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Volume 2: Set Sail Chapter 145: Interests and Disadvantages

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    Chapter 145: Interests and Disadvantages

    The Vietnamese navy attacked halfway across the strait and blocked Maximus in the strait. Maximus had a main force of 30,000 wolves and tigers, but when faced with the Vietnamese warships, he had no power to fight back.  , and even died on the spot under the concentrated attack of the Thunderbolt Chariot on the Vietnamese warship. General Ypagosus suffered a split liver and gallbladder. Seeing that the penetrated warship continued to take in water, he no longer had any fighting spirit, and immediately ordered to surrender.

    The news reached the Byzantine city. Arullinus, who was commanding two Roman legions and two mercenary legions to confront Gordian, was confused and made a mistake in his command. The experienced Gordian seized the opportunity.  , launched a sudden attack, and a Teutonic mercenary battalion was the first to enter the battle. Their semi-mad fighting passion promptly defeated the rebels' fighting spirit. The battle soon ended, and Arullinus was killed by the Teutonic legions.  One of the centurions was killed, the army collapsed, and then surrendered to Gordian.

    Gordian solved the battle with unexpected ease, leaving the old man stunned. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the rebels kneeling in front of him.

    The news immediately spread to Rome as quickly as possible. The Senate was overjoyed. They conveyed the news of the victory to the citizens in the Roman Forum. The citizens were also overjoyed. They all attributed the credit to Momia.  , it was she who advocated an alliance with the Yue people, and with the help of the Yue warships, she turned the tide and saved Rome.  They spontaneously gathered around the palace to sing and dance to express their respect for Momia.

    The Roman Emperor Quintus walked into the palace happily. His queen Momia was holding Alexander's posthumous son Philip Severus, humming children's songs, and the chubby Philip was lying on her arms.  Wanli, who was already about to fall asleep, opened his eyes again when he heard Quintus' footsteps, grinned his little mouth, opened his arms towards Quintus, and made a babbling sound.

    Quintus smiled and rushed forward, hugged Philip over, and raised him high. Philip laughed excitedly, and saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth, dripping on Quintus' face.  Momia smiled as she watched the two of them play, with a warm smile on her face.

    Alexander's death was a huge blow to her. She has been immersed in grief and regretted that she did not follow Alexander on the expedition as before and fly for the first time. She did not expect such a result. She regretted it.  Now Quintus sat on the throne of the Roman Emperor with her help. In gratitude, he not only married her as his queen, but also handed over most of his rights to her. More importantly, he also accepted Philip as his wife.  The adopted son promised to pass the throne to Philip when he grew up.

    It is said that Philip is the posthumous son of Alexander, the grandson of Quintus. It seems a bit wrong to adopt him as an adopted son. However, the Romans did not pay attention to this. Alexander was the adopted son of his predecessor, Emperor Aesgabalus. In fact, they  Just cousins.

    Quintus and Philip went crazy for a while, then let the wet nurse take him away, took Momia's arm, walked to the window, pointed to the boiling street and said: "We won the battle."

    Momia didn¡¯t speak, just nodded, with a faint smile on her face, but two lines of tears fell from her delicate face.  The Romans won, and the culprits, Maximus and his son, died, but her son Alexander, who she cultivated with all her heart, also died and could never come back.  How perfect it would be if Alexander commanded and won this war.

    It¡¯s just that it¡¯s hard for her to say these words to Quintus. Although Quintus has no ambition and is humble enough, he is a man after all.  Momia could only regret in her heart, but she couldn't show it on her face.  What surprised her even more was that she originally thought that Sun Shao was fooling her. What use could a fleet of only 10,000 sailors traveling a long distance do?  Moreover, she heard that the number of warships in Yue was very small, no more than thirty, large and small, and even the baggage ships were abandoned in order to make the journey.  She was very worried that once the war reached a stalemate, the suddenness of these Vietnamese naval forces would lose their effect and be very detrimental to the war. For this reason, she specially assembled more than a hundred Roman warships and sent them to Gordian's men to assist the Vietnamese navy.  Combat.

    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 fake.  To put their minds at ease.  Unexpectedly, I actually won the battle now, and won so easily.

