On the east coast of the Bosporus, groups of Guardsmen were gathering on the shore, preparing to board ships to cross the sea. Maximus had received the news. Momia successfully persuaded the senators and got Their support pushed Quintus to the throne of Roman emperor. At the same time, he mobilized 40,000 troops and rushed to Byzantium, preparing to block his way and defend Rome. Now, Gordian was already preparing to fight outside Byzantium. We must fight against him to win the battle.
When he heard the news, Maximus smiled cruelly. He admired Momia's skill very much. She was able to persuade the nobles of the Senate to continue the rule of the Severus family under such circumstances. Of course, he also regretted a little. If he hadn't brought Escanomi and the three The new army composed of more than a thousand Roman youths slaughtered them all and angered the Romans. Momia probably couldn't do this. To a certain extent, he helped Momia again.
"When I enter the city of Rome and become a real Roman emperor, I must marry this woman as my queen and let her give me several children." A longing smile appeared on Maximus's lips. He would never forget Momia's charm. Momia had abandoned him before, and he didn't dare to think too much. After all, in front of Momia, he had feelings that he could not wash away. He has low self-esteem, even though he holds the power of the Guards, the psychological gap cannot be erased by power. However, now that he has become the emperor of Rome, he naturally no longer feels inferior, and the desire to be on an equal footing with Momia naturally arises.
Looking at the blue sea, Maximus was intoxicated with an indescribable joy. Thirty years ago, when he volunteered to fight in front of Emperor Severus, he never thought that one day he would become a high-ranking emperor. Emperor of the Romans, and today, he is only one step away from this once unattainable goal. As long as he defeats the 40,000 army led by Erdian opposite, he can march straight in. Even if Momia has extraordinary abilities, she There was not enough time to raise another army.
Gordian used to be a person that Maximus respected and feared, but now, Maximus only has a trace of pity for him. Yes, Gordian has prestige and ability, but what he currently has on hand is only 20,000 Roman recruits who have never been on the battlefield, and 20,000 barbarian mercenaries, while he himself has nearly 80,000 horses, almost They are all composed of brave and fighting barbarian mercenaries. Gordian seemed to have forgotten one thing. He, Maximus, was from a barbarian background. To the barbarian mercenaries, Maximus's appeal was much stronger than that of his veteran Roman nobleman. From those barbarian lookouts, It can be seen from the investment.
After crossing the Bosporus, those barbarian mercenaries will definitely surrender. Even if they don't surrender, it doesn't matter. He has enough strength to defeat them. At that time, Gordian will only commit suicide to apologize. .
Momia, I¡¯m here, I want to show you what a real man is. Maximus' heart was surging, just like the waves of the sea in front of him.
Arullinus walked over quickly with his sword in hand and saluted Maximus majestically: "Your Majesty the Emperor, I will be crossing the sea now. Please listen to the good news I am waiting for."
Maximus smiled happily, his son looked really good when he put on the armor. In order to reward Arullinus for his contribution, he made Arullinus a general, and now he led an elite regiment. This time he crossed the sea to fight Gordian decisively. He sent Arullinus as the vanguard, and at the same time Equipped with one of his generals, Vitalianus, as his deputy, the two elite corps totaled more than 10,000 people. As long as they stood on the other side and supported the army across the sea, the mission was completed. Judging from the comparison of power in front of him, this is simply a credit to Arullinus. Arullinus knew that his father asked him to perform meritorious service, and he was very excited.
"Be careful." Maximus nodded and sent Arullinus away with his eyes, watching them board the warship converted from a merchant ship, chop through the waves, and disappear into the depths of the sea.
Following Arullinus and the others, two more legions set off. When the fourth group of people boarded the warship and waited for Maximus to set off together, the warship that sent Arullinus had returned. At the same time, they brought good news to Arullinus. They had landed successfully and encountered almost no obstruction. They set up a position on the other side. Gordian stood with his back to the city and did not take the initiative to attack.
Maximus laughed loudly and strode onto the warship with his guard battalion. His last trace of worry was gone. Gordian was indeed old and had lost his energy. If he didn't block Arullinus and the others when they had just landed, the fighter opportunity would have been lost. He would not be able to win this battle. There was a battle.
Densely packed large ships 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 second batch of two troops.The news that the regiment had also landed made Maximus even more relieved. He said to the generals around him, "We have entered Byzantium and let you have a good rest. You have worked hard these past few months."
