Rome must fall.

Chapter 369: Pirates' Departure

Facing the expectant gazes of the crowd, Chalcipompus shook his head in self-mockery: "You are wrong, I am a stupid wise man, I am as stupid as you to think that I can freely obtain the wealth on the sea, not even Rome can stop us, hehe!

The real wise man is Maximus, the leader of the Nix tribe. He began to remind me a few years ago that our reckless actions at sea will inevitably anger Rome. Once the overlord of the Mediterranean takes it seriously, pirates in not only the Adriatic Sea but the entire Mediterranean will have nowhere to hide.'——"

Chalcepampus suddenly stopped talking and fell into deep thought. Actually, he did not take Maximus' reminder seriously at first. However, as the Nyx tribe became stronger and Maximus became more famous, the rumor that "he was favored by the gods" also affected foreigners who had close contacts with the Nyx, such as Chalcepampus. In addition, Maximus reminded Chalcepampus many times in the past two years, which made him start to pay attention to this matter.

However, since the iron mine was handed over to the Ardei tribe in the western mountains, the poverty of the tribes in the mountains could be greatly improved. However, the demand for iron ore from the Nix tribe was increasing. If the supply of iron ore to the Nix tribe could not be completed on time, the leaders of the southern tribes such as Ambrasinos would seize the opportunity to seize control of the iron mine, and the rising momentum of the tribes in the mountains would be severely hit.

Therefore, as the leader of the mountain tribe, Chalsiphonpas had to spend a lot of time personally in the iron mine to ensure the smooth operation of mining without hindrance. As a result, the time he spent on sea plundering gradually decreased. Later, he simply entrusted Onomabaitis to replace him and manage the pirate team under his command.

Although he had begun to restrain his men from going out to sea to plunder, he had not yet planned to disband them completely. However, the arrival of these people today shocked him greatly: since what Maximus warned about had come true, would the subsequent development of this matter he mentioned also come true?

After thinking for a long time, Chalcipompus spoke again what Maximus had said: "After the Romans have wiped us out with all their strength, merchant ships in the Mediterranean can sail and trade with confidence, which will be of great benefit to Rome. I believe that from now on, the Romans will regard the Mediterranean as their inland sea and protect it with all their heart.

If there is any incident of pirates looting merchant ships again, they will definitely send out a fleet to encircle and suppress them, so don't dream of waiting for the Roman naval encirclement and suppression operation to be over before secretly going out to sea to plunder!
For the sake of your safety, I suggest that you give up being pirates, return to your respective tribes, and settle down to farm and herd -"

Before Chalsipompus could finish his words, several pirate leaders, led by Agatacus, started shouting, "We have to become pirates because our tribe is poor. If we go back now, the little food in the tribe will be even less and we will all starve to death."

"You're lucky. You have a tribe to return to. Hehe... My tribe was destroyed by other tribes 10 years ago. Otherwise, I wouldn't be wandering on the sea with my brothers."

……

Even Onomabaitis came close to Chalsipompas and whispered, "Boss, from what I know about the brothers, most of them are used to being wild outside. It would be difficult to get them to return to their own tribe and farm and graze peacefully. They might even cause trouble!"

"It is better to be alive than to lose your life and have your body hung on a cross by the Romans." Chalcephempers warned in a deep voice.

"...Maybe dying in battle would be easier for them." Onomabaitis muttered softly.

Calcipenpas glared at him, turned to look at the others, and asked, "How many of you are left now?"

"I still have forty-seven brothers under me."

"I have thirty-six."

"Thirty-one."

"Twenty-eight."

"Nineteen."

……

Together with the 105 brothers who escaped the pursuit, there were more than 250 people. These were more than 200 strong men who had fought at sea for many years and were as fierce as wolves and tigers! ... After a careful calculation, Chalcephem was slightly surprised and asked hurriedly: "Where are these brothers?"

"They all came with us, but I'm afraid they'll cause misunderstandings, so I asked them to wait on the mountain over there." Cobronbodus turned around and pointed to the mountains in the distance. Carlosipampas breathed a sigh of relief and looked at his eldest son with approval: Cobronbodus must have played a big role in the fact that these people were able to bring so many men from the tribe back here. It seems that he knew very well that if so many people continued to stay near the tribe for a long time, there would be problems...

