Rome must fall.

Chapter 83 Blacksmith Shop

"1000 cans! 1000 cans!..." Crosibas' face was a little ferocious because he was too excited. These three high-quality wines from Campania are famous throughout Italy, but they are all supplied to the Romans first, and other Italian city-states There are very few that can be bought, and now a huge opportunity to make money is placed in front of him, but he scratches his head in great distress: "I don't have that much money! -"

"It doesn't matter if we don't have enough money." Pigris said in a gentle tone: "We can also barter. Chief Maximus said that our Free Italian Army needs weapons and equipment, leather, tents... As long as you can Get these, these wines will be sold to you at least half the price.

Take Falenia wine, for example. It usually costs 5 gold coins per jar, but this year due to our influence, the price will definitely have to double, and a set of leather helmets, leather armor, shields, and daggers only cost one or two gold coins. , a set of weapons and equipment can be exchanged for a can of the best wine in Italy, and then you can take the wine to any town and sell it, and you can earn 10, no, even 20 gold coins by changing hands. By then, you will all become Italy's richest man! "

Daltimas originally hesitated because of the issue of selling weapons and equipment to the rebels, but Pigris's tempting words finally made him make up his mind.

But Tigerchamos did not hesitate. It is natural for merchants to pursue the highest profits, not to mention that Sicilians are resentful of the Romans. Sicily also has Mount Etna, where grapes were once grown and good wine was produced. However, after the Romans took control of Sicily, they regarded Sicily as the granary of Italy. Successive Roman governors emphasized opening up more wheat fields, and also forced the Sicilians to Wheat was sold to Italy at low prices, and Roman officials were overbearing and did many bad things in Sicily.

Therefore, selling some weapons and equipment to this group of rebels and letting them cause trouble for Rome, Tigerchamos not only had no psychological pressure, but also enjoyed hearing about it. He said: "There is no problem in selling weapons and equipment to you, but I will return by boat now. Messina, it will take at least three or four days to transport weapons and equipment back here, it will take six or seven days anyway, will you still be in Pompeii by then?"

Pigrius smiled and said: "Just now you should have seen that our soldiers were asking the Pompeians to leave the city with their families, because the entire team of Free Italy will move in, and we will stay here for a long time, enough You’ve sailed back many times.”

Pigris gave everyone present a piece of reassurance.

Daltimas finally asked: "My town does not produce weapons, but it does have pig iron ingots. I wonder if you need it? If so, can the price of wine be halved?"

Tigerchamos glanced at him, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided not to expose the other party, because Regim and Messina are located on both sides of the Strait of Messina, and merchant ships gather at the port every day. Regim should be the same as Messina, not There was a lack of sales of weapons and equipment. The reason why Daltimas said this was probably because he was worried about selling weapons to the rebels. If the Romans knew about it, he would be punished.

"Pig iron ingots." Pigris thought for a moment and said, "That's okay, but the price of wine won't drop that much."

As long as there is some surrender, we can discuss it in detail at that time. The deal with the rebels must be secure first... Daltimas looked back at Tiger Chalmers and said: "Next time I will bring a lot of pig iron I’ll trade with you.”

"Okay." Pigris nodded.

"Leather! And a tent! I'll bring it to you soon, but you have to sell me the best wine!" Crosibas waved his hands and shouted, looking like he was going crazy with alcohol. , completely different from the situation before when they were nestled in the corner.

"This year, almost all the wine stored in all the grape farms in the Vesuvius region has been seized by our army. Not only are they large in quantity, but there are also many varieties, which can fully meet your needs." Pigris stood up with a smile. , said loudly: "To thank you for your trust in our army, I would like to invite you to visit our material warehouse, and each of you can choose 10 cans of wine to take away as a testimony of our friendship."

"Is this true?!" Crosibas was overjoyed.

