Chapter 8 Negotiations with Cato (Part 2)
Seeing that the Pharaoh was not helpless under his own humiliation, Cato stood up, and Munajius beside him hurriedly wiped him with a sponge stick, and replied to the Pharaoh: "Then it must involve your eldest daughter Beneniki. She now has complete control over the Hormashi royal guard in Alexandria, and is said to be married to the newly appointed guard general, who claims to be the son of Mithridates."
"What?" Lepidus was suddenly shocked. I, Mithridates' legitimate son-in-law, kept such a low profile. How could Mithridates' son appear now? However, Lepidus had heard of the Hormashi royal guard that Cato spoke of. Hormashi was the name of the pharaoh's guard camp in the past (since the ancient kingdom), and it was the most elite army of dead soldiers under the pharaoh. , since Beneniki can let a guy who pretends to be a descendant of the Pontic royal family to command this legion, it is a clear sign that the sister of Little Queen has completely controlled the Praetorian Guard composed of Macedonians. No wonder she is so confident and Roman The Republic challenges
Little Cato over there continued to elaborate, "So Beneniki relied on the support of the Hormachian Legion and robbed Alexandria's Egyptian fleet, patrolling around Cyprus. Our diplomatic activities were not particularly smooth, because we The contact with Ptolemy in Cyprus is cut off. According to your opinion, the respected Pharaoh, if we rashly start a war with Cyprus, we will definitely be attacked by Beneniki. And how big is the army of Lord Lepidus? "
"Is your Excellency the Governor still planning to transport two more regular legions from Rome?" Lepidus sat on the couch and retorted.
"That's not the case. It's just that as the governor-general, I must be responsible for the safety of your army." Cato said to Lepidus.
"Your Majesty the Governor, you must know that my legion is directly responsible to the Senate and is jointly sponsored by Caesar and Pompey, so you don't have to be responsible to me, and I don't have to be responsible to you. Now I only care about whether I can Obtained the authorization from the Governor of Cyprus to land on the island and fight." Lepidus made the relationship clear at once.
"So if I don't authorize it, you will still land on the island of Cyprus alone, right. Young man, I must warn you that you are arbitrarily launching a war. Even though you may have a proclamation from the Fechiaris Priesthood, but I will return to the city of Rome immediately, and if I raise a finger in the Senate, you will be charged with treason, and your Caesar will be punished for this crime sooner or later." Cato couldn't plant anything. Narrating in a medium tone, it seemed that he was very confident in this outcome.
Sure enough, I knew that coming to meet Cato this time was not that simple. This guy first instigated Cassius to come to Gaul, offered a high price to kidnap himself away from Caesar, and then rubbed him hard here, with the purpose of destroying the Legion. Integrate it into your own system, or to be more direct, ask Munajius or Cannaidis to take over, so that he can take full credit after conquering Egypt, and have the capital to compete with the three-headed monster when he returns home.
However, why did this little Cato, who was not familiar with military affairs, exude the stench of the pedantic nobles of Rome? What does he think the Legion is? Is it a small gift that can be passed around in private?
Therefore, while Brutus nodded and smiled at his uncle's words, Lepidus' tone sounded extremely rogue. He said: "Dear Governor, I have received information in advance, that is, the tribune Claudius once said something to Al Scheer and Dillinmo have told them that once you go to war with Cyprus, they will leave you and take refuge in Byzantium, and let you die under the sword of the Cyprus army. Now are these two influenced by you? "
"Of course, I use my great-grandfather's family motto to persuade and guide them, so that they realize how unjust their previous evil deeds are."
"But you can't persuade me. The following process will become very simple - my legion will provoke a war with the fleets of Cyprus and Egypt, and then withdraw. I hope that by then, your Excellency and the two loyal servants who have been converted will be able to Get on a faster ship so that you don’t end up in Rhodes and be captured by Beneniki and his husband.”
"You are talking nonsense, Lepidus," cried Brutus over there angrily.
"I'm not talking nonsense, at all! Do you think I can't go to Egypt with this? It's ridiculous, I still have two thousand talents of assets with the Pharaoh (this is really nonsense), I can leave immediately Ephesus, went to Cilicia to hire a large number of pirate rowers, and then I took Caesar's letter to negotiate with the Seleucids of Syria, and used the way to enter Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula. What is the Legion of Horma? The legions are fully confident to defeat them. I will help the Pharaoh move back into Alexandria's palace in at most one year. But as for you, Governor, at that time you will have no more than two endings. One is to hide in Byzantium and tremble in fear. , you have accomplished nothing during your term of office, so even if you return to Rome, you will not be able to escape Claudius' accountability; secondly, you bravely stayed in Rhodes Island, without even a centurion guard around you, I believe That beautiful lady Beneniki must be very interested in venting her anger on your body."
Then, Lepidus suddenly turned around and shouted to Brutus, who was about to continue interjecting, "Don't count on that Jewish business group. As long as I raise a finger, let alone 100 million sesterces, they can't even count half an Arab." I won’t lend it to you, these people are all from the Kingdom of Eubotia, right? If you don’t believe it, you can try it!”
At this moment, the whole scene was frozen, only Pharaoh was sighing at Lepidus's majesty. Dillinger came in quietly and handed Brutus a piece of vellum. After the philosopher finished reading it, he lowered his head and said, "Okay, let's continue to cooperate, but as for the spoils, we want Cyprus Island, Egypt belongs to you. In addition, there is another condition that you, Lepidus, must not stay in the Pharaoh's palace to serve as an official, and immediately return the legion to the Republic, because these troops are not your private property. The Republic may transfer the Thirteenth Legion to Syria, where the situation is tense, and put it under the supervision of the Governor of Byblos."
"Is this note written by Cassius outside?" Lepidus asked with narrowed eyes.
Brutus hurriedly explained that Cassius did not eavesdrop on our conversation, so please rest assured.
As a result, the commander of the restoration army also said that of course he did not eavesdrop, he understood Cassius's combat rules, and he should have thought of these tricks a long time ago.
"I completely agree with the second half, but I have reservations about the first half, which is - whether it is Cyprus or Egypt, we will each get half of the spoils." Lepidus said cunningly, you are too naive to play this kind of word game with me. From this additional item, we can see that the wealth of Cyprus must have a prize. (To be continued.)