Rome Must Fall

At this time, someone asked loudly: "I would like to ask, if we don't agree to join the Knicks, you will send us... to the Ardie people as slaves, right?"

The speaker was a young man with a disabled right leg. He cocked his neck and held his head high, as if he was asking for an apology, but his voice was slightly trembling.

"The reason why we in the Knicks handed over the prisoners to the Ardeis last year was because we had no choice but to do so when we first came here and there was no more food to feed them. Of course we won't do that now."

A Segestica recruit who was once a prisoner of Knicks and has experienced what the other party said is defending what Knicks did. It is hard to avoid seeing it, but Nikokus is. He spoke with an extremely serious attitude, not only because he wanted to continue to make meritorious deeds, but also because he really wanted to help these tribesmen and prevent them from making wrong choices.

"Let's first look at how we dealt with prisoners in the past. I heard from the elders that after we defeated the Skodisqi more than 10 years ago, we killed all the young and strong Skodisqi men, and the rest became Slaves, work for us day and night; after we defeated the Ardie people a few years ago, we killed all the captured Ardie warriors... This is how we treat prisoners, but Nix will not do that!

If you are unwilling to join the Knicks tribe, then you will become foreign auxiliaries of the Knicks tribe under the control of the Knicks soldiers. The tribe will feed you and let you sleep well. As long as you do not resist or violate the laws, Your life safety will also be guaranteed, but you must obey the tribe's arrangements and work well.

You might say, ‘Isn’t this just a slave? ’, think carefully about the Skodisci slaves in your family, the lives of foreign auxiliary people are much better than them! Because the Knicks tribe has specially formulated laws for foreign auxiliary people to protect their rights!

Moreover, you will not always be foreign auxiliary people. Once you have figured it out and are willing to join the Nix tribe, you can apply to the people who govern you. The Nix tribe will give some quotas to foreign auxiliary people every once in a while. Those who work the hardest and perform the best can successfully become Knicks reserve citizens.

However, I advise you to join the Nix tribe from the beginning instead of being forced to become a foreign vassal and then join later if you regret it. By then, your property and food will have been confiscated by the tribe. Even if you become a reserve tribe, The tribe will be compensated later, but it still suffers, right?

Moreover, those who join the tribe early can become official tribesmen several months, even half a year or a year earlier than others, and can obtain more farm income. Compared with them, are you at a greater disadvantage? …”

As Nikokus spoke, he suddenly increased his voice: "I have said so much to you, hoping that you can understand the kindness of the Knicks tribe to you. Joining the Knicks tribe is your best choice! From now on, We will give you three days to go back and think about it carefully!

We have figured it out. Those who are willing to join the Nix tribe can come to us in the main house here. Someone will register you, and then take you to the temple to swear an oath after a while, and then divide the fields for you.

After three days, those who have not joined the Nyx tribe will automatically become foreign vassals. At that time, the army will come to take those who have become foreign vassals to other places... Do you all understand? ! Notice! There are only three days left to join the Knicks tribe! "

As soon as Nikokus finished speaking, some women in the square shouted: "I want to join the Nix tribe!... I want to join too!... Our whole family must join!..."

"Quiet! Please be quiet!" Nikokus was surprised to see such enthusiasm in the square, but he had to remind loudly: "The people from the tribe who are responsible for registering the preliminary tribesmen haven't come yet, so don't rush to sign up yet!"

"When can we come to register?!" some women asked eagerly.

"Tomorrow! Just wait until tomorrow, and you can come to the main house to sign up to join the Knicks tribe!"

Nikokus stretched out his hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief because he stopped the women's impulse, he took a sharp breath and suppressed the noise that was about to rise in the square with a louder voice: "Next , we have something important to announce!”

When the people of Segestica were attracted by Nikokus' words and focused their attention on him again, they saw a group of Nix soldiers behind him escorting two people out of the main house.

When these two men were escorted to the haystack, the people were suddenly shocked: because these two men were the only two remaining clan leaders in the tribe. At this moment, their mouths were stuffed with rags, their hands were tied behind their backs, and they were half-bent. Standing in front of everyone with a horrified face.

At this time, Nikokus said loudly and righteously: "We learned that although these two people are your clan leaders, they did not do good things for the people, but often oppressed the people, so we arrested them and handed them over to everyone. Come to trial, if they have indeed made a big mistake, we will punish them according to the mistakes they made! Now, the people who have been bullied by them can speak out about their crimes!"