"Chief Maximus said that if you are willing to trade with our army, you are our friends in Free Italy. We will never let our friends suffer. We hope that you can make big money every time, so that you are willing to Be friends with us for a long time and continue trading..." Pigris's words were very straightforward, but they were believable because of their straightforwardness. ,

"Your leader Maximus is such a sensible man! Let's go and visit your warehouse!" Tiger Chalmers stood up. At this moment, he no longer had any uneasiness in his heart. Instead, he was full of excitement: Thanks With the blessing of the goddess of luck, I slept in late the day before yesterday and did not leave in time, otherwise there would be no chance of making a fortune today!

Crosibas and Daltimas also stood up, urging Pigris to take them to visit the warehouse. At this moment, they all forgot about the thrilling encounter before, and seemed to regard themselves as distinguished guests of the rebel army. .

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Pigris stood on the pier, watching Tiger Chalmers' merchant ship leave the port, and let out a sigh of relief: Today's matter is finally over. Judging from the performance of the three businessmen just now, after 10 days Tiger There is a high possibility that Chalmers and Crosipasis will return to trade again. The cautious Daltimas is a little uncertain, but in any case, he has exceeded the task. I believe that Chief Maximus has heard that After his report, this temporary assignment can be confirmed as permanent...

Maximus Military Commercial Officer - what a nice name! ...Pygris smiled happily, reached out to pat away the dust on his robe, and turned to leave the dock.

There were cries in the port area. Households in Pompeii supported their old and young, carrying packages and pushing wooden carts loaded with belongings. Under the supervision of heavily armed rebel soldiers, they walked cautiously on the road leading to the outside of the city. On the road...

This situation reminded Pygris of the tragic experience of his family in Asia Minor. He did not have any sympathy, but was a little angry: Compared with the cruel and greedy Romans, Chief Maximus was still too kind. The property of these Pompeii people should be taken away and all of them should be demoted as slaves. They should carry goods at the dock day after day or repair the city wall under the scorching sun...

Whenever he touched his left leg that was completely useless, hatred for the Romans burned in his chest. He walked through the sea gate with a little effort and entered the city. He did not immediately go to the city hall to see Maximus. , but follow the road beside the city wall and go straight east.

There were also heavily armed rebel soldiers standing on both sides of the road, and in the middle of the road there were still the crying Pompeii people. However, compared to the port area, there were much more people here, so the rebel soldiers responsible for monitoring and maintaining order were in high spirits. Nervous, if Pigris hadn't been followed by a group of soldiers, he might have been regarded as a Pompeii and forced to join the exiled crowd. After all, these rebel soldiers come from various teams, not just soldiers from Maximus' army, who may not necessarily know him.

After Pygris walked for a while, he turned north and then east.

This street is more spacious. It is the commercial street of Pompeii. To the north is the wealthy area, and to the south is the arena and theater. Every day, hundreds of people gather on this street to buy goods from all over the city. It is very lively. It was noisy and extremely prosperous, but now it is very deserted. Pigris walked slowly on the street, looking at the shops on both sides of the road: fruit shop, butcher shop, vegetable shop, fish shop, bakery, olive oil shop, wine shop, pottery shop, bottle painting shop, gold and silver dishes Workshop, competitive equipment store...

Seeing these closed shops, Pygris felt full of regret: If the Pompeii were not allowed to leave, and these shops would be under his control, he would do his best to restore the prosperity of this street! And now that the entire rebel army is stationed in Pompeii, the soldiers who are used to looting and having supplies distributed by the supply camp will not come here to pay for things...

Pity! ...Pygris sighed softly and secretly made up his mind: Since he is already a commercial officer, if he has such an opportunity again in the future, he must make suggestions to Maximus! He believed that Maximus would listen to his opinion, because compared with other leaders, this young man was more courageous and far-sighted, otherwise he would not have made the decision to trade with Italian merchants at this time.

Pigris walked halfway to the street and heard the sound of "ding-dong-dong-dang" coming from ahead. He followed the sound and saw a building with three chimneys standing alone at the end of the road and beside the city wall. The shop is a short distance away, its chimney is emitting black smoke, two heavily armed soldiers are standing in front of the door, and several more soldiers are walking towards it...