    "Jiang Gan, the envoy of the King of Yue, said that once the news of Maximus' defeat reaches Axum, Ardashir will definitely withdraw his troops. In that case, our Rome will be greatly damaged due to internal strife, but Ardashir will have no losses.  , the future situation will still be unfavorable to us." Quintus explained softly: "He hopes that we can let Gordian lead the army to Egypt and ambush Ardashir's army."

    Momia¡¯s eyes flashed, she turned around and looked at the people celebrating on the street. After a while, sheSaid: "He actually wants to ambush Ardashir? Is this necessary?"

    Quintus hesitated for a moment. He also felt that Sun Shao's request was a bit excessive. Although Gordian won a great victory, this was a civil war in Rome after all, which had a great impact on the vitality of Rome. Gordian was worshiping  More than 5,000 people were lost in the battle with Arulinus outside the city of Zantine. If the news of Maximus's death in battle had not dampened Arulinus' morale, there would be no telling who would win in the end.  matter.  In this case, Sun Shao asked them to cross the Mediterranean and rush to Egypt to block Ardashir's return army, which seemed a bit overwhelming.

    "However, he has been dating Sun Shao for so many years and has strong confidence in Sun Shao. Since Sun Shao made such a request, he must be justified, so although he didn't quite understand it, he still took the initiative to discuss it with Momia.

    Momia sighed, she vaguely guessed Sun Shao¡¯s intention.  The civil strife in Rome quickly subsided, and Ardashir's plan had failed. If he did not rush back to Ctesiphon in time, if the Romans and the Kushans advanced from east to west and attacked Ctesiphon, Ctesiphon would be in danger.  It was inevitable for him to withdraw his troops, but Sun Shao did not want him to withdraw smoothly. He wanted the Romans to ambush Ardashir in Egypt, which was supposed to be a plan between two tigers.  The Romans and the Sasanians fought a bloody battle, both sides consumed their strength, and in the end it was the Vietnamese who gained.

    Isn¡¯t it enough that he has the right to garrison troops in the Mediterranean?  Momia was angry and annoyed.

    "Even if Gordian now has nearly 80,000 troops, he still doesn't have enough strength to rush to Egypt to stop Ardashir?" Momia said lightly: "Most of the 80,000 people are barbarians.  Mercenaries, it costs money to let them go to war. Even if you have money, is it too late to travel so far? The Sasanians are mainly cavalry, and they are very fast."

    "It's not just us, there are also people from the Yue Kingdom." Quintus said softly: "It is said that a general named Lu Xun, the brother-in-law of the King of Yue, is leading the army. I heard from the King of Yue that he values ??this general very much."

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

    "From what Jiang Gan said, it seems that Lu Xun has arrived in Egypt a long time ago. There are about 50,000 people." Quintus explained: "They can go directly by boat from the Red Sea. It is not difficult. The Sasanians do not have warships.  , it¡¯s not easy to find them.¡±

    "Fifty thousand people, so there is indeed some chance." Momia breathed a sigh of relief, thought for a moment, and then asked: "After this battle, does he have any plans?"

    "Not yet." Quintus shook his head and said slowly: "If we win this battle and the Sasanians are severely damaged, it will be a good opportunity for us to retake Armenia and Syria. And the Kushans  It is not impossible to join forces and march into Ctesiphon. It's just that the Sasanians have nearly a hundred thousand troops. If we want to win, the chance is really slim. What I'm worried about is that we ambush the Sasanians and incurred heavy losses, but Kushan  If someone takes advantage, then it¡¯s hard to explain to the Senate.¡±

    Momia nodded. Quintus has been doing diplomatic work over the years and has a relatively clear view of the general trend.  Since Sun Shao has asked Lu Xun to rush to Egypt with an army of 50,000, it means that he has already planned this battle. He should also be able to calculate that the Sasanians might break through their blockade and return to Ctesiphon, so he is naturally concerned about what will happen next.  There should be further arrangements.