The people were shocked by this move of the Knicks. They looked at each other in disbelief: Did I hear that right? Are the Knicks going to punish the patriarch for us? !

The square suddenly fell into silence again.

Nikokus said loudly again: "Didn't anyone come out and say it?! Did we make a mistake?! Are these two good clan leaders?! Often help the people under him?! They can greatly improve the harvest when the harvest is not good!" Reduce the food submitted by the tribesmen, handle disputes fairly and justly, and help invite priests when tribesmen are injured——"

"Let me tell you!" With a hoarse voice, an old man with a cane walked towards Nikokus.

"Old man, if you have... whatever grievances you have, just say it!... We will make the decision for you!" Staggs said loudly in blunt Illyrian. He had followed Maximus in Apulia. I have participated in many public trials of farm stewards and guards and have some experience.

The timely promise given by Staggs gave the old man more courage. He raised his crutch and pointed hard at one of the patriarchs: "The one I want to expose is him, my patriarch Aigalos!

More than twenty years ago...I can't remember exactly which year it was. Anyway, it was when the old patriarch was still there, but he was in poor health at the time. The person who inherited the position of patriarch should have been Aescus, the elder brother of Aigaros. But at night after the harvest celebration that year, Escus led several members of our clan to guard the sacred stone, and my eldest brother was one of them.

But the next morning someone found urine stains on the sacred stone! The sacred stone was desecrated. This was a big deal. The leader was furious and personally investigated the matter. Of course, Escus and my eldest brother who were guarding the sacred stone that night were the first to be questioned. My brother... and several others Everyone pointed out that Aescus woke up to pee in a daze that night, and he seemed to be standing near the holy stone...

As a result, the leader and other patriarchs unanimously concluded that it was a stupid thing committed by Escus. Although the old patriarch begged, the Skodisci priest who came from Savatoi-oh, the current main stronghold came to Aeskus. Sicus condemned him for blaspheming the gods. The next day, Escus was stoned to death by the clansmen, and the old clan leader died quickly because of excessive grief..."

The old man sighed heavily, and the sentimentality of the past appeared on his old face.

The people behind them also began to whisper. The "sacrifice of the sacred stone incident" was a major event in the history of their tribe. Almost everyone knew: The old man mentioned this incident at this time. Could it be related to the patriarch Aigalos? But How can this be? ! The chiefs, heads of tribes and priests unanimously made a verdict that there was no doubt that Aescus had made a mistake!

"...Then Escus became our clan leader!" When the old man spoke again, he emphasized his tone: "And my brother started to become a little strange after that. He often became distracted when doing or talking, as if he had lost his mind. He seemed to have lost his soul, often couldn't sleep well, and within two months he became very haggard.

One night he came to me and confessed to me, he said... he said... he said that in fact it was not Aescus who desecrated the sacred stone that night, but him - my patriarch Aigaros! "

The people were in an uproar. Aigaros, who was being held in custody, opened his eyes wide and shook his head desperately. However, he was slapped hard by the Knicks soldier behind him, and he was too frightened to move.

"...My brother said, 'Aigaros once promised them that as long as they identify Aescus, he will give them many benefits when he becomes the leader of the clan...'. My brother and the others agreed to Aigaros because of their greed. , thus allowing Escus to die innocently!

But after my brother saw the tragic scene of Aescus' death, he dreamed of Aescus every night. He felt very uneasy and thought that the gods were going to punish him... So I persuaded him to confess to the leader, but he hesitated. After a long time, I agreed.

But the next day, Aigalos sent my brother to deliver goods to a Skodisci nobleman named Mangini in the city of Savatoi, and then my brother——"

The old man stared at Aigaros with eyes filled with hatred, and gritted his teeth and said: "He was beaten to death by Mangini's men for stealing things! In the next three years, I noticed that he was with my brother that night. The other three people were killed by the Skordisqi people for various reasons. Although the Skordisqi people regarded us as slaves at that time and often tortured and killed our tribesmen, I found that their deaths were all related to About Mangini.

Aigalos has a close relationship with Mangini. He would regularly deliver food, livestock and other goods to Mangini until we rose up against Skodisci. So I think it was Aigalos who asked Mangini to kill my brother. They were there just to cover up his crime of "blaspheming the holy stone and blaming it on Aescus"! "