Augustus Road

Exit? Of course, you can leave. Anyway, the purpose of the ceremony in front of King Numa's small temple has been achieved. Papinna saw that Seth Uris's subordinates were awarded golden crowns and gold chains by Apis one after another, and he was afraid of the suspicion in his heart towards them. It's been implemented.

Sure enough, just two days after the completion of the temple, Papinna used the excuse that an epidemic was discovered in the camp and began to move the camp to a highland near the Twin Lakes, which was about twenty-five towers away from the camps of the Tenth and Thirteenth Legions. Diya's distance, and Papinna found various excuses to dig trenches around his camp, erect wooden fences and build simple bridges, so that a large number of sword fighting slaves surrounded his camp. They were in constant panic and strictly ordered themselves His subordinates are not allowed to go out to hunt at will.

Lepidus secretly laughed. Papinna was now like a bowstring that was tightened. As long as there was a slight external force, it could break in an instant.

Sure enough, about four or five days later, Caesar's messengers and messengers rode horses from the city of Cadiz to the Roman summer camp. The general order was to first go to the Thyme Auxiliary Corps station at the foot of Mount Vera, and Lepidus reviewed it. After finishing his share, he let the messenger rest for a while, and after replenishing the people and horses, he sent the rest of the letters to the joint camps of the two legions the next day (a large Roman army usually sent four letters) Camped together with two legions (small scale is two), and finally sent to Papina's private small camp.

The content of Caesar's letter is roughly as follows: Scydelius and Apis continue to be stationed in Lusitania for the time being, waiting for the next governor to take office before making arrangements; Papinna stayed in the governor's palace to handle provincial taxation and land arrangements, and Lepidus He brought some of his treasury assets back to Rome to help him run for the consulship in the coming year - now Julius Caesar needs a battle without smoke to win the fierce vote battle, and Caesar bluntly said that he met in the city of Rome A difficult enemy, the little Cato who "used virtue and integrity as weapons", he tried his best to win over his allies and create all kinds of difficulties for him.

Anyway, this is roughly the content of the letter received by the two commanders of the Legion Council, Scydelius and Apis. In two days' time, Lepidus and Papinna, who are financial officers, will be dismissed from their military posts and return to the army. When they came to a government position, they had to do some delivery work, so they came to the legion joint camp, but to their surprise, Papinna's face was not as pale as the previous two days, but became extremely nervous and agitated. , like a hunter staring at a deer.

This excitement became more and more obvious after he saw the fighting heroes, Milu and Tagus, standing next to Apis. The corners of his mouth began to twitch violently, and his rotten walnut-like eyes were cloudy. His eyes were wandering around until he saw an antlered statue half-covered in the shrine in the corner of Apis' tent!

Apis' eagle-like eyes had long noticed Papinna's embarrassment, and he explained briefly: "This was requested by some Spanish soldiers, saying it was the local god of war." Papinna hurriedly explained I concealed a few words and said that it was indeed true. I had known about it for many years in Spain.

When Lepidus and Papinna walked out of the camp, Lepidus asked with concern: "This damn hot weather has made you sweat a lot." Because when he saw Papinna's fat face, which was as red as wine, it was almost oily. Overflowing. But once he came out, Papinna seemed to have been relieved of a heavy burden, and said gratefully to Lepidus: "Thank you very much for your concern. Thanks to your help, I will soon leave this desert country that is always dry and hot in summer. I don’t want to come back again. My confidential slave will soon sell off all my manors, villas and assets here, and go to the city of Rome to work with you as the right-hand man of Lord Julius, hehe, right-hand man.”

"Yes, delivery is just a process. You and I will hit the road tonight." In the howling hot wind, Lepidus gently wiped the sweat on his face, turned around and showed his white teeth, and said to Papinna with a smile. , "Do you need to go back to camp to clean up?"

"No, no need!" Papinna was like a person who had just woken up from a nightmare, no longer willing to go back to bed. "My housekeeper will help me handle the cancellation of the camp. We will take care of it today." Set off as late as possible, the sooner the better, I only take a few followers, the fastest is the light vehicle." Li Bida shrugged and nodded.

At this time, Apis placed Caesar's letter on the table, which clearly stated: Papinna went to Cadiz, Italy to handle provincial affairs, and Lepidus went to Cadiz to take a boat back to Rome to support his campaign.

But Papinna confusedly and impatiently, without even returning to his own camp, went to Lepidus Camp in Mount Vera, as if he was absolutely safe here, and after nightfall, he sat on the The carriage, and Lepidus led a squadron of ala cavalry in front with torches to guide him. He did not take Saab or little Hortenhuis, but left them in charge of camp affairs, and told him that after the next year, he would After bringing exciting news to everyone in Rome, just relax and enjoy the scenery of Iberia, although Lord Papinna is already feeling tired of it.

At night, the distant mountains outside the city of Olcrèsi looked like lying giants, filled with the chattering sounds of frightened night owls flying out of the forest. Papinna sat in a bumpy carriage, making a decisive decision to leave the dangerous place. He felt lucky to be in the military camp, and on the other hand, he also thought about the bright future of going to the city of Rome - he stroked the beautifully bound book box in his arms with satisfaction, which was densely packed with letters and vellum, even if he abandoned the camp , must be carried with you, but it records the dark secrets of countless prominent Roman nobles. As long as Caesar removes his status as a public enemy, he can rely on this trump card to dominate the political arena and be invincible. Anyone in power must fawn on him and be afraid of him. Even Caesar himself... As for this Lepidus? It seems that I have a good impression of him, and his military and political abilities are also first-class, and he can develop into a noble and elegant friendship between men.

Just as he was wandering thinking about this, a Roman ala cavalry, with his thick bandy legs between his legs, holding a torch, walked to the carriage and said to him in a deep voice: "Financial officer Lepidus asked me to ask questions in front of him. Your Excellency, we have reached a fork in the road ahead, do you need some escort?"

"Escort? Didn't I go to Cadiz with Lepidus and then transfer to a ship to go to Rome?" When Papinna heard this, he immediately felt very strange.

The cavalryman was interesting. With an expression even more strange than that of Papinna, he raised the handwritten order given to him by the treasurer and stuttered to read, "Yes, it does say that the governor's order is for you to go to Italy." Ga, and Lepidus went to Rome."

But, but, in the letter Lepidus sent me, Caesar clearly asked us to return to Rome together! (To be continued.)