Rome Must Fall Chapter 63: Volenus’ proposal

Maximus understood the meaning of his words. Although he had a clear memory of the Vesuvian raid and the final decisive battle, he did not understand the detailed combat process of the entire Spartacus Rebel Army. , but one thing he understands is that Spartacus's rebel army was almost undefeated during the period from the Vesuvius raid to the time when it approached the Alps. Now he has this time travel With the help of the reborn people, the rebel army could not suffer defeat, so he said very confidently: "Don't worry, Spartacus and the others will definitely win as long as they encounter the Roman army!"

After Maximus finished speaking, he glanced at the members of the military advisory group and found that some people were quite disapproving.

"Ahem..." Frontinus interrupted in time: "Of the more than 300 slaves who joined the team today, 67 were once phalanx soldiers in the Pontus army, at least three of them. Months of military service."

When Maximus heard this, he felt a surge of joy in his heart. He dispelled the unhappiness he had just felt. He said excitedly: "This is good news. Our supply camp always suffers from the allocation of personnel. This time Finally, we got a bargain. However, there are so many veterans in the newly formed team, and these new team officers will be difficult to manage."

"This is also a test for them." Frontinus replied.

"You are right." Maximus laughed and turned to look at the scribe on the other side: "Vorenus, what is the situation of the remaining 91 slaves? Is there any good news? ”

The clerk Vorenus immediately took a step forward, looked at the roster in his hand and said: "Among these 91 slaves, there are 37 women, 8 children, 25 elderly and disabled men, and 10 A wounded man and three wounded women were sent to the medical team for treatment. In addition, there were three carpenters, a stonemason, a bricklayer, two potters, and two young slaves who could read and arithmetic. I followed Previous practice singled them out."

"Oh, there are really many talents." The smile on Maximus's face became even wider, and he asked with dissatisfaction: "How many of those women can weave and weave straw?"

"According to their own introduction, there are about 20 people." Vorenus flipped through the roster and said: But in the end, we have to wait for Shemeret (the captain of the knitting team) to make an assessment before giving you a detailed report. . ”

Maximus nodded and asked again: "Why are there so many children this time?"

"The main reason is that there are five couples in this group of slaves."

"Oh, then you have to arrange their accommodation. Those two potters... can they make a blast furnace?"

"Blast furnace?..." Voronus looked confused. He knew agriculture, but he didn't know much about handicrafts.

"Forget it, I'll ask them later." Maximus waved his hand and said: "Assign those carpenters, stonemasons, masons, and potters to the construction team, and the two literate ones The slaves will be under your control, and you will start arranging their studies for the eight children now..."

"Yes, chief." Vorenus responded respectfully, he was now completely devoted to Maximus.

The young leader appointed him as the secretary, and put all the people in the supply camp who could read, write, and arithmetic under his jurisdiction. The statistics of the personnel in the supply camp, the consumption of materials, and the major and minor events in the camp were all compiled first. Here, he reports to Maximus, and when Maximus makes a decision, he still has to find someone to implement it... Such a responsibility of passing down the information and paying attention to all aspects of affairs is somewhat similar to the housekeeper he used to serve under the original owner. Similar, but with greater power and higher requirements for abilities, which made him feel like he had the second spring of his career and he was very active in his work every day.

"With so many people joining us today, do we have enough supplies?" Maximus asked again.

"Each new slave can be given a set of earthen jars, coats, straw sandals, linen sheets, and luggage. Even the ten recruits do not have wooden shields and wooden swords."

After Vorenus finished speaking, Maximus glanced at Capito subconsciously.

Capito immediately complained: "You can't blame us. My men and I go to cut down trees every day and work hard to make these things, but this time so many new recruits have joined us at once, which has greatly reduced the hard-earned money we have accumulated." All the wooden shields and wooden swords have been taken away, but there are still too few people in our weapons warehouse!"

The weapons warehouse is now so empty that rats can run away, why do we need so many people... Maximus thought so in his heart, but was not prepared to say it, because he knew Capito, although he was a retired soldier The veteran was more like a man of letters, a little aloof, and quite self-respecting, so he said in a gentle tone: "You are right, I was negligent. Volenus, from the remaining 25 slaves Give two people to the weapons warehouse."

"Yes, leader." Volenus took another step forward and whispered: "There are not many earthen jars and linens left in the warehouse. If someone comes to join us in two days, our supply camp will be closed." We can no longer provide these supplies!... Chief, I don’t know about the suggestion I made before——"

Although Volenus did not continue, Maximus understood what he was going to say.

The rebel army, which started less than half a year ago, does not yet have any production capacity. All supplies are obtained by seizure and looting. There are many farms in this fertile land in southern Campania. However, there are almost no handicraft workshops, such as pottery workshops, weaving workshops, etc. Of course, there may be some in the towns, but the rebel army is not yet capable of conducting siege operations, so under the trend of rapid expansion of the number of rebels, from The earthenware pots, linens and other consumables collected from various farms could not be replenished in large quantities, so they were naturally unable to make ends meet.

Volenus had discovered this situation before and made his own suggestion: the warehouses of the transport camp store a large amount of wine and olive oil, which are extremely hot-selling commodities throughout Italy, and Rebel soldiers rarely use them (they only consume some wine when the whole army holds a celebration banquet, and usually add a little olive oil to make porridge and stew soup to add a little fat to the soldiers). Instead of occupying a large number of warehouses, it is better to sell them Give it to Italian merchants in exchange for supplies that the rebels urgently need, which means allowing the rebels to trade with Italian merchants.

It is the military tradition of various countries in the Mediterranean to have large armies go out to fight, and merchants to follow them for trade. Rome is no exception. However, when Maximus proposed this proposal at the meeting of military commanders, it was ultimately failed. The reason was simple: the leaders were worried about letting merchants enter the camp to trade, in case they took the opportunity to spy on military intelligence and secretly carry out sabotage~IndoMTL.com ~ It will cause trouble for the rebel army in the next battle. After all, the rebel army is still very weak and has enemies on all sides, so it must be cautious.

Maximus was not going to mention to Volenus that "his proposal was not adopted at the meeting of military commanders." He smiled and said: "When Spartacus and the others come back after winning, I will tell them Don’t worry when they bring this up. After all, the pros outweigh the cons, and I believe they will eventually agree.”

"If we can pass, we will no longer have to worry about lack of supplies, and even the soldiers' weapons and military tents may receive additional protection!" Volenus whispered excitedly, similar to the supply camp As a steward, he naturally hopes that his team will have a full warehouse of food and abundant supplies.

"What is the proposal?" Capito, who had sharp ears, asked immediately.

Maximus really didn’t want to spread the word before the matter was decided. Just as he was thinking about how to deal with it, he saw Hagux riding on horseback in front of him. He immediately asked loudly: "Hagux, what’s wrong? Enemy situation?"

"Chief, no enemy troops were found around the camp, but a few mounted spies came from Naples."

"It seems that the Neapolitans have learned about the departure of our main force and want to check out the reality of the camp. With their timid character, they probably won't send troops until they get the news of our defeat." Fran. Tinus said softly.

This time Maximus was stationed in the camp, but he was not as nervous as when he led his team to camp at the farm two days ago, away from the main force. Perhaps it was because he already had experience, or perhaps because his strength in his hands had been enhanced. He seemed He was relatively calm, thought about it, and said, "In that case, our three centurions don't have to wait here. Let them conduct armed march training around the camp to make the noise bigger."