksum City is too strong. In terms of attacking and defending the city, we are not the opponents of Yue people. It's useless to stay here. It's better to go back earlier.

"How can you go? You can't leave me behind!" Wallag couldn't help shouting, "You have been sticking to it for so long. Why can't you wait for a few days?"

"You haven't come out. How do we know that you still don't keep your promise?"

"It's not that I can't come out. I can't get out. A few days ago, a Vietnamese marquis has been spying on me." Varage explained it again, and finally smiled proudly, "I just threw off this tail, and I also heard a news from the King of Yue. He told me that he sent people to land from the Persian Gulf to unite with the Romans and the Guishuang people to attack the city of Taisi. He said, you must not be able to capture Aksum City, hahaha... Don't you think this sentence is ridiculous?"

Shapur raised his eyebrows and laughed.

(to be continued)