Chapter 25: Marching on Alexandria (Part 2)
"Plane back, paddle back!" Suddenly seeing the bloody incident in front of him, Scipio, who was originally surfing the formation in the rear, hurriedly asked all the crew to turn back and retreat to Faros Island. He was glad that the ships were all his armed slaves and the people recruited in Xiaoya, and he was temporarily willing to obey his orders for life. But the veterans of Pompey who were stationed in the Big Lighthouse were obviously not like this. They had already colluded and turned against their old superiors, and their position was completely consistent with Ceptimius. The group of people took the opportunity to expel and capture Scipio's servants who were still staying on Faros Island, completely occupied the Big Lighthouse, and shot cannons and arrows at the ships floating on the sea. At this time, the Pharaoh light warships that had been hidden in the beachhead and dock were woven from reeds, both speed and resilience, and quickly surrounded Scipio's ships.
In the end, Pompei's father-in-law was captured like a defeated rooster. Some of the armed men he had pieced together were killed, and more surrendered, and were immediately escorted to the island of Ipos. At this time, the curtain of the pharaoh's sedan chair was opened by several eunuchs. Only then did Scipio realize that the supreme ruler of Egypt he was facing was a young man whose beard was not yet full, staring at him with an angry and irrational look.
"I think this vulgar Roman should be thrown into the crocodile pond." The young man quickly shouted at the guard in a sharp voice.
Scipio immediately became dizzy and protested, "You do this, no difference from the savages who often violate the agreement. You have instigated our traitors to kill two former consuls in Rome."
Ptolemy Thirteen rolled his eyes, "What consul? On the land of the upper and lower Egypt, only the commands of the Holy Pharaoh. My father has entered the tomb waiting for rebirth. Now I have the final say. Now I will offer the heads of those two guys to Caesar, and you will still throw them into the crocodile pond."
"You stupid child, do you think that if Caesar would forgive your country if he gave the heads of Gabinus and Marcelas? It's so stupid. It seems that the desert can only produce a group of gerbil-like figures." Scipio continued to shout. When the interpreter translated his words to Ptolemy Thirteen, the angry boy roared again. He said that he had changed his mind and took the spikes from the head of the guard Diotus, and he wanted to try the scepter in his hand. Can the head of the delusion in front of him be executed?
"It's time to imprison this person." The eunuch Motanmenis took his hand and suggested in a deep voice, "When playing gambling, it's not a wise way to use up the chips at once. The two of them are the first chips. We have to send an envoy to Cyprus with the chips to negotiate with Caesar as soon as possible. Yes. The other party has arrived at that place, and it is said that he has a legion. Without further ado."
"Who else stands on my sister's side in the whole kingdom?" Ptolemy Thirteen became angry for the third time. "How is the attitude of the New Hormahi Legion? Where is the Border Guard? What about the Gods' Tomb Guard and the River Guard?"
This time it was Diotus who answered the question of the new pharaoh, saying that the Neo-Holmahi legion was very strong in the city of Idawuyi; while the River Guard and the God Tomb Guard were close to Thebes, which was also ambiguous; only the border guards maintained unconditional loyalty to the royal family under the command of veteran Selapion.
"How much surplus gold and silver are there in the treasury?" Mothamenis asked immediately.
The answer was that there were still four hundred Tarants. After pondering for a while, the eunuch said that he would first stabilize the order of the royal city, and then divide the wealth into two, and half of it went to reward General Selapion and his subordinates, and let them enter Alexander as soon as possible to serve the king; the other half, carried by the messenger's ship, went to give it to Caesar in exchange for his recognition of Egypt's independence.
"Also, send more envoys to ask the rest of the army to swear allegiance to the new pharaoh as soon as possible." This is the supplementary request of the eunuch.
In this way, Scipio was locked up in the underground mint of the royal palace. The mint was designed very cleverly. You could see the crocodile ponds on both sides through the window, which ran across like a bridge. Of course, Scipio could also see the "food" of the crocodile: the large number of captured people he brought saw this group of subordinates being eaten alive by crocodiles, and continued to tiring every day, which was a unique feeling in his heart.
But Scipio's ability to adapt was very strong, which was exactly in line with the character of the Romans. Soon the guards reported to the new Pharaoh and Mothamenes that the captured general in Rome could watch the crocodile eat people while excitedly slandering himself to relieve stress.
At this moment, in the island of Cyprus, Julius Caesar was admiring the Great Temple of Love in Paphos. Of course, his trip also came with a pilgrimage, because Caesar's family was known as the descendant of Venus. Defomokis, the chief high priest of the temple, rushed out with a team to welcome the Roman dictator and guided him to visit every beautiful corner of the temple at will.
Of course, when Caesar first entered the main hall of the temple, he saw a giant relief on the screen wall. The scene was that the beautiful God of Love was bandaging a wound for a warrior with armor. So the dictator asked the high priest with interest, "Look at the quality of the lime paint on this wall is very new, and it should not be a long time."
Defomokis immediately replied flatteredly, "Yes, this is a friend of God. General Libidaus of Rome took on the role of "Corginia" and donated money to build it. There is indeed not much time left to date."
Kogenia means choregia, which means "sponsor" and "tax payer" in Greek. Caesar understands the implication that this relief was built by the guy Li Bida.
"Can you explain the meaning of this relief? I can only see the appearance of the God of Love." Caesar asked with a smile.
"Isn't this the most popular scene for the Romans?" Defomokis was a little surprised, and then pointed to the relief and said that this was the legend of Troy's city, after being injured in a heroic battle, retreating back to the city, and then received the treatment and blessing of the God of Love, and took his tribesmen out of the city and went to Italy to establish a country and build a country.
"So, I understand a little about the meaning of this relief. That is, the throne of the Romans was actually given by Venus." Caesar said this openly in private without anyone, "I wonder if General Libidaus said similar words when he instructed you to build this wall?"
"Of course!" Defomokis dragged the final tune of affirmative words very long.
Chapter completed!