Pigris knew that it was a blacksmith's shop, and it was the only shop in Pompeii that was still in operation. Unfortunately, it belonged to Maximus' army and was not open to the public. It only met the needs of the army.

Seeing this, he became a little uninterested, stopped wandering around, turned around and walked towards the city hall, rushing to report his results to Maximus.

The soldiers had already reached the door of the blacksmith shop, and a soldier guarding the door immediately asked loudly: "Hey, this is an important military area and no unauthorized entry is allowed. Which department do you belong to?!"

Another soldier quickly stopped him and said, "Arisius, don't shout so loudly. I know these people. They are all from our second brigade." After he finished speaking. He looked at the people who came to the door with a smile on his face: "Tinibazus, I heard that you actually refused to be a captain of ten and were scolded by our captain?"

"Being a captain of ten requires you to worry about so many things. It's so tiring. I'm still comfortable being alone, but there's nothing I can do about it. The captain knows that I'm very capable, so he had to force me to become one. In the end, I had no choice but to become one." Nibazus shrugged, showing a very helpless look.

The soldier smiled and said: "Tinibazus, you still love to talk nonsense as before. I made you captain of ten, not because you are very capable, but because we have accepted too much this time in Pompeii. We have recruited more than 400 new recruits in the city and more than 1000 in the port area, so anyone with some combat experience has been promoted to team officer. Our brothers who came out of the Pontic army are now all Shifu long."

"Myr Tiras, so you are now a captain of ten, why are you still standing here guarding the door?" Tinibazus said jokingly.

"Being on duty at the blacksmith shop is a task that every team in our second brigade will take a turn for. Soon you will also take a turn, don't you know?" Mel Tiras asked with a smile.

Patriarch Tiniba was at a loss for words. He had been worried about becoming a centurion for the past two days and did not pay attention to the orders conveyed by the centurion.

"Okay, let me introduce to you. This is Arisius from our team. He just joined yesterday. He was originally working as a coolie at the Port of Pompeii."

"Hello, Captain Tinibazus." Arisius nodded with a stiff expression.

But Tinibazus acted like an elder, stretched out his fist and punched the opponent's chest, nodded and said: "Well, not bad, very strong, he will be a good soldier in the future! Let me also introduce him, this is a member of my team The soldier Samoras is not a new recruit. When we raided Pompeii that night and we fought the Pompeii Guards, he killed three enemy soldiers by himself!"

"That's really awesome!" Arisius admired sincerely as he looked at Samoras standing in front of him like an iron tower.

Mel Tiras suddenly remembered something and asked in surprise: "Why are there veterans in your team?"

"Didn't I just say that the captain valued me very much, so he specially gave me preferential treatment." Tinibazus boasted proudly.

Mel Tiras was stunned by him.

But the actual situation is that Tinibazus, under the urging of the centurion, agreed to serve as the centurion of the new recruits, but Samoras strongly demanded to follow him and be his subordinate because of the battle with the city guard that night. At that time, Samoras advanced too far and was almost surrounded by enemies. Thanks to Tinibazus' clever rescue, he was out of danger. Although Samoras was straightforward, he knew how to repay his kindness and insisted on joining Tinibazus's recruit team. The centurion finally agreed.

At this time, Zamoras couldn't help but said: "Tinibazus, when are we going back? I'm hungry and want to eat."

Tinybazus stopped bragging and turned back to coax: "We will finish it soon and go back soon."

"Hurry up." Zamoras urged pitifully, rubbing his belly.

"Myr Tiras, I don't have time to chat with you here. Our dagger is broken and needs to be repaired as soon as possible." Tinibazus said, pulling out the dagger he carried, and the blades on both sides of the dagger were It was full of big and small gaps, as if it had been gnawed by a dog.

(End of this chapter)