After hearing this, all the generals were overjoyed and urged the sailors to row harder. Now that 20,000 people have landed ashore, the battle has been won, and there is nothing to worry about. Their remaining task is to cross the strait, enter Byzantium, and then enter Rome safely.
"Your Majesty, there is a warship ahead!" The soldier in charge of the lookout on the bow tower suddenly shouted loudly.
"What's it called? Isn't it the warship that returned earlier?" Maximus's trusted general Cappellianus snorted dissatisfied, and another trusted general Ipagosus was about to curse, Maximus stopped them, with confusion in his eyes: "Warships? Didn't the second batch of warships just return? How come another warship returned so soon?"
Cappellianus was stunned for a moment and hesitated: "Did their landing this time go particularly smoothly?"
"Impossible. Those Germans are not familiar with ships. They will only go slower, not faster." Maximus pushed Cappellianus away, strode to the side, and raised his hand to cover his eyebrows. He stood in front of him, blocking the dazzling sunlight, and looked into the distance attentively.
On the rippling blue sea in the distance, more than a dozen small dots were lined up in a horizontal line, approaching quickly. Maximus had excellent eyesight, and he had already recognized that these should be warships, but what kind of warships they were, he could not see clearly for the moment.
"Your Majesty, they rushed towards the warship in front, as if they were going to attack them." The soldiers on the watchtower screamed in fear again.
Maximus was shocked and rushed into the watchtower. He stretched out his hand and pulled out the soldiers in the watchtower, and got in himself. Standing high, he could see far. This time he could see more clearly. As expected, the dozen warships of unknown origin rushed towards the warship in front. With the sea breeze, they were moving very fast. Just before Mark While Seamus was puzzled, the warship at the front had already collided with a warship transporting troops.
Maximus¡¯s expedition was all infantry and cavalry, and there was no navy at all. Otherwise, he would have entered the Mediterranean directly. The warships used to mobilize troops this time were actually not real warships, but merchant ships. Each ship contained two to three hundred people, but there was no combat blackmail and the speed was not fast. The reason why such a ship was used as a warship was because Maximus knew that Gordian did not have a real warship, so he had the courage.
However, now a dozen real warships appeared out of nowhere and began to attack the troop transport warships that were almost unable to fight back. This was like a few wolves suddenly breaking into the sheep herd. Maximus, who had been fighting for many years, understood what this meant. His face suddenly turned livid, and his original excitement suddenly disappeared.
Just when Maximus' mind went blank, screams came from behind. Maximus turned his head and looked behind, only to see that there were also a dozen such warships behind, and they were moving very fast. Speed ??rushed towards the advancing fleet.
Maximus's face became very ugly. He knew clearly 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 only had sharp teeth and claws. I can watch helplessly as two despicable rats chew through the ropes of the suspension bridge and then fall into the abyss in despair.
¡°Prepare for war¡ª¡± Cappellianus had followed Maximus for many years and knew exactly what Maximus¡¯s face meant. He subconsciously pulled out his dagger and roared loudly. When the Guardsmen on the ship heard this, they drew their weapons one after another, but then they looked at each other blankly, where was the enemy? If you can't even stand up on a narrow ship, how can you form a formation to fight?
Hundreds of pairs of eyes on the boat looked at Maximus in unison. Cold sweat broke out on Maximus's forehead. When the sea breeze blew, his whole body was cold and the heat was gone.
With a cold expression, Cui Qian sat on the top of the tall ship with a golden sword in his hand. His tall ship took advantage of the wind and took the lead to break into the Roman fleet, knocking over several war ships one after another. Boat, watching the frightened Romans splashing in the clear water, his heart was filled with joy. At the beginning of last year, he set out from Ceylon with Sun Shao, but did not land at Aksum. Instead, he followed Sun Shao's order and turned south from the Gulf of Aden with his 10,000 naval troops and two years of provisions. After more than a month of sailing, he reached the southernmost tip of the continent. In order to cross the devilish sea, he lost nearly a thousand soldiers and 30% of his supplies. Then he walked north along the coastline for half a year before finally reaching the end of the continent. Arriving at the Strait of Gibraltar, the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Just when he was about to sneak into the Mediterranean to resume 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's rebels. The location was Bo SPStrait of Strait.