    From another point of view, if Aldashir is allowed to return to Ctesiphon smoothly, it will not be harmful to Sun Shao. Because he helped the Romans, he has legitimately obtained sea power in the Mediterranean. Even if Aldashir  Dissatisfied, he had no choice but to do so because he did not have a navy to compete with Sun Shao.  But Rome is different. They still have to face the threat of Ardashir. Instead of doing this, it is better to cooperate with the Vietnamese to severely damage Ardashir. If Ardashir's strength is damaged, it will no longer have the strength to provoke Rome. Rome may  This will give me a few years of breathing space.  On the contrary, if Sun Shao does not cooperate with his actions, and Rome is hit by Aldashir again in the future, he may not lend a helping hand again.

    For Rome, sending troops to cooperate with Sun Shao may not necessarily have any benefits, but not sending troops to cooperate will definitely have disadvantages. Perhaps it was out of this consideration that Sun Shao asked Rome to cooperate in the battle, because he knew that Momia¡¯s  The discernment will not fail to see the pros and cons.  Momia sighed. Although she knew that Sun Shao was threatening, she didn't have much choice in the face of interests and could only accept this request.  I hope that this joint operation can achieve its goal. If they can attack Taixi Fengcheng, it will be an exciting victory.  With this victory, Quintus' throne will be more stable, the Severus family can continue, and the lovely Philip will have a bright future.

    When she thought of Philip, a warm current surged through Momia's heart, and her resentment towards Sun Shao also gained a touch of warmth.

    &nbsp"Such a major matter should be discussed by His Majesty the Emperor and the members of the Senate. As a woman, how can I know the importance of these matters." Momia changed her face to a gentle smile and laughed softly.  Quintus breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Momia agreed, and the remaining problems could be solved easily. The members of the Senate were not very fond of him as the emperor, but they respected Momia as the queen. Senators  There are several powerful factions among them who are supporters of Momia. If Momia doesn't nod, they will definitely not agree to go on the expedition.

    Jiang Gan watched Quintus walk out briskly, and his hanging heart finally relaxed.  He admired Sun Shao so much now, as if Momia would agree if he was thousands of miles away. In this way, with the participation of the Romans in the battle, the plan to ambush the Sasanians would be even more perfect.

    Quintus quickly informed the Senate of his expedition plan. With Momia's nod, the senators did not obstruct it too much. They just requested that the royal family provide certain funds to deal with the mercenary issue.  It cannot all be paid for by the nobles.  Quintus knew exactly what was on their minds.  When Alexander was alive, most of the benefits of cooperation with the Vietnamese were in the hands of Alexander and his father-in-law Eskanomi. The members of the Senate received limited oil and water and had great opinions. Now Alexander and Eskanomi  Now that Nomi is dead, those benefits should naturally be redistributed.  This expedition of 80,000 troops to Egypt was a good opportunity to threaten the emperor.

    After discussing with Momia, Quintus transferred some businesses originally controlled by Escanomi to some members of the Senate, satisfying their wishes and allowing the expedition plan to pass smoothly.

    A month later, Gordian's army and Cui Qian's fleet set off from Byzantium and rushed to Egypt.  After drifting on the sea for more than a month, they rushed to Egypt and joined the army led by Lu Xun.  Lu Xun had already received the news from Jiang Gan, who had arrived first, and had arranged the camp. With him were the governors of the Roman province of Egypt and the kings of several vassal countries. They had been harassed by the Sassanid people some time ago.  , this time they received an order from Rome to cooperate with the Vietnamese army in ambushing the Sasanians, and they arrived quickly.

    Soon after Gordian and Cui Qian arrived, Xia Hourong also arrived, and with him were more than 10,000 Arabs.  When Gordian saw the Arabs, he couldn't help but frown.  The Romans called the Arabs Bedouins. The deepest impression of them was that they were good at doing business. They sold goods from the Gulf of Aden and could go all the way to the northern barbarian territory. The other was that they liked robbery, and this seemed to be even more prominent than doing business.  It can be said that their business and robbery are inseparable. Many goods may have been stolen. Robbery seems to have become their nature. It is rare for any merchant who is close to them to avoid disaster.  Now Sun Shao actually dragged these people over, which made Gordian feel very uncomfortable.  Cui Qian was originally a pirate, but now he is a general of the Yue Kingdom, and the Bedouins are all bandits regardless of their status. Wouldn't it be a big deal to fight alongside such people?