He thought for a while, then said, "Since some of you don't want to return to the tribe, some have no tribe to return to, and now you can't continue to be pirates, if you want to survive well... perhaps there is only one way - that is to join the Nix tribe."

"The Knicks tribe?" Except for Onomabaitis, the other pirate leaders were unfamiliar with this tribe. After all, they were not Aldeans. They all came from the mountainous area in the south and usually wandered along the Adriatic coast. Naturally, they had never heard of any news about the Knicks.

Chalsiphon gave them a brief introduction to the Nix tribe, but of course concealed the true origin of the Nix people.

The pirate leaders learned that the Nixes were a mercenary army a few years ago and came here at the invitation of the Aldi people, but it only took them a few years to defeat the powerful Pannoni tribal alliance and occupy a large tract of land... This news shocked them.

At the same time, they were also moved by the Nix tribe's willingness to absorb people of all races and give them more than 50 acres of land, so they decided to discuss it with their subordinates first, which of course included Onomabaitis.

Watching them rushing to the distant forest, Kobrenbodus asked worriedly, "Father, you suggest that they join the Nix tribe, but will the Nix people agree to accept them?"

"Of course I still have to consult the Nixes, but I think Chief Maximus will agree." Chalcipompus said confidently, "Because they are very short of labor right now, they just took away 500 Pannonian slaves from us not long ago, and they also suggested that I try my best to feed and house the slaves and ensure their safety...

Haha, if I hadn't let my brothers take the risk to go to the coastal towns of Africa in recent years to capture batches of prisoners to enrich our mining team, otherwise we would not have enough labor for the iron mine. Maximus owes me a favor!

This time I received an invitation from Maximus to attend the summer festival of the Knyx tribe. By the way, I can ask him to let these pirate brothers join the Knyx tribe. He should not refuse.

However, without his consent, I cannot take all these people to the territory of the Nix tribe. I have to keep them here first—"

Chalsipompas looked at his son and said solemnly, "While I am away, you will stay here and manage the iron mine for me for a while. The important thing is to keep an eye on these guys and never let them cause trouble here. I will let Onomabaitis stay as well, and bring my brothers to assist you."

"Don't worry, father, I will take good care of this place and make sure nothing happens to it!"

The reason why Cobronbodus was so confident was that during the years when Chalsipenpas could not help but go out to sea to plunder, he was the one who stayed here and managed the iron mine. Therefore, he was very familiar with the affairs of the iron mine, and he was also familiar with the more than 800 tribal warriors stationed here to guard the slaves. With them as his arms, he was not worried at all that these pirates who had just escaped death would cause trouble.

Half an hour later, Onomabaitis and his men led a team of more than 200 people to the vicinity of the simple dock. After discussion, the desperate pirates finally agreed to join the Nix tribe. Of course, Chalsipoppas' personal prestige among the Adriatic pirates played a significant role in this.

Despite Themispoulos' strong opposition, Chalcipenpas insisted that the iron mines were now controlled by their tribe in the mountains, and he certainly had the right to allow these pirates to temporarily live in the iron mine camp.

The iron ore camp is also on the bank of the Kupa River, not far from the mine and the dock. Before the Nixes entered the mountains, it was just a wasteland. Later, the Ardi tribe decided to reopen the iron mine and the tribes that had lost their territory, such as Budokaribas and Cicelitses, were responsible for management. In order to accommodate thousands of slaves and nearly a thousand warriors guarding them, leaders such as Budokaribas led the tribesmen to build dormitories, houses, warehouses and fences on this wasteland near the mine.

When Calsippampas and his men took over, they further improved the camp. Now it has become a stockade with wooden walls, watchtowers and houses everywhere. Its scale has exceeded that of any other Ardei tribe living in the mountains. There were even Ardei warriors stationed here who requested to bring their families to live here, but Calsippampas finally did not agree.

The number of people who had lived in this camp exceeded 10,000 at most. Later, due to the repeated withdrawal of slaves by the Nix tribe and other reasons, there are only about 6,000 people living in the camp now, and there are enough vacant wooden houses for the more than 200 pirates to live in.

The next morning, two Ardei elders, Chalsipomplus and Themispros, set out with a fleet loaded with iron ore. Accompanying them were several pirate leaders, including Agatacus, and Chalsipomplus's pirate subordinates, Dioscles and Nikararedas, who went to the Nyx territory to have a look on behalf of their brothers.

(End of this chapter)