Cui Qian was very excited when there was a battle, but he and the soldiers suffered a lot along the way. In the past, the navy rarely sailed long distances for more than two months, but this time, he was at sea for a full eight months. To get from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Bosporus, he had to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The straight-line distance on the map was nearly ten thousand miles, but Sun Shao only had two months left for him. In order to arrive in time, he abandoned most of the supply ships and led the navy on the road day and night. It can be said that in order to get here to intercept Maximus, Cui Qian even used the strength to feed himself and held it in for nearly a year. The evil fire poured out on Maximus¡¯ head this time.
Led by the Vietnamese navy, nearly a hundred Roman warships from Rome then divided into two groups, one east and one west, and rushed into Maximus's fleet, which had no power to fight back. They did not seek to injure the enemy. , but drove the fleet toward the middle of the strait like sheep. Maximus's warships were all modified merchant ships. The so-called modification was just adding watchtowers at the bow and stern and adding some sailors. There were not many other changes. Because the ships were limited, in order to move them as quickly as possible. The army was transported over, and Maximus made almost every ship full or even overloaded. The soldiers could only squeeze together. It was difficult to turn around, let alone draw their weapons to fight. In this case, they had no choice at all against the Vietnamese warships that were armed to the teeth. Judging from the size alone, these ships could be compared with those medium-sized battleships, and faced with the giant building ships, They didn't even have the courage to fight, and there was no other way they could think of except avoiding.
After the building ships rushing ahead rammed and sank more than a dozen troop-carrying warships, Cui Qian successfully completed his goal and trapped more than 300 troop-carrying ships in the sea. More than 30 Yue warships, More than a hundred Roman warships formed a circle, watching eagerly.
"Let them surrender, or send them to the sea to feed the sea monster." Cui Qian waved his hand and said lightly, without even looking at the little Gordian standing next to him. Little Gordian boarded Cui Qian's warship for the convenience of contact. As soon as he got on the ship, he found that the Yue general was not easy to talk to. He could hardly be seen smiling. He was either yelling or blowing his beard and staring. He was originally very unconvinced, thinking that Cui Qian didn't understand etiquette and was no different from those barbarians. He didn't have a good impression of the Yue people. Now that he saw Cui Qian's virtue, he looked down on the Yue people even more. He felt that he was a dignified person. It was a shame for the Roman nobles to fight alongside such a man.
But now that he saw Cui Qian overwhelmingly trapping Maximus and his nearly 30,000-strong main force in the sea, he finally understood the reason for Cui Qian's bad temper. Not to mention dealing with Maximus's troop transports, even facing real Roman warships, I'm afraid Cui Qian wouldn't frown.
"General, you are brave. I didn't expect it to succeed." Little Gordian said with sincerity.
After hearing what the interpreter said, Cui Qian squinted at little Gordian, curled his lips and said, "I feel like I'm a little defeated. My navy of Yue Kingdom dominates the world, and I haven't encountered any opponents. How can I deal with these ships and ships?" Bullying a child is no different. General, don't mention it again."
Little Gordian was touched by a cold butt, feeling bored and a little embarrassed by Cui Qian's arrogant words. However, the other party's power was right in front of him, so he could only endure it and pretended not to understand. He turned around and asked someone to call the semaphore over.
Maximus was sweating coldly. He did not expect that such a strange thing would happen when success was in sight. Where did these Vietnamese naval forces come from? Maximus only knew that the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were impassable. He couldn't even figure out where these ships came from. Did they come from the sky? At this time, he thought of Momia. No wonder Momia was so courageous, and Sun Shao was so arrogant. It turned out that the Yue people were really capable of unpredictable things.
The semaphore has been urged twice, but Maximus is still dumbfounded and has no reaction at all. He was stunned by this huge blow and racked his brains but could not figure out the reason. After all, there was only one reason that seemed to be valid, that is, the Roman gods were angry and helped the Vietnamese fly from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The Yue people came to punish him, a daring barbarian.
People¡¯s biggest 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, let alone him, almost everyone did not know this channel. They were all very surprised as to why the Yue Navy suddenly appeared here. Only divine power could explain it.
Cui Qian became a little angry when he saw that the other party did not respond. He waved his hand and ordered the warships to narrow the encirclement and force them to within fifty steps. With an order, more than a dozen trebuchets on several building ships began to exert their power, focusing on Mark. Seamus's ship. In order to show his majesty as a Roman emperor, Maximus specially changed the sails to purple, which matched the Roman emperor's shirt on his body. Unexpectedly??has become the most eye-catching target.