    Lu Xun saw Gordian's displeasure, pulled him aside and explained, General, don't worry, these people are only our temporary allies, and they will not act with us.  They were invited here this time to take advantage of their good plundering skills and let them harass the Sassanid people's food routes.  The generals are dignified formations and regular soldiers, while they are roosters and dogs and thieves, and they are surprise soldiers.

    Lu Xun is gentle and elegant, which is very different from the Yue people Gordian has met before. That kind of indescribable elegance is in line with the taste of Gordian, an established nobleman.  Gordian didn't understand the meaning of roosters and dog robbers, so Lu Xun explained it again. Gordian smiled and said, stroking his snow-white beard: "The wisdom of you Han people cannot be underestimated. I didn't expect this."  It's really eye-opening that a little villain can be of such great use. General Lu, it's an honor for me, Gordian, to fight alongside you."

    Lu Xun quickly said a few words of modesty.  Cui Qian, who was sitting next to him, snorted disapprovingly. He was the least interested in these so-called nobles. He quarreled with little Gordian all the way, and several times threatened to throw all the Romans into the Mediterranean Sea.  Go away.  Gordian and his son didn't like him, and he didn't like Gordian and his son, but he hit it off with those barbarian mercenaries. Along the way, they drank from large bowls and ate large pieces of meat. They became very familiar with several Germanic leaders,  The Goths became his good friends.

    When more than 100,000 troops were gathering towards Egypt from several directions, Ardashir was still in the dark. He had been besieging the city for several months, but he had not been able to capture the city of Axum. Under the guard of the Han people, Axum was unbreakable.  The Sasanians, whose war horses were invincible in the world, were beaten to death again and again under the city of Aksum, and the powerful crossbows of the enemy made them suffer a lot.  Most of the Sasanians wore chain armor and only covered key parts with plate armor. This kind of equipment had sufficient protection against enemies that mainly relied on bows and arrows. They were accustomed to this kind of equipment and had always used it to protect themselves.This kind of chain armor is enough to prove their safety, but they didn't expect that in front of the Yue people's repeated crossbows, the chain armor lost its former majesty and the casualties increased greatly. Once it encountered sharp weapons such as city defense crossbows, it would be even more serious.  Vulnerable, often shot through.

    Crossbows became a nightmare for the Sassanid cavalry. Although the Sasanians were outnumbered, they had to brave the opponent's arrow array to rush forward every time they attacked the city. They were lucky to be able to rush to the city.  In the process of annexing the city, they still had to be ravaged by them. Even if they climbed up the city wall, there were still heavily armed soldiers from the vanguard battalion and Aksumite slaves eager to perform meritorious deeds waiting to take their heads. There were several times when the Sasanians  The people excitedly attacked the city, but in the end they discovered that the Yue people had let them go, deliberately letting them rush forward so that the itchy hands of the Zeifeng camp and the Aksum gladiators could satisfy their greed.

    Ardashir was furious and ordered Shapur to ask Wallag to open the city gates as soon as possible to welcome the Sasanians into the city, otherwise he would bear the consequences.

    Varag was also very distressed when he received the news. He saw that the Sasanians suffered heavy losses in several attacks on the city. He knew that Ardashir must be very popular, but he did not dare to act easily.  He seemed to feel that someone was watching him, and out of caution, he secretly investigated and learned that it was the military lord Yu An of Sun Shao's side of the Feng camp who did it.

    Varag was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat. He didn't know if Yu An did this because of Sun Shao's instruction.  He carefully recalled what he had done in the past few months and couldn't find any flaws. Sun Shao didn't seem to have any doubts about him. He was very enthusiastic every time he saw him and talked to him about everything.  After discussing it, he proudly told him a few days ago that the reason why he dared to hold on in Axum was because he knew that the Sasanians were not good at attacking cities. He was confident enough to survive the city of Axum. The current situation was different from what he had originally estimated.  The Sasanians looked at the city of Aksum but had no choice.  He also said strangely to Wallag, "Just wait, the Sasanians are going to be in trouble. All their main forces are trapped outside the city, and the city of Etsy is empty. I have sent people to land in the Persian Gulf to cooperate with the Romans and nobles."  The Frostmen went to besiege Ctesiphon.  This time the Sasanians not only gained nothing, but also suffered a great deal.

