Rome Must Fall Chapter 16: Active Maximus

It is precisely because of these considerations that Gaius Claudius Grabo ordered the recruiting officers to recruit soldiers with combat experience as much as possible.

Grabo's idea is a good one, but the problem is that a few years ago, Marius' subordinate Quintus Sedo stayed in Iberia to start a rebellion and won repeated victories. Later, he fought against the popular former consul Lepidus. The army united and its military strength was greatly increased. In order to quell the chaos, Rome even violated hundreds of years of political tradition and asked Pompey, who was only 30 years old and was neither a legal officer nor a consul, to lead the army and return the favor. After two increases in troops, there are now very few outstanding soldiers with combat experience in Rome left.

Grabb had to lower his requirements and recruit some veterans. These veterans were all Sulla's subordinates, and they marched into Rome with Sulla. After Sulla became the dictator, in order to fulfill his promise, he vigorously built colonial cities in Italy (such as Florence), allocated land to his soldiers, and settled them well. But the problem is that these soldiers have been fighting in the field all year round. When the daggers in their hands turned into hoes, they no longer knew how to farm. Year after year, many people went bankrupt due to farmland management, and had to influx again due to poverty. Rome is looking for a living, but now it has been ten years since they forced Rome, and the veterans who have not been recruited by Pompey are all over 40 years old.

Crabbo did not dislike them. Instead, he made these veterans serve as captains of ten and centurions to help him manage the new soldiers.

It took only a few days to recruit soldiers, another few days to form an army, and then Grabo led the army out without training.

Rome is about 400 miles away from Mount Vesuvius. Even with the Latina and Agna roads, it would take four or five days to travel by land. Taking the sea route would undoubtedly save time, but Grabo chose to take the land route because The recruits can be driven to march and camp on land to seize the time for training.

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"My name is Puro. I come from Egypt. I live on the lower reaches of the Nile River. I once owned my own land, which was very fertile land! When the flood season is about to end, I will use mud to build embankments and The remaining water is left in the field, and then sowing begins. When the harvest season comes, the field is filled with heavy wheat...

Later, there was a war in Egypt. The village chief, who had long coveted my family's land, falsely accused me of having an affair with the rebels. The city lord arrested our whole family without any hesitation and threw us into prison. Later, we were sold to Rome. The slave traders were kept in a hold that was crowded with people and as hot as a furnace. On the way to Italy... my wife... children... all died of illness..."

The man standing in the middle of the yard, wearing tattered single clothes and as thin as a skeleton, burst into tears at the end of his speech. Many people sat around him, all with heavy expressions. Everyone was listening carefully and empathizing. Some Some people even shed tears.

At this time, Maximus, who was sitting on the ground in the front row, stood up and said loudly and sincerely: "Plo, just like us, were bullied by those rich and powerful people and lost their homes. Losing your family, and finally having to work hard for those rich people driven by sticks, is this fair, brothers?!"

"Unfair!!!" The people around shouted in unison.

"Yes, this is unfair." Maximus looked solemn. He was silent for a moment, and then his voice rose again: "Fortunately, he has joined us now, joining our group of countless people who are also suffering. We are a team of brothers. There is no bullying or oppression here. We only care for and help each other. We are united like brothers in order to resist the Romans, defeat the rich, and gain the freedom we want. And happiness, brothers, don’t you think so?!”

"Yes!!!"

"Welcome to join us, Pro, our brother!" Maximus looked sincere and gave the other party a tight hug, then led him into the crowd, and everyone stepped forward to hug him.

Prey was still filled with tears at this moment, but he was very excited.

The yard was noisy for a while, and then gradually became quiet again.

Maximus looked at another slave who had recently joined the baggage team not far away. He had an old face and was estimated to be over fifty years old. So far, the people who have joined the uprising team are basically young slaves, as old as this Slaves of this age are relatively rare, so he was inevitably curious and said: "Please ask the next brother who joins us to come up and introduce his experience."

The old man walked to the center of the yard. Compared with Prolo's nervousness when he first spoke, he seemed calmer: "My name is Vorenus, a Samnite. I became a slave when I was very young. My master mentioned Tus. Longus was a knight in Rome. I grew up with him. He treated me very well, like a family member. Later, he paid for my freedom and sent me here to manage the farm for him... …”

When the slaves heard this, most of them looked a little unhappy. They came from various farms in the Vesuvius region, and most of the suffering they suffered on the farms was caused by the foremen.

"...I have managed the farm very well, and the owner is very satisfied with it. He is ready to apply for me to become a Roman citizen...but Sulla...that **** Sulla!" The old man suddenly raised his voice and his face changed. Ferocious: "He led his army into Rome and massacred the plebeians. Some people falsely accused my master of colluding with Lepidus, but in fact they were coveting the farm my master owned in Vesuvius. As a result, that **** tyrant didn't even bother to find out the facts. My master was executed, and I was also falsely accused of frequently acting as a messenger for my master, delivering messages to the populace, and was deprived of my free status and became a slave again. My family... my family was sold to other places, I don’t know. Life and death... ten years! In these ten years, I have been cursing Sulla and the Roman Senate all the time, and thinking about revenge all the time!

When I first heard about you, I wanted to come and join you, but I was guarded by the guards at the farm and I didn’t dare to act rashly because of my old age. Today you attacked the farm where I was, and I was the first to do so. I responded to the call of the leader named Spartacus. I can swear to Jupiter that although I do not have the ability to fight the Romans, I am willing to do anything else that can help the team defeat the Romans! ”

Hearing this, the slaves had a changed view of the old man ~IndoMTL.com~ When Maximus shouted "Okay!", they all clapped hard (applause, come on, this is learned from Maximus), conveyed their goodwill to Vorenus.

"This is the self-introduction of the brothers who have joined the baggage team today. From tomorrow on, you will work with the big guys. After you are familiar with it, our captain Hamilka will assign you specific tasks. Mission, do you understand?" Maximus asked pleasantly.

Vorenus, Pro and others nodded.

"Raius."

"Yes!" a forty-year-old skinny man responded.

"You will be responsible for their accommodation arrangements."

"Okay."

Maximus looked around the entire yard. The slaves were sitting around the yard. There were obviously many more slaves than at the beginning. They should all have sneaked in from other teams, which he was happy to see. Cheng, asked loudly: "Brothers, what should we do next?"

"Tell a story!!" the slaves cheered loudly.

"No, we have to learn before we tell stories!" Maximus said seriously: "Yesterday we learned addition and subtraction within 10. Today, before learning new arithmetic, let's review it first. Akago, Cassius, you two go and bring the blackboard over."

"Yes." The two slave boys immediately carried a wooden frame next to them to the center of the field.

One side of the wooden board was coated with black paint. Maximus took a piece of limestone and said: "For example, there are five bags of wheat in the yard. We moved four bags of wheat from the farm outside. Now the yard How many bags of wheat are there in total?" As he said that, he wrote "5+4" on the blackboard and asked, "Who is going to solve this arithmetic problem?"