The stone weighing ten kilograms cut through the blue sky, and headed straight for Maximus's ship with an awe-inspiring murderous intent. The sharp whistle when it broke through the sky attracted the generals who were trying to persuade Maximus to raise their heads. . When they saw the flying black dots, their faces suddenly turned pale.
In a moment, three stone balls hit the purple-sailed ship, and two hit the crowd. The Roman soldiers who were hit did not even grunt, and their lives were taken away. And they The wooden shield raised in a hurry was no better than the paper sold by Yue merchants in front of the flying stone balls. It was easily broken into pieces and injured several companions nearby.
A stone ball flew past Maximus's shoulder and penetrated the board wall of the watchtower. The sound of the wind caused Maximus' face to hurt. Two round holes were punched in the board wall, and sawdust flew up. It pierced Maximus's face, causing blood to flow. The pain made Maximus wake up from his wandering state. He jumped up and jumped down from the watchtower. He was killed by Cappellianus and Ipagosu. Si quickly supported him and looked at him anxiously: "Your Majesty, what should I do?"
"What should I do?" Maximus responded blankly.
While they were asking and answering, two more stone balls hit the 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 aside their companions to avoid them. Although there was not as much support on this ship as on other ships, it was not easy to escape. A few soldiers standing on the edge were pushed into the sea, followed by more and more people jumping into the sea, seemingly jumping to the sea. It seems safer in the sea than on the ship.
These guards were well equipped. Not only did they wear chainmail and scale armor, but they also carried iron swords. Only the wooden shields in their hands could provide a little buoyancy. Once they reached the sea, many of them could not control themselves. When it sank, the people behind saw it and hurriedly tried to take off their armor, throw away the sword from their waists, and jump into the sea with only their shields in hand. However, there was not much space on the chaotic ship for them to do so calmly. These preparations are often pushed into the hands of the companions behind as soon as the helmet is thrown away, and the life-saving shield is not even available in time.
The originally orderly ship was suddenly in chaos. At this time, the soldiers no longer cared about military orders, superiors and companions. In order to survive, they pushed and kicked each other, and more and more stone balls flew from time to time. Exacerbating the chaos, many soldiers actually pulled out their weapons and started killing those around them in order to survive.
When Cappellianus and Ipagosus saw it, they quickly drew their daggers to protect Maximus, and cut down the soldiers who tried to rush in front of Maximus one by one, but the massacre was not done now. It failed to calm down the chaos, but instead aroused greater chaos. More and more soldiers came over, and they even drew their swords and attacked Capellianus. After Cappellianus cut down two soldiers one after another, he was stabbed by a soldier with a sword. The pain came over him like a tide and drowned him in an instant.
Ipagosus was shocked. While shouting the name of Cappellianus, he swung his sword to stop the long sword thrust by a red-eyed soldier in front of him. However, he could not guard against the other soldier and saw that he was about to fall. To follow in the footsteps of Cappellianus, Ipagosu opened his eyes in despair. Just when he thought he was certain to die, his eyes suddenly flashed, 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 frightened that he lost his mind. When he turned around and looked, he was even more shocked. Maximus was still standing there, but his head was missing, and streams of blood were coming out of his cavity. Like a fountain.
"Ah -" Ipagosus threw away his dagger and screamed hysterically. Hearing his heart-rending cry, the chaotic crowd looked over and saw the man in purple robe. , but the body without the head could not help but hold its breath.
Maximus's body swayed, slowly tilted over, rolled over the side of the ship, and fell into the sea. The water column stirred up soaked Ipagosus.
"Surrender, surrender!" A soldier raised his dagger and shouted.
"Surrender, surrender!" Other soldiers who came to their senses also shouted.
The shouts awakened Ipagosus, who was on the verge of madness. He quickly climbed up the watchtower, held on to the broken wooden pillars, and raised the white flag tremblingly.
I saw the white flag raised on His Majesty the Emperor's ship. Although the attacks on other ships were not as intensive as this ship, they all raised the white flag one after another. Cui Qian saw the signal, waved his hand, ordered to stop the attack, turned around and said to little Gordian, whose eyes were shining with excitement: "Maximus has surrendered, inform your father that you can launch an attack, force Surrender the rebels who have landed."
"That's great"?Great. "Little Gordian was so excited that he rubbed his hands repeatedly, and suddenly he knelt down on one leg with his eyes closed, one hand on his chest, and he muttered something about thanking some great Roman god.
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