Rome must fall.

Chapter 52 Absorbing the Leader
  "Enomuyi is right, these dock laborers and sailors are good soldiers. Moreover, there are many port towns in Campania, and there are far more laborers and sailors than these hundreds. If we don't let them join, what else can we do? The sailors and laborers who want to join will also hesitate..." Cross rolled his eyes and whispered: "We can promise them first, and then slowly think of ways to break them up and assign them to each group after they join..."

"I don't think this is appropriate." Hamilcar objected: "Since we have agreed, we should keep our promise, otherwise we will make them dissatisfied. If the soldiers are not united, there will be trouble in the war."

"Then you just don't agree with them joining?" Cross asked dissatisfiedly.

Hamilcar said in a deep voice: "We can allow them to join, allow them to form their own team, and believe that Attumus will be their captain. We can also allow him to participate in our military chiefs' meeting. In this way, We can pass a meeting of military governors and ask Attumus to implement every resolution passed by the meeting, and then we can control them!"

Cross, Enomui and Altonix were stunned for a moment.

Cross said angrily: "This man named Artemus neither started a riot in the gladiator school nor fought side by side with us to defeat the Roman army. What qualifications does he have to participate in our meeting of military governors! What would the soldiers think if such a person could easily participate in our military commanders' meeting!"

Cross' words made Enomui and Altonix nod in agreement.

"Maximus, what suggestions do you have?" Spartacus asked in time, turning the attention of several people to Maximus, who had been silent.

Maximus cleared his throat and said loudly: "If we just want to be a group of bandits, occasionally going out to rob and harass the Romans, and not accepting this group of Neapolitan sailors, that's fine. But now we want to To confront the most powerful Romans in the Mediterranean, only by uniting all those who can be united and strengthening our strength can we defeat the Romans and gain freedom. Otherwise, we will only be defeated and die——"

"We are not afraid of death." Cross said coldly.

"We are not afraid of death, but since there is hope of winning, why don't we give it a try!" Maximus retorted without any sign of weakness.

"I think we should give it a try." Spartacus interrupted in time, and he said solemnly: "Think about it, everyone, since we defeated the Roman army, more and more people have joined the team in the past few days. , today there are people like Attumus leading his own team who want to join. As long as we can still defeat the Roman army, not only will this situation continue to occur in the future, but there will be more and more people, and the number will become larger and larger. , so what should we do?
  Are you afraid that they will disrupt the order and not accept it? Italy is so big, there are so many people, and there are many capable people who hate Rome. They bring people over. We should not refuse to accept them, but should actively absorb them, not only because this will increase our The team will grow rapidly because when the number of our team exceeds 5, reaches , , , or even , can we alone manage it? ! "

"Fifty thousand people! It can't be that many, right?!" Enomui looked in disbelief.

"How is it impossible!" Hamilka reminded: "It has only been a few days since we defeated the Roman army, and the number of people is already more than 3,000. If we include this group of sailors and laborers, the number is equivalent to the number before the battle. If this trend continues, our team will exceed 10,000 people within a month."

Spartacus took the opportunity to take over the conversation and said: "There are too many people. If we can't manage them well, once chaos breaks out, we won't need the Romans to attack, and we will have to disperse ourselves. So, we need to absorb these capable people." , let them participate in our meetings, so that they can control the people they bring according to everyone's common wishes. Only in this way, the larger our team, the stronger the combat effectiveness will be, and we can work together to defeat the Romans !”

Cross, Enomui, and Altonix were thoughtful.

Spartacus then said: "Of course, your concerns are not wrong. I think it can be like this. Attumus can become a captain and command the people he brought, and he can also join us. meeting of military commanders, but for the time being he only has the right to propose, not to vote, just like Maximus did before. After he has proven his ability over a period of time, we will discuss and decide whether to give him voting rights. In addition, These dock laborers and sailors should have no combat experience, so we can remove some people from our team to serve as their team officers in order to improve their combat effectiveness as soon as possible."

After Maximus heard this, he couldn't help but look at Spartacus a few more times: the leader of the rebel army is not as good as he seems to only take care of the overall situation and unite his teammates. He can also use it skillfully. Some tricks to achieve the goal... 　　　While Maximus was thinking about it, he saw Spartacus suddenly looking at him. He thought that his thoughts were discovered by the other party, but he saw Spartacus looked apologetic. Said: "Maximus, since you became the captain of the baggage camp, the baggage camp has become more and more important to our entire team. The brothers all recognize your ability. Originally, I planned to open one in the next few days. Yes, let you have the right to vote like us, and no one will object to it. But now if Attumus joins in, knowing that you are in the same situation as him, I believe he will be more receptive, so you still need to be aggrieved. a period of time."

Maximus deliberately remained silent for a while, then asked unwillingly: "How long will it take to feel aggrieved?"

"When Attumus knows how important the baggage camp is to our team, we will discuss your matter. I believe it won't take long."

"Okay, then I'll... wait."

Spartacus looked around at the other four people and said: "Let's start voting. Should we agree to Attumus's request and allow him to participate in our military governors' meetings in the future and have the right to make suggestions?"

"I agree." Hamilka said first. It was originally his suggestion, so of course he had to agree.

The second person who agreed was actually not Altonix, but Cross. He was persuaded so quickly. On the one hand, Spartacus did make sense. On the other hand, the second team had just made a fool of themselves because of the medical team, so he would rather let Artumus come in than Would like to see Maximus have the same rights as him now.

In the end, Hamilcar's proposal was easily passed.

..........................................................................................

Attumus led the team to join the rebel army, served as the captain, and established the fifth battalion.

This move by the rebels caused a chain reaction. In the next two days, port laborers and sailors continued to come to surrender. The number of rebels exceeded 5,000, so the leaders decided to send three brigades to Capua to rescue more gladiators. .

The First Brigade, the Second Brigade, and the Third Brigade, led by Spartacus, Cross and Enomui, quickly marched north along Ania Avenue early in the morning, and it took only one day to reach the destination. Arrive at Capua.

At first, after the gladiators escaped from Capua, they went directly to Vesuvius and have been making trouble in the south for more than two months. The Capua people did not expect that the rebels would suddenly come back. They hurriedly closed the city gate. There was no time to evacuate residents and supplies outside the city into the city.

The panicked Capua people could only stand at the top of the city, watching helplessly as the rebel soldiers swept around the city of Capua without any scruples, breaking down gladiator schools one after another, recruiting nearly a thousand gladiators under their command, and seizing a large number of gladiators. supplies, and then returned to the camp smoothly.

After the strength of the rebel army increased, their scope of activities was no longer limited to the northern part of the Vesuvian region, but began to expand to the entire Vesuvian region, even threatening surrounding towns and sometimes cutting off the Anian Avenue.

(End of this chapter)