    At that time, Sun Shao was so drunk that his eyes were blurred, and he almost fell into the arms of the beautiful woman presented by Wallag. Wallag was doubtful of his words. He felt that Sun Shao was talking to himself, but he felt that it was not necessarily all drunken talk.  Sun Shao has been besieged in Aksum for nearly half a year. Reinforcements have never come. Several ships have come and have been wandering on the sea. They have never really attacked seriously. They seem to be indifferent to the king being besieged. If it is true as Sun Shao said,  He was confident in defending Axum, and it seemed reasonable to let people attack Ctesiphon in turn.

    "At least, Sun Shao can talk to him under this situation, which shows that Sun Shao is not wary of him, and Yu An's behavior is probably not due to Sun Shao's instruction.

    Varag thought hard for a long time and decided to take a chance. He found an opportunity to accuse Yu An of spying on him in front of Yu An.  He cried bitterly and knelt down in front of Sun Shao and said, "If your Majesty believes in me, don't let anyone monitor me anymore. If you don't believe me, please remove me as the King of Aksum. I am willing to be an ordinary person and live in peace and stability."  For the rest of my life, I don¡¯t want to live in such a state of worry.

    Sun Shao was very surprised. He glanced at Yu An, who looked embarrassed, and his face darkened: "Is this the case?"

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

    Sun Shao was furious, and suppressed his anger and yelled at Yu An: "Then have you ever found out that King Aksum has done anything wrong?"

    ??Yu An shook his head, looking very embarrassed. He felt very embarrassed. He had been monitoring Varag for so long without any results, but he was discovered and exposed in front of so many people.  Now Sun Shao is angry, perhaps not necessarily because he is dissatisfied with his surveillance of Varag, but because he is disappointed with his ability to do things.  Of course, he couldn't blame Sun Shao, so he had to admit it and said it was his own fault.

    Sun Shao was very angry. He couldn't help but ordered Yu An to be pulled down and beaten with twenty sticks.  After the twenty sticks were down, Yu An could no longer get up. He gritted his teeth and remained silent. Sun Shao had a sullen face and ordered on the spot to deprive Yu An of his position as a military prince. He would serve his crimes as an ordinary sergeant and then let him  People pulled him out.

    Varag watched with cold eyes, watching Yu An being carried away by two sergeants, and then he breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Yu An's behavior of spying on him was indeed his own behavior, and was not directed by Sun Shao.  He expressed his gratitude to Sun Shao with tears in his eyes, 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.

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

    As soon as he saw Shapur, he felt that the atmosphere was not good.?, Shapur's face was so gloomy that it was dripping with water.

    "You finally came out? I thought you had regretted it when you saw that we Sasanians were leaving."

    "You want to leave?" Varag was shocked: "You want to leave?"

    "Not bad." Shapur looked at Varag for a moment and saw that he had no intention of being deceitful. Then he calmed down and explained with some annoyance: "We just got the news that Maximus was defeated and died.  The Romans have put down the civil strife, and the situation is very unfavorable to us. We cannot delay here any longer, otherwise the country is likely to be retaliated by the Romans. What's more, the city of Axum is too strong. In terms of attacking and defending the city,  , we are no match for Yue Ren, there is no use staying here, it is better to go back early.¡±

    "How can you leave? You can't leave me!" Wallag couldn't help shouting: "You have persisted for so long, why can't you wait a few more days."

    "You haven't come out yet, how do we know if you still keep your promise?"

    "It's not that I can't come out, it's that I can't come out. There was a Yue Junhou who was watching me a few days ago." Varag explained, and finally said with a proud smile: "I just got rid of this tail.  I also heard a piece of news from the King of Yue. He told me that he sent people to land from the Persian Gulf to join forces with the Romans and Kushans to attack the city of Ctesiphon. He said, you will definitely not be able to capture the city of Aksum, hahaha  Don¡¯t you think this sentence is ridiculous?¡±

    Shapur raised his eyebrows and laughed.

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